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diff --git a/43736-0.txt b/43736-0.txt index 4e1590c..d4602ac 100644 --- a/43736-0.txt +++ b/43736-0.txt @@ -1,36 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose - -Author: Various - -Editor: Kenneth Sisam - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43736] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43736 *** [Transcriber's Note: This text has words or letters enclosed in caret brackets < > that were added by the author to complete the manuscript; @@ -13321,361 +13289,4 @@ at PG #43737.] End of Project Gutenberg's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - -***** This file should be named 43736-0.txt or 43736-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43736/ - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose - -Author: Various - -Editor: Kenneth Sisam - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43736] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - -[Transcriber's Note: This text has words or letters enclosed in caret -brackets < > that were added by the author to complete the manuscript; -corrupt readings retained in the text are indicated in the original by -daggers [+][+]. #Bold# text has been marked by #; _underscores_ have -been used to indicate _italic_ fonts; an emphasis by font change of -single letters within an _it~a~lic_ context has been indicated by ~. -For transcription of unusual letters and errata see the Transcriber's -Note at the end. Original spelling variants and punctuation have not -been standardized. The companion volume, _A Middle English Vocabulary, -designed for use with SISAM's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, by J. -R. R. Tolkien is available at PG #43737.] - - -Fourteenth Century - -VERSE & PROSE - -edited by - -KENNETH SISAM - -OXFORD - -AT THE CLARENDON PRESS - -M D CCCC XXI - - Oxford University Press - _London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen - New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town - Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_ - Humphrey Milford - Publisher to the UNIVERSITY - -PRINTED IN ENGLAND. - - - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE - - - MAP viii - INTRODUCTION ix - - I. ROBERT MANNYNG OF BRUNNE'S HANDLYNG SYNNE 1 - The Dancers of Colbek 4 - II. SIR ORFEO 13 - III. MICHAEL OF NORTHGATE'S AYENBYTE OF INWYT 32 - How Mercy increases Temporal Goods 33 - IV. RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE 36 - A. Love is Life 37 - B. The Nature of the Bee 41 - C. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost 42 - V. SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT 44 - The Testing of Sir Gawayne 46 - VI. THE PEARL, ll. 361-612 57 - VII. THE GEST HYSTORIALE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY 68 - Prologue 69 - The XXXI Book: Of the Passage of the Grekys fro Troy 72 - VIII. PIERS PLOWMAN 76 - A. From the B-Text, Passus VI 78 - B. From the C-Text, Passus VI 89 - IX. MANDEVILLE'S TRAVELS 94 - Ethiopia.--Of Diamonds 96 - Beyond Cathay 100 - Epilogue 104 - X. JOHN BARBOUR'S BRUCE 107 - An Assault on Berwick (1319) 108 - XI. JOHN WICLIF 115 - A. The Translation of the Bible 117 - B. Of Feigned Contemplative Life 119 - XII. JOHN GOWER 129 - A. Ceix and Alceone 131 - B. Adrian and Bardus 137 - XIII. JOHN OF TREVISA'S TRANSLATION OF HIGDEN'S - POLYCHRONICON 145 - A. The Marvels of Britain 146 - B. The Languages of Britain 148 - XIV. POLITICAL PIECES 151 - A. On the Scots, by Minot 152 - B. The Taking of Calais, by Minot 153 - C. On the Death of Edward III 157 - D. John Ball's Letter to the Peasants of Essex 160 - E. On the Year 1390-1 161 - XV. MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN VERSE 162 - A. Now Springs the Spray 163 - B. Spring 164 - C. Alysoun 165 - D. The Irish Dancer 166 - E. The Maid of the Moor 167 - F. The Virgin's Song 167 - G. Judas 168 - H. The Blacksmiths 169 - I. Rats Away 170 - XVI. THE YORK PLAY 'HARROWING OF HELL' 171 - XVII. THE TOWNELEY PLAY OF NOAH 185 - - NOTES 204 - APPENDIX: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 265 - - - - -[Illustration: Names of Middle English texts placed on a map of England -and Wales.] - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -I - -Two periods of our early history promise most for the future of English -literature--the end of the seventh with the eighth century; the end of -the twelfth century with the thirteenth. - -In the first a flourishing vernacular poetry is secondary in importance -to the intellectual accomplishment of men like Bede and Alcuin (to name -only the greatest and the last of a line of scholars and teachers) who, -drawing their inspiration from Ireland and still more from Italy direct, -made all the knowledge of the time their own, and learned to move easily -in the disciplined forms of Latin prose. - -During the second the impulse again came from without. In -twelfth-century France the creative imagination was set free. In -England, which from the beginning of the tenth century had depended more -and more on France for guidance, the nobles, clergy, and entertainers, -in whose hands lay the fortunes of literature, had a community of -interest with their French compeers that has never since been -approached. So England shared early in the break with tradition; and -during the thirteenth century the native stock is almost hidden by the -brilliant growth of a new graft. - -Every activity of the mind was quickened. A luxuriant invention of forms -distinguished the Gothic style in architecture. All the decorative arts -showed a parallel enrichment. Oxford (at least to insular eyes) was -beginning to rival Paris in learning, and to contribute to the -over-production of clerks which at first extended the province of the -Church, and finally, by breaking the bounds set between ecclesiastics -and laymen, played an important part in the secularization of letters. -The friars, whose foundation was the last great reform of the mediaeval -Church, were at the height of their good fame; and one of them, the -Franciscan Roger Bacon, by his work in philosophy, criticism, and -physical science, raised the name of English thinkers to an eminence -unattained since Bede. If among the older monastic orders feverish and -sometimes extravagant reforms are symptoms of decline, the richness of -Latin chronicles like those of Matthew Paris of St. Albans is evidence -that in some of the great abbeys the monks were still learned and -eloquent. Nor was Latin the only medium in which educated Englishmen -were at home. They wrote French familiarly, and to some extent repaid -their debt to France by transcribing and preserving Continental -compositions that would else have perished. - -Apart from all these activities, the manifestations of a new spirit in -English vernacular works are so important, and the break with the past -is so sharp, that the late twelfth century and the thirteenth would be -chosen with more justice than Chaucer's time as the starting-point for a -study of modern literature. - -Then romance was established in English, whether we use the word to mean -the imaginative searching of dark places, or in the more general sense -of story-telling unhampered by a too strict regard for facts. Nothing is -more remarkable in pre-Conquest works than the Anglo-Saxon's dislike of -exaggeration and his devotion to plain matter of fact. Here is the -account of the whales in the far North that King Alfred received from -Ohthere (a Norseman, of course, but it is indifferent):--'they are eight -and forty ells long, and the biggest fifty ells long'. Compare with this -parsimony the full-blooded description of the griffins in -_Mandeville_:--'But o griffoun hath the body more gret, and is more -strong, þanne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and more -gret and strongere þan an hundred egles suche as we han amonges vs, -&c.', and you have a rough measure of the progress of fiction. - -To take pleasure in stories is not a privilege reserved for favoured -generations: but special conditions had transformed this pleasure into a -passion. When Edward I became King in 1272, Western Europe had enjoyed a -long period of internal peace, during which national hatreds burnt low. -The breaking down of barriers between Bretons and French, Welsh and -English, brought into the main stream of European literature the Celtic -vein of idealism and delicate fancy. At the universities, in the -Crusades, in the pilgrimages to Rome or Compostella, the nations -mingled, each bringing from home some contribution to the common stock -of stories; each gaining new experiences of the outside world, fusing -them, and repeating them with embellishments. To those who stayed at -home came the minstrels in the heyday of their craft--they were freemen -of every Christian land who reported whatever was marvellous or -amusing--and at second hand the colours of the rediscovered world seemed -no less brave. It was an age greedy for entertainment that fed a rich -sense of comedy on the jostling life around it; and to serve its ideals -called up the great men of the past--Orpheus opening the way to -fairyland, the heroes of the Trojan war, Alexander; Arthur and the -Knights of the Round Table and Merlin the enchanter; Charlemagne with -his peers--or won back from the shadows not Eurydice alone, but Helen -and Criseyde, Guinevere and Ysolde, Rymenhild and Blauncheflour. - -While she still claimed to direct public taste, the Church could not be -indifferent to the spread of romance. A policy of uniform repression was -no longer possible. Her real power to suppress books was ineffective to -bind busy tongues and minds; popular movements were assured of a measure -of practical tolerance when order competed with order and church with -church for the goodwill of the people; and even if the problem had been -well defined, a disciplined attitude unvarying throughout all the -divisions of the Church was not to be expected when her mantle covered -clerks ranging in character from the strictest ascetic to that older -Falstaff who passed under the name of Golias and found his own Muse in -the tavern,-- - - _Tales versus facio quale vinum bibo; - Nihil possum scribere nisi sumpto cibo; - Nihil valet penitus quod ieiunus scribo,-- - Nasonem post calices carmine praeibo!_ - -So it came about that while some of the clergy denounced all minstrels -as 'ministers of Satan', others made a truce with the more honest among -them, and helped them to add to their repertories the lives of saints. -Officially 'trifles and trotevales' were still censured: but it seemed -good to mould the _chansons de geste_ to pious uses,[1] and to purify -the court of King Arthur, which popularity had led into dissolute ways, -by introducing the quest of the Graal. And if Rolle preached sound -doctrine when he ranked among the Sins of the Mouth 'to syng seculere -sanges and lufe þam', their style and music were not despised as baits -to catch the ears of the frivolous: when a singer began - - Ase y me rod þis ender dai - By grene wode to seche play, - Mid herte y þohte al on a may, - Suetest of alle þinge,-- - -the lover of secular songs would be tempted to listen; but he would stay -to hear a song of the Joys of the Virgin, to whose cult the period owes -its best devotional poetry. - -[Foot-note 1: For illustrations from Old French, see _Les Légendes -Épiques_ by Professor Joseph Bédier, 4 vols., Paris 1907-, a book that -maintains the easy pre-eminence of the French school in the appreciation -of mediaeval literature.] - -The power of the Church to mould the early growth of vernacular -literature is so often manifested that there is a risk of -underestimating the compromises and surrenders which are the signs of -its wane. The figures of romance invaded the churches themselves, -creeping into the carvings of the portals, along the choir-stalls, and -into the historiated margins of the service books. Ecclesiastics -collected and multiplied stories to adorn their sermons or illustrate -their manuals of vices and virtues. In the lives of saints marvels -accumulated until the word 'legend' became a synonym for an untrue tale. -Though there are moments in the fourteenth century when the -preponderance of the clerical over the secular element in literature -seems as great as ever, by the end of the Middle Ages the trend of the -conflict is plain. It is the Church that draws back to attend to her own -defences, which the domestic growth of pious fictions has made -everywhere vulnerable. But imaginative literature, growing always -stronger and more confident, wins full secular liberty. - -Emancipation from the bondage of fact, and to some extent from -ecclesiastical censorship, coincided with the acquisition of a new -freedom in the form of English poetry. Old English had a single -metre--the long alliterative line without rime. It was best suited to -narrative; it was unmusical in the sense that it could not be sung; it -had marked proclivities towards rant and noise; and like blank verse it -degenerated easily into mongrel prose. - -Degeneration was far advanced in the eleventh century; and about the end -of the twelfth some large-scale experiments show that writers were no -longer content with the old medium. In _Layamon_, the last great poem in -this metre before the fourteenth century, internal rime and assonance -are common. Orm adopted the unrimed _septenarius_ from Latin, but -counted his syllables so faithfully as to produce an intolerable -monotony. Then French influence turned the scale swiftly and decisively -in favour of rime, so that in the extant poetry of the thirteenth -century alliteration is a secondary principle or a casual ornament, but -never takes the place of rime. - -The sudden and complete eclipse of a measure so firmly rooted in -tradition is surprising enough; but the wealth and elaborateness of the -new forms that replaced it are still more matter for wonder. It is -natural to think of the poets before Chaucer as children learning their -art slowly and painfully, and often stumbling on the way. Yet in this -one point of metrical technique they seem to reach mastery at a bound. - -That the development of verse forms took place outside of English is -part of the explanation. Rimed verse had its origin in Church Latin. In -the monastic schools the theory of classical and post-classical metres -was a principal study; and the practical art of chant was indispensable -for the proper conduct of the services. Under these favourable -conditions technical development was rapid, so that in such an early -example of the rimed stanza as the following, taken from a poem that -Godescalc wrote in exile about the year 845,-- - - _Magis mihi, miserule, - Flere libet, puerule, - Plus plorare quam cantare - Carmen tale iubes quale, - Amor care. - O, cur iubes canere?[2]--_ - -the arrangement of longer and shorter lines, the management of rime or -assonance, and the studied grouping of consonant sounds, give rather the -impression of too much than too little artifice. - -[Foot-note 2: _Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini_, vol. iii (ed. L. Traube), p. -731.] - -From Church Latin rime passed into French, and with the twelfth century -entered on a new course of development at the hands of the _trouvères_ -and the minstrels. The _trouvères_, or 'makers', studied versification -and music as a profession, and competed in the weaving of ingenious -patterns. Since their living depended on pleasing their audience, those -minstrels who were not themselves composers spared no pains to sing or -recite well the compositions of others; and good execution encouraged -poets to try more difficult forms. - -The varied results obtained in two such excellent schools of experience -were offered to the English poets of the thirteenth century in exchange -for the monotony of the long line; and their choice was unhesitating. In -an age of lyrical poetry they learned to sing where before they could -only declaim: and because the great age of craftsmanship had begun, the -most intricate patterns pleased them best. Chaucer was perhaps not yet -born when the over-elaboration of riming metres in English drew a -protest from Robert Mannyng:[3] and when, after a period of hesitancy, -rimed verse regained its prestige in Chaucer's prime, nameless writers -again chose or invented complex stanza forms and sustained them -throughout long poems. If _The Pearl_ stood alone it might be accounted -a literary _tour de force_: the York and Towneley plays compel the -conclusion that a high standard of metrical workmanship was appreciated -by the common people. - -[Foot-note 3: - - If it were made in _ryme couwee_, - Or in strangere, or _enterlacé_, - Þat rede Inglis it ere inowe - Þat couthe not haf coppled a kowe, - Þat outhere in _couwee_ or in _baston_ - Som suld haf ben fordon. - - (_Chronicle_, Prologue, ll. 85 ff.)] - -Thus far, by way of generalization and without the _caveats_ proper to a -literary history, I have indicated some aspects of the preceding period -that are important for an understanding of the fourteenth century. But -it would be misleading to pass on without a word of reservation. There -is reason to suppose that the extant texts from the thirteenth century -give a truer reflection of the tastes of the upper classes, who were in -closest contact with the French, than of the tastes of the people. But -however this may be, they do not authorize us to speak for every part of -the country. All the significant texts come from the East or the -South--especially the western districts of the South, where an -exceptional activity is perhaps to be connected with the old preference -of the court for Winchester. In the North and the North-West a silence -of five centuries is hardly broken. - - -II - -Judged by what survives, the literary output of the first half of the -fourteenth century was small in quantity; though it must be remembered -that, unlike the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries which made a fresh -start and depended almost entirely on their own production, the -fourteenth inherited and enjoyed a good stock of verse, to which the new -compositions are a supplement. - -Our first impression of this new material is negative and disappointing. -The production of rimed romances falls off: their plots become -increasingly absurd and mechanical; the action, so swift in the early -forms, moves sluggishly through a maze of decorative descriptions; and -their style at its best has the pretty inanity of _Sir Thopas_. The -succession of merry tales--such as _Dame Siriz_, or _The Fox and the -Wolf_[4] where Reynard, Isengrim, and Chauntecleer make their first bow -in English--is broken until the appearance of the _Canterbury Tales_ -themselves. To find secular lyrics we must turn to the very beginning -or the very end of the century, and Chaucer himself does not recover the -fresh gaiety of the earlier time. - -[Foot-note 4: Both are in Bodleian MS. Digby 86 (about 1280), and are -accessible in G. H. McKnight's _Middle English Humorous Tales_, Boston -1913.] - -The decline of these characteristic thirteenth-century types becomes -less surprising when we notice that literature has changed camps. The -South, more especially the South-West, is now almost silent: the North -and the North-West reach their literary period. Minot and Rolle are -Northerners, Wiclif is a Yorkshireman by birth, the York and Towneley -Miracle cycles are both from the North, and with Barbour the literature -of the Scots dialect begins; Robert Mannyng belongs to the North-East -Midlands; while _Sir Gawayne_, _The Pearl_, and _The Destruction of -Troy_ represent the North-West. This predominance in the present volume -rests on no mere chance of selection, since the Northern (Egerton) -version of _Mandeville_ might have been preferred to the Cotton; and if -the number of extracts were to be increased, the texts that first come -to mind--_Cursor Mundi_ (about 1300),[5] _Prick of Conscience_ (about -1340), _Morte Arthure_ (about 1360), the Chester Plays--are Northern and -North-Western. - -[Foot-note 5: Early English Text Society, ed. R. Morris. Unless other -editions are mentioned, the longer works which are not represented by -specimens may be read among the Early English Texts.] - -It is impossible to give more than a partial explanation of the change -in the area of production. But as the kinds of poetry that declined -early in the fourteenth century are those that owed most to French -influence, it is reasonable to assume that in the South the impulse that -produced them had spent its force. The same pause is observable at the -same time in France, where it coincides with the transition from oral -poetry to more reflective compositions written for the eye of a reader. -It is the pause between the passing of the minstrels and the coming of -men of letters. - -Such changes were felt first in the centres of government, learning, and -commerce, whence ideas and fashions spread very slowly to the country -districts. At this time the North, and above all the North-West, was the -backward quarter of England, thinly populated and in great part -uncultivated. An industrial age had not yet dotted it with inland -cities; and while America was still unknown the western havens were -neglected.[6] In these old-fashioned parts the age of minstrel poetry -was prolonged, and the wave of inspiration from France, though it came -late, stirred the North and North-West after the South had relapsed into -mediocrity or silence. - -[Foot-note 6: See p. 150.] - -So, about the middle of the century, imaginative poetry found a new home -in the West-Midlands. As before, poets turned to French for their -subjects, and often contented themselves with free adaptation of French -romances. They accepted such literary conventions as the Vision, which -was borrowed from the _Roman de la Rose_ to be the frame of _Wynnere and -Wastoure_ (1352)[7] and _The Parlement of the Thre Ages_,[8] before it -was used in _Piers Plowman_ and _The Pearl_ and by Chaucer. But time and -distance had weakened the French influence, and the new school of poets -did not catch, as the Southern poets did, the form and spirit of their -models. - -[Foot-note 7: Ed. Sir Israel Gollancz, Oxford 1920.] - -[Foot-note 8: Ed. Gollancz, Oxford 1915.] - -They preferred the unrimed alliterative verse, which from pre-Conquest -days must have lived on in the remote Western counties without a written -record; and for a generation rime is overshadowed. The suddenness and -importance of this revival in a time otherwise barren of poetry will -appear from a list of the principal alliterative poems that are commonly -assigned to the third quarter of the century:--_Wynnere and Wastoure_, -_The Parlement of the Thre Ages_, _Joseph of Arimathie_ (the first -English Graal romance), _William of Palerne_, _Piers Plowman_ (A-text), -_Patience_, _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_, _The Destruction of -Troy_, _Morte Arthure_. - -At the time alliterative verse was fitted to become the medium of -popular literature. Prose would not serve, because its literary life -depends on books and readers. Up to the end of the century (if we -exclude sermons and religious or technical treatises, where practical -considerations reinforced a Latin tradition) the function of prose in -English literature is to translate Latin or French prose;[9] and even -this narrow province is sometimes invaded by verse. Yet it was not easy -to write verse that depended on number of syllables, quantity, or rime. -The fall of inflexions brought confusion on syllabic metres; there were -great changes in the quantity and quality of vowels; and these -disturbances affected the dialects unevenly.[10] It must have been hard -enough for a poet to make rules for himself: but popularity involved the -recital of his work by all kinds of men in all kinds of English, when -the rimes would be broken and the rhythm lost. It is perhaps unfair to -call Michael of Northgate's doggerel (p. 33) to witness the misfortunes -of rimed metres. But the text of _Sir Orfeo_ from the Auchinleck -manuscript shows how often Englishmen who were nearly contemporary with -the composer had lost the tune of his verses. The more fortunate makers -of alliterative poems, whose work depended on the stable yet elastic -frame of stress and initial consonants, possessed a master-key to the -dialects. - -[Foot-note 9: Chaucer's prose rendering of the _Metra_ of Boethius is an -apparent exception, but Jean de Meung's French prose version lay before -him.] - -[Foot-note 10: See the Appendix.] - -Adaptability made easier the diffusion of alliterative verse: but its -revival was not due to a deliberate choice on practical grounds. It was -a phase of a larger movement, which may be described as a weakening of -foreign and learned influences, and a recovery of the native stock. And -the metrical form is only the most obvious of the old-fashioned elements -that reappeared. In spirit, too, the authors of the alliterative school -have many points of kinship with the Old English poets. They are more -moderate than enthusiastic. Left to themselves, their imaginations move -most easily among sombre shapes and in sombre tones. They have not the -intellectual brilliance and the wit of the French poets; and when they -laugh--which is not often--the lightness of the thirteenth century is -rarer than the rough note of the comic scenes in the Towneley plays. It -is hard to say how much the associations and aptitudes of the verse -react on its content: but _Sumer is icumen in_, which is the essence of -thirteenth-century poetry, is barely conceivable in Old English, where -even the cuckoo's note sounded melancholy; and it would come oddly from -the poets of the middle fourteenth century, who have learned from the -French _trouvères_ the convention of spring, with sunshine, flowers, and -singing birds, but seem unable to put away completely the memory of -winter and rough weather. - -In the last quarter of the century the tide of foreign influence runs -strong again; and the work of Gower and Chaucer discloses radical -changes in the conditions of literature which are the more important -because they are permanent. The literary centre swings back to the -capital--London now instead of Winchester--which henceforth provides the -models for authors of any pretensions throughout England and across the -Scottish border. In Chaucer we have for the first time a layman, writing -in English for secular purposes, who from the range and quality of his -work may fairly claim to be ranked among men of letters. The strictly -clerical writers had been content to follow the Scriptures, the Fathers -and commentators, the service books and legendaries; and Chaucer does -not neglect their tradition.[11] The minstrels had exploited a popular -taste for merry tales 'that sownen into synne'; and he borrowed so -gladly from them that many have doubted his repentance.[12] But his -models are men of letters:--the Latin poets headed by Ovid, who was -Gower's favourite too; French writers, from the satirical Jean de Meung -to makers of studied 'balades, roundels, virelayes' like Machaut and -Deschamps; and the greater Italian group--Boccaccio, Petrarch, and -Dante. Keeping such company, he was bound to reject the rusticity of the -alliterative school, and the middle way followed by those who added a -tag of rime at the end of a rimeless series (as in _Sir Gawayne_), or -invented stanzas in which alliteration remains, but is subservient to -rime (as in _The Pearl_ and the York plays). After his day, even for -Northerners who wish to write well, there will be no more '_rum-ram-ruf_ -by lettre'.[13] - -[Foot-note 11: - - And for to speke of other holynesse, - He hath in prose translated Boece, - And of the Wrechede Engendrynge of Mankynde - As man may in pope Innocent ifynde, - And made the Lyfe also of Seynt Cecile; - He made also, gon ys a grete while, - Origenes upon the Maudeleyne. - - (_Legend of Good Women_, Prologue A, ll. 424 ff.)] - -[Foot-note 12: _Parson's Tale_, at the end.] - -[Foot-note 13: _Prologue to Parson's Tale_, l. 43.] - - -III - -In outlining the main movements of the century, I have mentioned -incidentally the fortunes of certain kinds of composition,--the -restriction of the lyrical form to devotional uses; the long dearth in -the records of humorous tales; the decadence of romances in rime, and -the flourishing of alliterative romances. The popular taste for stories -was still unsatisfied, and guided authors, from Robert Mannyng to -Chaucer, in their choice of subjects or method of treatment. -Translators were busier than ever in making Latin and French works -available to a growing public who understood no language but English; -and of necessity the greater number of our specimens are translations, -ranging from the crude literalness of Michael of Northgate to the -artistic adaptation seen in Gower's tales. But the chief new -contribution of the century is the vernacular Miracle Play, with which -the history of the English drama begins. - -Miracle plays grew out of the services for the church festivals of -Easter and Christmas. Towards the end of the tenth century a -representation of the Three Maries at the Sepulchre is provided for in -the English Easter service. Later, the Shepherds seeking the Manger and -the Adoration of the Magi are represented in the services for the -Christmas season. In their early form these dramatic ceremonies consist -of a few sentences of Latin which were sung by the clergy with a minimum -of dignified action. - -From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the primitive form underwent -a parallel development in all parts of Europe. Records of Miracles in -England are at this time scanty and casual:--Matthew Paris notes one at -Dunstable because precious copes were borrowed for it from St. Albans, -and were accidentally burnt; another, given in the churchyard at -Beverley, is mentioned because a boy who had climbed to a post of -vantage in the church, and thence higher to escape the sextons, fell and -yet took no harm. But the scantiness of references before 1200 is in -itself evidence of growth without active enemies, and the few -indications agree with the general trend observable on the Continent. -The range of subjects was extended to include the acts of saints, and -the principal scenes of sacred history from the Fall of Lucifer to the -Last Judgement. Single scenes were elaborated to something like the -scale familiar in Middle English. By the end of the twelfth century -French begins to appear beside or in place of Latin; the French verses -were spoken, not sung; the plays were often acted outside the church; -and it may be assumed that laymen were admitted as performers alongside -the minor clergy, who seem to have been the staunchest supporters of the -plays. - -The Miracle had become popular, and there is soon evidence of its -perversion by the grotesque imaginings of the people. In 1207 masking -and buffoonery in the churches at Christmas came under the ban of Pope -Innocent III, and his prohibition was made permanent in the Decretals. -Henceforth we must look for new developments to the Miracles played -outside the church. To these freedom from the restraints of the sacred -building did not bring a better reputation. Before 1250 the most -influential churchman of the time, Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln, who -was far from being a kill-joy, urged his clergy to stamp out Miracles; -and later William of Wadington, and Robert Mannyng his translator, while -allowing plays on the Resurrection and the Nativity if decently -presented in the church, condemn the Miracles played in open places, and -blame those of the clergy who encouraged them by lending vestments to -the performers.[14] - -[Foot-note 14: _Handlyng Synne_, ll. 4640 ff.] - -From the first three-quarters of the fourteenth century, which -include the critical period for the English Miracles, hardly a -record survives. The memoranda on which the history of the English -plays is based begin toward the end of the century, and the texts -are drawn from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscripts. Hence -it will be simplest to set out the changes that were complete by -1400 without attempting to establish their true sequence; and to -disregard the existence, side by side with the fully developed -types, of all the gradations between them and the primitive form -that might result from stunted growth or degeneration. - -The early references point to the representation of single plays or -small groups of connected scenes; and such isolated pieces survive as -long as there are Miracles: Hull, for instance, specialized on a play of -Noah's Ship. But now we have to record the appearance of series or -cycles of plays, covering in chronological order the whole span of -sacred history. Complete cycles were framed on the Continent as early as -the end of the thirteenth century. In England they are represented by -the York, Towneley (Wakefield), and Chester plays, and the so-called -_Ludus Coventriae_.[15] There are also records or fragments of cycles -from Beverley, Coventry, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Norwich. The -presentation of the cycle sometimes occupied a day (York), sometimes two -or three successive days (Chester), and sometimes a part was carried -over to the next year's festival (_Ludus Coventriae_). - -[Foot-note 15: These are not the Coventry plays, of which only two -survive, but a cycle of plays torn from their local connexions (ed. J. -O. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, 1841). The title is due to a -seventeenth-century librarian, who possibly had heard of no Miracle -cycle but the famous one at Coventry.] - -The production of a long series of scenes in the open requires fine -weather, and once the close connexion with the church services had been -broken, there was a tendency to throw forward the presentation into May -or June. The Chester plays were given in Whitsun-week--at least in later -times. But normally the day chosen in fourteenth-century England was the -Feast of Corpus Christi (the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday), which -was made universal throughout the Church in 1311. So the Miracles get -the generic name of 'Corpus Christi Plays'. - -The feature of the Corpus Christi festival was its procession. As a -result either of inclusion in this procession or of imitation, the -cycles came to be played processionally: each play had its stage on -wheels which halted at fixed stations in the streets, and at each -station the play was reenacted. This was the usage at York, Wakefield, -Chester, Coventry, and Beverley. The older practice of presentation on -fixed stages was followed in the _Ludus Coventriae_. - -Our last records from the end of the thirteenth century indicated that -the open-air Miracle had been disowned by the Church from which it -sprang. Yet a century later processional performances appear on a scale -that postulates strong and competent management. In the interim the -control of the great cycles had passed from the clergy to the -municipalities, who laid upon each guild of craftsmen within their -jurisdiction the duty of presenting a play. Ecclesiastics still wrote -Miracles, and occasionally performed them; but when Canterbury, London, -Salisbury, Winchester, Oxford, which have no extant texts and few -records of popular performances, are named against York, Wakefield, -Chester, Coventry, Beverley, it is obvious that official Church -influences were no longer the chief factor in the development of -Miracles. For their growth and survival in England the cycles depended -on the interest of powerful corporations, willing to undertake the -financial responsibility of their production, and able to maintain them -against the attacks of the Lollards, or change of policy in the orthodox -Church, or the fickleness of fashion in entertainment. - -The steps by which the English guilds assumed the guardianship of the -plays cannot now be retraced. We must be content to note that the -undertaking called for just that combination of religious duty, civic -patriotism, and pride of craft that inspired the work of the guilds in -their best days. And the clergy had every reason to welcome the -disciplining by secular authority of a wayward offspring that had grown -beyond their own control. The York texts, which bring us nearest to the -time when the corporations and guilds first took charge of the Miracles, -are very creditable to the taste of the city, and must represent a -reform on the irresponsible productions that scandalized the thirteenth -century. The vein of coarseness in some of the comic scenes of the -Towneley group seems to be due to a later recrudescence of incongruous -elements. - -The last great change to be noted was inevitable when the plays became -popular: they were spoken in English and in rimed verse, with only an -occasional tag or stage direction or hymn in Latin to show their origin. -The variety of the texts, and of the modes and purposes of their -representation, make it impossible to assign a date to the transition -that would be generally applicable; and its course was not always the -same. There is an example of direct translation from Latin in the -Shrewsbury fragments,[16] which contain one actor's cues and parts in -three plays: first the Latin foundation is given in verse or prose, and -then its expansion in English alternate rime. That translations were -sometimes made from the French is proved by the oldest known manuscript -of a Miracle in English--an early fourteenth-century fragment of a -Nativity play, consisting of a speech in French followed by its -rendering in the same stanza form.[17] But there is no reason to doubt -that as English gained ground and secularization became more complete, -original composition appeared side by side with translation.[18] - -[Foot-note 16: Shrewsbury School MS. Mus. iii. 42 (early fifteenth -century), ed. Skeat, _Academy_, January 4 and January 11, 1890. The -fragments are (i) the part of the Third Shepherd in a Nativity play; -(ii) the part of the third Mary in a Resurrection play; (iii) the part -of Cleophas in _Pilgrims to Emmaus_. Manly, who reprints the fragments -in _Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_, vol. i (1900), pp. xxvi -ff., notes that these plays seem to have been church productions rather -than secular.] - -[Foot-note 17: See _The Times Literary Supplement_ of May 26 and June 2, -1921. The fragment comes from Bury St. Edmunds. The dialect is E. -Midland.] - -[Foot-note 18: On the production of Miracle plays see L. Toulmin Smith, -Introduction to _York Plays_, Oxford 1885; and A. F. Leach in _An -English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall_, pp. 205 ff.] - -For one other kind of writing the fourteenth century is notable--its -longer commentaries on contemporary life and the art of living. In the -twelfth century England had an important group of satirical poets who -wrote in Latin; and in the thirteenth there are many French and a few -English satires. Their usual topic was the corruption of the religious -orders, varied by an occasional attack on some detail of private folly, -such as extravagance in dress or the pride of serving-men. These pieces -are mostly in the early French manner, where so much wit tempers the -indignation that one doubts whether the satirist would be really happy -if he succeeded in destroying the butts of his ridicule. - -This is not the spirit of the fourteenth century, when a darker side of -life is turned up and reported by men whose eyes are not quick to catch -brightness. The number of short occasional satires in English increases, -but they are seldom gay. The greater writers--Rolle, Wiclif, Langland, -Gower--were obsessed by the troubles of their time, and are less -satirists than moralists. Certainly the events of the century gave -little cause for optimism. The wane of enthusiasm throughout Europe and -the revival of national jealousies are evident very early in the failure -of all attempts to organize an effective Crusade after 1291, when the -Turks conquered the last Christian outposts in Palestine. There was no -peace, for the harassing wars with Scotland were followed by the long -series of campaigns against France that sapped the strength of both -countries for generations. The social and economic organization was -shaken by the severest famines (1315-21) and the greatest pestilence -(1349) in English history, and both famine and plague came back more -than once before the century was done. The conflict of popes and -anti-popes divided the Western Church, while England faced the domestic -problem of Lollardry. There was civil revolt in 1381; and the century -closed with the deposition of Richard II. A modern historian balances -the account with the growth of parliamentary institutions, the improving -status of the labouring classes, and the progress of trade: but in so -far as these developments were observable at all by contemporary -writers, they were probably interpreted as signs of general decay. - -In such an atmosphere the serene temper with which Robert Mannyng -handles the sins and follies of his generation did not last long. Rolle -tried to associate with men in order to improve their way of life: but -his intensely personal attitude towards every problem, and the low value -he set on the quality of reasonableness, made success impossible; and -after a few querulous outbursts against his surroundings, he found his -genius by withdrawing into pure idealism. - -Wiclif was the one writer who was also a practical reformer. Having made -up his mind that social evils could be remedied only through the Church, -and that the first step was a thorough reform of the government, -doctrine, and ministers of the Church, he acted with characteristic -logic. The vices and follies of the people he regarded as secondary, and -refused to dissipate his controversial energies upon them. His strength -was reserved for a grim, ordered battle against ecclesiastical abuses; -and while he pulled down, he did not neglect to lay foundations that -outlasted his own defeat. - -_Piers Plowman_ gives a full picture of the times and their bewildering -effect on the mind of a sincere and moderate man. Its author belonged to -the loosely organized secular clergy who, by reason of their middle -position, served as a kind of cement in a ramshackle society. He has no -new system and no practical schemes of reform to expound--only -perplexing dreams of a simple Christian who, with Conscience and Reason -as his guides, faces in turn the changing shapes of evil. He attacks -them bravely enough, and still they seem to evade him; because he -shrinks from destroying their roots when he finds them too closely -entwined with things to which his habits or affections cling. In the end -he cannot find a sure temporal foothold: yet he has no vision of a -Utopia to come in which society will be reorganized by men's efforts. -That idea brought no comfort to his generation who, standing on the -threshold of a new order, looked longingly backward. - -Passing over Gower, whose direct studies of contemporary conditions were -written in Latin and French, we come round again to Chaucer. He has not -Rolle's idealism, or Wiclif's fighting spirit, or Langland's -earnestness--in fact, he has no great share of moral enthusiasm. A man -of the world with keen eyes and the breadth of outlook and sympathy that -Gower lacked, he is at home in a topsy-turvy medley of things half-dead -with things half-grown, and the thousand disguises of convention and -propriety through which the new life peeped to mock at its puzzled and -despairing repressors were to him a never-ending entertainment. _Ubique -iam abundat turpitudo terrena_, says Rolle in an alliterative flight, -_vilissima voluptas in viris vacillat;... bellant ut bestiae; breviantur -beati; nullus est nimirum qui nemini non nocet_. That was one side, but -it was not the side that interested Chaucer. He had the spirit of the -thirteenth-century poets grown up, with more experience, more -reflection, and a mellower humour, but not less good temper and capacity -for enjoyment. He no longer laughs on the slightest occasion for sheer -joy of living: but he would look elvishly at Richard Rolle--a hermit who -made it a personal grievance that people left him solitary, a fugitive -from his fellows who unconsciously satisfied a very human and pleasing -love for companionship and admiration by becoming the centre of a -coterie of women recluses. A world that afforded such infinite amusement -to a quiet observer was after all not a bad place to live in. - - -IV - -Chaucer, who suffers when read in extracts, is not represented in this -book, although without him fourteenth-century literature is a body -without a head. But in the choice of literary forms and subjects, I have -aimed at illustrating the variety of interest that is to be found in the -writings of lesser men. - -It may be asked whether the choice of specimens gives a true idea of the -taste and accomplishment of the age. This issue is raised by Professor -Carleton Brown's Afterword in the second volume of his _Register of -Middle English Religious and Didactic Verse_, a book that will be to -generations of investigators a model of unselfish research. There he -emphasizes the popularity of long poems, and especially of long didactic -poems, as evidenced by the relatively great number of manuscript copies -that survive. _The Prick of Conscience_ leads with ninety-nine -manuscripts, against sixty-nine of _The Canterbury Tales_, and -forty-seven of _Piers Plowman_. What is to be said of a book that, -impoverished by the exclusion of Chaucer, passes by also the most -popular poem of his century? - -I would rest an apology on the conditions under which manuscript copies -came into being and survived; and begin with Michael of Northgate as he -brings his _Ayenbyte_ to an end in the October of 1340, before the short -days and the numbing cold should come to make writing a pain. The book -has no elegance that would commend it to special care, for Dan Michael -is a dry practical man, as indifferent to the graces of style as to the -luxury of silky vellum and miniatures stiff with gold and colour. But -from his cell it goes into the library of his monastery--a library well -ordered and well catalogued, and (as if to guarantee security) boasting -the continuous possession of books that Gregory the Great gave to the -first missionaries. We know its place exactly--the fourth shelf of -press XVI. And there it remained safe until the days of intelligent -private collectors, passing finally with the Arundel library to the -British Museum. The course was not often so smooth, for of two dozen -manuscripts left by Michael to St. Augustine's, Dr. James, in the year -1903, could identify only four survivors in as many different libraries. -But the example is enough to illustrate a proposition that will not -easily be refuted:--the chances of an English mediaeval manuscript -surviving greatly depend on its eligibility for a place in the library -of a religious house, since these are the chief sources of the -manuscripts that have come down to us. - -The attitude of the Church towards the vernacular literature of the -later Middle Ages did not differ materially from her attitude towards -the classics in earlier times, though the classics had always the -greater dignity. Literary composition as a pure art was not encouraged. -Entertainment for its own sake was discountenanced. The religious houses -were to be centres of piety and learning; and if English were admitted -at all in the strongholds of Latin and French, a work of unadorned -edification like _The Prick of Conscience_ would make very suitable -reading for those who craved relaxation from severer studies. There -were, of course, individuals among the professed religious who indulged -a taste for more worldly literature; but the surviving catalogues of -libraries that were formed under the eye of authority show a marked -discrimination in favour of didactic works. - -In England the private libraries of fourteenth-century laymen were -relatively insignificant. But Guy, Earl of Warwick, in 1315 left an -exceptionally rich collection to the Abbey of Bordesley, which failed to -conserve the legacy. The list was first printed in Todd's _Illustrations -of Gower and Chaucer_ (1810),[19] and (among devotional works and lives -of saints that merge into religious romances like _Joseph of Arimathea -and the Graal_, _Titus and Vespasian_, and _Constantine_) it includes -most of the famous names of popular history:--Lancelot, Arthur and -Modred; Charlemagne, Doon of Mayence, Aimery of Narbonne, Girard de -Vienne, William of Orange, Thibaut of Arraby, Doon of Nanteuil, Guy of -Nanteuil, William Longespée, Fierebras; with two Alexander romances, a -_Troy Book_, a _Brut_; the love story of _Amadas e Idoine_; the romance -_de Guy e de la Reygne 'tut enterement'_; a book of physic and surgery; -and a miscellany--_un petit rouge livere en lequel sount contenuz mous -diverses choses_. Yet even a patron so well disposed to secular poems -did little to perpetuate the manuscripts of English verse. His education -enabled him to draw from the fountain head, and most of his books were -French. - -[Foot-note 19: p. 161.] - -Neither in the libraries of the monasteries, nor in the libraries of the -great nobles, should we expect to find a true mirror of popular taste. -The majority of the people knew no language but English; and the -relative scarcity of books of every kind, which even among the educated -classes made the hearers far outnumber the readers, was at once a cause -and a symptom of illiteracy: the majority of the people could not read. -This leads to a generalization that is cardinal for every branch of -criticism:--up to Chaucer's day, the greater the popularity of an -English poem, the less important becomes the manuscript as a means of -early transmission. The text, which would have been comparatively safe -in the keeping of scribe, book, and reader, passes to the uncertain -guardianship of memorizer, reciter, and listener; so that sometimes it -is wholly lost, and sometimes it suffers as much change in a generation -as would a classical text in a thousand years. Already Robert Mannyng -laments the mutilation of _Sir Tristrem_ by the 'sayers' (who could -hardly be expected to avoid faults of improvisation and omission in the -recitation of so long a poem from memory);[20] and his regret would -have been keener if he could have looked ahead another hundred years to -see how the texts of the verse romances paid the price of popularity by -the loss of crisp phrases and fresh images, and the intrusion of every -mode of triteness. - -[Foot-note 20: - - I see in song, in sedgeyng tale - Of Erceldoun and of Kendale, - Non þam says as þai þam wroght, - And in þer sayng it semes noght. - Þat may þou here in _Sir Tristrem_-- - Ouer gestes it has þe steem, - Ouer alle þat is or was, - If men it sayd as made Thomas: - But I here it no man so say, - Þat of som copple som is away. - - (_Chronicle_, Prologue, ll. 93 ff.) - -Robert blames the vanity of the reciters more than their memories, on -the excellence of which Petrarch remarks in his account of the -minstrels: _Sunt homines non magni ingenii, magnae vero memoriae, -magnaeque diligentiae_ (to Boccaccio, _Rerum Senilium_, Bk. v, ep. ii).] - -Of course manuscripts of the longer secular poems were made and -used,--mean, stunted copies from which the travelling entertainer could -refresh his memory or add to his stock of tales; fair closet copies that -would enable well-to-do admirers to renew their pleasure when no skilled -minstrel was by; and, occasionally, compact libraries of romance, like -the Auchinleck manuscript, which must have been the treasure of some -great household that enjoyed 'romanz-reding _on þe bok_'--the pastime -that encouraged the rise of prose romances in the late Middle Ages. But -as a means of circulation for popular verse, as distinct from learned -verse and from prose, the book was of secondary importance in its own -time, and was always subject to exceptional risks. The fates of three -stories in different kinds, all demonstrably favourites in the -fourteenth century, will be sufficient illustration: of _Floris and -Blauncheflour_, one of the best of the early romances in the courtly -style, several manuscripts survive, but when all are assembled the -beginning of the story is still wanting; of _Havelok_, typical of the -homely style, one imperfect copy and a few charred fragments of another -are extant; of the _Tale of Wade_, that was dear to 'olde wydwes',[21] -and yet considered worthy to entertain the noble Criseyde,[22] no text -has come down. Evidently, to determine the relative popularity of the -longer tales in verse we need not so much a catalogue of extant -manuscripts, as a census, that cannot now be taken, of the repertories -of the entertainers. - -[Foot-note 21: Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, ll. 211 ff.] - -[Foot-note 22: Chaucer, _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. iii, l. 614.] - -If the manuscript life of the longer secular poems was precarious, the -chances of the short pieces--songs, ballads, jests, comic dialogues, -lampoons--were still worse. Since they were composed for the day -without thought of the future, and were no great charge on the ordinary -memory, the chief motives for writing them down were absent; and no -doubt the professional minstrel found that to secure his proprietary -rights against competitors, he must be chary of giving copies of his -best things. Many would never be put into writing; some were jotted -down on perishable wax; but parchment, always too expensive for -ephemeral verse, was reserved for special occasions. In France, in the -thirteenth century, Henri d'Andeli adds a touch of dignity to his poem -celebrating the memory of a distinguished patron by inscribing it on -parchment instead of the wax tablets he used for lighter verses.[23] In -England in 1305, a West-Country swashbuckler, whom fear of the statute -against _Trailebastouns_ kept in the greenwood, relieves his offended -dignity by composing a poem half apologetic, half minatory, and chooses -as the safest way of publication to write it on parchment and throw it -in the high road:-- - - _Cest rym fust fet al bois desouz vn lorer, - La chaunte merle, russinole, e crye l'esperuer. - Escrit estoit en parchemyn pur mout remenbrer, - Et gitté en haut chemyn, qe vm le dust trouer.[24]_ - -These loose sheets or tiny rolls[25] rarely survive, and the -preservation of their contents, as of pieces launched still more -carelessly on the world, depends on the happy chance of inclusion in a -miscellany; quotation in a larger work; or entry on a fly-leaf, margin, -or similar space left blank in a book already written. - -[Foot-note 23: - - _Et icil clers qui ce trova ... - Por ce qu'il est de verité, - Ne l'apele mie flablel, - Ne l'a pas escrit en tablel, - Ainz l'a escrit en parchamin: - Par bois, per plains et par chamins, - Par bors, par chateals, par citez - Vorra qu'il soit bien recitez._ - - (_OEuvres_, ed. A. Héron, Paris 1881, p. 40.)] - -[Foot-note 24: 'This rime was made in the wood beneath a bay-tree, where -blackbird and nightingale sing and the sparrow-hawk cries. It was -written on parchment for a record, and flung in the high road so that -folk should find it.' _The Political Songs of England_, ed. T. Wright -(London 1839), p. 236.] - -[Foot-note 25: A rare example of a roll made small for convenience of -carrying is the British Museum Additional MS. 23986. It is about three -inches wide and, in its imperfect state, twenty-two inches long, so that -when rolled up it is not much bigger than one's finger. On the inside it -contains a thirteenth-century _Song of the Barons_ in French (T. Wright, -_Political Songs_, 1839, pp. 59 ff.); on the outside, two scenes from a -Middle English farce called _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_ -(Chambers, _Mediaeval Stage_, vol. ii, pp. 324 ff.) which, like so many -happy experiments of the earlier time, appears to have no successor in -the fourteenth century.] - -Most productive, though not very common in the fourteenth century, are -the miscellanies of short pieces--volumes like Earl Guy's 'little red -book containing many divers things'--in which early collectors noted -down the scraps that interested them. A codex of West-Country origin, -MS. Harley 2253 in the British Museum, preserves among French poems such -as the complaint of the _Trailebastoun_, a group of English songs that -includes _Lenten is Come_ and _Alysoun_. Most of its numbers are unique, -and the loss of this one volume would have swept away the best part of -our knowledge of the early Middle English secular lyrics. - -Of survival by quotation there is an example in the history of the -Letter of Theodric, which lies behind Mannyng's tale of the Dancers of -Colbek; and the circumstances are worth lingering over both for the -number of by-paths they open to speculation, and for the glimpse they -give of Wilton in a century from which there are few records of the -nunnery outside the grim, tax-gatherer's entries of Domesday. - -In the year before the Conquest, Theodric the foreigner, still racked by -the curse that was laid on Bovo's company, made his way from the court -of Edward the Confessor to the shrine of St. Edith. As he walked through -the quiet valley to Wilton in the spring of the year, we may be sure the -thought came to him that here at last was the spot where a man wearied -with wandering from land to land, from shrine to shrine, might hope to -be cured and to set up his rest. From the moment he reaches the abbey it -is impossible not to admire his feeling for dramatic effect. By a -paroxysm of quaking he terrifies the peasants; but to the weeping nuns -he tells his story discreetly; and, lest a doubt should remain, produces -from his scrip a letter in which St. Bruno, the great Pope Leo IX, -vouches for all. It is notable that at this stage the convent appear to -have taken no steps to record a story so marvellous and so well -authenticated; and had Theodric continued his restless wandering we -should know of him as little as is known of three others from the band -of carollers, who had preceded him at Wilton with a similar story. But -when he obtains leave to sleep beside the shrine of St. Edith, and in -the morning of the great feast of Lady Day wakes up healed, exalting the -fame of their patron saint who had lifted the curse where all the saints -of Europe had failed, then, and then only, the convent order that an -official record should be made, and the letter copied: _Hec in presencia -Brichtive ipsius loci abbatisse declarata et patriis litteris[26] sunt -mandata_. Henceforth it exists only as a chapter in the Acts of St. -Edith, and as such it lay before Robert of Brunne. Of the other -communities or private persons visited by Theodric (who, whether saint -or _faitour_, certainly did not produce his letter for the first and -last time at Wilton) none have preserved his memory. It would be hard to -find a better example of the power of the clergy in early times to -control the keys to posterity, or of the practical considerations which, -quite apart from merit or curiosity, governed the preservation of -legends. - -[Foot-note 26: _Patriis litteris_ according to Schröder and Gaston Paris -means 'English language', but if it is not a mere flourish, it means -rather the 'English script' in which the Latin letter was copied, as -distinct from the foreign hand of Theodric's original letter. What -'English script' meant at Wilton in 1065 is a question of some delicacy. -The spelling _Folcpoldus_ for _Folcwoldus_ in some later copies of the -Wilton text must be due to confusion of _p_ and Anglo-Saxon [wynn] = -_w_. This would be decisive for 'Anglo-Saxon script' if it occurred -anywhere but in a proper name.] - -But it is the verses casually jotted down in unrelated books that bring -home most vividly the slenderness of the thread of transmission. A -student has committed _Now Springs the Spray_ to solitary imprisonment -between the joyless leaves of an old law book. The song of the Irish -Dancer and _The Maid of the Moor_ were scribbled, with some others from -a minstrel's stock, on the fly-leaf of a manuscript now in the Bodleian. -On a blank page of another a prudent man (who used vile ink, long since -faded) has written the verses that banish rats, much as a modern -householder might treasure up some annihilating prescription. To these -waifs the chance of survival did not come twice, and to a number -incalculable it never came. - -It has been the purpose of this digression to bring the extant -literature into perspective: not to raise useless regrets for what is -lost, since we can learn only from what remains; nor to contest the -value of statistics of surviving copies as a proof of circulation, -provided the works compared are similar in length and kind, and are -represented in enough manuscripts to make figures significant; nor yet -to deny that didactic verse bulks large in the output of the fourteenth -century: it could not be otherwise in an anxious age, when the scarcity -of remains gives everything written in English a place in literary -history, and when for almost everything verse was preferred to prose. It -seemed better to redress the balance of chance by stealing from the end -of the thirteenth century a few fragments that following generations -would not forget, than to lend colour to the suggestion that ninety-nine -of the men of Chaucer's century enjoyed _The Prick of Conscience_ for -every one that caught up the refrain of _Now Springs the Spray_, or -danced through _The Maid of the Moor_, or sang the praises of Alison. - - -V - -However much a maker of excerpts may stretch his commission to give -variety, it is in vain if the reader will not do his part; for it lies -with him to find interest. Really no effective attack can be made on a -crust of such diversified hardness until the reader looks at his text as -a means of winning back something of the life of the past, and feels a -pleasure in the battle against vagueness. - -The first step is to find out the verbal meaning. Strange words, that -force themselves on the attention and are easily found in dictionaries -and glossaries, try a careful reader less than groups of common -words--such lines as - - _Þe fairest leuedi, for þe nones, - Þat mi[gh]t gon on bodi and bones_ II 53-4 - -which, if literally transposed into modern English, are nonsense. Those -who think it is beneath the dignity of an intelligent reader to weigh -such gossamer should turn to Zupitza's commentary on the Fifteenth -Century Version of _Guy of Warwick_,[27] and see how a master among -editors of Middle English relishes every phrase, missing nothing, and -yet avoiding the opposite fault of pressing anything too hard. For these -tags, more or less emptied of meaning through common use, and ridiculous -by modern standards, have their importance in the economy of spoken -verse, where a good voice carried them off. They helped out the composer -in need of a rime; the reciter on his feet, compelled to improvise; and -the audience who, lacking the reader's privilege to linger over -close-packed lines, welcomed familiar turns that by diluting the sense -made it easier to receive. - -[Foot-note 27: Early English Text Society, extra series, 1875-6.] - -Repeated reading will bring out clearly the formal elements of -style--the management of rime and alliteration in verse, the grouping -and linking of clauses in prose, the cadences in both verse and prose: -and before the value of a word or phrase can be settled it is often -necessary to inquire how far its use was dictated by technical -conditions, compliance with which is sometimes ingenuous to the point of -crudity. Where a prose writer would be content with _Mathew sayth_, an -alliterative poet elaborates (VIII _a_ 234) into: - - _Mathew with mannes face mouthed þise wordis_ - -and in such a context _mouthed_ cannot be pressed. The frequent oaths in -the speeches in _Piers Plowman_ are no more than counters in the -alliteration: being meaningless they are selected to prop up the verse, -just as the barrenest phrases in the poem _On the Death of Edward III_ -owe their inclusion to the requirements of rime. Again, it will be -easier to acquiesce in a forced sense of _bende_ in - - _On bent much baret bende_ V 47 - -when it is observed that rime and alliteration so limit the poet's -choice that no apter word could be used. Conversely, in the absence of -disturbing technical conditions, a reader who finds nonsense should -suspect his understanding of the text, or the soundness of the text, -before blaming the author. - -When the sense expressed and the methods of expression have been -studied, it remains to examine the implications of the words--an endless -task and perhaps the most entertaining of all. Take as a routine example -the place where the Green Knight, preparing a third time to deliver his -blow, says to Gawayne-- - - _Halde þe now þe hy[gh]e hode þat Arþur þe ra[gh]t, - And kepe þy kanel at þis kest, [gh]if hit keuer may_ V 229 f. - -A recent translator renders very freely: - - 'but yet thy hood up-pick, - Haply 'twill cover thy neck when I the buffet strike'-- - -though the etiquette of decapitation, and the delicacy of the stroke -that the Green Knight has in mind, require just the opposite -interpretation:--Gawayne's hood has become disarranged since he bared -his neck (V 188), and the Green Knight wants a clear view to make sure -of his aim. An observation of Gaston Paris on the Latin story of the -Dancers of Colbek will show how much an alert mind enriches the reading -of a text with precise detail. From the incident of Ave's arm he -concludes that the dancers did not form a closed ring, but a line with -Bovo leading (I 55) and Ave, as the last comer (I 43-54), at its end, so -that she had one arm free which her brother seized in his attempt to -drag her away (I 111 ff.). - -Intensive reading should be combined with discursive. Intensive reading -cultivates the habit of noticing detail; and it is a sound rule of -textual criticism to interpret a composition first in the light of the -evidence contained within itself. For instance, the slight flicker in -the verse - - _Sche most wiþ him no lenger abide_ II 330 - -should recall as surely as a cross-reference the earlier line - - _No durst wiþ hir no leng abide_ II 84 - -and raise the question whether in both places in the original work the -comparative had not the older form _leng_. Discursive reading is a -safeguard against the dangers of a narrow experience, and especially -against the assumption that details of phrase, style, or thought are -peculiar to an author or composition, when in fact they are common to a -period or a kind. A course of both will enable the reader to cope with a -school of critics who rely on superficial resemblances to strip the mask -from anonymous authors and attach their works to some favoured name. -Whether _Sir Gawayne_ and _The Destruction of Troy_ are from the same -hand is still seriously debated. Both are alliterative poems; but it is -impossible to read ten lines from each aloud without realizing the wide -gap that divides their rhythms. The differences of spirit are more -radical still. The facility of the author of _The Destruction_ is -attained at the cost of surrender to the metre. Given pens, ink, vellum, -and a good original, he could go on turning out respectable verses while -human strength endured. And because his meaning is all on the surface, -the work does not improve on better acquaintance. The author of _Sir -Gawayne_ is an artist who never ceases to struggle with a harsh medium. -He has the rare gift of visualizing every scene in his story: image -succeeds image, each so sharply drawn as to suggest that he had his -training in one of the schools of miniature-painting for which early -England was famous. It is this gift of the painter that, more than -likeness of dialect or juxtaposition in the manuscript, links _Sir -Gawayne_ with _The Pearl_. - -It cannot be too strongly urged that the purpose of a worker in Middle -English should be nothing less than to read sensitively, with the -fullest possible understanding. Of such a purpose many _curricula_ give -no hint. Nor could it be deduced readily from the latest activities of -research, where the tendency is more and more to leave the main road -(which should be crowded if the study is to thrive) for side-tracks and -by-paths of side-tracks in which the sense of direction and proportion -is easily lost. - -That much may be accomplished by specialists following a single line of -approach has been demonstrated by the philologists, who have burrowed -tirelessly to present new materials to a world which seldom rewards -their happiest elucidations with so much as a 'Well said, old mole!' The -student of literature (in the narrower modern sense of the word) brings -a new range of interests. He will be disappointed if he expects to find -a finished art, poised and sustained, in an age singularly afflicted -with growing pains; but there are compensations for any one who is -content to catch glimpses of promise, and--looking back and forward, and -aside to France--to take pleasure in tracing the rise and development of -literary forms and subjects. It is still not enough. The specialist in -language as a science, or in literature as an art, may find the Sixth -Passus of _Piers Plowman_ (VIII _a_) or the Wiclifite sermon (XI _b_) of -secondary interest. Yet both are primary documents, the one for the -history of society, the other for the history of religion. - -There is no escape from a counsel of perfection:--whoever enters on a -course of mediaeval studies must reckon as a defect his lack of interest -in any side of the life of the Middle Ages; and must be deaf to those -who, like the fox in Aesop that had lost its tail, proclaim the benefits -of truncation. The range of knowledge and experience was then more than -in later times within the compass of a single mind and life. And so much -that is necessary to a full understanding has been lost that no possible -source of information should be shut out willingly. It is an exercise in -humility to call up in all its details some scene of early English life -(better a domestic scene than one of pageantry) and note how much is -blurred. - -Every blur is a challenge. There are few familiar subjects in which a -beginner can sooner reach the limits of recorded knowledge. The great -scholars have found time to chart only a fraction of their discoveries; -and the greatest could not hope or wish for a day when the number of -quests worth the making would be appreciably less. - - * * * * * - -This book had its origin in a very different project. Professor Napier -had asked me to join him in producing for the use of language students a -volume of specimens from the Middle English dialects, with an apparatus -strictly linguistic. The work had not advanced beyond the choice of -texts when his death and my transfer to duties in which learning had no -part brought it to an end. When later the call came for a book that -would introduce newcomers to the fourteenth century, I was able to bring -into the changed plan his favourite passage from _Sir Gawayne_, and to -draw upon the notes of his lectures for its interpretation. It is a -small part of my debt to the generous and modest scholar whose mastery -of exact methods was an inspiration to his pupils. - - * * * * * - -I am obliged to the Early English Text Society and to the Clarendon -Press for permission to use extracts from certain of their publications; -to the librarians who have made their manuscripts available, or have -helped me to obtain facsimiles; to Mr. J. R. R. Tolkien who has -undertaken the preparation of the Glossary, the most exacting part of -the apparatus; and to Mr. Nichol Smith who has watched over the book -from its beginnings. - - - - -THE TEXTS - - -A single manuscript is chosen as the basis of each text, and -neither its readings nor its spellings are altered if they can -reasonably be defended. Where correction involves substitution, -the substituted letters are printed in italics, and the actual -reading of the manuscript will be found in the Foot-notes (or -occasionally in the Notes). Words or letters added to complete the -manuscript are enclosed in caret brackets < >. Corrupt readings -retained in the text are indicated by daggers [+][+]. -Paragraphing, punctuation, capitals, and the details of word -division are modern, and contractions are expanded without notice, -so that the reader shall not be distracted by difficulties that -are purely palaeographical. A final _e_ derived from OFr. _é(e)_ -or _ie_, OE. _-ig_, is printed _é_, to distinguish it from -unaccented final _e_ which is regularly lost in Modern English. - -The extracts have been collated with the manuscripts, or with complete -photographs, except Nos. IV (Thornton MS.), VII, VIII _b_, XI _a_, XVII, -the manuscripts of which I have not been able to consult. The foot-notes -as a rule take no account of conjectural emendations, variants from -other manuscripts, or minutiae like erasures and corrections -contemporary with the copy. - - - - -SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY[28] - -[Foot-note 28: Books primarily of reference are distinguished by an -asterisk. Details relating to texts, manuscript sources, editions, -monographs, and articles that have appeared in periodicals, will be -found in the bibliographical manuals cited.] - - -DICTIONARIES. - - *_A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles_, ed. Sir J. - A. H. Murray, H. Bradley, W. A. Craigie, C. T. Onions, Oxford - 1888--[quoted as _N.E.D._]. - - *Stratmann, F. A. _A Middle English Dictionary_, new edn. by H. - Bradley, Oxford 1891. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. - - *Brown, Carleton. _A Register of Middle English Religious and - Didactic Verse_ (Part I, List of MSS.; Part II, Indices), Oxford - 1916-20 (Bibliographical Society). - - *Hammond, Miss E. P. _Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual_, New York - 1908. - - *Wells, J. E. _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, - 1050-1500_, New Haven, &c., 1916; Supplement, 1919. - - -LITERATURE AND LEARNING. - - Chambers, E. K. _The Mediaeval Stage_, 2 vols., Oxford 1903. - - Clark, J. W. _The Care of Books_, Cambridge (new edn.) 1909. - - Ker, W. P. _English Literature, Mediaeval_, London 1912. [A good - brief orientation.] - - Legouis, E. _Chaucer_ (transl. L. Lailavoix), London 1913. - - Rashdall, H. _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, 2 - vols., Oxford 1895. - - -CHURCH HISTORY. - - Capes, W. W. _The English Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth - Centuries_, London 1909. - - *Dugdale, Sir William. _Monasticon Anglicanum_, new edn. by Caley, - Ellis and Bandinel, 6 vols., London 1846. [Gives detailed - histories of the English religious houses.] - - Gasquet, Cardinal F. A. _English Monastic Life_, London, 4th edn. - 1910. - - -GENERAL HISTORY. - - Ashley, W. J. _An Introduction to English Economic History and - Theory_, 2 vols., London 1888-93. - - Bateson, Mary. _Mediaeval England (1066-1350)_, London 1903. [A - brief and exact social history.] - - Cutts, E. L. _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, London - 1872; 3rd edn. 1911. [Useful for its illustrations from MSS.] - - Gasquet, Cardinal F. A. _The Black Death of 1348 and 1349_, - London, 2nd edn. 1908. - - Jessopp, A. _The Coming of the Friars and other Historical - Essays_, London, 4th edn. 1890. - - Jusserand, J. J. _English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages_ - (transl. L. Toulmin Smith), London 1889, &c.; revised 1921. - [Invaluable.] - - Lechler, G. V. _John Wiclif and his English Precursors_ (transl. - P. Lorimer), 2 vols., London 1878. - - Oman, Sir Charles Wm. C. _The Great Revolt of 1381_, Oxford 1906. - - Reville, A., et Petit-Dutaillis, Ch. _Le Soulèvement des - Travailleurs d'Angleterre en 1381_, Paris 1898. - - Riley, H. T. _Memorials of London and London Life (1270-1419)_, - London 1868. - - *Rogers, J. E. T. _A History of Agriculture and Prices in England - (1259-1793)_. 7 vols., Oxford 1866-1902. [Rich in facts.] - - Smith, S. Armitage. _John of Gaunt_, London 1904. - - *Stubbs, Wm. _The Constitutional History of England_, 3 vols., - Oxford (1st edn. 1874-78), 1903-6. - - Tout, T. F. _The History of England from the Accession of Henry - III to the Death of Edward III (1216-1377)_, London 1905; new edn. - 1920. - - Trevelyan, G. M. _England in the Age of Wycliffe_, London 1899; - new edn., 1909. [A brilliant study.] - - -WORKS RELATING CHIEFLY TO FRANCE. - - Enlart, C. _Le Costume_ (vol. iii of his _Manuel d'Archéologie - Française_), Paris 1916. - - Faral, E. _Les Jongleurs en France au Moyen Âge_, Paris 1910. - - Paris, G. _La Littérature Française au Moyen Âge_, Paris, 5th edn. - 1909. [A model handbook.] - - - - -I - -ROBERT MANNYNG OF BRUNNE'S -HANDLYNG SYNNE - -A.D. 1303 - - -What is known of Robert Mannyng of Brunne is derived from his own works. -In the Prologue to _Handlyng Synne_ he writes: - - To alle Crystyn men vndir sunne, - And to gode men of Brunne, - And speciali, alle be name, - Þe felaushepe of Symprynghame, - Roberd of Brunne greteþ [gh]ow - In al godenesse þat may to prow; - Of Brunne wake yn Kesteuene, - Syxe myle besyde Sympryngham euene, - Y dwelled yn þe pryorye - Fyftene [gh]ere yn cumpanye.... - -And in the Introduction to his _Chronicle_: - - Of Brunne I am; if any me blame, - Robert Mannyng is my name; - Blissed be he of God of heuene - Þat me Robert with gude wille neuene! - In þe third Edwardes tyme was I, - When I wrote alle þis story, - In þe hous of Sixille I was a throwe; - Dan[gh] Robert of Malton, þat [gh]e know, - Did it wryte for felawes sake - When þai wild solace make. - -From these passages it appears that he was born in Brunne, the modern -Bourn, in Lincolnshire; and that he belonged to the Gilbertine Order. -Sempringham was the head-quarters of the Order, and the dependent priory -of Sixhill was near by. It has been suggested, without much evidence, -that he was a lay brother, and not a full canon. - -His _Chronicle of England_ was completed in 1338. It falls into two -parts, distinguished by a change of metre and source. The first, edited -by Furnivall in the Rolls Series (2 vols. 1887), extends from the Flood -to A.D. 689, and is based on Wace's _Brut_, the French source of -Layamon's _Brut_. The second part, edited by Hearne, 2 vols., Oxford -1725, extends from A.D. 689 to the death of Edward I, and is based on -the French _Chronicle_ of a contemporary, who is sometimes called Pierre -de Langtoft, sometimes Piers of Bridlington, because he was a native of -Langtoft in Yorkshire, and a canon of the Austin priory at Bridlington -in the same county. Mannyng's _Chronicle_ has no great historical value, -and its chief literary interest lies in the references to current -traditions and popular stories. - -_Handlyng Synne_ is a much more valuable work. It was begun in 1303: - - Dane Felyp was mayster þat tyme - Þat y began þys Englyssh ryme; - Þe [gh]eres of grace fyl þan to be - A þousynd and þre hundred and þre. - In þat tyme turnede y þys - On Englyssh tunge out of Frankys - Of a boke as y fonde ynne, - Men clepyn þe boke 'Handlyng Synne'. - -The source was again a French work written by a contemporary -Northerner--William of Wadington's _Manuel de Pechiez_. The popularity -of such treatises on the Sins may be judged from the number of works -modelled upon them: e.g. the _Ayenbyte of Inwyt_, Gower's _Confessio -Amantis_, and Chaucer's _Parson's Tale_. Their purpose was, as Robert -explains, to enable a reader to examine his conscience systematically -and constantly, and so to guard himself against vice. - -Two complete MSS. of _Handlyng Synne_ are known: British Museum MS. -Harley 1701 (about 1350-75), and MS. Bodley 415, of a slightly later -date. An important fragment is in the library of Dulwich College. The -whole text, with the French source, has been edited by Furnivall for the -Roxburghe Club, and later for the Early English Text Society. It treats, -with the usual wealth of classification, of the Commandments, the Sins, -the Sacraments, the Requisites and Graces of Shrift. But such a bald -summary gives no idea of the richness and variety of its content. For -Mannyng, anticipating Gower, saw the opportunities that the illustrative -stories offered to his special gifts, and spared no pains in their -telling. A few examples are added from his own knowledge. More often he -expands Wadington's outlines, as in the tale of the Dancers of Colbek. -Here the French source is brief and colourless. But the English -translator had found a fuller Latin version--clearly the same as that -printed from Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C 938 in the preface to Furnivall's -Roxburghe Club edition--and from it he produced the well-rounded and -lively rendering given below. - -Robert knew that a work designed to turn 'lewde men' from the ale-house -to the contemplation of their sins must grip their attention; and in the -art of linking good teaching with entertainment he is a master. He has -the gift of conveying to his audience his own enjoyment of a good story. -His loose-knit conversational style would stand the test of reading -aloud to simple folk, and he allows no literary affectations, no forced -metres or verbiage, to darken his meaning: - - Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd - In symple speche as I couthe, - Þat is lightest in mannes mouthe. - I mad noght for no disours, - Ne for no seggers, no harpours, - But for þe luf of symple men - Þat strange Inglis can not ken; - For many it ere þat strange Inglis - In ryme wate neuer what it is, - And bot þai wist what it mente, - Ellis me thoght it were alle schente. - - (_Chronicle_, ll. 72 ff.) - -The simple form reflects the writer's frankness and directness. He -points a moral fearlessly, but without harshness or self-righteousness. -And the range of his sympathies and interests makes _Handlyng Synne_ the -best picture of English life before Langland and Chaucer. - - -THE DANCERS OF COLBEK - -MS. Harley 1701 (about A.D. 1375); ed. Furnivall, ll. 8987 ff. - - Karolles, wrastlynges, or somour games, 1 - Whoso euer haunteþ any swyche shames - Yn cherche, oþer yn cherche[gh]erd, - Of sacrylage he may be aferd; - Or entyrludes, or syngynge, 5 - Or tabure bete, or oþer pypynge-- - Alle swyche þyng forbodyn es - Whyle þe prest stondeþ at messe. - Alle swyche to euery gode preste ys lothe, - And sunner wyl he make hym wroth 10 - Þan he wyl, þat haþ no wyt, - Ne vndyrstondeþ nat Holy Wryt. - And specyaly at hygh tymes - Karolles to synge and rede rymys - Noght yn none holy stedes, 15 - Þat my[gh]t dysturble þe prestes bedes, - Or [gh]yf he were yn orysun - Or any ouþer deuocyun: - Sacrylage ys alle hyt tolde, - Þys and many oþer folde. 20 - But for to leue yn cherche for to daunce, - Y shal [gh]ow telle a ful grete chaunce, - And y trow þe most þat fel - Ys soþe as y [gh]ow telle; - And fyl þys chaunce yn þys londe, 25 - Yn Ingland, as y vndyrstonde, - Yn a kynges tyme þat hyght Edward - Fyl þys chau<n>ce þat was so hard. - Hyt was vppon a Crystemesse ny[gh]t - Þat twelue folys a karolle dy[gh]t, 30 - Yn wodehed, as hyt were yn cuntek, - Þey come to a tounne men calle Colbek. - Þe cherche of þe tounne þat þey to come - Ys of Seynt Magne, þat suffred martyrdome; - Of Seynt Bukcestre hyt ys also, 35 - Seynt Magnes suster, þat þey come to. - Here names of alle þus fonde y wryte, - And as y wote now shul [gh]e wyte: - Here lodesman, þat made hem glew, - Þus ys wryte, he hy[gh]te Gerlew. 40 - Twey maydens were yn here coueyne, - Mayden Merswynde and Wybessyne. - Alle þese come þedyr for þat enchesone - Of þe prestes doghtyr of þe tounne. - Þe prest hy[gh]t Robert, as y kan ame; 45 - A[gh]one hyght hys sone by name; - Hys doghter, þat þese men wulde haue, - Þus ys wryte, þat she hy[gh]t Aue. - Echoune consented to o wyl - Who shuld go Aue oute to tyl, 50 - Þey graunted echone out to sende - Boþe Wybessyne and Merswynde. - Þese wommen [gh]ede and tolled here oute - Wyþ hem to karolle þe cherche aboute. - Beu<u>ne ordeyned here karollyng; 55 - Gerlew endyted what þey shuld syng. - Þys ys þe karolle þat þey sunge, - As telleþ þe Latyn tunge: - '_Equitabat Beuo per siluam frondosam, - Ducebat secum Merswyndam formosam. 60 - Quid stamus? cur non imus?_' - 'By þe leued wode rode Beuolyne, - Wyþ hym he ledde feyre Merswyne. - Why stonde we? why go we noght?' - Þys ys þe karolle þat Grysly wroght; 65 - Þys songe sunge þey yn þe cherche[gh]erd-- - Of foly were þey no þyng aferd-- - Vnto þe matynes were alle done, - And þe messe shuld bygynne sone. - Þe preste hym reuest to begynne messe, 70 - And þey ne left þerfore neuer þe lesse, - But daunsed furþe as þey bygan, - For alle þe messe þey ne blan. - Þe preste, þat stode at þe autere, - And herd here noyse and here bere, 75 - Fro þe auter down he nam, - And to þe cherche porche he cam, - And seyd 'On Goddes behalue, y [gh]ow forbede - Þat [gh]e no lenger do swych dede, - But comeþ yn on feyre manere 80 - Goddes seruyse for to here, - And doþ at Crystyn mennys lawe; - Karolleþ no more, for Crystys awe! - Wurschyppeþ Hym with alle [gh]oure my[gh]t - Þat of þe Vyrgyne was bore þys ny[gh]t.' 85 - For alle hys byddyng lefte þey no[gh]t, - But daunsed furþ, as þey þo[gh]t. - Þe preste þarefor was sore agreued; - He preyd God þat he on beleuyd, - And for Seynt Magne, þat he wulde so werche-- 90 - Yn whos wurschyp sette was þe cherche-- - Þat swych a veniaunce were on hem sent, - Are þey oute of þat stede were went, - Þat <þey> my[gh]t euer ry[gh]t so wende - Vnto þat tyme tweluemonth ende; 95 - (Yn þe Latyne þat y fonde þore - He seyþ nat 'tweluemonth' but 'euermore';) - He cursed hem þere alsaume - As þey karoled on here gaume. - As sone as þe preste hadde so spoke 100 - Euery hand yn ouþer so fast was loke - Þat no man my[gh]t with no wundyr - Þat tweluemo<n>þe parte hem asundyr. - Þe preste [gh]ede yn, whan þys was done, - And commaunded hys sone A[gh]one 105 - Þat <he> shulde go swyþe aftyr Aue, - Oute of þat karolle algate to haue. - But al to late þat wurde was seyd, - For on hem alle was þe veniaunce leyd. - A[gh]one wende weyl for to spede; 110 - Vnto þe karolle as swyþe he [gh]ede, - Hys systyr by þe arme he hente, - And þe arme fro þe body wente. - Men wundred alle þat þere wore, - And merueyle mowe [gh]e here more, 115 - For, seþen he had þe arme yn hand, - Þe body [gh]ede furþ karoland, - And noþer <þe> body ne þe arme - Bledde neuer blode, colde ne warme, - But was as drye, with al þe haunche, 120 - As of a stok were ryue a braunche. - A[gh]one to hys fadyr went, - And broght hym a sory present: - 'Loke, fadyr,' he seyd, 'and haue hyt here, - Þe arme of þy doghtyr dere, 125 - Þat was myn owne syster Aue, - Þat y wende y my[gh]t a saue. - Þy cursyng now sene hyt ys - Wyth veniaunce on þy owne flessh. - Fellyche þou cursedest, and ouer sone; 130 - Þou askedest veniaunce,--þou hast þy bone.' - [Gh]ow þar nat aske [gh]yf þere was wo - Wyth þe preste, and wyth many mo. - Þe prest, þat cursed for þat daunce, - On some of hys fyl harde chaunce. 135 - He toke hys doghtyr arme forlorn - And byryed hyt on þe morn; - Þe nexte day þe arme of Aue - He fonde hyt lyggyng aboue þe graue. - He byryed <hyt> on anouþer day, 140 - And eft aboue þe graue hyt lay. - Þe þrydde tyme he byryed hyt, - And eft was hyt kast oute of þe pyt. - Þe prest wulde byrye hyt no more, - He dredde þe veniaunce ferly sore; 145 - Ynto þe cherche he bare þe arme, - For drede and doute of more harme, - He ordeyned hyt for to be - Þat euery man my[gh]t wyth ye hyt se. - Þese men þat [gh]ede so karolland, 150 - Alle þat [gh]ere, hand yn hand, - Þey neuer oute of þat stede [gh]ede, - Ne none my[gh]t hem þenne lede. - Þere þe cursyng fyrst bygan, - Yn þat place aboute þey ran, 155 - Þat neuer ne felte þey no werynes - As many [+]bodyes for goyng dos[+], - Ne mete ete, ne drank drynke, - Ne slepte onely alepy wynke. - Ny[gh]t ne day þey wyst of none, 160 - Whan hyt was come, whan hyt was gone; - Frost ne snogh, hayle ne reyne, - Of colde ne hete, felte þey no peyne; - Heere ne nayles neuer grewe, - Ne solowed cloþes, ne turned hewe; 165 - Þundyr ne ly[gh]tnyng dyd hem no dere, - Goddys mercy ded hyt fro hem were;-- - But sungge þat songge þat þe wo wro[gh]t: - 'Why stonde we? why go we no[gh]t?' - What man shuld þyr be yn þys lyue 170 - Þat ne wulde hyt see and þedyr dryue? - Þe Emperoure Henry come fro Rome - For to see þys hard dome. - Whan he hem say, he wepte sore - For þe myschefe þat he sagh þore. 175 - He ded come wry[gh]tes for to make - Coueryng ouer hem, for tempest sake. - But þat þey wroght hyt was yn veyn, - For hyt come to no certeyn, - For þat þey sette on oo day 180 - On þe touþer downe hyt lay. - Ones, twyys, þryys, þus þey wro[gh]t, - And alle here makyng was for no[gh]t. - Myght no coueryng hyle hem fro colde - Tyl tyme of mercy þat Cryst hyt wolde. 185 - Tyme of grace fyl þurgh Hys my[gh]t - At þe tweluemonth ende, on þe [gh]ole ny[gh]t. - Þe same oure þat þe prest hem banned, - Þe same oure atwynne þey [+]woned[+]; - Þat houre þat he cursed hem ynne, 190 - Þe same oure þey [gh]ede atwynne, - And as yn twynkelyng of an ye - Ynto þe cherche gun þey flye, - And on þe pauement þey fyl alle downe - As þey had be dede, or fal yn a swone. 195 - Þre days styl þey lay echone, - Þat none steryd oþer flesshe or bone, - And at þe þre days ende - To lyfe God graunted hem to wende. - Þey sette hem vpp and spak apert 200 - To þe parysshe prest, syre Robert: - 'Þou art ensample and enchesun - Of oure long confusyun; - Þou maker art of oure trauayle, - Þat ys to many grete meruayle, 205 - And þy traueyle shalt þou sone ende, - For to þy long home sone shalt þou wende.' - Alle þey ryse þat yche tyde - But Aue,--she lay dede besyde. - Grete sorowe had here fadyr, here broþer; 210 - Merueyle and drede had alle ouþer; - Y trow no drede of soule dede, - But with pyne was broght þe body dede. - Þe fyrst man was þe fadyr, þe prest, - Þat deyd aftyr þe do[gh]tyr nest. 215 - Þys yche arme þat was of Aue, - Þat none my[gh]t leye yn graue, - Þe Emperoure dyd a vessel werche - To do hyt yn, and hange yn þe cherche, - Þat alle men my[gh]t se hyt and knawe, 220 - And þenk on þe chaunce when men hyt sawe. - Þese men þat hadde go þus karolland - Alle þe [gh]ere, fast hand yn hand, - Þogh þat þey were þan asunder - [Gh]yt alle þe worlde spake of hem wunder. 225 - Þat same hoppyng þat þey fyrst [gh]ede, - Þat daunce [gh]ede þey þurgh land and lede, - And, as þey ne my[gh]t fyrst be vnbounde, - So efte togedyr my[gh]t þey neuer be founde, - Ne my[gh]t þey neuer come a[gh]eyn 230 - Togedyr to oo stede certeyn. - Foure [gh]ede to þe courte of Rome, - And euer hoppyng aboute þey nome, - [+]Wyth sundyr lepys[+] come þey þedyr, - But þey come neuer efte togedyr. 235 - Here cloþes ne roted, ne nayles grewe, - Ne heere ne wax, ne solowed hewe, - Ne neuer hadde þey amendement, - Þat we herde, at any corseynt, - But at þe vyrgyne Seynt Edyght, 240 - Þere was he botened, Seynt Teodryght, - On oure Lady day, yn lenten tyde, - As he slepte here toumbe besyde. - Þere he had hys medycyne - At Seynt Edyght, þe holy vyrgyne. 245 - Brunyng þe bysshope of seynt Tolous - Wrote þys tale so merueylous; - Seþþe was hys name of more renoun, - Men called hym þe pope Leoun. - Þys at þe court of Rome þey wyte, 250 - And yn þe kronykeles hyt ys wryte - Yn many stedys be[gh]ounde þe see, - More þan ys yn þys cuntré. - Þarfor men seye, an weyl ys trowed, - 'Þe nere þe cherche, þe fyrþer fro God'. 255 - So fare men here by þys tale, - Some holde hyt but a troteuale, - Yn oþer stedys hyt ys ful dere - And for grete merueyle þey wyl hyt here. - A tale hyt ys of feyre shewyng, 260 - Ensample and drede a[gh]ens cursyng. - Þys tale y tolde [gh]ow to <make> [gh]ow aferde - Yn cherche to karolle, or yn cherche[gh]erde, - Namely a[gh]ens þe prestys wylle: - Leueþ whan he byddeþ [gh]ow be stylle. 265 - -[Foot-note: 21 for (2nd) _om. MS. Bodley 415_.] - -[Foot-note: 24 Ys as soþ as þe gospel _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 78 behalue] halfe _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 94 þey] _so MS. Bodley: om. MS. Harley_.] - -[Foot-note: 106 he] _so MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 118 þe] _so MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 136-7 forlor[=n]... mor[=n] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 140 hyt] _so MS. Bodley_: _om. MS. Harley._] - -[Foot-note: 171 Þat] Þat hyt _MS. Harley_.] - -[Foot-note: 221 men] þey _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 227 [gh]ede] wente _MS. Bodley._] - -[Foot-note: 229 togedyr... neuer] my[gh]t þey neuer togedyr _MS. -Bodley._] - -[Foot-note: 241 Seynt _om. MS. Bodley._] - - - - -II - -SIR ORFEO - - -_Sir Orfeo_ is found in three MSS.: (1) the Auchinleck MS. (1325-1350), -a famous Middle English miscellany now in the Advocates' Library, -Edinburgh; (2) British Museum MS. Harley 3810 (fifteenth century); (3) -Bodleian MS. Ashmole 61 (fifteenth century). Our text follows the -Auchinleck MS., with ll. 1-24 and ll. 33-46 supplied from the Harleian -MS. The critical text of O. Zielke, Breslau 1880, reproduces the MSS. -inaccurately. - -The story appears to have been translated from a French source into -South-Western English at the beginning of the fourteenth century. It -belongs to a group of 'lays' which claim to derive from Brittany, e.g. -_Lai le Freine_, which has the same opening lines (1-22); _Emaré_; and -Chaucer's _Franklin's Tale_. - -The story of Orpheus and Eurydice was known to the Middle Ages chiefly -from Ovid (_Metamorphoses_ x) and from Virgil (_Georgics_ iv). King -Alfred's rendering of it in his _Boethius_ is one of his best prose -passages, despite the crude moralizing which makes Orpheus's backward -glance at Eurydice before she is safe from Hades a symbol of the -backslider's longing for his old sins. The Middle English poet has a -lighter and daintier touch. The Greek myth is almost lost in a tale of -fairyland, the earliest English romance of the kind; and to provide the -appropriate happy ending, Sir Orfeo is made successful in his attempt to -rescue Heurodis. The adaptation of the classical subject to a mediaeval -setting is thorough. An amusing instance is the attempt in the -Auchinleck MS. to give the poem an English interest by the unconvincing -assurance that _Traciens_ (which from 'Thracian' had come to mean -'Thrace') was the old name of Winchester (ll. 49-50). - - <We redyn ofte and fynde ywryte, - As clerkes don us to wyte, - The layes that ben of harpyng - Ben yfounde of frely thing. - Sum ben of wele, and sum of wo, 5 - And sum of ioy and merthe also; - Sum of trechery, and sum of gyle, - And sum of happes þat fallen by whyle; - Sum of bourdys, and sum of rybaudry, - And sum þer ben of the feyré. 10 - Of alle þing þat men may se, - Moost _o_ lo_u_e forsoþe þey be. - In Brytayn þis layes arne ywryte, - Furst yfounde and forþe ygete, - Of aventures þat fillen by dayes, 15 - Wherof Brytouns made her layes. - When þey myght owher heryn - Of aventures þat þer weryn, - Þey toke her harpys wiþ game, - Maden layes and [gh]af it name. 20 - Of aventures þat han befalle - Y can sum telle, but nou[gh]t all. - Herken, lordyngys þat ben trewe, - And y wol [gh]ou telle of Sir Orphewe.> - Orfeo was a king, 25 - In Inglond an hei[gh]e lording, - A stalworþ man and hardi bo, - Large and curteys he was also. - His fader was comen of King Pluto, - And his moder of King Iuno, 30 - Þat sum time were as godes yhold, - For auentours þat þai dede and told. - <Orpheo most of ony þing - Louede þe gle of harpyng; - Syker was euery gode harpoure 35 - Of hym to haue moche honoure. - Hymself loued for to harpe, - And layde þeron his wittes scharpe. - He lernyd so, þer noþing was - A better harper in no plas; 40 - In þe world was neuer man born - Þat euer Orpheo sat byforn, - And he my[gh]t of his harpyng here, - He schulde þinke þat he were - In one of þe ioys of Paradys, 45 - Suche ioy and melody in his harpyng is.> - Þis king soiournd in Traciens, - Þat was a cité of noble defens; - For Winchester was cleped þo - Traciens wiþouten no. 50 - Þe king hadde a quen of priis, - Þat was ycleped Dame Herodis, - Þe fairest leuedi, for þe nones, - Þat mi[gh]t gon on bodi and bones, - Ful of loue and of godenisse; 55 - Ac no man may telle hir fairnise. - Bifel so in þe comessing of May, - When miri and hot is þe day, - And oway beþ winter-schours, - And eueri feld is ful of flours, 60 - And blosme breme on eueri bou[gh] - Oueral wexeþ miri anou[gh], - Þis ich quen, Dame Heurodis, - Tok to maidens of priis, - And went in an vndrentide 65 - To play bi an orchard side, - To se þe floures sprede and spring, - And to here þe foules sing. - Þai sett hem doun al þre - Vnder a fair ympe-tre, 70 - And wel sone þis fair quene - Fel on slepe opon þe grene. - Þe maidens durst hir nou[gh]t awake, - Bot lete hir ligge and rest take. - So sche slepe til afternone, 75 - Þat vndertide was al ydone. - Ac as sone as sche gan awake, - Sche crid and loþli bere gan make, - Sche froted hir honden and hir fet, - And crached hir visage, it bled wete; 80 - Hir riche robe hye al torett, - And was reuey<se>d out of hir witt. - Þe tvo maidens hir biside - No durst wiþ hir no leng abide, - Bot ourn to þe palays ful ri[gh]t, 85 - And told boþe squier and kni[gh]t - Þat her quen awede wold, - And bad hem go and hir athold. - Kni[gh]tes vrn, and leuedis also, - Damisels sexti and mo, 90 - In þe orchard to þe quen hye come, - And her vp in her armes nome, - And brou[gh]t hir to bed atte last, - And held hir þere fine fast; - Ac euer sche held in o cri, 95 - And wold vp and owy. - When Orfeo herd þat tiding, - Neuer him nas wers for no þing. - He come wiþ kni[gh]tes tene - To chaumber ri[gh]t bifor þe quene, 100 - And biheld, and seyd wiþ grete pité: - 'O lef liif, what is te, - Þat euer [gh]ete hast ben so stille, - And now gredest wonder schille? - Þi bodi, þat was so white ycore, 105 - Wiþ þine nailes is al totore. - Allas! þi rode, þat was so red, - Is al wan as þou were ded; - And also þine fingres smale - Beþ al blodi and al pale. 110 - Allas! þi louesom ey[gh]en to - Lokeþ so man doþ on his fo. - A! dame, ich biseche merci. - Lete ben al þis reweful cri, - And tel me what þe is, and hou, 115 - And what þing may þe help now.' - Þo lay sche stille atte last, - And gan to wepe swiþe fast, - And seyd þus þe king to: - 'Allas! mi lord, Sir Orfeo, 120 - Seþþen we first togider were, - Ones wroþ neuer we nere, - Bot euer ich haue yloued þe - As mi liif, and so þou me. - Ac now we mot delen ato; 125 - Do þi best, for y mot go.' - 'Allas!' quaþ he, 'forlorn icham. - Whider wiltow go, and to wham? - Whider þou gost, ichil wiþ þe, - And whider y go, þou schalt wiþ me.' 130 - 'Nay, nay, sir, þat nou[gh]t nis; - Ichil þe telle al hou it is: - As ich lay þis vndertide, - And slepe vnder our orchard-side, - Þer come to me to fair kni[gh]tes 135 - Wele y-armed al to ri[gh]tes, - And bad me comen an hei[gh]ing, - And speke wiþ her lord þe king. - And ich answerd at wordes bold, - Y durst nou[gh]t, no y nold. 140 - Þai priked o[gh]ain as þai mi[gh]t driue; - Þo com her king also bliue, - Wiþ an hundred kni[gh]tes and mo, - And damisels an hundred also, - Al on snowe-white stedes; 145 - As white as milke were her wedes: - Y no sei[gh]e neuer [gh]ete bifore - So fair creatours ycore. - Þe king hadde a croun on hed, - It nas of siluer, no of gold red, 150 - Ac it was of a precious ston, - As bri[gh]t as þe sonne it schon. - And as son as he to me cam, - Wold ich, nold ich, he me nam, - And made me wiþ him ride 155 - Opon a palfray, bi his side, - And brou[gh]t me to his palays, - Wele atird in ich ways, - And schewed me castels and tours, - Riuers, forestes, friþ wiþ flours, 160 - And his riche stedes ichon; - And seþþen me brou[gh]t o[gh]ain hom - Into our owhen orchard, - And said to me þus afterward: - "Loke, dame, to-morwe þatow be 165 - Ri[gh]t here vnder þis ympe-tre, - And þan þou schalt wiþ ous go, - And liue wiþ ous euermo; - And [gh]if þou makest ous ylet, - Whar þou be, þou worst yfet, 170 - And totore þine limes al, - Þat noþing help þe no schal; - And þei þou best so totorn, - [Gh]ete þou worst wiþ ous yborn."' - When King Orfeo herd þis cas, 175 - 'O we!' quaþ he, 'allas, allas! - Leuer me were to lete mi liif, - Þan þus to lese þe quen mi wiif!' - He asked conseyl at ich man, - Ac no man him help no can. 180 - Amorwe þe vndertide is come, - And Orfeo haþ his armes ynome, - And wele ten hundred kni[gh]tes wiþ him - Ich y-armed stout and grim; - And wiþ þe quen wenten he 185 - Ri[gh]t vnto þat ympe-tre. - Þai made scheltrom in ich a side, - And sayd þai wold þere abide, - And dye þer euerichon, - Er þe quen schuld fram hem gon. 190 - Ac [gh]ete amiddes hem ful ri[gh]t - Þe quen was oway ytui[gh]t, - Wiþ fairi forþ ynome; - Men wist neuer wher sche was bicome. - Þo was þer criing, wepe and wo. 195 - Þe king into his chaumber is go, - And oft swoned opon þe ston, - And made swiche diol and swiche mon - Þat nei[gh]e his liif was yspent: - Þer was non amendement. 200 - He cleped togider his barouns, - Erls, lordes of renouns; - And when þai al ycomen were, - 'Lordinges,' he said, 'bifor [gh]ou here - Ich ordainy min hei[gh]e steward 205 - To wite mi kingdom afterward; - In mi stede ben he schal, - To kepe mi londes ouer al. - For, now ichaue mi quen ylore, - Þe fairest leuedi þat euer was bore, 210 - Neuer eft y nil no woman se. - Into wildernes ichil te, - And liue þer euermore - Wiþ wilde bestes in holtes hore. - And when [gh]e vnderstond þat y be spent, 215 - Make [gh]ou þan a parlement, - And chese [gh]ou a newe king. - Now doþ [gh]our best wiþ al mi þing.' - Þo was þer wepeing in þe halle, - And grete cri among hem alle; 220 - Vnneþe mi[gh]t old or [gh]ong - For wepeing speke a word wiþ tong. - Þai kneled adoun al yfere, - And praid him, [gh]if his wille were, - Þat he no schuld nou[gh]t fram hem go. 225 - 'Do way!' quaþ he, 'it schal be so.' - Al his kingdom he forsoke; - Bot a sclauin on him he toke; - He no hadde kirtel no hode, - Schert, <no> no noþer gode. 230 - Bot his harp he tok algate, - And dede him barfot out atte [gh]ate; - No man most wiþ him go. - O way! what þer was wepe and wo, - When he, þat hadde ben king wiþ croun, 235 - Went so pouerlich out of toun! - Þurch wode and ouer heþ - Into þe wildernes he geþ. - Noþing he fint þat him is ays, - Bot euer he liueþ in gret malais. 240 - He þat hadde ywerd þe fowe and griis, - And on bed þe purper biis, - Now on hard heþe he liþ, - Wiþ leues and gresse he him wriþ. - He þat hadde had castels and tours, 245 - Riuer, forest, friþ wiþ flours, - Now, þei it comenci to snewe and frese, - Þis king mot make his bed in mese. - He þat had yhad kni[gh]tes of priis - Bifor him kneland, and leuedis, 250 - Now seþ he noþing þat him likeþ, - Bot wilde wormes bi him strikeþ. - He þat had yhad plenté - Of mete and drink, of ich deynté, - Now may he al day digge and wrote 255 - Er he finde his fille of rote. - In somer he liueþ bi wild frut - And berien bot gode lite; - In winter may he noþing finde - Bot rote, grases, and þe rinde. 260 - Al his bodi was oway duine - For missays, and al tochine. - Lord! who may telle þe sore - Þis king sufferd ten [gh]ere and more? - His here of his berd, blac and rowe, 265 - To his girdelstede was growe. - His harp, whereon was al his gle, - He hidde in an holwe tre; - And, when þe weder was clere and bri[gh]t, - He toke his harp to him wel ri[gh]t, 270 - And harped at his owhen wille. - Into alle þe wode þe soun gan schille, - Þat alle þe wilde bestes þat þer beþ - For ioie abouten him þai teþ; - And alle þe foules þat þer were 275 - Come and sete on ich a brere, - To here his harping afine, - So miche melody was þerin; - And when he his harping lete wold, - No best bi him abide nold. 280 - He mi[gh]t se him bisides - Oft in hot vndertides - Þe king o fairy wiþ his rout - Com to hunt him al about, - Wiþ dim cri and bloweing; 285 - And houndes also wiþ him berking; - Ac no best þai no nome, - No neuer he nist whider þai bicome. - And oþer while he mi[gh]t him se - As a gret ost bi him te 290 - Wele atourned ten hundred kni[gh]tes, - Ich y-armed to his ri[gh]tes, - Of cuntenaunce stout and fers, - Wiþ mani desplaid baners, - And ich his swerd ydrawe hold, 295 - Ac neuer he nist whider þai wold. - And oþer while he sei[gh]e oþer þing: - Kni[gh]tes and leuedis com daunceing - In queynt atire, gisely, - Queynt pas and softly; 300 - Tabours and trunpes [gh]ede hem bi, - And al maner menstraci. - And on a day he sei[gh]e him biside - Sexti leuedis on hors ride, - Gentil and iolif as brid on ris,-- 305 - Nou[gh]t o man amonges hem þer nis. - And ich a faucoun on hond bere, - And riden on haukin bi o riuere. - Of game þai founde wel gode haunt, - Maulardes, hayroun, and cormeraunt; 310 - Þe foules of þe water ariseþ, - Þe faucouns hem wele deuiseþ; - Ich faucoun his pray slou[gh]. - Þat sei[gh]e Orfeo, and lou[gh]: - 'Parfay!' quaþ he, 'þer is fair game, 315 - Þider ichil, bi Godes name! - Ich was ywon swiche werk to se.' - He aros, and þider gan te. - To a leuedi he was ycome, - Biheld, and haþ wele vndernome, 320 - And seþ bi al þing þat it is - His owhen quen, Dam Heurodis. - [Gh]ern he biheld hir, and sche him eke, - Ac noiþer to oþer a word no speke. - For messais þat sche on him sei[gh]e, 325 - Þat had ben so riche and so hei[gh]e, - Þe teres fel out of her ei[gh]e. - Þe oþer leuedis þis ysei[gh]e, - And maked hir oway to ride, - Sche most wiþ him no lenger abide. 330 - 'Allas!' quaþ he, 'now me is wo. - Whi nil deþ now me slo? - Allas! wr_e_che, þat y no mi[gh]t - Dye now after þis si[gh]t! - Allas! to long last mi liif, 335 - When y no dar nou[gh]t wiþ mi wiif, - No hye to me, o word speke. - Allas! whi nil min hert breke? - Parfay!' quaþ he, 'tide wat bitide, - Whider so þis leuedis ride, 340 - Þe selue way ichil streche; - Of liif no deþ me no reche.' - His sclauain he dede on also spac, - And henge his harp opon his bac, - And had wel gode wil to gon,-- 345 - He no spard noiþer stub no ston. - In at a roche þe leuedis rideþ, - And he after, and nou[gh]t abideþ. - When he was in þe roche ygo - Wele þre mile oþer mo, 350 - He com into a fair cuntray, - As bri[gh]t so sonne on somers day, - Smoþe and plain and al grene, - Hille no dale nas þer non ysene. - Amidde þe lond a castel he si[gh]e, 355 - Riche and real, and wonder hei[gh]e. - Al þe vtmast wal - Was clere and schine as cristal; - An hundred tours þer were about, - Degiselich, and bataild stout; 360 - Þe butras com out of þe diche, - Of rede gold y-arched riche; - Þe vousour was anow<rn>ed al - Of ich maner diuers animal. - Wiþin þer wer wide wones 365 - Al of precious stones. - Þe werst piler on to biholde - Was al of burnist gold. - Al þat lond was euer li[gh]t, - For when it schuld be þerk and ni[gh]t, 370 - Þe riche stones li[gh]t gonne, - As bri[gh]t as doþ at none þe sonne. - No man may telle, no þenche in þou[gh]t, - Þe riche werk þat þer was wrou[gh]t; - Bi al þing him þink þat it is 375 - Þe proude court of Paradis. - In þis castel þe leuedis ali[gh]t; - He wold in after, [gh]if he mi[gh]t. - Orfeo knokkeþ atte gate, - Þe porter was redi þerate, 380 - And asked what he wold haue ydo. - 'Parfay!' quaþ he, 'icham a minstrel, lo! - To solas þi lord wiþ mi gle, - [Gh]if his swete wille be.' - Þe porter vndede þe [gh]ate anon, 385 - And lete him into þe castel gon. - Þan he gan bihold about al, - And sei[gh]e [+]ful[+] liggeand wiþin þe wal - Of folk þat were þider ybrou[gh]t, - And þou[gh]t dede, and nare nou[gh]t. 390 - Sum stode wiþouten hade, - And sum non armes nade, - And sum þurch þe bodi hadde wounde, - And sum lay wode, ybounde, - And sum armed on hors sete, 395 - And sum astrangled as þai ete, - And sum were in water adreynt, - And sum wiþ fire al forschreynt - Wiues þer lay on childbedde, - Sum ded, and sum awedde; 400 - And wonder fele þer lay bisides, - Ri[gh]t as þai slepe her vndertides. - Eche was þus in þis warld ynome, - Wiþ fairi þider ycome. - Þer he sei[gh]e his owhen wiif, 405 - Dame Heurodis, his l_e_f liif, - Slepe vnder an ympe-tre: - Bi her cloþes he knewe þat it was he. - And when he hadde bihold þis meruails alle, - He went into þe kinges halle. 410 - Þan sei[gh]e he þer a semly si[gh]t, - A tabernacle blisseful and bri[gh]t, - Þerin her maister king sete, - And her quen fair and swete. - Her crounes, her cloþes, schine so bri[gh]t, 415 - Þat vnneþe bihold he hem mi[gh]t. - When he hadde biholden al þat þing, - He kneled adoun bifor þe king. - 'O lord,' he seyd, '[gh]if it þi wille were, - Mi menstraci þou schust yhere.' 420 - Þe king answerd: 'What man artow, - Þat art hider ycomen now? - Ich, no non þat is wiþ me, - No sent neuer after þe; - Seþþen þat ich here regni gan, 425 - Y no fond neuer so folehardi man - Þat hider to ous durst wende, - Bot þat ichim wald ofsende.' - 'Lord,' quaþ he, 'trowe ful wel, - Y nam bot a pouer menstrel; 430 - And, sir, it is þe maner of ous - To seche mani a lordes hous; - Þei we nou[gh]t welcom no be, - [Gh]ete we mot proferi forþ our gle.' - Bifor þe king he sat adoun, 435 - And tok his harp so miri of soun, - And tempreþ his harp, as he wele can, - And blisseful notes he þer gan, - Þat al þat in þe palays were - Com to him for to here, 440 - And liggeþ adoun to his fete, - Hem þenkeþ his melody so swete. - Þe king herkneþ and sitt ful stille, - To here his gle he haþ gode wille; - Gode bourde he hadde of his gle, 445 - Þe riche quen also hadde he. - When he hadde stint his harping, - Þan seyd to him þe king: - 'Menstrel, me likeþ wele þi gle. - Now aske of me what it be, 450 - Largelich ichil þe pay. - Now speke, and tow mi[gh]t asay.' - 'Sir,' he seyd, 'ich biseche þe - Þatow woldest [gh]iue me - Þat ich leuedi, bri[gh]t on ble, 455 - Þat slepeþ vnder þe ympe-tre.' - 'Nay,' quaþ þe king, 'þat nou[gh]t nere! - A sori couple of [gh]ou it were, - For þou art lene, rowe, and blac, - And sche is louesum, wiþouten lac; 460 - A loþlich þing it were forþi - To sen hir in þi compayni.' - 'O sir,' he seyd, 'gentil king, - [Gh]ete were it a wele fouler þing - To here a lesing of þi mouþe, 465 - So, sir, as [gh]e seyd nouþe, - What ich wold aski, haue y schold, - And nedes þou most þi word hold.' - Þe king seyd: 'Seþþen it is so, - Take hir bi þe hond, and go; 470 - Of hir ichil þatow be bliþe.' - He kneled adoun, and þonked him swiþe; - His wiif he tok bi þe hond, - And dede him swiþe out of þat lond, - And went him out of þat þede,-- 475 - Ri[gh]t as he come þe way he [gh]ede. - So long he haþ þe way ynome, - To Winchester he is ycome, - Þat was his owhen cité; - Ac no man knewe þat it was he. 480 - No forþer þan þe tounes ende - For knoweleche <he> no durst wende, - Bot wiþ a begger y<n> bilt ful narwe, - Þer he tok his herbarwe, - To him and to his owhen wiif, 485 - As a minstrel of pouer liif, - And asked tidinges of þat lond, - And who þe kingdom held in hond. - Þe pouer begger in his cote - Told him euerich a grot: 490 - Hou her quen was stole owy - Ten [gh]er gon wiþ fairy; - And hou her king en exile [gh]ede, - Bot no man nist in wiche þede; - And hou þe steward þe lond gan hold; 495 - And oþer mani þinges him told. - Amorwe, o[gh]ain nonetide, - He maked his wiif þer abide; - Þe beggers cloþes he borwed anon, - And heng his harp his rigge opon, 500 - And went him into þat cité, - Þat men mi[gh]t him bihold and se. - Erls and barouns bold, - Buriays and leuedis him gun bihold. - 'Lo,' þai seyd, 'swiche a man! 505 - Hou long þe here hongeþ him opan! - Lo, hou his berd hongeþ to his kne! - He is yclongen also a tre!' - And as he [gh]ede in þe strete, - Wiþ his steward he gan mete, 510 - And loude he sett on him a crie: - 'Sir steward,' he seyd, 'merci! - Icham an harpour of heþenisse; - Help me now in þis destresse!' - Þe steward seyd: 'Com wiþ me, come; 515 - Of þat ichaue þou schalt haue some. - Euerich gode harpour is welcom me to, - For mi lordes loue Sir Orfeo.' - In þe castel þe steward sat atte mete, - And mani lording was bi him sete. 520 - Þer were trompour<s> and tabourers, - Harpours fele, and crouders. - Miche melody þai maked alle, - And Orfeo sat stille in þe halle, - And herkneþ. When þai ben al stille, 525 - He toke his harp and tempred schille, - Þe bli<sse>fulest notes he harped þere - Þat euer ani man yherd wiþ ere; - Ich man liked wele his gle. - Þe steward biheld and gan yse, 530 - And knewe þe harp als bliue. - 'Menstrel,' he seyd, 'so mot þou þriue, - Where hadestow þis harp, and hou? - Y pray þat þou me telle now.' - 'Lord,' quaþ he, 'in vncouþe þede, 535 - Þurch a wildernes as y [gh]ede, - Þer y founde in a dale - Wiþ lyouns a man totorn smale, - And wolues him frete wiþ teþ so scharp. - Bi him y fond þis ich harp; 540 - Wele ten [gh]ere it is ygo.' - 'O,' quaþ þe steward, 'now me is wo! - Þat was mi lord Sir Orfeo. - Allas! wreche, what schal y do, - Þat haue swiche a lord ylore? 545 - A way! þat ich was ybore! - Þat him was so hard grace y[gh]arked, - And so vile deþ ymarked!' - Adoun he fel aswon to grounde. - His barouns him tok vp in þat stounde, 550 - And telleþ him hou it geþ-- - It nis no bot of manes deþ. - King Orfeo knewe wele bi þan - His steward was a trewe man - And loued him as he au[gh]t to do, 555 - And stont vp and seyt þus: 'Lo, - Steward, herkne now þis þing: - [Gh]if ich were Orfeo þe king, - And hadde ysuffred ful [gh]ore - In wildernisse miche sore, 560 - And hadde ywon mi quen owy - Out of þe lond of fairy, - And hadde ybrou[gh]t þe leuedi hende - Ri[gh]t here to þe tounes ende, - And wiþ a begger her in ynome, 565 - And were miself hider ycome - Pouerlich to þe, þus stille, - For to asay þi gode wille, - And ich founde þe þus trewe, - Þou no schust it neuer rewe: 570 - Sikerlich, for loue or ay, - Þou schust be king after mi day. - And [gh]if þou of mi deþ hadest ben bliþe, - Þou schust haue voided also swiþe.' - Þo al þo þat þerin sete 575 - Þat it was King Orfeo vnder[gh]ete, - And þe steward him wele knewe; - Ouer and ouer þe bord he þrewe, - And fel adoun to his fet; - So dede euerich lord þat þer sete, 580 - And al þai seyd at o criing: - '[Gh]e beþ our lord, sir, and our king!' - Glad þai were of his liue. - To chaumber þai ladde him als biliue, - And baþed him, and schaued his berd, 585 - And tired him as a king apert. - And seþþen wiþ gret processioun - Þai brou[gh]t þe quen into þe toun, - Wiþ al maner menstraci. - Lord! þer was grete melody! 590 - For ioie þai wepe wiþ her ei[gh]e - Þat hem so sounde ycomen sei[gh]e. - Now King Orfeo newe coround is, - And his quen Dame Heurodis, - And liued long afterward; 595 - And seþþen was king þe steward. - Harpours in Bretaine after þan - Herd hou þis meruaile bigan, - And made herof a lay of gode likeing, - And nempned it after þe king; 600 - Þat lay 'Orfeo' is yhote, - Gode is þe lay, swete is þe note. - Þus com Sir Orfeo out of his care. - God graunt ous alle wele to fare. - -[Foot-note: ll. 1-24 _from Harl. 3810: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: ll. 7-8 _follow_ ll. 9-10 _in Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 12 o loue] to lowe _Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 26 In Inglond] And in his tyme _Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 33-46 _from Harl. 3810: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 49-50 _om. Harl., Ashm._] - -[Foot-note: 51 Þe king] He _Harl._: And _Ashm._] - -[Foot-note: 82 reueysed] rauysed _Ashm._: reueyd _MS._: wode out _Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 230 no] ne _Ashm.: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 333 wreche] wroche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 406 lef] liif _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 478 Winchester] Traciens _Ashm._: Crassens _Harl._] - - - - -III - -MICHAEL OF NORTHGATE'S AYENBYTE -OF INWYT - -A.D. 1340. - - -Michael of Northgate was a monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. From a -library catalogue of the monastery it appears that he was a lover of -books, for he is named as the donor of twenty-five MSS., a considerable -collection for those days. Their titles show a taste not merely for -religious works, but for science--mathematics, chemistry, medicine, as -they were known at the time. Four of these MSS. have been traced, and -one of them, British Museum MS. Arundel 57, is Michael's autograph copy -of the _Ayenbyte_. On folio 2 of the MS. are the words: _Þis boc is Dan -Michelis of Northgate, ywrite an Englis of his o[gh]ene hand, þet hatte -'Ayenbyte of Inwyt'; and is of the boc-house of Saynt Austines of -Canterberi, mid þe lettres. CC._ 'CC.' is the press-mark given in the -catalogue. A note at the end of the text shows that it was finished on -October 27, 1340: - -_Ymende þet þis boc is uolueld ine þe eue of þe holy apostles Symon an -Iudas_ [i.e. Oct. 27] _of ane broþer of the cloystre of Sauynt Austin of -Canterberi, in the yeare of oure Lhordes beringe 1340._ - -The _Ayenbyte_ has been edited for the Early English Text Society by R. -Morris. The title means literally 'Remorse of Conscience', but from the -contents of the work it would appear that the writer meant rather -'Stimulus to the Conscience', or 'Prick of Conscience'. It is in fact a -translation from the French _Somme des Vices et des Vertues_, compiled -by Friar Lorens in 1279 for King Philip le Hardi, and long held to be -the main source of Chaucer's _Parson's Tale_. Caxton rendered the -_Somme_ into English prose as _The Royal Book_. It treats of the -Commandments, the Creed, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Petitions of -the Paternoster, and the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. - -Dan Michael's purpose is stated in some doggerel lines at the end: - - Nou ich wille þet ye ywyte - Hou hit is ywent - Þet þis boc is ywrite - Mid Engliss of Kent. - Þis boc is ymad uor lewede men, - Vor uader, and uor moder, and uor oþer ken, - Ham uor to ber[gh]e uram alle manyere zen, - Þet ine hare inwytte ne bleue no uoul wen. - -His translation is inaccurate, and sometimes unintelligible, and -the treatment is so barren of interest that the work seems to have -fallen flat even in its own day, when the popular appetite for -edification was keen and unspoiled. But if its literary merit is -slight, linguistically it is one of the most important works in -Middle English. It provides a long prose text, exactly dated and -exactly localized; we have the author's autograph copy to work -from; and the dialect is well distinguished. These circumstances, -unique in Middle English, make it possible to study the Kentish -dialect of the mid-fourteenth century under ideal conditions. - - -HOW MERCY INCREASES TEMPORAL GOODS. - -Hou Merci multiplieþ þe timliche guodes, hyerof we habbeþ uele uayre -uorbisnen, huerof ich wille hier zome telle. Me ret of Saint Germain of -Aucer_r_e þet, þo he com uram Rome, ate outguoinge of Melane, he acsede -at onen of his diaknen yef he hedde eny zeluer, and he ansuerede þet -{5} he ne hedde bote þri pans, uor Say<n>t Germayn hit hedde al yeue to -pouren. Þanne he him het þet he his ssolde yeue to þe poure, uor God -hedde yno[gh] of guode, huerof he hise uedde uor þane day. Þe dyacne -mid greate pine and mid greate grochinge yeaf þe tuaye pans, and ofhild -þane þridde. Þe {10} sergont of ane riche kni[gh]te him bro[gh]te ane -his lhordes haf tuo hondred pans. Þo clepede he his dyacne, and him zede -þet he hedde benome þe poure ane peny, and yef he hedde yeue þane þridde -peny to þe poure, þe kni[gh]t him hedde yzent þri hondred pans. {15} - -Efterward me ret ine þe lyue of Ion þe Amoner, þet wes zuo ycleped uor -þe greate elmesses þet he dede: A riche ientilman wes yrobbed of þieues, -zuo þet him na[gh]t ne blefte. He him com to playni to þe uorzede manne, -and he him zede his cas. He hedde greate reuþe þerof, and het his {20} -desspendoure þet he him yeaue uyftene pond of gold. Þe spendere, be his -couaytise, ne yeaf bote vyf. An haste a gentil wymman wodewe zente to -þe uore-yzede Ion uif hondred pond of gold. Þo he clepede his spendere, -and him acsede hou moche he hedde yyeue to þe kni[gh]te. He ansuerede -{25} 'vyftene pond.' Þe holy man ansuerede þet 'nay, he ne hedde bote -vyf'; and huanne he hit wiste þe ilke zelue þet his hedde onderuonge, -zuo zayde to his spendere þet yef he hedde yyeue þe viftene pond þet -he hedde yhote, oure Lhord him hede yzent be þe guode wyfman a þouzond -and vyf {30} hondred pond. And huanne he acsede ate guode wyfman, þo -he hedde hise ycleped, hou moche hi hedde him ylete, hi andzuerede þet -uerst hi hedde ywrite ine hare testament þet hi him let a þousend and -vyf hondred pond. Ac hi lokede efterward ine hare testament, and hi -yze[gh] þe þousend pond {35} defaced of hire write, and zuo ylefde þe -guode wyfman þet God wolde þet hi ne zente bote vif hondred. - -Efterward Saint Gregori telþ þet Saint Boniface uram þet he wes child he -wes zuo piteuous þet he yaf ofte his kertel and his sserte to þe poure -uor God, þa[gh] his moder him byete {40} ofte þeruore. Þanne bevil þet -þet child yze[gh] manie poure þet hedden mezeyse. He aspide þet his -moder nes na[gh]t þer. An haste he yarn to þe gerniere, and al þet his -moder hedde ygadered uor to pasi þet yer he hit yaf þe poure. And þo his -moder com, and wyste þe ilke dede, hy wes al out of hare {45} wytte. Þet -child bed oure Lhorde, and þet gernier wes an haste al uol. - -Efterward þer wes a poure man, ase me zayþ, þet hedde ane cou; and -yhyerde zigge of his preste ine his prechinge þet God zede ine his -spelle þet God wolde yelde an hondreduald {50} al þet me yeaue uor him. -Þe guode man, mid þe rede of his wyue, yeaf his cou to his preste, þet -wes riche. Þe prest his nom bleþeliche, and hise zente to þe oþren -þet he hedde. Þo hit com to euen, þe guode mannes cou com hom to his -house ase hi wes ywoned, and ledde mid hare alle þe {55} prestes ken, -al to an hondred. Þo þe guode man yze[gh] þet, he þo[gh]te þet þet wes -þet word of þe Godspelle þet he hedde yyolde; and him hi weren yloked -beuore his bissoppe aye þane prest. Þise uorbisne sseweþ wel þet merci -is guod chapuare, uor hi deþ wexe þe timliche guodes. {60} - - - - -IV - -RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE - -D. 1349. - - -Richard Rolle was born at Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, in -Yorkshire. He was sent to Oxford, already a formidable rival to the -University of Paris; but the severer studies were evidently uncongenial -to his impulsive temperament. He returned home without taking orders, -improvised for himself a hermit's dress, and fled into solitude. His -piety attracted the favour of Sir John and Lady Dalton, who gave him a -cell on their estate. Here, in meditation, he developed his mystical -religion. He did not immure himself, or cut himself off from human -companionship. For a time he lived near Anderby, where was the cell of -the recluse Margaret Kirkby, to whom he addressed his _Form of Perfect -Living_. Another important work, _Ego Dormio et Cor Meum Vigilat_, was -written for a nun of Yedingham (Yorks.). Towards the end of his life he -lived in close friendship with the nuns of Hampole, and for one of them -he wrote his _Commandment of Love to God_. At Hampole he died in 1349, -the year of the Black Death. By the devout he was regarded as a saint, -and had his commemoration day, his office, and his miracles; but he was -never canonized. - -He wrote both in Latin and in English, and it is not always easy to -distinguish his work from that of his many followers and imitators. The -writings attributed to him are edited by C. Horstmann, _Yorkshire -Writers_, 2 vols., London 1895-6. Besides the prose works noted above, -he wrote, at the request of Margaret Kirkby, a _Commentary on the -Psalms_ (ed. Bramley, Oxford 1884), based on the Latin of Peter Lombard. -A long didactic poem in Northern English, the _Prick of Conscience_, has -been attributed to him from Lydgate's time onwards; but his authorship -has recently been questioned, chiefly on the ground that the poem is -without a spark of inspiration. It is not certain that he wrote _Love is -Life_, which is included here because it expresses in characteristic -language his central belief in the personal bond, the burning love, -between God and man. The first prose selection shows that he did not -disdain the examples from natural history that were so popular in the -sermons of the time. The second is chapter xi of the _Form of Perfect -Living_, which is found as a separate extract from an early date. - -With Rolle began a movement of devotional piety, which, as might be -expected from its strong appeal to the emotions, was taken up first -among religious women; and signs of a striving for effect in his style -suggest that the hermit was not indifferent to the admiration of his -followers. He brings to his teaching more heart than mind. He escapes -the problems of the world, which seemed so insistent to his -contemporaries, by denying the world's claims. His ideas and temperament -are diametrically opposed to those of the other great figure in the -religious life of fourteenth-century England--Wiclif, the schoolman, -politician, reformer, controversialist. Yet they have in common a -sincerity and directness of belief that brushes aside conventions, and -an enthusiasm that made them leaders in an age when the Church as a -whole suffered from apathy. - - -A. LOVE IS LIFE. - -Cambridge University Library MS. DD. 5. 64, III (about 1400) f. 38 a. - - <L>uf es lyf þat lastes ay, þar it in Criste es feste, - For wele ne wa it chaunge may, als wryten has men wyseste. - Þe nyght it tournes intil þe day, þi trauel intyll reste; - If þou wil luf þus as I say, þou may be wyth þe beste. - - Lufe es thoght wyth grete desyre of a fayre louyng; 5 - Lufe I lyken til a fyre þat sloken may na thyng; - Lufe vs clenses of oure syn; luf vs bote sall bryng; - Lufe þe Keynges hert may wyn; lufe of ioy may syng. - - Þe settel of lufe es lyft hee, for intil heuen it ranne; - Me thynk in erth it es sle, þat makes men pale and wanne; 10 - Þe bede of blysse it gase ful nee, I tel þe as I kanne: - Þof vs thynk þe way be dregh, luf copuls God and manne. - - Lufe es hatter þen þe cole; lufe may nane beswyke. - Þe flawme of lufe wha myght it thole, if it war ay ilyke? - Luf vs comfortes, and mase in qwart, and lyftes tyl heuenryke; 15 - Luf rauysches Cryste intyl owr hert; I wate na lust it lyke. - - Lere to luf, if þou wyl lyfe when þou sall hethen fare; - All þi thoght til Hym þou gyf þat may þe kepe fra kare: - Loke þi hert fra Hym noght twyn, if þou in wandreth ware; - Sa þou may Hym welde and wyn, and luf Hym euermare. 20 - - Iesu, þat me lyfe hase lent, intil Þi lufe me bryng! - Take til Þe al myne entent, þat Þow be my [gh]hernyng. - Wa fra me away war went, and comne war my couaytyng, - If þat my sawle had herd and hent þe sang of Þi louyng. - - Þi lufe es ay lastand, fra þat we may it fele; 25 - Þarein make me byrnand, þat na thyng gar it kele. - My thoght take into Þi hand, and stabyl it ylk a dele, - Þat I be noght heldand to luf þis worldes wele. - - If I lufe any erthly thyng þat payes to my wyll, - And settes my ioy and my lykyng when it may comm me tyll, 30 - I mai drede of partyng, þat wyll be hate and yll: - For al my welth es bot wepyng when pyne mi saule sal spyll. - - Þe ioy þat men hase sene es lyckend tyl þe haye, - Þat now es fayre and grene, and now wytes awaye. - Swylk es þis worlde, I wene, and bees till Domesdaye, 35 - All in trauel and tene, fle þat na man it maye. - - If þou luf in all þi thoght, and hate þe fylth of syn, - And gyf Hym þi sawle þat it boght, þat He þe dwell within, - Als Crist þi sawle hase soght, and þerof walde noght blyn, - Sa þou sal to blys be broght, and heuen won within. 40 - - Þe kynd of luf es þis, þar it es trayst and trew, - To stand styll in stabylnes, and chaunge it for na new. - Þe lyfe þat lufe myght fynd, or euer in hert it knew, - Fra kare it tornes þat kyend, and lendes in myrth and glew. - - For now, lufe þow, I rede, Cryste, as I þe tell, 45 - And with aungels take þi stede: þat ioy loke þou noght sell! - In erth þow hate, I rede, all þat þi lufe may fell, - For luf es stalworth as þe dede, luf es hard as hell. - - Luf es a lyght byrthen; lufe gladdes [gh]ong and alde; - Lufe es withowten pyne, as lofers hase me talde; 50 - Lufe es a gastly wyne, þat makes men bygge and balde; - Of lufe sal he na thyng tyne þat hit in hert will halde. - - Lufe es þe swettest thyng þat man in erth hase tane; - Lufe es Goddes derlyng; lufe byndes blode and bane. - In lufe be owre lykyng, I ne wate na better wane, 55 - For me and my lufyng lufe makes bath be ane. - - Bot fleschly lufe sal fare as dose þe flowre in May, - And lastand be na mare þan ane houre of a day, - And sythen syghe ful sare þar lust, þar pryde, þar play, - When þai er casten in kare til pyne þat lastes ay. 60 - - When þair bodys lyse in syn, þair sawls mai qwake and drede, - For vp sal ryse al men, and answer for þair dede. - If þai be fonden in syn, als now þair lyfe þai lede, - Þai sal sytt hel within, and myrknes hafe to mede. - - Riche men þair hend sal wryng, and wicked werkes sal by 65 - In flawme of fyre, bath knyght and keyng, with sorow schamfully. - If þou wil lufe, þan may þou syng til Cryst in melody; - Þe lufe of Hym ouercoms al thyng, þarto þou traiste trewly. - - <I> sygh and sob, bath day and nyght, for ane sa fayre of hew! - Þar es na thyng my hert mai light, bot lufe þat es ay new. 70 - Wha sa had Hym in his syght, or in his hert Hym knew, - His mournyng turned til ioy ful bryght, his sang intil glew. - - In myrth he lyfes, nyght and day, þat lufes þat swete chylde; - It es Iesu, forsoth I say, of al mekest and mylde. - Wreth fra hym walde al away, þof he wer neuer sa wylde, 75 - He þat in hert lufed Hym þat day, fra euel He wil hym schylde. - - Of Iesu mast lyst me speke, þat al my bale may bete; - Me thynk my hert may al tobreke when I thynk on þat swete; - In lufe lacyd He hase my thoght, þat I sal neuer forgete. - Ful dere me thynk He hase me boght with blodi hende and fete. 80 - - For luf my hert es bowne to brest, when I þat faire behalde; - Lufe es fair þare it es fest, þat neuer will be calde; - Lufe vs reues þe nyght-rest, in grace it makes vs balde; - Of al warkes luf es þe best, als haly men me talde. - - Na wonder gyf I syghand be, and sithen in sorow be sette: 85 - Iesu was nayled apon þe tre, and al blody forbette. - To thynk on Hym es grete pyté--how tenderly He grette-- - Þis hase He sufferde, man, for þe, if þat þou syn wyll lette. - - Þare es na tonge in erth may tell of lufe þe swetnesse. - Þat stedfastly in lufe kan dwell, his ioy es endlesse. 90 - God schylde þat he sulde til hell, þat lufes and langand es, - Or euer his enmys sulde hym qwell, or make his luf be lesse. - - Iesu es lufe þat lastes ay, til Hym es owre langyng; - Iesu þe nyght turnes to þe day, þe dawyng intil spryng. - Iesu, thynk on vs now and ay, for Þe we halde oure keyng; 95 - Iesu, gyf vs grace, as Þou wel may, to luf Þe withowten endyng. - -[Foot-note: 45 For now] Forþi _MS. Lambeth 583_.] - -[Foot-note: 51 wyne] = wynne _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 65 hend] handes _MS., apparently altered from_ hend.] - -[Foot-note: 69 I] _so MS. Lambeth 583_.] - - -B. THE NATURE OF THE BEE. - -(The Thornton MS. (before 1450); ed. Horstmann, vol. i, p. 193.) - -_Moralia Ricardi Heremite de Natura Apis._ - -The bee has thre kyndis. Ane es þat scho es neuer ydill, and scho es -noghte with thaym þat will noghte wyrke, bot castys thaym owte, and -puttes thaym awaye. Anothire es þat when scho flyes scho takes erthe in -hyr fette, þat scho be noghte lyghtly ouerheghede in the ayere of wynde. -The {5} thyrde es þat scho kepes clene and bryghte hire wynge[gh]. - -Thus ryghtwyse men þat lufes God are neuer in ydyllnes. For owthyre -þay ere in trauayle, prayand, or thynkande, or redande, or othere gude -doande; or withtakand ydill mene, and schewand thaym worthy to be put -fra þe ryste of heuene, {10} for þay will noghte trauayle here. - -Þay take erthe, þat es, þay halde þamselfe vile and erthely, that thay -be noghte blawene with þe wynde of vanyté and of pryde. Thay kepe thaire -wynges clene, that es, þe twa commandementes of charyté þay fulfill -in gud concyens, and {15} thay hafe othyre vertus, vnblendyde with þe -fylthe of syne and vnclene luste. - -Arestotill sais þat þe bees are feghtande agaynes hym þat will drawe -þaire hony fra thayme. Swa sulde we do agayne deuells, þat afforces -thame to reue fra vs þe hony of poure {20} lyfe and of grace. For many -are, þat neuer kane halde þe ordyre of lufe yne_n_ce þaire frendys, -sybbe or fremmede. Bot outhire þay lufe þaym ouer mekill, settand thaire -thoghte vnryghtwysely on thaym, or þay luf thayme ouer lyttill, yf þay -doo noghte all as þey wolde till þame. Swylke kane {25} noghte fyghte -for thaire hony, forthy þe deuelle turnes it to wormes, and makes þeire -saules oftesythes full bitter in angwys, and tene, and besynes of vayne -thoghtes, and oþer wrechidnes. For thay are so heuy in erthely frenchype -þat þay may noghte flee intill þe lufe of Iesu Criste, in þe wylke {30} -þay moghte wele forgaa þe lufe of all creaturs lyfande in erthe. - -Wharefore, accordandly, Arystotill sais þat some fowheles are of gude -flyghyng, þat passes fra a lande to anothire. Some are of ill flyghynge, -for heuynes of body, and for<þi> {35} þaire neste es noghte ferre fra -þe erthe. Thus es it of thayme þat turnes þame to Godes seruys. Some -are of gude flyeghynge, for thay flye fra erthe to heuene, and rystes -thayme thare in thoghte, and are fedde in delite of Goddes lufe, and has -thoghte of na lufe of þe worlde. Some are þat {40} kan noghte flyghe fra -þis lande, bot in þe waye late theyre herte ryste, and delyttes þaym in -sere lufes of mene and womene, als þay come and gaa, nowe ane and nowe -anothire. And in Iesu Criste þay kan fynde na swettnes; or if þay any -tyme fele oghte, it es swa lyttill and swa schorte, for othire thoghtes -{45} þat are in thayme, þat it brynges thaym till na stabylnes. - -<F>or þay are lyke till a fowle þat es callede strucyo or storke, þat -has wenges, and it may noghte flye for charge of body. Swa þay hafe -vndirstandynge, and fastes, and wakes, and semes haly to mens syghte; -bot thay may noghte flye to lufe {50} and contemplacyone of God, þay -are so chargede wyth othyre affeccyons and othire vanytés. - -[Foot-note: 22 ynence] ynesche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 23 mekill] _MS. follows with_: or thay -lufe þame ouer lyttill, _caught up from below_.] - - -THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST. - -(Chap. xi of _The Form of Perfect Living_; ed. Horstmann, vol. i, -p. 196.) - -Þe seuene gyftes of þe Haly Gaste, þat ere gyfene to men and wymmene þat -er ordaynede to þe ioye of heuene, and ledys theire lyfe in this worlde -reghtwysely. Thire are thay:--Wysdome, {55} Undyrstandynge, Counsayle, -Strenghe, Connynge, Peté, the Drede of God. Begynne we at Consaile, for -þareof es myster at the begynnynge of oure werkes, þat vs myslyke noghte -aftyrwarde. With thire seuene gyftes þe Haly Gaste teches sere mene -serely. {60} - -Consaile es doynge awaye of worldes reches, and of all delytes of -all thynge[gh] þat mane may be tagyld with, in thoghte or dede, and -þa_r_with drawynge intill contemplacyone of Gode. - -Undyrstandynge es to knawe whate es to doo, and whate {65} es to lefe, -and þat that sall be gyffene, to gyffe it to thaym þat has nede, noghte -till oþer þat has na myster. - -Wysedome es forgetynge of erthely thynges and thynkynge of heuen, with -discrecyone of all men_s_ dedys. In þis gyfte schynes contemplacyone, -þat es, Saynt Austyne says, a gastely {70} dede of fleschely -affeccyones, thurghe þe ioye of a raysede thoghte. - -Strenghe es lastynge to fullfill gude purpose, þat it be noghte lefte, -for wele ne for waa. - -Peté es þat a man be mylde, and gaynesay noghte Haly {75} Writte whene -it smyttes his synnys, whethire he vndyrstand it or noghte; bot in all -his myghte purge he þe vilté of syne in hyme and oþer. - -Connynge es þat makes a man of gude <hope>, noghte ruysand hyme of -his reghtewysnes, bot sorowand of his {80} synnys, and þat man gedyrs -erthely gude anely to the honour of God, and prow to oþer mene þane -hymselfe. - -The Drede of God es þat we turne noghte agayne till oure syne thurghe -any ill eggyng. And þa_n_ es drede perfite in vs and gastely, when we -drede to wrethe God in þe leste syne {85} þat we kane knawe, and flese -it als venyme. - -[Foot-note: 60 teches] towches _Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_.] - -[Foot-note: 63 þar] þat _MS. Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 69 mens] _so Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_ = mene _MS. Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 79 hope] _from Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64: om. MS. Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 84 þan] _Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_: þen _MS. Arundel 507_: þat -_MS. Thornton_.] - - - - -V - -SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT - -ABOUT 1350-75. - - -_Sir Gawayne_ has been admirably edited by Sir F. Madden for the -Bannatyne Club, 1839, and later by R. Morris for the Early English Text -Society. It is found in British Museum MS. Nero A X, together with three -other alliterative poems, named from their first words _Pearl_, -_Patience_, and _Cleanness_. _Pearl_ supplies the next specimen; -_Patience_ exemplifies the virtue by the trials of Jonah; _Cleanness_ -teaches purity of life from Scriptural stories. All these poems are in -the same handwriting; all are in a West-Midland dialect; all appear to -be of the same age; and none is without literary merit. For these -reasons, which are good but not conclusive, they are assumed to be by -the same author. Attempts to identify this author have been -unsuccessful. - -The story runs as follows: - -King Arthur is making his Christmas feast with his court at Camelot. On -New Year's Day he declares that he will not eat until he has seen or -heard some marvel. The first course of the feast is barely served when a -tall knight, clad all in green, with green hair, and a green horse to -match, rides into the hall. He carries a holly bough and a huge axe, and -tauntingly invites any knight to strike him a blow with the axe, on -condition that he will stand a return blow on the same day a year hence. -Gawayne accepts the challenge and strikes off the Green Knight's head. -The Green Knight gathers up his head, gives Gawayne an appointment for -next New Year's Day at the Green Chapel, and rides off. - -The year passes, and Gawayne, despite the fears of the court, sets out -in quest of the Green Chapel. On Christmas Eve he arrives at a splendid -castle, and finding that the Green Chapel is close at hand, accepts an -invitation to stay and rest until New Year's Day. On each of three days -the knight of the castle goes hunting, and persuades Gawayne to rest at -home. They make an agreement that each shall give the other whatever he -gets. The lady of the castle makes love to Gawayne, and kisses him once -on the first day, twice on the second day, thrice on the third day; and -on the third day she gives him her girdle, which he accepts because it -has the magic power of preserving the wearer from wounds. Each evening -he duly gives the kisses to the knight, and receives in return the -spoils of the hunting of deer and boar and fox. But he conceals the -girdle. - -The extract begins with Gawayne preparing on New Year's morning to stand -the return blow at the Green Chapel. - -The poem ends by the Green Knight revealing that he is himself the lord -of the castle; that he went to Arthur's court at the suggestion of -Morgan la Fay; that he had urged his wife to make love to Gawayne and -try his virtue; and that he would not have harmed him at all, if he had -not committed the slight fault of concealing the girdle. Gawayne returns -to the court, bearing the girdle as a sign of his shame, and tells his -story. The knights of the court agree in future to wear a bright green -belt for Gawayne's sake. - -_Sir Gawayne_ is admittedly the best of the alliterative romances. It -must have come down to us practically as it was written by the poet, for -it is free from the flatness and conventional phrasing which is -characteristic of romances that have passed through many popular -recensions. The descriptions of nature, of armour and dresses, the -hunting scenes, and the love making, are all excellently done; and the -poet shows the same richness of imagination and skill in producing -pictorial effects that are so noticeable in _Pearl_. He has too a quiet -humour that recalls Chaucer in some of his moods. - - -THE TESTING OF SIR GAWAYNE. - -British Museum MS. Nero A X (about 1400); ed. R. Morris, ll. 2069 ff. - - The brygge wat[gh] brayde doun, and þe brode [gh]ate[gh] - Vnbarred and born open vpon boþe halue. - Þe burne blessed hym bilyue, and þe brede[gh] passed; - Prayses þe porter bifore þe prynce kneled, - Gef hym God and goud day, þat Gawayn He saue, 5 - And went on his way with his wy[gh]e one, - Þat schulde teche hym to tourne to þat tene place - Þer þe ruful race he schulde resayue. - Þay bo[gh]en bi bonkke[gh] þer bo[gh]e[gh] ar bare; - Þay clomben bi clyffe[gh] þer clenge[gh] þe colde. 10 - Þe heuen wat[gh] vp halt, bot vgly þer vnder,-- - Mist muged on þe mor, malt on þe mounte[gh], - Vch hille hade a hatte, a myst-hakel huge. - Broke[gh] byled and breke bi bonkke[gh] aboute, - Schyre schaterande on schore[gh], þer þay doun schowued. 15 - Wela wylle wat[gh] þe way þer þay bi wod schulden, - Til hit wat[gh] sone sesoun þat þe sunne ryses - þat tyde. - Þay were on a hille ful hy[gh]e, - Þe quyte snaw lay bisyde; 20 - Þe burne þat rod hym by - Bede his mayster abide. - 'For I haf wonnen yow hider, wy[gh]e, at þis tyme, - And now nar [gh]e not fer fro þat note place - Þat [gh]e han spied and spuryed so specially after. 25 - Bot I schal say yow for soþe, syþen I yow knowe, - And [gh]e ar a lede vpon lyue þat I wel louy, - Wolde [gh]e worch bi my wytte, [gh]e worþed þe better. - Þe place þat [gh]e prece to ful perelous is halden. - Þer wone[gh] a wy[gh]e in þat waste, þe worst vpon erþe, 30 - For he is stiffe and sturne, and to strike louies, - And more he is þen any mon vpon myddelerde, - And his body bigger þen þe best fowre - Þat ar in Arþure[gh] hous, He_c_tor, oþer oþer. - He cheue[gh] þat chaunce at þe chapel grene, 35 - Þer passes non bi þat place so proude in his armes - Þat he ne dyn_g_e[gh] hym to deþe with dynt of his honde; - For he is a mon methles, and mercy non vses, - For be hit chorle oþer chaplayn þat bi þe chapel rydes, - Monk oþer masse-prest, oþer any mon elles, 40 - Hym þynk as queme hym to quelle as quyk go hymseluen. - Forþy I say þe, as soþe as [gh]e in sadel sitte, - Com [gh]e þere, [gh]e be kylled, may þe, kny[gh]t, rede-- - Trawe [gh]e me þat trwely--þa[gh] [gh]e had twenty lyues - to spende. 45 - He hat[gh] wonyd here ful [gh]ore, - On bent much baret bende, - A[gh]ayn his dynte[gh] sore - [Gh]e may not yow defende. - 'Forþy, goude Sir Gawayn, let þe gome one, 50 - And got[gh] away sum oþer gate, vpon Godde[gh] halue! - Cayre[gh] bi sum oþer kyth, þer Kryst mot yow spede, - And I schal hy[gh] me hom a[gh]ayn, and hete yow fyrre - Þat I schal swere bi God and alle His gode hal[gh]e[gh], - As help me God and þe halydam, and oþe[gh] innoghe, 55 - Þat I schal lelly yow layne, and lance neuer tale - Þat euer [gh]e fondet to fle for freke þat I wyst.' - 'Grant merci,' quod Gawayn, and gruchyng he sayde: - 'Wel worth þe, wy[gh]e, þat wolde[gh] my gode, - And þat lelly me layne I leue wel þou wolde[gh]. 60 - Bot helde þou hit neuer so holde, and I here passed, - Founded for ferde for to fle, in fourme þat þou telle[gh], - I were a kny[gh]t kowarde, I my[gh]t _n_ot be excused. - Bot I wyl to þe chapel, for chaunce þat may falle, - And talk wyth þat ilk tulk þe tale þat me lyste, 65 - Worþe hit wele oþer wo, as þe wyrde lyke[gh] - hit hafe. - Þa[gh]e he be a sturn knape - To sti[gh]tel, and stad with staue, - Ful wel con Dry[gh]tyn schape 70 - His seruaunte[gh] for to saue.' - 'Mary!' quod þat oþer mon, 'now þou so much spelle[gh] - Þat þou wylt þyn awen nye nyme to þyseluen, - And þe lyst lese þy lyf, þe lette I ne kepe. - Haf here þi helme on þy hede, þi spere in þi honde, 75 - And ryde me doun þis ilk rake bi [gh]on rokke syde - Til þou be bro[gh]t to þe boþem of þe brem valay. - Þenne loke a littel on þe launde, on þi lyfte honde, - And þou schal se in þat slade þe self chapel, - And þe borelych burne on bent þat hit kepe[gh]. 80 - Now fare[gh] wel, on Gode[gh] half! Gawayn þe noble; - For alle þe golde vpon grounde I nolde go wyth þe, - Ne bere þe fela[gh]schip þur[gh] þis fryth on fote fyrre.' - Bi þat þe wy[gh]e in þe wod wende[gh] his brydel, - Hit þe hors with þe hele[gh] as harde as he my[gh]t, 85 - Lepe[gh] hym ouer þe launde, and leue[gh] þe kny[gh]t þere - al one. - 'Bi Godde[gh] self!' quod Gawayn, - 'I wyl nauþer grete ne grone; - To Godde[gh] wylle I am ful bayn, 90 - And to Hym I haf me tone.' - Thenne gyrde[gh] he to Gryngolet, and gedere[gh] þe rake, - Schowue[gh] in bi a schore at a scha[gh]e syde, - Ride[gh] þur[gh] þe ro[gh]e bonk ry[gh]t to þe dale; - And þenne he wayted hym aboute, and wylde hit hym þo[gh]t, 95 - And se[gh]e no syngne of resette bisyde[gh] nowhere, - Bot hy[gh]e bonkke[gh] and brent vpon boþe halue, - And ru[gh]e knokled knarre[gh] with knorned stone[gh]; - Þe skwe[gh] of þe scowtes skayned hym þo[gh]t. - Þenne he houed, and wythhylde his hors at þat tyde, 100 - And ofte chaunged his cher þe chapel to seche: - He se[gh] non suche in no syde, and selly hym þo[gh]t - Sone, a lyttel on a launde, a lawe as hit we<re>, - A bal[gh] ber[gh] bi a bonke, þe brymme bysyde, - Bi a for[gh] of a flode þat ferked þare; 105 - Þe borne blubred þerinne as hit boyled hade. - Þe kny[gh]t kache[gh] his caple, and com to þe lawe, - Li[gh]te[gh] doun luflyly, and at a lynde tache[gh] - Þe rayne and his riche with a ro[gh]e braunche. - Þenne he bo[gh]e[gh] to þe ber[gh]e, aboute hit he walke[gh], 110 - Debatande with hymself quat hit be my[gh]t. - Hit hade a hole on þe ende and on ayþer syde, - And ouergrowen with gresse in glodes aywhere, - And al wat[gh] hol[gh] inwith, nobot an olde caue, - Or a creuisse of an olde cragge, he couþe hit no[gh]t deme 115 - with spelle. - 'We! Lorde,' quod þe gentyle kny[gh]t, - 'Wheþer þis be þe grene chapelle? - He<re> my[gh]t aboute mydny[gh]t - Þe dele his matynnes telle! 120 - 'Now iwysse,' quod Wowayn, 'wysty is here; - Þis oritore is vgly, with erbe[gh] ouergrowen; - Wel biseme[gh] þe wy[gh]e wruxled in grene - Dele here his deuocioun on þe deuele[gh] wyse. - Now I fele hit is þe fende, in my fyue wytte[gh], 125 - Þat hat[gh] stoken me þis steuen to strye me here. - Þis is a chapel of meschaunce, þat chekke hit bytyde! - Hit is þe corsedest kyrk þat euer I com inne!' - With he[gh]e helme on his hede, his launce in his honde, - He rome[gh] vp to þe rokke of þo ro[gh] wone[gh]. 130 - Þene herde he, of þat hy[gh]e hil, in a harde roche, - Bi[gh]onde þe broke, in a bonk, a wonder breme noyse. - Quat! hit clatered in þe clyff, as hit cleue schulde, - As one vpon a gryndelston hade grounden a syþe; - What! hit wharred and whette, as water at a mulne; 135 - What! hit rusched and ronge, rawþe to here. - Þenne 'Bi Godde!' quod Gawayn, 'þat gere a_s_ I trowe - Is ryched at þe reuerence me, renk, to mete - bi rote. - Let God worche, we loo! 140 - Hit helppe[gh] me not a mote. - My lif þa[gh] I forgoo, - Drede dot[gh] me no lote.' - Thenne þe kny[gh]t con calle ful hy[gh]e: - 'Who sti[gh]tle[gh] in þis sted, me steuen to holde? 145 - For now is gode Gawayn goande ry[gh]t here. - If any wy[gh]e o[gh]t wyl, wynne hider fast, - Oþer now oþer neuer, his nede[gh] to spede.' - 'Abyde,' quod on on þe bonke abouen ouer his hede, - 'And þou schal haf al in hast þat I þe hy[gh]t ones.' 150 - [Gh]et he rusched on þat rurde rapely a þrowe, - And wyth quettyng awharf, er he wolde ly[gh]t; - And syþen he keuere[gh] bi a cragge, and come[gh] of a hole, - Whyrlande out of a wro wyth a felle weppen, - A Dene[gh] ax nwe dy[gh]t, þe dynt with <t>o [gh]elde, 155 - With a borelych bytte bende by þe halme, - Fyled in a fylor, fowre fote large,-- - Hit wat[gh] no lasse bi þat lace þat lemed ful bry[gh]t,-- - And þe gome in þe grene gered as fyrst, - Boþe þe lyre and þe legge[gh], lokke[gh] and berde, 160 - Saue þat fayre on his fote he founde[gh] on þe erþe, - Sette þe stele to þe stone, and stalked bysyde. - Whan he wan to þe watter, þer he wade nolde, - He hypped ouer on hys ax, and orpedly stryde[gh], - Bremly broþe on a bent þat brode wat[gh] aboute, 165 - on snawe. - Sir Gawayn þe kny[gh]t con mete, - He ne lutte hym no þyng lowe; - Þat oþer sayde 'Now, sir swete, - Of steuen mon may þe trowe. 170 - 'Gawayn,' quod þat grene gome, 'God þe mot loke! - Iwysse þou art welco_m_, wy[gh]e, to my place, - And þou hat[gh] tymed þi trauayl as truee mon schulde, - And þou knowe[gh] þe couenaunte[gh] kest vus bytwene: - At þis tyme twelmonyth þou toke þat þe falled, 175 - And I schulde at þis nwe [gh]ere [gh]eply þe quyte. - And we ar in þis valay verayly oure one; - Here ar no renkes vs to rydde, rele as vus like[gh]. - Haf þy helme of þy hede, and haf here þy pay. - Busk no more debate þen I þe bede þenne 180 - When þou wypped of my hede at a wap one.' - 'Nay, bi God' quod Gawayn, 'þat me gost lante! - I schal gruch þe no grwe for grem þat falle[gh]. - Bot sty[gh]tel þe vpon on strok, and I schal stonde stylle - And warp þe no wernyng to worch as þe lyke[gh], 185 - nowhare.' - He lened with þe nek, and lutte, - And schewed þat schyre al bare, - And lette as he no[gh]t dutte; - For drede he wolde not dare. 190 - Then þe gome in þe grene grayþed hym swyþe, - Gedere[gh] vp hys grymme tole Gawayn to smyte; - With alle þe bur in his body he ber hit on lofte, - Munt as ma[gh]tyly as marre hym he wolde: - Hade hit dryuen adoun as dre[gh] as he atled, 195 - Þer hade ben ded of his dynt þat do[gh]ty wat[gh] euer. - Bot Gawayn on þat giserne glyfte hym bysyde, - As hit com glydande adoun on glode hym to schende, - And schranke a lytel with þe schulderes for þe scharp yrne. - Þat oþer schalk wyth a schunt þe schene wythhalde[gh], 200 - And þenne repreued he þe prynce with mony prowde worde[gh]: - 'Þou art not Gawayn,' quod þe gome, 'þat is so goud halden, - Þat neuer ar[gh]ed for no here, by hylle ne be vale, - And now þou fles for ferde er þou fele harme[gh]! - Such cowardise of þat kny[gh]t cowþe I neuer here. 205 - Nawþer fyked I ne fla[gh]e, freke, quen þou myntest, - Ne kest no kauelacion, in kynge[gh] hous Arthor. - My hede fla[gh] to my fote, and [gh]et fla[gh] I neuer; - And þou, er any harme hent, ar[gh]e[gh] in hert; - Wherfore þe better burne me burde be called 210 - þerfore.' - Quod Gawayn 'I schunt one[gh], - And so wyl I no more; - Bot þa[gh] my hede falle on þe stone[gh], - I con not hit restore. 215 - Bot busk, burne, bi þi fayth! and bryng me to þe poynt. - Dele to me my destiné, and do hit out of honde, - For I schal stonde þe a strok, and start no more - Til þyn ax haue me hitte: haf here my trawþe.' - 'Haf at þe þenne!' quod þat oþer, and heue[gh] hit alofte, 220 - And wayte[gh] as wroþely as he wode were. - He mynte[gh] at hym ma[gh]tyly, bot not þe mon ryue[gh], - Withhelde heterly h<i>s honde, er hit hurt my[gh]t. - Gawayn grayþely hit byde[gh], and glent with no membre, - Bot stode stylle as þe ston, oþer a stubbe auþer 225 - Þat raþeled is in roché grounde with rote[gh] a hundreth. - Þen muryly efte con he mele, þe mon in þe grene: - 'So now þou hat[gh] þi hert holle, hitte me bihou<e>s. - Halde þe now þe hy[gh]e hode þat Arþur þe ra[gh]t, - And kepe þy kanel at þis kest, [gh]if hit keuer may.' 230 - Gawayn ful gryndelly with greme þenne sayde: - 'Wy! þresch on, þou þro mon, þou þrete[gh] to longe. - I hope þat þi hert ar[gh]e wyth þyn awen seluen.' - 'For soþe,' quod þat oþer freke, 'so felly þou speke[gh], - I wyl no lenger on lyte lette þin ernde 235 - ri[gh]t nowe.' - Þenne tas he hym stryþe to stryke, - And frounses boþe lyppe and browe. - No meruayle þa[gh] hym myslyke - Þat hoped of no rescowe. 240 - He lyftes ly[gh]tly his lome, and let hit doun fayre, - With þe barbe of þe bitte bi þe bare nek, - Þa[gh] he homered heterly, hurt hym no more, - Bot snyrt hym on þat on syde, þat seuered þe hyde; - Þe scharp schrank to þe flesche þur[gh] þe schyre grece 245 - Þat þe schene blod ouer his schulderes schot to þe erþe; - And quen þe burne se[gh] þe blode blenk on þe snawe, - He sprit forth spenne fote more þen a spere lenþe, - Hent heterly his helme, and on his hed cast, - Schot with his schuldere[gh], his fayre schelde vnder, 250 - Brayde[gh] out a bry[gh]t sworde, and bremely he speke[gh];-- - Neuer syn þat he wat[gh] burne borne of his moder - Wat[gh] he neuer in þis worlde wy[gh]e half so blyþe-- - 'Blynne, burne, of þy bur, bede me no mo! - I haf a stroke in þis stede withoute stryf hent, 255 - And if þow reche[gh] me any mo, I redyly schal quyte, - And [gh]elde [gh]ederly a[gh]ayn--and þer to [gh]e tryst-- - and foo. - Bot on stroke here me falle[gh]-- - Þe couenaunt schop ry[gh]t so 260 - <Schapen> in Arþure[gh] halle[gh]-- - And þerfore, hende, now hoo!' - The haþel heldet hym fro, and on his ax rested, - Sette þe schaft vpon schore, and to þe scharp lened, - And loked to þe leude þat on þe launde [gh]ede, 265 - How þat do[gh]ty, dredles, deruely þer stonde[gh] - Armed, ful a[gh]le[gh]: in hert hit hym lyke[gh]. - Þenn he mele[gh] muryly wyth a much steuen, - And wyth a ry<n>kande rurde he to þe renk sayde: - 'Bolde burne, on þis bent be not so gryndel. 270 - No mon here vnmanerly þe mysboden habbe<[gh]> - Ne kyd, bot as couenaunde at kynge[gh] kort schaped. - I hy[gh]t þe a strok and þou hit hat[gh]; halde þe wel payed. - I relece þe of þe remnaunt of ry[gh]tes alle oþer. - Iif I deliuer had bene, a boffet paraunter 275 - I couþe wroþeloker haf waret,--to þe haf wro[gh]t anger. - Fyrst I mansed þe muryly with a mynt one, - And roue þe wyth no rof sore, with ry[gh]t I þe profered - For þe forwarde þat we fest in þe fyrst ny[gh]t, - And þou trystyly þe trawþe and trwly me halde[gh], 280 - Al þe gayne þow me gef, as god mon schulde. - Þat oþer munt for þe morne, mon, I þe profered, - Þou kyssedes my clere wyf, þe cosse[gh] me ra[gh]te[gh]. - For boþe two here I þe bede bot two bare myntes - boute scaþe. 285 - Trwe mon trwe restore, - Þenne þar mon drede no waþe. - At þe þrid þou fayled þore, - And þerfor þat tappe ta þe. - For hit is my wede þat þou were[gh], þat ilke wouen girdel, 290 - Myn owen wyf hit þe weued, I wot wel forsoþe. - Now know I wel þy cosses, and þy costes als, - And þe wowyng of my wyf: I wro[gh]t hit myseluen. - I sende hir to asay þe, and sothly me þynkke[gh] - On þe fautlest freke þat euer on fote [gh]ede. 295 - As perle bi þe quite pese is of prys more, - So is Gawayn, in god fayth, bi oþer gay kny[gh]te[gh]. - Bot here yow lakked a lyttel, sir, and lewté yow wonted; - Bot þat wat[gh] for no wylyde werke, ne wowyng nauþer, - Bot for [gh]e lufed your lyf; þe lasse I yow blame.' 300 - Þat oþer stif mon in study stod a gret whyle, - So agreued for greme he gryed withinne; - Alle þe blode of his brest blende in his face, - Þat al he schrank for schome þat þe schalk talked. - Þe forme worde vpon folde þat þe freke meled: 305 - 'Corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse boþe! - In yow is vylany and vyse þat vertue disstrye[gh].' - Þenne he ka[gh]t to þe knot, and þe kest lawse[gh], - Brayde broþely þe belt to þe burne seluen: - 'Lo! þer þe falssyng! foule mot hit falle! 310 - For care of þy knokke cowardyse me ta[gh]t - To acorde me with couetyse, my kynde to forsake, - Þat is larges and lewté þat longe[gh] to kny[gh]te[gh]. - Now am I fawty and falce, and ferde haf ben euer - Of trecherye and vntrawþe: boþe bityde sor[gh]e 315 - and care! - I biknowe yow, kny[gh]t, here stylle, - Al fawty is my fare; - Lete[gh] me ouertake your wylle - And efte I schal be ware.' 320 - Thenn lo[gh]e þat oþer leude, and luflyly sayde: - 'I halde hit hardily hole, þe harme þat I hade. - Þou art confessed so clene, beknowen of þy mysses, - And hat[gh] þe penaunce apert of þe poynt of myn egge, - I halde þe polysed of þat ply[gh]t, and pured as clene 325 - As þou hade[gh] neuer forfeted syþen þou wat[gh] fyrst borne; - And I gif þe, sir, þe gurdel þat is golde-hemmed, - For hit is grene as my goune. Sir Gawayne, [gh]e maye - Þenk vpon þis ilke þrepe, þer þou forth þrynge[gh] - Among prynces of prys; and þis a pure token 330 - Of þe chaunce _at_ þe grene chapel _of_ cheualrous kny[gh]te[gh]. - And [gh]e schal in þis nwe [gh]er a[gh]ayn to my wone[gh], - And we schyn reuel þe remnaunt of þis ryche fest - ful bene.' - Þer laþed hym fast þe lord, 335 - And sayde 'With my wyf, I wene, - We schal yow wel acorde, - Þat wat[gh] your enmy kene.' - 'Nay, for soþe,' quod þe segge, and sesed hys helme, - And hat[gh] hit of hendely, and þe haþel þonkke[gh], 340 - 'I haf soiorned sadly; sele yow bytyde! - And He [gh]elde hit yow [gh]are þat [gh]arkke[gh] al menskes! - And comaunde[gh] me to þat cortays, your comlych fere, - Boþe þat on and þat oþer myn honoured ladye[gh], - Þat þus hor kny[gh]t wyth hor kest han koyntly bigyled. 345 - Bot hit is no ferly þa[gh] a fole madde, - And þur[gh] wyles of wymmen be wonen to sor[gh]e, - For so wat[gh] Adam in erde with one bygyled, - And Salamon with fele sere, and Samson eftsone[gh] - Dalyda dalt hym hys wyrde, and Dauyth þerafter 350 - Wat[gh] blended with Barsabe, þat much bale þoled. - Now þese were wrathed wyth her wyles, hit were a wynne huge - To luf hom wel, and leue hem not, a leude þat couþe. - For þes wer forne þe freest, þat fol[gh]ed alle þe sele - Exellently of alle þyse oþer vnder heuenryche 355 - þat mused; - And alle þay were biwyled - With wymmen þat þay vsed. - Þa[gh] I be now bigyled, - Me þink me burde be excused.' 360 - -[Foot-note: 34 Hector] Hestor _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 37 dynge[gh]] dynne[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 63 not] mot _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 69 and] & & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 137 as] at _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 172 welcom] welcon _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 179 þy (1st)] þy þy _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 237 he] he he _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 322 hardily] hardilyly _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 331 _at... of_ (2nd)] _transposed in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 358 With] With wyth _MS._] - - - - -VI - -THE PEARL - -ABOUT 1375. - - -The facts leading to the presumption that _Pearl_ and _Sir Gawayne_ are -by the same author have been mentioned in the prefatory note to _Sir -Gawayne_. But the poems are markedly different in subject and tone. -_Pearl_, like Chaucer's _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, is an elegy cast -in the vision form made popular by the _Roman de la Rose_. The subject -is a little girl, who died before she was two years old, and the -treatment is deeply religious. Her death is symbolized as the loss of a -pearl without spot, that slipped from its owner's hand through the grass -into the earth. - -On a festival day in August, the poet, while mourning his loss, falls -asleep on his child's grave. His spirit passes to a land of flowers and -rich fruits, where birds of flaming hues sing incomparably, where the -cliffs are of crystal and beryl, and a river runs in a bed of gleaming -jewels. On the other side of the river, which is lovelier still, sits a -maiden dressed all in white, with coronet and ornaments of pearl. The -poet recognizes his lost child, but cannot call to her for wonder and -dread, until she rises and salutes him. He complains that since her loss -he has been a joyless jeweller. She rebukes him gently; she is not lost, -but made safe and beautiful for ever. Overjoyed, he says he will cross -the river and live with her in this paradise; but she warns him against -such presumption, for since Adam's fall the river may be crossed only by -the way of death. He is in despair to think that now that his Pearl is -found, he must still live joyless, apart from her; but he is bidden to -resign himself to God's will and mercy, because rebellion will avail him -nothing. - -At this point begins the argument on salvation by grace or salvation by -works which is here reprinted. - -The maiden then continues the discussion, explaining that 'the innocent -are ay safe by right', and that only those who come as little children -can win the bliss sought by the man who sold his all for a matchless -pearl. - -Next the poet asks whence her beauty comes, and what her office is. She -replies that she is one of the brides of Christ, whom St. John in the -Apocalypse saw arrayed for the bridal in the New Jerusalem. He asks to -see their mansions, and by special grace is allowed to view the holy -city from without. He sees it as St. John saw it, gleaming with gold, -with its pillars of precious stone, its gates of pearl; its streets -lighted by a divine radiance, so that there is no need of moon or sun. -There is no church or chapel or temple there: God himself is the -minister, and Christ is the sacrifice. Mortal eye could not bear the -splendour, and he stood 'as stylle as dased quayle'. At evening came the -procession of the virgin brides of Christ, each bearing on her breast -the pearl of perfect happiness. The Lamb leads them, in pearl-white -robes, his side bleeding, his face rapt; while elders make obeisance, -and angels sing songs of joy as He nears the throne of God. - -Suddenly the poet sees his Pearl among her companions. Overcome with -longing and delight, he tries to cross the river, only to wake in the -garden where he fell asleep. Henceforth he is resigned to the pleasure -of the Prince of Heaven. - -The reader will be able to judge the author's poetical gift from the -selection, which has been chosen as one of the less ornate passages. -Even here the form distracts attention from the matter by its -elaborateness. A difficult rime scheme is superimposed on the -alliterative line; stanza is interlinked with stanza; each group of five -stanzas is distinguished by a similar refrain, and bound to the -preceding and following groups by repetition in the first and last -lines. So too the close of the poem echoes the beginning. With such -intricacy of plan, it is not surprising that the rime is sometimes -forced, and the sense strained or obscure. It is rather a matter for -wonder that, in so long a work, the author was able to maintain his -marvellous technique without completely sacrificing poetry to metrical -gymnastics. - -The highly wrought, almost overwrought, effect is heightened when the -poem is read as a whole. If _Piers Plowman_ gives a realistic picture of -the drabness of mediaeval life, _Pearl_, more especially in the early -stanzas, shows a richness of imagery and a luxuriance in light and -colour that seem scarcely English. Yet they have their parallels in the -decorative art of the time--the elaborate carving in wood and stone; the -rich colouring of tapestries, of illuminated books and painted glass; -the designs of the jewellers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths, which even -the notaries who made the old inventories cannot pass without a word of -admiration. The _Pearl_ reminds us of the tribute due to the artists and -craftsmen of the fourteenth century. - -The edition by C. G. Osgood, Boston 1906, is the handiest. - - -THE PEARL, ll. 361-612. - -(MS. Cotton Nero A X (about 1400).) - - Thenne demed I to þat damyselle: - 'Ne worþe no wrathþe vnto my Lorde, - If rapely <I> raue, spornande in spelle; - My herte wat[gh] al wyth mysse remorde, - As wallande water got[gh] out of welle. 5 - I do me ay in Hys myserecorde; - Rebuke me neuer wyth worde[gh] felle, - Þa[gh] I forloyne, my dere endorde, - Bot _k_yþe[gh] me kyndely your coumforde, - Pytosly þenkande vpon þysse: 10 - Of care and me [gh]e made acorde, - Þat er wat[gh] grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'My blysse, my bale, [gh]e han ben boþe, - Bot much þe bygger [gh]et wat[gh] my mon; - Fro þou wat[gh] wroken fro vch a woþe, 15 - I wyste neuer quere my perle wat[gh] gon. - Now I hit se, now leþe[gh] my loþe; - And, quen we departed, we wern at on; - God forbede we be now wroþe, - We meten so selden by stok oþer ston. 20 - Þa[gh] cortaysly [gh]e carp con, - I am bot mol and ma_n_ere[gh] mysse; - Bot Crystes mersy, and Mary, and Ion, - Þise arn þe grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'In blysse I se þe blyþely blent, 25 - And I a man al mornyf mate; - [Gh]e take þeron ful lyttel tente, - Þa[gh] I hente ofte harme[gh] hate. - Bot now I am here in your presente, - I wolde bysech, wythouten debate, 30 - [Gh]e wolde me say in sobre asente - What lyf [gh]e lede erly and late. - For I am ful fayn þat your astate - Is worþen to worschyp and wele, iwysse; - Of alle my ioy þe hy[gh]e gate 35 - Hit is, _and_ grounde of alle my blysse.' - - 'Now blysse, burne, mot þe bytyde,' - Þen sayde þat lufsoum of lyth and lere, - 'And welcum here to walk and byde, - For now þy speche is to me dere. 40 - Maysterful mod and hy[gh]e pryde, - I hete þe, arn heterly hated here. - My Lorde ne loue[gh] not for to chyde, - For meke arn alle þat wone[gh] Hym nere; - And when in Hys place þou schal apere, 45 - Be dep deuote in hol mekenesse; - My Lorde þe Lamb loue[gh] ay such chere, - Þat is þe grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'A blysful lyf þou says I lede; - Þou wolde[gh] knaw þerof þe stage. 50 - Þow wost wel when þy perle con schede - I wat[gh] ful [gh]ong and tender of age; - Bot my Lorde þe Lombe, þur[gh] Hys Godhede, - He toke myself to Hys maryage, - Corounde me quene in blysse to brede 55 - In lenghe of daye[gh] þat euer schal wage; - And sesed in alle Hys herytage - Hys lef is, I am holy Hysse; - Hys prese, Hys prys, and Hys parage - Is rote and grounde of alle my blysse.' 60 - - 'Blysful,' quod I, 'may þys be trwe?-- - Dysplese[gh] not if I speke errour-- - Art þou þe quene of heuene[gh] blwe, - Þat al þys worlde schal do honour? - We leuen on Marye þat grace of grewe, 65 - Þat ber a barne of vyrgynflour; - Þe croune fro hyr quo mo[gh]t remwe - Bot ho hir passed in sum fauour? - Now, for synglerty o hyr dousour, - We calle hyr Fenyx of Arraby, 70 - Þat freles fle[gh]e of hyr fasor, - Lyk to þe quen of cortaysye.' - - 'Cortayse Quen,' þenne s<a>yde þat gaye, - Knelande to grounde, folde vp hyr face, - 'Makele[gh] Moder and myryest May, 75 - Blessed Bygynner of vch a grace!' - Þenne ros ho vp and con restay, - And speke me towarde in þat space: - 'Sir, fele here porchase[gh] and fonge[gh] pray, - Bot supplantore[gh] none wythinne þys place. 80 - Þat emperise al heuene[gh] hat[gh], - And vrþe and helle in her bayly; - Of erytage [gh]et non wyl ho chace, - For ho is quen of cortaysye. - - 'The court of þe kyndom of God alyue 85 - Hat[gh] a property in hytself beyng: - Alle þat may þerinne aryue - Of alle þe reme is quen oþer kyng, - And neuer oþer [gh]et schal depryue, - Bot vchon fayn of oþere[gh] hafyng, 90 - And wolde her coroune[gh] wern worþe þo fyue, - If possyble were her mendyng. - Bot my Lady, of quom Iesu con spryng, - Ho halde[gh] þe empyre ouer vus ful hy[gh]e; - And þat dysplese[gh] non of oure gyng, 95 - For ho is quene of cortaysye. - - 'Of courtaysye, as sayt[gh] Saynt Poule, - Al arn we membre[gh] of Iesu Kryst; - As heued and arme and legg and naule - Temen to hys body ful trwe and t<r>yste, 100 - Ry[gh]t so is vch a Krysten sawle - A longande lym to þe Mayster of myste. - Þenne loke what hate oþer any gawle - Is tached oþer ty[gh]ed þy lymme[gh] bytwyste: - Þy heued hat[gh] nauþer greme ne gryste 105 - On arme oþer fynger þa[gh] þou ber by[gh]e: - So fare we alle wyth luf and lyste - To kyng and quene by cortaysye.' - - 'Cortaysé,' quod I, 'I leue, - And charyté grete, be yow among, 110 - Bot my speche þat yow ne greue, - - * * * * * - - Þyself in heuen ouer hy[gh] þou heue, - To make þe quen þat wat[gh] so [gh]onge. - What more honour mo[gh]te he acheue 115 - Þat hade endured in worlde stronge, - And lyued in penaunce hys lyue[gh] longe, - Wyth bodyly bale hym blysse to byye? - What more worschyp mo[gh]t h_e_ fonge, - Þen corounde be kyng by cortaysé? 120 - - 'That cortaysé is to fre of dede, - [Gh]yf hyt be soth þat þou cone[gh] saye; - Þou lyfed not two [gh]er in oure þede; - Þou cowþe[gh] neuer God nauþer plese ne pray, - Ne neuer nawþer Pater ne Crede; 125 - And quen mad on þe fyrst day! - I may not traw, so God me spede, - Þat God wolde wryþe so wrange away; - Of countes, damysel, par ma fay! - Wer fayr in heuen to halde asstate, 130 - Aþer elle[gh] a lady of lasse aray; - Bot a quene!--hit is to dere a date.' - - 'Þer is no date of Hys godnesse,' - Þen sayde to me þat worþy wy[gh]te, - 'For al is trawþe þat He con dresse, 135 - And He may do no þynk bot ry[gh]t, - As Mathew mele[gh] in your messe, - In sothful Gospel of God Almy[gh]t, - In sample he can ful grayþely gesse, - And lykne[gh] hit to heuen ly[gh]te: 140 - "My regne," He sayt[gh], "is lyk on hy[gh]t - To a lorde þat hade a uyne, I wate. - Of tyme of [gh]ere þe terme wat[gh] ty[gh]t, - To labor vyne wat[gh] dere þe date. - - '"Þat date of [gh]ere wel knawe þys hyne. 145 - Þe lorde ful erly vp he ros, - To hyre werkmen to hys vyne, - And fynde[gh] þer summe to hys porpos. - Into acorde þay con declyne - For a pené on a day, and forth þay got[gh], 150 - Wryþen and worchen and don gret pyne, - Keruen and caggen and man hit clos. - Aboute vnder, þe lorde to marked tot[gh], - And ydel men stande he fynde[gh] þerate. - 'Why stande [gh]e ydel?' he sayde to þos; 155 - 'Ne knawe [gh]e of þis day no date?' - - '"'Er date of daye hider arn we wonne;' - So wat[gh] al samen her answar so[gh]t; - 'We haf standen her syn ros þe sunne, - And no mon bydde[gh] vus do ry[gh]t no[gh]t.' 160 - 'Gos into my vyne, dot[gh] þat [gh]e conne,' - So sayde þe lorde, and made hit to[gh]t; - 'What resonabele hyre be na[gh]t be runne - I yow pay in dede and þo[gh]te.' - Þay wente into þe vyne and wro[gh]te, 165 - And al day þe lorde þus [gh]ede his gate, - And nw men to hys vyne he bro[gh]te, - Welne[gh] wyl day wat[gh] passed date. - - '"At þe date of day of euensonge, - On oure byfore þe sonne go doun, 170 - He se[gh] þer ydel men ful stronge, - And sa<y>de to he_m_ wyth sobre soun: - 'Wy stonde [gh]e ydel þise daye[gh] longe?' - Þay sayden her hyre wat[gh] nawhere boun. - 'Got[gh] to my vyne, [gh]emen [gh]onge, 175 - And wyrke[gh] and dot[gh] þat at [gh]e moun.' - Sone þe worlde bycom wel broun, - Þe sunne wat[gh] doun, and hit wex late; - To take her hyre he mad sumoun; - Þe day wat[gh] al apassed date. 180 - - '"The date of þe daye þe lorde con knaw, - Called to þe reue: 'Lede, pay þe meyny; - Gyf hem þe hyre þat I hem owe; - And fyrre, þat non me may reprené, - Set hem alle vpon a rawe, 185 - And gyf vchon ilyche a peny; - Bygyn at þe laste þat stande[gh] lowe, - Tyl to þe fyrste þat þou atteny.' - And þenne þe fyrst bygonne to pleny, - And sayden þat þay hade trauayled sore: 190 - 'Þese bot on oure hem con streny; - Vus þynk vus o[gh]e to take more. - - '"'More haf we serued, vus þynk so, - Þat suffred han þe daye[gh] hete, - Þenn þyse þat wro[gh]t not houre[gh] two, 195 - And þou dot[gh] hem vus to counterfete.' - Þenne sayde þe lorde to on of þo: - 'Frende no waning I wyl þe [gh]ete; - Take þat is þyn owne and go. - And I hyred þe for a peny agrete, 200 - Quy bygynne[gh] þou now to þrete? - Wat[gh] not a pené þy couenaunt þore? - Fyrre þen couenaunde is no[gh]t to plete. - Wy schalte þou þenne ask more? - - '"'More weþer [+]louyly[+] is me my gyfte 205 - To do wyth myn quat so me lyke[gh]? - Oþer elle[gh] þyn y[gh]e to lyþer is lyfte - For I am goude and non byswyke[gh]?' - 'Þus schal I,' quod Kryste, 'hit skyfte: - Þe laste schal be þe fyrst þat stryke[gh], 210 - And þe fyrst be laste, be he neuer so swyft; - For mony ben calle<d>, þa[gh] fewe be myke[gh].'" - Þus pore men her part ay pyke[gh], - Þa[gh] þay com late and lyttel wore; - And þa[gh] her sweng wyth lyttel atslyke[gh], 215 - Þe merci of God is much þe more. - - 'More haf I of ioye and blysse hereinne, - Of ladyschyp gret and lyue[gh] blom, - Þen alle þe wy[gh]e[gh] in þe worlde my[gh]t wynne - By þe way of ry[gh]t to aske dome. 220 - Wheþer welnygh now I con bygynne-- - In euentyde into þe vyne I come-- - Fyrst of my hyre my Lorde con mynne, - I wat[gh] payed anon of al and sum. - [Gh]et oþer þer werne þat toke more tom, 225 - Þat swange and swat for long [gh]ore, - Þat [gh]et of hyre no þynk þay nom, - Paraunter no[gh]t schal to[gh]ere more.' - - Then more I meled and sayde apert: - 'Me þynk þy tale vnresounable; 230 - Godde[gh] ry[gh]t is redy and euermore rert, - Oþer Holy Wryt is bot a fable; - In Sauter is sayd a verce ouerte - Þat speke[gh] a poynt determynable: - "Þou quyte[gh] vchon as hys desserte, 235 - Þou hy[gh]e Kyng ay pretermynable." - Now he þat stod þe long day stable, - And þou to payment com hym byfore, - Þenne þe lasse in werke to take more able, - And euer þe lenger þe lasse þe more.' 240 - - 'Of more and lasse in Gode[gh] ryche,' - Þat gentyl sayde, 'lys no ioparde, - For þer is vch mon payed ilyche, - Wheþer lyttel oþer much be hys rewarde, - For þe gentyl Cheuentayn is no chyche; 245 - Queþersoeuer He dele nesch oþer harde, - He laue[gh] Hys gyfte[gh] as water of dyche, - Oþer gote[gh] of golf þat neuer charde. - Hys fraunchyse is large þat euer dard - To Hym þat mat[gh] in synne rescoghe; 250 - No blysse bet[gh] fro hem reparde, - For þe grace of God is gret inoghe. - -[Foot-note: 9 kyþe[gh]] lyþe[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 22 manere[gh]] marere[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 36 and] in _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 112 _a line omitted in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 119 he] ho _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 164 pay] pray _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 169 date of day] day of date _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 172 hem] hen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 178 and] & & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 186 ilyche] [=i]lyche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 243 ilyche] inlyche _MS._] - - - - -VII - -THE GEST HYSTORIALE OF THE -DESTRUCTION OF TROY - -ABOUT 1375. - - -The Fall of Troy was one of the most popular subjects of mediaeval -story. Lydgate wrote a _Troy Book_ about 1420; fragments of another are -attributed to 'Barbour', whose identity with the author of _The Bruce_ -has been questioned; a third version, anonymous, is known as the _Laud -Troy Book_; and Caxton chose as the first work to be printed in English -the _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_ (about 1474). More famous than -any of these full histories are two single stories detached from the -cycle: Jason's Quest of the Golden Fleece, which is admirably told by -Gower in the fifth book of his _Confessio Amantis_; and the Love of -Troilus and Cressida, which gave a theme both to Chaucer and to -Shakespeare. - -The _Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy_, from which our -extracts are taken, is a free rendering of the prose _Historia Troiana_ -finished in 1287 by Guido de Columna (most probably the modern Terranova -in Sicily). The translation, which appears to have been made in the -North or North-West Midlands in the second half of the fourteenth -century, is preserved only in an imperfect fifteenth-century MS. at the -Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. In the Early English Text Society's print, -edited by Panton and Donaldson, the text extends to over 14,000 lines. - -The table of contents prefixed to the MS. promises '_the nome of the -knight þat causet it_ [sc. _the story_] _to be made, and the nome of hym -that translatid it out of Latyn into Englysshe_'; but the extant MS. -does not fulfil the promise. The execution suggests a set task and a -journeyman poet. Phrases are repeated carelessly; there is a great deal -of padding; the versification is monotonous; and the writer is too often -at the mercy of the alliteration to maintain a serious level. Yet he is -not a slavish or a dull translator. The more romantic elements of the -story, such as the matter of the _Odyssey_, had already been whittled -away in his original, and he shows little desire or capacity to restore -them. But he knew as well as the Old English poets the forcefulness of -alliterative verse in scenes of violence, and describes with unflagging -zest and vigour the interminable battles of the siege, and storms such -as that which wrecked the fleet of Ajax. - -The Prologue is a curious example of the pseudo-critical attitude of the -Middle Ages. Homer is despised as a teller of impossible tales, and a -partisan of the Greeks,--for Hector is the popular hero of the mediaeval -versions. The narratives of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, -products of the taste for fictitious history that spread westward from -Greek-speaking lands in the fourth and following centuries, are accepted -as reliable documents; and Guido de Columna as their authoritative -literary interpreter. No mention is made of Benoît de Sainte-Maure, -whose _Roman de Troie_, written in French about 1184, served as source -to Guido, and, directly or indirectly, as inspiration to the whole body -of Western writers who dealt with the 'Matter of Troy'. For these lapses -the English translator need not be held responsible. On the merits of -Homer, Dares, Dictys, and Guido de Columna, he probably accepted without -question the word of his master Guido. - - -PROLOGUE. - - Maistur in magesté, Maker of alle, - Endles and on, euer to last! - Now, God, of þi grace, graunt me þi helpe, - And wysshe me with wyt þis werke for to ende - Off aunters ben olde of aunsetris nobill, 5 - And slydyn vppon shlepe by slomeryng of age; - Of stithe men in stoure, strongest in armes, - And wisest in wer, to wale in hor tyme, - Þat ben drepit with deth, and þere day paste, - And most out of mynd for þere mecull age. 10 - Sothe stories ben stoken vp, and straught out of mynde, - And swolowet into swym by swiftenes of yeres, - For new þat ben now next at our hond, - Breuyt into bokes for boldyng of hertes, - On lusti to loke with lightnes of wille, 15 - Cheuyt throughe chaunce and chaungyng of peopull; - Sum tru for to traist, triet in þe ende, - Sum feynit o fere and ay false vnder. - Yche wegh as he will warys his tyme, - And has lykyng to lerne þat hym list after. 20 - But olde stories of stithe þat astate helde - May be solas to sum þat it segh neuer, - Be writyng of wees þat wist it in dede, - With sight for to serche of hom þat suet after, - To ken all the crafte how þe case felle 25 - By lokyng of letturs þat lefte were of olde. - - Now of Troy for to telle is myn entent euyn, - Of the stoure and þe stryffe when it distroyet was. - Þof fele yeres ben faren syn þe fight endid, - And it meuyt out of mynd, myn hit I thinke, 30 - Alss wise men haue writen the wordes before, - Left it in Latyn for lernyng of us. - But sum poyetis full prist þat put hom þerto - With fablis and falshed fayned þere speche, - And made more of þat mater þan hom maister were. 35 - Sum lokyt ouer litle, and lympit of the sothe. - Amonges þat menye, to myn hym be nome, - Homer was holden haithill of dedis - Qwiles his dayes enduret, derrist of other, - Þat with the Grekys was gret, and of Grice comyn. 40 - He feynet myche fals was neuer before wroght, - And turnet þe truth, trust ye non other. - Of his trifuls to telle I haue no tome nowe, - Ne of his feynit fare þat he fore with: - How goddes foght in the filde, folke as þai were! 45 - And other errours vnable, þat after were knowen, - That poyetis of prise have preuyt vntrew: - Ouyde and othir þat onest were ay, - Virgille þe virtuus, verrit for nobill, - Thes dampnet his dedys, and for dull holdyn. 50 - But þe truth for to telle, and þe text euyn, - Of þat fight, how it felle in a few yeres, - Þat was clanly compilet with a clerk wise, - On Gydo, a gome þat graidly hade soght, - And wist all þe werks by weghes he hade, 55 - That bothe were in batell while the batell last, - And euþer sawte and assembly see with þere een. - Thai wrote all þe werkes wroght at þat tyme - In letturs of þere langage, as þai lernede hade: - Dares and Dytes were duly þere namys. 60 - Dites full dere was dew to the Grekys, - A lede of þat lond, and logede hom with. - The tother was a tulke out of Troy selfe, - Dares, þat duly the dedys behelde. - Aither breuyt in a boke on þere best wise, 65 - That sithen at a sité somyn were founden, - After, at Atthenes, as aunter befell. - The whiche bokes barely, bothe as þai were, - A Romayn ouerraght, and right hom hymseluyn, - That Cornelius was cald to his kynde name. 70 - He translated it into Latyn for likyng to here, - But he shope it so short þat no shalke might - Haue knowlage by course how þe case felle; - For he brought it so breff, and so bare leuyt, - Þat no lede might have likyng to loke þerappon; 75 - Till þis Gydo it gate, as hym grace felle, - And declaret it more clere, and on clene wise. - In this shall faithfully be founden, to the fer ende, - All þe dedis bydene as þai done were: - How þe groundes first grew, and þe grete hate, 80 - Bothe of torfer and tene þat hom tide aftur. - And here fynde shall ye faire of þe felle peopull: - What kynges þere come of costes aboute; - Of dukes full doughty, and of derffe erles, - That assemblid to þe citie þat sawte to defend; 85 - Of þe Grekys þat were gedret how gret was þe nowmber, - How mony knightes þere come, and kynges enarmede, - And what dukes thedur droghe for dedis of were; - What shippes þere were shene, and shalkes within, - Bothe of barges and buernes þat broght were fro Grese; 90 - And all the batels on bent þe buernes betwene; - What duke þat was dede throughe dyntes of hond, - Who fallen was in fylde, and how it fore after. - Bothe of truse and trayne þe truthe shalt þu here, - And all the ferlies þat fell, vnto the ferre ende. 95 - Fro this prologe I passe, and part me þerwith. - Frayne will I fer, and fraist of þere werkes, - Meue to my mater, and make here an ende. - -EXPLICIT PROLOGUE. - - -THE XXXI BOKE: OF THE PASSAGE OF THE -GREKYS FRO TROY (ll. 12463-12547). - - Hyt fell thus, by fortune, þe fairest of þe yere - Was past to the point of the pale wintur. 100 - Heruest, with the heite and the high sun, - Was comyn into colde, with a course low. - Trees, thurgh tempestes, tynde hade þere leues, - And briddes abatid of hor brem songe; - The wynde of the west wackenet aboue, 105 - Blowyng full bremly o the brode ythes; - The clere aire ouercast with cloudys full thicke, - With mystes full merke mynget with showres. - Flodes were felle thurgh fallyng of rayne, - And wintur vp wacknet with his wete aire. 110 - The gret nauy of the Grekes and the gay kynges - Were put in a purpos to pas fro the toune. - Sore longit þo lordis hor londys to se, - And dissiret full depely, doutyng no wedur. - Þai counted no course of the cold stormys, 115 - Ne the perellis to passe of the pale windes. - Hit happit hom full hard in a hondqwile, - And mony of þo mighty to misse of hor purpos. - Thus tho lordes in hor longyng laghton þe watur, - Shotton into ship mong shene knightes, 120 - With the tresowre of þe toune þai token before, - Relikes full rife, and miche ranke godes. - Clere was the course of the cold flodis, - And the firmament faire, as fell for the wintur. - Thai past on the pale se, puld vp hor sailes, 125 - Hadyn bir at þere backe, and the bonke leuyt. - Foure dayes bydene, and hor du nyghtis, - Ful soundly þai sailed with seasonable windes. - The fyft day fuersly fell at the none, - Sodonly the softe winde vnsoberly blew; 130 - A myste and a merkenes myngit togedur; - A thoner and a thicke rayne þrublet in the skewes, - With an ugsom noise, noy for to here; - All flasshet in a fire the firmament ouer; - Was no light but a laite þat launchit aboue: 135 - Hit skirmyt in the skewes with a skyre low, - Thurgh the claterand clowdes clos to the heuyn, - As the welkyn shuld walt for wodenes of hete; - With blastes full bigge of the breme wyndes, - Walt vp the waghes vpon wan hilles. 140 - Stith was the storme, stird all the shippes, - Hoppit on hegh with heste of the flodes. - The sea was unsober, sondrit the nauy, - Walt ouer waghes, and no way held, - Depertid the pepull, pyne to behold, 145 - In costes vnkowthe; cut down þere sailes, - Ropis al torochit, rent vp the hacches, - Topcastell ouerturnyt, takelles were lost. - The night come onone, noye was the more! - All the company cleane of the kyng Telamon, 150 - With þere shippes full shene, and þe shire godis, - Were brent in the bre with the breme lowe - Of the leymonde laite þat launchit fro heuyn, - And euyn drownet in the depe, dukes and other! - Oelius Aiax, as aunter befelle, 155 - Was stad in the storme with the stith windes, - With his shippes full shene and the shire godes. - Thrifty and þriuaund, thretty and two - There were brent on the buerne with the breme low, - And all the freikes in the flode floterand aboue. 160 - Hymseluyn in the sea sonkyn belyue, - Swalprit and swam with swyngyng of armys. - [Gh]et he launchet to londe, and his lyf hade, - Bare of his body, bretfull of water, - In the slober and the sluche slongyn to londe; 165 - There he lay, if hym list, the long night ouer, - Till the derke was done, and the day sprang; - Þare sum of his sort, þat soght were to lond - And than wonen of waghes, with wo as þai might, - Laited þere lord on the laund-syde, 170 - If hit fell h_y_m by fortune the flodes to passe. - Þan found þai the freike in the fome lye, - And comford hym kyndly, as þere kyd lord; - With worchip and wordes wan hym to fote. - Bothe failet hym the fode and the fyne clothes. 175 - Thus þere goddes with gremy with þe Grekes fore, - Mighty Myner<u>a, of malis full grete, - For Telamon, in tene, tid for to pull - Cassandra the clene out of hir cloise temple. - Thus hit fell hom by fortune of a foule ende, 180 - For greuyng þere goddes in hor gret yre. - Oftsythes men sayn, and sene is of olde, - Þat all a company is cumbrit for a cursed shrewe. - -[Foot-note: 168-9 _transposed in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 171 hym] hom _MS._] - - - - -VIII - -PIERS PLOWMAN - -(1362-1400) - -BY WILLIAM LANGLAND - - -Recent criticism of _Piers Plowman_ has done more to weaken the hold of -opinions once generally accepted than to replace them by others better -founded. It is still most probable that 'Long Will', who is more than -once mentioned in the text as the poet, was William Langland. The -earliest external evidence of his home and parentage is given in a -fifteenth-century note in MS. Dublin D 4. 1, of which both the matter -and the vile Latinity bear the stamp of genuineness: 'Memorandum quod -Stacy de Rokayle, pater Willielmi de Langlond, qui Stacius fuit -generosus, et morabatur in Schiptone under Whicwode, tenens domini le -Spenser in comitatu Oxon., qui praedictus Willielmus fecit librum qui -vocatur Perys Ploughman.' Shipton-under-Wychwood is near Burford in -Oxfordshire. The poem shows familiarity with the Malvern Hills and the -streets of London; but it is hard to say how much is fact and how much -is fiction in the references to Long Will in the text itself, more -especially the description of his London life added as the Sixth Passus -in Version C, and reproduced here as the second extract. - -Since Skeat's edition for the Early English Text Society, the many -manuscripts have been grouped into three main types. The shortest, or -A-text, appears from internal evidence to have been written about 1362. -The B-text (about 1377) has the most compact manuscript tradition. It is -distinguished by considerable additions throughout, and by the -reconstruction and expansion of the visions of Dowel, Dobet, Dobest, -which make up the second half of the poem. The C-text, the latest and -fullest form, appears to have been completed in the last decade of the -fourteenth century. - -Until recently it has been assumed that these three versions represent -progressive revisions by the author. But Professor Manly has found -considerable support for his view that more than one writer--perhaps as -many as five--had a share in the work. For the present, judgement on -this question, and on the intricate problem of the relations of the -different versions, is suspended until the results of a complete -re-examination of all the MSS. are available. It would not be surprising -to find that even when this necessary work is done differences of -opinion on the larger questions remain as acute as ever. - -It is impossible in short space to give an outline of the whole work, -which describes no less than eleven visions. The structure is loose, and -allegory is developed or dropped with disconcerting abruptness, for the -writer does not curb his vigorous imagination in the interests of formal -correctness. - -The first part is the best known. On a May morning the poet falls asleep -on the Malvern Hills and sees a 'Field full of Folk', where all classes -of men are busy about their occupations, more particularly the nefarious -occupations that engage the attention of the moralist. Holy Church -explains that a high tower in the Field is the home of Truth; and that a -'deep dale' is the Castle of Care, where Wrong dwells with the wicked. -She points out Falseness, who is about to marry Lady Meed (i.e. Reward, -whether deserved reward or bribe). Lady Meed and her company are haled -before the King, who, with Reason and Conscience as his guides, decides -her case, and upholds the plea of Peace against Wrong. - -The second vision is prefaced (in the C-text only) by the passage -printed as the second selection. The poet falls asleep again, and sees -Conscience preaching to the people in the Field. Representatives of the -Seven Deadly Sins are vividly described. They are brought to penitence, -and all set out in search of Truth. But no one knows the way. A palmer -who wears the trophies of many pilgrimages to distant saints is puzzled -by their inquiries, for he has never heard of pilgrims seeking Truth. -Then Peter the Plowman comes forward and explains the way in -allegorical terms. Here the first extract begins. The second vision -closes with a general pardon given by Truth to Piers Plowman in this -simple form: - - Do wel, and haue wel, and God shal haue þi sowle; - And do yuel, and haue yuel, hope þow non other - But after þi ded-day þe Deuel shal haue þi sowle. - -The several visions of the second part make up the lives of -Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest. Piers Plowman is there identified -with Christ, and the poem ends with Conscience, almost overcome -by sin, setting out resolutely in search of Piers. - -First impressions of mediaeval life are usually coloured by the -courtly romances of Malory and his later refiners. Chaucer -brings us down to reality, but his people belong to a prosperous -middle-class world, on holiday and in holiday mood. _Piers Plowman_ -stands alone as a revelation of the ignorance and misery of -the lower classes, whose multiplied grievances came to a head in -the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It must not be supposed that -Langland idealized the labourers. Their indolence and improvidence -are exposed as unsparingly as the vices of the rich; and -Piers himself is not so much a representative of the English workman -in the fourteenth century as a character drawn straight -from the Gospels. Still, such an eager plea for humbleness, simplicity, -and honest labour, could not fail to encourage the political -hopes of the poor, and we see in John Ball's letter (p. 160) that -'Piers Plowman' had become a catchword among them. The -poet himself rather deprecates political action. His satire is -directed against the general slackening of the bonds of duty that -marked the last years of an outworn system of society. For the -remedy of abuses he appeals not to one class but to all: king, -nobles, clergy, and workers must model their lives on the pattern -of the Gospels. - - -A. FROM THE B-TEXT, PASSUS VI. - -Bodleian MS. Laud 581 (about 1400). - - 'This were a wikked way, but whoso hadde a gyde - That wolde folwen vs eche a fote:' þus þis folke hem mened. - Quat[gh] Perkyn þe plouman: 'Bi Seynt Peter of Rome! - I haue an half-acre to erye bi þe heigh way. - Hadde I eried þis half-acre, and sowen it after, 5 - I w_o_l_de_ wende with [gh]ow, and þe way teche.' - 'Þis were a longe lettynge,' quod a lady in a sklayre; - 'What sholde we wommen worche þerewhiles?' - 'Somme shal sowe <þe> sakke,' quod Piers, 'for shedyng - of þe whete; - And [gh]e, louely ladyes, with [gh]oure longe fyngres, 10 - Þat [gh]e han silke and sendal to sowe, whan tyme is, - Chesibles for chapelleynes, cherches to honoure; - Wyues and wydwes wolle and flex spynneth, - Maketh cloth, I conseille [gh]ow, and kenneth so - [gh]owre dou[gh]tres; - Þe nedy and þe naked, nymmeth hede how hii liggeth, 15 - And casteth hem clothes, for so comaundeth Treuthe. - For I shal lene hem lyflode, but [gh]if þe londe faille, - Flesshe and bred, bothe to riche and to pore, - As longe as I lyue, for þe Lordes loue of heuene. - And alle manere of men þat þorw mete and drynke lybbeth, 20 - Helpith hym to worche wi[gh]tliche þat wynneth [gh]owre fode.' - 'Bi Crist!' quod a kny[gh]te þo, 'he kenneth vs þe best; - Ac on þe teme trewly tau[gh]te was I neuere. - Ac kenne me,' quod þe kny[gh]te, 'and, bi Cryst! I wil assaye.' - 'Bi seynt Poule!' quod Perkyn, '[gh]e profre [gh]ow so - faire, 25 - Þat I shal swynke, and swete, and sowe for vs bothe, - And oþer laboures do for þi loue al my lyf tyme, - In couenaunt þat þow kepe Holi Kirke and myselue - Fro wastoures and fro wykked men þat þis worlde struyeth; - And go hunte hardiliche to hares and to foxes, 30 - To bores and to brockes þat breketh adown myne hegges, - And go affaite þe faucones wilde foules to kille, - For suche cometh to my croft, and croppeth my whete.' - Curteislich þe kny[gh]te þanne comsed þise wordes: - 'By my power, Pieres,' quod he, 'I pli[gh]te þe my treuthe 35 - To fulfille þis forward, þow[gh] I fi[gh]te sholde; - Als longe as I lyue, I shal þe mayntene.' - '[Gh]e, and [gh]it a poynt,' quod Pieres, 'I preye [gh]ow - of more; - Loke [gh]e tene no tenaunt, but Treuthe wil assent. - And þowgh [gh]e mowe amercy hem, late Mercy be taxoure, 40 - And Mekenesse þi mayster, maugré Medes chekes; - And þowgh pore men profre [gh]ow presentis and [gh]iftis, - Nym it nau[gh]te, an auenture [gh]e mowe it nau[gh]te deserue; - For þow shalt [gh]elde it a[gh]ein at one [gh]eres ende - In a ful perillous place, Purgatorie it hatte. 45 - And mysbede nou[gh]te þi bondemen, þe better may þow spede; - Þowgh he be þyn vnderlynge here, wel may happe in heuene - Þat he worth worthier sette and with more blisse: - _Amice, ascende superius_. - For in charnel atte chirche cherles ben yuel to knowe, 50 - Or a kni[gh]te fram a knaue þere,--knowe þis in þin herte. - And þat þow be trewe of þi tonge, and tales þat þow hatie, - But if þei ben of wisdome or of witte, þi werkmen to chaste. - Holde with none harlotes, ne here nou[gh]te her tales, - And nameliche atte mete suche men eschue, 55 - For it ben þe deueles disoures, I do þe to vnderstande.' - 'I assente, bi Seynt Iame!' seyde þe kni[gh]te þanne, - 'Forto worche bi þi wordes þe while my lyf dureth.' - 'And I shal apparaille me,' quod Perkyn, 'in pilgrimes wise, - And wende with [gh]ow I wil til we fynde Treuthe, 60 - And cast on me my clothes, yclouted and hole, - My cokeres and my coffes, for colde of my nailles, - And hange myn hoper at myn hals, in stede of a scrippe, - A busshel of bredcorne brynge me þerinne, - For I wil sowe it myself; and sitthenes wil I wende 65 - To pylgrymage, as palmers don, pardoun forto haue. - Ac whoso helpeth me to erie or sowen here, ar I wende, - Shal haue leue, bi owre Lorde, to lese here in heruest, - And make hem mery þeremydde, maugré whoso bigruccheth it. - And alkyn crafty men, þat konne lyuen in treuthe, 70 - I shal fynden hem fode, þat feithfulliche libbeth.'... - (Dame 'Worche-whan-tyme-is' Pieres wyf hi[gh]te; - His dou[gh]ter hi[gh]te 'Do-ri[gh]te-so- or-þi-dame-shal-þe-bete'; - His sone hi[gh]te 'Suffre-þi-souereynes- to-hauen-her-wille-, - Deme-hem-nou[gh]te-, for-, if-þow-doste-, - þow-shalt-it-dere-abugge.') 75 - 'Late God yworth with al, for so His worde techeth; - For now I am olde and hore, and haue of myn owen, - To penaunce and to pilgrimage I wil passe with þise other. - Forþi I wil, or I wende, do wryte my biqueste. - _In Dei nomine, amen_, I make it myseluen. 80 - He shal haue my soule þat best hath yserued it, - And fro þe fende it defende, for so I bileue, - Til I come to His acountes, as my _Credo_ me telleth, - To haue a relees and a remissioun on þat rental I leue. - Þe kirke shal haue my caroigne and kepe my bones, 85 - For of my corne and catel he craued þe tythe; - I payed it hym prestly, for peril of my soule, - Forthy is he holden, I hope, to haue me in his masse, - And mengen in his memorye amonge alle Crystene. - My wyf shal haue of þat I wan with treuthe, and nomore, 90 - And dele amonge my dou[gh]tres and my dere children; - For þowgh I deye todaye, my dettes ar quitte; - I bare home þat I borwed, ar I to bedde [gh]ede. - And with þe residue and þe remenaunte, bi þe rode of Lukes! - I wil worschip þerwith Treuthe bi my lyue, 95 - And ben his pilgryme atte plow, for pore mennes sake. - My plow-fote shal be my pyk-staf, and picche atwo þe rotes, - And helpe my culter to kerue, and clense þe forwes.' - Now is Perkyn and his pilgrymes to þe plowe faren; - To erie þis halue-acre holpyn hym manye. 100 - Dikeres and delueres digged vp þe balkes; - Þerewith was Perkyn apayed, and preysed hem faste. - Other werkemen þere were þat wrou[gh]ten ful [gh]erne; - Eche man in his manere made hymself to done, - And some, to plese Perkyn, piked vp þe wedes. 105 - At heighe pryme Peres lete þe plowe stonde, - To ouersen hem hymself, and whoso best wrou[gh]te - He shulde be huyred þerafter whan heruest-tyme come. - And þanne seten somme and songen atte nale, - And hulpen erie his half-acre with 'how! trollilolli!' 110 - 'Now, bi þe peril of my soule!' quod Pieres, al in pure tene, - 'But [gh]e arise þe rather, and rape [gh]ow to worche, - Shal no greyne þat groweth glade [gh]ow at nede; - And þough [gh]e deye for dole, þe deuel haue þat reccheth!' - Tho were faitoures aferde, and feyned hem blynde; 115 - Somme leyde here legges aliri, as suche loseles conneth, - And made her mone to Pieres, and preyde hym of grace: - 'For we haue no lymes to laboure with, lorde, ygraced be [gh]e! - Ac we preye for [gh]ow, Pieres, and for [gh]owre plow bothe, - Þat God of His grace [gh]owre grayne multiplye, 120 - And [gh]elde [gh]ow of [gh]owre almesse þat [gh]e [gh]iue - vs here; - For we may nou[gh]te swynke ne swete, suche sikenesse vs eyleth.' - 'If it be soth,' quod Pieres, 'þat [gh]e seyne, I shal it sone - asspye. - [Gh]e ben wastoures, I wote wel, and Treuthe wote þe sothe, - And I am his olde hyne, and hi[gh]te hym to warne 125 - Which þei were in þis worlde his werkemen appeyred. - [Gh]e wasten þat men wynnen with trauaille and with tene, - Ac Treuthe shal teche [gh]ow his teme to dryue, - Or [gh]e shal ete barly bred and of þe broke drynke. - But if he be blynde, _or_ broke-legged, or bolted with - yrnes, 130 - He shal ete whete bred and drynke with myselue, - Tyl God of his goodnesse amendement hym sende. - Ac [gh]e my[gh]te trauaille as Treuthe wolde, and take mete - and huyre - To kepe kyne in þe felde, þe corne fro þe bestes, - Diken, or deluen, or dyngen vppon sheues, 135 - Or helpe make morter, or bere mukke afelde. - In lecherye an in losengerye [gh]e lyuen, and in sleuthe, - And al is þorw suffrance þat veniaunce [gh]ow ne taketh. - Ac ancres and heremytes, þat eten but at nones, - And namore er morwe, myne almesse shul þei haue, 140 - And of my catel to cope hem with þat han cloistres and - cherches. - Ac Robert Renne-aboute shal nou[gh]e haue of myne, - Ne posteles, but þey preche conne, and haue powere of þe - bisschop; - They shal haue payne and potage, and make hemself at ese, - For it is an vnresonable religioun þat hath ri[gh]te - nou[gh]te of certeyne.' 145 - And þanne gan a Wastoure to wrath hym, and wolde haue - yfou[gh]te, - And to Pieres þe plowman he profered his gloue; - A Brytonere, a braggere, abosted Pieres als:-- - 'Wiltow or neltow, we wil haue owre wille - Of þi flowre and of þi flessche, fecche whan vs liketh, 150 - And make vs myrie þermyde, maugré þi chekes!' - Thanne Pieres þe plowman pleyned hym to þe kny[gh]te, - To kepe hym, as couenaunte was, fram cursed shrewes, - And fro þis wastoures wolues-kynnes, þat maketh þe worlde - dere: - 'For þo waste, and wynnen nou[gh]te, and þat ilke while 155 - Worth neuere plenté amonge þe poeple þerwhile my plow - liggeth.' - Curteisly þe kny[gh]te þanne, as his kynde wolde, - Warned Wastoure, and wissed hym bettere, - 'Or þow shalt abugge by þe lawe, by þe ordre þat I bere!' - 'I was nou[gh]t wont to worche,' quod Wastour, 'and now - wil I nou[gh]t bigynne', 160 - And lete li[gh]te of þe lawe, and lasse of þe kny[gh]te, - And sette Pieres at a pees, and his plow bothe, - And manaced Pieres and his men [gh]if þei mette eftsone. - 'Now, by þe peril of my soule!' quod Pieres, 'I shal apeyre - [gh]ow alle!' - And houped after Hunger, þat herd hym atte firste: 165 - 'Awreke me of þise wastoures,' quod he 'þat þis worlde - schendeth!' - Hunger in haste þo hent Wastour bi þe mawe, - And wronge hym so bi þe wombe þat bothe his eyen wattered. - He buffeted þe Britoner aboute þe chekes, - Þat he loked like a lanterne al his lyf after. 170 - He bette hem so bothe, he barste nere here guttes; - Ne hadde Pieres with a pese-lof preyed Hunger to cesse, - They hadde ben doluen bothe, ne deme þow non other. - 'Suffre hem lyue,' he seyde 'and lete hem ete with hogges, - Or elles benes and bren ybaken togideres, 175 - Or elles melke and mene ale;' þus preyed Pieres for hem. - Faitoures for fere herof flowen into bernes, - And flapten on with flayles fram morwe til euen, - That Hunger was nou[gh]t so hardy on hem for to loke, - For a potful of peses þat Peres hadde ymaked. 180 - An heep of heremites henten hem spades, - And ketten here copes, and courtpies hem made, - And wenten as werkemen with spades and with schoueles, - And doluen and dykeden to dryue aweye Hunger. - Blynde and bedreden were botened a þousande, 185 - Þat seten to begge syluer; sone were þei heled. - For þat was bake for Bayarde was bote for many hungry, - And many a beggere for benes buxome was to swynke, - And eche a pore man wel apayed to haue pesen for his huyre, - And what Pieres preyed hem to do as prest as a sperhauke. 190 - And þereof was Peres proude, and put hem to werke, - And [gh]af hem mete as he my[gh]te aforth, and mesurable - huyre. - Þanne hadde Peres pité, and preyed Hunger to wende - Home into his owne erde, and holden hym þere: - 'For I am wel awroke now of wastoures, þorw þi my[gh]te. 195 - Ac I preye þe, ar þow passe,' quod Pieres to Hunger, - 'Of beggeres and of bidderes what best be <to> done? - For I wote wel, be þow went, þei wil worche ful ille; - For myschief it maketh þei beth so meke nouthe, - And for defaute of her fode þis folke is at my wille. 200 - Þey are my blody bretheren,' quod Pieres, 'for God bou[gh]te - vs alle; - Treuthe tau[gh]te me ones to louye hem vchone, - And to helpen hem of alle þinge ay as hem nedeth. - And now wolde I witen of þe what were þe best, - An how I my[gh]te amaistrien hem, and make hem to worche.' 205 - 'Here now,' quod Hunger 'and holde it for a wisdome: - Bolde beggeres and bigge, þat mowe her bred biswynke, - With houndes bred and hors bred holde vp her hertis, - Abate hem with benes for bollyng of her wombe; - And [gh]if þe gomes grucche, bidde hem go swynke, 210 - And he shal soupe swettere whan he it hath deseruid. - And if þow fynde any freke, þat fortune hath appeyred - Or any maner fals men, fonde þow suche to cnowe; - Conforte hym with þi catel, for Crystes loue of heuene; - Loue hem and lene hem, so lawe of God techeth:-- 215 - _Alter alterius onera portate_. - And alle maner of men þat þow my[gh]te asspye - That nedy ben and nau[gh]ty, helpe hem with þi godis; - Loue hem, and lakke hem nou[gh]te; late God take þe veniaunce; - Theigh þei done yuel, late þow God aworthe:-- 220 - _Michi vindictam, et ego retribuam_. - And if þow wil be graciouse to God, do as þe Gospel techeth, - And bilow þe amonges low men; so shaltow lacche grace:-- - _Facite vobis amicos de mamona iniquitatis_.' - 'I wolde nou[gh]t greue God,' quod Piers, 'for al þe good on - grounde; 225 - Mi[gh]te I synnelees do as þow seist?' seyde Pieres þanne. - '[Gh]e, I bihote þe,' quod Hunger, 'or ellis þe Bible lieth; - Go to Genesis þe gyaunt, þe engendroure of vs alle:-- - "_In sudore_ and swynke þow shalt þi mete tilye, - And laboure for þi lyflode," and so owre Lorde hy[gh]te. 230 - And Sapience seyth þe same, I seigh it in þe Bible:-- - "_Piger pro frigore_ no felde nolde tilye, - And þerfore he shal begge and bidde, and no man bete his hunger." - Mathew with mannes face mouthed þise wordis:-- - Þat _seruus nequam_ had a nam, and for he wolde nou[gh]te - chaffare, 235 - He had maugré of his maistre for euermore after, - And binam <hym> his mnam, for he ne wolde worche, - And [gh]af þat mnam to hym þat ten mnames hadde; - And with þat he seyde, þat Holi Cherche it herde, - "He þat hath shal haue, and helpe þere it nedeth, 240 - And he þat nou[gh]t hath shal nou[gh]t haue, and no man hym - helpe; - And þat he weneth wel to haue, I wil it hym bireue." - Kynde Witt wolde þat eche a wyght wrou[gh]te, - Or in dykynge, or in deluynge, or trauaillynge in preyeres, - Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf, Cryst wolde men wrou[gh]te. 245 - Þe Sauter seyth in þe psalme of _Beati omnes_, - Þe freke þat fedeth hymself with his feythful laboure, - He is blessed by þe boke, in body and in soule:-- - _Labores manuum tuarum, etc._' - '[Gh]et I prey [gh]ow,' quod Pieres, '_par charité!_ and - [gh]e kunne 250 - Eny leef of lechecraft, lere it me, my dere. - For somme of my seruaunt[gh], and myself bothe, - Of al a wyke worche nou[gh]t, so owre wombe aketh.' - 'I wote wel,' quod Hunger, 'what sykenesse [gh]ow eyleth; - [Gh]e han maunged ouermoche, and þat maketh [gh]ow grone. 255 - Ac I hote þe,' quod Hunger, 'as þow þyne hele wilnest, - That þow drynke no day ar þow dyne somwhat. - Ete nou[gh]te, I hote þe, ar hunger þe take, - And sende þe of his sauce to sauoure with þi lippes; - And kepe some tyl sopertyme, and sitte nou[gh]t to longe; 260 - Arise vp ar appetit haue eten his fulle. - Lat nou[gh]t Sire Surfait sitten at þi borde.... - And [gh]if þow diete þe þus, I dar legge myne eres - Þat Phisik shal his furred hodes for his fode selle, - And his cloke of Calabre, with alle þe knappes of golde, 265 - And be fayne, bi my feith, his phisik to lete, - And lerne to laboure with londe, for lyflode is swete; - For morthereres aren mony leches, Lorde hem amende! - Þei do men deye þorw here drynkes, ar Destiné it wolde.' - 'By Seynt Poule!' quod Pieres, 'þise aren profitable - wordis. 270 - Wende now, Hunger, whan þow wolt, þat wel be þow euere, - For this is a louely lessoun; Lorde it þe for[gh]elde!' - 'Byhote God,' quod Hunger, 'hennes ne wil I wende, - Til I haue dyned bi þis day, and ydronke bothe.' - 'I haue no peny,' quod Peres 'poletes forto bigge, 275 - Ne neyther gees ne grys, but two grene cheses, - A fewe cruddes and creem, and an hauer-cake, - And two loues of benes and bran ybake for my fauntis; - And [gh]et I sey, by my soule, I haue no salt bacoun - Ne no kokeney, bi Cryst, coloppes forto maken. 280 - Ac I haue percil, and porettes, and many koleplantes, - And eke a cow and a kalf, and a cart-mare - To drawe afelde my donge þe while þe drought lasteth. - And bi þis lyflode we mot lyue til Lammasse tyme; - And bi þat I hope to haue heruest in my croft, 285 - And þanne may I di[gh]te þi dyner as me dere liketh.' - Alle þe pore peple þo pesecoddes fetten, - Benes and baken apples þei brou[gh]te in her lappes, - Chibolles and cheruelles and ripe chiries manye, - And profred Peres þis present to plese with Hunger. 290 - Al Hunger eet in hast, and axed after more. - Þanne pore folke for fere fedde Hunger [gh]erne - With grene poret and pesen--to poysoun Hunger þei þou[gh]te. - By þat it neighed nere heruest, newe corne cam to chepynge; - Þanne was folke fayne, and fedde Hunger with þe best, 295 - With good ale, as Glotoun tau[gh]te, and gerte Hunger go - slepe. - And þo wolde Wastour nou[gh]t werche, but wandren aboute, - Ne no begger ete bred that benes inne were, - But of coket, or clerematyn, or elles of clene whete, - Ne none halpeny ale in none wise drynke, 300 - But of þe best and of þe brounest þat in borgh is to selle. - Laboreres þat haue no lande to lyue on but her handes, - Deyned nou[gh]t to dyne aday ny[gh]t-olde wortes; - May no peny-ale hem paye, ne no pece of bakoun, - But if it be fresch flesch, other fische, fryed other bake, 305 - And that _chaude_ or _plus chaud_, for chillyng of here mawe. - And but if he be heighlich huyred, ellis wil he chyde, - And þat he was werkman wrou[gh]t waille þe tyme; - A[gh]eines Catones conseille comseth he to iangle:-- - _Paupertatis onus pacienter ferre memento_. 310 - He greueth hym a[gh]eines God, and gruccheth a[gh]eines resoun, - And þanne curseth he þe kynge, and al his conseille after, - Suche lawes to loke, laboreres to greue. - Ac whiles Hunger was her maister, þere wolde none of hem - chyde, - Ne stryue a[gh]eines his statut, so sterneliche he loked. 315 - Ac I warne [gh]ow, werkemen, wynneth while [gh]e mowe, - For Hunger hide<r>ward hasteth hym faste, - He shal awake with water wastoures to chaste. - Ar fyue <[gh]ere> be fulfilled suche famyn shal aryse, - Thorwgh flodes and þourgh foule wederes frutes shul faille; 320 - And so sayde Saturne, and sent [gh]ow to warne: - Whan [gh]e se þe sonne amys, and two monkes hedes, - And a mayde haue þe maistrie, and multiplied bi eight, - Þanne shal Deth withdrawe, and Derthe be Iustice, - And Dawe þe Dyker deye for hunger, 325 - But if God of his goodnesse graunt vs a trewe. - -[Foot-note: 6 wolde] wil _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 130 or] and _MS._] - - -B. FROM THE C-TEXT, PASSUS VI, ll. 1-104. - -MS. Phillips 8231 (about 1400). - - Thus ich awaked, wot God, wanne ich wonede on Cornehulle, - Kytte and ich in a cote, cloþed as a lollere, - And lytel _ylete_ by, leyue me for soþe, - Among lollares of London and lewede heremytes; - For ich made of þo men as Reson me tauhte. 5 - For as ich cam by Conscience, wit Reson ich mette, - In an hote heruest, wenne ich hadde myn hele, - And lymes to labore with, and louede wel fare, - And no dede to do bote drynke and to slepe: - In hele and in vnité on me aposede, 10 - Romynge in remembraunce, thus Reson me aratede:-- - 'Canstow seruen,' he seide, 'oþer syngen in a churche, - Oþer coke for my cokers, oþer to þe cart picche, - Mowe, oþer mowen, oþer make bond to sheues, - Repe, oþer be a repereyue, and aryse erliche, 15 - Oþer haue an horne and be haywarde, and liggen oute a nyghtes, - And kepe my corn in my croft fro pykers and þeeues? - Oþer shappe shon oþer cloþes, oþer shep oþer kyn kepe, - <H>eggen oþer harwen, oþer swyn oþer gees dryue, - Oþer eny kyns craft þat to þe comune nudeþ, 20 - Hem þat bedreden be bylyue to fynde?' - 'Certes,' ich seyde, 'and so me God helpe, - Ich am to waik to worche with sykel oþer with sythe, - And to long, leyf me, lowe for to stoupe, - To worchen as a workeman eny wyle to dure.' 25 - 'Thenne hauest þow londes to lyue by,' quath Reson, 'oþer - lynage riche - That fynden þe þy fode? For an hydel man þow semest, - A spendour þat spende mot, oþer a spille-tyme, - Oþer beggest þy bylyue aboute ate menne hacches, - Oþer faitest vpon Frydays oþer feste-dayes in churches, 30 - The wiche is lollarene lyf, þat lytel ys preysed - Þer Ryghtfulnesse rewardeþ ryght as men deserueþ:-- - _Reddit unicuique iuxta opera sua_. - Oþer þow ert broke, so may be, in body oþer in membre, - Oþer ymaymed þorw som myshap werby þow my[gh]t be excused?' 35 - 'Wanne ich [gh]ong was,' quath ich, 'meny [gh]er hennes, - My fader and my frendes founden me to scole, - Tyl ich wiste wyterliche wat Holy Wryt menede, - And wat is best for þe body, as þe Bok telleþ, - And sykerest for þe soule, by so ich wolle continue. 40 - And [gh]ut fond ich neuere, in faith, sytthen my frendes - deyden, - Lyf þat me lyked, bote in þes longe clothes. - Hyf ich by laboure sholde lyue and lyflode deseruen, - That labour þat ich lerned best þer_with_ lyue ich sholde:-- - _In eadem uocatione qua uocati estis_. 45 - And ich lyue in Londene and on Londen bothe; - The lomes þat ich laboure with and lyflode deserue - Ys _Paternoster_, and my Prymer, _Placebo_ and _Dirige_, - And my Sauter som tyme, and my Seuene Psalmes. - Thus ich synge for hure soules of suche as me helpen, 50 - And þo þat fynden me my fode vochen saf, ich trowe, - To be wolcome wanne ich come oþerwyle in a monthe, - Now with hym and now with hure; and þusgate ich begge - Withoute bagge oþer botel bote my wombe one. - And also, moreouer, me þynkeþ, syre Reson, 55 - Men sholde constreyne no clerke to knauene werkes; - For by lawe of _Leuitici_, þat oure Lord ordeynede, - Clerkes þat aren crouned, of kynde vnderstondyng, - Sholde noþer swynke, ne swete, ne swere at enquestes, - Ne fyghte in no vauntwarde, ne hus fo greue:-- 60 - _Non reddas malum pro malo_. - For it ben aires of heuene alle þat ben crounede, - And in queer in churches Cristes owene mynestres:-- - _Dominus pars hereditatis mee_; & alibi: _Clementia non - constringit_. - Hit bycomeþ for clerkus Crist for to seruen, 65 - And knaues vncrouned to cart and to worche. - For shold no clerk be crouned bote yf he ycome were - Of franklens and free men, and of folke yweddede. - Bondmen and bastardes and beggers children, - Thuse bylongeþ to labour, and lordes children sholde seruen, 70 - Bothe God and good men, as here degree askeþ; - Some to synge masses, oþer sitten and wryte, - Rede and receyue þat Reson ouhte spende; - And sith bondemenne barnes han be mad bisshopes, - And barnes bastardes han ben archidekenes, 75 - And sopers and here sones for seluer han be knyghtes, - And lordene sones here laborers, and leid here rentes to wedde, - For þe ryght of þes reame ryden a[gh]ens oure enemys, - In confort of þe comune and þe kynges worshep, - And monkes and moniales, þat mendinauns sholden fynde, 80 - Han mad here kyn knyghtes, and knyghtfees purchase<d>, - Popes and patrones poure gentil blod refuseþ, - And taken Symondes sone seyntewarie to kepe. - Lyf-holynesse and loue han ben longe hennes, - And wole, til hit be wered out, or oþerwise ychaunged. 85 - Forþy rebuke me ryght nouht, Reson, ich [gh]ow praye; - For in my conscience ich knowe what Crist wolde þat ich wrouhte. - Preyers of <a> parfyt man and penaunce discret - Ys þe leueste labour þat oure Lord pleseþ. - _Non de solo_,' ich seide, 'for soþe _uiuit homo, 90 - Nec in pane et pabulo_, þe _Paternoster_ witnesseþ: - _Fiat uoluntas tua_ fynt ous alle þynges.' - Quath Conscience, 'By Crist! ich can nat see this lyeþ; - Ac it semeth nouht parfytnesse in cytees for to begge, - Bote he be obediencer to pryour oþer to mynstre.' 95 - 'That ys soth,' ich seide 'and so ich byknowe - That ich haue tynt tyme, and tyme mysspended; - And [gh]ut, ich hope, as he þat ofte haueþ chaffared, - Þat ay hath lost and lost, and at þe laste hym happed - He bouhte suche a bargayn he was þe bet euere, 100 - And sette hus lost at a lef at þe laste ende, - Suche a wynnynge hym warth þorw wyrdes of hus grace:-- - _Simile est regnum celorum thesauro abscondito in agro, et - cetera_; - _Mulier que inuenit dragmam, et cetera_; - So hope ich to haue of Hym þat his almyghty 105 - A gobet of Hus grace, and bygynne a tyme - Þat alle tymes of my tyme to profit shal turne.' - 'Ich rede þe,' quath Reson þo 'rape þe to bygynne - Þe lyf þat ys lowable and leel to þe soule'-- - '[Gh]e, and continue,' quath Conscience; and to þe churche - ich wente. 110 - -[Foot-note: 3 And a lytel ich let by _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 19 Heggen] Eggen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 44 þerwith] þerhwit _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 62 alle] and alle _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 63 in churches] and in kirkes _Ilchester MS._] - -[Foot-note: 92 tua] tuas _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 99 laste] latiste _MS._] - - - - -IX - -MANDEVILLE'S TRAVELS - - -_Mandeville's Travels_ were originally written in French, perhaps in -1356 or 1357. Their popularity was immediate, and Latin and English -translations soon appeared. The English texts published show three -forms. The first, imperfect, is the text of the early prints. The -second, from Cotton MS. Titus C xvi (about 1400-25), was first printed -in 1725, and is followed in the editions by Halliwell, 1839 and 1866, -and by Hamelius, 1919. The third, from Egerton MS. 1982 (about 1400-25), -has been edited for the Roxburghe Club by G. F. Warner, with the French -text, and an excellent apparatus. Our selections follow the Cotton MS. - -The _Travels_ fall into two parts: (i) a description of the routes to -the Holy Land, and an account of the Holy Places; (ii) a narrative of -travel in the more distant parts of Asia. Throughout the author poses as -an eyewitness. But in fact the book is a compilation, made without much -regard to time or place. For the first part William de Boldensele, who -wrote in 1336 an account of a visit to the Holy Land, is the main -source. The second part follows the description of an Eastern voyage -written by Friar Odoric of Pordenone in 1330. Other materials from the -mediaeval encyclopaedists are woven in, and there is so little trace of -original observation that it is doubtful whether the author travelled -far beyond his library. - -In the preface he claims to be Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman born -at St. Albans. The people of St. Albans were driven to desperate shifts -to explain the absence of his tomb from their abbey; but until 1798 it -was actually to be seen at the church of the Guillemins, Liège, with -this inscription: - -'Hic iacet vir nobilis Dom Ioannes de Mandeville, alias dictus ad -Barbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de Anglia, medicinae professor, -devotissimus orator, et bonorum suorum largissimus pauperibus erogator, -qui, toto quasi orbe lustrato, Leodii diem vitae suae clausit extremum -A.D. MCCCLXXII, mensis Nov. die xvii.' - -A Liège chronicler, Jean d'Outremeuse (d. 1399), who claims the -invidious position of his confidant and literary executor, gives further -details: Mandeville was 'chevalier de Montfort en Angleterre'; he was -obliged to leave England because he had slain a nobleman; he came to -Liège in 1343; and was content to be known as 'Jean de Bourgogne dit à -la Barbe'. - -Now Jean de Bourgogne, with whom Sir John Mandeville is identified by -d'Outremeuse, is known as the writer of a tract on the Plague, written -at Liège in 1365. Further, the Latin text of the _Travels_ mentions that -the author met at Liège a certain 'Johannes ad Barbam', recognized him -as a former physician at the court of the Sultan of Egypt, and took his -advice and help in the writing of the _Travels_. - -Again, in 1322, the year in which Sir John Mandeville claims to have -left England, a Johan de Burgoyne was given good reason to flee the -country, because a pardon, granted to him the previous year for his -actions against the Despensers, was then withdrawn. Curiously enough, a -John Mandeville was also of the party opposed to the Despensers. - -Nothing has come of the attempts to attach the clues--St. Albans, -Montfort, Campdi, the arms on the tomb at Liège--to the English family -of Mandeville. It seems likely that 'Sir John Mandeville' was an alias -adopted by Jean de Bourgogne, unless both names cover Jean d'Outremeuse. -The Epilogue to the Cotton version shows how early the plausible -fictions of the text had infected the history of its composition. - -It is clear that the English versions do not come from the hand of the -writer of the _Travels_, who could not have been guilty of such -absurdities as the translation of _montaignes_ by 'þe hille of Aygnes' -in the Cotton MS. But whoever the author was, he shows a courtesy and -modesty worthy of a knight, begging those with more recent experience to -correct the lapses of his memory, and remembering always the interests -of later travellers, who might wish to glean some marvels still untold. -He might well have pleaded in the fourteenth century that the time had -not come when prose fiction could afford to throw off the disguise of -truth. - - -[THE VOIAGE AND TRAVAILE OF SIR -IOHN MAUNDEVILE, KT.] - -British Museum MS. Cotton Titus C xvi (about 1400-25). - -From chap. xiv (xviii), f. 65 b. - -Ethiope is departed in two princypall parties; and þat is in the Est -partie, and in the Meridionall partie, the whiche partie meridionall -is clept Moretane. And the folk of þat contree ben blake ynow, and -more blake þan in the toþer partie; and þei ben clept Mowres. In þat -partie is a well, {5} þat in the day it is so cold þat no man may drynke -þereoffe; and in the nyght it is so hoot þat no man may suffre hys hond -þerein. And be[gh]onde þat partie, toward the South, to passe by the See -Occean, is a gret lond and a gret contrey. But men may not duell þere, -for the feruent brennynge of the {10} sonne, so is it passynge hoot in -þat contrey. - -In Ethiope all the ryueres and all the watres ben trouble, and þei -ben somdell salte, for the gret hete þat is þere. And the folk of þat -contree ben lyghtly dronken, and han but litill appetyt to mete.... {15} - -In Ethiope ben many dyuerse folk, and Ethiope is clept 'Cusis.' In -þat contree ben folk þat han but o foot; and þei gon so blyue þat it -is meruaylle; and the foot is so large þat it schadeweth all the body -a[gh]en the sonne, whanne þei wole lye and reste hem. {20} - -In Ethiope, whan the children ben [gh]onge and lytill, þei ben all -[gh]alowe; and whan þat þei wexen of age, þat [gh]alownesse turneth -to ben all blak. In Ethiope is the cytee of Saba, and the lond of the -whiche on of the þre Kynges, þat presented oure Lord in Bethleem, was -kyng offe. {25} - -Fro Ethiope men gon into Ynde be manye dyuerse contreyes. And men clepen -the high Ynde 'Emlak'. And Ynde is devyded in þre princypall parties; -þat is: the more, þat is a full hoot contree; and Ynde the lesse, þat -is a full atempree contrey, þat streccheth to the lond of Medé; and the -þridde {30} part, toward the Septentrion, is full cold, so þat for pure -cold and contynuell frost the water becometh cristall. - -And vpon tho roches of cristall growen the gode dyamandes, þat ben of -trouble colour. [Gh]alow cristall draweth <to> colour lyke oylle. And -þei ben so harde þat no man may pollysch {35} hem; and men clepen hem -'dyamandes' in þat contree, and 'hamese' in anoþer contree. Othere -dyamandes men fynden in Arabye, þat ben not so gode; and þei ben more -broun and more tendre. And oþer dyamandes also men fynden in the Ile of -Cipre, þat ben [gh]it more tendre; and hem men may wel {40} pollische. -And in the lond of Macedoyne men fynden dyamaundes also. But the beste -and the moste precyiouse ben in Ynde. - -And men fynden many tyme harde dyamandes in a masse, þat cometh out of -gold, whan men puren it and fynen it out {45} of the myne, whan men -breken þat masse in smale peces. And sum tyme it happeneth þat men -fynden summe as grete as a pese, and summe lasse; and þei ben als harde -as þo of Ynde. - -And all be it þat men fynden gode dyamandes in Ynde, {50} [gh]it -natheles men fynden hem more comounly vpon the roches in the see, and -vpon hilles where the myne of gold is. And þei growen many togedre, on -lytill, another gret. And þer ben summe of the gretnesse of a bene, and -summe als grete as an hasell-note. And þei ben square and poynted of -here owne {55} kynde, boþe abouen and benethen, withouten worchinge of -mannes hond. - -And þei growen togedre, male and femele. And þei ben norysscht with -the dew of heuene. And þei engendren comounly, and bryngen forth smale -children, þat multiplyen {60} and growen all the [gh]eer. I haue often -tymes assayed þat [gh]if a man kepe hem with a lityll of the roche, and -wete hem with May dew oftesithes, þei schull growe eueryche [gh]eer; -and the smale wole wexen grete. For right as the fyn perl congeleth and -wexeth gret of the dew of heuene, right so doth the verray {65} dyamand; -and right as the perl, of his owne kynde, taketh roundnesse, right so -the dyamand, be vertu of God, taketh squarenesse. - -And men schall bere the dyamaund on his left syde; for it is of grettere -vertue þanne, þan on the right syde. For the {70} strengthe of here -growynge is toward the North, þat is the left syde of the world, and the -left partie of man is, whan he turneth his face toward the Est. - -And [gh]if [gh]ou lyke to knowe the vertues of þe dyamand, as men may -fynden in þe Lapidarye, þat many men knowen {75} noght, I schall telle -[gh]ou, as þei be[gh]onde the see seyn and affermen, of whom all science -and all philosophie cometh from. - -He þat bereth the dyamand vpon him, it [gh]eueth him hardynesse and -manhode, and it kepeth the lemes of his body hole. {80} It [gh]eueth -him victorye of his enemyes, in plee and in werre, [gh]if his cause be -rightfull; and it kepeth him þat bereth it in gode wytt; and it kepeth -him fro strif and ryot, fro euyll sweuenes, from sorwes, and from -enchauntementes, and from fantasyes and illusiouns of wykked spirites. -And [gh]if ony cursed wycche {85} or enchauntour wolde bewycche him -þat bereth the dyamand, all þat sorwe and myschance schall turne to -himself, þorgh vertue of þat ston. And also no wylde best dar assaylle -the man þat bereth it on him. Also the dyamand scholde ben [gh]ouen -frely, withouten coueytynge, and withouten byggynge; {90} and þan it -is of grettere vertue. And it maketh a man more strong and more sad -a[gh]enst his enemyes. And it heleth him þat is lunatyk, and hem þat -the fend pursueth or trauayleth. And [gh]if venym or poysoun be brought -in presence of the dyamand, anon it begynneth to wexe moyst, and for to -{95} swete. - -Þere ben also dyamandes in Ynde þat ben clept 'violastres',--for here -colour is liche vyolet, or more browne þan the violettes,--þat ben full -harde and full precyous. But [gh]it sum men loue not hem so wel as the -oþere. But in soth to {100} me, I wolde louen hem als moche as þe oþere; -for I haue seen hem assayed. Also þere is anoþer maner of dyamandes þat -ben als white as cristall, but þei ben a lityll more trouble; and þei -ben gode and of gret vertue, and all þei ben square and poynted of here -owne kynde. And summe {105} ben six squared, summe four squared, and -summe þre, as nature schapeth hem. - -And þerfore whan grete lordes and knyghtes gon to seche worschipe in -armes, þei beren gladly the dyamaund vpon hem. I schal speke a litill -more of the dyamandes, allþough {110} I tarye my matere for a tyme, to -þat ende þat þei þat knowen hem not be not disceyued be gabberes þat -gon be the contree, þat sellen hem. For whoso wil bye the dyamand, it -is nedefull to him þat he knowe hem, because þat men counterfeten hem -often of cristall þat is [gh]alow; and of saphires of cytryne {115} -colour, þat is [gh]alow also; and of the saphire loupe; and of many -oþer stones. But, I tell [gh]ou, theise contrefetes ben not so harde; -and also the poyntes wil breken lightly; and men may esily pollissche -hem. But summe werkmen, for malice, wil not pollische hem, to þat entent -to maken men beleue þat þei may {120} not ben pollisscht. But men may -assaye hem in this manere: First schere with hem, or write with hem, in -saphires, in cristall, or in oþer precious stones. After þat men taken -the ademand, þat is the schipmannes ston, þat draweth the nedle to him, -and men leyn the dyamand vpon the ademand, and leyn the nedle {125} -before the ademand; and [gh]if the dyamand be gode and vertuous, the -ademand draweth not the nedle to him, whils the dyamand is þere present. -And this is the preef þat þei be[gh]onde the see maken. Natheles it -befalleth often tyme þat the gode dyamand leseth his vertue, be synne -and for incontynence of him þat {130} bereth it. And þanne is it nedfull -to make it to recoueren his vertue a[gh]en, or ell it is of litill value. - -Chap. xxvi (xxx), f. 112 a. - -Now schall I seye [gh]ou sewyngly of contrees and yles þat ben -be[gh]onde the contrees þat I haue spoken of. Wherfore {135} I seye -[gh]ou, in passynge be the lond of Cathaye toward the high Ynde, and -toward Bacharye, men passen be a kyngdom þat men clepen 'Caldilhe', þat -is a full fair contré. And þere groweth a maner of fruyt, as þough it -weren gowrdes; and whan þei ben rype, men kutten hem ato, and men fynden -{140} withinne a lytyll best, in flesch, in bon, and blode as þough it -were a lytill lomb, withouten wolle. And men eten bothe the frut and the -best: and þat is a gret merueylle. Of þat frute I haue eten, allþough -it were wondirfull: but þat I knowe wel, þat God is merueyllous in his -werkes. And natheles I tolde {145} hem of als gret a merueyle to hem, -þat is amonges vs: and þat was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem þat in -oure contree weren trees þat baren a fruyt þat becomen briddes fleeynge; -and þo þat fellen in the water lyuen; and þei þat fallen on the erthe -dyen anon; and þei ben right gode to mannes mete. And hereof {150} had -þei als gret meruaylle þat summe of hem trowed it were an inpossible -thing to be. In þat contré ben longe apples of gode sauour, whereof -ben mo þan an hundred in a clustre, and als manye in another: and þei -han grete longe leves and large, of two fote long or more. And in þat -contree, and in {155} oþer contrees þere abouten, growen many trees, þat -beren clowe gylofres, and notemuges, and grete notes of Ynde, and of -canell, and of many oþer spices. And þere ben vynes þat beren so grete -grapes þat a strong man scholde haue ynow to done for to bere o clustre -with all the grapes. In {160} þat same regioun ben the mountaynes of -Caspye þat men clepen 'Vber' in the contree. Betwene þo mountaynes the -Iewes of ten lynages ben enclosed, þat men clepen Goth and Magoth; and -þei mowe not gon out on no syde. Þere weren enclosed twenty two kynges -with hire peple, þat dwelleden {165} betwene the mountaynes of Sy_t_hye. -Þere Kyng Alisandre chacede hem betwene þo mountaynes; and þere he -thoughte for to enclose hem þorgh werk of his men. But whan he saugh -þat he myghte not don it, ne bryng it to an ende, he preyed to God of -Nature þat He wolde parforme þat þat he {170} had begonne. And all were -it so þat he was a payneme, and not worthi to ben herd, [gh]it God of -His grace closed the mountaynes togydre; so þat þei dwellen þere, all -faste ylokked and enclosed with high mountaynes alle aboute, saf only -on o syde; and on þat syde is the See of Caspye. Now {175} may sum men -asken: sith þat the see is on þat o syde, wherfore go þei not out on the -see syde, for to go where þat hem lyketh? But to this questioun I schal -answere: þat See of Caspye goth out be londe, vnder the mountaynes, and -renneth be the desert at o syde of the contree; and after it streccheth -vnto the endes {180} of Persie. And allþough it be clept a see, it is no -see, ne it toucheth to non oþer see; but it is a lake, the grettest of -the world. And þough þei wolden putten hem into þat see, þei ne wysten -neuer where þat þei scholde arryuen. And also þei conen no langage but -only hire owne, þat no man {185} knoweth but þei: and þerfore mowe þei -not gon out. And also [gh]ee schull vnderstonde þat the Iewes han no -propre lond of hire owne, for to dwellen inne, in all the world, but -only þat lond betwene the mountaynes. And [gh]it þei [gh]elden tribute -for þat lond to the queen of Amazoine, the whiche þat {190} maketh hem -to ben kept in cloos full diligently, þat þei schull not gon out on -no syde, but be the cost of hire lond. For hire lond marcheth to þo -mountaynes. And often it hath befallen þat summe of þe Iewes han gon vp -the mountaynes, and avaled down to the valeyes: but gret nombre of folk -ne {195} may not do so. For the mountaynes ben so hye, and so streght -vp, þat þei moste abyde þere, maugree hire myght. For þei mowe not -gon out, but be a litill issue þat was made be strengthe of men; and -it lasteth wel a four grete myle. And after is þere [gh]it a lond all -desert, where men {200} may fynde no water, ne for dyggynge, ne for non -other þing: wherfore men may not dwellen in þat place. So is it full of -dragounes, of serpentes, and of oþer venymous bestes, þat no man dar not -passe, but [gh]if it be be strong wynter. And þat streyt passage men -clepen in þat contree 'Clyron'. And þat {205} is the passage þat the -Queen of Amazoine maketh to ben kept. And þogh it happene sum of hem, -be fortune, to gon out, þei conen no maner of langage but Ebrew, so þat -þei can not speke to the peple. And [gh]it natheles, men seyn þei schull -gon out in the tyme of Antecrist, and þat þei schull maken {210} gret -slaughter of Cristene men. And þerfore all the Iewes þat dwellen in all -londes lernen allweys to speken Ebrew, in hope þat whan the oþer Iewes -schull gon out, þat þei may vnderstonden hire speche, and to leden hem -into Cristendom, for to destroye the Cristene peple. For the Iewes seyn -þat {215} þei knowen wel be hire prophecyes þat þei of Caspye schull gon -out and spreden þorghout all the world; and þat the Cristene men schull -ben vnder hire subieccioun als longe as þei han ben in subieccioun of -hem. And [gh]if þat [gh]ee wil wyte how þat þei schull fynden hire weye, -after þat I haue herd {220} seye, I schall tell [gh]ou. In the tyme of -Antecrist, a fox schall make þere his [+]trayne[+], and mynen an hole, -where Kyng Alisandre leet make the [gh]ates: and so longe he schall -mynen and percen the erthe, til þat he schall passe þorgh towardes þat -folk. And whan þei seen the fox, they schull {225} haue gret merueylle -of him, because þat þei saugh neuer such a best. For of all oþere bestes -þei han enclosed amonges hem, saf only the fox. And þanne þei schulle -chacen him and pursuen him so streyte, till þat he come to the same -place þat he cam fro. And þanne þei schulle {230} dyggen and mynen so -strongly, till þat þei fynden the [gh]ates þat King Alisandre leet make -of grete stones and passynge huge, wel symented and made stronge for the -maystrie. And þo [gh]ates þei schull breken, and so gon out, be fyndynge -of þat issue. {235} - -Fro þat lond gon men toward the lond of Bacharie, where ben full yuele -folk and full cruell. In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as þogh -it were of scheep; whereof men maken clothes, and all þing þat may ben -made of wolle. In þat contree ben many ipotaynes, þat dwellen som tyme -in the {240} water, and somtyme on the lond: and þei ben half man and -half hors, as I haue seyd before; and þei eten men, whan þei may take -hem. And þere ben ryueres and watres þat ben fulle byttere, þree sithes -more þan is the water of the see. In þat contré ben many griffounes, -more plentee þan in ony {245} other contree. Sum men seyn þat þei han -the body vpward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly þei seyn -soth þat þei ben of þat schapp. But o griffoun hath the body more gret, -and is more strong, þanne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this -half; and more gret and strongere þan an {250} hundred egles, suche as -we han amonges vs. For o griffoun þere wil bere fleynge to his nest a -gret hors, [gh]if he may fynde him at the poynt, or two oxen [gh]oked -togidere, as þei gon at the plowgh. For he hath his talouns so longe and -so large and grete vpon his feet, as þough þei weren hornes of grete -oxen, or of {255} bugles, or of ky[gh]n; so þat men maken cuppes of hem, -to drynken of. And of hire ribbes, and of the pennes of hire wenges, men -maken bowes full stronge, to schote with arwes and quarell. - -From þens gon men be many iourneyes þorgh the lond of Prestre Iohn, the -grete emperour of Ynde. And men clepen {260} his roialme the Yle of -Pentexoire. - -EPILOGUE. - -Þere ben manye oþer dyuerse contrees and many oþer merueyles be[gh]onde, -þat I haue not seen: wherfore of hem I can not speke propurly, to tell -[gh]ou the manere of hem. And also in the contrees where I haue ben, -ben manye {265} mo dyuersitees of many wondirfull thinges þanne I make -mencioun of, for it were to longe thing to deuyse [gh]ou the manere. -And þerfore þat þat I haue deuysed [gh]ou of certeyn contrees, þat I -haue spoken of before, I beseche [gh]oure worthi and excellent noblesse -þat i_t_ suffise to [gh]ou at this tyme. For {270} [gh]if þat I deuysed -[gh]ou all þat is be[gh]onde the see, another man peraunter, þat wolde -peynen him and trauaylle his body for to go into þo marches for to -encerche þo contrees, myghte ben blamed be my wordes, in rehercynge -manye straunge thinges; for he myghte not seye no thing of newe, in -the {275} whiche the hereres myghten hauen ouþer solace or desport or -lust or lykyng in the herynge. For men seyn allweys þat newe thinges -and newe tydynges ben plesant to here. Wherfore I wole holde me stille, -withouten ony more rehercyng of dyuersitee[gh] or of meruaylles þat -ben be[gh]onde, to þat entent {280} and ende þat whoso wil gon into þo -contrees, he schall fynde ynowe to speke of, þat I haue not touched of -in no wyse. - -And [gh]ee schull vndirstonde, [gh]if it lyke [gh]ou, þat at myn hom -comynge I cam to Rome, and schewed my lif to oure {285} holy fadir -the Pope, and was assoylled of all þat lay in my conscience, of many -a dyuerse gr_e_uous poynt, as men mosten nedes þat ben in company, -dwellyng amonges so many a dyuerse folk of dyuerse secte and of beleeve, -as I haue ben. And amonges all, I schewed hym this tretys, þat I had -made {290} after informacioun of men þat knewen of thinges þat I had -not seen myself; and also of merueyles and customes þat I hadde seen -myself, as fer as God wolde [gh]eue me grace: and besoughte his holy -fadirhode þat my boke myghte ben examyned and corrected be avys of his -wyse and discreet {295} conseill. And oure holy fader, of his special -grace, remytted my boke to ben examyned and preued be the avys of his -seyd conseill. Be the whiche my boke was preeued for trewe; in so moche -þat þei schewed me a boke, þat my boke was examynde by, þat comprehended -full moche more be an {300} hundred part; be the whiche the _Mappa -Mundi_ was made after. And so my boke (all be it þat many men ne list -not to [gh]eue credence to no þing, but to þat þat þei seen with hire -eye, ne be the auctour ne the persone neuer so trewe) is affermed and -preued be oure holy fader, in maner and forme {305} as I haue seyd. - -And I Iohn Maundevyll knyght aboueseyd, (allþough I be vnworthi) þat -departed from oure contrees and passed the see the [gh]eer of grace -1322, þat haue passed many londes and manye yles and contrees, and -cerched manye full {310} strange places, and haue ben in many a full -gode honourable companye, and at many a faire dede of armes, all be it -þat I dide none myself, for myn vnable insuffisance; and now I am comen -hom, mawgree myself, to reste, for gowtes artetykes þat me distreynen, -þat diffynen the ende of my labour, a[gh]enst {315} my will, God -knoweth. And þus takynge solace in my wrechched reste, recordynge the -tyme passed, I haue fulfilled þeise thinges and putte hem wryten in this -boke, as it wolde come into my mynde, the [gh]eer of grace 1356 in the -34th [gh]eer þat I departede from oure contrees. Wherfore I preye to all -{320} the rederes and hereres of this boke, [gh]if it plese hem, þat þei -wolde preyen to God for me, and I schall preye for hem. And alle þo þat -seyn for me a _Paternoster_, with an _Aue Maria_, þat God for[gh]eue me -my synnes, I make hem parteneres and graunte hem part of all the gode -pilgrymages, {325} and of all the gode dedes þat I haue don, [gh]if -ony ben to his plesance; and noght only of þo, but of all þat euere I -schall do vnto my lyfes ende. And I beseche Almyghty God, fro whom all -godenesse and grace cometh fro, þat He vouchesaf of His excellent mercy -and habundant grace to {330} fullfylle hire soules with inspiracioun of -the Holy Gost, in makynge defence of all hire gostly enemyes here in -erthe, to hire saluacioun, bothe of body and soule; to worschipe and -thankynge of Him þat is þree and on, withouten begynnynge and withouten -endyng; þat is withouten qualitee good, {335} withouten quantytee gret; -þat in alle places is present, and all thinges conteynynge; the whiche -þat no goodnesse may amende, ne non euell empeyre; þat in perfyte -Trynytee lyueth and regneth God, be alle worldes and be all tymes. Amen, -Amen, Amen. {340} - - - - -X - -THE BRUCE - -WRITTEN IN 1375 BY JOHN BARBOUR. - - -John Barbour was archdeacon of Aberdeen, an auditor of the Scottish -exchequer, and a royal pensioner. Consequently a number of isolated -records of his activities have been preserved. In 1364 he was granted a -safe-conduct to travel with four students to Oxford. In 1365 and 1368 he -had permission to travel through England so that he might study in -France. The notices of his journeys, his offices, and his rewards point -to a busy and successful life. He died in 1395. - -According to Wyntoun, Barbour's works were (1) _The Bruce_; (2) _The -Stewartis Oryginalle_ (or _Pedigree of the Stewarts_), now lost; (3) a -_Brut_, which some have identified with extant fragments of a Troy Book -(see the prefatory note to No. VII), and others with (2) _The Stewartis -Oryginalle_. - -_The Bruce_ is found in two late MSS., both copied by John Ramsay; the -first, St. John's College, Cambridge, MS. G 23, in the year 1487; the -second, now at the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, in 1489. It has been -edited by Skeat for the Early English Text Society, and for the Scottish -Text Society. The poem is valuable for the history, more especially the -traditional history, of the period 1304-33. Barbour speaks of it as a -romance, and the freedom and vividness of the narrative, with its -hero-worship of Robert Bruce and Douglas, place it well above the -ordinary chronicle. But far from disclaiming historical accuracy, -Barbour prides himself that truth well told should have a double claim -to popularity: - - Storys to rede ar delitabill - Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill: - Than suld storys that suthfast wer, - And thai war said on gud maner, - Hawe doubill plesance in heryng: - The fyrst plesance is the carpyng, - And the tothir the suthfastnes, - That schawys the thing rycht as it wes. - -He did not misjudge the taste of his country, and _The Bruce_, -with which the Scottish contribution to English literature begins, -long held its place as the national epic of Scotland. - -The specimen describes an incident in the unsuccessful siege -of Berwick, 1319. - - -THE BRUCE, Bk. xvii, ll. 593 ff. - -St. John's College (Cambridge) MS. G 23 (A.D. 1487). - - Thai <that> at the sege lay, - Or it wes passit the fift day, - Had maid thame syndry apparale - To gang eftsonis till assale. - Of gret gestis ane sow thai maid 5 - That stalward heling owth it had, - With armyt men enew tharin, - And instrumentis als for to myne. - Syndry scaffatis thai maid vithall - That war weill hyar than the wall, 10 - And ordanit als that by the se - The toune suld weill assal[gh]eit be. - And thai vithin that saw thame swa - So gret apparale schap till ma, - Throu Cra_bb_is consale, that ves sle, 15 - Ane cren thai haf gert dres vp hye, - Rynand on quhelis, that thai mycht bring - It quhar neid war of mast helping. - And pik and ter als haf thai tane, - And lynt <and> hardis, with brynstane, 20 - And dry treis that weill wald byrne, - And mellit syne athir othir in; - And gret flaggatis tharof thai maid, - Gyrdit with irnebandis braid; - Of thai flaggatis mycht mesurit be 25 - Till a gret twnnys quantité. - Thai flaggatis, byrnand in a baill, - With thair cren thoucht thai till availl, - And, gif the sow come to the wall, - Till lat thame byrnand on hir fall, 30 - And with ane stark cheyne hald thame thar - Quhill all war brint <vp> that ves thar. - Engynys alsua for till cast - Thai ordanit and maid redy fast, - And set ilk man syne till his ward; 35 - And Schir Valter, the gude Steward, - With armyt men suld ryde about, - And se quhar at thar var mast dout, - And succur thar with his men[gh]he. - And quhen thai into sic degré 40 - Had maid thame for thair assaling, - On the Rude-evyn in the dawing, - The Inglis host blew till assale. - Than mycht men with ser apparale - Se that gret host cum sturdely. 45 - The toune enveremyt thai in hy, - And assalit with sa gud will,-- - For all thair mycht thai set thartill,-- - That thai thame pressit fast of the toune. - Bot thai that can thame abandoune 50 - Till ded, or than till woundis sare, - So weill has thame defendit thare - That ledderis to the ground thai slang, - And vith stanys so fast thai dang - Thair fais, that feill thai left lyand, 55 - Sum ded, sum hurt, and sum swavnand. - Bot thai that held on fut in hy - Drew thame avay deliuerly, - And skunnyrrit tharfor na kyn thing, - Bot went stoutly till assalyng; 60 - And thai abovin defendit ay, - And set thame till so harde assay, - _Quhill_ that feill of thame voundit war, - _And_ thai so gret defens maid thar, - That thai styntit thair fais mycht. 65 - Apon sic maner can thai ficht - Quhill it wes neir noyne of the day. - Than thai without, in gret aray, - Pressit thair sow toward the wall; - And thai within weill soyne gert call 70 - The engynour that takyne was, - And gret manans till him mais, - And swoir that he suld de, bot he - Provit on the sow sic sutelté - That he t_o_frusch_yt_ hir ilke deill. 75 - And he, that has persauit weill - That the dede wes neir hym till, - Bot gif he mycht fulfill thar will, - Thoucht that he all his mycht vald do: - Bendit in gret hy than wes scho, 80 - And till the sow wes soyn evin set. - In hye he gert draw the cleket, - And smertly swappit out the stane, - That evyn out our the sow is gane, - And behynd hir a litill we 85 - It fell, and than thai cryit hye - That war in hir: 'Furth to the wall, - For dreid<les> it is ouris all.' - The engynour than deliuerly - Gert bend the gyne in full gret hy, 90 - And the stane smertly swappit out. - It flaw <out> quhedirand with a rout, - And fell richt evin befor the sow. - Thair hertis than begouth till grow, - Bot [gh]eit than with thair mychtis all 95 - Thai pressit the sow toward the wall, - And has hir set thar_to_ iuntly. - The gynour than gert bend in hy - The gyne, and swappit out the stane, - That evin toward the lift is gane, 100 - And with gret wecht syne duschit doune - Richt by the wall, in a randoune, - That hyt the sow in sic maner - That it that wes the mast summer, - And starkast for till stynt a strak, 105 - In swndir with that dusche he brak. - The men ran out in full gret hy, - And on the wallis thai can cry - That 'thair sow ferryit wes thair!' - Iohne Crab, that had his geir all [gh]ar, 110 - In his faggatis has set the fyre, - And our the wall syne can thame wyre, - And brynt the sow till brandis bair. - With all this fast assal[gh]eand war - The folk without, with felloune ficht; 115 - And thai within with mekill mycht - Defendit manfully thar stede - Intill gret auentur of dede. - The schipmen with gret apparale - Com with thair schippes till assale, 120 - With top-castellis warnist weill, - And wicht men armyt intill steill; - Thair batis vp apon thair mastis - Drawyn weill hye and festnyt fast is, - And pressit with that gret atour 125 - Toward the wall. Bot the gynour - Hit in ane hespyne with a stane, - And the men that war tharin gane - Sum dede, _sum_ dosnyt, <come doun> vyndland. - Fra thine furth durst nane tak vpon hand 130 - With schippes pres thame to the vall. - But the laiff war assal[gh]eand all - On ilk a syde sa egyrly, - That certis it wes gret ferly - That thai folk sic defens has maid, 135 - For the gret myscheif that thai had: - For thair wallis so law than weir - That a man richt weill with a sper - Micht strik ane othir vp in the face, - As eir befor tald till [gh]ow was; 140 - And feill of thame war woundit sare, - And the layf so fast travaland war - That nane had tume rest for till ta, - Thair aduersouris assail[gh]eit swa. - Thai war within sa stratly stad 145 - That thar wardane with _him_ had - Ane hundreth men in cumpany - Armyt, that wicht war and hardy, - And raid about for till se quhar - That his folk hardest pressit war, 150 - Till releif thame that had mister, - Com syndry tymes in placis ser - Quhar sum of the defensouris war - All dede, and othir woundit sare, - Swa that he of his cumpany 155 - Behufit to leiff thair party; - Swa that, be he ane cours had maid - About, _of_ all _the_ men he had - Thair wes levit with him bot ane, - That he ne had thame left ilkane 160 - To releve quhar he saw mister. - And the folk that assal[gh]eand wer - At Mary-[gh]et behevin had - The barras, and a fyre had maid - At the drawbrig, and brynt it doune, 165 - And war thringand in gret foysoune - Richt in the [gh]et, ane fire till ma. - And thai within gert smertly ga - Ane to the wardane, for till say - How thai war set in hard assay. 170 - And quhen Schir Valter Steward herd - How men sa stratly with thame ferd, - He gert cum of the castell then - All that war thar of armyt men,-- - For thar that day assal[gh]eit nane,-- 175 - And with that rout in hy is gane - Till Mary-[gh]et, and till the wall - Is went, and saw the myscheif all, - And vmbethoucht hym suddandly, - Bot gif gret help war set in hy 180 - Tharto, thai suld burne vp the [gh]et - _With_ the fire _he_ fand tharat. - Tharfor apon gret hardyment - He suddanly set his entent, - And gert all wyde set vp the [gh]et, 185 - And the fyre that he fand tharat - With strinth of men he put avay. - He set hym in full hard assay, - For thai that war assal[gh]eand thar - Pressit on hym with vapnys bair, 190 - And he defendit with all his mycht. - Thar mycht men se a felloune sicht: - With staffing, stoking, and striking - Thar maid thai sturdy defending, - For with gret strynth of men the [gh]et 195 - Thai defendit, and stude tharat, - Magré thair fais, quhill the nycht - Gert thame on bath halfis leif the ficht. - -[Foot-note: 15 Crabbis] Craggis _MS._: Crabys _MS. Edinburgh_.] - -[Foot-note: 63 Quhill] How _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 64 And] þat _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 75 tofruschyt] till frusche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 97 tharto] þar in _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 129 Sum dede dosnyt sum dede vyndland _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 146 him] þame _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 158 of] to _MS._ the] to _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 182 With] And _MS._ he fand] haffand _MS._] - - - - -XI - -JOHN WICLIF - -D. 1384. - - -Like Richard Rolle, Wiclif was a Yorkshireman by birth. Of his career at -Oxford little is known until 1360, when he is described as 'master of -Balliol'. From Balliol he was presented to the living of Fillingham, -and, after a series of preferments, he accepted in 1374 the rectory of -Lutterworth, which he held till his death in 1384. - -Wiclif's life was stormy. His acknowledged pre-eminence as a theologian -and doctor in the University did not satisfy his active and combative -mind. 'False peace', he said, 'is grounded in rest with our enemies, -when we assent to them without withstanding; and sword against such -peace came Christ to send.' He lacked neither enemies nor the moral -courage to withstand them. - -At first, under the powerful patronage of John of Gaunt, he entered into -controversies primarily political, opposing the right of the Pope to -make levies on England, which was already overburdened with -war-taxation, and to appoint foreigners to English benefices. On these -questions popular opinion was on his side. - -He proceeded to attack the whole system of Church government, urging -disendowment; rejecting the papal authority, which had been weakened in -1378 by the fierce rivalry of Urban VI and Clement VII; attacking -episcopal privileges, the established religious orders, and the abuse of -indulgences, pardons, and sanctuary. Still his opinions found a good -deal of popular and political support. - -Then in 1380 he publicly announced his rejection of the doctrine of -transubstantiation. From the results of such a heresy his friends could -no longer protect him. Moderate opinion became alarmed and conservative -after the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Richard II was no friend of -heretics. John of Gaunt, himself unpopular by this time, commanded -silence. And in 1382 the secular party in Oxford were compelled, after -a struggle, to condemn and expel their favourite preacher and his -followers. Wiclif retired to Lutterworth, and continued, until struck -down by paralysis in the last days of 1384, to inspire his 'poor -preachers'--the founders of the Lollard sect which lived on to join -forces with Lutheranism in the sixteenth century--and to develop in a -series of Latin and English works the doctrines that later came to be -associated with Puritanism. - -His authorship is often doubtful. In the interests of orthodoxy the -early MSS. of his writings were ruthlessly destroyed, as in the famous -bonfire of his works at Carfax, Oxford, in 1411. And his followers -included not only the simple folk from whom later the 'poor priests' -were recruited, but able University men, trained in his new doctrines, -bred in the same traditions, and eager to emulate their master in -controversy. So his share in the famous Wiclif Bible (ed. Forshall and -Madden, Oxford 1850) is still uncertain. Part of the translation seems -to have been made by Nicholas of Hereford, and a later recension is -claimed for another Oxford disciple, John Purvey. But Wiclif probably -inspired the undertaking, for to him, as to the later Puritans, the word -of the Bible was the test by which all matters of belief, ritual, and -Church government must be tried; and he was particularly anxious, in -opposition to the established clergy and the friars, that laymen should -read it in their own language. Contemporaries, friend and foe, ascribe -the actual translation to him. John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, who was -martyred in 1416 for teaching Wiclif's doctrines, states that Wiclif -'translated all the Bible into English'. Arundel, Archbishop of -Canterbury, is equally positive when he writes to the Pope in 1412 that -'the son of the Old Serpent filled up the cup of his malice against Holy -Church by the device of a new translation of the Scriptures into his -native tongue'. - -The first selection, chapter xv of the _De Officio Pastorali_ (ed. -Matthew, pp. 429 f.), states the case for translation. In the second -(ed. Matthew, pp. 188 ff.) some essential points of Wiclif's teaching -are explained. - -In abuse of his opponents he maintains the sturdy tradition of -controversy that still survives in Milton's prose. The style is rugged -and vigorous; the thought logical and packed close. And it is easy to -see the source of his strength. In an age whose evils were patent to -all, many reproved this or that particular abuse, but the system as a -whole passed unchallenged. Wiclif, almost alone in his generation, had -the reasoning power to go to the root of the matter, and the moral -courage not only to state fearlessly what, rightly or wrongly, he found -to be the source of evil, but to insist on basic reform. It is difficult -nowadays, when modern curiosity has made familiar the practice of mining -among the foundations of beliefs, society, and government, to realize -the force of authority that was ranged against unorthodox reformers in -the fourteenth century. If the popular support he received indicates -that this force was already weakening, Wiclif must still be reckoned -among the greatest of those who broke the way for the modern world. - - -A. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. - -_De Officio Pastorali, chap. xv._ - -MS. Ashburnham XXVII (15th century). - -Ant heere þe freris wiþ þer fautours seyn þat it is heresye to write -þus Goddis lawe in English, and make it knowun to lewid men. And fourty -signes þat þey bringen for to shewe an heretik ben not worþy to reherse, -for nou[gh]t groundiþ hem but nygromansye. {5} - -It semyþ first þat þe wit of Goddis lawe shulde be tau[gh]t in þat tunge -þat is more knowun, for þis wit is Goddis word. Whanne Crist seiþ in þe -Gospel þat boþe heuene and erþe shulen passe, but His wordis shulen not -passe, He vndirstondith bi His woordis His wit. And þus Goddis wit is -Hooly Writ, {10} þat may on no maner be fals. Also þe Hooly Gost [gh]af -to apostlis wit at Wit Sunday for to knowe al maner langagis, to teche -þe puple Goddis lawe þerby; and so God wolde þat þe puple were tau[gh]t -Goddis lawe in dyuerse tungis. But what man, on Goddis half, shulde -reuerse Goddis ordenaunse and {15} His wille? - -And for þis cause Seynt Ierom trauelide and translatide þe Bible fro -dyuerse tungis into Lateyn, þat it my[gh]te be aftir translatid to oþere -tungis. And þus Crist and His apostlis tau[gh]ten þe puple in þat tunge -þat was moost knowun to þe {20} puple. Why shulden not men do nou so? - -And herfore autours of þe newe law, þat weren apostlis of Iesu Crist, -writen þer Gospels in dyuerse tungis þat weren more knowun to þe puple. - -Also þe worþy reume of Fraunse, notwiþstondinge alle {25} lettingis, -haþ translatid þe Bible and þe Gospels, wiþ oþere trewe sentensis of -doctours, out of Lateyn into Freynsch. Why shulden not Engli[gh]schemen -do so? As lordis of Englond han þe Bible in Freynsch, so it were not -a[gh]enus resoun þat þey hadden þe same sentense in Engli[gh]sch; for -{30} þus Goddis lawe wolde be betere knowun, and more trowid, for onehed -of wit, and more acord be bitwixe reumes. - -And herfore freris han tau[gh]t in Englond þe Paternoster in -Engli[gh]sch tunge, as men seyen in þe pley of [Gh]ork, and in many -oþere cuntreys. Siþen þe Paternoster is part of Matheus {35} Gospel, as -clerkis knowen, why may not al be turnyd to Engli[gh]sch trewely, as is -þis part? Specialy siþen alle Cristen men, lerid and lewid, þat shulen -be sauyd, moten algatis sue Crist, and knowe His lore and His lif. But -þe comyns of Engli[gh]schmen knowen it best in þer modir tunge; and þus -it {40} were al oon to lette siche knowing of þe Gospel and to lette -Engli[gh]sch men to sue Crist and come to heuene. - -Wel y woot defaute may be in vntrewe translating, as my[gh]ten haue be -many defautis in turnyng fro Ebreu into Greu, and fro Greu into Lateyn, -and from o langage into {45} anoþer. But lyue men good lif, and studie -many persones Goddis lawe, and whanne chaungyng of wit is foundun, -amende þey it as resoun wole. - -Sum men seyn þat freris trauelen, and þer fautours, in þis cause for -þre chesouns, þat y wole not aferme, but God woot {50} wher þey ben -soþe. First þey wolden be seun so nedeful to þe Engli[gh]schmen of oure -reume þat singulerly in her wit lay[gh] þe wit of Goddis lawe, to telle -þe puple Goddis lawe on what maner euere þey wolden. And þe secound -cause herof is seyd to stonde in þis sentense: freris wolden lede þe -puple in {55} techinge hem Goddis lawe, and þus þei wolden teche sum, -and sum hide, and docke sum. For þanne defautis in þer lif shulden be -lesse knowun to þe puple, and Goddis lawe shulde be vntreweliere knowun -boþe bi clerkis and bi comyns. Þe þridde cause þat men aspien stondiþ -in þis, as þey seyn: alle {60} þes newe ordris dreden hem þat þer synne -shulde be knowun, and hou þei ben not groundid in God to come into þe -chirche; and þus þey wolden not for drede þat Goddis lawe were knowun in -Engli[gh]sch; but þey my[gh]ten putte heresye on men [gh]if Engli[gh]sch -toolde not what þey seyden. {65} - -God moue lordis and bischops to stonde for knowing of His lawe! - - -B. OF FEIGNED CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. - -Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) MS. 296 (1375-1400), p. 165. - -Of feyned contemplatif lif, of song, of þe Ordynal of Salisbury, and of -bodely almes and worldly bysynesse of prestis; hou bi þes foure þe fend -lettiþ hem fro prechynge of þe Gospel.-- - -First, whanne trewe men techen bi Goddis lawe wit and {5} reson, þat -eche prest owiþ to do his my[gh]t, his wit, and his wille to preche -Cristis Gospel, þe fend blyndiþ ypocritis to excuse hem by feyned -contemplatif lif, and to seie þat, siþ it is þe beste, and þei may not -do boþe togidre, þei ben nedid for charité of God to leue þe prechynge -of þe Gospel, and {10} lyuen in contemplacion. - -See nowe þe ypocrisie of þis false seiynge. Crist tau[gh]t and dide þe -beste lif for prestis, as oure feiþ techiþ, siþ He was God and my[gh]te -not erre. But Crist preched þe Gospel, and charged alle His apostlis and -disciplis to goo and preche þe {15} Gospel to alle men. Þan it is þe -beste lif for prestis in þis world to preche þe Gospel. - -Also God in þe olde lawe techiþ þat þe office of a prophete is to schewe -to þe peple here foule synnys. But eche prest is a prophete bi his -ordre, as Gregory seyþ vpon þe Gospellis. {20} Þanne it is þe office of -eche prest to preche and telle þe synnys of þe peple; and in þis manere -schal eche prest be an aungel of God, as Holy Writt seiþ. - -Also Crist and Ion Baptist leften desert and precheden þe Gospel to here -deþ þerfore; and þis was most charité; for ellis {25} þei weren out of -charité, or peierid in charité, þat my[gh]te not be in hem boþe, siþ -þe ton was God, and no man after Crist was holyere þan Baptist, and he -synned not for þis prechynge. - -Also þe holy prophete Ieromye, halwid in his moder wombe, my[gh]tte not -be excused fro prechynge bi his contemplacion, {30} but chargid of God -to preche þe synnes of þe peple, and suffre peyne þerfore, and so weren -alle þe prophetis of God. - -A Lord! siþ Crist and Ion Baptist and alle þe prophetis of God weren -nedid bi charité to come out of desert to preche {35} to þe peple, and -leue here sol<it>arie preiere, hou dore we fonnyd heretikys seie þat it -is betre to be stille, and preie oure owen fonnyd ordynaunce, þan to -preche Cristis Gospel? - -Lord! what cursed spirit of lesyngis stiriþ prestis to close hem in -stonys or wallis for al here lif, siþ Crist comaundiþ to {40} alle His -apostlis and prestis to goo into alle þe world and preche þe Gospel. -Certis þei ben opyn foolis, and don pleynly a[gh]enst Cristis Gospel; -and, [gh]if þei meyntenen þis errour, þei ben cursed of <God>, and ben -perilous ypocritis and heretikis also. And siþ men ben holden heretikis -þat done {45} a[gh]enst þe popis lawe, <and þe beste part of þe popis -lawe> seiþ pleynly þat eche þat comeþ to presthod takiþ þe office of -a bedele, or criere, to goo bifore Domesday to crie to þe peple here -synnes and vengaunce of God, whi ben not þo prestis heretikis þat leuen -to preche Cristis Gospel, and {50} compelle oþere treue men to leue -prechynge of þe Gospel? Siþ þis lawe is Seynt Gregoryes lawe, groundid -opynly in Goddis lawe and reson and charité; and oþere lawes of þe peple -ben contrarie to Holy Writt and reson and charité, for to meyntene pride -and coueitise of Anticristis worldly clerkis. {55} - -But ypocritis allegen þe Gospel,--þat Magdaleyne chees to hereself þe -beste part whanne she saat bisiden Cristis feet and herde His word. Soþ -it is þat þis meke sittynge and deuout herynge of Cristis wordis was -best to Magdeleyne, for sche hadde not office of prechynge as prestis -han, siþ sche was {60} a womman, þat hadde not auctorité of Goddis lawe -to teche and preche opynly. But what is þis dede to prestis, þat han -expresse þe comaundement of God and men to preche þe Gospel? Where þei -wolen alle be wommen in ydelnesse, and suen not Iesu Crist in lif and -prechynge þe Gospel, þat {65} He comandiþ Hymself boþe in þ_e_ olde lawe -and newe? - -Also þis p_e_sible herynge of Cristis word and brennynge loue þat -Magdeleyne hadde was þe beste part, for it schal be ende in heuene of -good lif in þis world. But in þis _world_ þe beste lif for prestis -is holy lif in kepynge Goddis hestis, and {70} trewe prechynge of þe -Gospel, as Crist dide, and chargid alle His prestis to do <þe same>. -And þes ypocritis wenen þat here dremys and fantasies of hemself ben -contemplacion, and þat prechynge of þe Gospel be actif lif; and so þei -menen þat Crist tok þe worse lif for þis world, and nedid alle His -prestis {75} to leue þe betre and take þe worse lif; and þus þes fonnyd -ypocritis putten errour in Iesu Crist. But who ben more heretikis? - -Also þes blynde ypocritis alleggen þat Crist biddiþ vs preie euermore, -and Poul biddiþ þat we preie wiþoute lettynge, and {80} þan we prestis -may not preche, as þei feynen falsly. But here þes ypocritis schullen -wite þat Crist and Poul vnderstonden of preiere of holy lif, þat eche -man doþ as longe as he dwelliþ in charité; and not of babelynge of -lippis, þat no man may euere do wiþouten cessynge; for ellis no man -in þis {85} world my[gh]te fulfille þe comaundement of Crist; and þis -techiþ Austyn and oþere seyntis. - -And siþ men þat fulfillen not Goddis lawe, and ben out of charité, ben -not acceptid in here preiynge of lippis,--for here preiere in lippis -is abhomynable, as Holy Writt seiþ bi {90} Salomon,--þes prestis þat -prechen not þe Gospel, as Crist biddiþ, ben not able to preie <God> for -mercy, but disceyuen hemself and þe peple, and dispisen God, and stiren -Hym to wraþþe and vengaunce, as Austyn and Gregory and oþere seyntis -techen. {95} - -And principaly þes ypocritis þat han rentes, and worldly lordischipes, -and parische chirchis approprid to hem, a[gh]enst Holy Writt boþe old -and newe, by symonye and lesyngis _on_ Crist and His apostelis, for -stynkynge gronyngys and abite of holynesse, and f_or_ distroiynge of -Goddis ordynaunce, and for {100} singuler profession maade to foolis -and, in cas, to fendis of helle,--þes foolis schullen lerne what is -actif lif and contemplatif bi Goddis lawe, and þanne þei my[gh]tten -wite þat þei han neiþer þe ton ne þe toiþer, siþ þei chargen more veyn -statutis _of_ synful men, and, in cas, <of> deuelys, þan þei {105} -chargen þe heste of God, and werkis of mercy, and poyntis of charité. -And þe fende blyndiþ hem so moche, þat þei seyn indede þat þei moten -neuere preie to p_le_synge of God, siþ þei vnablen hemself to do þe -office of prestis bi Goddis lawe, and purposen to ende in here feyned -deuocion, þat is blasphemye {110} to God. - -Also bi song þe fend lettiþ men to studie and preche þe Gospel; for siþ -mannys wittis ben of certeyn mesure and my[gh]t, þe more þat þei ben -occupied aboute siche mannus song, þe lesse moten þei be sette aboute -Goddis lawe. For {115} þis stiriþ men to pride, and iolité, and oþere -synnys, and so vnableþ hem many gatis to vnderstonde and kepe Holy -Writt, þat techeþ mekenesse, mornynge for oure synnys and oþere mennus, -and stable lif, and charité. And [gh]it God in all þe lawe of grace -chargiþ not siche song, but deuocion in {120} herte, trewe techynge, and -holy spekynge in tonge, and goode werkis, and holy lastynge in charité -and mekenesse. But mannus foly and pride stieþ vp euere more and more in -þis veyn nouelrie. - -First men ordeyned songe of mornynge whanne þei weren {125} in prison, -for techynge of þe Gospel, as Ambrose, _as_ men seyn, to putte awey -ydelnesse, and to be not vnoccupied in goode manere for þe tyme. And þat -songe and o_u_r<e> acordiþ not, for oure stiriþ to iolité and pride, -and here stiriþ to mornynge, and to dwelle lenger in wordis of Goddis -lawe. {130} Þan were matynys, and masse, and euensong, _placebo_ and -_dirige_, and comendacion, and matynes of Oure Lady, ordeyned of synful -men to be songen wiþ hei[gh]e criynge, to lette men fro þe sentence -and vnderstondynge of þat þat was þus songen, and to maken men wery, -and vndisposid to studie {135} Goddis lawe for akyng of hedis. And of -schort tyme þanne <weren> more veyn iapis founden: deschaunt, countre -note, and orgon, and smale brekynge, þat stiriþ veyn men to daunsynge -more þan <to> mornynge; and herefore ben many proude lorelis founden and -dowid wiþ temperal and worldly {140} lordischipis and gret cost. But þes -foolis schulden drede þe scharpe wordis of Austyn, þat seiþ: 'As oft -as þe song likiþ me more þan doþ þe sentence þat is songen, so oft I -confesse þat I synne greuously.' - -And [gh]if þes knackeris excusen hem bi song in þe olde lawe, {145} -seie þat Crist, þat best kepte þe olde lawe as it schulde be aftirward, -tau[gh]t not ne chargid vs wiþ sich bodely song, ne ony of His apostlis, -but wiþ deuocion in herte, and holy lif, and trewe prechynge, and þat is -ynowþ[gh] and þe beste. But who schulde þanne charge vs wiþ more, oure -þe fredom and {150} li[gh]tnesse of Cristis lawe? - -And [gh]if þei seyn þat angelis heryen God bi song in heuene, seie þat -we kunnen not þat song; but þei ben in ful victorie of here enemys, and -we ben in perilous b_atai_le, and in þe valeye of wepynge and mornynge; -and oure song lettiþ vs {155} fro betre occupacion, and stiriþ vs to -many grete synnes, and to for[gh]ete vs self. - -But oure flecshly peple haþ more lykynge in here bodely eris in sich -knackynge and taterynge, þan in herynge of Goddis lawe, and spekynge of -þe blisse of heuene; for þei {160} wolen hire proude prestis and oþere -lorelis þus to knacke notis for many markis and poundis. But þei wolen -not [gh]eue here almes to prestis and children to lerne and teche Goddis -lawe. And þus, bi þis nouelrie of song, is Goddis lawe vnstudied and not -kepte, and pride and oþere grete {165} synnys meyntenyd. - -And þes fonnyd lordis and peple gessen to haue more þank of God, and -<to> worschipe Hym more, in haldynge vp of here owen nouelries wiþ grete -cost, þan in lernynge, and techynge, and meyntenynge of his lawe, and -his seruauntis, {170} and his ordynaunce. But where is more disceit in -feiþ, hope and charité? For whanne þer ben fourty or fyfty in a queer, -þre or foure proude lorellis schullen knacke þe most deuout seruyce þat -no man schal here þe sentence, and alle oþere schullen be doumbe, and -loken on hem as foolis. And þanne {175} strumpatis and þeuys preisen -Sire Iacke, or Hobbe, and Williem þe proude clerk, hou smale þei knacken -here notis; and seyn þat þei seruen wel God and Holy Chirche, whanne þei -dispisen God in his face, and letten oþere Cristene men of here deuocion -and compunccion, and stiren hem to worldly {180} vanyté. And þus trewe -seruyce of God is lettid, and þis veyn knackynge for oure iolité and -pride is preised abouen þe mone. - -Also þe Ordynalle of Salisbury lettiþ moche prechynge of þe Gospel; for -folis chargen þat more þan þe maundementis of God, and to studie and -teche Cristis Gospel. For [gh]if {185} a man faile in his Ordynale, -men holden þat grete synne, and reprouen hym þerof faste; but [gh]if a -preste breke þe hestis of God, men chargen þat litel or nou[gh]t. And so -[gh]if prestis seyn here matynes, masse, and euensong aftir Salisbury -vsse, þei hemself and oþere men demen it is ynow[gh], þouþ þei neiþer -{190} preche ne teche þe hestis of God and þe Gospel. And þus þei wenen -þat it is ynow[gh] to fulfille synful mennus ordynaunce, and to leue þe -ri[gh]tfulleste ordynaunce of God, þat He chargid prestis to performe. - -But, Lord! what was prestis office ordeyned bi God bifore {195} þat -Salisbury vss was maad of proude prestis, coueitous and dronkelewe? -Where God, þat dampneþ alle ydelnesse, charg_id_ hem not at þe ful wiþ -þe beste occupacion for hemself and oþere men? Hou doren synful folis -chargen Cristis prestis wiþ so moche nouelrie, and euermore cloute more -to, {200} þat þei may not frely do Goddis ordynaunce? For þe Iewis in -þe olde lawe haden not so manye serymonyes of sacrifices ordeyned bi -God as prestis han now ri[gh]ttis and reulis maade of synful men. And -[gh]it þe olde lawe in þes charious customes mosten nedes cesse for -fredom of Cristis Gospel. But þis {205} fredom is more don awei bi þis -nouelrie þan bi customes of þe olde lawe. And þus many grete axen where -a prest may, wiþouten dedly synne, seie his masse wiþouten matynys; and -þei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille þe ordynaunce of God in his -fredom, wiþoute nouelrie of synful men, þat lettiþ {210} prestis fro þe -betre occupacion; as [gh]if þei demen it dedly synne to leue þe worse -þing, and take þe betre, whanne þei may not do boþe togidre. - -And þus, Lord! Þin owen ordynaunce þat Þou madist for Þi prestis is -holden errour, and distroied for þe fonnyd nouelrie {215} of synful -foolis, and, in cas, of fendis in helle. - -But here men moste be war þat vnder colour of þis fredom þei ben betre -occupied in þe lawe of God to studie it and teche it, and not slou[gh] -ne ydel in ouermoche sleep, and vanyté, and oþer synnes, for þat is þe -fendis panter. {220} - -See now þe blyndnesse of þes foolis. Þei seyn þat a prest may be excused -fro seiynge of masse, þat God comaundid Himself to þe substance þerof, -so þat he here on. But he schal not be excused but [gh]if he seie -matynes and euensong himself, þat synful men han ordeyned; and þus þei -chargen {225} more here owene fyndynge þan Cristis comaundement. - -A Lord! [gh]if alle þe studie and traueile þat men han now abowte -Salisbury vss, wiþ multitude _of_ newe costy portos, antifeners, -graielis, and alle oþere bokis, weren turned into makynge of biblis, -and in studiynge and techynge þerof, hou {230} moche schulde Goddis -lawe be forþered, and knowen, and kept, and now in so moche it is -hyndrid, vnstudied, and vnkept. Lord! hou schulden riche men ben excused -þat costen so moche in grete schapellis, and costy bokis of mannus -ordynaunce, for fame and nobleie of þe world, and wolen not {235} -spende so moche aboute bokis of Goddis lawe, and for to studie hem and -teche hem: siþ þis were wiþoute comparison betre on alle siddis, and -ly[gh]ttere, and sykerere? - -But [gh]it men þat knowen þe fredom of Goddis ordynaunce for prestis to -be þe beste, wiþ grete sorow of herte seyn here {240} matynes, masse, -and euensong, whanne þei schulden ellis be betre occupied, last þei -sclaundren þe sike conscience of here breþeren, þat [gh]it knowen not -Goddis lawe. God brynge þes prestis to þe fredom to studie Holy Writt, -and lyue þerafter, and teche it oþer men frely, and to preie as long and -as {245} moche as God meueþ hem þerto, and ellis turne to oþere medeful -werkis, as Crist and His apostlis diden; and þat þei ben not constreyned -to blabre alle day wiþ tonge and grete criynge, as pies and iaies, þing -þat þei knowen not, and to peiere here owen soule for defaute of wis -deuocion and charité! {250} - -Also bysynesse of worldly occupacion of prestis lettiþ prechynge of þe -Gospel, for þei ben so besy <þer>aboute, and namely in herte, þat þei -þenken litel on Goddis lawe, and han no sauour þerto. And seyn þat þei -don þus for hospitalité, and to releue pore men wiþ dedis of charité. -But, hou euere {255} men speken, it his for here owen couetise, and -lustful lif in mete and drynk and precious cloþis, and for name of þe -world in fedynge of riche men; and litel or nou[gh]t comeþ frely to pore -men þat han most nede. - -But þes prestis schulden sue Crist in manere of lif and {260} trewe -techynge. But Crist lefte sich occupacion, and His apostlis also, and -weren betre occupied in holy preiere and trewe techynge of þe Gospel. -And þis determinacion and ful sentence was [gh]ouen of alle þe apostlis -togidre, whanne þei hadden resceyued þe plenteuous [gh]iftis of þe Holy -Gost. Lord! {265} where þes worldly prestis <ben> wisere þan ben alle þe -apostlis of Crist? It semeth þat þei ben, or ellis <þei ben> fooles. - -Also Crist wolde not take þe kyngdom whan þe puple wolde haue maad Him -kyng, as Iones Gospel telleþ. But if it haade be a prestis office to -dele aboute þus bodi<ly> almes, {270} Crist, þat coude best haue do þis -office, wolde haue take þes temperal goodis to dele hem among poeuere -men. But He wolde not do þus, but fley, and took no man of þe aposteles -wiþ him, so faste He hiede. Lord! where worldly prestis kunnen bettere -don þis partinge of worldly goodis _þan_ Iesu {275} Crist? - -And [gh]if þei seyn þat Crist fedde þe puple in desert with bodily -almes, manye þousand, as þe Gospel saiþ: þat dide Crist by miracle, -to shewe His godhede, and to teche prestes {280} hou[gh] þei schulden -fede gostly Cristene men by Goddis word. For so dide Cristis aposteles, -and hadde not whereof to do bodily almes, whan þei mi[gh]ten haue had -tresour and iuelis ynowe of kynggis and lordis. - -Also Peter saiþ in Dedis of Apostlis to a pore man þat to {285} him -neiþer was gold ne siluer; and [gh]it he performede wel þe office of a -trewe prest. But oure prestis ben so bysye aboute worldly occupacioun -þat þei semen bettere bailyues or reues þan gostly prestis of Iesu -Crist. For what man is so bysy aboute marchaundise, and oþere worldly -doyngis, as ben {290} preostes, þat shulden ben ly[gh]t of heuenly lif -to alle men abouten hem? - -But certes þei shulde be as bysy aboute studyinge of Goddys lawe, -and holy preyer, not of _Famulorum_, but of holy desires, and clene -meditacioun of God, and trewe techinge of {295} þe Gospel, as ben -laboreris aboute worldly labour for here sustenaunce. And muche more -bysie, [gh]if þei mi[gh]ten, for þey ben more holden for to lyue wel, -and <[gh]eue> ensaumple of holi lif to þe puple, and trewe techinge of -Holy Writ, þanne þe people is holden to [gh]yue hem dymes or offringis -or ony {300} bodily almes. And þerfore prestis shulde not leue ensaumple -of good lif, and studyinge of Holi Writ, and trewe techinge þerof, ne -<for> bodily almes, ne for worldly goodis, ne for sauynge of here bodily -lif. - -And as Crist sauede þe world by writynge and techinge of {305} foure -Euaungelistis, so þe fend casteþ to dampne þe world and prestis for -lettynge to preche þe Gospel by þes foure: by feyned contemplacioun, by -song, by Salisbury vse, and by worldly bysynes of prestis. - -God for His mercy styre þes prestis to preche þe Gospel in {310} word, -in lif; and be war of Sathanas disceitis. Amen. - -[Foot-note: 7 fend] fendis _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 66 þe] þo _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 67 pesible] posible _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 69 world] lif _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 98 on] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 100 for (1st)] fro _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 105 of (1st)] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 108 plesynge] preisynge _MS. altered later_.] - -[Foot-note: 126 as (2nd)] and _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 128 oure] oþer _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 154 bataile] baitale _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 198 chargid] chargen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 202 not so] _repeated MS._] - -[Foot-note: 228 of] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 275 þan] of _MS._] - - - - -XII - -JOHN GOWER - -D. 1408. - - -John Gower, a Londoner himself, came of a good Kentish family. Chaucer -must have known him well, for he chose him as his attorney when leaving -for the Continent in 1378, and, with the dedication of _Troilus and -Criseyde_, labelled him for ever as 'moral Gower'. Gower's marriage with -Agnes Groundolf, probably a second marriage, is recorded in 1398. -Blindness came on him a few years later. His will, dated August 15, -1408, was proved on October 24, 1408, so that his death must fall -between those two points. By his own wish he was buried in St. -Saviour's, Southwark, the church of the canons of St. Mary Overy, to -whom he was a liberal benefactor. - -On his tomb in St. Saviour's Church, Gower is shown with his head -resting on three great volumes, representing his principal works--the -_Speculum Meditantis_, the _Vox Clamantis_, and the _Confessio Amantis_. - -The _Speculum Meditantis_, or _Mirour de l'Omme_, is a handbook of sins -and sinners, written in French. - -The _Vox Clamantis_, written in Latin, covers similar ground. Opening -with a vision of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the poet passes in review -the faults of the different grades of society--clergy, nobles, -labourers, traders, lawyers--and ends with an admonition to the young -King Richard II. - -In his English work, the _Confessio Amantis_, he expressly abandons the -task of setting the world to rights, and promises to change his style -henceforth. Now he will sing of Love. The machinery of the poem is -suggested by the great source of mediaeval conventions, the _Roman de la -Rose_. On a May morning the poet, a victim of love, wanders afield and -meets the Queen of Love (cp. the beginning of Chaucer's _Legend of Good -Women_). She bids him confess to her priest Genius. Genius hears the -confession, sustaining with some incongruity the triple rôle of high -priest of Love, Christian moralist, and entertainer--for it is he who -tells the stories which, woven about the frame work of the Seven Deadly -Sins, make the real matter of the poem. - -The first form of the _Confessio_ was completed in 1390. It contains a -Prologue in which the suggestion for the poem is ascribed to Richard II, -and an Epilogue in his praise. In this version the Queen of Love at -parting gives Gower a message for Chaucer: - - And gret wel Chaucer whan ye mete, - As mi disciple and mi poete: - For in the floures of his youthe - In sondri wise, as he wel couthe, - Of ditees and of songes glade, - The whiche he for mi sake made, - The lond fulfild is overal. - Wherof to him in special - Above alle othre I am most holde. - Forthi now, in hise daies olde, - Thow schalt him telle this message, - That he upon his latere age, - To sette an ende of alle his werk, - As he which is myn owne clerk, - Do make his testament of love, - As thou hast do thi schrifte above, - So that mi Court it mai recorde. - -In the final form, completed in 1392-3, Richard's name disappears from -the Prologue; the dedication to his popular rival, Henry of Lancaster, -is made prominent; the eulogy in the Epilogue is dropped; and with it -the compliment to Chaucer. Whether this last omission is due to chance, -or to some change in the relations between the two poets, is not clear. - -In his own day Gower was ranked with Chaucer. His reputation was still -high among the Elizabethans; and he has the distinction of appearing as -Chorus in a Shakespearian play--_Pericles_--of which his story of -_Apollonius of Tyre_, in Bk. viii of the _Confessio_, was the immediate -source. - -A selection gives a very favourable impression of his work. He has a -perfect command of the octosyllabic couplet; an easy style, well suited -to narrative; and a classic simplicity of expression for which the work -of his predecessors in Middle English leaves us unprepared. Throughout -the whole of the _Confessio Amantis_, more than 30,000 lines, the level -of workmanship is remarkable, and almost every page shows some graceful -and poetical verses. - -Yet the poem as a whole suffers from the fault that Gower tried to -avoid: - - It dulleth ofte a mannes wit - To him that schal it aldai rede. - -One defect, obvious to a modern reader, would hardly be noticed by his -contemporaries: he often incorporates in his poetry matter proper only -to an encyclopaedia, such as the discourse on the religions of the world -in Bk. v, or that on Philosophy in Bk. vii. Another is more radical: for -all his wide reading, his leading ideas lack originality. It is hardly a -travesty to say that the teaching of his works amounts to this: 'In the -moral world, avoid the Seven Deadly Sins in the five sub-classifications -of each; in the political world keep your degree without presuming'. -Such a negative and conventional message cannot sustain the fabric of -three long poems. Their polished and facile moralizing becomes almost -exasperating if it be remembered that the poet wrote when a whole system -of society was falling, and falling noisily, about him. Modern taste -rejects Gower the moralist and political writer, and his claim to -present as apart from historical value rests on the delightful single -stories which served as embroidery to his serious themes. - -The extracts are taken from the admirable edition by G. C. Macaulay: -'The Works of John Gower', 4 vols., Oxford 1899-1902. - - -A. CEIX AND ALCEONE. - -From Bk. iv, ll. 2927 ff. - - This finde I write in Poesie: - Ceïx the king of Trocinie - Hadde Alceone to his wif, - Which as hire oghne hertes lif - Him loveth; and he hadde also 5 - A brother, which was cleped tho - Dedalion, and he per cas - Fro kinde of man forschape was - Into a goshauk of liknesse; - Wherof the king gret hevynesse 10 - Hath take, and thoghte in his corage - To gon upon a pelrinage - Into a strange regioun, - Wher he hath his devocioun - To don his sacrifice and preie, 15 - If that he mihte in eny weie - Toward the goddes finde grace - His brother hele to pourchace, - So that he mihte be reformed - Of that he hadde be transformed. 20 - To this pourpos and to this ende - This king is redy for to wende, - As he which wolde go be schipe; - And for to don him felaschipe - His wif unto the see him broghte, 25 - With al hire herte and him besoghte - That he the time hire wolde sein - Whan that he thoghte come a[gh]ein: - 'Withinne,' he seith, 'tuo monthe day.' - And thus in al the haste he may 30 - He tok his leve, and forth he seileth, - Wepende and sche hirself beweileth, - And torneth hom, ther sche cam fro. - Bot whan the monthes were ago, - The whiche he sette of his comynge, 35 - And that sche herde no tydinge, - Ther was no care for to seche: - Wherof the goddes to beseche - Tho sche began in many wise, - And to Iuno hire sacrifise 40 - Above alle othre most sche dede, - And for hir lord sche hath so bede - To wite and knowe hou that he ferde, - That Iuno the goddesse hire herde, - Anon and upon this matiere 45 - Sche bad Yris hir messagere - To Slepes hous that <sc>he schal wende, - And bidde him that he make an ende, - Be swevene and schewen al the cas - Unto this ladi, hou it was. 50 - This Yris, fro the hihe stage - Which undertake hath the message, - Hire reyny cope dede upon, - The which was wonderli begon - With colours of diverse hewe, 55 - An hundred mo than men it knewe; - The hevene lich unto a bowe - Sche bende, and so she cam doun lowe, - The god of Slep wher that sche fond; - And that was in a strange lond, 60 - Which marcheth upon Chymerie: - For ther, as seith the Poesie, - The God of Slep hath mad his hous, - Which of entaille is merveilous. - Under an hell ther is a cave, 65 - Which of the sonne mai noght have, - So that noman mai knowe ariht - The point betwen the dai and nyht: - Ther is no fyr, ther is no sparke, - Ther is no dore, which mai charke, 70 - Wherof an yhe scholde unschette, - So that inward ther is no lette. - And for to speke of that withoute, - Ther stant no gret tree nyh aboute - Wher on ther myhte crowe or pie 75 - Alihte, for to clepe or crie; - Ther is no cok to crowe day, - Ne beste non which noise may; - The hell bot al aboute round - Ther is growende upon the ground 80 - Popi, which berth the sed of slep, - With othre herbes suche an hep. - A stille water for the nones - Rennende upon the smale stones, - Which hihte of Lethes the rivere, 85 - Under that hell in such manere - Ther is, which [gh]ifth gret appetit - To slepe. And thus full of delit - Slep hath his hous; and of his couche - Withinne his chambre if I schal touche, 90 - Of hebenus that slepi tree - The bordes al aboute be, - And for he scholde slepe softe, - Upon a fethrebed alofte - He lith with many a pilwe of doun. 95 - The chambre is strowed up and doun - With swevenes many thousendfold. - Thus cam Yris into this hold, - And to the bedd, which is al blak, - Sche goth, and ther with Slep sche spak, 100 - And in the wise as sche was bede - The message of Iuno sche dede. - Ful ofte hir wordes sche reherceth, - Er sche his slepi eres perceth; - With mochel wo bot ate laste 105 - His slombrende yhen he upcaste - And seide hir that it schal be do. - Wherof among a thousend tho - Withinne his hous that slepi were, - In special he ches out there 110 - Thre, whiche scholden do this dede: - The ferste of hem, so as I rede, - Was Morpheüs, the whos nature - Is for to take the figure - Of what persone that him liketh, 115 - Wherof that he ful ofte entriketh - The lif which slepe schal be nyhte; - And Ithecus that other hihte, - Which hath the vois of every soun, - The chiere and the condicioun 120 - Of every lif, what so it is: - The thridde suiende after this - Is Panthasas, which may transforme - Of every thing the rihte forme, - And change it in an other kinde. 125 - Upon hem thre, so as I finde, - Of swevenes stant al thapparence, - Which other while is evidence, - And other while bot a iape. - Bot natheles it is so schape, 130 - That Morpheüs be nyht al one - Appiereth until Alceone - In liknesse of hir housebonde - Al naked ded upon the stronde, - And hou he dreynte in special 135 - These othre tuo it schewen al: - The tempeste of the blake cloude, - The wode see, the wyndes loude, - Al this sche mette, and sih him dyen; - Wherof that sche began to crien, 140 - Slepende abedde ther sche lay, - And with that noise of hire affray - Hir wommen sterten up aboute, - Whiche of here ladi were in doute, - And axen hire hou that sche ferde; 145 - And sche, riht as sche syh and herde, - Hir swevene hath told hem everydel: - And thei it halsen alle wel - And sein it is a tokne of goode. - Bot til sche wiste hou that it stode, 150 - Sche hath no confort in hire herte, - Upon the morwe and up sche sterte, - And to the see, wher that sche mette - The bodi lay, withoute lette - Sche drowh, and whan that sche cam nyh, 155 - Stark ded, hise armes sprad, sche syh - Hire lord flietende upon the wawe. - Wherof hire wittes ben withdrawe, - And sche, which tok of deth no kepe, - Anon forth lepte into the depe 160 - And wolde have cawht him in hire arm. - This infortune of double harm - The goddes fro the hevene above - Behielde, and for the trowthe of love, - Which in this worthi ladi stod, 165 - Thei have upon the salte flod - Hire dreinte lord and hire also - Fro deth to lyve torned so - That thei ben schapen into briddes - Swimmende upon the wawe amiddes. 170 - And whan sche sih hire lord livende - In liknesse of a bridd swimmende, - And sche was of the same sort, - So as sche mihte do desport, - Upon the ioie which sche hadde 175 - Hire wynges bothe abrod sche spradde, - And him, so as sche mai suffise, - Beclipte and keste in such a wise, - As sche was whilom wont to do: - Hire wynges for hire armes tuo 180 - Sche tok, and for hire lippes softe - Hire harde bile, and so ful ofte - Sche fondeth in hire briddes forme, - If that sche mihte hirself conforme - To do the plesance of a wif, 185 - As sche dede in that other lif: - For thogh sche hadde hir pouer lore, - Hir will stod as it was tofore, - And serveth him so as sche mai. - Wherof into this ilke day 190 - Togedre upon the see thei wone, - Wher many a dowhter and a sone - Thei bringen forth of briddes kinde; - And for men scholden take in mynde - This Alceoun the trewe queene, 195 - Hire briddes [gh]it, as it is seene, - Of Alceoun the name bere. - - -B. ADRIAN AND BARDUS. - -From Bk. v, ll. 4937 ff. - - To speke of an unkinde man, - I finde hou whilom Adrian, - Of Rome which a gret lord was, - Upon a day as he per cas - To wode in his huntinge wente, 5 - It hapneth at a soudein wente, - After his chace as he poursuieth, - Thurgh happ, the which noman eschuieth, - He fell unwar into a pet, - Wher that it mihte noght be let. 10 - The pet was dep and he fell lowe, - That of his men non myhte knowe - Wher he becam, for non was nyh - Which of his fall the meschief syh. - And thus al one ther he lay 15 - Clepende and criende al the day - For socour and deliverance, - Til a[gh]ein eve it fell per chance, - A while er it began to nyhte, - A povere man, which Bardus hihte, 20 - Cam forth walkende with his asse, - And hadde gadred him a tasse - Of grene stickes and of dreie - To selle, who that wolde hem beie, - As he which hadde no liflode, 25 - Bot whanne he myhte such a lode - To toune with his asse carie. - And as it fell him for to tarie - That ilke time nyh the pet, - And hath the trusse faste knet, 30 - He herde a vois, which cride dimme, - And he his ere to the brimme - Hath leid, and herde it was a man, - Which seide, 'Ha, help hier Adrian, - And I wol [gh]iven half mi good.' 35 - The povere man this understod, - As he that wolde gladly winne, - And to this lord which was withinne - He spak and seide, 'If I thee save, - What sikernesse schal I have 40 - Of covenant, that afterward - Thou wolt me [gh]ive such reward - As thou behihtest nou tofore?' - That other hath his othes swore - Be hevene and be the goddes alle, 45 - If that it myhte so befalle - That he out of the pet him broghte, - Of all the goodes whiche he oghte - He schal have evene halvendel. - This Bardus seide he wolde wel; 50 - And with this word his asse anon - He let untrusse, and therupon - Doun goth the corde into the pet, - To which he hath at þe ende knet - A staf, wherby, he seide, he wolde 55 - That Adrian him scholde holde. - Bot it was tho per chance falle, - Into that pet was also falle - An ape, which at thilke throwe, - Whan that the corde cam doun lowe, 60 - Al sodeinli therto he skipte - And it in bothe hise armes clipte. - And Bardus with his asse anon - Him hath updrawe, and he is gon. - But whan he sih it was an ape, 65 - He wende al hadde ben a iape - Of faierie, and sore him dradde: - And Adrian eftsone gradde - For help, and cride and preide faste, - And he eftsone his corde caste; 70 - Bot whan it cam unto the grounde, - A gret serpent it hath bewounde, - The which Bardus anon up drouh. - And thanne him thoghte wel ynouh - It was fantosme, bot yit he herde 75 - The vois, and he therto ansuerde, - 'What wiht art thou in Goddes name?' - 'I am,' quod Adrian, 'the same, - Whos good thou schalt have evene half.' - Quod Bardus, 'Thanne a Goddes half 80 - The thridde time assaie I schal': - And caste his corde forth withal - Into the pet, and whan it cam - To him, this lord of Rome it nam, - And therupon him hath adresced, 85 - And with his hand ful ofte blessed, - And thanne he bad to Bardus hale. - And he, which understod his tale, - Betwen him and his asse, al softe, - Hath drawe and set him up alofte 90 - Withouten harm, al esely. - He seith noght ones 'grant merci,' - Bot strauhte him forth to the cité, - And let this povere Bardus be. - And natheles this simple man 95 - His covenant, so as he can, - Hath axed; and that other seide, - If so be that he him umbreide - Of oght that hath be speke or do, - It schal ben venged on him so, 100 - That him were betre to be ded. - And he can tho non other red, - But on his asse a[gh]ein he caste - His trusse, and hieth homward faste: - And whan that he cam hom to bedde, 105 - He tolde his wif hou that he spedde. - Bot finaly to speke oght more - Unto this lord he dradde him sore. - So that a word ne dorste he sein. - And thus upon the morwe a[gh]ein, 110 - In the manere as I recorde, - Forth with his asse and with his corde - To gadre wode, as he dede er, - He goth; and whan that he cam ner - Unto the place where he wolde, 115 - He hath his ape anon beholde, - Which hadde gadred al aboute - Of stickes hiere and there a route, - And leide hem redy to his hond, - Wherof he made his trosse and bond. 120 - Fro dai to dai and in this wise - This ape profreth his servise, - So that he hadde of wode ynouh. - Upon a time and as he drouh - Toward the wode, he sih besyde 125 - The grete gastli serpent glyde, - Til that sche cam in his presence, - And in hir kinde a reverence - Sche hath him do, and forth withal - A ston mor briht than a cristall 130 - Out of hir mouth tofore his weie - Sche let doun falle, and wente aweie - For that he schal noght ben adrad. - Tho was this povere Bardus glad, - Thonkende God and to the ston 135 - He goth and takth it up anon, - And hath gret wonder in his wit - Hou that the beste him hath aquit, - Wher that the mannes sone hath failed, - For whom he hadde most travailed. 140 - Bot al he putte in Goddes hond, - And torneth hom, and what he fond - Unto his wif he hath it schewed; - And thei, that weren bothe lewed, - Acorden that he scholde it selle. 145 - And he no lengere wolde duelle, - Bot forth anon upon the tale - The ston he profreth to the sale; - And riht as he himself it sette, - The iueler anon forth fette 150 - The gold and made his paiement; - Therof was no delaiement. - Thus whan this ston was boght and sold, - Homward with ioie manyfold - This Bardus goth; and whan he cam 155 - Hom to his hous and that he nam - His gold out of his purs, withinne - He fond his ston also therinne, - Wherof for ioie his herte pleide, - Unto his wif and thus he seide, 160 - 'Lo, hier my gold, lo, hier mi ston!' - His wif hath wonder therupon, - And axeth him hou that mai be. - 'Nou, be mi trouthe! I not,' quod he, - 'Bot I dar swere upon a bok 165 - That to my marchant I it tok, - And he it hadde whan I wente: - So knowe I noght to what entente - It is nou hier, bot it be grace. - Forthi tomorwe in other place 170 - I wole it fonde for to selle, - And if it wol noght with him duelle, - Bot crepe into mi purs a[gh]ein, - Than dar I saufly swere and sein - It is the vertu of the ston.' 175 - The morwe cam, and he is gon - To seche aboute in other stede - His ston to selle, and he so dede, - And lefte it with his chapman there. - Bot whan that he cam elleswhere 180 - In presence of his wif at hom, - Out of his purs and that he nom - His gold, he fond his ston withal. - And thus it fell him overal, - Where he it solde in sondri place, 185 - Such was the fortune and the grace. - Bot so wel may nothing ben hidd, - That it nys ate laste kidd: - This fame goth aboute Rome - So ferforth that the wordes come 190 - To themperour Iustinian; - And he let sende for the man, - And axede him hou that it was. - And Bardus tolde him al the cas, - Hou that the worm and ek the beste, 195 - Althogh thei maden no beheste, - His travail hadden wel aquit; - Bot he which hadde a mannes wit, - And made his covenant be mouthe, - And swor therto al that he couthe, 200 - To parte and [gh]iven half his good, - Hath nou for[gh]ete hou that it stod, - As he which wol no trouthe holde. - This Emperour al that he tolde - Hath herd, and thilke unkindenesse 205 - He seide he wolde himself redresse. - And thus in court of iuggement - This Adrian was thanne assent, - And the querele in audience - Declared was in the presence 210 - Of themperour and many mo; - Wherof was mochel speche tho - And gret wondringe among the press. - Bot ate laste natheles - For the partie which hath pleigned 215 - The lawe hath diemed and ordeigned - Be hem that were avised wel, - That he schal have the halvendel - Thurghout of Adrianes good. - And thus of thilke unkinde blod 220 - Stant the memoire into this day, - Wherof that every wys man may - Ensamplen him, and take in mynde - What schame it is to ben unkinde; - A[gh]ein the which reson debateth, 225 - And every creature it hateth. - - - - -XIII - -JOHN OF TREVISA'S TRANSLATION OF -HIGDEN'S POLYCHRONICON - -1387. - - -Ranulph Higden (d. 1364) was a monk of St. Werburgh's at Chester, and -has been doubtfully identified with the 'Randal Higden' who is said to -have travelled to Rome to get the Pope's consent to the acting of the -Chester miracle plays in English. - -His _Polychronicon_, so called because it is the chronicle of many ages, -is a compilation covering the period from the Creation to 1352. In the -fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was the favourite universal -history; and the First Book, which deals with general geography, has -still a special interest for the light it throws on the state of -knowledge in Chaucer's day. - -Two English prose translations are known: Trevisa's, completed in 1387, -and modernized and printed by Caxton in 1482; and an anonymous rendering -made in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. Both are printed, -with Higden's Latin, in the edition by Babington and Lumby, Rolls -Series, 9 vols., 1865-86. - -John of Trevisa was a Cornishman. He was a fellow of Exeter College, -Oxford, from 1362 to 1365; and was one of those expelled from Queen's -College for 'unworthiness' in 1379. He became vicar of Berkeley, and at -the request of Sir Thomas Berkeley undertook the translation of the -_Polychronicon_. In 1398 he brought to an end another long work, the -translation of _Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum_, the great -encyclopaedia of natural science at this time. He died at Berkeley in -1402. - -Trevisa was a diligent but not an accurate or graceful translator. He -rarely adds anything from his own knowledge, though we have an example -in the account of the reform of teaching at Oxford while he was there. -The interest of his work depends chiefly on the curiosity of some -passages in his originals. - - -A. THE MARVELS OF BRITAIN. - -CHAP. xlii. - -MS. Tiberius D. vii (about 1400), f. 39 a. - -In Brytayn buþ hoot welles wel arayed and yhy[gh]t to þe vse of -mankunde. Mayster of þulke welles ys þe gret spyryt of Minerua. Yn hys -hous fuyr duyreþ alwey, þat neuer chaungeþ into askes, bote þar þe fuyr -slakeþ, hyt changeþ ynto stony clottes. {5} - -Yn Brytayn buþ meny wondres. Noþeles foure buþ most wonderfol. Þe -furste ys at Pectoun. Þar bloweþ so strong a wynd out of þe chenes of -þe eorþe þat hyt casteþ vp a[gh]e cloþes þat me casteþ yn. Þe secunde -ys at Stonhenge bysydes Salesbury. Þar gret stones and wondur huge buþ -{10} arered an hy[gh], as hyt were [gh]ates, so þat þar semeþ [gh]ates -yset apon oþer [gh]ates. Noþeles hyt ys no[gh]t clerlych yknowe noþer -parceyuet hou[gh] and wharfore a buþ so arered and so wonderlych -yhonged. Þe þridde ys at Cherdhol. Þer ys gret holwenes vndur eorþe. -Ofte meny men habbeþ {15} ybe þerynne, and ywalked aboute wiþynne, and -yseye ryuers and streemes, bote nowhar conneþ hy fynde non ende. Þe -feurþe ys þat reyn ys yseye arered vp of þe hulles, and anon yspronge -aboute yn þe feeldes. Also þer ys a gret pond þat conteyneþ þre score -ylondes couenable for men to dwelle {20} ynne. Þat pound ys byclypped -aboute wiþ six score rooches. Apon euerych rooch ys an egle hys nest; -and þre score ryuers eorneþ into þat pound, and non of ham alle eorneþ -into þe se, bot on. Þar ys a pound yclosed aboute wiþ a wal of tyyl and -of ston. Yn þat pound men wascheþ and baþeþ {25} wel ofte, and euerych -man feeleþ þe water hoot oþer cold ry[gh]t as a wol hymsylf. Þar buþ -also salt welles fer fram þe se, and buþ salt al þe woke long forto -Saturday noon, and fersch fram Saturday noon forto Moneday. Þe water of -þis welles, whanne hyt ys ysode, turneþ into smal salt, fayr and {30} -whyyt. Also þar ys a pond þe water þerof haþ wondur worchyng, for þey al -an ost stood by þe pond, and turnede þe face þyderward, þe water wolde -drawe <hem> vyolentlych toward þe pond, and weete al here cloþes. So -scholde hors be drawe yn þe same wyse. Bote [gh]ef þe face ys aweyward -{35} fram þe water, þe water noyeþ no[gh]t. Þer ys a welle <þat> non -streem eorneþ þarfram noþer þerto, and [gh]et four maner fysch buþ ytake -þarynne. Þat welle ys bote twenty foot long, and twenty foot brood, -and no[gh]t deop bote to þe kneo, and ys yclosed wiþ hy[gh] bankkes in -euerych syde. {40} - -Yn þe contray aboute Wynchestre ys a den. Out of þat den alwey bloweþ a -strong wynd, so þat no man may endure for to stonde tofor þat den. Þar -ys also a pond þat turneþ tre into yre and hyt be þerynne al a [gh]er, -and so tren buþ yschape into whestones. Also þer ys yn þe cop of an hul -{45} a buryel. Euerych man þat comeþ and meteþ þat buriel a schal fynde -hyt euene ry[gh]t of hys oune meete; and [gh]ef a pylgrym oþer eny wery -man kneoleþ þerto, anon a schal be al fersch, and of werynes schal he -feele non nuy. - -Fast by pe Ministre of Wynburney, þat ys no[gh]t fer fram {50} Bathe, -ys a wode þat bereþ moche fruyt. [Gh]ef pe tren of þat wode falle into -a water oþer grounde <þat> þar ys ny[gh], and lygge þar al a [gh]er, þe -tren teorneþ ynto stoones. - -Vndur þe cité of Chestre eorneþ þe ryuer Dee, þat now todeleþ Engelond -and Wales. Þat ryuer euerych monthe {55} chaungeþ hys fordes, as men of -þe contray telleþ, and leueþ ofte þe chanel. Bote wheþer þe water drawe -more toward Engelond oþer toward Wales, to what syde þat hyt be, þat -[gh]er men of þat syde schal habbe þe wors ende and be ouerset, and þe -men of þe oþer syde schal habbe þe betre ende and be {60} at here aboue. -Whanne þe water chaungeþ so hys cours, hyt bodeþ such happes. Þis ryuer -Dee eorneþ and comeþ out of a lake þat hatte Pimbilmere. Yn þe ryuer ys -gret plenté of samon. Noþeles in þe lake ys neuer samon yfounde. - - -B. THE LANGUAGES OF BRITAIN. - -CHAP. lix. - -As hyt ys yknowe hou[gh] meny maner people buþ in þis ylond, þer buþ -also of so meny people longages and tonges. Noþeles Walschmen and -Scottes, þat buþ no[gh]t ymelled wiþ oþer nacions, holdeþ wel ny[gh] -here furste longage and speche, bote [gh]ef Scottes, þat were som tyme -confederat and wonede {5} wiþ þe Pictes, drawe somwhat after here -speche. Bote þe Flemmynges þat woneþ in þe west syde of Wales habbeþ -yleft here strange speche, and spekeþ Saxonlych ynow. Also Englysch men, -þey[gh] hy hadde fram þe bygynnyng þre maner speche, Souþeron, Norþeron, -and Myddel speche in þe {10} myddel of þe lond, as hy come of þre maner -people of Germania, noþeles by commyxstion and mellyng, furst wiþ Danes -and afterward wiþ Normans, in menye þe contray longage ys apeyred, and -som vseþ strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng grisbittyng. -Þis apeyryng of þe {15} burþtonge ys bycause of twey þinges. On ys for -chyldern in scole, a[gh]enes þe vsage and manere of al oþer nacions, -buþ compelled for to leue here oune longage, and for to construe here -lessons and here þinges a Freynsch, and habbeþ suþthe þe Normans come -furst into Engelond. Also gentil men {20} children buþ ytau[gh]t for -to speke Freynsch fram tyme þat a buþ yrokked in here cradel, and -conneþ speke and playe wiþ a child hys brouch; and oplondysch men wol -lykne hamsylf to gentil men, and fondeþ wiþ gret bysynes for to speke -Freynsch, for to be more ytold of. {25} - -[Þys manere was moche y-vsed tofore þe furste moreyn, and ys seþthe -somdel ychaunged. For Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere, chayngede -þe lore in gramerscole and construccion of Freynsch into Englysch; and -Richard Pencrych lurnede þat manere techyng of hym, and oþer men of -Pencrych, so þat {30} now, þe [gh]er of oure Lord a þousond þre hondred -foure score and fyue, of þe secunde kyng Richard after þe Conquest -nyne, in al þe gramerscoles of Engelond childern leueþ Frensch, and -construeþ and lurneþ an Englysch, and habbeþ þerby avauntage in on syde, -and desavauntage yn anoþer. {35} Here avauntage ys þat a lurneþ here -gramer yn lasse tyme þan childern wer ywoned to do. Disavauntage ys þat -now childern of gramerscole conneþ no more Frensch þan can here lift -heele, and þat ys harm for ham and a scholle passe þe se and trauayle in -strange londes, and in meny caas also. {40} Also gentil men habbeþ now -moche yleft for to teche here childern Frensch.] Hyt semeþ a gret wondur -hou[gh] Englysch, þat ys þe burþ tonge of Englysch men, and here oune -longage and tonge, ys so dyuers of soon in þis ylond; and þe longage of -Normandy ys comlyng of anoþer lond, and haþ on maner {45} soon among al -men þat spekeþ hyt ary[gh]t in Engelond. [Noþeles þer ys as meny dyuers -maner Frensch yn þe rem of Fraunce as ys dyuers manere Englysch in þe -rem of Engelond.] - -Also of þe forseyde Saxon tonge, þat ys deled a þre, and ys abyde -scarslych wiþ feaw vplondysch men, and ys gret {50} wondur, for men of -þe est wiþ men of þe west, as hyt were vnder þe same party of heuene, -acordeþ more in sounyng of speche þan men of þe norþ wiþ men of þe -souþ. Þerfore hyt ys þat Mercii, þat buþ men of myddel Engelond, as hyt -were parteners of þe endes, vndurstondeþ betre þe syde {55} longages, -Norþeron and Souþeron, þan Norþeron and Souþeron vndurstondeþ eyþer oþer. - -Al þe longage of þe Norþhumbres, and specialych at [Gh]ork, ys so -scharp, slyttyng, and frotyng, and vnschape, þat we Souþeron men may -þat longage vnneþe vndurstonde. Y trowe {60} þat þat ys bycause þat a -buþ ny[gh] to strange men and aliens, þat spekeþ strangelych, and also -bycause þat þe kynges of Engelond woneþ alwey fer fram þat contray; -for a buþ more yturnd to þe souþ contray, and [gh]ef a goþ to þe norþ -contray, a goþ wiþ gret help and strengthe. {65} - -Þe cause why a buþ more in þe souþ contray þan in þe norþ may be betre -cornlond, more people, more noble cytés, and more profytable hauenes. - - - - -XIV - -POLITICAL PIECES - - -In the thirteenth century political poems were written chiefly in Latin -or French. In the fourteenth century a steadily growing tendency to use -English witnesses the increased interest of the people in politics and -social questions. The fullest collections are those edited by T. Wright, -_Political Songs of England_ (John to Edward II), Camden Society, 1839; -and _Political Poems and Songs_ (Edward III to Richard III), Rolls -Series, 2 vols., 1859-61. - -The selections A and B are from the poems of Laurence Minot, of which -the best edition is the third by J. Hall, Oxford 1914. Minot was a -better patriot than a poet, and his boisterous contempt for the Scots -and French reflects the spirit of England in the early days of Edward -III's greatness. - -The empty phrases in which the anonymous piece C abounds do not disguise -a note of despair. The long war with France was becoming more and more -hopeless. The plague that added to its miseries had carried off Henry, -first Duke of Lancaster, in 1361. The Black Prince, to whom the nation -looked for guidance, had died in 1376. The inglorious old age of Edward -III ended in the following year. But there remained the hope, soon to be -falsified, that the boy king Richard II would steer the ship of state to -safety. - -D is the earliest text of the letter which John Ball addressed to the -Essex members of the Great Society of Peasants on the eve of the revolt -of 1381. It shows how deep an impression the characters and allegorical -form of _Piers Plowman_ had made on the oppressed serfs and labourers, -and it gives some idea of the vague and incoherent thinking that brought -ruin on their enterprise. Ball, who had defied established authority all -his life, was freed from prison by the rebels, became a ringleader, and -preached to their assembly on Blackheath a famous sermon with the text: - - When Adam dalf, and Eve span, - Who was then the gentleman? - -A few weeks later he was executed by sentence of Lord Chief Justice -Tressilian, who had been charged by the King to take vengeance on the -rebels. - -The distich E sums up briefly the history of a year which turned -moderate men against Richard II. A fuller contemporary picture of the -events that led to his deposition is found in the alliterative poem -_Richard the Redeles_, attributed by Skeat to the author of _Piers -Plowman_. - - -A. ON THE SCOTS (ABOUT 1333). - -BY LAURENCE MINOT. - -MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (about 1425), f. 52 a. - - _Now for to tell [gh]ou will I turn - Of batayl of Banocburn_ - - Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene - At þe Bannokburn war [gh]e to kene; - Þare slogh [gh]e many sakles, als it was sene, - And now has King Edward wroken it, I wene. - It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth þe while! 5 - War [gh]it with þe Skottes for þai er ful of gile! - - Whare er [gh]e Skottes of Saint Iohnes toune? - Þe boste of [gh]owre baner es betin all doune. - When [gh]e bosting will bede, Sir Edward es boune - For to kindel [gh]ow care, and crak [gh]owre crowne. 10 - He has crakked [gh]owre croune, wele worth þe while - Schame bityde þe Skottes, for þai er full of gile! - - Skottes of Striflin war steren and stout, - Of God ne of gude men had þai no dout. - Now haue þai, þe pelers, priked obout, 15 - Bot at þe last Sir Edward rifild þaire rout. - He has rifild þaire rout, wele wurth þe while! - Bot euer er þai vnder bot gaudes and gile. - - Rughfute riueling, now kindels þi care; - Berebag with þi boste, þi biging es bare; 20 - Fals wretche and forsworn, whider wiltou fare? - Busk þe vnto Brig, and abide þare. - Þare, wretche, saltou won, and wery þe while; - Þi dwelling in Dondé es done for þi gile. - - Þe Skottes gase in Burghes and betes þe stretes; 25 - Al þise Inglis men harmes he hetes; - Fast makes he his mone to men þat he metes, - Bot fone frendes he findes þat his bale betes. - Fune betes his bale, wele wurth þe while! - He vses al threting with gaudes and gile. 30 - - Bot many man thretes and spekes ful ill - Þat sum tyme war better to be stane--still. - Þe Skot in his wordes has wind for to spill, - For at þe last Edward sall haue al his will. - He had his will at Berwik, wele wurth þe while! 35 - Skottes broght him þe kayes,--bot get for þaire gile. - - -B. THE TAKING OF CALAIS (1347). - -BY LAURENCE MINOT. - -MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (about 1425), f. 55 b. - - _How Edward als þe romance sais - Held his sege bifor Calais._ - - Calays men, now mai [gh]e care, - And murni<n>g mun [gh]e haue to mede; - Mirth on mold get [gh]e no mare, - Sir Edward sall ken [gh]ow [gh]owre crede. - Whilum war [gh]e wight in wede 5 - To robbing rathly for to ren; - Mend [gh]ow sone of [gh]owre misdede: - [Gh]owre care es cumen, will [gh]e it ken. - - Kend it es how [gh]e war kene - Al Inglis men with dole to dere. 10 - Þaire gudes toke [gh]e al bidene, - No man born wald [gh]e forbere. - [Gh]e spared noght with swerd ne spere - To stik þam, and þaire gudes to stele. - With wapin and with ded of were 15 - Þus haue [gh]e wonnen werldes wele. - - Weleful men war [gh]e iwis, - Bot fer on fold sall [gh]e noght fare: - A bare sal now abate [gh]owre blis - And wirk [gh]ow bale on bankes bare. 20 - He sall [gh]ow hunt, als hund dose hare, - Þat in no hole sall [gh]e [gh]ow hide; - For all [gh]owre speche will he noght spare, - Bot bigges him right by [gh]owre side. - - Biside [gh]ow here þe bare bigins 25 - To big his boure in winter tyde, - And all bityme takes he his ines - With semly se<r>gantes him biside. - Þe word of him walkes ful wide-- - Iesu saue him fro mischance! 30 - In bataill dar he wele habide - Sir Philip and Sir Iohn of France. - - Þe Franche men er fers and fell, - And mase grete dray when þai er dight; - Of þam men herd slike tales tell, 35 - With Edward think þai for to fight, - Him for to hald out of his right, - And do him treson with þaire tales: - Þat was þaire purpos, day and night, - Bi counsail of þe Cardinales. 40 - - Cardinales with hattes rede - War fro Calays wele thre myle; - Þai toke þaire counsail in þat stede - How þai might Sir Edward bigile. - Þai lended þare bot litill while 45 - Till Franche men to grante þaire grace: - Sir Philip was funden a file, - He fled and faght noght in þat place. - - In þat place þe bare was blith, - For all was funden þat he had soght. 50 - Philip þe Valas fled ful swith - With þe batail þat he had broght. - For to haue Calays had he thoght - All at his ledeing, loud or still; - Bot all þaire wiles war for noght: 55 - Edward wan it at his will. - - Lystens now, and [gh]e may lere, - Als men þe suth may vnderstand, - Þe knightes þat in Calais were - Come to Sir Edward sare wepeand. 60 - In kirtell one, and swerd in hand, - And cried, 'Sir Edward, þine <we> are. - Do now, lord, bi law of land - Þi will with vs for euermare'. - - Þe nobill burgase and þe best 65 - Come vnto him to haue þaire hire. - Þe comun puple war ful prest - Rapes to bring obout þaire swire. - Þai said all: 'Sir Philip, oure syre, - And his sun, Sir Iohn of France, 70 - Has left vs ligand in þe mire, - And broght vs till þis doleful dance. - - Our horses þat war faire and fat - Er etin vp ilkone bidene; - Haue we nowþer conig ne cat 75 - Þat þai ne er etin, and hundes kene - Al er etin vp ful clene-- - Es nowther leuid biche ne whelp-- - Þat es wele on oure sembland sene, - And þai er fled þat suld vs help.' 80 - - A knight þat was of grete renowne-- - Sir Iohn de Viene was his name-- - He was wardaine of þe toune - And had done Ingland mekill schame. - For all þaire boste þai er to blame, 85 - Ful stalworthly þare haue þai streuyn. - A bare es cumen to mak þam tame, - Kayes of þe toun to him er gifen. - - Þe kaies er [gh]olden him of þe [gh]ate,-- - Lat him now kepe þam if he kun. 90 - To Calais cum þai all to late, - Sir Philip, and Sir Iohn his sun. - Al war ful ferd þat þare ware fun, - Þaire leders may þai barely ban. - All on þis wise was Calais won: 95 - God saue þam þat it sogat wan! - - -C. ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD III, A.D. 1377. - -Bodleian MS. Vernon (about 1400), f. 4106. - - A! dere God, what mai þis be, - Þat alle þing weres and wasteþ awai? - Frendschip is but a vanyté, - Vnneþe hit dures al a day. - Þei beo so sliper at assai, 5 - So leof to han, and loþ to lete, - And so fikel in heore fai, - Þat selden isei[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - I sei hit not wiþouten a cause, - And þerfore takes riht good hede, 10 - For [gh]if [gh]e construwe wel þis clause, - I puit [gh]ou holly out of drede - Þat for puire schame [gh]or hertes wol blede - And [gh]e þis matere wysli trete: - He þat was vr moste spede 15 - Is selden iseye and sone for[gh]ete. - - Sum tyme an Englisch schip we had, - Nobel hit was and heih of tour, - Þorw al Cristendam hit was drad, - And stif wolde stande in vch a stour, 20 - And best dorst byde a scharp schour, - And oþer stormes, smale and grete. - Now is þat schip, þat bar þe flour, - Selden se[gh]e and sone for[gh]ete. - - Into þat schip þer longed a rooþur 25 - Þat steered þe schip and gouerned hit; - In al þis world nis such anoþur, - As me þinkeþ in my wit. - Whyl schip and roþur togeder was knit, - Þei dredde nouþer tempest, druy[gh]e nor wete; 30 - Nou be þei boþe in synder flit, - Þat selden sey[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - Scharpe wawes þat schip has sayled, - And sayed alle sees at auentur. - For wynt ne wederes neuer hit fayled 35 - Whil þe roþur mihte enduir. - Þou[gh] þe see were rouh or elles dimuir, - Gode hauenes þat schip wolde gete. - Nou is þat schip, I am wel suir, - Selde iseye and sone for[gh]ete. 40 - - Þis goode schip I may remene - To þe chiualrye of þis londe; - Sum tyme þei counted nou[gh]t a bene - Beo al Fraunce, ich vnderstonde. - Þei tok and slou[gh] hem with heore honde, 45 - Þe power of Fraunce, boþ smal and grete, - And brou[gh]t þe king hider to byde her bonde: - And nou riht sone hit is for[gh]ete. - - Þat schip hadde a ful siker mast, - And a sayl strong and large, 50 - Þat made þe gode schip neuer agast - To vndertake a þing of charge; - And to þat schip þer longed a barge - Of al Fraunce [gh]af nou[gh]t a clete; - To vs hit was a siker targe, 55 - And now riht clene hit is for[gh]ete. - - Þe roþur was nouþer ok ne elm,-- - Hit was Edward þe Þridde, þe noble kniht. - Þe Prince his sone bar vp his helm, - Þat neuer scoumfited was in fiht. 60 - The Kyng him rod and rouwed ariht; - Þe Prince dredde nouþur stok nor strete. - Nou of hem we lete ful liht: - Þat selde is se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - Þe swifte barge was Duk Henri, 65 - Þat noble kniht and wel assayed, - And in his leggaunce worþili - He abod mony a bitter brayd. - [Gh]if þat his enemys ou[gh]t outrayed, - To chastis hem wolde he not lete. 70 - Nou is þat lord ful lowe ileyd: - Þat selde is se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - Þis gode Comunes, bi þe rode! - I likne hem to the schipes mast, - Þat with heore catel and heore goode 75 - Mayntened þe werre boþ furst and last, - Þe wynd þat bleu[gh] þe schip wiþ blast - Hit was gode pre[gh]ers, I sei hit atrete. - Nou is deuoutnes out icast, - And mony gode dedes ben clen for[gh]ete. 80 - - Þus ben þis lordes ileid ful lowe: - Þe stok is of þe same rote; - An ympe biginnes for to growe - And [gh]it I hope schal ben vr bote, - To holde his fomen vnder fote, 85 - And as a lord be set in sete. - Crist leue þat he so mote, - Þat selden ise[gh]e be not for[gh]ete! - - Weor þat impe fully growe, - Þat he had sarri sap and piþ, 90 - I hope he schulde be kud and knowe - For conquerour of moni a kiþ. - He is ful lyflich in lyme and liþ - In armes to trauayle and to swete. - Crist leeue we so fare him wiþ 95 - Þat selden se[gh]e be neuer for[gh]ete! - - And þerfore holliche I ou rede, - Til þat þis ympe beo fully growe, - Þat vch a mon vp wiþ þe hede - And mayntene him, boþe hei[gh]e and lowe. 100 - Þe Frensche men cunne boþe boste and blowe, - And wiþ heore scornes vs toþrete, - And we beoþ boþe vnkuynde and slowe, - Þat selden se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - And þerfore, gode sires, takeþ reward 105 - Of [gh]or douhti kyng þat dy[gh]ede in age, - And to his sone, Prince Edward, - Þat welle was of alle corage. - Suche two lordes of hei[gh] parage - I not in eorþe whon we schal gete; 110 - And nou heore los biginneþ to swage, - Þat selde ise[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - -[Foot-note: 42 chilualrye _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 110 I] In _MS._] - - -D. JOHN BALL'S LETTER TO THE PEASANTS -OF ESSEX, 1381. - -St. Albans MS. British Museum Royal 13. E. ix (about 1400), f. 287 a. - -Iohon Schep, som tyme Seynte Marie prest of [Gh]ork, and now of -Colchestre, greteth wel Iohan Nameles, and Iohan þe Mullere, and Iohon -Cartere, and biddeþ hem þat þei bee war of gyle in borugh, and stondeth -togidre in Godes name, and biddeþ Peres Plou[gh]man go to his werk, and -chastise {5} wel Hobbe þe Robbere, and takeþ wiþ [gh]ow Iohan Trewman, -and alle hiis felawes, and no mo, and loke schappe [gh]ou to on heued, -and no mo. - - Iohan þe Mullere haþ ygrounde smal, smal, smal; - Þe Kynges sone of heuene schal paye for al. 10 - Be war or _y_e be wo; - Knoweþ [gh]our freend fro [gh]our foo; - Haueth ynow, and seith 'Hoo'; - And do wel and bettre, and fleth synne, - And sekeþ pees, and hold [gh]ou þerinne; 15 - -and so biddeþ Iohan Trewman and alle his felawes. - -[Foot-note: 4 togidre] togidedre _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 11 ye] þe _MS._] - - -E. ON THE YEAR 1390-1. - -St. John's College (Oxford) MS. 209, f. 57 a. - - The ax was sharpe, the stokke was harde, - In the xiiii yere of Kyng Richarde. - - - - -XV - -MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN VERSE - - -Under this head are grouped a number of short poems, representing forms -of composition that survive only by fortunate chance. - -A is a curious little song, which has been printed from Hale MS. 135 by -G. E. Woodbine in _Modern Language Review_, vol. iv, p. 236, and -reconstructed by Skeat at vol. v, p. 105, of the same periodical. - -B and C are the best-known lyrics of the important collection edited by -Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harley 2253_, Berlin 1878. -They are literary and rather artificial in form. - -D and E are minstrels' songs found, among other popular snatches, on a -fly-leaf of Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913, and edited by Heuser in -_Anglia_, vol. xxx, p. 173. In E lines 14-16 and ll. 17-19 are to be -expanded on the model of ll. 7-13. - -All these songs are early, and have a lightness and gaiety that become -rare as the fourteenth century advances. - -F is one of several English scraps (ed. Furnivall in _Political, -Religious, and Love Poems_, E.E.T.S., pp. 249 ff.) that are found -scattered through the Latin text of MS. Harley 7322. Most of the English -pieces are without poetical merit, but in this one poem the writer has -attained a perfect simplicity. - -G, printed in Wright and Halliwell's _Reliquiae Antiquae_, 1845, vol. i, -p. 144, has been recognized as the first of the English ballads. It is -the only example before 1400 of the swift and dramatic movement, the -sudden transitions, and the restrained expression, characteristic of the -ballad style. - -H, first printed in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, p. 240, is the latest -of the short pieces. With onomatopoeic effects it gives a vivid if -unfriendly picture of a blacksmith's forge on a busy night. - -I is a charm edited by Furnivall at p. 43 of the E.E.T.S. volume in -which F appears. - - -A. NOW SPRINGS THE SPRAY. - -Lincoln's Inn MS. Hale 135 (about 1300). - - _Nou sprinkes þe sprai, - Al for loue icche am so seek - Þat slepen I ne mai._ - - Als I me rode þis endre dai - O mi playinge, 5 - Seih I hwar a litel mai - Bigan to singge: - 'Þe clot him clingge! - Wai es him i louue-longinge - Sal libben ai!' 10 - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - - Son icche herde þat mirie note, - _Þ_ider I drogh; - I fonde hire in an herber swot - Vnder a bogh, - With ioie inogh. 15 - Son I asked: 'Þou mirie mai, - Hwi sinkestou ai?' - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - - Þan answerde þat maiden swote - Midde wordes fewe: - 'Mi lemman me haues bihot 20 - Of louue trewe: - He chaunges anewe. - _Y_iif I mai, it shal him rewe - Bi þis dai.' - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - -[Foot-note: 4 Þis endre dai als I me rode _MS.; corr. Skeat_.] - -[Foot-note: 5 playinge] _indistinct_.] - -[Foot-note: 8 clingge] clingges _MS._] - - -B. SPRING. - -MS. Harley 2253 (about 1325), f. 71 b. - - Lenten ys come wiþ loue to toune, - Wiþ blosmen and wiþ briddes roune, - Þat al þis blisse bryngeþ. - Dayese[gh]es in þis dales, - Notes suete of nyhtegales, 5 - Vch foul song singeþ. - Þe þrestelcoc him þreteþ oo, - Away is huere wynter wo, - When woderoue springeþ. - Þis foules singeþ ferly fele, 10 - Ant wlyteþ on huere [+]wynter[+] wele, - Þat al þe wode ryngeþ. - - Þe rose rayleþ hire rode, - Þe leues on þe lyhte wode - Waxen al wiþ wille. 15 - Þe mone mandeþ hire bleo, - Þe lilie is lossom to seo, - Þe fenyl and þe fille. - Wowes þis wilde drakes; - [+]Miles[+] murgeþ huere makes, 20 - Ase strem þat strikeþ stille. - Mody meneþ, so do_þ_ mo-- - Ichot ycham on of þo, - For loue þat likes ille. - - Þe mone mandeþ hire lyht; 25 - So doþ þe semly sonne bryht, - When briddes singeþ breme. - Deawes donkeþ þe dounes; - Deores wiþ huere derne rounes, - Domes for te deme; 30 - Wormes woweþ vnder cloude; - Wymmen waxeþ wounder proude, - So wel hit wol hem seme. - [Gh]ef me shal wonte wille of on, - Þis wunne weole y wole forgon, 35 - Ant wyht in wode be fleme. - -[Foot-note: 22 doþ] doh _MS._] - - -C. ALYSOUN. - -MS. Harley 2253, f. 63 b. - - Bytuene Mersh and Aueril, - When spray biginneþ to springe, - Þe lutel foul haþ hire wyl - On hyre lud to synge. - Ich libbe in loue-longinge 5 - For semlokest of alle þynge; - He may me blisse bringe-- - Icham in hire baundoun. - _An hendy hap ichabbe yhent; - Ichot from heuene it is me sent; 10 - From alle wymmen mi loue is lent, - And lyht on Alysoun._ - - On heu hire her is fayr ynoh, - Hire browe broune, hire e[gh]e blake; - Wiþ lossum chere he on me loh, 15 - Wiþ middel smal and wel ymake. - Bote he me wolle to hire take, - For te buen hire owen make, - Longe to lyuen ichulle forsake, - And feye fallen adoun. 20 - _An hendy hap, &c._ - - Nihtes when y wende and wake, - Forþi myn wonges waxeþ won, - Leuedi, al for þine sake - Longinge is ylent me on. - In world nis non so wyter mon 25 - Þat al hire bounté telle con; - Hire swyre is whittore þen þe swon, - And feyrest may in toune. - _An hend<y hap>, &c._ - - Icham for wowyng al forwake, - Wery so water in wore, 30 - Lest eny reue me my make, - Ychabbe y[gh]yrned [gh]ore. - Betere is þolien whyle sore - Þen mournen euermore. - Geynest vnder gore, 35 - Herkne to my roun. - _An hendi <hap ichabbe yhent; - Ichot from heuene it is me sent; - From alle wymmen mi loue is lent, - And lyht on Alysoun>._ 40 - - -D. THE IRISH DANCER. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913. - - Icham of Irlaunde, - Ant of the holy londe - Of Irlande. - Gode sire, pray ich _þ_e, - For of saynte charité, 5 - Come ant daunce wyt me - In Irlaunde. - -[Foot-note: 4 þe] [gh]e _MS._] - - -E. THE MAID OF THE MOOR. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913. - - Maiden in the mor lay, - In the mor lay, - Seuenyst fulle, seuenist fulle, - Maiden in the mor lay, - In the mor lay, 5 - Seuenistes fulle ant a day. - - Welle wa_s_ hire mete; - Wat was hire mete? - Þe primerole ant the,-- - Þe primerole ant the,-- 10 - Welle was hire mete; - Wat was hire mete?-- - The primerole ant the violet. - - Welle <was hire dryng>; - Wat was hire dryng? 15 - Þe chelde water of <þe> welle-spring. - - Welle was hire bour; - Wat was hire bour? - Þe rede rose an te lilie flour. - -[Foot-note: 7 was] wat _MS._] - - -F. THE VIRGIN'S SONG. - -British Museum MS. Harley 7322 (about 1375), f. 135 b. - - Iesu, swete sone dere! - On porful bed list þou here, - And þat me greueþ sore; - For þi cradel is ase a bere, - Oxe and asse beþ þi fere: - Weepe ich mai þarfore. - Iesu, swete, beo noth wroþ, - Þou ich nabbe clout ne cloþ - Þe on for to folde, - Þe on to folde ne to wrappe, 10 - For ich nabbe clout ne lappe; - Bote ley þou þi fet to my pappe, - And wite þe from þe colde. - - -G. JUDAS. - -Trinity College (Cambridge) MS. B. 14. 39 (about 1300), f. 34 a. - - Hit wes upon a Scere Þorsday þat vre Louerd aros; - Ful milde were þe wordes He spec to Iudas: - - Iudas, þou most to Iurselem, oure mete for to bugge; - Þritti platen of seluer þou bere upo þi rugge. - - Þou comest fer i þe brode stret, fer i þe brode strete; 5 - Summe of þine cunesmen þer þou meist imete. - - Imette wid is soster, þe swikele wimon: - 'Iudas, þou were wrþe me stende þe wid ston, (_bis_) - For þe false prophete þat tou bileuest upon.' - - 'Be stille, leue soster, þin herte þe tobreke! 10 - Wiste min Louerd Crist, ful wel He wolde be wreke.' - - 'Iudas, go þou on þe roc, heie upon þe ston, - Lei þin heued i my barm, slep þou þe anon.' - - Sone so Iudas of slepe was awake, - Þritti platen of seluer from hym weren itake. 15 - - He drou hymselve bi þe top, þat al it lauede a blode; - Þe Iewes out of Iurselem awenden he were wode. - - Foret hym com þe riche Ieu þat heiste Pilatus: - 'Wolte sulle þi Louerd, þat hette Iesus?' - - 'I nul sulle my Louerd for nones cunnes eiste, 20 - Bote hit be for þe þritti platen þat He me bitaiste.' - - 'Wolte sulle þi Lord Crist for enes cunnes golde?' - 'Nay, bote hit be for þe platen þat He habben wolde.' - - In him com ur Lord gon, as is postles seten at mete: - 'Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete? (_bis_) 25 - Ic am iboust ant isold today for oure mete.' - - Up stod him Iudas: 'Lord, am I þat? - I nas neuer o þe stude þer me Þe euel spec.' - - Up him stod Peter, ant spec wid al is miste: - 'Þau Pilatus him come wid ten hundred cnistes, (_bis_) 30 - Yet ic wolde, Louerd, for Þi loue fiste.' - - 'Stille þou be, Peter! Wel I þe icnowe; - Þou wolt fursake me þrien ar þe coc him crowe.' - - -H. THE BLACKSMITHS. - -British Museum MS. Arundel 292 (about 1425-50), f. 71 b. - - Swarte smekyd smeþes smateryd wyth smoke - Dryue me to deth wyth den of here dyntes. - Swech noys on nyghtes ne herd men neuer: - What knauene cry and clateryng of knockes! - Þe cammede kongons cryen after 'col, col!' 5 - And blowen here bellewys, þat al here brayn brestes: - 'Huf, puf!' seith þat on; 'haf, paf!' þat oþer. - Þei spyttyn and spraulyn and spellyn many spelles; - Þei gnauen and gnacchen, þei gronys togydere, - And holdyn hem hote wyth here hard hamers. 10 - Of a bole-hyde ben here barm-fellys; - Here schankes ben schakeled for the fere flunderys; - Heuy hamerys þei han, þat hard ben handled, - Stark strokes þei stryken on a stelyd stokke: - Lus, bus! las, das! rowtyn be rowe. 15 - Swech dolful a dreme þe deuyl it todryue! - Þe mayster longith a lityl, and lascheth a lesse, - Twyneth hem tweyn, and towchith a treble: - Tik, tak! hic, hac! tiket, taket! tyk, tak! - Lus, bus! lus, das! swych lyf thei ledyn 20 - Alle cloþemerys: Cryst hem gyue sorwe! - May no man for brenwaterys on nyght han hys rest! - - -I. RATS AWAY. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C. 288, f. 113 (15th-century writing, blurred). - - I comawnde alle þe ratones þat are here abowte, - Þat non dwelle in þis place, withinne ne withowte, - Thorgh þe vertu of Iesu Crist, þat Mary bare abowte, - Þat alle creatures owyn for to lowte, - And thorgh þe vertu of Mark, Mathew, Luke, an Ion,-- 5 - Alle foure Awangelys corden into on,-- - Thorgh þe vertu of Sent Geretrude, þat mayde clene, - God graunte þat grace - Þat <non> raton dwelle in þe place - Þat here namis were nemeled in; 10 - And thorgh þe vertu of Sent Kasi, - Þat holy man, þat prayed to God Almyty - For skathes þat þei deden - Hys medyn - Be dayes and be ny[gh]t, 15 - God bad hem flen and gon out of euery manesse sy[gh]t. - _Dominus Deus Sabaot!_ Emanuel, þe gret Godes name! - I betweche þes place from ratones and from alle oþer schame. - God saue þis place fro alle oþer wykked wytes, - Boþe be dayes and be nytes! _et in nomine Patris et Filii_, 20 - &c. - -[Foot-note: 13 skathes] t _altered from_ f (?) _MS._] - - - - -XVI - -THE YORK PLAY 'HARROWING OF HELL' - -British Museum MS. Addit. 35290 (about 1430-40), f. 193 b. - - -The miracle play _Harrowing of Hell_ is assigned to the craft of -Saddlers in the York cycle, edited by Miss L. Toulmin-Smith, Oxford -1885, pp. 372 ff. This is the text reproduced below. It is also found, -though in a less perfect form, among the _Towneley Plays_, ed. England -and Pollard, E.E.T.S., 1897, pp. 293 ff. - -All the mediaeval stories of Christ's Descent into Hell are based on the -gospel of Nicodemus, which seems to date from the fourth century, though -the legend is referred to nearly two centuries earlier. This apocryphal -narrative was popular throughout the Middle Ages. There is a prose -translation in late Anglo-Saxon, and a Middle English verse rendering -supplies some of the phrases in the play. - -Two points deserve notice for their bearing on the development of -miracles. A trace of their origin in the services of the Church is seen -in the use made of the Scriptural passage 'Attollite portas, principes, -vestras, et elevamini portae aeternales, et introibit rex gloriae', the -dramatic possibilities of which were recognized in ritual from an early -date. And the growing taste for comic scenes is met, without prejudice -to the serious characters, by the rudimentary buffoonery of the Devil -and his companions. - - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - ADAME - EUA - ISAIAH - SYMEON - IESUS - IOHANNES BAPTISTA - MOYSES - BELSABUB - SATTAN - DAUID - BELLIALL - MICHILL (Archangel) - PRIMUS DIABOLUS - SECUNDUS DIABOLUS - - -[SCENE I, _outside the gates of Hell_.] - - 1. <_Iesus._ M>anne on molde, be meke to me, - And haue thy Maker in þi mynde, - And thynke howe I haue tholid for þe - With pereles paynes for to be pyned. - The forward of my Fadir free 5 - Haue I fulfillid, as folke may fynde, - Þerfore aboute nowe woll I bee - Þat I haue bought for to vnbynde. - Þe feende þame wanne with trayne, - Thurgh frewte of erthely foode; 10 - I haue þame getyn agayne - Thurgh bying with my bloode. - - 2. And so I schall þat steede restore - F_ro_ whilke þe feende fell for synne; - Þare schalle mankynde wonne euermore 15 - In blisse þat schall neuere blynne. - All þat in werke my werkemen were, - Owte of thare woo I wol þame wynne, - And some signe schall I sende before - Of grace, to garre þer gamys begynne. 20 - A light I woll þei haue - To schewe þame I schall come sone; - My bodie bidis in graue - Tille alle thes dedis be done. - - 3. My Fadir ordand on þis wise 25 - Aftir His will þat I schulde wende, - For to fulfille þe prophicye<s>, - And als I spake my solace to spende. - My frendis, þat in me faith affies, - Nowe fro ther fois I schall þame fende, 30 - And on the thirde day ryght vprise, - And so tille heuen I schall assende. - Sithen schall I come agayne - To deme bothe goode and ill - Tille endles ioie or peyne; 35 - Þus is my Fadris will. - -[SCENE II, _Hell; at one side Limbo, enclosing the -patriarchs and prophets; a light shines across_.] - - 4. _Adame._ Mi bretheren, harkens to me here, - Swilke hope of heele neuere are we hadde. - Foure thowsande and sex hundereth [gh]ere - Haue we bene heere in [+]þis stedde[+]. 40 - Nowe see I signe of solace seere, - A glorious gleme to make vs gladde, - Wherfore I hope oure helpe is nere, - And sone schall sesse oure sorowes sadde. - _Eua._ Adame, my husband hende, 45 - Þis menys solas certayne; - Such light gune on vs lende - In Paradise full playne. - - 5. _Isaiah._ Adame, we schall wele vndirstande; - I, Ysaias, as God me kende, 50 - I prechid in Neptalym þat lande, - And [Gh]abulon, even vntill ende. - I spake of folke in mirke walkand, - And saide a light schulde on þame lende; - This lered I whils I was leuand, 55 - Nowe se I God þis same hath sende. - Þis light comes all of Criste, - Þat seede, to saue vs nowe, - Þus is my poynte puplisshid. - But Symeon, what sais þou? 60 - - 6. _Symeon._ Þhis, my tale of farleis feele, - For in þis temple His frendis me fande; - I hadde delite with Hym to dele, - And halsed homely with my hande. - I saide, 'Lorde, late thy seruaunt lele 65 - Passe nowe in pesse to liffe lastand, - For nowe myselfe has sene Thy hele, - Me liste no lengar to liffe in lande.' - Þis light Þou hast purueyed - To folkes þat liffis in leede, 70 - Þe same þat I þame saide, - I see fulfillid in dede. - - 7. _Iohan. Baptista._ Als voyce criand to folke - I kende - Þe weyes of Criste, als I wele kanne; - I baptiste Hym with bothe my hande 75 - Euen in þe floode of flume Iordanne. - Þe Holy Goste fro heuene discende - Als a white dowue doune on Hym þanne; - The Fadir voice, my mirthe to mende, - Was made to me euen als manne, 80 - 'This is my Sone,' he saide, - 'In whome me paies full wele.' - His light is on vs laide, - He comes oure cares to kele. - - 8. _Moyses._ Of þat same light lernyng haue I, 85 - To me Moyses He mustered his myght, - And also vnto anodir, Hely, - Wher we were on an hille on hight. - Whyte as snowe was His body, - And His face like to þe sonne to sight: 90 - No man on molde was so myghty - Grathely to loke agaynste þat light; - Þat same light se I nowe - Shynyng on vs sarteyne, - Wherfore trewly I trowe 95 - We schalle sone passe fro payne. - - 9. _i Diabolus._ Helpe! Belsabub! to bynde þer - boyes, - Such harrowe was neuer are herde in helle. - _ii Diab._ Why rooris þou soo, Rebalde? þou - royis; - What is betidde, canne þou ought telle? 100 - _i Diab._ What! heris þou no[gh]t þis vggely - noyse? - Þes lurdans þat in Lymbo dwelle, - Þei make menyng of many ioies, - And musteres grete mirthe þame emell. - _ii Diab._ Mirthe? nay, nay, þat poynte is - paste, 105 - More hele schall þei neuer haue. - _i Diab._ Þei crie on Criste full faste, - And sais he schal þame saue. - - 10. _Belsabub._ [Gh]a, if he saue þame noght, we - schall, - For they are sperde in speciall space; 110 - Whils I am prince and principall - Schall þei neuer passe oute of þis place. - Calle vppe Astrotte and Anaball - To giffe þer counsaille in þis case, - Bele-Berit and Belial, 115 - To marre þame þat swilke maistries mase. - Say to Satan oure sire, - And bidde þame bringe also - Lucifer louely of lyre. - _i Diab._ Al redy, lorde, I goo. 120 - - 11. _Iesus [Without]._ _Attollite portas, - principes_, - Oppen vppe, [gh]e princes of paynes sere, - _Et eleuamini eternales_, - Youre yendles [gh]atis þat [gh]e haue here. - _Sattan._ What page is þere þat makes prees, 125 - And callis hym kyng of vs in fere? - _Dauid [in Limbo]._ I lered leuand, withouten lees, - He is a kyng of vertues clere. - A! Lorde, mekill of myght, - And stronge in ilke a stoure, 130 - In batailes ferse to fight, - And worthy to wynne honnoure. - - 12. _Sattan._ Honnoure! in þe deuel way, for what - dede? - All erthely men to me are thrall; - Þe lady þat calles hym lorde in leede 135 - Hadde neuer [gh]itt herberowe, house, ne halle. - _i Diab._ Harke, Belsabub! I haue grete drede, - For hydously I herde hym calle. - _Belliall._ We! spere oure [gh]ates, all ill mot - þou spede! - And sette furthe watches on þe wall. 140 - And if he calle or crie - To make vs more debate, - Lay on hym þan hardely, - And garre hym gang his gate. - - 13. _Sattan._ Telle me what boyes dare be so - bolde 145 - For drede to make so mekill draye. - _i Diab._ Itt is þe Iewe þat Iudas solde - For to be dede, þis othir daye. - _Sattan._ O we! þis tale in tyme is tolde, - Þis traytoure traues<es> vs alway; 150 - He schall be here full harde in holde, - Loke þat he passe noght, I þe praye. - _ii Diab._ Nay, nay, he will no[gh]t wende - Away or I be ware, - He shappis hym for to schende 155 - Alle helle, or he go ferre. - - 14. _Sattan._ Nay, faitour, þerof schall he faile, - For alle his fare I hym deffie; - I knowe his trantis fro toppe to taile, - He leuys with gaudis and with gilery. 160 - Þerby he brought oute of oure bale, - Nowe late, La[gh]ar of Betannye, - Þerfore I gaffe to þe Iewes counsaille - Þat þei schulde alway garre hym dye. - I entered in Iudas 165 - Þat forwarde to fulfille, - Þerfore his hire he has, - Allway to wonne here stille. - - 15. _Belsabub._ Sir Sattanne, sen we here þe saie - Þat þou and _þ_e Iewes wer same assente, 170 - And wotte he wanne La[gh]ar awaye, - Þat tille vs was tane for to tente, - Trowe þou þat þou marre hym maye - To mustir myghtis, what he has mente? - If he nowe depriue vs of oure praye, 175 - We will [gh]e witte whanne þei are wente. - _Sattan._ I bidde [gh]ou be no[gh]t abasshed, - But boldely make youe boune - With toles þat [gh]e on traste, - And dynge þat dastard doune. 180 - - 16. _Iesus [Without]._ _Principes, portas tollite_, - Vndo youre [gh]atis, [gh]e princis of pryde, - _Et introibit rex glorie_, - Þe kyng of blisse comes in þis tyde. - [_Enters the gates of Hell._ - _Sattan._ Owte! harrowe <what harlot> is hee 185 - Þat sais his kyngdome schall be cryed? - _Dauid [in Limbo]._ Þat may þou in my Sawter see - For þat poynte _I_ prophicie<d>. - I saide þat he schuld breke - Youre barres and bandis by name, 190 - And on youre werkis take wreke; - Nowe schalle [gh]e see þe same. - - 17. _Iesus._ Þis steede schall stonde no lenger - stoken; - Opynne vppe, and latte my pepul passe! - _Diabolus._ Owte! beholdes, oure baill is - brokynne, 195 - And brosten are alle oure bandis of bras. - Telle Lucifer alle is vnlokynne. - _Belsabub._ What þanne, is Lymbus lorne? allas! - Garre Satan helpe þat we wer wroken; - Þis werke is werse þanne euere it was. 200 - _Sattan._ I badde [gh]e schulde be boune - If he made maistries more; - Do dynge þat dastard doune, - And sette hym sadde and sore. - - 18. _Belsabub._ [Gh]a, sette hym sore, þat is - sone saide, 205 - But come þiselffe and serue hym soo; - We may not bide his bittir braide, - He wille vs marre and we wer moo. - _Sattan._ What! faitours, wherfore are [gh]e - ferde? - Haue [gh]e no force to flitte hym froo? 210 - Belyue loke þat my gere be grathed, - Miselffe schall to þat gedlyng goo. - [_To Iesus._] Howe! belamy, abide, - With al thy booste and bere, - And telle to me þis tyde, 215 - What maistries makes þou here? - - 19. _Iesus._ I make no maistries but for myne, - Þame wolle I saue, I telle þe nowe; - Þou hadde no poure þame to pyne, - But as my prisoune for þer prowe 220 - Here haue þei soiorned, noght as thyne, - But in thy warde, þou wote wele howe. - _Sattan._ And what deuel haste þou done ay syne, - Þat neuer wolde negh þame nere, or nowe? - _Iesus._ Nowe is þe tyme certayne 225 - Mi Fadir ordand before - Þat they schulde passe fro payne, - And wonne in mirthe euer more. - - 20. _Sattan._ Thy fadir knewe I wele be sight, - He was a write his mette to wynne, 230 - And Marie me menys þi modir hight, - Þe vttiremeste ende of all þi kynne. - Who made þe be so mekill of myght? - _Iesus._ Þou wikid feende, latte be thy dynne! - Mi Fadir wonnys in heuen on hight, 235 - With blisse þat schall neuere blynne. - I am His awne sone, - His forward to fulfille; - And same ay schall we wonne, - And sundir whan we wolle. 240 - - 21. _Sattan._ God<ys> sonne! þanne schulde þou - be ful gladde, - Aftir no catel neyd thowe craue! - But þou has leued ay like a ladde, - And in sorowe, as a symple knaue. - _Iesus._ Þat was for hartely loue I hadde 245 - Vnto mannis soule, it for to saue; - And for to make þe mased and madde, - And by þat resoune þus dewly to haue - Mi godhede here, I hidde - In Marie modir myne, 250 - For it schulde no[gh]t be kidde - To þe, nor to none of thyne. - - 22. _Sattan._ A! þis wolde I were tolde in ilke - a toune. - So, sen þou sais God is thy sire, - I schall þe proue, be right resoune, 255 - Þou motes His men into þe myre. - To breke His bidding were þei boune, - And, for they did at my desire, - Fro Paradise He putte þame doune - In helle here to haue þer hyre. 260 - And thyselfe, day and nyght, - Has taught al men emang - To do resoune and right, - And here werkis þou all wrang. - - 23. _Iesus._ I wirke noght wrang, þat schal - þow witte, 265 - If I my men fro woo will wynne; - Mi prophetis playnly prechid it, - All þis note þat nowe begynne. - Þai saide þat I schulde be obitte, - To hell þat I schulde entre in, 270 - And saue my seruauntis fro þat pitte, - Wher dampned saulis schall sitte for synne. - And ilke trewe prophettis tale - Muste be fulfillid in mee; - I haue þame boughte with bale, 275 - And in blisse schal þei be. - - 24. _Sattan._ Nowe sen þe liste allegge þe lawes, - Þou schalte be atteynted, or we twynne, - For þo þat þou to wittenesse drawes - Full even agaynste þe will begynne. 280 - Salamon saide in his sawes - Þat whoso enteres helle withynne - Shall neuer come oute, þus clerkis knawes, - And þerfore, felowe, leue þi dynne. - Iob, þi seruaunte, also 285 - Þus in his tyme gune telle, - Þat nowthir frende nor foo - Shulde fynde reles in helle. - - 25. _Iesus._ He saide full soth, þat schall - þou see, - Þat in helle may be no reles, 290 - But of þat place þan preched he - Where synffull care schall euere encrees. - And in þat bale ay schall þou be, - Whare sorowes sere schall neuer sesse, - And for my folke þerfro wer free, 295 - Nowe schall þei passe to þe place of pees. - Þai were here with my wille, - And so schall þei fourthe wende, - And þiselue schall fulfille - Þer wooe withouten ende. 300 - - 26. _Sattan._ O we! þanne se I howe þou menys - emang - Some mesure with malice to melle, - Sen þou sais all schall no[gh]t gang, - But some schalle alway with vs dwelle. - _Iesus._ [Gh]aa, witte þou wele, ellis were it - wrang, 305 - Als cursed Cayme þat slewe Abell, - And all þat hastis hemselue to hange, - Als Iudas and Archedefell, - Datan and Abiron, - And alle of þare assente; 310 - Als tyrantis euerilkone - Þat me and myne turmente. - - 27. And all þat liste noght to lere my lawe, - Þat I haue lefte in lande nowe newe, - Þat is my comyng for to knawe, 315 - And to my sacramente pursewe, - Mi dede, my rysing, rede be rawe, - Who will noght trowe, þei are noght trewe, - Vnto my dome I schall þame drawe, - And iuge þame worse þanne any Iewe. 320 - And all þat likis to leere - My lawe, and leue þerbye, - Shall neuere haue harmes heere, - But welthe, as is worthy. - - 28. _Sattan._ Nowe here my hande, I halde me - paied; 325 - Þis poynte is playnly for oure prowe; - If þis be soth þat þou hast saide, - We schall haue moo þanne we haue nowe. - Þis lawe þat þou nowe late has laide - I schall lere men no[gh]t to allowe. 330 - Iff þei it take, þei be betraied, - For I schall turne þame tyte, I trowe. - I schall walke este and weste, - And garre þame werke wele werre. - _Iesus._ Naye, feende, þou schall be feste, 335 - Þat þou schalte flitte not ferre. - - 29. _Sattan._ Feste! þat were a foule reasoune, - Nay, bellamy, þou bus be smytte. - _Iesus._ Mighill! myne aungell, make þe boune, - And feste yone fende, þat he noght flitte. 340 - And Deuyll, I comaunde þe go doune - Into thy selle where þou schalte sitte. - [_Satan sinks._ - _Sattan._ Owt, ay! herrowe! helpe Mahounde! - Nowe wex I woode oute of my witte. - _Belsabub._ Sattan, þis saide we are, 345 - Nowe schall þou fele þi fitte. - _Sattan._ Allas! for dole and care, - I synke into helle pitte. - [_Falls into the pit._ - - 30. _Adame._ A! Iesu Lorde, mekill is Þi myght, - That mekis Þiselffe in þis manere, 350 - Vs for to helpe, as Þou has hight, - Whanne both forfette, I and my feere. - Here haue we leuyd withouten light - Foure thousand and six hundred [gh]ere; - Now se I be þis solempne sight 355 - Howe Thy mercy hath made vs cle_r_e. - _Eue._ A! Lorde, we were worthy - Mo turmentis for to taste, - But mende vs with mercye, - Als Þou of myght is moste. 360 - - 31. _Baptista._ A! Lorde, I loue Þe inwardly, - That me wolde make Þi messengere - Thy comyng in erth for to crye, - And teche Þi faith to folke in feere; - And sithen before Þe for to dye, 365 - And bringe boodworde to þame here, - How þai schulde haue Thyne helpe in hye: - Nowe se I all Þi poyntis appere. - Als Dauid prophete trewe - Ofte tymes tolde vntill vs, 370 - Of þis comyng he knewe, - And saide it schulde be þus. - - 32. _Dauid._ Als I haue saide, [gh]itt saie - I soo, - _Ne derelinquas, Domine, - Animam meam <in> inferno_, 375 - Leffe noght my saule, Lorde, aftir Þe, - In depe helle where dampned schall goo, - Ne suffre neuere [+]saules fro Þe be[+] - The sorowe of þame þat wonnes in woo - Ay full of filthe, [+]þat may repleye[+]. 380 - _Adame._ We thanke His grete goodnesse - He fette vs fro þis place, - Makes ioie nowe more and lesse; - _Omnis._ We laude God of His grace. - - 33. _Iesus._ Adame and my frendis in feere, 385 - Fro all youre fooes come fourth with me, - [Gh]e schalle be sette in solas seere, - Wher [gh]e schall neuere of sorowes see. - And Mighill, myn aungell clere, - Ressayue þes saules all vnto þe, 390 - And lede þame als I schall þe lere - To Paradise with playe and plenté. - [_They come out of Limbo._ - Mi graue I woll go till, - Redy to rise vpperight, - And so I schall fulfille 395 - That I before haue highte. - - 34. _Michill._ Lorde, wende we schall aftir - Þi sawe, - To solace sere þai schall be sende, - But þat þer deuelis no draught vs drawe, - Lorde, blisse vs with Þi holy hende. 400 - _Iesus._ Mi blissing haue [gh]e all on rawe, - I schall be with youe, wher [gh]e wende, - And all þat lelly luffes my lawe, - Þai schall be blissid withowten ende. - _Adame._ To Þe, Lorde, be louyng, 405 - Þat vs has wonne fro waa, - For solas will we syng, - _Laus Tibi cum gloria_. - [_Exeunt._ - -[Foot-note: 14 Fro] For _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 40 in þis stedde] in darknes stad _Towneley_.] - -[Foot-note: 49 Isaiah] Isaac _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 170 þe] [gh]e _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 185 what harlot] _from Towneley MS.: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 188 I] of _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 242 neyd thowe craue] þus þe I telle _first hand_.] - -[Foot-note: 244 as] _added later MS._] - -[Foot-note: 244 knaue] braide _first hand_.] - -[Foot-note: 347 dole] dolee _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 356 clere] clene _MS._] - - - - -XVII - -THE TOWNELEY PLAY OF NOAH - -Towneley MS. (about 1475), ff. 76 ff. - - -The Towneley Miracles, so called because the manuscript belonged in -recent times to the library of Towneley Hall in Lancashire, are edited -by England and Pollard, E.E.T.S., 1897. The cycle is a composite -one--for instance it includes a later form of the York play _Harrowing -of Hell_ (No. XVI, above)--but it is distinguished by a group of plays -and interpolated scenes which seem to have been specially composed for -representation at Wakefield. Formally this group is marked by the use of -a peculiar nine-lined stanza, riming a a a a b c c c b, with central -rimes in the first four lines. The rough vigour of the comic scenes is -still more distinctive, and there can be little doubt that all are the -work of one man. The specimen of his style most often reprinted is _The -Second Shepherd's Play_, which has an original and purely secular comic -plot. The _Play of Noah_ is more typical of the English Miracle in its -later development. This subject was always popular with early -playwrights, for the Ark made a spectacle, and the traditional quarrels -of Noah and his wife gave scope for contests in fisticuffs and rough -raillery--the stuff of primitive comedy. - - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - NOE - DEUS - VXOR NOE - - PRIMUS FILIUS - SECUNDUS FILIUS - TERCIUS FILIUS - - PRIMA MULIER - SECUNDA MULIER - TERCIA MULIER - - - 1. _Noe._ Myghtfull God veray, Maker of all that is, - Thre persons withoutten nay, oone God in endles blis, - Thou maide both nyght and day, beest, fowle, and fysh, - All creatures that lif may wroght Thou at Thi wish, - As Thou wel myght; 5 - The son, the moyne, verament, - Thou maide, the firmament, - The sternes also full feruent - To shyne Thou maide ful bright. - - 2. Angels Thou maide ful euen, all orders that is, 10 - To haue the blis in heuen; this did Thou, more and les, - Full mervelus to neuen; yit was ther vnkyndnes - More bi foldis seuen then I can well expres; - For whi? - Of all angels in brightnes 15 - God gaf Lucifer most lightnes, - Yit prowdly he flyt his des, - And set hym euen Hym by. - - 3. He thoght hymself as worthi as Hym that hym made, - In brightnes, in bewty, therfor He hym degrade, 20 - Put hym in a low degré soyn after, in a brade, - Hym and all his menye, wher he may be vnglad - For euer. - Shall thay neuer wyn away - Hence vnto Domysday, 25 - Bot burne in bayle for ay; - Shall thay neuer dysseuer. - - 4. Soyne after, that gracyous Lord to his liknes maide man, - That place to be restord euen as He began, - Of the Trinité bi accord, Adam and Eue that woman, 30 - To multiplie without discord, in Paradise put He thaym, - And sithen to both - Gaf in commaundement - On the Tre of Life to lay no hend. - Bot yit the fals feynd 35 - Made Hym with man wroth, - - 5. Entysyd man to glotony, styrd him to syn in pride; - Bot in Paradise, securly, myght no syn abide, - And therfor man full hastely was put out in that tyde, - In wo and wandreth for to be, in paynes full vnrid 40 - To knowe, - Fyrst in erth, _and_ sythen in hell - With feyndis for to dwell, - Bot He his mercy mell - To those that will Hym trawe. 45 - - 6. Oyle of mercy He hus hight, as I haue hard red, - To euery lifyng wight that wold luf Hym and dred; - Bot now before His sight euery liffyng leyde, - Most party day and nyght, syn in word and dede - Full bold; 50 - Som in pride, ire, and enuy, - Som in couet_ei_s and glotyny, - Som in sloth and lechery, - And other wise many fold. - - 7. Therfor I drede lest God on vs will take veniance, 55 - For syn is now alod, without any repentance. - Sex hundreth yeris and od haue I, without distance, - In erth, as any sod, liffyd with grete grevance - Allway; - And now I wax old, 60 - Seke, sory, and cold, - As muk apon mold - I widder away. - - 8. Bot yit will I cry for mercy and call: - Noe, Thi seruant, am I, Lord ouer all! 65 - Therfor me, and my fry shal with me fall, - Saue from velany, and bryng to Thi hall - In heuen; - And kepe me from syn - This warld within; 70 - Comly Kyng of mankyn, - I pray The, here my stevyn! - - [_God appears above._] - - 9. _Deus._ Syn I haue maide all thyng that is liffand, - Duke, emperour, and kyng, with Myne awne hand, - For to haue thare likyng, bi see and bi sand, 75 - Euery man to My bydyng shuld be bowand - Full feruent, - That maide man sich a creatoure, - Farest of favoure; - Man must luf Me paramoure 80 - By reson, and repent. - - 10. Me thoght I shewed man luf when I made hym to be - All angels abuf, like to the Trynyté; - And now in grete reprufe full low ligis he, - In erth hymself to stuf with syn that displeas_es_ Me 85 - Most of all. - Veniance will I take - In erth for syn sake; - My grame thus will I wake - Both of grete and small. 90 - - 11. I repente full sore that euer maide I man; - Bi me he settis no store, and I am his soferan; - I will distroy therfor both beest, man and woman, - All shall perish, les and more; that bargan may thay ban - That ill has done. 95 - In erth I se right noght - Bot syn that is vnsoght; - Of those that well has wroght - Fynd I bot a fone. - - 12. Therfor shall I fordo all this medill-erd 100 - With floodis that shall flo and ryn with hidous rerd; - I haue good cause therto; for Me no man is ferd. - As I say shal I do--of veniance draw My swerd, - And make end - Of all that beris life, 105 - Sayf Noe and his wife, - For thay wold neuer stryfe - With Me, then Me offend. - - 13. Hym to mekill wyn, hastly will I go - To Noe my seruand, or I blyn, to warn hym of his wo. 110 - In erth I se bot syn reynand to and fro, - Emang both more and myn, ichon other fo - With all thare entent. - All shall I fordo - With floodis that shall floo; 115 - Wirk shall I thaym wo - That will not repent. - - [_God descends and addresses Noah._] - - 14. Noe, My freend, I thee commaund, from cares the to keyle, - A ship that thou ordand of nayle and bord ful wele. - Thou was alway well-wirkand, to Me trew as stele, 120 - To My bydyng obediand: frendship shal thou fele - To mede. - Of lennthe thi ship be - Thre hundreth cubettis, warn I the, - Of heght euen thirté, 125 - Of fyfty als in brede. - - 15. Anoynt thi ship with pik and tar, without and als within, - The water out to spar--this is a noble gyn; - Look no man the mar, thre che_s_e chambres begyn; - Thou must spend many a spar this wark or thou wyn 130 - To end fully. - Make in thi ship also - Parloures oone or two, - And houses of offyce mo - For beestis that ther must be. 135 - - 16. Oone cubite on hight a wyndo shal thou make; - On the syde a doore, with slyght, beneyth shal thou take; - With the shal no man fyght, nor do the no kyn wrake. - When all is doyne thus right, thi wife, that is thi make, - Take in to the; 140 - Thi sonnes of good fame, - Sem, Iaphet, and Came, - Take in also <t>hame, - Thare wifis also thre. - - 17. For all shal be fordone that lif in land, bot ye, 145 - With floodis that from abone shal fall, and that plenté; - It shall begyn full sone to rayn vncessantlé, - After dayes seuen be done, and induyr dayes fourty, - Withoutten fayll. - Take to thi ship also 150 - Of ich kynd beestis two, - Mayll and femayll, bot no mo, - Or thou pull vp thi sayll, - - 18. For thay may the avayll when al this thyng is wroght. - Stuf thi ship with vitayll, for hungre that ye perish - noght. - Of beestis, foull, and catayll, for thaym haue thou in 155 - thoght, - For thaym is My counsayll that som socour be soght - In hast. - Thay must haue corn and hay, - And oder mete alway. 160 - Do now as I the say, - In the name of the Holy Gast. - - 19. _Noe._ A! _benedicite!_ what art thou that thus - Tellys afore that shall be? Thou art full mervelus! - Tell me, for charité, thi name so gracius. 165 - _Deus._ My name is of dignyté, and also full glorius - To knowe. - I am God most myghty, - Oone God in Trynyty, - Made the and ich man to be; 170 - To luf Me well thou awe. - - 20. _Noe._ I thank The, Lord so dere, that wold vowchsayf - Thus low to appere to a symple knafe. - Blis vs, Lord, here, for charité I hit crafe, - The better may we stere the ship that we shall hafe, 175 - Certayn. - _Deus._ Noe, to the and to thi fry - My blyssyng graunt I; - Ye shall wax and multiply - And fill the erth agane, 180 - - 21. When all thise floodis ar past, and fully gone away. - _Noe._ Lord, homward will I hast as fast as that I may; - My <wife> will I frast what she will say, - [_Exit_ Deus.] - And I am agast that we get som fray - Betwixt vs both; 185 - For she is full tethee, - For litill oft angré; - If any thyng wrang be, - Soyne is she wroth. - - _Tunc perget ad vxorem._ - - 22. God spede, dere wife, how fayre ye? 190 - _Vxor._ Now, as euer myght I thryfe, the wars I thee - see. - Do tell me belife where has thou thus long be? - To dede may we dryfe, or lif, for the, - For want. - When we swete or swynk, 195 - Thou dos what thou thynk, - Yit of mete and of drynk - Haue we veray skant. - - 23. _Noe._ Wife, we ar hard sted with tythyngis new. - _Vxor._ Bot thou were worthi be cled in Stafford - blew; 200 - For thou art alway adred, be it fals or trew, - Bot God knowes I am led, and that may I rew, - Full ill; - For I dar be thi borow, - From euen vnto morow 205 - Thou spekis euer of sorow; - God send the onys thi fill! - - 24. We women may wary all ill husbandis; - I haue oone, bi Mary that lowsyd me of my bandis! - If he teyn, I must tary, how so euer it standis, 210 - With seymland full sory, wryngand both my handis - For drede. - Bot yit other while, - What with gam and with gyle, - I shall smyte and smyle, 215 - And qwite hym his mede. - - 25. _Noe._ We! hold thi tong, ram-skyt, or I shall the - still. - _Vxor._ By my thryft, if thou smyte, I shal turne the - vntill. - _Noe._ We shall assay as tyte. Haue at the, Gill! - Apon the bone shal it byte. - _Vxor._ A, so, Mary! thou smytis ill! 220 - Bot I suppose - I shal not in thi det - Flyt of this flett! - Take the ther a langett - To tye vp thi hose! 225 - - 26. _Noe._ A! wilt thou so? Mary! that is myne. - _Vxor._ Thou shal thre for two, I swere bi Godis pyne! - _Noe._ And I shall qwyte the tho, in fayth, or syne. - _Vxor._ Out apon the, ho! - _Noe._ Thou can both byte and whyne - With a rerd; 230 - For all if she stryke, - Yit fast will she skryke; - In fayth, I hold none slyke - In all medill-erd. - - 27. Bot I will kepe charyté, for I haue at do. 235 - _Vxor._ Here shal no man tary the, I pray the go to! - Full well may we mys the, as euer haue I ro; - To spyn will I dres me. - _Noe._ We! fare well, lo; - Bot wife, - Pray for me beselé 240 - To eft I com vnto the. - _Vxor._ Euen as thou prays for me, - As euer myght I thrife. - [_Exit_ Vxor.] - - 28. _Noe._ I tary full lang fro my warke, I traw; - Now my gere will I fang, and thederward draw; 245 - I may full ill gang, the soth for to knaw, - Bot if God help amang, I may sit downe daw - To ken; - Now assay will I - How I can of wrightry, 250 - _In nomine patris, et filii, - Et spiritus sancti. Amen._ - - 29. To begyn of this tree my bonys will I bend, - I traw from the Trynyté socoure will be send; - It fayres full fayre, thynk me, this wark to my hend; 255 - Now blissid be He that this can amend. - Lo, here the lenght, - Thre hundreth cubettis euenly; - Of breed, lo, is it fyfty; - The heght is euen thyrty 260 - Cubettis full strenght. - - 30. Now my gowne will I cast and wyrk in my cote, - Make will I the mast or I flyt oone foote; - A! my bak, I traw, will brast! This is a sory note! - Hit is wonder that I last, sich an old dote, 265 - All dold, - To begyn sich a wark! - My bonys ar so stark, - No wonder if thay wark, - For I am full old. 270 - - 31. The top and the sayll both will I make, - The helme and the castell also will I take, - To drife ich a nayll will I not forsake, - This gere may neuer fayll, that dar I vndertake - Onone. 275 - This is a nobull gyn, - Thise nayles so thay ryn - Thoro more and myn - Thise bordis ichon. - - 32. Wyndow and doore, euen as He saide, 280 - Thre ches chambre, thay ar well maide, - Pyk and tar full sure therapon laide; - This will euer endure, therof am I paide; - For why? - It is better wroght 285 - Then I coude haif thoght. - Hym that maide all of noght - I thank oonly. - - 33. Now will I hy me, and no thyng be leder, - My wife and my meneye to bryng euen heder. 290 - Tent hedir tydely, wife, and consider, - Hens must vs fle, all sam togeder, - In hast. - _Vxor._ Whi, syr, what alis you? - Who is that asalis you? 295 - To fle it avalis you - And ye be agast. - - 34. _Noe._ Ther is garn on the reyll other, my dame. - _Vxor._ Tell me that ich a deyll, els get ye blame. - _Noe._ He that cares may keill--blissid be His - name!-- 300 - He has <het> for oure seyll to sheld vs fro shame, - And sayd - All this warld aboute - With floodis so stoute, - That shall ryn on a route, 305 - Shall be ouerlaide. - - 35. He saide all shall be slayn, bot oonely we, - Oure barnes that ar bayn, and thare wifis thre. - A ship He bad me ordayn, to safe vs and oure fee; - Therfor with all oure mayn thank we that fre, 310 - Beytter of bayll. - Hy vs fast, go we thedir. - _Vxor._ I wote neuer whedir, - I dase and I dedir - For ferd of that tayll. 315 - - 36. _Noe._ Be not aferd, haue done, trus sam oure gere, - That we be ther or none, without more dere. - _Primus filius._ It shall be done full sone. Brether, - help to bere. - _Secundus filius._ Full long shall I not hoyne to do - my devere, - Brether sam. 320 - _Tercius filius._ Without any yelp, - At my myght shall I help. - _Vxor._ Yit, for drede of a skelp, - Help well thi dam. - - 37. _Noe._ Now ar we there as we shuld be; 325 - Do get in oure gere, oure catall and fe, - Into this vessell here, my chylder fre. - _Vxor._ I was neuer bard ere, as euer myght I the, - In sich an oostré as this. - In fath, I can not fynd 330 - Which is before, which is behynd. - Bot shall we here be pynd, - Noe, as haue thou blis? - - 38. _Noe._ Dame, as it is skill, here must vs abide - grace; - Therfor, wife, with good will, com into this place. 335 - _Vxor._ Sir, for Iak nor for Gill will I turne my - face, - Till I haue on this hill spon a space - On my rok. - Well were he myght get me! - Now will I downe set me; 340 - Yit reede I no man let me, - For drede of a knok. - - 39. _Noe._ Behold to the heuen the cateractes all, - That are open full euen, grete and small, - And the planettis seuen left has thare stall. 345 - Thise thoners and levyn downe gar fall - Full stout - Both halles and bowers, - Castels and towres. - Full sharp ar thise showers 350 - That renys aboute. - - 40. Therfor, wife, haue done, com into ship fast. - _Vxor._ Yei, Noe, go cloute thi shone, the better will - thai last. - _Prima mulier._ Good moder, com in sone, for all is - ouercast - Both the son and the mone. - _Secunda mulier._ And many wynd blast 355 - Full sharp. - Thise floodis so thay ryn, - Therfor, moder, come in. - _Vxor._ In fayth, yit will I spyn; - All in vayn ye carp. 360 - - 41. _Tercia mulier._ If ye like ye may spyn, moder, in the - ship. - _Noe._ Now is this twyys com in, dame, on my frenship. - _Vxor._ Wheder I lose or I wyn, in fayth, thi felowship - Set I not at a pyn. This spyndill will I slip - Apon this hill, 365 - Or I styr oone fote. - _Noe._ Peter! I traw we dote. - Without any more note - Come in if ye will. - - 42. _Vxor._ Yei, water nyghys so nere that I sit not dry, 370 - Into ship with a byr therfor will I hy - For drede that I drone here. - _Noe._ Dame, securly, - It bees boght full dere ye abode so long by - Out of ship. - _Vxor._ I will not, for thi bydyng, 375 - Go from doore to mydyng. - _Noe._ In fayth, and for youre long taryyng - Ye shal lik on the whyp. - - 43. _Vxor._ Spare me not, I pray the, bot euen as thou - thynk, - Thise grete wordis shall not flay me. - _Noe._ Abide, dame, and drynk, 380 - For betyn shall thou be with this staf to thou stynk; - Ar strokis good? say me. - _Vxor._ What say ye, Wat Wynk? - _Noe._ Speke! - Cry me mercy, I say! - _Vxor._ Therto say I nay. 385 - _Noe._ Bot thou do, bi this day! - Thi hede shall I breke. - - 44. _Vxor._ Lord, I were at ese, and hertely full hoylle, - Might I onys haue a measse of wedows coyll; - For thi saull, without lese, shuld I dele penny doyll, 390 - So wold mo, no frese, that I se on this sole - Of wifis that ar here, - For the life that thay leyd, - Wold thare husbandis were dede, - For, as euer ete I brede, 395 - So wold I oure syre were. - - 45. _Noe._ Yee men that has wifis, whyls they ar yong, - If ye luf youre lifis, chastice thare tong: - Me thynk my hert ryfis, both levyr and long, - To se sich stryfis wedmen emong. 400 - Bot I, - As haue I blys, - Shall chastyse this. - _Vxor._ Yit may ye mys, - Nicholl Nedy! 405 - - 46. _Noe._ I shall make þe still as stone, begynnar of - blunder! - I shall bete the bak and bone, and breke all in sonder. - [_They fight._] - _Vxor._ Out, alas, I am gone! Oute apon the, mans - wonder! - _Noe._ Se how she can grone, and I lig vnder; - Bot, wife, 410 - In this hast let vs ho, - For my bak is nere in two. - _Vxor._ And I am bet so blo - That I may not thryfe. - - [_They enter the Ark._] - - 47. _Primus filius._ A! whi fare ye thus, fader and moder - both? 415 - _Secundus filius._ Ye shuld not be so spitus, standyng - in sich a woth. - _Tercius filius._ Thise <floodis> ar so hidus, with - many a cold coth. - _Noe._ We will do as ye bid vs, we will no more be - wroth, - Dere barnes! - Now to the helme will I hent, 420 - And to my ship tent. - _Vxor._ I se on the firmament, - Me thynk, the seven starnes. - - 48. _Noe._ This is a grete flood, wife, take hede. - _Vxor._ So me thoght, as I stode; we ar in grete - drede; 425 - Thise wawghes ar so wode. - _Noe._ Help, God, in this nede! - As Thou art stereman good, and best, as I rede, - Of all; - Thou rewle vs in this rase, - As Thou me behete hase. 430 - _Vxor._ This is a perlous case. - Help, God, when we call! - - 49. _Noe._ Wife, tent the stere-tre, and I shall asay - The depnes of the see that we bere, if I may. - _Vxor._ That shall I do ful wysely. Now go thi way, 435 - For apon this flood haue we flett many day - With pyne. - _Noe._ Now the water will I sownd: - A! it is far to the grownd; - This trauell I expownd 440 - Had I to tyne. - - 50. Aboue all hillys bedeyn the water is rysen late - Cubettis fyfteyn, bot in a higher state - It may not be, I weyn, for this well I wate: - This forty dayes has rayn beyn; it will therfor abate 445 - Full lele. - This water in hast - Eft will I tast. - Now am I agast, - It is wanyd a grete dele. 450 - - 51. Now are the weders cest, and cateractes knyt, - Both the most and the leest. - _Vxor._ Me thynk, bi my wit, - The son shynes in the eest. Lo, is not yond it? - We shuld haue a good feest, were thise floodis flyt - So spytus. 455 - _Noe._ We haue been here, all we, - Thre hundreth dayes and fyfty. - _Vxor._ Yei, now wanys the see; - Lord, well is vs! - - 52. _Noe._ The thryd tyme will I prufe what depnes we - bere. 460 - _Vxor._ _H_ow long shall thou hufe? Lay in thy lyne - there. - _Noe._ I may towch with my lufe the grownd evyn here. - _Vxor._ Then begynnys to grufe to vs mery chere; - Bot, husband, - What grownd may this be? 465 - _Noe._ The hyllys of Armonye. - _Vxor._ Now blissid be He - That thus for vs can ordand! - - 53. _Noe._ I see toppys of hyllys he, many at a syght, - No thyng to let me, the wedir is so bright. 470 - _Vxor._ Thise ar of mercy tokyns full right. - _Noe._ Dame, th_ou_ counsell me, what fowll best myght, - And cowth, - With flight of wyng - Bryng, without taryying, 475 - Of mercy som tokynyng, - Ayther bi north or southe? - - 54. For this is the fyrst day of the tent moyne. - _Vxor._ The ravyn, durst I lay, will com agane sone; - As fast as thou may, cast hym furth, haue done; 480 - He may happyn today com agane or none - With grath. - _Noe._ I will cast out also - Dowfys oone or two. - Go youre way, go, 485 - God send you som wathe! - - 55. Now ar thise fowles flone into seyr countré; - Pray we fast ichon, kneland on our kne, - To Hym that is alone worthiest of degré, - That He wold send anone oure fowles som fee 490 - To glad vs. - _Vxor._ Thai may not fayll of land, - The water is so wanand. - _Noe._ Thank we God Allweldand, - That Lord that made vs! 495 - - 56. It is a wonder thyng, me thynk, sothlé, - Thai ar so long taryyng, the fowles that we - Cast out in the mornyng. - _Vxor._ Syr, it may be - Thai tary to thay bryng. - _Noe._ The ravyn is a-hungrye - All way; 500 - He is without any reson; - And he fynd any caryon, - As peraventure may be fon, - He will not away. - - 57. The dowfe is more gentill, her trust I vntew, 505 - Like vnto the turtill, for she is ay trew. - _Vxor._ Hence bot a litill she commys, lew, lew! - She bryngys in her bill som novels new; - Behald! - It is of an olif tre 510 - A branch, thynkys me. - _Noe._ It is soth, perdé, - Right so is it cald. - - 58. Doufe, byrd full blist, fayre myght the befall! - Thou art trew for to trist, as ston in the wall; 515 - Full well I it wist thou wold com to thi hall. - _Vxor._ A trew tokyn ist we shall be sauyd all: - For whi? - The water, syn she com, - Of depnes plom 520 - Is fallen a fathom - And more, hardely. - - 59. _Primus filius._ Thise floodis ar gone, fader, behold. - _Secundus filius._ Ther is left right none, and that be - ye bold. - _Tercius filius._ As still as a stone oure ship is - stold. 525 - _Noe._ Apon land here anone that we were, fayn I wold, - My childer dere, - Sem, Iaphet and Cam, - With gle and with gam, - Com go we all sam, 530 - We will no longer abide here. - - 60. _Vxor._ Here haue we beyn, Noy, long enogh - With tray and with teyn, and dreed mekill wogh. - _Noe._ Behald on this greyn nowder cart ne plogh - Is left, as I weyn, nowder tre then bogh, 535 - Ne other thyng; - Bot all is away; - Many castels, I say, - Grete townes of aray, - Flitt has this flowyng. 540 - - 61. _Vxor._ Thise floodis not afright all this warld so wide - Has mevid with myght on se and bi side. - _Noe._ To dede ar thai dyght, prowdist of pryde, - Euerich a wyght that euer was spyde - With syn, 545 - All ar thai slayn, - And put vnto payn. - _Vxor._ From thens agayn - May thai neuer wyn? - - 62. _Noe._ Wyn? No, iwis, bot He that myght hase 550 - Wold myn of thare mys, and admytte thaym to grace; - As He in bayll is blis, I pray Hym in this space, - In heven hye with His to purvaye vs a place, - That we, - With His santis in sight, 555 - And His angels bright, - May com to His light: - Amen, for charité. - - _Explicit processus Noe._ - -[Foot-note: 129 chese] chefe _MS._] - - - - -NOTES - - -I - -#Dialect#: North-East Midland of Lincolnshire. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _hast_ 131. - 3 sg. _stondeþ_ 8. - 3 pl. _calle_ 32, _seye_ 254; beside _dos_ 157 - (see note). - imper. pl. _comeþ_ 80, _doþ_ 82. - pres. p. _karoland_ (in rime) 117, 150, 222. - strong pp. _wryte_ 37, _fal_ 195, _gone_ 161. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _she_ 48; pl. nom. _þey_ 32; poss. - _here_ 37; obj. _hem_ 39. - -The inflexions are very much simplified as compared with those of the -Kentish _Ayenbyte_ (III), but the verse shows that final unaccented _-e_ -was better preserved in the original than in our late MS., e.g. - - _And specyaly at hygh<[.e]> tym[.e]s_ 13. - _For to see þys hard<[.e]> dome_ 173. - _And at þe þre<[.e]> day<[.e]>s end[.e]_ 198. - _Þat non[.e] my[gh]t<[.e]> leye yn grau[.e]_ 217. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ is regular for OE. _[=a]_: _lothe_ 9, _wroth_ 10, &c.; -but the only decisive rime is _also_ (OE. _alsw[=a]_): _to_ (OE. -_t[=o]_) 35-6, where _[=o,]_ after _(s)w_ has become close _[=o.]_; see -Appendix § 8. ii, note. - -#Syntax#: the loose constructions, e.g. ll. 15 ff. (note), 134-5, 138-9, -216-19, are characteristic of the period. - - * * * * * - -The history of this legend is traced by E. Schröder, _Zeitschrift für -Kirchengeschichte_, vol. xvii, 1896, pp. 94 ff., and, more summarily, by -Gaston Paris, _Les Danseurs maudits_, Paris 1900. The circumstances from -which it sprang appear to belong to the year 1021. Kölbigk, in Anhalt, -Saxony, was the scene of the dance. In 1074 it is referred to as -'famous' by a German chronicler, who records the healing of one of the -dancers in 1038 through the miraculous powers of St. Wigbert. - -Mendicants who suffered from or could simulate nervous diseases like St. -Vitus's dance, were quick to realize their opportunity, and two letters -telling the story were circulated as credentials by pretended survivors -of the band. Both are influenced in form by a sermon of St. Augustine of -Hippo which embodies a similar story (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. xxxviii, -col. 1443). The first (Letter of Otbert), which claims to be issued by -Peregrinus bishop of Cologne, spread rapidly through Western Europe. -This was the version that Mannyng found in William of Wadington. The -second (Letter of Theodric) makes Bruno bishop of Toul, afterwards Pope -Leo IX, vouch for the facts. It was incorporated in the account of the -miraculous cure of Theodric at the shrine of St. Edith of Wilton, and is -known only from English sources. This was the text that Mannyng used. A -later English version, without merit, is found in the dreary -fifteenth-century _Life of St. Editha_ (ed. Horstmann, ll. 4063 ff.). - - * * * * * - -1 ff. _games_: Dances and shows in the churchyard were constantly -condemned by the Church in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In -1287 a synod at Exeter rules _ne quisquam luctas, choreas, vel alios -ludos inhonestos in coemeteriis exercere praesumat, praecipue in -vigiliis et festis sanctorum_. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_, vol. -i, pp. 90 ff. - -6. _or tabure bete_: Note the use of _bete_ infin. as a verbal noun = -_betyng_; cp. XI _b_ 184-5. - -10-12. 'And he (_sc._ a good priest) will become angered sooner than one -who has no learning, and who does not understand Holy Writ.' - -15 ff. _noght... none_: An accumulation of negatives in ME. makes the -negation more emphatic. Here the writer wavers between two forms of -expression: (1) 'do not sing carols in holy places', and (2) 'to sing -carols in holy places is sacrilege'. - -25-8. _yn þys londe_, &c. The cure of Theodric, not the dance, took -place in England. Brightgiva is said to have been abbess of Wilton at -the time (1065), and 'King Edward' is Edward the Confessor (1042-66). - -34-5. The church of Kölbigk is dedicated to St. Magnus, of whom nothing -certain is known. The memory of St. Bukcestre, if ever there was such a -saint, appears to be preserved only in this story. - -36. _þat þey come to_: Construe with _hyt_ in l. 35. - -37 ff. _Here names of alle_: The twelve followers of Gerlew are named in -the Latin text, but Mannyng gives only the principal actors. The -inconsistency is still more marked in the Bodleian MS., which after l. -40 adds:-- - - _Þe ouþer twelue here names alle - Þus were þey wrete, as y can kalle._ - -Otherwise the Bodleian MS. is very closely related to the Harleian, -sharing most of its errors and peculiarities. - -44. _þe prestes doghtyr of þe tounne_, 'the priest of the town's -daughter'. In early ME. the genitive inflexion is not, as in Modern -English, added to the last of a group of words: cp. XIV _d_ 10 _Þe -Kynges sone of heuene_ 'the King of Heaven's son'. The same construction -occurs in VIII _a_ 19 _for þe Lordes loue of heuene_ = 'for the love of -the Lord of Heaven', and in VIII _a_ 214; but in these passages the -genitive is objective, and Modern English does not use the inflexion at -all (note to I 83). The ME. and modern expressions have their point of -agreement in the position of the genitive inflexion, which always -precedes immediately the noun on which the genitive depends. Cp. notes -to II 518, VI 23, and XIV _d_ 1. - -46. _A[gh]one_: _[gh]_ = _z_ here. The name is _Azo_ in the Latin. - -55. _Beu<u>ne_: (derived from the accusative _Beuonem_) = _Beuo_ of -l. 59 and _Beuolyne_ of l. 62. The form is properly _Bovo_ not _Bevo_. -Considerable liberties were taken with proper names to adapt them to -metre or rime: e.g. l. 52 _Merswynde_; l. 63 _Merswyne_; cp. note to l. -246. This habit, and frequent miscopying, make it difficult to rely on -names in mediaeval stories. - -65. _Grysly_: An error for _Gerlew_, Latin _Gerleuus_, from Low German -_G[=e]rl[=e]f_ = OE. _G[=a]rl[=a]f_. - -83. _for Crystys awe_: In Modern English a phrase like _Christ's awe_ -could mean only 'the awe felt by Christ'. But in OE. _Cristes ege_, or -_ege Cristes_, meant also 'the awe of Christ (which men feel)', the -genitive being objective. In ME. the word order _eie Cristes_ is -dropped, but _Cristes eie_ (or _awe_, the Norse form) is still regular -for '(men's) fear of Christ'. Hence formal ambiguities like _þe Lordes -loue of heuene_ VIII _a_ 19, which actually means '(men's) love of the -Lord of Heaven', but grammatically might mean 'the Lord of Heaven's love -(for men)'--see note to l. 44 above. - -96-7. The Latin Letter of Theodric in fact has _ab isto officio ex Dei -nutu amodo non cessetis_, but probably _amodo_ is miswritten for _anno_. - -127. _a saue_: lit. 'have safe', i.e. 'rescue'. _Saue_ is here adj. - -128-9. _ys_: _flessh_: The rime requires the alternative forms _es_ (as -in l. 7) and _fles(s)_. Cp. note to VII 4. - -132. _[Gh]ow þar nat aske_: 'There is no need for you to ask'; _[gh]ow_ -is dative after the impersonal _þar_. - -156-7. _werynes_: _dos_. The rime is false. Perhaps Mannyng wrote: _As -many body for goyng es_ [sc. _wery_], and a copyist misplaced _es_, -writing: _As many body es for goyng_. If _body es_ were read as -_bodyes_, a new verb would then be added. - -169. Note the irony of the refrain. The Letter of Otbert adds the -picturesque detail that they gradually sank up to their waists in the -ground through dancing on the same spot. - -172. _Þe Emperoure Henry_: Probably Henry II of Germany, Emperor from -1014 to 1024. A certain vagueness in points of time and place would save -the bearers of the letter from awkward questions. - -188-9. _banned_: _woned_. The rime (OE. _bannan_ and _wunian_) is false, -and the use of _woned_ 'remained' is suspicious. Mannyng perhaps wrote -_bende_ 'put in bonds': _wende_ (= _[gh]ede_ l. 191) 'went'; or (if the -form _band_ for _banned(e)_ could be evidenced so early) _band_ -'cursed': _wand_, pret. of _winden_, 'went'. - -195. _fal yn a swone_: So MS., showing that by the second half of the -fourteenth century the pp. adj. _aswon_ had been wrongly analysed into -the indef. article _a_ and a noun _swon_. Mannyng may have written -_fallen aswone_. See Glossary, _s.v._ _aswone_. - -234. _Wyth sundyr lepys_: 'with separate leaps'; but _Wyth_ was probably -added by a scribe who found in his original _sundyrlepys_, adv., meaning -'separately',-- - - _Kar suvent par les mains - Des malvais escrivains - Sunt livre corrumput._ - -240. _Seynt Edyght._ St. Edith (d. 984) was daughter of King Edgar, and -abbess of Wilton. The rime is properly _Edit_: _Teodric_, for _t_ and -_k_ are sufficiently like in sound to rime together in the best ME. -verse; cp. note to XV _g_ 27. - -246. _Brunyng... seynt Tolous_: Latin _Bruno Tullanus_. Robert probably -did not hesitate to provide a rime by turning Toul into Toulouse. Bruno -afterwards became Pope Leo IX (1049-54). - -254-5. _trowed_: _God_. Read _tr[)o]d_, a shortened form, revealed by -rimes in North Midland texts. The identical rime occurs three times in -Mannyng's _Chronicle_ (ed. Hearne, p. 339; ed. Furnivall, ll. 7357-8, -8111-12); and, again with substitution of _troud_ for _trod_, in -_Havelok_, ll. 2338-9. Cp. note to XVII 56. - - -II - -#Dialect#: South-Western, with some admixture of Northern forms due to a -copyist. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _ichaue_, &c. (see note to l. 129). - 2 sg. _makest_ 169, _worst_ 170. - 3 sg. _geþ_ (in rime) 238; contracted _fint_ 239, - _last_ 335, _sitt_ 443, _stont_ 556. - 2 pl. _[gh]e beþ_ 582. - 3 pl. _strikeþ_ 252 (proved by rime with 3 sg. - _likeþ_). - imper. pl. _make_ 216, _chese_ 217; beside _doþ_ 218. - pres. p. _berking_ 286 (in rime with verbal sb.); - _daunceing_ (in rime) 298. The forms _kneland_ 250, - _liggeand_ 388, are due to a Northern copyist. - strong pp. (various forms): _go_ (: _wo_) 196, _ygo_ - (: _mo_) 349, _ydone_ (: _-none_) 76, _comen_ 29, _come_ - 181, _ycomen_ 203, _yborn_ 174, _bore_ 210. - infin. Note _aski_ (OE. _acsian_) 467 (App. § 13 vii). - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _he_ 408, 446, _hye_ 337, beside _sche_ - 75, 77, &c. - pl. nom. _he_ (in rime) 185, _hye_ 91, beside _þai_ 32, 69, - &c.; - poss. _her_ 'their' 87, 413, 415; obj. _hem_ 69, &c. - NOUN: Note the plurals _honden_ 79, _berien_ 258. - -The original text preserved final _-e_ better than the extant MSS., e.g. - - _And seyd<[.e]> þus þe king<[.e]> to_ 119. - _Þat noþing help<[.e]> þe no schal_ 172. - _Al þe vt<[.e]>mast<[.e]> wal_ 357. - _So, sir, as [gh]e seyd<[.e]> nouþ[.e]_ 466. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ for OE. _[=a]_ is proved in rime: _biholde_ (OE. -_beháldan_): _gold_ (OE. _góld_) 367-8 (cp. 467-8); and _yhote_ (OE. -_geh[=a]ten_): _note_ (OFr. _note_) 601-2. - -The rime _frut_: _lite_ 257-8 points to original _frut_: _lut_ (OE. -_l[=y]t_), with Western _[=ü]_, from OE. _[=y]_, riming with OFr. -_[=ü]_. - - * * * * * - -1-22. These lines, found also in _Lai le Freine_, would serve as preface -to any of the Breton lays, with the couplet ll. 23-4 as the special -connecting link. In the Auchinleck MS., _Orfeo_ begins on a fresh leaf -at l. 25, without heading or capitals to indicate that it is a new poem. -The leaf preceding has been lost. There is good reason to suppose that -it contained the lines supplied in the text from the Harleian MS. - -4. _frely_, 'goodly': _Lai le Freine_ has _ferly_ 'wondrous'. - -12. MS. _moost to lowe_: means 'most (worthy) to be praised', and there -are two or three recorded examples of _to lowe_ = _to alowe_ in this -sense. But MS. Ashmole and the corresponding lines in _Lai le Freine_ -point to _most o loue_ 'mostly of love' as the common reading. The -typical 'lay' is a poem of moderate length, telling a story of love, -usually with some supernatural element, in a refined and courtly style. - -13. _Brytayn_, 'Brittany': so _Brytouns_ 16 = 'Bretons'. Cp. Chaucer, -_Franklin's Tale, Prologue_, beginning - - _Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes - Of diverse aventures maden layes - Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge, - Whiche layes with hir instrumentz they songe_, &c. - -20. The curious use of _it_ after the plural _layes_ is perhaps not -original. _Lai le Freine_ has: _And maked a lay and yaf it name_. - -26. _In Inglond_: an alteration of the original text to give local -colour. Cp. ll. 49-50 and l. 478. - -29-30. _Pluto_: the King of Hades came to be regarded as the King of -Fairyland; cp. Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, l. 983 _Pluto that is the -kyng of fairye_. The blunder by which Juno is made a king is apparently -peculiar to the Auchinleck copy. - -33-46. These lines are not in the Auchinleck MS., but are probably -authentic. Otherwise little prominence would be given to Orfeo's skill -as a harper. - -41 ff. A confused construction: _In þe world was neuer man born_ should -be followed by _<þat> he <ne> schulde þinke_; but the writer goes on as -if he had begun with 'every man in the world'. _And_ = 'if'. - -46. _ioy and_ overload the verse, and are probably an unskilful addition -to the text. - -49-50. These lines are peculiar to the Auchinleck MS., and are clearly -interpolated; cp. l. 26 and l. 478. Winchester was the old capital of -England, and therefore the conventional seat of an English king. - -57. _comessing_: The metre points to a disyllabic form _comsing_ here, -and to _comsi_ in l. 247. - -80. _it bled wete_: In early English the clause which is logically -subordinate is sometimes made formally co-ordinate. More normal would be -_þat (it) bled wete_ 'until (_or_ so that) it bled wet'; i.e. until it -was wet with blood. - -82. _reuey<se>d_ or some such form of _ravished_ is probably right. -_reneyd_ 'apostate' is a possible reading of the MS., but does not fit -the sense. _N. E. D._ suggests _remeued_. - -102. _what is te?_: 'What ails you?; cp. l. 115. _Te_ for _þe_ after _s_ -of _is_. Such modifications are due either to dissimilation of like -sounds, as _þ_: _s_ which are difficult in juxtaposition; or to -assimilation of unlike sounds, as _þatow_ 165, for _þat þow_. - -115. 'What ails you, and how it came about?'; cp. l. 102. - -129. _ichil_ = _ich wille_; and so _ichaue_ 209, _icham_ 382, _ichot_ XV -_b_ 23. These forms, reduced to _chill_, _cham_, &c., were still -characteristic of the Southern dialect in Shakespeare's time: cp. _King -Lear_, IV. vi. 239 _Chill not let go, Zir_. - -131. _þat nou[gh]t nis_: 'That cannot be'; cp. l. 457 _þat nou[gh]t -nere_. - -157-8. _palays_: _ways_. The original rime was perhaps _palys_: _wys_ -'wise'. - -170. 'Wherever you may be, you shall be fetched.' - -201-2. _barouns_: _renouns_. Forms like _renouns_ in rime are usually -taken over from a French original. - -215. The overloaded metre points to a shorter word like _wite_ for -_vnderstond_. - -216. _Make [gh]ou þan a parlement_: _[gh]ou_ is not nom., but dat. 'for -yourselves'. Observe that Orfeo acts like a constitutional English king. - -241. _þe fowe and griis_: A half translation of OFr. _vair et gris_. -_Vair_ (Lat. _varius_) was fur made of alternate pieces of the grey back -and white belly of the squirrel. Hence it is rendered by _fowe_, OE. -_f[=a]g_ 'varicolor'. _Griis_ is the grey back alone, and the French -word is retained for the rime with _biis_, which was probably in the -OFr. original. - -258. _berien_: The MS. may be read _berren_, but as this form is -incorrect it is better to assume that the _i_ has been carelessly shaped -by the scribe. - -289. _him se_, 'see (for himself), and similarly _slep þou þe_ XV _g_ -13. This reflexive use of the dative pronoun, which cannot be reproduced -in a modern rendering, is common in OE. and ME., especially with verbs -of motion; cp. note to XV _g_ 24. But distinguish _went him_ 475, 501, -where _him_ is accusative, not dative (OE. _wente hine_), because the -original sense of _went_ is 'turned', which naturally takes a reflexive -object. - -342. _me no reche_ = _I me no reche_. The alternative would be the -impersonal _me no recheþ_. - -343. _also spac_ = _also bliue_ 142 = _also swiþe_ 574: 'straightway', -&c. - -363. MS. _auowed_ (or _anowed_) is meaningless here. _Anow<rn>ed_, or -the doubtful by-form _anow<r>ed_ 'adorned', is probably the true -reading. - -382. The line is too long--a fault not uncommon where direct speech is -introduced, e.g. l. 419 and I 78. Usually a correct line can be obtained -by dropping words like _quath he_, which are not as necessary in spoken -verse as they are where writing alone conveys the sense. But sometimes -the flaw may lie in the forms of address: l. 382 would be normal without -_Parfay_; l. 419 may once have been: - - _And seyd 'Lord, [gh]if þi wille were'._ - -There is no task more slippery than the metrical reconstruction of ME. -poems, particularly those of which the extant text derives from the -original not simply through a line of copyists, but through a line of -minstrels who passed on the verses from memory and by word of mouth. - -388. The line seems to be corrupt, and, as usual, the Harleian and -Ashmole MSS. give little help. _Ful_ can hardly be a sb. meaning -'multitude' from the adj. _full_. Some form of _fele_ (OE. _fela_) 'a -great number' would give possible grammar and sense (cp. l. 401), but -bad metre. Perhaps _ful_ should be deleted as a scribe's anticipation -of _folk_ in the next line; for the construction _sei[gh]e... of folk_ -cp. XVI 388; and _Hous of Fame_, Bk. iii, ll. 147 ff. - -433. _Þei we nou[gh]t welcom no be_: Almost contemporary with _Sir -Orfeo_ is the complaint of an English writer that the halls of the -nobles stood open to a lawyer, but not to a poet: - - _Exclusus ad ianuam poteris sedere - Ipse licet venias, Musis comitatus, Homere!_ - -'Though thou came thyself, Homer, with all the Muses, thou mightst sit -at the door, shut out!', T. Wright, _Political Songs_ (1839), p. 209. - -446. _hadde he_, 'had she'. For _he_ (OE. _h[=e]o_) = 'she' cp. l. 408. - -450. 'Now ask of me whatsoever it may be'. The plots of mediaeval -romances often depend on the unlimited promises of an unwary king, whose -honour compels him to keep his word. So in the story of Tristram, an -Irish noble disguised as a minstrel wins Ysolde from King Mark by this -same device, but is himself cheated of his prize by Tristram's skill in -music. - -458. 'An ill-matched pair you two would be!' - -479. The halting verse may be completed by adding _sum tyme_ before -_his_, with the Harley and Ashmole MSS. - -483. _ybilt_ of the MS. and editors cannot well be a pp. meaning -'housed'. I prefer to take _bilt_ as sb. = _bild_, _build_ 'a building'; -and to suppose that _y_ has been miswritten for _[=y]_, the contraction -for _yn_. - -495. _gan hold_, 'held'; a good example of the ME. use of _gan_ + -infinitive with the sense of the simple preterite. - -515. An unhappy suggestion _home_ for the second _come_ has sometimes -been accepted. But a careful Southern poet could not rime _home_ (OE. -_h[=a]m_) and _some_ (OE. _s[)u]m_). See note to VI 224. - -518. _For mi lordes loue Sir Orfeo_, 'for my lord Sir Orfeo's love'. -Logically the genitive inflexion should be added to both of two -substantives in apposition, as in OE. _on Herodes dagum cyninges_ 'in -the days of King Herod'. But in ME. the first substantive usually has -the inflexion, and the second is uninflected; cp. V 207 _kynge[gh] hous -Arthor_ 'the house of King Arthur'; and notes to I 44, VI 23. - -544. _Allas! wreche_: _wreche_ refers to the speaker, as in l. 333. - -551. _hou it geþ--_: The sense is hard to convey without some cumbrous -paraphrase like 'the inexorable law of this world--'. - -552. _It nis no bot of manes deþ_: 'There is no remedy for man's death', -i.e. violent grief will do no good. Note _it nis_ 'there is (not)'. In -ME. the anticipated subject is commonly _it_ where we use _there_. - -565. _in ynome_: '<had> taken up my abode'; _in_ 'dwelling' = NE. 'inn'. - -599. _herof_ overloads the line and is omitted in the Ashmole MS. - - -III - -#Dialect#: Pure Kentish of Canterbury. - -#Inflexions# are well preserved, and are similar to those found in -contemporary South-Western texts. - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _multiplieþ_ 1; contracted _ret_ 3, 16. - 1 pl. _habbeþ_ 2. - strong pp. _yyeue_ 25, _yhote_ 29. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: the new forms _she_, _they_, _their_, _them_ are - not used. - 3 sg. fem. nom. _hi_ 32, _hy_ 45; - poss. _hare_ 33, beside _hire_ 36; - pl. nom. _hi_ 58. - Note the objective form _his(e)_ = 'her' 32, 53 (twice); - and = 'them' 7, 8, 28. - NOUN: plurals in _-en_ occur: _uorbisnen_ 2, _ken_ 56. In - _diaknen_ 5, _-en_ represents the dat. pl. inflexion. - ADJECTIVE: _onen_ dat. sg. 4, _oþren_ dat. pl. 53, _þane_ acc. sg. - masc. 59, _þet (word)_ nom. sg. neut. 57, show survivals rare - even in the South at this date. - -#Sounds#: Characteristic of the South-East is _[)=e]_ for OE. -(West-Saxon) _[)=y]_: _kertel_ (OE. _cyrtel_) 39, _ken_ (OE. _c[=y]_) -56. - -Old diphthongs are preserved in _greate_ (OE. _gr[=e]at_) 9, _yeaf_ 22. -In _hyerof_ 1, _yhyerde_ 49, _hier_ 2, _þieues_ 18, _ye_, _ie_ represent -diphthongs developed in Kentish rather than simple close _[=e]_. - -Initial _z_ = _s_ in _zome_ 'some' 2, _zede_ 'said' 12, _zuo_ 'so' 17; -and initial _u_ = _f_ in _uele_ 2, _uayre_ 2, _uram_ 4, _bevil_ 41, -evidence dialectical changes which occurred also in the South-West. - -#Syntax#: The constructions are distorted by slavish following of the -French original; see note to ll. 48-60. - - * * * * * - -3. Saint Germain of Auxerre (MS. _Aucerne_) is famous for his missions -to Britain in the first half of the fifth century. This particular story -is found in the _Acta Sanctorum_ for July 31, p. 229. - -16. St. John the Almoner (d. 616) was bishop of Alexandria. For the -story see _Acta Sanctorum_ for January 23, p. 115. - -27-8. _and huanne he hit wiste þe ilke zelue þet his hedde onderuonge_: -an obscure sentence. Perhaps: 'and when he, the same who had received -them (i.e. John, who had received the five hundred pounds), knew it' -(sc. the truth). - -38. This tale of Boniface, bishop of Ferentia in Etruria, is told in the -_Dialogues_ of Gregory the Great, Bk. i, chap. 9. Its first appearance -in English is in the translation of the _Dialogues_ made by Bishop -Wærferth for King Alfred (ed. Hans Hecht, Leipzig 1900, pp. 67 ff.). - -48-60. The French original of the passage, taken from an elegant -fourteenth-century MS., Cotton Cleopatra A.V., fol. 144 a, will show how -slavishly Dan Michael followed his source:-- - -_Apres il fu un poure home, sicom on dit, qui auoit une vache; e oi dire -a son prestre en sarmon que Dieu disoit en leuangile que Dieu rendoit a -cent doubles quanque on donast por lui. Le prodomme du conseil sa femme -dona sa uache a son prestre, qui estoit riches. Le prestre la prist -uolentiers, e lenuoia pestre auoec les autres quil auoit. Kant uint au -soir, la uache au poure home sen uint a son hostel chies le poure homme, -com ele auoit acoustume, e amena auoeques soi toutes les uaches au -prestre, iukes a cent. Quant le bon home uit ce, si pensa que ce estoit -le mot de leuangile que li auoit rendu; e li furent aiugiees deuant son -euesque contre le prestre. Cest ensample moustre bien que misericorde -est bone marchande, car ele multiplie les biens temporels._ - -58-9. 'And they were adjudged to him before his bishop against the -priest', i.e. the bishop ruled that the poor man should have all the -cows. - -The French _fabliau_ '_Brunain_' takes up the comic rather than the -moral aspect of the story. A peasant, hearing the priest say that gifts -to God are doubly repaid, thought it was a favourable opportunity to -give his cow Blérain--a poor milker--to the priest. The priest ties her -with his own cow Brunain. To the peasant's great joy, the unprofitable -Blérain returns home, leading with her the priest's good cow. - - -IV - -#Dialect#: Northern of Yorkshire. - -#Inflexions#: are reduced almost as in Modern English. - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _settes_ _a_ 30; beside uninflected _sygh_ - _a_ 69, _sob_ _a_ 69. - 3 sg. _lastes_ _a_ 1. - 1 pl. _flese_ _b_ 86: beside _we drede_ _b_ 85. - 3 pl. _lyse_ _a_ 61, _lufes_ _b_ 7, &c.; beside - _þay take_, _þay halde_ _b_ 12, &c., which - agree with the Midland forms. - pres. p. _lastand_ _a_ 25, _byrnand_ _a_ 26, riming with - _hand_. - strong pp. _wryten_ _a_ 2. - Note the Northern and North Midland short forms _mase_ - 'makes' _a_ 15, _tane_ 'taken' _a_ 53 (in rime). - PRONOUN 3 pers.: sg. fem. _scho_ _b_ 1; - pl. nom. _þai_ _a_ 60; - poss. _þar_ _a_ 59 or _þair_ _a_ 65; - obj. _thaym_ _b_ 2. - The demonstrative _thire_ 'these' at _b_ 55, _b_ 59 is - specifically Northern. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ is regularly represented by _[=a]_, not by _[=o,]_ -of the South and most of the Midlands: _wa_ _a_ 2, _euermare_ _a_ 20, -_balde_ 'bold' _a_ 51; _bane_ (in rime) _a_ 54. - -_[=o.]_ becomes _[=u]_ (_[=ü]_?) in _gud(e)_ _b_ 9, _b_ 15; and its -length is sometimes indicated by adding _y_, as in _ruysand_ 'vaunting' -_b_ 80. - - * * * * * - -_a._ 'This poem is largely a translation of sentences excerpted from -Rolle's _Incendium Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. -Review_ for 1919, p. 320). Useful commentaries are his prose _Form of -Perfect Living_ (ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 3 ff.), and _Commandment of -Love to God_ (ibid. pp. 61 ff.), which supply many parallels in thought -and phrasing; see, for example, the note to l. 48 below. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 1. _feste._ Not the adj. 'fast', but pp. 'fastened', and so in l. -82. - -_a_ 5. _louyng_, 'beloved one', here and in l. 56. This exceptional use -of the verbal noun occurs again in _my [gh]hernyng_ 'what I yearn for', -_a_ 22; _my couaytyng_ 'what I covet', _a_ 23. - -_a_ 9-12. The meaning seems to be: 'The throne of love is raised high, -for it (i.e. love) ascended into heaven. It seems to me that on earth -love is hidden, which makes men pale and wan. It goes very near to the -bed of bliss (i.e. the bridal bed of Christ and the soul) I assure you. -Though the way may seem long to us, yet love unites God and man.' - -_a_ 24. _louyng_, 'praise' here and in XVI 405, from OE. _lof_ 'praise'; -quite distinct from _louyng_, _lufyng_, in ll. 5 and 56. - -_a_ 36. _fle þat na man it maye_, 'which no man can escape'. See -Appendix § 12, Relative. - -_a_ 42. _styll_, 'always' rather than 'motionless'. - -_a_ 43-4. Apparently 'the nature of love (_þat kyend_) turns from care -the man (_þe lyfe_) who succeeds in finding love, or who ever knew it in -his heart; and brings him to joy and delight.' - -_a_ 48. Cp. _Form of Perfect Living_, ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 39-40: -_For luf es stalworth als þe dede, þat slaes al lyuand thyng in erth; -and hard als hell, þat spares noght till þam þat er dede._ In _The -Commandment of Love_ Rolle explains: _For als dede slas al lyuand thyng -in þis worlde, sa perfite lufe slas in a mans sawle all fleschly desyres -and erthly couaytise. And als hell spares noght til dede men, bot -tormentes al þat commes bartill, alswa a man þat es in þis_ [sc. the -third, called 'Singular'] _degré of lufe noght anly he forsakes þe -wretched solace of þis lyf, bot alswa he couaytes to sofer pynes for -Goddes lufe._ (Ibid. p. 63.) - -_b_ 4. _scho takes erthe_: From the _Historia Animalium_ attributed to -Aristotle, Bk. ix, c. 21. This is the authority referred to at l. 18, -and at l. 33 (Bk. ix, c. 9); but the citations seem to be second hand, -as they do not agree closely with the text of the _Historia Animalium_. - -_b_ 21-2. 'For there are many who never can keep the rule of love -towards their friends, whether kinsmen or not.' MS. _ynesche_ has been -variously interpreted; but it must be corrected to _ynence_. - -_b_ 47. _strucyo or storke_: the ostrich, not the stork, is meant. Latin -_struthio_ has both meanings. On the whole, fourteenth-century -translators show a fair knowledge of Latin, but the average of -scholarship, even among the clergy, was never high in the Middle Ages. -In the magnificent Eadwine Psalter, written at Canterbury Cathedral in -the twelfth century, Ps. ci. 7 _similis factus sum pellicano_ is -rendered by 'I am become like to the skin of a dog' (= _pelli canis_), -though an ecclesiastic would recite this psalm in Latin at least once -every week. The records of some thirteenth-century examinations of -English clergy may be found in G. G. Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_ -(London 1910), pp. 270 ff. They include the classic answer of Simon, the -curate of Sonning, who, being examined on the Canon of the Mass, and -pressed to say what governed _Te_ in _Te igitur, clementissime Pater,... -supplices rogamus_, replied '_Pater_, for He governeth all things'. As -for French, Michael of Northgate, a shaky translator, is fortunate in -escaping gross blunders in the specimen chosen (III); but the English -rendering of Mandeville's _Travels_ is full of errors; see the notes to -IX. - -_b_ 60. _teches_: better _toches_, according to the foot-note. - - -V - -#Alliterative Verse.# The long lines in _Gawayne_, with _The Destruction -of Troy_, _Piers Plowman_, and _The Blacksmiths_ (XV _h_), are specimens -of alliterative verse unmixed with rime, a form strictly comparable with -Old English verse, from which it must derive through an unbroken oral -tradition. While the detailed analysis of the Middle English -alliterative line is complex and controversial, its general framework is -describable in simple terms. It will be convenient to take examples from -_Gawayne_, which shows most of the developments characteristic of Middle -English. - -1. The long line is divided by a caesura into two half lines, of which -the second is the more strictly built so that the rhythm may be well -marked. Each half line normally contains two principal stresses, e.g. - - _And wént on his wáy || with his wý[gh]e óne_ 6. - _Þat schulde téche hym to tóurne || to þat téne pláce_ 7. - -But three stresses are not uncommonly found in the first half line: - - _Bróke[gh] býled and bréke || bi bónkke[gh] abóute_ 14; - -and, even for the simpler forms in Old and Middle English, the -two-stress analysis has its opponents. - -2. The two half lines are bound together by alliteration. In -alliteration _ch_, _st_, _s(c)h_, _sk_, and usually _sp_, are treated as -single consonants (see lines 64, 31, 15, 99, 25); any vowel may -alliterate with any other vowel, e.g. - - _Þis ~ó~ritore is ~['v]~gly || with ~é~rbe[gh] ouergrówen_ 122; - -and, contrary to the practice of correct OE. verse, _h_ may alliterate -with vowels in _Gawayne_: - - _~H~álde þe now þe ~h~ý[gh]e ~h~óde || þat ~Á~rþur þe - rá[gh]t_ 229. - _The ~h~áþel ~h~éldet hym fró || and on his ~á~x résted_ 263. - -3. In correct OE. verse the alliteration falls on one or both of the two -principal stresses of the first half line, and invariably on the first -stress only of the second half line. This is the ordinary ME. type: - - _Þat schulde ~t~éche hym to ~t~óurne || to þat ~t~éne pláce_ 7; - -though verses with only one alliterating syllable in the first half -line, e.g. - - _Bot Í wyl to þe ~ch~ápel || for ~ch~áunce þat may fálle_ 64, - -are less common in ME. than in OE. But in ME. the fourth stress -sometimes takes the alliteration also: - - _Þay ~cl~ómben bi ~cl~ýffe[gh] || þer ~cl~énge[gh] þe ~c~ólde_ 10. - -And when there is a third stress in the first half line, five syllables -may alliterate: - - _~M~íst ~m~úged on þe ~m~ór || ~m~ált on þe ~m~óunte[gh]_ 12. - -In sum, Middle English verse is richer than Old English in alliteration. - -4. In all these verses the alliteration of the first stress in the -second half line, which is essential in Old English, is maintained; but -it is sometimes neglected, especially when the alliteration is otherwise -well marked: - - _With ~h~é[gh]e ~h~élme on his ~h~éde || his láunce in his - ~h~ónde_ (129; cp. 75), - -where the natural stress cannot fall on _his_. - -5. So far attention has been confined to the stressed syllables, around -which the unstressed syllables are grouped. Clearly the richer the -alliteration, the more freedom will be possible in the treatment of the -unstressed syllables without undue weakening of the verse form. In the -first two lines of _Beowulf_-- - - _Hwæt we Gárdéna || in géardágum - Þéodcýninga || þrým gefrúnon--_ - -three of the half lines have the minimum number of syllables--four--and -the other has only five. In Middle English, with more elaborate -alliteration, the number of unstressed syllables is increased, so that -the minimum half line of four syllables is rare, and often contains some -word which may have had an additional flexional syllable in the poet's -own manuscript, e.g. - - || _þe sélf<e> chápel_ 79. - || _ár[gh]e[gh] in hért<e>_ 209. - -The less regular first half line is found with as many as eleven -syllables; e.g. - - _And syþen he kéuere[gh] bi a crágge_ || 153. - -6. The grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables determines the -rhythm. In Old English the falling rhythm predominates, as in || _Gáwayn -þe nóble_ 81; and historically it is no doubt correct to trace the -development of the ME. line from a predominantly falling rhythm. But in -fact, owing to the frequent use of unstressed syllables before the first -stress (even in the second half line where they are avoided in the OE. -falling rhythm) the commonest type is: - - || _and þe bróde [gh]áte[gh]_ 1, - (× × ['-] × ['-] ×) - -which from a strictly Middle English standpoint may be analysed as a -falling rhythm with introductory syllables (× × | ['-] × ['-] ×), or as -a rising rhythm with a weak ending (× × ['-] × ['-] | ×). A careful -reader, accustomed to the usage of English verse, will have no -difficulty in following the movement, without entering into nice -technicalities of historical analysis. - -7. _The Destruction of Troy_ is more regular than _Gawayne_ in its -versification, and better preserves the Old English tradition. _Piers -Plowman_ is looser and nearer to prose, so that the alliteration -sometimes fails altogether, e.g. Extract _a_ 95, 138. Such differences -in technique may depend on date, on locality, or on the taste, training, -or skill of the author. - - * * * * * - -#Dialect#: West Midland of Lancashire or Cheshire. (There is evidence of -local knowledge in the account of Gawayne's ride in search of the Green -Chapel, ll. 691 ff. of the complete text.) - -#Vocabulary.# _Sir Gawayne_ shows the characteristic vocabulary of -alliterative verse. - -It is rich in number and variety of words--Norse, French, and native. -Besides common words like _race_ 8, _wylle_ 16, _kyrk_ 128, _a[gh]-_ 267 -(which displace native English forms _r[=e]s_, _wylde_, _chyrche_, -_eie_), Norse gives _mug(g)ed_ 12, _cayre[gh]_ 52, _scowtes_ 99, -_skayned_ 99, _wro_ 154, _broþe_ 165, _fyked_ 206, _snyrt_ 244, &c. -French are _baret_ 47, _oritore_ 122, _fylor_ 157, _giserne_ 197, -_kauelacion_ 207, _frounses_ 238, &c. _Myst-hakel_ 13, _orpedly_ 164 are -native words; while the rare _stryþe_ 237 and _raþeled_ 226 are of -doubtful origin. - -Unless the alliteration is to be monotonous, there must be many -synonyms for common words like _man_, _kni[gh]t_: e.g. _burne_ 3, -_wy[gh]e_ 6, _lede_ 27, _gome_ 50, _freke_ 57, _tulk_ 65, _knape_ 68, -_renk_ 138, most of which survive only by reason of their usefulness in -alliterative formulae. Similarly, a number of verbs are used to express -the common idea 'to move (rapidly)': _bo[gh]en_ 9, _schowued_ 15, -_wonnen_ 23, _ferked_ 105, _rome[gh]_ 130, _keuere[gh]_ 153, _whyrlande_ -154, &c. Here the group of synonyms arises from weakening of the -ordinary prose meanings; and this tendency to use words in colourless or -forced senses is a general defect of alliterative verse. For instance, -it is hard to attach a precise meaning to _note_ 24, _gedere[gh]_ 92, -_glodes_ 113, _wruxled_ 123, _kest_ 308. - -The _Gawayne_ poet is usually artist enough to avoid the worst fault of -alliterative verse--the use of words for mere sound without regard to -sense, but there are signs of the danger in the empty, clattering line: - - _Bremly broþe on a bent þat brode wat[gh] aboute_ 165. - -#Inflexions#: The rime _waþe_: _ta þe_ 287-9 shows that organic -final _-e_ was sometimes pronounced in the poet's dialect. - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _haf_ 23; _leue_ 60. - 2 sg. _spelle[gh]_ 72. - 3 sg. _prayses_ 4; _tas_ 237. - 2 pl. _[gh]e han_ 25. - 3 pl. _han_ 345. - imper. pl. _got[gh]_ (= _g[=o,]s_) 51, _cayre[gh]_ 52. - pres. p. normally _-ande_, e.g. _schaterande_ 15; but very - rarely _-yng_: _gruchyng_ 58. - strong pp. _born_ 2, _wonnen_ 23; _tone_ (= _taken_) 91. - The weak pa. t. and pp. show occasional _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_: - _halt_ 11, _fondet_ 57, &c. - Note that present forms in _-ie(n)_ are preserved, and the - _i_ extended to the past tense: _louy_ (OE. _lufian_) - 27, _louies_ 31; _spuryed_ 25. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þay_ 9; poss. _hor_ 345, beside _her_ - 352; obj. _hom_, beside _hem_ 353. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ for older _[=a]_ is common, and is proved for the -original by rimes like _more_: _restore_ (OFr. _restorer_) 213-15, -_þore_: _restore_ 286-8. But _a_ is often written in the MS.: _snaw_ 20, -166 (note rimes), _halden_ 29, &c. - -_u_ for OE. _y_, characteristic of Western dialects, is found especially -in the neighbourhood of labial consonants: _spuryed_ (OE. _spyrian_) 25; -_muryly_ 268, 277; _munt_ vb. 194 and sb. 282; beside _myntes_ 284, -_lyfte_ 78, _hille_ 13. - -_u_ for OE. _eo_ (normal ME. _e_) is another Western feature: _burne_ 3, -21, &c., _rurde_ 151. - -_aw_ for OE. _[=e]ow_ (normal ME. _ew_, _ow_) as in _trawe_ 44, _trawþe_ -219, _rawþe_ 136, is still found in some Northern dialects. - -#Spelling#: _[gh]_ (= _z_) is commonly written for final _s_: -_brede[gh]_ 3, &c.; even when the final _s_ is certainly voiceless as -in _for[gh]_, 'force', 'torrent' 105, _(a[gh]-)le[gh]_ 'fear-less' 267. -_t[gh]_ is written for _s_ in monosyllabic verbal forms, where it -indicates the maintenance of voiceless final _s_ under the stress (see -rimes to _hat[gh]_ 'has', VI 81): _wat[gh]_ 'was' 1, _got[gh]_ 'goes' -51, &c. In early Norman French _z_ had the sound _ts_, and so could be -written _tz_, as in _Fitz-Gerald_ 'son (Mod. Fr. _fils_) of Gerald'. But -later, French _(t)z_ fell together with _s_ in pronunciation, so that -the spelling _tz_ was transferred to original _s_, both in -fourteenth-century Anglo-French and in English. - -_qu-_ occurs for strongly aspirated _hw-_ in _quyte_ 'white' 20, _quat_ -'what' 111; but the alliteration is with _w_, not with _k(w)_, e.g. - - _And wyth ~qu~ettyng a~wh~arf, er he ~w~olde ly[gh]t_ 152. - -The spelling _goud_ 5, 50, &c., for _g[=o]d_ 'good' may indicate a sound -change. - -Notable is the carefully distinguished use of _[gh]_ in _[gh]e_, but _y_ -in _yow_, e.g. at ll. 23-6. - - * * * * * - -3. _blessed hym_, 'crossed himself'; cp. XII _b_ 86. - -4-6. 'He gives a word of praise to the porter,--<who> kneeled before the -prince (i.e. Gawayn) <and who> greeted him with "God and good day," and -"May He save Gawayn!"--and went on his way, attended only by his man, -who, &c.' Clumsiness in turning direct speech into reported speech is a -constant source of difficulty in Middle English. For the suppressed -relative cp. note to XIII _a_ 36. - -11. 'The clouds were high, but it was threatening below them.' _Halt_ -for _halet_ pp. 'drawn up'. - -16. 'The way by which they had to go through the wood was very wild.' -Note the regular omission of a verb of motion after _shall_, _will_, &c. -Cp. l. 64 _I wyl to þe chapel_; l. 332 _[gh]e schal... to my wone[gh]_, -&c. - -28. 'If you would act according to my wit (i.e. by my advice) you would -fare the better.' - -34. _Hector, oþer oþer_, 'Hector, or any other'. Hector is quoted as the -great hero of the Troy story, from which, and from the legends of -Arthur, the Middle Ages drew their models of valour. - -35. 'He brings it about at the green chapel <that>', &c. - -37. _dynge[gh]_: for MS. _dynne[gh]_; Napier's suggestion. - -41. 'He would as soon (lit. it seems to him as pleasant to) kill him, as -be alive himself.' - -43. 'If you reach that place you will be killed, I may warn you, -knight.' Possibly _I_, _y_, has fallen out of the text after _y_ of -_may_ (cp. VI 3), though there are clear instances in Old and Middle -English where the pronominal subject must be understood from the -context, e.g. I 168, VIII _a_ 237, 273. Note the transitions from -plural _[gh]e_ to singular _þe_ in ll. 42-3; and the evidence at l. 72 -f. that _þou_ could still be used in addressing a superior. - -44. _Trawe [gh]e me þat_: _trow_ has here a double construction with -both _me_ and _þat_ as direct objects. - -56. 'That I shall loyally screen you, and never give out the tale that -you fled for fear of any man that I knew.' - -64. _for chaunce þat may falle_, 'in spite of anything that may happen'. - -68-9. 'Though he be a stern lord (lit. a stern man to rule), and armed -with a stave'. The short lines are built more with a view to rime than -to sense. - -72-4. 'Marry!' said the other, 'now you say so decidedly that you will -take your own harm upon yourself, and it pleases you to lose your life, -I have no wish to hinder you.' - -76. _ryde me_: an instance of the rare ethic dative, which expresses -some interest in the action of the verb on the part of one who is -neither the doer of the action nor its object. Distinguish the uses -referred to in the notes to II 289, XV _g_ 24. - -86. _Lepe[gh] hym_, 'gallops'. For _hym_, which refers to the rider, not -the horse, cp. note to XV _g_ 24. - -92. _Gryngolet_: the name of Gawayn's horse. _gedere[gh] þe rake_ seems -to mean 'takes the path'. No similar transitive use of 'gather' is -known. - -95. _he wayted hym aboute_, 'he looked around him'. Cp. l. 221 -_wayte[gh]_, and note to l. 121. - -99. 'The clouds seemed to him grazed by the crags'; i.e. the crags were -so high that they seemed to him to scrape the clouds. I owe to Professor -Craigie the suggestion that _skayned_ is ON. _skeina_ 'to graze', -'scratch'. - -102-4. 'And soon, a little way off on an open space, a mound (as it -appeared) seemed to him remarkable.' - -107. _kache[gh] his caple_, 'takes control of his horse', i.e. takes up -the reins again to start the horse after the halt mentioned at l. 100. - -109. _his riche_: possibly 'his good steed'. The substantival use of an -adjective is common in alliterative verse, e.g. l. 188 _þat schyre_ -(neck); 200 _þe schene_ (axe); 245 _þe scharp_ (axe); 343 _þat cortays_ -(lady). But it has been suggested that _brydel_ has fallen out of the -text after _riche_. - -114. 'And it was all hollow within, nothing but an old cave.' - -115 f. _he couþe hit no[gh]t deme with spelle_, 'he could not say <which -it was>'. For _deme_ 'to speak', &c., cp. VI 1, XV _b_ 29-30. - -118. _Wheþer_ commonly introduces a direct question and should not be -separately translated. Cp. VI 205 and note to XI _a_ 51. - -121. _wysty is here_, 'it is desolate here'. Note _Wowayn_ = _Wauwayn_, -an alternative form of _Gawayn_ used for the alliteration. The -alternation is parallel to that in _guardian_: _warden_; _regard_: -_reward_ XIV _c_ 105; _guarantee_: _warranty_; _(bi)gyled_ 359: -_(bi)wyled_ 357; _werre_ 'war' beside French _guerre_; _wait_ 'watch' -(as at l. 95) beside French _guetter_; and is due to dialectal -differences in Old French. The Anglo-Norman dialect usually preserved -_w_ in words borrowed from Germanic or Celtic, while others replaced it -by _gw_, _gu_, which later became simple _g_ in pronunciation. - -125. _in my fyue wytte[gh]_: construe with _fele_. - -127. _þat chekke hit bytyde_, 'which destruction befall!' _þat... hit_ = -'which'. _chekke_ refers to the checkmate at chess. - -135. Had we not Chaucer's Miller and _The Reeves Tale_, the vividness -and intimacy of the casual allusions would show the place of the -flour-mill in mediaeval life. Havelok drives out his foes - - _So dogges ut of milne-hous;_ - -and the Nightingale suggests as fit food for the Owl - - _one frogge - Þat sit at mulne vnder cogge._ - -These are records of hours spent by the village boys amid the noise of -grinding and rush of water, in times when there was no rival mechanism -to share the fascination of the water-driven mill. - -137-43. 'This contrivance, as I believe, is prepared, sir knight, for -the honour of meeting me by the way. Let God work His will, Lo! It helps -me not a bit. Though I lose my life, no noise causes me to fear.' It has -been suggested that _wel o<r w>oo_ 'weal or woe' should be read instead -of the interjection _we loo!_ But Gawayn's despair (l. 141) is not in -keeping with ll. 70 f., 90 f., or with the rest of his speech. The -looseness of the short lines makes emendation dangerous. Otherwise we -might read _Hit helppe[gh] þe not a mote_, i.e. whatever happens, mere -noise will not help the Green Knight by making Gawayn afraid; or, -alternatively, _herme[gh]_ 'harms' for _helppe[gh]_. - -151. 'Yet he went on with the noise with all speed for a while, and -turned away <to proceed> with his grinding, before he would come -down.' The nonchalance of the Green Knight is marked throughout the -poem. - -155. _A Dene[gh] ax_: the ordinary long-bladed battle-axe was called a -'Danish' axe, in French _hache danoise_, because the Scandinavians in -their raids on England and France first proved its efficiency in battle. - -158. _bi þat lace_, '<measured> by the lace'. In _Gawayne_ (ll. 217 ff. -of the full text) the axe used at the first encounter is described. It -had: - - _A lace lapped aboute, þat louked at þe hede, - And so after þe halme halched ful ofte, - Wyth tryed tassele[gh] þerto tacched innoghe, &c._ - -'A lace wrapped about <the handle>, which was fastened at the <axe's> -head, and was wound about the handle again and again, with many choice -tassels fastened to it', &c. - -159. _as fyrst_, 'as at the first encounter', i.e. when he rode into -Arthur's hall. His outfit of green is minutely described at ll. 151 ff. -of the full text. - -162. _Sette þe stele to þe stone_: i.e. he used the handle of the axe as -a support when crossing rough ground. _stele_ = 'handle', not 'steel'. - -164. _hypped... stryde[gh]_: note the frequent alternation of past tense -and historic present. So ll. 3-4 _passed... prayses_; 107-8 -_kache[gh]... com... li[gh]te[gh]_; 280-1 _halde[gh]... gef_, &c. - -169 f. 'Now, sweet sir, one can trust you to keep an appointment.' - -175. _þat þe falled_, 'what fell to your lot', i.e. the right to deal -the first blow. - -177. _oure one_, 'by ourselves'. To _one_ 'alone' in early ME. the -dative pronoun was added for emphasis, _him one_, _us one_, &c. Later -and more rarely the possessive pronoun is found, as here. _Al(l)_ was -also used to strengthen _one_; so that there are six possible ME. types: -(1) _one_, e.g. ll. 6, 50; (2) _him one_; (3) _his one_; (4) _al one_ = -_alone_ l. 87; (5) _al him one_, or _him al one_; (6) _al his one_, or -_his al one_. - -181. _at a wap one_, 'at a single blow'. - -183. 'I shall grudge you no good-will because of any harm that befalls -me.' - -189-90. 'And acted as if he feared nothing: he would not tremble -(_dare_) with terror.' - -196. 'He (Gawayn) who was ever valiant would have been dead from his -blow there.' - -200. It must not be supposed that the chief incidents of _Sir Gawayne_ -were invented by the English poet. The three strokes, for example, two -of them mere feints and the third harmless, can be shown to derive from -the lost French source, which has Irish analogues. See pp. 71-4 of _A -Study of Gawain and the Green Knight_ (London 1916), by Professor -Kittredge, a safe guide in the difficult borderland of folklore and -romance. - -207. 'Nor did I raise any quibble in the house of King Arthur.' On -_kynge[gh] hous Arthor_ see note to II 518. - -222. _ryue[gh]_: the likeness of _n_ and _u_ in MSS. of the time makes -it impossible to say whether the verb is _riue_ 'to cleave', which is -supported by l. 278, or _rine_, OE. _hr[=i]nan_, 'to touch'. - -230. 'And look out for your neck at this stroke, <to see> if it may -survive.' - -233. _I hope_: here, and often in ME., _hope_ means 'believe', 'expect'. - -250. Gawayn appears to have carried his shield on his back. By a -movement of his shoulders he lets it fall in front of him, so that he -can use it in defence. - -258. _foo_, 'fiercely', adv. parallel with _[gh]ederly_. - -269. _ry<n>kande_, 'ringing'; Napier's suggestion for MS. _rykande_. - -271-2. 'Nobody here has ill-treated you in an unmannerly way, nor shown -you <discourtesy>': the object of _kyd_ being understood from _vnmanerly -mysboden_. _habbe[gh]_ for MS. _habbe_ is Napier's reading. - -278-9. 'And cleft you with no grievous wound, <which> I rightly -<merely> proffered you, because of the compact we made fast', &c. It is -better to assume a suppression of the relative, than to put a strong -stop after _rof_ and treat _sore_ as sb. object of _profered_. This -latter punctuation gives _sore_ the chief stress in the line, and breaks -the alliteration and rhythm, which is correct as long as _sore_ is taken -with _rof_, so that its stress is subordinated. - -286-7. 'Let a true man truly repay--then one need dread no peril.' - -291. _weued_: perhaps not a weak pa. t. of _weave-woven_, but rather -means 'to give', from OE. _w[=æ]fan_, 'to move'; _weue_ in this sense -occurs in _Gawayne_ l. 1976. - -294-5. 'And truly you seem to me the most faultless man that ever walked -on foot.' The ME. construction, _on þe fautlest_, where _on_ 'one' -strengthens the superlative, is found in Chaucer, _Clerk's Tale_ 212: - - _Thanne was she oon the faireste under sonne,_ - -and still survives in Shakespeare's time, e.g. _Henry VIII_, II. iv. 48 -f. _one the wisest prince_. It has been compared with Latin _unus -maximus_, &c. In modern English the apposition has been replaced, with -weakening of the sense: _one_ of _the (wisest)_, &c. - -298. _yow lakked... yow wonted_: impersonal, since _yow_ is dative, -'there was lacking in you'. - -319. 'Let me win your good-will', 'Pardon me'. - -331. I have transposed MS. #of# _þe grene chapel_ #at# _cheualrous -kny[gh]te[gh]_, because such a use of _at_ is hardly conceivable. A -copyist might easily make the slip. Cp. l. 35. - -344. _Boþe þat on and þat oþer_: Besides the Green Knight's young wife, -there was a much older lady in the castle, 'yellow', with 'rugh, ronkled -cheke[gh]', and so wrapped up - - _Þat no[gh]t wat[gh] bare of þat burde bot þe blake bro[gh]es, - Þe tweyne y[gh]en, and þe nase, þe naked lyppe[gh], - And þose were soure to se, and sellyly blered._ - - _Gawayne_ ll. 961-3. - -350-1. 'And David afterwards, who suffered much evil, was <morally> -blinded by Bathsheba.' - -352-6. 'Since these were injured with their wiles, it would be a great -gain to love them well, and not believe them--for a man who could do it -[cp. note to XI _b_ 209]. For these (Adam, Solomon, &c.) were of old the -noblest, whom all happiness followed, surpassingly, above all the others -that lived beneath the heavens.' _mused_ 'thought' is used for the rime, -and means no more than 'lived'. ll. 354-6 amount to 'above all other -men'. - - -VI - -#Dialect#: West Midland, like _Gawayne_. - -The metre occasionally gives clear evidence that final flexional _-e_ of -the original has not always been preserved in the extant MS., e.g. - - _Þa[gh] cortaysly [gh]e carp<[.e]> con_ 21. - -The most noteworthy verbal forms are: - - pres. ind. 1 sg. _byswyke[gh]_ 208 (once only, in rime); - 2 sg. _þou quyte[gh]_ 235; - 3 sg. _leþe[gh]_ 17; _tot[gh]_ (= _t[=o,]s_ = _t[=a]s_ - = _takes_) 153 (note). - 1 pl. _we leuen_ 65; _we calle_ 70; - 3 pl. _temen_ 100 (and cp. ll. 151-2); _knawe_ 145; but - _þay got[gh]_ 150, _pyke[gh]_ 213 (both in rime). - imperative pl. _dysplese[gh]_ 62; _gos_, _dot[gh]_ 161. - pres. p. _spornande_ 3. - pp. _runne_ (in rime) 163, beside _wroken_ 15, &c. - -Characteristic Western forms are _burne_ 37 (OE. _beorn_); _vrþe_ 82 -(OE. _eorþe_). - - * * * * * - -5. 'Like bubbling water that flows from a spring', i.e. his wild words -rise from a heart that can no longer contain its affliction. - -11-12. 'You, who were once the source of all my joy, made sorrow my -companion.' - -15. 'From the time when you were removed from every peril'. The child -died before she was two years old (l. 123). - -22. 'I am but dust, and rough in manners.' The MS. has _marere[gh] -mysse_, which has been rendered 'botcher's waste'; but the poet is -contrasting his own ill-mannered speech with the Pearl's courtesy. - -23. 'But the mercy of Christ and of Mary and of John'. The genitive -inflexion is confined to the noun immediately preceding _mersy_, while -the two following nouns, which are logically genitives with exactly the -same construction as _Crystes_, remain uninflected. For analogies see -note to II 518. - -36. _and_: MS. _in_. The sign for _and_ is easily mistaken for _[=i]_ = -_in_. Cp. note to XVII 42. - -48. _Þat_, 'who'. - -65. _þat... of_, 'from whom'; the later relative form _of quom_ occurs -at l. 93. - -70. _Fenyx of Arraby_: the symbol of peerless perfection. Cp. Chaucer, -_Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 980-3 - - _Trewly she was to myn ye - The soleyn Fenix of Arabye, - For ther lyveth never but oon, - Ne swich as she ne knew I noon._ - -71. 'which was faultless in form'; _fle[gh]e_ 'flew' is used with -weakened sense because a bird is normally thought of as on the wing. - -74. _folde vp hyr face_, '<with> her face upturned'; _folde_ is pp. - -91-2. 'And each would wish that the crowns of the others were five times -as precious, if it were possible to better them.' - -97. _Poule_: the common OFr. and ME. form, as at VIII _a_ 25, 270, XI -_b_ 80. But the rime with _naule_ 'nail' (ON. _nagl_) points to the form -_Paule_ for the original. The reference is to 1 Corinthians vi. 15 and -xii. 12 ff. - -100. _hys body_, 'its body', 'the body'. _tyste_: for _ty[gh]te_ -'tight', like l. 102 _myste_ for _my[gh]te_ 'might'. The rimes with -_Kryst_, _gryste_, _lyste_ show that _st_ and _[gh]t_ were very similar -in pronunciation. See Appendix § 6 (end). - -106. 'Because you wear a ring on arm or finger.' - -109-11. 'I <well> believe that there is great courtesy and charity among -you.' The construction of the next line (which conveys an apology, cp. -l. 62) is not clear owing to the following gap in the MS.; nor is it -easy to guess the missing rime word, as _emong_ can rime with OE. -_-ung-_ (e.g. with _[gh]onge_, ll. 114, 175), or with OE. _-ang-_; see -the note to XVII 400. - -116. _stronge_ may be adj. 'violent' with _worlde_, but is more likely -adv. 'severely'. - -124-5. Note the cumulation of negatives. _cowþe[gh]_ has a double -construction: 'You never knew how to please God nor pray to Him, nor -<did you know even> the Paternoster and Creed.' The Lord's Prayer and -the Apostles' Creed were prescribed by the Church as the elements of -faith to be taught first to a child. - -137. Matthew xx. 1-16. - -139. 'He represented it very aptly in a parable.' - -141. _My regne... on hy[gh]t_, 'My kingdom on high'. - -145. _þys hyne_: the labourers. _This_, _these_ are sometimes used in -early English to refer to persons or things that have not been -previously mentioned, but are prominent in the writer's mind. Cp. XV -_b_ 4, 19; and the opening of Chaucer's _Prologue_ to the _Franklin's -Tale_ quoted in the note to II 13. - -150. _pené_: in ME. the final sound developed from OFr. _-é_ (_e_) fell -together with the sounds arising from OE. _-ig_, OFr. _ie_, &c. Hence -_pené_ or _peny_ 186 (OE. _penig_); _reprené_ 184 for _repreny_; -_cortaysé_ 120, 121, beside _cortaysye_ 72, 84, 96. The acute accent is -editorial. - -153. 'At midmorning the master goes to the market.' _tot[gh]_ (= -_t[=o,]s_) = _t[=a]s_, contracted form of _takes_ 'betakes himself'; cp. -_tone_ = _taken_ V 91. The spelling and rimes with _o_ (which cannot -develop normally from _[)a]_ lengthened in open syllables because this -lengthening is everywhere later than the change _[=a]_ > _[=o,]_) are -usually explained as artificial. It is assumed that as Northern _b[=a]n_ -corresponded to Midland _b[=o,]n_, so from Northern _tá_ 'take' an -unhistorical Midland _t[=o,]_ was deduced. But it is possible that the -contraction of _t[)a]ke(n)_, and consequent lengthening _tá(n)_, is -older than the ordinary lengthening _t[)a]ke_ > _táke_, and also older -than the development of _[=a]_ to _[=o,]_ in North Midland. - -164. _I yow pay_: note the survival of the old use of the present to -express future tense. - -176. _þat at [gh]e moun_, 'what you can'. _At_ as a relative appears -usually to be from Old Norse _at_, with the same sense, and it is not -uncommon in Northern English. But _þat at_ here is more likely the -normal development of _þat þat_ > _þat tat_ (note to II 102) > _þat at_. - -179. _sumoun_ is infin. not sb.: 'he had (them) summoned'; cp. note to -VIII _a_ 79. - -192. 'It seems to us we ought to receive more.' _Vus þynk_ is a remnant -of the old impersonal construction of _þynceþ_ 'it seems'. In this -phrase, probably owing to confusion with _we þynk(en)_, the verb often -has no flexional ending; cp. l. 192. _vus o[gh]e_ is formed by analogy, -the verb being properly personal; cp. _must vs_ XVII 292, 334. - -200. _And_, 'If'. - -205-8. _More_, which is necessary for the metrical form, is best taken -as conj. 'moreover', 'further'; _weþer_ introduces a direct question -(note to V 118). _louyly_ is perhaps miswritten for _lauly_ 'lawful', as -the _Pearl-Gawayne_ group often show the converse _au_, _aw_ for normal -_ou_, _ow_, e.g. _bawe_ for _bowe_, _trawþe_ for _trowþe_. 'Further, is -my power to do what pleases me with my own lawful?' The meaning is fixed -by Matthew xx. 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine -own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?' - -212. _myke[gh]._ In the few recorded examples _mik_, _myk_ seems to mean -'an intimate friend'. Here it is used for the sake of rime in an -extended sense 'chosen companion of the Lord'. - -221 f. _Wheþer_, &c., 'Although I began <only> just now, coming into the -vineyard in the eventide, <yet>', &c. - -224. Note the rime (OE. _s[)u]m_) with ON. _blóm(i)_, OE. _d[=o]m_, -_c[=o]m_. Such rimes occur occasionally in Northern texts of the -fourteenth century--never in the South. - -233. Psalm lxii. 12 'Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for Thou -renderest to every man according to his work.' - -237-40. Loosely constructed. 'Now, if you came to payment before him -that stood firm through the long day, then he who did less work would be -more entitled to receive pay, and the further <it is carried>, the less -<work>, the more <claim to be paid>.' - -249-51. On the meaning of these lines there is no agreement. Gollancz -and Osgood interpret: 'That man's privilege is great who ever stood in -awe of Him (God) who rescues sinners. From such men no happiness is -withheld, for,' &c. Yet it is difficult to believe that even a poet hard -pressed would use _dard to Hym_ to mean 'feared Him'. One of several -rival interpretations will suffice to show the ambiguities of the text: -'His (God's) generosity, which is always inscrutable (lit. lay hidden), -is abundant to the man who recovers his soul from sin. From such men no -happiness is withheld', &c. The sense and construction of _dard_ (for -which the emendation _fard_, pret. of _fere_ 'to go', has been -suggested, the rest of the interpretation following Gollancz), and the -obscurity of the argument, are the chief obstacles to a satisfactory -solution. - - -VII - -#Dialect#: Irregular, but predominantly North-West Midland; cp. V and -VI. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _warys_ 19, _has_ 20. - 3 pl. _ben_ 11, _sayn_ 182, _haue_ 31. - pres. p. _claterand_ 137, _þriuaund_ 158, _leymonde_ 153; - beside _blowyng_ 106, _doutyng_ 114. - strong pp. _slydyn_ 6, _stoken_ 11. - The weak pp. and pa. t. have _-it_, _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_: - _drepit_ 9, _suet_ 24. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þai_ 45; - poss. _hor_ 8, beside _þere_ 9, 10; - obj. _hom_ 24. - -#Sounds and Spelling#: Northern and North Midland forms are _qwiles_ (= -_whiles_) 39, _hondqwile_ 117; and _wysshe_ 4 (note). West Midland -indications are _buernes_ 'men' 90, 91 = OE. _beorn_ (but _buerne_ 'sea' -159 = OE. _burn-_ is probably miswritten owing to confusion with _buern_ -'man'); and perhaps the spelling _u_ in unaccented syllables: _mecull_ -10, _watur_ 119, _wintur_ 124. - - * * * * * - -4. _wysshe_ = _wisse_ 'guide'. In the North final _sh_ was commonly -pronounced _ss_; cp. note to I 128-9, and the rimes in XVII 1-4. -Conversely etymological _ss_ was sometimes spelt _ssh_. - -7-8. _strongest... and wisest... to wale_, 'the strongest... and -wisest... that could be chosen' (lit. 'to choose'). - -15. _On lusti to loke_, 'pleasant to look upon'. - -21 ff. A typical example of the vague and rambling constructions in -which this writer indulges: apparently 'but old stories of the valiant -<men> who <once> held high rank may give pleasure to some who never saw -their deeds, through the writings of men who knew them at first hand -(?) (_in dede_), <which remained> to be searched by those who followed -after, in order to make known (_or_ to know?) all the manner in which -the events happened, by looking upon letters (i.e. writings) that were -left behind of old'. - -45. Benoît de Sainte-Maure says the Athenians rejected Homer's story of -gods fighting like mortals, but charitably explains that, as Homer lived -a hundred years after the siege, it is no wonder if he made mistakes: - - _N'est merveille s'il i faillit, - Quar onc n'i fu ne rien n'en vit._ - - _Prologue_, ll. 55-6. - -53-4. 'That was elegantly compiled by a wise clerk--one Guido, a man who -had searched carefully, and knew all the actions from authors whom he -had by him.' See Introductory note, pp. 68 f. - -66-7. Cornelius Nepos was supposed to have found the Greek work of Dares -at Athens when rummaging in an old cupboard (Benoît de Sainte-Maure, -_Prologue_, ll. 77 ff.). - -157. Note the slovenly repetition from l. 151. So l. 159 repeats l. 152. - -168-9. I have transposed these lines, assuming that they were misplaced -by a copyist. Guido's Latin favours the change, and the whole passage -will illustrate the English translator's methods: - -_Oyleus uero Aiax qui cum 32 nauibus suis in predictam incidit -tempestatem, omnibus nauibus suis exustis et submersis in mari, in -suis uiribus brachiorum nando semiuiuus peruenit ad terram; et, -inflatus pre nimio potu aque, uix se nudum recepit in littore, vbi -usque ad superuenientis diei lucem quasi mortuus iacuit in arena, [et] -de morte sua sperans potius quam de uita. Sed cum quidam ex suis nando -similiter a maris ingluuie iam erepti nudi peruenissent ad littus, -dominum eorum querunt in littore [et] si forsitan euasisset. Quem in -arena iacentem inueniunt, dulcibus uerborum fouent affatibus, cum nec -in uestibus ipsum nec in alio possunt subsidio refouere._ (MS. Harley -4123, fol. 117 a--the bracketed words are superfluous.) - -178. _Telamon_ was not at the siege, and his name appears here and in l. -150 as the result of a tangle which begins in the confusion of Oyleus -Ajax with Ajax the son of Telamon. In classical writers after Homer it -is Oyleus Ajax who, at the sack of Troy, drags Cassandra from the temple -of Minerva. This is the story in Dictys. Dares, like Homer, is silent. -In Benoît de Sainte-Maure's poem (ll. 26211-16), the best MSS. name -Oyleus Ajax as Cassandra's captor, but others have '_Thelamon Aiax_', -i.e. Ajax, the son of Telamon. Guido read Benoît in a MS. of the latter -class, and accordingly makes _Telamonius Aiax_ do the sacrilege. With -the English translator this becomes _Telamon_ simply (Bk. xxix, ll. -11993-7). So when later, in Bk. xxxi, he comes to describe the -shipwreck, he replaces Guido's _Aiax_ by _Telamon_, and spoils the story -of Minerva's vengeance on the actual violator of her sanctuary. - - -VIII - -#Dialect#: South Midland, with mixture of forms. - - _a._ VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _seist_ 226, _wilnest_ 256. - 3 sg. _comaundeth_ 16. - 1 pl. _haue_ 118, _preye_ 119. - 2 pl. _han_ 11, _wasten_ 127. - 3 pl. _liggeth_ 15, &c.; beside _ben_ 50, - _waste_ 155. - imper. pl. _spynneth_ 13. - pres. p. (none in _a_); _romynge_ _b_ 11. - strong pp. _bake_ 187, _ybake_ 278, _ybaken_ 175. - Infinitives in _-ie_ (OE. _-ian_) are retained: _erye_ - 4, _hatie_ 52, _tilye_ 229 (OE. _erian_, _hatian_, - _tilian_). - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þei_ 126, &c., beside _hii_ 15; - poss. _her_ 54; obj. _hem_ 2. - -#Sounds#: OE. _y_ often shows the Western development, as in _huyre(d)_ -108, 133, &c.; _abugge_ 75, 159; beside _bigge_ 275. So _Cornehulle_ _b_ -1. But such forms were not uncommon in the London dialect of the time. - -_b._ The second extract has a more Southern dialectal colouring. Note -especially the gen. pl. forms _lollarene_ 31, _knauene_ 56, _lordene_ -77, continuing or extending the OE. weak gen. pl. in _-ena_; and _menne_ -29, 74, retaining the ending of the OE. gen. pl. _manna_. - -The representation of unaccented vowels by _u_ in _hure_ (= 'their') 50, -(= 'her') 53; _(h)us_ 'his' 60, 101; _clerkus_ 65, is commonest in -Western districts. _h(w)_ is no longer aspirated: _wanne_ 1, _werby_ -35, MS. _eggen_ 19; and conversely _hyf_ 'if' 43, _his_ 'is' 105. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 9. _for shedyng_, 'to prevent spilling'; and so _for colde_ 62 'as a -protection against cold'; _for bollyng_ 209 'to prevent swelling'; _for -chillyng_ 306, &c. - -_a_ 11. _Þat [gh]e han silke and sendal to sowe_: The construction -changes as if Piers had begun: _Ich praye [gh]ow_, which is the reading -in the C-text. The difficulty of excluding modern ideas from the -interpretation of the Middle Ages is shown by the comment of a scholar -so accomplished as M. Petit-Dutaillis: 'Il attaque les riches peu -miséricordieux, les _dames charmantes aux doigts effilés_, qui ne -s'occupent pas des pauvres' (_Soulèvement_, p. lxii). But there is no -hint of satire or reproach in the text. The poet, always conventional, -assigns to high-born ladies the work which at the time was considered -most fitting for them. So it is reported in praise of the sainted -Isabella of France, sister of St. Louis: _Quand elle fust introduicte -des lettres suffisamment, elle s'estudioit à apprendre à ouurer de soye, -et faisoit estolles et autres paremens à saincte Eglise_--'When she was -sufficiently introduced to letters, she set herself to learn how to work -in silk, and made stoles and other vestments for Holy Church.' -(Joinville, _Histoire d. S. Louys_, Paris 1668, pt. i, p. 169.) - -_a_ 19. _for þe Lordes loue of heuene_: cp. l. 214, and notes to I 44, I -83, II 518. - -_a_ 23. _on þe teme_, 'on this subject'; _teme_ 'theme' is a correct -form, because Latin _th_ was pronounced _t_. The modern pronunciation is -due to the influence of classical spelling. - -_a_ 32. _affaite þe_, 'tame for thyself'; cp. l. 64 _(I shal) brynge -me_ = 'bring (for myself)', and the note to II 289. - -_a_ 40-1. 'And though you should fine them, let Mercy be the assessor, -and let Meekness rule over you, in spite of Gain.' This is a warning -against abuse of the lord of the manor's power to impose fines in the -manorial court with the object of raising revenue rather than of -administering justice. Cp. Ashley, _Introduction to English Economic -History_, vol. i (1894), pt. ii, p. 266. For _maugré Medes chekes_ cp. -151. - -_a_ 49. Luke xiv. 10. - -_a_ 50. _yuel to knowe_, 'hard to distinguish'. - -_a_ 72-5. These clumsy lines, which are found in all versions, exemplify -the chief faults in _Piers Plowman_: structural weakness and superfluous -allegory. - -_a_ 79. _I wil... do wryte my biqueste_, 'I will have my will written'; -_make(n)_, _ger_ (_gar_), and _lete(n)_ are commonly used like _do(n)_ -with an active infinitive, which is most conveniently rendered by the -passive; so _do wryte_ 'cause to be written'; _dyd werche_ 'caused to be -made' I 218; _mad sumoun_ 'caused to be summoned' VI 179; _gert dres -vp_ 'caused to be set up' X 16; _leet make_ 'caused to be made' IX 223, -&c. - -_a_ 80. _In Dei nomine, amen_: A regular opening phrase for wills. - -_a_ 84. 'I trust to have a release from and remission of my debts which -are recorded in that book.' _Rental_, a book in which the sums due from -a tenant were noted, here means 'record of sins'. - -_a_ 86. _he_: the parson, as representing the Church. - -_a_ 91. _dou[gh]tres._ In l. 73 only one daughter is named. In the -B-text, Passus xviii. 426, she is called _Kalote_ (see note to _b_ 2 -below). - -_a_ 94. _bi þe rode of Lukes_: at Lucca (French _Lucques_) is a Crucifix -and a famous representation of the face of Christ, reputed to be the -work of the disciple Nicodemus. From Eadmer and William of Malmesbury we -learn that William the Conqueror's favourite oath was 'By the Face of -Lucca!', and it is worth noting that the frequent and varied adjurations -in Middle English are copied from the French. - -_a_ 114. 'May the Devil take him who cares!' - -_a_ 115 ff. _faitoures_ (cp. ll. 185 ff.), who feigned some injury or -disease to avoid work and win the pity of the charitable, multiplied in -the disturbed years following the Black Death. Statutes were passed -against them, and even against those who gave them alms (Jusserand, -_English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 261 ff.). But the type was long lived. In -the extract from _Handlyng Synne_ (No. I), we have already a monument of -their activities. - -_a_ 141. 'And those that have cloisters and churches (i.e. monks and -priests) shall have some of my goods to provide themselves with copes.' - -_a_ 142. _Robert Renne-aboute._ The type of a wandering preacher; -_posteles_ are clearly preachers with no fixed sphere of authority, like -the mendicant friars and Wiclif's 'poor priests'. Against both the -regular clergy constantly complained that they preached without the -authority of the bishop. - -_a_ 186. _Þat seten_: the MS. by confusion has _þat seten to seten to -begge_, &c. - -_a_ 187. _þat was bake for Bayarde_: i.e. 'horse-bread' (l. 208), which -used to be made from beans and peas only. _Bayard_, properly a 'bay -horse', was, according to romance, the name of the horse given by -Charlemagne to Rinaldo. Hence it became the conventional name for a -horse, just as _Reynard_ was appropriated to the fox. Chaucer speaks of -_proude Bayard_ (_Troilus_, Bk. i. 218) and, referring to an unknown -story, _Bayard the blynde_ (_Canon's Yeoman's Tale_, 860). - -_a_ 221. _Michi vindictam_: Romans xii. 19. - -_a_ 224. Luke xvi. 9. - -_a_ 229. Genesis iii. 19. - -_a_ 231. _Sapience_: the Book of Wisdom, but the quotation is actually -from Proverbs xx. 4. - -_a_ 234. _Mathew with mannes face._ Each of the evangelists had his -symbol: Matthew, a man; Mark, a lion; Luke, a bull; John, an eagle; and -in early Gospel books their portraits are usually accompanied by the -appropriate symbols. - -_a_ 235 ff. Matthew xxv. 14 ff.; Luke xix. 12 ff. - -_a_ 245. _Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf._ The merits of these two ways -of life were endlessly disputed in the Middle Ages. In XI _b_ Wiclif -attacks the position of the monks and of Rolle's followers; and the -author of _Pearl_ (VI 61 ff.) takes up the related question of salvation -by works or by grace. - -_a_ 246. Psalm cxxviii. 1. - -_a_ 264. Jusserand gives a brief account of the old-time physicians -in _English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 177 ff. The best were somewhat -haphazard in their methods, and the mountebanks brought -discredit on the profession. Here are a few fourteenth-century -prescriptions: - -_For hym that haves the squynansy ['quinsy']_:-- - - Tak a fatte katte, and fla hit wele and clene, and draw oute the - guttes; and tak the grees of an urcheon ['hedgehog'], and the - fatte of a bare, and resynes, and feinygreke ['fenugreek'], and - sauge ['sage'], and gumme of wodebynde, and virgyn wax: al this - mye ['grate'] smal, and farse ['stuff'] the catte within als thu - farses a gos: rost hit hale, and geder the grees, and enoynt hym - tharwith. (_Reliquiae Antiquae_, ed. Wright and Halliwell (1841), - vol. i, p. 51.) - -_[Gh]yf a woud hund hat ybite a man_:-- - - Take tou<n>karsyn ['towncress'], and pulyole ['penny-royal'], and seþ - hit in water, and [gh]ef hym to drynke, and hit schal caste out þe - venym: and [gh]if þou miste ['might'] haue of þe hundys here, ley - hit þerto, and hit schal hele hit. (_Medical Works of the - Fourteenth Century_, ed. G. Henslow, London 1899, p. 19.) - -_A goud oynement for þe goute_:-- - - Take þe grece of a bor, and þe grece of a ratoun, and cattys - grece, and voxis grece, and hors grece, and þe grece of a brok - ['badger']; and take feþeruoye ['feverfew'] and eysyl ['vinegar'], - and stampe h_e_m togedre; and take a litel lynnesed, and stampe - hit wel, and do hit þerto; and meng al togedre, and het hit in a - scherd, and þerwith anoynte þe goute by the fuyre. Do so ofte and - hit schal be hol. (Ibid., p. 20.) - -_a_ 284. _Lammasse tyme_: August 1, when the new corn (l. 294) would be -in. On this day a loaf was offered as firstfruits: whence the name, OE. -_hl[=a]f-mæsse_. - -_a_ 307 ff. Owing to repeated famines, the wages of manual labour rose -throughout the first half of the fourteenth century. A crisis was -reached when the Black Death (1349) so reduced the number of workers -that the survivors were able to demand wages on a scale which seemed -unconscionable to their employers. By the Statute of Labourers (1350 and -1351) an attempt was made to force wages and prices back to the level of -1346. For a day's haymaking 1_d._ was to be the maximum wage; for -reaping 2_d._ or 3_d._ Throughout the second half of the fourteenth -century vain attempts were made to enforce these maxima, and the -penalties did much to fan the unrest that broke out in the Peasants' -Revolt of 1381. - -_a_ 309-10. From Bk. i of the _Disticha_ of Dionysius Cato, a collection -of proverbs famous throughout the Middle Ages. - -_a_ 321. Saturn was a malevolent planet, as we see from his speech in -Chaucer's _Knight's Tale_, 1595 ff. - -_a_ 324. _Deth_: the Plague. - -_b_ 1. _Cornehulle._ Cornhill was one of the liveliest quarters of -fourteenth-century London, and a haunt of idlers, beggars, and doubtful -characters. Its pillory and stocks were famous. Its market where, if -_The London Lickpenny_ is to be credited, dealing in stolen clothes was -a speciality, was privileged above all others in the city. See the -documents in Riley's _Memorials of London_. - -_b_ 2. _Kytte_: In the B-text, Passus xviii. 425-6, _Kytte_ is mentioned -again: - - _and ri[gh]t with þat I waked - And called Kitte my wyf and Kalote my dou[gh]ter._ - -_b_ 4. _lollares of London_: The followers of Wiclif were called -'Lollards' by their opponents; but the word here seems to mean 'idlers' -as in l. 31. _lewede heremytes_: 'lay hermits': hermits were not -necessarily in holy orders, and so far from seeking complete solitude, -they often lived in the cities or near the great highways, where many -passers would have opportunity to recognize their merit by giving alms. -See Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, pp. 93 ff. - -_b_ 5. 'For I judged those men as Reason taught me.' Skeat's -interpretation--that _made of_ means 'made verses about'--is forced. The -sense is that the idlers and hermits thought little of the dreamer, and -he was equally critical of them. - -_b_ 6. _as ich cam by Conscience_: 'as I passed by Conscience', -referring to a vision described in the previous Passus, in which -Conscience is the principal figure. - -_b_ 10 f. _In hele and in vnité_, 'in health and in my full senses', and -_Romynge in remembraunce_ qualify _me_. - -_b_ 14. _Mowe oþer mowen_, 'mow or stack'. For these unrelated words see -the Glossary. - -_b_ 16. _haywarde_: by derivation 'hedge-ward'. He watched over -enclosures and prevented animals from straying among the crops. Observe -that ME. nouns denoting occupation usually survive in surnames:--Baxter -'baker', Bow(y)er, Chapman, Dyer, Falconer, Fletcher 'arrow-maker', -Fo(re)ster, Franklin, Hayward, Lister (= litster, 'dyer'), Palmer, -Reeve(s), Spicer, Sumner, Tyler 'maker or layer of tiles', Warner -'keeper of warrens', Webb, Webster, Wright, Yeoman, &c. - -_b_ 20-1. 'Or craft of any kind that is necessary to the community, to -provide food for them that are bedridden.' - -_b_ 24. _to long_, 'too tall': cp. B-text, Passus xv. 148 _my name is -Longe Wille_. Consistency in such details in a poem full of -inconsistencies makes it probable that the poet is describing himself, -not an imagined dreamer. - -_b_ 33. Psalm lxii. 12. - -_b_ 45. 1 Corinthians vii. 20. - -_b_ 46 ff. Cp. the note to XI _b_ 131 f. The dreamer appears to have -made his living by saying prayers for the souls of the dead, a service -which, from small beginnings in the early Middle Ages, had by this time -withdrawn much of the energy of the clergy from their regular duties. -See note to XI _b_ 140 f. - -_b_ 49. _my Seuene Psalmes_: the Penitential Psalms, normally vi, xxxii, -xxxviii, li, cii, cxxx, cxliii, in the numbering of the Authorised -Version. The _Prymer_, which contained the devotions supplementary to -the regular Church service, included the Placebo, Dirige, and the Seven -Psalms: see the edition by Littlehales for the Early English Text -Society. - -_b_ 50. _for hure soules of suche as me helpen_: combines the -constructions _for þe soules of suche as me helpen_, and _for hure -soules þat me helpen_. - -_b_ 51. _vochen saf_: supply _me_ as object, 'warrant me that I shall be -welcome'. - -_b_ 61. 1 Thessalonians v. 15; Leviticus xix. 18. - -_b_ 63. _churches_: here and in l. 110 read the Norse form _kirkes_ for -the alliteration, as in _a_ 28, 85. But the English form also belongs to -the original, for it alliterates with _ch_ at _a_ 12, 50. - -_b_ 64. _Dominus_, &c.: Psalm xvi. 5. - -_b_ 83. _Symondes sone_: a son of Simon Magus--one guilty of simony, or -one who receives preferment merely because of his wealth. - -_b_ 90. Matthew iv. 4. - -_b_ 103-4. _Simile est_, &c.: Matthew xiii. 44. _Mulier que_, &c.: Luke -xv. 8 ff. - - -IX - -#Dialect#: South-East Midland. - -#Vocabulary#: A number of French words are taken over -from the original, e.g. _plee_ 81, _ryot_ 83, _violastres_ 97, _saphire -loupe_ 116, _gowrdes_ 139, _clowe gylofres_ 157, _canell_ 158, _avaled_ -195, _trayne_ (for _taynere_?) 222, _bugles_ 256, _gowtes artetykes_ -314, _distreynen_ 315. - -#Inflexions#: Almost modern. - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _schadeweth_ 19, _turneth_ 23. - 3 pl. _ben_ 4, _han_ 14, _wexen_ 22, _loue_ 100. - pres. p. _fle(e)ynge_ 148, 252; _recordynge_ 317. - strong pp. _[gh]ouen_ 90, _begonne_ 171. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _þei_ 5; _here_ 71; _hem_ 20. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ becomes _[=o,]_: _hoot_ 11, _cold_ 31. - -OE. _y_ appears as _y_ (= _i_): _byggynge_ 90, _ky[gh]n_ 'kine' 256; -except regular _left_ (hand) 69, 71, 72, where Modern English has also -adopted the South-Eastern form of OE. _lyft_. - - * * * * * - -21-3. The French original says that the children have white _hair_ when -they are young, which becomes black as they grow up. - -24-5. The belief that one of the Three Kings came from Ethiopia is based -on Ps. lxviii. 31: 'Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon -stretch out her hands unto God.' In mediaeval representations one of the -three is usually a negro. - -27. _Emlak_: miswritten for _Euilak_, a name for India taken from -_Havilah_ of Genesis ii. 11. - -28. _þat is: þe more_: _Ynde_ has probably fallen out of the text after -_is_. - -34-5. _[Gh]alow cristall draweth <to> colour lyke oylle_: the insertion -of _to_ is necessary to give sense, and is supported by the French: -_cristal iaunastre trehant a colour doile_. (MS. Harley 4383, f. 34 b.) - -36-7. The translation is not accurate. The French has: _et appelle homme -les dyamantz en ceo pais 'Hamese'_. - -64 ff. It was supposed that the pearl-bearing shell-fish opened at low -tide to receive the dew-drops from which the pearls grew. - -74. _[gh]if [gh]ou lyke_, 'if it please you', impersonal = French _si -vous plest_. - -75. _þe Lapidarye_, Latin _Lapidarium_, was a manual of precious stones, -which contained a good deal of pseudo-scientific information about their -natures and virtues, just as the _Bestiary_ summed up popular knowledge -of animals. A Latin poem by Marbod bishop of Rennes (d. 1123) is the -chief source of the mediaeval lapidaries, and, curiously enough, there -is a French prose text attributed by so intimate an authority as Jean -d'Outremeuse to Mandeville himself. Several Old French texts have been -edited by L. Pannier, _Les Lapidaires Français du Moyen Âge_, Paris -1882. Their high repute may be judged from the inclusion of no less than -seven copies in the library of Charles V of France (d. 1380); and it is -surprising that no complete ME. version is known. But much of the matter -was absorbed into encyclopaedic works like the _De Proprietatibus -Rerum_ of Bartholomaeus, which Trevisa translated. - -97. Mistranslated. The French has: _qi sont violastre, ou pluis broun qe -violettes_. - -100-1. _But in soth to me_: French: _Mes endroit de moy_, 'but for my -part'; the English translator has rendered _en droit_ separately. - -108. _þerfore_: the context requires the sense 'because', but the -translator would hardly have used _þerfore_ had he realized that ll. -108-9 correspond to a subordinate clause in the French, and do not form -a complete independent sentence. He was misled by the bad punctuation of -some French MSS., e.g. Royal 20 B. X and (with consequent corruption) -Harley 4383. - -136. _Cathaye_: China. See the classic work of Colonel Yule, _Cathay and -the Way Thither_, 2 vols., London 1866. The modernization of the Catalan -map of 1375 in vol. i gives a good idea of Mandeville's geography. - -142. _withouten wolle_: the story of the vegetable lamb is taken from -the Voyage of Friar Odoric, which is accessible in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. -Hakluyt's translation is reprinted, with the Eastern voyages of John de -Plano Carpini (1246) and of William de Rubruquis (1253), in _The Travels -of Sir John Mandeville_, ed. A. W. Pollard, London 1900. The legend -probably arose from vague descriptions of the cotton plant; and -Mandeville makes it still more marvellous by describing as without wool -the lamb which had been invented to explain the wool's existence. - -143-4. _Of þat frute I haue eten_: This assertion seems to be due to the -English translator. The normal French text has simply: _et cest bien -grant meruaille de ceo fruit, et si est grant oure [= oeuvre] de nature_ -(MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 70 b). - -147. _the Bernakes_: The barnacle goose--introduced here on a hint from -Odoric--is a species of wild goose that visits the Northern coasts in -winter. It was popularly supposed to grow from the shell-fish called -'barnacle', which attaches itself to floating timber by a stalk -something like the neck and beak of a bird, and has feathery filaments -not unlike plumage. As the breeding place of the barnacle goose was -unknown, and logs with the shell-fish attached were often found on the -coasts, it was supposed that the shell-fish was the fruit of a tree, -which developed in the water into a bird. Giraldus Cambrensis, -_Topographia Hibernica_, I. xv, reproves certain casuistical members of -the Church who ate the barnacle goose on fast-days on the plea that it -was not flesh; but himself vouches for the marvel. The earliest -reference in English is No. 11 of the Anglo-Saxon _Riddles_, of which -the best solution is 'barnacle goose'. For a full account see Max -Müller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii, pp. 583-604. - -157. _grete notes of Ynde_, 'coco-nuts'. - -163-4. _Goth and Magoth_: see Ezekiel xxxviii and xxxix. The forms of -the names are French. - -170. _God of Nature_: Near the end of the _Travels_ it is explained that -all the Eastern peoples are Deists, though they have not the light of -Christianity: _þei beleeven in God þat formede all thing and made the -world, and clepen him 'God of Nature'_. - -191-2. _þat þei schull not gon out on no syde, but be the cost of hire -lond_: the general sense requires the omission of _but_, which has no -equivalent in the original French text: _qils ne<nt> issent fors deuers -la coste de sa terre_ (MS. Sloane 1464, f. 139 b). But some MSS. like -Royal 20 B. X have _fors qe deuers_, a faulty reading that must have -stood in the copy used by the Cotton translator. Cp. note to l. 108. - -199-200. _a four grete myle_: renders the French _iiii grantz lieus_. -There is no 'great mile' among English measures. - -209 ff. In the Middle Ages references to the Jews are nearly always -hostile. They were hated as enemies of the Church, and prejudice was -hardened by stories, like that in the text, of their vengeance to come, -or of ritual murder, like Chaucer's _Prioress's Tale_. England had its -supposed boy martyrs, William of Norwich (d. 1144), and Hugh of Lincoln -(d. 1255) whom the Prioress invokes: - - _O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also - With cursed Jewes, as it is notable, - For it is but a litel while ago, - Preye eek for us_, &c. - -Religion was not the only cause of bitterness. The Jews, standing -outside the Church and its laws against usury, at a time when financial -needs had outgrown feudal revenues, became the money-lenders and bankers -of Europe; and with a standard rate of interest fixed at over 40 per -cent., debtors and creditors could hardly be friends. In England the -Jews reached the height of their prosperity in the twelfth century, so -that in 1188 nearly half the national contribution for a Crusade came -from them. In the thirteenth century their privileges and operations -were cut down, and they were finally expelled from the country in 1290 -(see J. Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, 1893). The Lombards, -whose consciences were not nice, took their place as financiers in -fourteenth-century England. - -222. _trayne_: read _taynere_, OFr. _taignere_ 'a burrow'. - -237-8. The cotton plant has already given us the vegetable lamb (l. -142). This more prosaic account is taken from the _Eþistola Alexandri ad -Aristotelem_: '_in Bactriacen... penitus ad abditos Seres, quod genus -hominum foliis arborum decerpendo lanuginem ex silvestri vellere vestes -detexunt_' (Julius Valerius, ed. B. Kübler, p. 194). From the same text -come the hippopotami, the bitter waters (Kübler, p. 195), and the -griffins (Kübler, p. 217). The _Letter of Alexander_ was translated into -Anglo-Saxon in the tenth century. - -254 ff. _talouns_ etc.: In the 1725 edition there is a reference to 'one -4 Foot long in the Cotton Library' with the inscription, _Griphi Unguis -Divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer_, 'griffin's talon, sacred to St. -Cuthbert of Durham'. This specimen is now in the Mediaeval Department of -the British Museum, and is really the slim, curved horn of an ibex. The -inscription is late (sixteenth century), but the talon was catalogued -among the treasures of Durham in the fourteenth century. - -260. _Prestre Iohn_: Old French _Prestre Jean_, or 'John the Priest', -was reputed to be the Christian ruler of a great kingdom in the East. A -rather minatory letter professing to come from him reached most of the -princes of Europe, and was replied to in all seriousness by Pope -Alexander III. Its claims include the lordship over the tribes of Gog -and Magog whom Alexander the Great walled within the mountains. Official -missions were sent to establish relations with him; but neither in the -Far East nor in Northern Africa, where the best opinion in later times -located his empire, could the great king ever be found. The history of -the legend is set out by Yule in the article _Prester John_ in the -_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. - -261. _Yle of Pentexoire_: to Mandeville most Eastern countries are -'isles'. _Pentexoire_ in the French text of Odoric is a territory about -the Yellow River (Yule, _Cathay_, vol. i, p. 146). - -262 ff.: For comparison the French text of the Epilogue is given from -MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 83 a, the words in < > being supplied from MS. -Sloane 1464: - -'Il y a plusours autres diuers pais, et moutz dautres meruailles par de -la, qe ieo nay mie tout veu, si nen saueroye proprement parler. Et -meismement el pais en quel iay este, y a plusours diuersetes dont ieo ne -fais point el mencioun, qar trop serroit long chose a tout deuiser. Et -pur ceo qe ieo vous ay deuisez dascuns pais, vous doit suffire quant a -present. Qar, si ieo deuisoie tout quantqez y est par de la, vn autre qi -se peneroit et trauailleroit le corps pur aler en celles marches, et pur -sercher la pais, serroit empeschez par mes ditz a recompter nuls choses -estranges, qar il ne purroit rien dire de nouelle, en quoy ly oyantz y -puissent prendre solaces. Et lem dit toutdis qe choses nouelles -pleisent. Si men taceray a tant, saunz plus recompter nuls diuersetez qi -soyent par de la, a la fin qe cis qi vourra aler en celles parties y -troeue assez a dire. - -'Et ieo, Iohan Maundeuille dessudit, qi men party de nos pais et -passay le mer lan de grace mil cccxxiide; qi moint terre et moint -passage et moint pays ay puis cerchez; et qy ay este en moint -bone compaignie et en molt beal fait, come bien qe ieo <ne fuisse -dignes, et> ne feisse vncqes ne beal fait ne beal emprise; et qi -meintenant suy venuz a repos maugre mien, pur goutes artetikes qi -moy destreignont; en preignan solacz en mon cheitif repos, en -recordant le temps passe, ay cestes choses compilez et mises en -escript, si come il me poet souuenir, lan de grace mil ccc.lvime, -a xxxiiiite an qe ieo men party de noz pais. - -'Si pri a toutz les lisauntz, si lour plest, qils voillent Dieu prier -pur moy, et ieo priera pur eux. Et toutz cils qi pur moy dirrount vne -_Paternoster_ qe Dieu me face remissioun de mes pecches, ieo les face -parteners et lour ottroie part dez toutz les bons pelrinages et dez -toutz les bienfaitz qe ieo feisse vnqes, et qe ieo ferray, si Dieu -plest, vncqore iusqes a ma fyn. Et pry a Dieu, de qy toute bien et toute -grace descent, qil toutz les lisantz et oyantz Cristiens voille de sa -grace reemplir, et lour corps et les almes sauuer, a la glorie et loenge -de ly qi est trinz et vns, et saunz comencement et saunz fin, saunz -qualite bons, saunz quantite grantz, en toutz lieus present et toutz -choses contenant, et qy nul bien ne poet amender ne nul mal enpirer, qy -en Trinite parfite vit et regne par toutz siecles et par toutz temps. -Amen.' - -274. _blamed_: The Old French verb _empescher_ means both 'to hinder, -prevent', and 'to accuse, impeach'. But here _empeschez_ should have -been translated by 'prevented', not 'blamed'. - -284-306. This passage, which in one form or another appears in nearly -all the MSS. in English, has no equivalent in the MSS. in French so far -examined: and, as it conflicts with ll. 313 ff., which--apart from the -peculiarities of the Cotton rendering--indicate that the _Travels_ were -written after Mandeville's return, it must be set down as an -interpolation. - -The art of forging credentials was well understood in the Middle Ages, -and the purpose of this addition was to silence doubters by the -_imprimatur_ of the highest authority, just as the marvel of the Dancers -of Colbek is confirmed by the sponsorship of Pope Leo IX (I 246-9). The -different interpretation of the latest editor, Hamelius, who thinks it -was intended as a sly hit at the Papacy (_Quarterly Review_ for April -1917, pp. 349 f.) seems to rest on the erroneous assumption that the -passage belonged to the French text as originally written. - -The anachronism by which the author is made to seek the Pope _in Rome_ -gives a clue to the date of the interpolation. From the beginning of the -fourteenth century until 1377 Avignon, and not Rome, was the seat of the -Pope; and for another thirty years there was doubt as to the issue of -the conflict between the popes, who had their head-quarters at Rome and -were recognized by England, and the antipopes, who remained at Avignon -and had the support of the French. The facts were notorious, so that the -anachronism would hardly be possible to one who wrote much before the -end of the century, even though he were a partisan of the Roman court. - -From internal evidence it would seem that the interpolation first -appeared in French. The style is the uniform style of translation, with -the same tags--_and [gh]ee schull vndirstonde_ = _et sachiez_; _[gh]if -it lyke [gh]ou_ = _si vous plest_; and the same trick of double -rendering, e.g. _of dyuerse secte and of beleeve_; _wyse and discreet_; -_the auctour ne the persone_. More decisive is an example of the -syntactical compromise explained in the note to l. 329: #be# _the whiche -the Mappa Mundi was made_ #after#. With so many French MSS. of -Mandeville in use in England, an interpolation in French would have more -authority than one that could not be traced beyond English; and it can -hardly be an insuperable objection that no such French text exists -to-day, since our knowledge of the Cotton and Egerton versions -themselves depends in each case on the chance survival of a single MS. - -The point has a bearing on the vexed question of the relations of the -English texts one to another. For brevity we may denote by D the -defective text of the early prints and most MSS., which is specially -distinguished by a long gap near the beginning; by C the Cotton text -(ed. Halliwell, Pollard, Hamelius); by E the Egerton text (ed. Warner). -Nicholson (in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_) and Warner give priority -to D, and consider that C and E are independent revisions and expansions -of D by writers who had recourse to the French original. Their argument -seems to be this: There is precise evidence just before the gap that D -derives direct from a mutilated French text (see _Enc. Brit._), and if -it be granted that a single translation from the French is the base of -C, D, and E, it follows that C and E are based on D. - -A fuller study by Vogels (_Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über die -Englische Version Mandeville's_, Crefeld 1891) brings to light a new -fact: the two Bodleian MSS., E Museo 116 and Rawlinson D 99, contain an -English translation (say L) made from a Latin text of the _Travels_. -Vogels also shows that E is based on D, because the characteristic -lacuna of D is filled in E by a passage which is borrowed from L and is -not homogeneous with the rest of E. So far there is no conflict with the -view of Nicholson and Warner. But, after adducing evidence in favour of -the contention that C, D, and E are at base one translation, Vogels -concludes that D derives from C, arguing thus: There is good evidence -that C is a direct translation from the French, and if it be granted -that a single translation from the French is the base of C and D, it -follows that D derives from C. - -In short, the one party maintains that C is an expansion of D, the other -that D is an abridgement of C; and this flat opposition results from -the acceptance of common ground: that C and D represent in the main one -translation and not two translations. - -To return to our interpolation: - -(1) Vogels's first piece of evidence that C, D, and E are at base one -translation is the appearance in all of this interpolation, which is -absent from the MSS. in French. But a passage so remarkable might spread -from one to the other of two independent English texts; or if the -interpolation originated in England in a MS. of the French text since -lost, it might be twice translated. - -(2) Vogels assumes that the interpolation first appeared in type C. But -C is the form in which it would be least likely to originate, because -here the contradiction of statement is sharpest owing to the rendering -at ll. 313-14: _and now I am comen hom_, which is peculiar to C (see the -French). - -(3) If, in order to eliminate individual peculiarities, we take two MSS. -of the D type--say Harley 2386 and Royal 17 C. XXXVIII--we find that -their text of the interpolation is identical with that of E. This is -consistent with Vogels's finding that the body of E derives from D; and -it confirms the evidence of all the defective MSS. that the -interpolation in this particular form was an integral part of the D -type. - -(4) But between the text of the interpolation in D and that in C there -are differences in matter, in sentence order, and in phrasing, which, -while they do not exclude the possibility of interdependence, do not -suggest such a relation. In D the passage is a naked attempt at -authentication; in C it is more artfully though more shamelessly -introduced by the touch of piety conventional in epilogues. And as the -signs of a French original that appear in C are absent from D, it is -unlikely that the text of the interpolation in C derives from D. - -(5) Again, in D and E the addition follows the matter of ll. 307-20. -Unfortunately, though the balance of probability is in favour of the -order in C, the order intended by the interpolator is not certain enough -to be made the basis of arguments. But such a difference in position is -naturally explained from the stage when the interpolation stood in the -margin of a MS., or on an inserted slip, so that it might be taken into -the consecutive text at different points. And an examination of the -possibilities will show that if the interpolation originated in French, -the different placing is more simply explained on the assumption that C -and D are independent translations than on the assumption that one of -them derives from the other. - -To sum up: the central problem for the history of the English texts is -the relation of C and D. Taken by itself the evidence afforded by the -text of the interpolation is against the derivation of C from D; it -neither favours nor excludes the derivation of D from C; it rather -favours independent translation in C and D. - -For the relations of the rest of the text these deductions afford no -more than a clue. Against independent translation of C and D stands the -evidence adduced by Vogels for basic unity. Much of this could be -accounted for by the coincidences that are inevitable in literal prose -translations from a language so near to English in vocabulary and word -order; and a few striking agreements might be due to the use of French -MSS. having abnormal variants in common, or even to reference by a -second translator to the first. The remainder must be weighed against a -considerable body of evidence in the contrary sense, e.g. several places -where the manuscripts of the French text have divergent readings, of -which C translates one, and D another. - -It is unlikely that any simple formula will be found to cover the whole -web of relationships: but any way of reconciling the conclusions of the -authorities should be explored; and the first step is an impartial -sifting of all the evidence, with the object of discovering to what -extent C and D are interdependent, and to what extent independent -translations. The chief obstacle is the difficulty of bringing the -necessary texts together; for an investigator who wished to clear the -ground would have to face the labour of preparing a six-text -_Mandeville_, in the order, French, C, D, E, L, Latin. - -301. _Mappa Mundi_: OFr. and ME. _Mappemounde_, was the generic name for -a chart of the world, and, by extension, for a descriptive geography of -the world. It is not clear what particular _Mappa Mundi_ is referred to -here, or whether such a map was attached to the manuscript copy of the -_Travels_ in which this interpolation first appeared. - -329. _fro whom all godenesse and grace cometh fro_: cp. 24-5 _the lond -of the whiche on of the þre Kynges... was kyng offe_; 76-8 _þei... of -whom all science... cometh from_; and 301-2 _be the whiche the_ Mappa -Mundi _was made after_. The pleonasm is explained by the divergence of -French and ME. word order. In French, as in modern literary English, the -preposition is placed at the beginning of the clause, before the -relative (_de qui_, _dont_, &c.). ME. writers naturally use the relative -_that_, and postpone the preposition to the end of the clause: e.g. _þat -all godenesse cometh fro_. The translator compromises between his French -original and his native habit by placing the preposition both at the -beginning and at the end. - - -X - -#Dialect#: Northern (Scots): the MS. copy was made in 1487 more than a -century after the poem was composed. - -#Vocabulary#: Note _till_ 'to' 4, 77 (in rime); _syne_ 'afterwards' 35, -112; the forms _sic_ 'such' 135, _begouth_ 94, and the short verbal -forms _ma_ (in rime) 'make' 14, _tane_ (in rime) 'taken' 19. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _has_ 76. - 3 pl. _has_ 52, _mais_ 72; but _thai haf_ 16. - pres. p. _rynand_ 17, _vyndland_ 129 (in rime). - strong pp. _gane_ 84, _drawyn_ 124. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _scho_ (in rime) 80; - pl. _thai_ 1: _thair_ 28; _thame_ 3. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ remains: _brynstane_ (in rime) 20, _sare_ 51. - -OE. _[=o]_ (close _[=o.]_) appears as _u_ (_[=ü]_?): _gude_ 36, _fut_ -57, _tume_ 143. - -Unaccented _-(e)d_ of weak pa. t. and pp. becomes _-(i)t_: _passit_ 2, -&c. - -#Spelling#: _i_ (_y_) following a vowel indicates length: _weill_ 10, -_noyne_ 'noon' 67. - -OE. _hw-_ appears as _quh-_ (indicating strong aspiration): _quhelis_ -'wheels' 17, _quhar_ 18. - -_v_ and _w_ are interchanged: _vithall_ 9, _behevin_ 163, _in swndir_ -106. - - * * * * * - -Book XVII of _The Bruce_ begins with the capture of Berwick by the Scots -in March 1318. Walter Stewart undertakes to hold the city, and is aided -in preparing defences by a Flemish engineer, John Crab. Next year King -Edward II determines to recapture the stronghold by an attack from both -land and sea. He entrenches his forces and makes the first assault -unsuccessfully early in September 1319. In this battle the Scotch -garrison capture a clever engineer (see note to l. 71 below). King -Robert Bruce meanwhile orders a raid into England as a diversion, and on -20 September 1319, an English army, led by the Archbishop of York, is -disastrously defeated by the invaders at Mitton. Our extract gives the -story of the second assault on Berwick, which was also fruitless. The -fortress fell into English hands again as a result of the battle of -Halidon Hill in 1333: see XIV _a_ 35-6. - - * * * * * - -5-6. 'They made a sow of great joists, which had a stout covering over -it.' The _sow_ was essentially a roof on wheels. The occupants, under -shelter of the roof, pushed up to the walls of the besieged place and -tried to undermine them. For an illustration see Cutts, _Scenes and -Characters of the Middle Ages_, Pt. VI, chap. vi, where other military -engines of the time are described. - -15. _Crabbis consale_: John Crab was the engineer of the garrison. He is -no doubt the same as the John Crab who in 1332 brought Flemish ships -round from Berwick to attack the English vessels at Dundee. There was an -important Flemish colony at Berwick from early times. - -36. _Schir Valter, the gude Steward_: Walter Steward, whose surname -denotes his office as Steward of Scotland, was the father of Robert II, -the first king of the Stuart line. - -42. _Rude-evyn_: September 13, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of -the Cross. - -49. _thame... of the toune_, 'the defenders of the town'. - -51. _or than_, 'or else'. - -71 ff. _The engynour_: an English engineer captured by the garrison in -the previous assault and forced into their service. - -80. _scho_, 'she', some engine of war not previously referred to: -apparently a mechanical sling. - -123 ff. The boats were filled with men and hoisted up the masts, so as -to overtop the walls and allow the besiegers to shoot at the garrison -from above. The same engine that proved fatal to the sow was used to -break up the boats. - -146. _thar wardane with him had_, 'their warden <who> had with him'; cp. -note to XIII _a_ 36. - -158-61. A confused construction. The writer has in mind: (1) 'Of all the -men he had there remained with him only one whom he had not left to -relieve', &c.; and (2) 'There were no members of his company (except -one) whom he had not left', &c. - - -XI - -#Dialect#: South Midland. - -#Inflexions#: _u_ for inflexional _e_, as in _knowun_ _a_ 2, _seun_ _a_ -51, _a[gh]enus_ _a_ 29, _mannus_ _b_ 114 is found chiefly in West -Midland. - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _madist_ _b_ 214. - 3 sg. _groundiþ_ _a_ 4. - 3 pl. _seyn_ _a_ 1, _techen_ _b_ 5. - pres. p. _brennynge_ _b_ 67. - strong pp. _knowun_ _a_ 2, _[gh]ouen_ _b_ 264, _take_ _b_ - 271. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _þey_, _þei_, _a_ 3, _b_ 9; - possessive usually _þer_ in _a_ 1, 23, &c.; but _her_ _a_ - 52, and regularly _here_ in _b_ 25, 36, &c.; - objective _hem_ _a_ 4, _b_ 3. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ appears regularly as _o_, _oo_: _more_ _a_ 7, -_Hooly_ _a_ 10, _toolde_ _a_ 65. - -OE. _y_ appears as _y_, _i_: _synne_ _a_ 61, _stiren_ _b_ 93. - -The form _þouþ_ (= _þou[gh]_) _b_ 190 probably indicates -sound-substitution; and in _ynowþ[gh]_ (= _ynou[gh]_) _b_ 149 there is -wavering between the two forms. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 12. _Wit Sunday_: the first element is OE. _hw[=i]t_ 'white', not -'wit'. - -_a_ 25 ff. Translations of the Bible were common in France at this -time. No less than six fine copies survive from the library of John, -Duke of Berry (d. 1416). About the middle of the fourteenth century King -John of France ordered a new translation and commentary to be made at -the expense of the Jews, but it was never finished, although several -scholars were still engaged on it at the end of the century. The early -French verse renderings, which incorporate a good deal of mediaeval -legend, are described by J. Bonnard, _Les Traductions de la Bible en -Vers Français au Moyen Âge_ (Paris 1884); the prose by S. Berger, _La -Bible Française au Moyen Âge_ (Paris 1884). Of the surviving manuscripts -mentioned in these excellent monographs several were written in England. - -_a_ 28 ff. In earlier times, when most of those who could read at all -were schooled in Latin, the need for English translations of the -Scriptures was not so pressing, and the partial translations that were -made were intended rather for the use of the clergy and their noble -patrons than for the people. Bede (d. 735) completed a rendering of St. -John's Gospel on his death-bed. Old English versions of the Gospels and -the Psalms still survive. Abbot Aelfric (about A.D. 1000) translated the -first five books of the Old Testament; and more than one Middle English -version of the Psalms is known. Wiclif was perhaps unaware of the Old -English precedents because French renderings became fashionable in -England from the twelfth century onwards, and he would probably think of -the Psalter more as a separate service book than as an integral part of -the Bible. But the prologue to the Wiclifite version attributed to John -Purvey quotes the example of Bede and King Alfred; and the Dialogue on -Translation which, in Caxton's print, serves as preface to Trevisa's -translation of Higden, emphasizes the Old English precedents. Both may -be read in _Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse_, ed. A. W. Pollard, -London 1903, pp. 193 ff. The attitude of the mediaeval Church towards -vernacular translations of the Bible has been studied very fully by Miss -M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible and other Medieval Biblical Versions_, -Cambridge 1920. - -_a_ 34. _þe pley of [Gh]ork._ The York Paternoster Play has not -survived, but there are records from 1389 of a Guild of the Lord's -Prayer at York, whose main object was the production of the play. It -seems to have been an early example of the moral play, holding up 'the -vices to scorn and the virtues to praise', and it probably consisted of -several scenes, each exhibiting one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The last -recorded representation was in 1572. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval -Stage_, vol. ii, p. 154. The association of the friars with the -production of religious plays is confirmed by other writings of the -time. They were quick to realize the value of dramatic representation -as a means of gaining favour with the people, and their encouragement -must be reckoned an important factor in the development of the Miracle -Play. - -_a_ 51. _wher_, 'whether'; cp. _b_ 207. In ll. 197, 266, 274, it -introduces a direct question; see note to V 118. - -_b_ 20. _Gregory_, Gregory the Great. See his work _In Primum Regum -Expositiones_, Bk. iii, c. 28: _praedicatores autem Sanctae Ecclesiae... -prophetae ministerio utuntur_ (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. lxxix, col. -158). - -_b_ 44. <_God_>. Such omissions from the Corpus MS. are supplied -throughout from the copy in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. C. III. 12. - -_b_ 79-80. Cp. Luke xxi. 36 and 1 Thessalonians v. 17. - -_b_ 89-91. Proverbs xxviii. 9. - -_b_ 126. _as Ambrose_: In 386 St. Ambrose, besieged in the Portian -Church at Milan by Arian sectaries, kept his followers occupied and in -good heart by introducing the Eastern practice of singing hymns and -antiphons. See St. Augustine's _Confessions_ Bk. ix, c. 7. - -_b_ 131-2. _placebo._ Vespers of the Dead, named from the first word of -the antiphon, _Placebo Domino in regione vivorum_ (Psalm cxiv. 9). - -_dirige._ Matins of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, -_Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam_ (Psalm v. 9). -Hence our word _dirge_. - -_comendacion_: an office in which the souls of the dead are commended to -God. - -_matynes of Oure Lady_: one of the services in honour of the Virgin -introduced in the Middle Ages. - -The whole question of these accretions to the Church services is dealt -with by our English master in liturgical study, the late Mr. Edmund -Bishop, in his essay introductory to the Early English Text Society's -edition of the _Prymer_, since reprinted with additional notes in his -_Liturgica Historica_ (Oxford 1918), pp. 211 ff. - -_b_ 137 f. _deschaunt, countre note, and orgon, and smale brekynge._ The -elaboration of the Church services in mediaeval times was accompanied by -a corresponding enrichment of the music. To the plain chant additional -parts were joined, sung in harmony either above or below the plain -chant. _Descant_ usually means the addition of a part above, _organ_ and -_countre-note_ (= counterpoint) the addition of parts either above or -below. All these could be composed note for note with the plain chant. -But _smale brekyng_ represents a further complication, whereby the -single note in the plain chant was represented by two or more notes in -the accompanying parts. - -_b_ 140 f. The abuse is referred to in _Piers Plowman_: - - _Persones and parsheprests pleynede to the bisshop - That hure parshens ben poore sitthe the pestelence tyme, - To haue licence and leue in Londone to dwelle, - And synge ther for symonye, for seluer ys swete._ - - _Prologue_ ll. 81-4. - -and by Chaucer in his description of the Parson: - - _He sette nat his benefice to hyre, - And leet his sheepe encombred in the myre, - And ran to Londoun, unto Seint Poules, - To seken hym a chaunterie for soules._ - - _Prologue_ ll. 507-10. - -_b_ 183. _Ordynalle of Salisbury._ An 'ordinal' is a book showing the -order of church services and ceremonies. In mediaeval times there was -considerable divergence in the usage of different churches. But after -the Conquest, and more especially in the thirteenth century, there was -developed at Salisbury Cathedral an elaborate order and form of service -which spread to most of the English churches of any pretensions. This -was called 'Sarum' or 'Salisbury' use. - -_b_ 209. _þei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille_, &c. For this -construction, cp. Chaucer, _Prologue_ 502 _No wonder is a lewed man to -ruste_; Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, V. iv. 108 f. _It is the -lesser blot... Women to change their shapes_, &c. The same construction, -where we now insert _for_, is seen in _Gawayne_ (v. 352-3) _hit were a -wynne huge... a leude, þat couþe, to luf hom wel_, &c. - -_b_ 221-3. 'They say that a priest may be excused from saying mass, to -be the substance of which God gave Himself, provided that he hears one.' - -_b_ 228 f. _newe costy portos, antifeners, graielis, and alle oþere -bokis._ _Portos_, French _porte hors_, represents Latin _portiforium_, a -breviary convenient for 'carrying out of doors'. The _antifener_ -contained the antiphons, responses, &c., necessary for the musical -service of the canonical hours. The _graiel_, or _gradual_, was so -called from the gradual responses, sung at the steps of the altar, or -while the deacon ascended the steps of the pulpit: but the book actually -contained all the choral service of the Mass. - -_b_ 230. _makynge of biblis._ Wiclif in his _Office of Curates_ (ed. -Matthew, p. 145) complains of the scarcity of bibles. _But fewe curatis -han þe Bible and exposiciouns of þe Gospelis, and litel studien on hem, -and lesse donne after hem. But wolde God þat euery parische chirche in -þis lond hadde a good Bible!_ &c. - -_b_ 234. At this time books, especially illuminated books, were very -dear. The Missal of Westminster Abbey, which is now shown in the -Chapter-house, was written in 1382-4 at a cost of £34 14_s._ 7_d._--a -great sum in those days, for the scribe, Thomas Preston, who took two -years to write it, received only £4 for his labour, 20_s._ for his -livery, and board at the rate of 21_s._ 8_d._ the half year. The -inscription in British Museum MS. Royal 19 D. II, a magnificently -illustrated Bible with commentary, shows that it was captured at -Poitiers with King John of France, and bought by the Earl of Salisbury -for 100 marks (about £66). Edward III gave the same sum to a nun of -Amesbury for a rich book of romance. In France John, Duke of Berry, paid -as much as £200 for a breviary, and the appraisement of his library in -1416 shows a surprisingly high level of values (L. Delisle, _Le Cabinet -des Manuscrits_, vol. iii, pp. 171 ff.). These were luxurious books. The -books from the chapel of Archbishop Bowet of York (d. 1423) sold more -reasonably: £8 for a great antiphonar and £6 13_s._ 4_d._ _pro uno libro -vocato 'Bibill'_, were the highest prices paid; and from his library -there were some fascinating bargains: 4_s._ for a small copy of -Gregory's _Cura Pastoralis_; 5_s._ _pro uno libro vocato 'Johannes -Andrewe', vetere et debili_, which would probably turn out to be a dry -work on the Decretals; and 3_s._ 4_d._ for a nameless codex, _vetere et -caduco_, 'old and falling to pieces'. (_Historians of the Church of -York_, ed. J. Raine, vol. iii, pp. 311, 315.) - -But the failing activity of the monastic scriptoria, and the formation -of libraries by the friars and by rich private collectors, made study -difficult for students at the universities, where at this time a -shilling per week--a third of the price of Bowet's most dilapidated -volume--was reckoned enough to cover the expenses of a scholar living -plainly. The college libraries were scantily supplied: books were lent -only in exchange for a valuable pledge; or even pawned, in hard times, -by the colleges themselves. - -These conditions were not greatly improved until printing gave an easy -means of duplication, and for a time caused the humble manuscripts in -which most of the mediaeval vernacular literature was preserved to be -treated as waste paper. As late as the eighteenth century Martène found -the superb illuminated manuscripts left by John, Duke of Berry, to the -Sainte Chapelle at Bourges serving as roosting places to their keeper's -hens (_Voyage Littéraire_, Paris 1717, pt. i, p. 29). - -_b_ 261-3. The reference is to Acts vi. 2, 'It is not reason that we -should leave the word of God, and serve tables.' - -_b_ 266. _wisere þan._ After these words the Corpus MS. (p. 170, col. i, -l. 34 mid.), without any warning, goes on to the closing passage of an -entirely unrelated 'Petition to the King and Parliament'. By way of -compensation, the end of our sermon appears at the close of the -Petition. Clearly the scribe (or some one of his predecessors) copied -without any regard for the sense from a MS. of which the leaves had -become disarranged. - -_b_ 285. Cp. Acts iii. 6. - - -XII - -#Dialect#: London (SE. Midland) with Kentish features. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _loveth_ _a_ 5; contracted _stant_ _a_ 74. - 3 pl. _schewen_ _a_ 136, _halsen_ _a_ 148, _be_ - (in rime) _a_ 92. - pres. p. _growende_ _a_ 80. - strong pp. _schape_ (in rime) _a_ 130, beside _schapen_ _a_ - 169. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _sche_ _a_ 32; - pl. _thei_ _a_ 148; _here_ _a_ 144; _hem_ _a_ 112. - -Unaccented final _-e_ is treated as in Chaucer, having its full value in -the verse when it represents an inflexion or final vowel in Old English -or Old French, e.g. - - _And for he schold[.e] slep[.e] soft[.e]_ _a_ 93 - _An ap[.e], which at thilk[.e] throw[.e]_ _b_ 5 - -#Sounds#: _e_ appears as in Kentish for OE. _y_: _hell_ 'hill' _a_ 65, -79, 86; _keste_ 'kissed' _a_ 178; note the rimes _unschette_: _lette_ -_a_ 71-2; _pet_ 'pit': _let_ _b_ 9-10; and less decisive _pet_: _knet_ -(OE. _knyttan_) _b_ 29-30, 53-4; _dreie_: _beie_ _b_ 23-4. - -#Spelling#: _ie_ represents close _[=e.]_: _flietende_ _a_ 157, _hier_ -_b_ 34; _diemed_ _b_ 216. - -#Syntax#: The elaborate machinery of sentence connexion deserves special -attention; and many turns of phrase are explained by Gower's fluency in -French. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 1. Gower follows Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, Bk. xi. Chaucer tells the -story of Ceix and Alcyone in his _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 62 -ff. This is presumably the early work to which the Man of Law refers: - - _I kan right now no thrifty tale seyn - But Chaucer, thogh he kan but lewedly - On metres and on rymyng craftily, - Hath seyd hem, in swich Englissh as he kan, - Of olde tyme, as knoweth many a man; - And if he have noght seyd hem, leve brother, - In o book, he hath seyd hem in another; - For he hath toold of loveris up and doun - Mo than Ovide made of mencioun - In his ~Epistelles~, that been ful olde. - What sholde I tellen hem, syn they ben tolde? - In youthe he made of Ceys and Alcione_, &c. - - (Link to _Man of Law's Tale_, ll. 46 ff.) - -Gower's rendering is the more poetical. - -_a_ 2. _Trocinie._ Ovid's _Trachinia tellus_, so called from the city of -Trachis, north-west of Thermopylae. - -_a_ 23. _As he which wolde go_: otiose, or at best meaning no more than -'desiring to go'. Cp. _b_ 25 _As he which hadde_ = 'having' simply; and -similarly _b_ 37, 203. It is an imitation of a contemporary French idiom -_comme celui qui_. - -_a_ 26. _and_: the displacement of the conjunction from its natural -position at the beginning of the clause is characteristic of Gower's -verse. Cp. l. 152 _Upon the morwe and up sche sterte_ = 'and in the -morning she got up', and _a_ 45, 49, _b_ 121, 124, 135, 160, 182. See -notes to ll. 32, 78 f. - -_a_ 32. Editors put a comma after _wepende_, and no stop after -_seileth_: but it is Alceoun who weeps. The displacement of _and_ is -exemplified in the notes to l. 26 and ll. 78 f. - -_a_ 37. 'One had not to look for grief'; a regular formula of -understatement, meaning 'her grief was great'. - -_a_ 53. _Hire reyny cope_, &c.: the rainbow, which was the sign or -manifestation of Iris. - -_a_ 59 ff. - - _Prope Cimmerios longo spelunca recessu, - Mons cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni._ - - (_Metamorphoses_ xi. 592-3.) - -Much of the poetry of Gower's description is due to Ovid. - -_a_ 78 f. Editors put no stop after _may_ and a comma after _hell_. -Hence _The New English Dictionary_ quotes this passage as an isolated -instance of _noise_, transitive, meaning 'disturb with noise'. But -_noise_ is intransitive, _hell_ is governed by _aboute round_, and the -position of _bot_ is abnormal as in l. 105. Cp. notes to ll. 26, 32, and -render 'But all round about the hill'. - -_a_ 105. For the word order see notes to ll. 26, 32, 78 f. - -_a_ 117. _The lif_, 'the man', cp. IV _a_ 43. - -_a_ 118. _Ithecus_: for Icelos. According to Ovid 'Icelos' was the name -by which he was known to the gods, but men called him 'Phobetor'. - -_a_ 123. _Panthasas_: Ovid's _Phantasos_. - -_a_ 152. See note to l. 26. - -_a_ 197. The halcyon, usually identified with the kingfisher, was -supposed to build a floating nest on the sea in midwinter, and to have -power to calm the winds and waves at that season, bringing 'halcyon -weather'. - -_b_ 2. _I finde._ Matthew Paris in his _Chronica Maiora_ (ed. Luard, -Rolls Series, vol. ii, pp. 413 ff.) gives a similar story, which, he -says, King Richard the First often told to rebuke ingratitude. In this -version, Vitalis of Venice falls into a pit dug as a trap for wild -beasts. The rescued animals are a lion and a serpent; the rescuer is -nameless, and the gem given to him by the serpent has not the magic -virtue of returning whenever sold. Nearer to Gower is the story told in -Nigel Wireker's _Speculum Stultorum_, a late twelfth-century satire in -Latin verse, which, from the name of its principal character Burnellus -the Ass, who is ambitious to have a longer tail, is sometimes called -_Burnellus_; cp. Chaucer, _Nun's Priest's Tale_, l. 492: - - _I have wel rad in Daun Burnel the Asse - Among his vers_, &c. - -The poem is printed in T. Wright's _Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and -Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century_ (Rolls Series, 1872), vol. i. At -the end the Ass returns disappointed to his master Bernardus (= Bardus). -Bernardus, when gathering wood, hears Dryanus (= Adrian), a rich citizen -of Cremona, call from a pit for help. The rescued animals are a lion, a -serpent, and an ape. The gem given by the serpent in token of gratitude -always returns to Bernardus, who, with more honesty than Gower's poor -man shows, takes it back to the buyer. The fame of the marvellous stone -reaches the king; his inquiries bring to light the whole story; and -Dryanus is ordered to give half his goods to Bernardus. - -Gower probably worked on a later modification of Nigel's story. - -_b_ 86. _blessed_, 'crossed (himself)'. - -_b_ 89. _Betwen him and his asse_, i.e. pulling together with the ass. -The ass is, of course, the distinguished Burnellus. - -_b_ 116. _his ape_: for _this ape_ (?). - -_b_ 191. _Justinian_, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (d. 565), was -best known for his codification of the Roman Law, and so is named here -as the type of a lawgiver. - - -XIII - -#Dialect#: South-Western, with some Midland forms. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _bloweþ_ _a_ 7, _casteþ_ _a_ 8. - 3 pl. _buþ_ _a_ 10, _habbeþ_ _a_ 15. - pres. p. _slyttyng_, _frotyng_ _b_ 59. - strong pp. _yknowe_ _a_ 12, _ysode_ _a_ 30. - NOUN: Note the plural in _-(e)n_, _tren_ 'trees' _a_ 44, 51, 53; - _chyldern_ _b_ 16 is a double plural. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _hy_ _a_ 17; _here_ _a_ 61; _ham_ _a_ 23. - Note the unstressed 3 sg. and 3 pl. form _a_, e.g. at _a_ - 13, 27. - -#Sounds#: There is no instance of _v_ for initial _f_, which is -evidenced in the spelling of early South-Western writers like Robert of -Gloucester (about 1300), or of _z_ for initial _s_, which is less -commonly shown in spelling. _u_ for OE. _y_ occurs in _hulles_ 'hills' -_a_ 18 (beside _bysynes_ _b_ 24, where Modern English has _u_ in -spelling but _i_ in pronunciation; and _lift_ (OE. _lyft_) _b_ 39, where -Modern English has the South-Eastern form _left_). - - * * * * * - -_a_ 2-3. _Mayster... Minerua... hys_: Trevisa appears to have understood -'Minerva' as the name of a god. - -_a_ 6-49. Higden took all this passage from Book i of the -twelfth-century Annals of Alfred of Beverley (ed. Hearne, pp. 6-7). The -_Polychronicon_ is a patchwork of quotations from earlier writers. - -_a_ 7. _Pectoun._ Higden has _ad Peccum_, and Alfred of Beverley _in -monte qui vocatur Pec_, i.e. The Peak of Derbyshire. _cc_ and _ct_ are -not distinguishable in some hands of the time, and Trevisa has made -_Peccum_ into _Pectoun_. - -_a_ 14. _Cherdhol._ Hearne's text of Alfred of Beverley has _Cherole_; -Henry of Huntingdon (about 1150), who gives the same four marvels in his -_Historia Anglorum_, has _Chederhole_; and on this evidence the place -has been identified with Cheddar in Somerset, where there are famous -caves. - -_a_ 22. _an egle hys nest_: cp. _b_ 23 _a child hys brouch_. This -construction has two origins: (1) It is a periphrasis for the genitive, -especially in the case of masculine and neuter proper names which had no -regular genitive in English; (2) It is an error arising from false -manuscript division of the genitive suffix _-es_, _-is_, from its stem. - -_a_ 36. <_þat_> here and in l. 52 is inserted on the evidence of the -other MSS. Syntactically its omission is defensible, for the suppressed -relative is a common source of difficulty in Middle English; see the -notes to V 4-6, 278-9; X 146; XIV _c_ 54; XVII 66. - -_a_ 50. _Wynburney._ Wimborne in Dorset. Here St. Cuthburga founded a -nunnery, which is mentioned in one of Aldhelm's letters as early as A.D. -705. The information that it is 'not far from Bath', which is hardly -accurate, was added by Higden to the account of the marvel he found in -the _Topographia Hibernica_ of Giraldus Cambrensis (vol. v, p. 86 of the -Rolls Series edition of his works). - -_a_ 54-64. Higden took this passage from Giraldus, _Itinerarium -Cambriae_, Bk. ii, c. 11 (vol. vi, p. 139 of the Rolls edition). - -_a_ 60-1. _be at here aboue_, 'be over them', 'have the upper hand'. - -_a_ 63. _Pimbilmere_: the English name for Lake Bala. - -_b_ 6-7. _þe Flemmynges._ The first settlement of Flemings in -Pembrokeshire took place early in the twelfth century, and in 1154, -Henry II, embarrassed alike by the turbulence of the Welsh, and of the -new host of Flemish mercenaries who had come in under Stephen, -encouraged a further settlement. They formed a colony still -distinguishable from the surrounding Welsh population. - -_b_ 11-12. The threefold division of the English according to their -Continental origin dates back to Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_. But -the areas settled by Bede's three tribes do not correspond to Southern, -Northern, and Midland. The Jutes occupied Kent, whence the South-Eastern -dialect; the Saxons occupied the rest of the South, whence the -South-Western dialect; and the Angles settled in the Midlands and the -North; so that the Midland and Northern dialects are both Anglian, and -derive from the same Continental tribe or tribal group. - -_b_ 26. _þe furste moreyn_: the Black Death of 1349. There were fresh -outbreaks of plague in 1362, 1369, 1376. - -_b_ 26-42. The bracketed passage is an addition by Trevisa himself, and -is of primary importance for the history of English and of English -education. See the valuable article by W. H. Stevenson in _An English -Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnivall_, pp. 421 ff. - -_b_ 27-8. _Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere._ A 'master of grammar' -was a licensed teacher of grammar. Mr. Stevenson points out that in -1347-8 John of Cornwall received payment from Merton College, Oxford, -for teaching the boys of the founder's kin. His countryman Trevisa -probably had personal knowledge of his methods of teaching. - -_b_ 39-40. _and a scholle passe þe se_, 'if they should cross the sea'. - -_b_ 47-8. The bracketed words are introduced by Trevisa. - -_b_ 50 f. _and ys gret wondur_: _and_ is superfluous and should perhaps -be deleted. - -_b_ 58-65. Though still often quoted as a fourteenth-century witness to -the pronunciation of Northern English (e.g. by K. Luick, _Historische -Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, 1914, pp. 40 f.), this passage, as -Higden acknowledges, comes from the Prologue to Book iii of William of -Malmesbury's _Gesta Pontificum_, completed in the year 1125: see the -Rolls Series edition, p. 209. - - -XIV - -_a_ 2. _Bannokburn._ Minot's subject is not so much the defeat of the -English at Bannockburn in 1314, as the English victory at Halidon Hill -on 19 July 1333, which he regards as a vengeance for Bannockburn. - -_a_ 7. _Saint Iohnes toune_: Perth, so called from its church of St. -John the Baptist. It was occupied by the English in 1332 after the -defeat of the Scots at Dupplin Moor. - -_a_ 13. _Striflin_, 'Stirling'. - -_a_ 15. Hall suggests that this refers to Scotch raids on the North of -England undertaken to distract Edward III from the siege of Berwick. - -_a_ 19 f. _Rughfute riueling... Berebag_: nicknames for the Scots, the -first because they wore brogues (_riuelings_) of rough hide; the second -because, to allow of greater mobility, each man carried his own bag of -provisions instead of relying on a baggage train. - -_a_ 22. _Brig_ = _Burghes_ l. 25, 'Bruges'. At this time Scots, English, -and French had all close connexions with the Netherlands. Observe that -John Crab, who aided the Scots in the defence of Berwick (note to X 15), -was a Fleming. - -_a_ 35. _at Berwik._ Berwick fell as a result of the battle of Halidon -Hill which the Scots fought with the object of raising the siege. For an -earlier siege of Berwick, in 1319, see No. X. - -_a_ 36. _get_, 'watch', 'be on the look out' (ON. _g['oe]ta_). - -_b_ 5-6. Calais was at this time a convenient base for piracy in the -Channel. - -_b_ 19. _A bare_: Edward III, whom Minot often refers to as -'the boar'. - -_b_ 24-6. In preparation for the long siege Edward III had built a -regular camp beside Calais. - -_b_ 32. _Sir Philip._ Philip de Valois, Philip VI of France (1293-1350). -His son, John Duke of Normandy (1319-64), who succeeded him in 1350, is -of good memory as a lover of fine books. Two are mentioned in the notes -to XI _a_ 25 ff. and XI _b_ 234. A splendid copy of the _Miracles de -Notre Dame_, preserved until recently in the Seminary Library at -Soissons, seems also to have been captured with his baggage at Poitiers, -for it was bought back from the English by King Charles V. Another -famous book produced by his command was the translation of Livy by -Bersuire, with magnificent illuminations. The spirit of the collector -was not damped by his captivity in England from 1356-60, for his account -books show that he continued to employ binders and miniaturists, to -encourage original composition, and to buy books, especially books of -romance. See _Notes et Documents relatifs à Jean, Roi de France_, &c., -ed. by Henry of Orleans, Duc d'Aumale (Philobiblon Soc., London 1855-6). - -_b_ 40. _þe Cardinales._ Pope Clement VI had sent cardinals Annibale -Ceccano bishop of Frascati, and Etienne Aubert, who became Pope Innocent -VI in 1352, to arrange a peace between France and England. But the -English were suspicious of the Papal court at Avignon, and accused the -cardinals of favouring the French cause. - -_b_ 82. _Sir Iohn de Viene._ Jean de Vienne, seigneur de Pagny (d. -1351), a famous captain in the French wars. - -_c_ 5 f. 'They (friends) are so slippery when put to the test, so -eager to have <for themselves>, and so unwilling to give up <to -others>.' - -_c_ 14. _And_, 'if'. - -_c_ 47. King John of France was captured at Poitiers in 1356 and held in -England as a prisoner until the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. See note to -XIV _b_ 32. - -_c_ 54. Note the omission of the relative: 'which recked not a cleat for -all France', and cp. ll. 43-4, XIII _a_ 36 (note). - -_c_ 59. _his helm_, 'its helm'--the bar by which the rudder was moved. - -_c_ 61. 'The King sailed and rowed aright'; on _him_, see note to XV _g_ -24. - -_c_ 83. _An ympe_: Richard II. - -_c_ 90. _sarri_: not in the dictionaries in this sense, is probably OFr. -_serré_, _sarré_, in the developed meaning 'active', 'vigorous', seen in -the adv. _sarréement_. - -_c_ 103-4. 'If we are disloyal and inactive, so that what is rarely seen -is straightway forgotten.' - -_c_ 108. 'Who was the fountain of all courage.' - -_c_ 111. _los_, 'fame'. - -_d_ 1. SCHEP: here means 'shepherd', 'pastor', a name taken by Ball as -appropriate to a priest. - -_Seynte Marie prest of [Gh]ork_, 'priest of St. Mary's of York' (cp. -note to I 44), a great Benedictine abbey founded soon after the -Conquest; see Dugdale, _Monasticon Anglicanum_, vol. iii, pp. 529 ff. -_Marie_ does not take the _s_ inflexion, because it has already the -Latin genitive form, cp. _Mary-[gh]et_ X 163. - -_d_ 2. _Iohan Nameles_, 'John Nobody', for _nameless_ has the sense -'obscure', 'lowly'. - -_d_ 6. _Hobbe þe Robbere._ _Hob_ is a familiar form for _Robert_, and it -has been suggested that _Hobbe þe Robbere_ may refer to Robert Hales, -the Treasurer of England, who was executed by the rebels in 1381. But -_Robert_ was a conventional name for a robber, presumably owing to the -similarity of sound. Already in the twelfth century, Mainerus, the -Canterbury scribe of the magnificent Bible now in the library of -Sainte-Geneviève at Paris, plays upon it in an etymological account of -his family: _Secundus_ (sc. _frater meus_) _dicebatur Robertus, quia a -re nomen habuit: spoliator enim diu fuit et praedo_. From the fourteenth -century lawless men were called _Roberts men_. In _Piers Plowman_ Passus -v (A- and B-texts) there is a confession of 'Robert the Robber'; and the -literary fame of the prince of highwaymen, 'Robin Hood', belongs to this -period. - -_d_ 14. _do wel and bettre_: note this further evidence of the -popularity of _Piers Plowman_, with its visions of _Dowel_, _Dobet_, and -_Dobest_. - - -XV - -_a_ 8. _Þe clot him clingge!_ 'May the clay cling to him!' i.e. 'Would -he were dead!' - -_a_ 12. _Þider_: MS. _Yider_, and conversely MS. _Þiif_ 23 for _Yiif_ -'if'. _y_ and _þ_ are endlessly confused by scribes. - -_b_ 1. _Lenten ys come... to toune._ In the Old English _Metrical -Calendar_ phrases like _cymeð... us to tune Martius reðe_, 'fierce March -comes to town', are regular. The meaning is 'to the dwellings of men', -'to the world'. - -_b_ 3. _Þat_: construe with _Lenten_. - -_b_ 7. _him þreteþ_, 'chides', 'wrangles' (ON. _þr['æ]ta_?). See the -thirteenth-century debate of _The Thrush and the Nightingale_ -(_Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, pp. 241 ff.), of which the opening lines -are closely related to this poem. - -_b_ 11. _Ant wlyteþ on huere wynter wele_, 'and look at their winter -happiness (?)'. This conflicts with _huere wynter wo_ above; and the -explanation that the birds have forgotten the hardships of the past -winter and recall only its pleasures is forced. Holthausen's emendation -_wynne wele_ 'wealth of joys' (cp. l. 35) is good. - -_b_ 20. _Miles_: a crux. It has been suggested without much probability -that _miles_ means 'animals' from Welsh _m[=i]l_. - -_b_ 28. _Deawes donkeþ þe dounes._ Of the suggestions made to improve -the halting metre the best is _þise_ for _þe_. The poet is thinking of -the sparkle of dew in the morning sun; cp. _Sir Gawayne_ 519 f.: - - _When þe donkande dewe drope[gh] of þe leue[gh] - To bide a blysful blusch of þe bry[gh]t sunne._ - -_b_ 29-30. 'Animals with their cries (_rounes_) unmeaning to us -(_derne_), whereby they converse (_domes for te deme_).' For the -weakened sense of _deme_ (_domes_) see note to V 115. - -_c_ 30. _Wery so water in wore_: the restless lover (l. 21) has tossed -all night like the troubled waters in a _wore_; cp. _I wake so water in -wore_ in another lyric of the same MS. It has been suggested that _wore_ -= Old High German _wuor_ 'weir'; but the rimes in both passages show -that the stem is OE. _w[=a]r_, not _w[=o]r_. - -_d_ 2. _the holy londe_: because Ireland was _par excellence_ 'the Land -of the Saints'. - -_f._ I am obliged to Professor Carleton Brown for the information that -this poem is found, with two additional stanzas, in MS. 18. 7. 21 of the -Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; and that the full text will be published -shortly in his _Religious Lyrics of the Fourteenth Century_. - -_f_ 4. _bere_ (OE. _b[=y]r_) riming with _fere_ (OE. _(ge)f[=e]ra_) -indicates a South-Eastern composition. - -_g_ 1. _Scere Þorsday_: Maundy Thursday, the eve of Good Friday. - -_g_ 1-2. _aros_: _Iudas_: the alternative form _aras_ may have given the -rime in the original, but it is not justifiable to accept this as -certain and so to assume an early date of composition for the poem. -Morsbach, _ME. Grammatik_, § 135, n. 4, quotes a number of parallel -rimes with proper names, and the best explanation is that _o_ in _aros_ -still represented a sound intermediate between _[=a]_ and _[=o,]_, and -so served as an approximate rime to _[)=a]_ in proper names. - -_g_ 6. _cunesmen_: as _c_ and _t_ are hard to distinguish in some ME. -hands, and are often confused by copyists, this reading is more likely -than _tunesmen_ of the editors--Wright-Halliwell, Mätzner, Child, Cook -(and _N. E. D._ s.v. _townsman_). For (1) _tunesman_ is a technical, not -a poetical word. (2) In a poem remarkable for its terseness, _tunesmen_ -reduces a whole line to inanity, unless the poet thinks of Judas quite -precisely as a citizen of a town other than Jerusalem; and in the -absence of any Biblical tradition it is unlikely that a writer who calls -Pilate _þe riche Ieu_ would gratuitously assume that Judas was not a -citizen of Jerusalem, where his sister lived. (3) Christ's words are -throughout vaguely prophetic, and as Judas forthwith _imette wid is -soster_--one of his kin--_cunesmen_ gives a pregnant sense. [I find the -MS. actually has _cunesmen_, but leave the note, lest _tunesmen_ might -appear to be better established.] - -_g_ 8. The repetition of ll. 8, 25, 30 is indicated in the MS. by 'ii' -at the end of each of these lines, which is the regular sign for _bis_. - -_g_ 16. 'He tore his hair until it was bathed in blood.' The MS. has -_top_, not _cop_. - -_g_ 24. _In him com ur Lord gon._ In the MS. _c'ist_ = _Crist_ has been -erased after _Lord_. Note (1) the reflexive use of _him_, which is very -common in OE. and ME. with verbs of motion, e.g. _Up him stod_ 27, 29; -_Þau Pilatus him com_ 30; _Als I me rode_ XV _a_ 4; _The Kyng him rod_ -XIV _c_ 61; cp. the extended use _ar þe coc him crowe_ 33, and notes to -II 289, V 86: (2) the use of the infinitive (_gon_) following, and -usually defining the sense of, a verb of motion, where Modern English -always, and ME. commonly (e.g. _[gh]ede karoland_ I 117; _com daunceing_ -II 298), uses the pres. p.: 'Our Lord came walking in'. - -_g_ 27. _am I þat?_ 'Is it I?', the interrogative form of _ich hit am_ -or _ich am hit_. The editors who have proposed to complete the line by -adding _wrech_, have missed the sense. The original rime was _þet_: -_spec_, cp. note to I 240. - -_g_ 30. _cnistes_: for _cniste_ = _cnihte_ representing the OE. gen. pl. -_cnihta_. On the forms _meist_ 6, _heiste_ 18, _eiste_ 20, _bitaiste_ -21, _iboust_ 26, _miste_ 29, _cnistes_ 30, _fiste_ 31, all with _st_ for -OE. _ht_, see Appendix § 6 end. - -_h_ 17-18. Difficult. Perhaps 'The master smith lengthens a little -piece [sc. of hot iron], and hammers a smaller piece, twines the two -together, and strikes [with his hammer] a treble note'. - -_h_ 21-2. _cloþemerys... brenwaterys_: not in the dictionaries, but both -apparently nonce names for the smiths: they 'clothe horses' (for by the -end of the fourteenth century a charger carried a good deal of armour -and harness), and 'burn water' (when they temper the red-hot metal). - -_i_ 4. _Þat_: dat. rel. 'to whom'; cp. VI 64. But _lowte_ is sometimes -transitive 'to reverence'. - -_i_ 6. This line, at first sight irrelevant, supplies both rime and -doctrine. See in Chaucer's Preface to his _Tale of Melibeus_ the passage -ending: - - _I meene of Marke, Mathew, Luc and John-- - Bot doutelees hir sentence is all oon._ - -An erased _t_ after _Awangelys_ in the MS. shows that the scribe wavered -between _Awangelys_ 'Gospels' and _Awangelystes_. - -_i_ 7. _Sent Geretrude_: Abbess of Nivelle (d. 659), commemorated on -March 17. She is appropriately invoked, for one or more rats make her -emblem. - -_i_ 11. _Sent Kasi._ I cannot trace this saint, or his acts against the -rats. But parallels are not wanting. St. Ivor, an Irish saint, banished -rats from his neighbourhood _per imprecationem_ because they gnawed his -books; and the charm-harassed life of an Irish rat was still proverbial -in Shakespeare's day: 'I was never so berhymed' says Rosalind (_As You -Like It_, III. ii) 'since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat'. In -the South of France the citizens of Autun trusted more to the processes -of the law, and brought a suit against the rats which ended in a victory -for the defendants because the plaintiffs were unable to guarantee them -safe conduct to the court (see Chambers, _Book of Days_, under Jan. 17). -Even in such little things the Normans showed their practical genius:--A -friend chancing to meet St. Lanfranc by the way inquired the cause of -the strange noises that came from a bag he was carrying: 'We are -terribly plagued with mice and rats', explained the good man, 'and so, -to put down their ravages, I am bringing along a cat' (_Mures et rati -valde nobis sunt infesti, et idcirco nunc affero catum ad comprimendum -furorem illorum_). _Acta Sanctorum_ for May 28, p. 824. - - -XVI - -#Dialect#: Yorkshire. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _þou royis_ 99, _þou is_ 360; beside _þou - hast_ 69. - 3 sg. _bidis_ 23, _comes_ 57. - 1 pl. _we here_ 169. - 2 pl. _[gh]e haue_ 124. - 3 pl. _þei make_ 103, _þei crie_ 107, _dwelle_ - (rime) 102 ; beside _musteres_ 104, _sais_ - 108. - imper. pl. _harkens_ 37, _beholdes_ 195; but _vndo_ 182. - pres. p. _walkand_ 53 (in rime); beside _shynyng_ 94. - strong pp. _stoken_ 193, _brokynne_ 195, &c. - Contracted verbal forms are _mase_ pres. 3 pl. (in rime) - 116, _bus_ pres. 2 sg. 338, _tane_ pp. 172. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þei_ 21; poss. _thare_ 18, _þer_ 20; - obj. _þame_ 9; but _hemselue_ 307. - The demonstrative _þer_ 'these' 97, 399, is Northern. - -#Sounds#: _[=a]_ remains in rimes: _are_: _care_ 345-7, _waa_: _gloria_ -406-8, _lawe_: _knawe_ 313-15, _moste_ (for _m[=a]ste_): _taste_ 358-60; -but _[=o)]_ is also proved for the original in _restore_: _euermore_: -_were_ (for _w[=o,]re_): _before_ 13 ff. - -#Spelling#: In _fois_ (= _f[=o,]s_) 30, the spelling with _i_ indicates -vowel length. - - * * * * * - -17. _were_: rime requires the alternative form _w[=o,]re_. - -39. _Foure thowsande and sex hundereth [gh]ere._ I do not know on what -calculation the writer changes 5,500, which is the figure in the Greek -and Latin texts of the Gospel of Nicodemus, in the French verse -renderings, and the ME. poem _Harrowing of Hell_. Cp. l. 354. - -40. _in þis stedde_: the rimes _hadde_: _gladde_: _sadde_ point to the -Towneley MS. reading _in darknes stad_, 'set in darkness', as nearer the -original, which possibly had _in þister(nes) stad_. - -49. _we_: read _[gh]e_ (?). For what follows cp. Isaiah ix. 1-2. - -59. _puplisshid_: the rime with _Criste_ shows that the pronunciation -was _puplist_. Similarly, _abasshed_: _traste_ 177-9. In French these -words have _-ss-_, which normally becomes _-sh-_ in English. It is hard -to say whether _-ss-_ remained throughout in Northern dialects, or -whether the development was OFr. _-ss-_ > ME. _-sh-_ > Northern _-ss-_ -(notes to I 128, VII 4). - -62. _þis_: read _His (?) frendis_: here 'relatives', 'parents' (ON. -_fr[´æ]ndi_); see Luke ii. 27. - -65-8. Luke ii. 29-32. - -73-82. Matthew iii. 13-17, &c. - -75. _hande_: the rime requires the Norse plural _hend_ as at l. 400; cp. -XVII 255, IV _a_ 65 (foot-note). - -86 ff. Cp. Matthew xvii. 3 ff., Mark ix. 2 ff. - -113. _Astrotte_: cp. 2 Kings xxiii. 13 'Ashtoreth, the abomination of -the Zidonians'. I cannot identify _Anaball_ among the false gods. - -115. _Bele-Berit_: Judges viii. 33 'the children of Israel... made -Baal-Berith their god'. For _Belial_ see 2 Cor. vi. 15. - -122-4. A common misrendering for 'Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors', -Psalm xxiv. 7. - -125 ff. postulate a preceding _et introibit rex glori[e,]_, which the -writer has not been able to work into the frame of his verse. - -128. _a kyng of vertues clere_ = _dominus virtutum_, rendered 'Lord of -Hosts' in Psalm xxiv. 10. - -154-6. _ware_: _ferre_: the rime indicates some corruption. _ware_ -probably stands for _werre_ 'worse'. The Towneley MS. has _or it be -war_. - -162. John xi. - -165. John xiii. 27. - -171 ff. 'And know he won away Lazarus, who was given to us to take -charge of, do you think that you can hinder him from showing the powers -that he has purposed (to show)?' But it is doubtful whether _what_ is a -true relative. Rather 'from showing his powers--those he has purposed -(to show)'. - -188. _I prophicied_: MS. _of prophicie_ breaks the rime scheme. - -190. Psalm cvii. 16 'For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the -bars of iron in sunder.' - -205 ff. The rimes _saide_: _braide_: _ferde_: _grathed_ are bad. For the -last two read _flaide_ = 'terrified', and _graid_, a shortened form of -_graithed_. - -208. _and we wer moo_, 'if we were more', 'even if there were more of -us'. - -220. _as my prisoune_ might be taken closely with _here_: 'in this place -as my prison'. The Towneley MS. has _in_ for _as_. Better would be -_prisoune<s>_ 'prisoners'. - -240. _wolle_: read _wille_ for the rime. - -241. _God<ys> sonne_: MS. _God sonne_ might be defended as parallel to -the instances in the note to XVII 88. - -256. Apparently, 'you argue his men in the mire', i.e. if Jesus is God's -Son, the souls should remain in hell because God put them there. But the -text may be corrupt. - -267 ff. Cp. Ezekiel xxxi. 16, &c. - -281 ff. _Salamon saide_: Proverbs ii. 18-19 taken with vii. 27 and ix. -18. It was hotly disputed in the Middle Ages whether Solomon himself was -still in hell. Dante, _Paradiso_, x. 110, informs a world eager for -tidings that he is in Paradise: but Langland declares _Ich leyue he be -in helle_ (C-text, iv. 330); and, more sweepingly, coupling him with -Aristotle: _Al holy chirche holden hem in helle_ (A-text, xi. 263). - -285-8. Perhaps a gloss on Job xxxvi. 18 'Because there is wrath, beware -lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot -deliver thee.' - -301. _menys_, the reading of the Towneley MS. is better than _mouys_, -which appears to be a copyist's error due to the similarity of _n_ and -_u_, _e_ and _o_, in the handwriting of the time. - -308. Judas hanged himself, according to Matthew xxvii. 3-5; Acts i. 18 -gives a different account of his end. _Archedefell_: Ahithophel who -hanged himself (2 Samuel xvii. 23) after the failure of his plot against -David. - -309. _Datan and Abiron_: see Numbers xvi. - -313-16. 'And all who do not care to learn my law (which I have left in -the land newly, and which is to make known my Coming), and to go to my -Sacrament, and those who will not believe in my Death and my -Resurrection read in order--they are not true.' - -338. _þou bus_, 'you ought'; _bus_, a Northern contracted form of -_behoves_, is here used as a personal verb, where _þe bus_, 'it behoves -thee', is normal. See note to XVII 196. - -360. _moste_: read _maste_ to rime with _taste_. - -371. _Of þis comyng_: the Towneley MS. reading _of Thi commyng_ is -possible. - -378-80: Corrupt. The copy from which the extant MS. was made seems to -have been indistinct here. The Towneley MS. has: - - _Suffre thou neuer Thi sayntys to se - The sorow of thaym that won in wo, - Ay full of fylth, and may not fle_, - -which is more intelligible and nearer Psalm xvi. 10: - - _Nec dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem._ - -405. _louyng_: 'praise', cp. IV _a_ 24 (note). - - -XVII - -#Dialect#: Late Yorkshire. - -#Vocabulary#: Northern are _then_ 108 (note), and _at_ 'to' 235. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _thou spekis_ 206. - 3 sg. _ligis he_ 84; _he settis_ 92; _(God) - knowes_ 202. - 1 pl. _we swete or swynk_ 195. - 2 pl. _ye carp_ (in rime) 360. - 3 pl. _thay ryn_ (in rime) 277, 357; beside - _has_ 345, _renys_ 351. - pres. p. _liffand_ 73, _bowand_ 76, _wirkand_ 120 (all in - rime); beside _lifyng_ 47, 48; _standyng_ 416; _taryyng_ - 497. - strong pp. _rysen_ 442; _fon_ 'found' 503 is a Northern - short form. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _she_ 186; - pl. _thay_ 27; _thare_ 75; _thaym_ 31. (MS. _hame_ 143 is - miswritten for _thame_.) - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ appears as _[=o,]_ in rime: _old_: _cold_: _mold_ -(OE. _móld_) 60-2, and probably _dold_: _old_ 266-70; _sore_: _store_: -_therfor_: _more_ 91-4; but elsewhere remains _[=a]_, e.g. _draw_ (OE. -_dr[)a]gan_): _knaw_ 245-6. The spelling with _o_ is the commoner. - -See notes on _emong_ 400; _grufe_ 463. - -#Spelling#: Note the Northern spellings with _i_, _y_ following a vowel -to indicate length: _moyne_ 'moon' 6, _bayle_ 'bale' 26, _leyde_ = -_lede_ 48; and conversely _farest_ 'fairest' 79, _fath_ 'faith' 330. - - * * * * * - -The maritime associations of the play of _Noah_ made it a special -favourite with the Trinity House guild of master mariners and pilots at -Hull; and some of their records of payments for acting and equipment are -preserved, although the text of their play is lost (Chambers, _Mediaeval -Stage_, vol. ii, pp. 370-1): - - _anno_ To the minstrels, 6d. - 1485. To Noah and his wife, 1s. 6d. - To Robert Brown playing God, 6d. - To the Ship-child, 1d. - To a shipwright for clinking Noah's ship, one day, 7d. - 22 kids for shoring Noah's ship, 2d. - To a man clearing away the snow, 1d. - Straw for Noah and his children, 2d. - Mass, bellman, torches, minstrels, garland &c., 6s. - For mending the ship, 2d. - To Noah for playing, 1s. - To straw and grease for wheels, ¼d. - To the waits for going about with the ship, 6d. - 1494. To Thomas Sawyr playing God, 10d. - To Jenkin Smith playing Noah, 1s. - To Noah's wife, 8d. - The clerk and his children, 1s. 6d. - To the players of Barton, 8d. - For a gallon of wine, 8d. - For three skins for Noah's coat, making it, and a rope to - hang the ship in the kirk, 7s. - To dighting and gilding St. John's head, painting two - tabernacles, beautifying the boat and over the table, - 7s. 2d. - Making Noah's ship, £5. 8s. - Two wrights a day and a half, 1s. 6d. - A halser [i.e. hawser] 4 stone weight, 4s. 8d. - Rigging Noah's ship, 8d. - - * * * * * - -10. _is_: read _es_ for the rime. Cp. note to I 128-9. - -42. _and sythen_: MS. _in sythen_. Cp. note to VI 36. - -49. _syn_: 3 pl. because _euery liffyng leyde_ is equivalent to a plural -subject 'all men'. - -52. _coueteis_: MS. _couetous_. - -56. _alod_: a shortened form of _allowed_, apparently on the analogy of -such words as _lead_ infin., _led_ pa. t. and pp. For a parallel see -note to I 254-5. - -57. _Sex hundreth yeris and od_: the _od_ thrown in to rime, as Noah was -exactly 600 years old according to Genesis vii. 6. - -66. _and my fry shal with me fall_: 'and the children <that> I may have' -(?). - -88. _for syn sake_: 'because of sin'. Until modern times a genitive -preceding _sake_ usually has no _s_, e.g. _for goodness sake_. The -genitive of _sin_ historically had no _s_ (OE. _synne_), but the -omission in a Northern text is due rather to euphony than to survival of -an old genitive form. Cp. _for tempest sake_ I 177. - -108. _then_: 'nor', a rare Northern usage, which is treated as an error -here in England and Pollard's text, though it occurs again at l. 535. -Conversely _nor_ is used dialectally for _than_. - -109. _Hym to mekill wyn_: 'to his great happiness'. - -137. _take_: 'make', and so in l. 272. - -167-71. _knowe_: _awe_. The rime requires _kn[=a]we_ or _[=o,]we_. - -191. 'The worse <because> I see thee.' - -196. _what thou thynk_: 'what seems to you best', 'what you like'; _thou -thynk_ for _thee thynk_--the verb being properly impersonal; see notes -to XVI 338 and VI 192. - -200. _Stafford blew_: from the context this line might mean 'you are a -scaremonger', for blue is the recognized colour of fear, and it might be -supposed that 'Stafford blue' represents a material like 'Lincoln -green'. But Mätzner is certainly right in interpreting the line 'you -deserve a beating'. _Stafford blew_ would then be the livid colour -produced by blows. The reference, unless there is a play on _staff_, is -obscure. - -202. _led_: 'treated'. - -211. _sory_: the rime requires _sary_. - -220. _Mary_: the later _marry!_ = 'by (the Virgin) Mary!' cp. l. 226. So -_Peter!_ 367 = 'by St. Peter!' - -246. _to knaw_: 'to confess'. - -247-8. _daw to ken_: 'to be recognized as stupid', 'a manifest fool'. - -272. _castell_: note the rime with _sayll_: _nayll_: _fayll_, which may -be due to suffix substitution on the analogy of _catail_ beside _catel_ -'cattle'. For _take_ see note to 137. - -281. _chambre_: the rime points to a by-form _chamb(o)ur_, but the -uninflected form is awkward. Cp. _thre chese chambres_ 'three tiers of -chambers' 129, where the construction is the same as the obsolete _three -pair gloves_. - -289-92. Read _lider_, _hider_, _togider_. - -292. _must vs_: cp. l. 334 and note to VI 192. - -298. 'There is other yarn on the reel', i.e. there is other business on -hand. - -320. _brether sam_: 'brothers both'. Some editors prefer to read -_brother Sam_ 'brother Shem'. - -336 ff. Chaucer refers to the quarrels of Noah and his wife in the -_Miller's Tale_ (ll. 352 ff.):-- - - _'Hastou nat herd', quod Nicholas, 'also - The sorwe of Noe with his felaweshipe - Er that he myghte brynge his wyf to shipe? - Hym hadde be levere, I dar wel undertake, - At thilke tyme, than alle his wetheres blake, - That she hadde had a shipe hirself allone.'_ - -The tradition is old. In the splendid tenth-century Bodleian MS. Junius -11, which contains the so-called Caedmon poems, a picture of the Ark -shows Noah's wife standing at the foot of the gangway, and one of her -sons trying to persuade her to come in. - -370. _Yei_ is defensible; cp. l. 353. _Þe_ 'the' has been suggested. - -383. _Wat Wynk_: an alliterative nick-name like _Nicholl Nedy_ in l. -405. - -400. _emong_: OE. _gemang_, here rimes as in Modern English with _u_ -(OE. _iung_: _tunge_: _lungen_), cp. note to VI 109 ff.; but in ll. -244-7 it rimes with _lang_: _fang_: _gang_--all with original _a_. - -417. <_floodis_>. Some such word is missing in the MS. Cp. ll. 454 f. -and 426. - -461. _How_: MS. _Now_. The correction is due to Professor Child. Initial -capitals are peculiarly liable to be miscopied. - -463. _grufe_: a Northern and Scottish form of the verb _grow_. The sb. -_ro_ 'rest' 237 sometimes has a parallel form _rufe_. - -525. _stold_: for _stalled_ 'fixed'. Note the rime words, which all have -alternative forms _behald_: _bald_: _wald_. - - - - -APPENDIX - -THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH -CENTURY - - -§ 1. GENERAL. Gower's work shows that at the end of the century Latin -and French still shared with English the place of a literary language. -But their hold was precarious. - -Latin was steadily losing ground. The Wiclifite translation of the Bible -threatened its hitherto unchallenged position as the language of the -Church; and the Renaissance had not yet come to give it a new life among -secular scholars. - -French was still spoken at the court; but in 1387 Trevisa remarks (p. -149) that it was no longer considered an essential part of a gentleman's -education: and he records a significant reform--the replacement of -French by English as the medium of teaching in schools. After the end of -the century Anglo-French, the native development of Norman, was -practically confined to legal use, and French of Paris was the accepted -standard French. - -English gained wherever Latin and French lost ground. But though the -work of Chaucer, Gower, and Wiclif foreshadows the coming supremacy of -the East Midland, or, more particularly, the London dialect, there was -as yet no recognized standard of literary English. The spoken language -showed a multiplicity of local varieties, and a writer adopted the -particular variety that was most familiar to him. Hence it is almost -true to say that every considerable text requires a special grammar. - -Confusion is increased by the scribes. Nowadays a book is issued in -hundreds or thousands of uniform copies, and within a few months of -publication it may be read in any part of the world. In the fourteenth -century a book was made known to readers only by the slow and costly -multiplication of manuscripts. The copyist might work long after the -date of composition, and he would then be likely to modernize the -language, which in its written form was not stable as it is at present: -so of Barbour's _Bruce_ the oldest extant copies were made nearly a -century after Barbour's death. Again, if the dialect of the author were -unfamiliar to the copyist, he might substitute familiar words and forms. -Defective rimes often bear witness to these substitutions. - -Nor have we to reckon only with copyists, who are as a rule careless -rather than bold innovators. While books were scarce and many could not -read them, professional minstrels and amateur reciters played a great -part in the transmission of popular literature; and they, whether from -defective memory or from belief in their own talents, treated the exact -form and words of their author with scant respect. An extreme instance -is given by the MSS. of _Sir Orfeo_ at ll. 267-8: - - Auchinleck MS.: _His harp, whereon was al his gle, - He hidde in an holwe tre;_ - - Harley MS.: _He takeþ his harpe and makeþ hym gle, - And lyþe al ny[gh]t vnder a tre;_ - - Ashmole MS.: _In a tre þat was holow - Þer was hys haule euyn and morow._ - -If the Ashmole MS. alone had survived we should have no hint of the -degree of corruption. - -And so, before the extant MSS. recorded the text, copyists and reciters -may have added change to change, jumbling the speech of different men, -generations, and places, and producing those 'mixed' texts which are the -will-o'-the-wisps of language study. - -Faced with these perplexities, beginners might well echo the words of -Langland's pilgrims in search of Truth: - - _This were a wikked way, but whoso hadde a gyde - That wolde folwen vs eche a fote._ - -There is no such complete guide, for the first part of Morsbach's -_Mittelenglische Grammatik_, Halle 1896, remains a splendid fragment, -and Luick's _Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, Leipzig -1914-, which promises a full account of the early periods, is still far -from completion. Happily two distinguished scholars--Dr. Henry Bradley -in _The Making of English_ and his chapter in _The Cambridge History -of English Literature_, vol. i, Dr. O. Jespersen in _Growth and -Structure of the English Language_--have given brief surveys of the -whole early period which are at once elementary and authoritative. But -for the details the student must rely on a mass of dissertations and -articles of very unequal quality, supplemented by introductions to -single texts, and, above all, by his own first-hand observations made on -the texts themselves. - -Some preliminary considerations will be helpful, though perhaps not -altogether reassuring: - -(i) A great part of the evidence necessary to a thorough knowledge of -spoken Middle English has not come down to us, a considerable part -remains unprinted, and the printed materials are so extensive and -scattered that it is easy to overlook points of detail. For instance, it -might be assumed from rimes in _Gawayne_, _Pearl_, and the Shropshire -poet Myrc, that the falling together of OE. _-ang-_, _-ung-_, which is -witnessed in NE. _among_ (OE. _gemang_), _-monger_ (OE. _mangere_), was -specifically West Midland, if the occurrence of examples in Yorkshire -(XVII 397-400) escaped notice. It follows that, unless a word or form is -so common as to make the risk of error negligible, positive -evidence--the certainty that it occurs in a given period or district--is -immeasurably more important than negative evidence--the belief that it -never did occur, or even the certainty that it is not recorded, in a -period or district. For the same reason, the statement that a word or -form is found 'in the early fourteenth century' or 'in Kent' should -always be understood positively, and should not be taken to imply that -it is unknown 'in the thirteenth century' or 'in Essex', as to which -evidence may or may not exist. - -(ii) It is necessary to clear the mind of the impression, derived from -stereotyped written languages, that homogeneity and stability are -natural states. Middle English texts represent a spoken language of many -local varieties, all developing rapidly. So every linguistic fact should -be thought of in terms of time, place, and circumstance, not because -absolute precision in these points is attainable, but because the -attempt to attain it helps to distinguish accurate knowledge from -conclusions which are not free from doubt. - -If the word or form under investigation can be proved to belong to the -author's original composition, exactness is often possible. In the -present book, we know nearly enough the date of composition of extracts -I, III, VIII, X, XI _a_, XII, XIII, XIV; the place of composition of I, -III, X, XI _a_, XII, XIII, XVI, XVII (see map). - -But if, as commonly happens, a form cannot be proved to have stood in -the original, endless difficulties arise. It will be necessary first to -determine the date of the MS. copy. This is exactly known for _The -Bruce_, and there are few Middle English MSS. which the palaeographer -cannot date absolutely within a half-century, and probably within a -generation. The place where the MS. copy was written is known nearly -enough for IV _b_, _c_, XII, XIV _e_, XV _b_, _c_ (possibly Leominster), -XVI, XVII; and ME. studies have still much to gain from a thorough -inquiry into the provenance of MSS. Yet, when the extant copy is placed -and dated, it remains to ask to what extent this MS. reproduces some -lost intermediary of different date and provenance; how many such -intermediaries there were between the author's original and our MS.; -what each has contributed to the form of the surviving copy--questions -usually unanswerable, the consideration of which will show the -exceptional linguistic value of the _Ayenbyte_, where we have the -author's own transcript exactly dated and localized, so that every word -and form is good evidence. - -Failing such ideal conditions, it becomes necessary to limit doubt by -segregating for special investigation the elements that belong to the -original composition. Hence the importance of rimes, alliteration, and -rhythm, which a copyist or reciter is least likely to alter without -leaving a trace of his activities. - - -§ 2. DIALECTS. At present any marked variation from the practice of -educated English speakers might, if it were common to a considerable -number of persons, be described as dialectal. But as there was no such -recognized standard in the fourteenth century, it is most convenient to -consider as dialectal any linguistic feature which had a currency in -some English-speaking districts but not in all. For example, _þat_ as a -relative is found everywhere in the fourteenth century and is not -dialectal; _þire_ 'these' is recorded only in Northern districts, and so -is dialectal. Again, _[=o,]_ represents OE. _[=a]_ in the South and -Midlands, while the North retains _[=a]_ (§ 7 b i): since neither -_[=o,]_ nor _[=a]_ is general, both may be called dialectal. - -If a few sporadic developments be excluded because they may turn up -anywhere at any time, then, provided sufficient evidence were -available,[29] it would be possible to mark the boundaries within which -any given dialectal feature occurs at a particular period: we could draw -the line south of which _þire_ 'these' is not found, or the line -bounding the district in which the Norse borrowing _kirke_ occurs; just -as French investigators in _L'Atlas linguistique de la France_ have -shown the distribution of single words and forms in the modern French -dialects. - -[Foot-note 29: Sufficient evidence is not available. If in the year 1340 -at every religious house in the kingdom a native of the district had -followed the example of Michael of Northgate, and if all their autograph -copies had survived, we should have a very good knowledge of Middle -English at that time. If the process had been repeated about every ten -years the precision of our knowledge would be greatly increased. For the -area in which any feature is found is not necessarily constant: we know -that in the pres. p. the province of _-ing_ was extending throughout the -fourteenth century; that the inflexion _-es_ in 3 sg. pres. ind. was a -Northern and North-Midland feature in the fourteenth century, but had -become general in London by Shakespeare's time. And though less is known -about the spread of sound changes as distinct from analogical -substitutions, it cannot be assumed that their final boundaries were -reached and fixed in a moment. There is reason to regret the handicap -that has been imposed on ME. studies by the old practice of writing in -Latin or French the documents and records which would otherwise supply -the exactly dated and localized specimens of English that are most -necessary to progress.] - -Of more general importance is the fixing of boundaries for sound changes -or inflexions that affect a large number of words, a task to which -interesting contributions have been made in recent years on the evidence -of place-names (see especially A. Brandl, _Zur Geographie der -altenglischen Dialekte_, Berlin 1915, which supplements the work of -Pogatscher on the compounds of _street_ and of Wyld on the ME. -developments of OE. _y_). For example, on the evidence available, which -does not permit of more than rough indications, OE. _[=a]_ remains -_[=a]_, and does not develop to _[=o,]_, north of a line drawn west from -the Humber (§ 7 b i); _-and(e)_ occurs in the ending of the pres. p. as -far south as a line starting west from the Wash (§ 13 ii); farther south -again, a line between Norwich and Birmingham gives the northern limit -for _Stratton_ forms as against _Stretton_ (§ 8 iv, note).[30] The -direction of all these lines is roughly east and west, yet no two -coincide. But if the developments of OE. _y_ (§ 7 b ii) are mapped out, -_u_ appears below a line drawn athwart from Liverpool to London, and -normal _e_ east of a line drawn north and south from the western border -of Kent. Almost every important feature has thus its own limits, and the -limits of one may cross the limits of another. - -[Foot-note 30: The evidence of place-names does not agree entirely with -the evidence of texts. _Havelok_, which is localized with reasonable -certainty in North Lincolnshire, has _(a)dradd_ in rimes that appear to -be original, and these indicate a North-Eastern extension of the area in -which OE. _str[=æ]t_, _dr[=æ]dan_ appear for normal Anglian _str[=e]t_, -_dr[=e]da(n)_. This evidence, supported by rimes in Robert of Brunne, is -too early to be disposed of by the explanation of borrowing from other -dialects, nor is the testimony of place-names so complete and -unequivocal as to justify an exclusive reliance upon it.] - -What then is a ME. dialect? The accepted classification is - - { South-Western = OE. West Saxon - Southern { - { South-Eastern = OE. Kentish - - { East Midland } - Midland { } = OE. Mercian - { West Midland } - - Northern = OE. Northumbrian - -with the Thames as boundary between Southern and Midland, and the Humber -between Midland and Northern. And yet of five actual limiting lines -taken at random, only the first coincides approximately with the line of -Humber or Thames. - -Still the classification rests on a practical truth. Although each -dialectal feature has its own boundaries, these are not set by pure -chance. Their position is to some extent governed by old tribal and -political divisions, by the influence of large towns which served as -commercial and administrative centres, and by relative ease of -communication. Consequently, linguistic features are roughly grouped, -and it is _a priori_ likely that London and Oxford would have more -features in common than would London and York, or Oxford and Hull; and -similarly it is likely that for a majority of phenomena York and Hull -would stand together against London and Oxford. Such a grouping was -recognized in the fourteenth century. Higden and his authorities -distinguish Northern and Southern speech (XIII _b_); in the Towneley -_Second Shepherds' Play_, ll. 201 ff., when Mak pretends to be a yeoman -of the king, he adopts the appropriate accent, and is promptly told to -'take outt that Sothren tothe'. In the _Reeves Tale_ Chaucer makes the -clerks speak their own Northern dialect, so we may be sure that he -thought of it as a unity. - -But had Chaucer been asked exactly where this dialect was spoken, he -would probably have replied, _Fer in the North,--I kan nat telle where_. -A dialect has really no precise boundaries; its borders are nebulous; -and throughout this book 'Southern', 'Northern', &c., are used vaguely, -and not with any sharply defined limits in mind. The terms may, however, -be applied to precise areas, so long as the boundaries of single dialect -features are not violently made to conform. It is quite accurate to say -that _-and(e)_ is the normal ending of the pres. p. north of the Humber, -and that _u_ for OE. _y_ is found south of the Thames and west of -London, provided it is not implied that the one should not be found -south of the Humber, or the other north of the Thames. Both in fact -occur in _Gawayne_ (Cheshire or Lancashire); and in general the language -of the Midlands was characterized by the overlapping of features which -distinguish the North from the South. - -From what has been said it should be plain that the localization of a -piece of Middle English on the evidence of language alone calls for an -investigation of scope and delicacy. Where the facts are so complex the -mechanical application of rules of thumb may give quick and specious -results, but must in the end deaden the spirit of inquiry, which is the -best gift a student can bring to the subject. - - -§ 3. VOCABULARY. The readiness of English speakers to adopt words from -foreign languages becomes marked in fourteenth-century writings. But the -classical element which is so pronounced in modern literary English is -still unimportant. There are few direct borrowings from Latin, and -these, like _obitte_ XVI 269, are for the most part taken from the -technical language of the Church. The chief sources of foreign words are -Norse and French. - -(_a_) #Norse.# Although many Norse words first appear in English in late -texts, they must have come into the spoken language before the end of -the eleventh century, because the Scandinavian settlements ceased after -the Norman Conquest. The invaders spoke a dialect near enough to OE. to -be intelligible to the Angles; and they had little to teach of -literature or civilization. Hence the borrowings from Norse are all -popular; they appear chiefly in the Midlands and North, where the -invaders settled; and they witness the intimate fusion of two kindred -languages. From Norse we get such common words as _anger_, _both_, -_call_, _egg_, _hit_, _husband_, _ill_, _law_, _loose_, _low_, _meek_, -_take_, _till_ (prep.), _want_, _weak_, _wing_, _wrong_, and even the -plural forms of the 3rd personal pronoun (§ 12). - -It is not always easy to distinguish Norse from native words, because -the two languages were so similar during the period of borrowing, and -Norse words were adopted early enough to be affected by all ME. sound -changes. But there were some dialectal differences between ON. and OE. -in the ninth and tenth centuries, and these afford the best criteria of -borrowing. For instance in ME. we have _þou[gh]_, _þof_ (ON. _þ[)=o]h_ -for _*þauh_) beside _þei(h)_ (OE. _þ[=e](a)h_) II 433; _ay_ (ON. _ei_) -'ever' XVI 293 beside _oo_ (OE. _[=a]_) XV _b_ 7; _waik_ (ON. _veik-r_) -VIII _b_ 23, where OE. _w[=a]c_ would yield _w[=o,]k_; the forms -_w[=o,]re_ XVI 17 (note) and _w[=a]pin_ XIV _b_ 15 are from ON. _várum_, -_vápn_, whereas _w[=e]re(n)_ and _w[)e]ppen_ V 154 represent OE. -(Anglian) _w[=e]ron_, _w[=e]pn_. So we have the pairs _awe_ (ON. _agi_) -I 83 and _ay_ (OE. _ege_) II 571; _neuen_ (ON. _nefna_) 'to name' XVII -12 and _nem(p)ne_ (OE. _nemnan_) II 600; _rot_ (ON. _rót_) II 256 and -_wort_ (OE. _wyrt_) VIII _a_ 303; _sterne_, _starne_ (ON. _stjarna_) -XVII 8, 423 and native _sterre_, _starre_ (OE. _steorra_); _systyr_ (ON. -_systir_) I 112 and _soster_ (OE. _sweostor_) XV _g_ 10; _werre_, -_warre_ (ON. _verri_) XVI 154 (note), 334 and native _werse_, _wars_ -(OE. _wyrsa_) XVI 200, XVII 191; _wylle_ (ON. _vill-r_) V 16 and native -_wylde_ (OE. _wilde_) XV _b_ 19. - -Note that in Norse borrowings the consonants _g_, _k_ remain stops where -they are palatalized in English words: _garn_ XVII 298, _giue_, _gete_ -(ON. _garn_, _gefa_, _geta_) beside _[gh]arn_, _[gh]iue_, _for-[gh]ete_ -(OE. _gearn_, _giefan_, _for-gietan_); _kirke_ (ON. _kirkja_) beside -_chirche_ (OE. _cirice_). Similarly OE. initial _sc-_ regularly becomes -ME. _sh-_, so that most words beginning with _sk-_, like _sky_, _skin_, -_skyfte_ VI 209 (English _shift_), _skirte_ (English _shirt_), are -Norse; see the alliterating words in V 99. - -There is an excellent monograph by E. Björkman: _Scandinavian Loan-Words -in Middle English_, 1900. - -(_b_) #French.# Most early borrowings from French were again due to -invasion and settlement. But the conditions of contact were very -different. Some were unfavourable to borrowing: the Normans, who were -relatively few, were dispersed throughout the country, and not, like the -Scandinavians, massed in colonies; and their language had little in -common with English. So the number of French words in English texts is -small before the late thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Other -conditions made borrowing inevitable: the French speakers were the -governing class; they gradually introduced a new system of -administration and new standards of culture; and they had an important -literature to which English writers turned for their subject-matter and -their models of form. Fourteenth-century translators adopt words from -their French originals so freely (see note at p. 234, foot), that -written Middle English must give a rather exaggerated impression of the -extent of French influence on the spoken language. But a few examples -will show how many common words are early borrowings from French: nouns -like _country_, _face_, _place_, _river_, _courtesy_, _honour_, _joy_, -_justice_, _mercy_, _pity_, _reason_, _religion_, _war_; adjectives like -_close_, _large_, _poor_; and verbs _cry_, _pay_, _please_, _save_, -_serve_, _use_. - -Anglo-French was never completely homogeneous, and it was constantly -supplemented as a result of direct political, commercial, and literary -relations with France. Hence words were sometimes adopted into ME. in -more than one French dialectal form. For instance, Late Latin _ca-_ -became _cha-_ in most French dialects, but remained _ca-_ in the North -of France: hence ME. _catch_ and _(pur)chase_, _catel_ and _chatel_, -_kanel_ 'neck' V 230 and _chanel_ 'channel' XIII _a_ 57. So Northern -French preserves initial _w-_, for which other French dialects -substitute _g(u)_: hence _Wowayn_ V 121 beside _Gawayn_ V 4, &c. (see -note to V 121). Again, in Anglo-French, _a_ before nasal + consonant -alternates with _au_:--_dance_: _daunce_; _chance_: _chaunce_; _change_: -_chaunge_; _chambre_ XVII 281: _chaumber_ II 100. English still has the -verbs _launch_ and _lance_, which are ultimately identical. - -As borrowing extended over several centuries, the ME. form sometimes -depends on the date of adoption. Thus Latin _fidem_ becomes early French -_feið_, later _fei_, and later still _foi_. ME. has both _feiþ_ and -_fay_, and by Spenser's time _foy_ appears. - -The best study of the French element in ME. is still that of D. Behrens: -_Beiträge zur Geschichte der französischen Sprache in England_, 1886. A -valuable supplement, dealing chiefly with Anglo-French as the language -of the law, is the chapter by F. W. Maitland in _The Cambridge History -of English Literature_, vol. i. - - -§ 4. HANDWRITING. In the ME. period two varieties of script were in use, -both developed from the Caroline minuscule which has proved to be the -most permanent contribution of the schools of Charlemagne. The one, -cursive and flourished, is common in charters, records, and memoranda; -see C. H. Jenkinson and C. Johnson, _Court Hand_, 2 vols., Oxford 1915. -The other, in which the letters are separately written, with few -flourishes or adaptations of form in combination, is the 'book hand', so -called because it is regularly used for literary texts. Between the -extreme types there are many gradations; and fifteenth-century copies, -such as the Cambridge MS. of Barbour's _Bruce_, show an increasing use -of cursive forms, which facilitate rapid writing. - -The shapes of letters were not always so distinct as they are in print, -so that copyists of the time, and even modern editors, are liable to -mistake one letter for another. Each hand has its own weaknesses, but -the letters most commonly misread are:-- - -_e_ : _o_ e.g. _Beuo_ for _Bouo_ I 59; _wroche_ for _wreche_ II 333; -_teches_ IV _b_ 60, where _toches_ (foot-note) is probably right; -pesible (MS. _posible_) XI _b_ 67. - -_u_ : _n_ (practically indistinguishable) e.g. _menys_ (MS. _mouys_) XVI -301; _skayned_ (edd. _skayued_) V 99; _ryue[gh]_ or _ryne[gh]_ V 222 -(note). This is only a special case of the confusion of letters and -combinations formed by repetition of the downstroke, e.g. _u_, _n_, _m_, -and _i_ (which is not always distinguished by a stroke above). Hence -_dim_ II 285 where modern editors have _dun_, although _i_ has the -distinguishing stroke. - -_y_ : _þ_ e.g. _ye_ (MS. _þe_) XIV _d_ 11; see note to XV _a_ 12. -Confusion is increased by occasional transference to _þ_ of the dot -which historically may stand over _y_. _[gh]_ for _þ_ initially, as in -XVI 170, is more often due to confusion of the letters _þ_: _y_ and -subsequent preference of _[gh]_ for _y_ in spelling (§ 5 i) than to -direct confusion of _þ_: _[gh]_, which are not usually very similar in -late Middle English script. - -_þ_ : _h_ e.g. _doþ_ (MS. _doh_) XV _b_ 22; and notes to XII _b_ 116, XVI -62. - -_b_ : _v_ e.g. _vousour_ (edd. _bonsour_) II 363. - -_c_ : _t_ e.g. _cunesmen_ (edd. _tunesmen_) XV _g_ 6 (note); _top_ (edd. -_cop_) ibid. 16; see note to XIII _a_ 7. - -_f_ : _[s]_ (= _s_) e.g. _slang_ (variant _flang_) X 53. - -_l_ : _[s]_ (= _s_) e.g. _al_ (edd. _as_) II 108. - -_l_ : _k_ e.g. _kyþe[gh]_ (MS. _lyþe[gh]_) VI 9. - - -§ 5. SPECIAL LETTERS. Two letters now obsolete are common in -fourteenth-century MSS.: _þ_ and _[gh]_. - -_þ_: 'thorn', is a rune, and stands for the voiced and voiceless sounds -now represented by _th_ in _this_, _thin_. The gradual displacement of -_þ_ by _th_, which had quite a different sound in classical Latin (note -to VIII _a_ 23), may be traced in the MSS. printed (except X, XII). _þ_ -remained longest in the initial position, but by the end of the -fifteenth century was used chiefly in compendia like _þe_ 'the', _þt_ -'that'. - -_[gh]_: called '_[gh]o[gh]_' or '_yogh_', derives from _<g>_, the OE. -script form of the letter _g_. It was retained in ME. after the Caroline -form _g_ had become established in vernacular texts, to represent a -group of spirant sounds: - -(i) The initial spirant in _[gh]oked_ IX 253 (OE. _geoc-_), _[gh]ere_ I -151 (OE. _g[=e]ar_), where the sound was approximately the same as in -our _yoke_, _year_. Except in texts specially influenced by the -tradition of French spelling, _y_ (which is ambiguous owing to its -common use as a vowel = _i_) is less frequent than _[gh]_ initially. -Medially the palatal spirant is represented either by _[gh]_ or _y_: -_e[gh]e_ (OE. _[=e](a)[gh]-_) XV _c_ 14 beside _eyen_ VIII _a_ 168; -_ise[gh]e_ (OE. _gesegen_) XIV _c_ 88 beside _iseye_ XIV _c_ 16. The -medial guttural spirant more commonly develops to _w_ in the fourteenth -century: _awe_ (ON. _agi_) I 83, _felawe_ (ON. _félagi_) XIV _d_ 7, -_halwes_ (OE. _halg-_), beside _a[gh]-_ V 267, _fela[gh]-_ V 83, -_hal[gh]-_ V 54. - -(ii) The medial or final spirant, guttural or palatal, which is lost in -standard English, but still spelt in _nought_, _through_, _night_, -_high_: ME. _no[gh]t_, _þur[gh]_, _ny[gh]t_, _hy[gh]_: OE. _noht_, -_þurh_, _niht_, _h[=e]h_. The ME. sound was probably like that in German -_ich_, _ach_. The older spelling with _h_ is occasionally found; more -often _ch_ as in _mycht_ X 17; but the French spelling _gh_ gains ground -throughout the century. Abnormal are _write_ for _wrighte_ XVI 230, -_wytes_, _nytes_ for _wy[gh]tes_, _ny[gh]tes_ XV _i_ 19 f. - -(iii) As these sounds weakened in late Southern ME., _[gh]_ was -sometimes used without phonetic value, or at the most to reinforce a -long _i_: e.g. _Engli[gh]sch_ XI _a_ 28, 37, &c.; _ky[gh]n_ 'kine' IX -256. - -N.B.--Entirely distinct in origin and sound value, but identical in -script form, is _[gh]_, the minuscule form of _z_, in _A[gh]one_ (= -_Azone_) I 105, _clyffe[gh]_ 'cliffs' V 10, &c. It would probably be -better to print _z_ in such words. - - -§ 6. SPELLING. Modern English spelling, which tolerates almost any -inconsistency in the representation of sounds provided the same word is -always spelt in the approved way, is the creation of printers, schools, -and dictionaries. A Middle English writer was bound by no such arbitrary -rules. Michael of Northgate, whose autograph MS. survives, writes -_diaknen_ III 5 and _dyacne_ 9; _vyf_ 22, _uif_ 23, _vif_ 37; _þouzond_ -30 and _þousend_ 34. Yet his spelling is not irrational. The comparative -regularity of his own speech, which he reproduced directly, had a -normalizing influence; and by natural habit he more often than not -solved the same problem of representation in the same way. Scribes, too, -like printers in later times, found a measure of consistency convenient, -and the spelling of some transcripts, e.g. I and X, is very regular. If -at first ME. spelling appears lawless to a modern reader, it is because -of the variety of dialects represented in literature, the widely -differing dates of the MSS. printed, and the tendency of copyists to mix -their own spellings with those of their original. - -The following points must be kept in mind: - -(i) _i_ : _y_ as vowels are interchangeable. In some MSS. (for instance, -I) _y_ is used almost exclusively; in others (VIII _a_) it is preferred -for distinctness in the neighbourhood of _u_, _n_, _m_, so that the -scribe writes _hym_, but _his_. - -(ii) _ie_ is found in later texts for long close _[=e.]_: _chiere_ XII -_a_ 120, _flietende_ XII _a_ 157, _diemed_ XII _b_ 216. - -(iii) _ui_ (_uy_), in the South-West and West Midlands, stands for -_[=ü]_ (sounded as in French _amuser_): _puit_ XIV _c_ 12; _vnkuynde_ -XIV _c_ 103. The corresponding short _ü_ is spelt _u_: _hull_ '_hill_', -&c. - -(iv) Quite distinct is the late Northern addition of _i_ (_y_), to -indicate the long vowels _[=a]_, _[=e]_, _[=o]_: _neid_ X 18, _noyne_ -'noon' X 67. - -(v) _ou_ (_ow_) is the regular spelling of long _[=u]_ (sounded as in -_too_): _hous_, _now_, _founden_, &c. - -(vi) _o_ is the regular spelling for short _u_ (sounded as in _put_) in -the neighbourhood of _u_, _m_, _n_, because if _u_ is written in -combination with these letters an indistinct series of downstrokes -results. Hence _loue_ but _luf_, _come_ infin., _sone_ 'son', _dronken_ -'drunk'. In _Ayenbyte_ _o_ for _[)u]_ is general, e.g. _grochinge_ III -10. In other texts it is common in _bote_ 'but'. - -(vii) _u_ : _v_ are not distinguished as consonant and vowel. _v_ is -preferred in initial position, _u_ medially or finally: _valay_ -'valley', _vnder_ 'under', _vuel_ (= _üvel_) 'evil', _loue_ 'love'. -(Note that in XII the MS. distinction of _v_ and _u_ is not reproduced.) - -(viii) So _i_, and its longer form _j_, are not distinguished as vowel -and consonant. In this book _i_ is printed throughout, and so stands -initially for the sound of our _j_ in _ioy_, _iuggement_, &c. - -(ix) _c_ : _k_ for the sounds in _kit_, _cot_, are often interchangeable; -but _k_ is preferred before palatal vowels _e_, _i_ (_y_); and _c_ -before _o_, _u_. See the alliterating words in V 52, 107, 128, 153, 272, -283. - -(x) _c_ : _s_ alternate for voiceless _s_, especially in French words: -_sité_ 'city' VII 66, _resayue_ 'receive' V 8, _vyse_ 'vice' V 307, -_falce_ V 314; but also in _race_ (ON. _rás_) V 8 beside _rase_ XVII -429. - -(xi) _s_ : _z_ (_[gh]_) are both used for voiced _s_, the former -predominating: _kyssedes_ beside _ra[gh]te[gh]_ V 283; _þouzond_ III 30 -beside _þousend_ III 34. But _[gh]_ occasionally appears for voiceless -_s_: _(a[gh]-)le[gh]_ 'awe-less' V 267, _for[gh]_ 'force' 'waterfall' V -105. - -(xii) _sh_ : _sch_ : _ss_ are all found for modern _sh_, OE. _sc_: _shuld_ -I 50; _schert_ II 230; _sserte_ III 40; but _sal_ 'shall', _suld_ -'should' in Northern texts represent the actual Northern pronunciation -in weakly stressed words. - -(xiii) _v_ : _w_: In late Northern MSS. _v_ is often found for initial -_w_: _vithall_ X 9, _Valter_ X 36. The interchange is less common in -medial positions: _in swndir_ X 106. - -(xiv) _wh-_ : _qu(h)-_ : _w-_:--_wh-_ is a spelling for _hw-_. In the -South the aspiration is weakened or lost, and _w_ is commonly written, -e.g. VIII _b_. In the North the aspiration is strong, and the sound is -spelt _qu(h)-_, e.g. _quhelis_ 'wheels' X 17. Both _qu-_ and _wh-_ are -found in _Gawayne_. The development in later dialects is against the -assumption that _hw-_ became _kw-_ in pronunciation. - -See also § 5. - -The whole system of ME. spelling was modelled on French, and some of the -general features noted above (e.g. ii, iii, v, vi, x) are essentially -French. But, particularly in early MSS., there are a number of -exceptional imitations. Sometimes the spelling represents a French -scribe's attempt at English pronunciation: _foret_ in XV _g_ 18 stands -for _forþ_, where _-rþ_ with strongly trilled _r_ was difficult to a -foreigner; and occasionally such distortions are found as _knith_, -_knit_, and even _kint_ (_Layamon_, _Havelok_) for _kni[gh]t_, which had -two awkward consonant groups. More commonly the copyist, accustomed to -write both French and English, chose a French representation for an -English sound. So _st_ for _ht_ appears regularly in XV _e_: _seuenist_ -'sennight', and XV _g_: _iboust_ 'bought', &c. The explanation is that -in French words like _beste_ 'bête', _gist_ 'gît', _s_ became only a -breathing before it disappeared; and _h_ in ME. _ht_ weakened to a -similar sound, as is shown by the rimes with _Kryste_ 'Christ' in VI -98-107. Hence the French spelling _st_ is occasionally substituted for -English _ht_. Again, in borrowings from French, _an_ + consonant -alternates with _aun_: _dance_ or _daunce_; _change_ or _chaunge_ (p. -273); and by analogy we have _Irlande_ or _Irlaunde_ in XV _d_. Another -exceptional French usage, _-tz_ for final voiceless _-s_, is explained -at p. 219, top. - - -§ 7. SOUND CHANGES. (_a_) #Vowel Quantity.# No fourteenth-century writer -followed the early example of Orm. Marks of quantity are not used in -fourteenth-century texts; doubling of long vowels is not an established -rule; and there are no strictly quantitative metres, or treatises on -pronunciation. Consequently it is not easy to determine how far the -quantity of the vowels in any given text has been affected by the very -considerable changes that occurred in the late OE. and ME. periods. - -Of these the chief are: - -(i) In unstressed syllables original long vowels tend to become short. -Hence _[)u]s_ (OE. _[=u]s_), and _b[)o]te_ (OE. _b[=u]tan_) 'but', which -are usually unstressed. - -(ii) All long vowels are shortened in stressed close syllables (i.e., -_usually_, when they are followed by two consonants): e.g. _k[=e]pen_, -pa. t. _k[)e]pte_, pp. _k[)e]pt_; _h[)u]sband_ beside _hous_; -_w[)i]mmen_ (from _w[)i]f-men_) beside _w[=i]f_. - -_Exception._ Before the groups _-ld_, _-nd_, _-rd_, _-rð_, _-mb_, a -short vowel is lengthened in OE. unless a third consonant immediately -follows. Hence, before any of these combinations, length may be retained -in ME.: e.g. _f[=e]nd_ 'fiend', _b[=i]nden_, _ch[=i]ld_; but -_ch[)i]ldren_. - -(iii) Short vowels _[)a]_, _[)e]_, _[)o]_ are lengthened in stressed -open syllables (i.e., _usually_, when they are followed by a single -consonant with a following vowel): _t[)a]|ke_ > _táke_; _m[)e]|te_ > -_méte_ 'meat'; _br[)o]|ken_ > _bróken_. To what extent _[)i]_ and _[)u]_ -were subject to the same lengthening in Northern districts is still -disputed. Normally they remain short in South and S. Midlands, e.g. -_dr[)i]uen_ pp.; _l[)o]uen_ = _l[)u]ven_ 'to love'. - -There are many minor rules and many exceptions due to analogy; but -roughly it may be taken that ME. vowels are: - -_short_ when unstressed; - -_short_ before two consonants, except _-ld_, _-nd_, _-rd_, _-rð_, _-mb_; - -_long_ (except _i_ (_y_), _u_) before a single medial consonant; - -otherwise of the quantity shown in the Glossary for the OE. or ON. -etymon. - -(_b_) #Vowel Quality.# The ME. sound-changes are so many and so obscure -that it will be possible to deal only with a few that contribute most to -the diversity of dialects, and it happens that the particular changes -noticed all took effect before the fourteenth century. - -(i) OE. and ON. _[=a]_ develop to long open _[=o,]_ (sounded as in -_broad_), first in the South and S. Midlands, later in the N. Midlands. -In the North _[=a]_ (sounded approximately as in _f~a~ther_) remains: -e.g. _bane_ 'bone' IV _a_ 54, _balde_ 'bold' IV _a_ 51. The boundary -seems to have been a line drawn west from the Humber, and this -approximates to the dividing line in the modern dialects. There are of -course instances of _[=o,]_ to the north and of _[=a]_ to the south of -the Humber, since border speakers would be familiar with both _[=a]_ and -_[=o,]_, or would have intermediate pronunciations; and poets might use -convenient rimes from neighbouring dialects. - -(ii) OE. _[)=y]_ (deriving from Germanic _[)=u]_ followed by _i_) -appears _normally_ in E. Midlands and the North as _[)=i]_ (_[)=y]_): -e.g. _k[=y]n_, _hill_ (OE. _c[=y]_, _hyll_). In the South-East, -particularly Kent, it appears as _[)=e.]_: _k[=e]n_, _hell_. In the -South-West, and in W. Midlands, it commonly appears as _u_, _ui_ (_uy_), -with the sound of short or long _ü_. London was apparently at a meeting -point of the _u_, _i_, and _e_ boundaries, because all the forms appear -in fourteenth-century London texts, though _[)=ü]_ and _[)=e]_ gradually -give place to _[)=i]_. The extension of _[)=ü]_ forms to the North-West -is shown by _Gawayne_, and a line drawn from London to Liverpool would -give a rough idea of the boundary. But within this area unrounding of -_[)=ü]_ to _[)=i]_ seems to have been progressive during the century. -N.B.--It is dangerous to jump to conclusions from isolated examples. -Before _r_ + consonant _e_ is sometimes found in all dialects, e.g. -_schert_ II 230. _Church_, spelt with _u_, _i_, or _e_, had by etymology -OE. _i_, not _y_. And in Northern texts there are a number of -_e_-spellings in open syllables, both for OE. _y_ and _i_. - -(_c_) #Consonants#: - -(i) _f_ > _v_ (initial): this change, which dates back to OE. times, is -carried through in _Ayenbyte_: e.g. _uele uayre uorbisnen_ = Midland -'_fele fayre forbisnes_'. In some degree it extended over the whole of -the South. - -(ii) _s_ > _z_ (initial), parallel to the change of _f_ to _v_, is -regularly represented in spelling in the _Ayenbyte_: _zome_ 'some', &c. -Otherwise _z_ is rare in spelling, but the voiced initial sound probably -extended to most of the Southern districts where it survives in modern -dialect. - - -§ 8. PRONUNCIATION. One of the best ways of studying ME. pronunciation -is to learn by heart a few lines of verse in a consistent dialect, and -to correct their repetition as more precise knowledge is gained. The -spelling can be relied on as very roughly phonetic if the exceptional -usages noted in § 6 are kept in mind. Supplementary and controlling -information is provided by the study of rimes, of alliteration, and of -the history of English and French sounds. - -#Consonants.# Where a consonant is clearly pronounced in Modern English, -its value is nearly enough the same for ME. But modern spelling -preserves many consonants that have been lost in speech, and so is -rather a hindrance than a help to the beginner in ME. For instance, the -initial sounds in ME. _kni[gh]t_ and _ni[gh]t_ were not the same, for -_kni[gh]t_ alliterates always with _k-_ (V 43, 107) and _ni[gh]t_ with -_n-_ (VII 149); and initial _wr-_ in _wringe_, _wri[gh]te_ is distinct -from initial _r-_ in _ring_, _ri[gh]t_ (cp. alliteration in VIII _a_ -168, V 136). Nor can _wri[gh]te_ rime with _write_ in a careful -fourteenth-century poem. In words like _lerne_, _doghter_, _r_ was -pronounced with some degree of trilling. And although there are signs of -confusion in late MSS. (IV _a_, XVI, XVII), double consonants were -generally distinguished from single: _sonne_ 'sun' was pronounced -_s[)u]n-ne_, and so differed from _sone_ 'son', which was pronounced -_s[)u]-ne_ (§ 6 vi). - -#Vowels.# Short vowels _[)a]_, _[)e]_, _[)i]_, _[)o]_, _[)u]_ (§ 6 vi) -were pronounced respectively as in French _patte_, English _pet_, _pit_, -_pot_, _put_. Final unstressed _-e_ was generally syllabic, with a sound -something like the final sound in _China_ (§ 9). - -The long vowels _[=a]_, _[=i]_, _[=u]_ (§ 6 v) were pronounced -approximately as in _f~a~ther_, _mach~i~ne_, _cr~u~de_. But _[=e]_ and -_[=o]_ present special difficulties, because the spelling failed to make -the broad distinction between open _[=o,]_ and close _[=o.]_, open -_[=e,]_ and close _[=e.]_--a distinction which, though relative only -(depending on the greater or less opening of the mouth passage), is -proved to have been considerable by ME. rimes, and by the earlier and -subsequent history of the long sounds represented in ME. by _e_, _o_. - - (i) Open _[=o,]_ (as in _broad_) derives: - - (_a_) from OE. _[=a]_, according to § 7 b i: OE. _br[=a]d_, - _b[=a]t_, _báld_ > ME. _br[=o,]d_, _b[=o,]t_, _b[=o,]ld_ > NE. - _broad_, _boat_, _bold_. The characteristic modern spelling is - thus _oa_. - - (_b_) from OE. _[)o]_ in open syllables according to § 7 a iii: - OE. _br[)o]cen_ > ME. _br[ó,]ke(n)_ > NE. _broken_. - -NOTE.--In many texts the rimes indicate a distinction in -pronunciation between _[=o,]_ derived from OE. _[=a]_ and _[=o,]_ -derived from OE. _[)o]_, and the distinction is still made in NW. -Midland dialects. - - (ii) Close _[=o.]_ (pronounced rather as in French _beau_ than as - in standard English _so_ which has developed a diphthong _[o.]u_), - derives from OE. _[=o]_: OE. _g[=o]s_, _d[=o]m_, _góld_ > ME. - _g[=o.]s_, _d[=o.]m_, _g[=o.]ld_ > NE. _goose_, _doom_, _gold_. - The characteristic modern spelling is _oo_. - -NOTE.--(1) After consonant + _w_, _[=o,]_ often develops in ME. -to _[=o.]_: OE. _(al)sw[=a]_, _tw[=a]_ > ME. _(al)s[=o,]_, _tw[=o,]_ > -later _(al)s[=o.]_, _tw[=o.]_. - -(2) In Scotland and the North _[=o.]_ becomes regularly -a sound (perhaps _[=ü]_) spelt _u_: _g[=o]d_ > _gud_, _bl[=o]d_ > -_blud_, &c. - -Whereas the distribution of _[=o,]_ and _[=o.]_ is practically the same -for all ME. dialects, the distinction of open _[=e,]_ and close _[=e.]_ -is not so regular, chiefly because the sounds from which they derive -were not uniform in OE. dialects. For simplicity, attention will be -confined to the London dialect, as the forerunner of modern Standard -English. - - (iii) South-East Midland open _[=e,]_ (pronounced as in _there_) - derives: - - (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _[=æ]_: Anglian _d[=æ]l_ > SE. Midl. - _d[=e,]l_ > NE. _deal_; - - (_b_) from OE. _[=e]a_: OE. _b[=e]atan_ > ME. _b[=e,]te(n)_ > NE. - _beat_; - - (_c_) from OE. _[)e]_ in open syllables according to § 7 a iii: - OE. _m[)e]te_ > ME. _m[é,]te_ > NE. _meat_. - -The characteristic modern spelling is _ea_. - - (iv) South-East Midland close _[=e.]_ (pronounced as in French - _été_) derives: - - (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _[=e]_ of various origins: Anglian - _h[=e]r_, _m[=e]ta(n)_, _(ge)l[=e]fa(n)_ > SE. Midl. _h[=e.]re_, - _m[=e.]te(n)_, _l[=e.]ue(n)_ > NE. _here_, _meet_, _(be)lieve_. - - (_b_) from OE. _[=e]o_: OE. _d[=e]op_, _þ[=e]of_ > ME. _d[=e.]p_, - _þ[=e.]f_ (_þief_) > NE. _deep_, _thief_. - -The characteristic modern spellings are _ee_, and _ie_ which already in -ME. often distinguishes the close sound (§ 6 ii). - -NOTE.--The distinction made above does not apply in South-Eastern -(Kentish), because this dialect has ME. _ea_, _ia_, _ya_ for OE. _[=e]a_ -(iii b), and OE. _[=e]_ for Anglian _[=æ]_ (iii a). Nor does it hold for -South-Western, because the West Saxon dialect of OE. had _gel[=i]efan_ -for Anglian _gel[=e]fa(n)_ (iv a). West Saxon also had _str[=æ]t_, -_-dr[=æ]dan_, where normal Anglian had _str[=e.]t_, _-dr[=e.]da(n)_, but -the distribution of the place-names _Stratton_ beside _Stretton_, and of -the pa. t. and pp. _dradd(e)_ beside _dredd(e)_ (p. 270 and n.), shows -that the _[=æ]_ forms were common in the extreme South and the East of -the Anglian area; so that in fourteenth-century London both _[=e,]_ and -_[=e.]_ might occur in such words, as against regular West Midland and -Northern _[=e.]_. - -In NE. Midland and Northern texts some _[=e]_ sounds which we should -expect to be distinguished as open and close rime together, especially -before dental consonants, e.g. _[gh][=e]de_ (OE. _[=e]ode_): _l[=e]de_ -(Anglian _l[=æ]da(n)_) I 152-3. - - -§ 9. INFLEXIONS. Weakening and levelling of inflexions is continuous -from the earliest period of English. The strong stress falling regularly -on the first or the stem syllable produced as reflex a tendency to -indistinctness in the unstressed endings. The disturbing influence of -foreign conquest played a secondary but not a negligible part, as may be -seen from a comparison of some verbal forms in the North and the N. -Midlands, where Norse influence was strongest, with those of the South, -where it was inconsiderable: - - Normal Early Early Old - OE. Sth. Nth.and Norse - ME. N. Midl. - Infin. _dr[=i]fan_ _driue(n)_ _driue_ _drífa_ - Pres. p. _dr[=i]fende_ _driuinde_ _driuande_ _drífandi_ - Pp. strong _gedrifen_ _ydriue_ _driuen_ _drifenn_ - -and although tangible evidence of French influence on the flexional -system is wanting (for occasional borrowings like _gowtes artetykes_ IX -314 are mere literary curiosities), every considerable settlement of -foreign speakers, especially when they come as conquerors, must shake -the traditions of the language of the conquered. A third cause of -uncertainty was the interaction of English dialects in different stages -of development. - -The practical sense of the speakers controlled and balanced these -disruptive factors. There is no better field than Middle English for a -study of the processes of vigorous growth: the regularizing of -exceptional and inconvenient forms; the choice of the most distinctive -among a group of alternatives; the invention of new modes of expression; -the discarding of what has become useless. - -At the beginning of the fourteenth century the inflexional endings are: -_-e_; _-en_; _-ene_ (weak gen. pl.); _-er_ (comparative); _-es_; _-est_; -with _-eþ_, _-ede_ (_-de_, _-te_), _-ed_ (_-d_, _-t_), _-ynge_ (_-inde_, -_-ende_, _-ande_), which are verbal only. - -NOTE.--(_a_) Sometimes one of these inflexions may be substituted for -another: e.g. when _-es_ replaces _-e_ as the Northern ending of the 1st -sg. pres. ind. Such analogical substitutions must be distinguished from -phonetic developments. - -(_b_) In disyllabic inflexions like _-ede_, _-ynge_ (_-ande_), final -_-e_ is lost early in the North. In polysyllables it is dropped -everywhere during the century. - -(_c_) The indistinct sound of flexional _-e-_ covered by a consonant is -shown by spellings with _-i-_, _-y-_: _woundis_ X 51; _madist_ XI _b_ -214; _blyndiþ_ XI _b_ 7; _fulfillid_ XVI 6; _etin_ XIV _b_ 76; -_brokynne_ XVI 195. And, especially in West Midland texts, _-us_, _-un_ -(_-on_) appear for _-es_, _-en_: _mannus_ XI _b_ 234; _foundun_ XI _a_ -47; _laghton_ VII 119. Complete syncope sometimes occurs: _days_ I 198, -&c. - -Otherwise all the inflexions except _-e_, _-en_, are fairly stable -throughout the century. - -#-en#: In the North _-en_ is found chiefly in the strong pp., where it -is stable. In the South (except in the strong pp.) it is better -preserved, occurring rarely in the dat. sg. of adjectives, e.g. _onen_ -III 4, dat. pl. of nouns, e.g. _diaknen_ III 5, and in the infinitive; -more commonly in the weak pl. of nouns, where it is stable, and in the -pa. t. pl., where it alternates with _-e_. In the Midlands _-en_, -alternating with _-e_, is also the characteristic ending of the pres. -ind. pl. As a rule (where the reduced ending _-e_ is found side by side -with _-en_) _-e_ is used before words beginning with a consonant, and -_-en_ before words beginning with a vowel or _h_, to avoid hiatus. But -that the preservation of _-en_ does not depend purely on phonetic -considerations is proved by its regular retention in the Northern strong -pp., and its regular reduction to _-e_ in the corresponding Southern -form. - -#-e#: Wherever _-en_ was reduced, it reinforced final _-e_, which so -became the meeting point of all the inflexions that were to disappear -before Elizabethan times. - -_-e_ was the ending of several verbal forms; of the weak adjective and -the adjective pl.; of the dat. sg. of nouns; and of adverbs like -_faste_, _deepe_, as distinguished from the corresponding adjectives -_fast_, _deep_. - -That _-e_ was pronounced is clear from the metres of -Chaucer, Gower, and most other Southern and Midland -writers of the time. For centuries the rhythm of their verse -was lost because later generations had become so used to -final _-e_ as a mere spelling that they did not suspect that it -was once syllabic. - -But already in fourteenth-century manuscripts there is evidence of -uncertainty. Scribes often omit the final vowel where the rhythm shows -that it was syllabic in the original (see the language notes to I, II). -Conversely, in _Gawayne_ forms like _burne_ (OE. _beorn_), _race_ (ON. -_rás_), _hille_ (OE. _hyll_) appear in nominative and accusative, where -historically there should be no ending. The explanation is that, quite -apart from the workings of analogy, which now extended and now curtailed -its historical functions, _-e_ was everywhere weakly pronounced, and was -dropped at different rates in the various dialects. In the North it -hardly survives the middle of the century (IV _a_, X). In the N. -Midlands its survival is irregular. In the South and S. Midlands it is -fairly well preserved till the end of the century. But everywhere the -proportion of flexionless forms was increasing. It may be assumed that, -in speech as in verse, final _-e_ was lost phonetically first before -words beginning with a vowel or _h_. - - -§ 10. NOUNS: Gender, which in standard West Saxon had been to a great -extent grammatical (i.e. dependent on the forms of the noun), was by the -fourteenth century natural (i.e. dependent on the meaning of the noun). -This change had accompanied and in some degree facilitated the transfer -of nearly all nouns to the strong masculine type, which was the -commonest and best defined in late OE.: - - OE. ME. - Sg. nom. acc. _cniht_ _kni[gh]t_ - gen. _cnihtes_ _kni[gh]tes_ - dat. _cnihte_ _kni[gh]te_ - - OE. ME. - Pl. nom. acc. _cnihtas_ _kni[gh]tes_ - gen. _cnihta_ _kni[gh]tes_ - dat. _cnihtum_ _kni[gh]tes_ - -In the North final _-e_ of the dat. sg. was regularly dropped early in -the fourteenth century, and even in the South the dat. sg. is often -uninflected, probably owing to the influence of the accusative. In the -plural the inflexion of the nom. acc. spreads to all cases; but in early -texts, and relatively late in the South, the historical forms are -occasionally found, e.g. gen. pl. _cniste_ (MS. _cnistes_) XV _g_ 30 -(note), dat. pl. _diaknen_ III 5. - -#Survivals#: (i) The common mutated plurals _man_: _men_, _fot_: _fet_, -&c., are preserved, and in VIII _b_ a gen. pl. _menne_ (OE. _manna_) -occurs; _ky_ pl. of _cow_ forms a new double pl. _kyn_, see (iii) below; -_hend_ pl. of _hand_ is Norse, cp. XVI 75 (note). - -(ii) Some OE. neuters like _shep_ 'sheep' VIII _b_ 18, _[gh]er_ 'year' -II 492, _þing_ II 218, _folk_ II 389, resist the intrusion of the -masculine pl. _-es_ in nominative and accusative. Pl. _hors_ II 304, -XIII _a_ 34 remains beside _horses_ XIV _b_ 73; but _deores_ 'wild -animals' occurs at XV _b_ 29, where Modern English preserves _deer_. - -(iii) In the South the old weak declension with pl. _-en_ persists, -though by the fourteenth century the predominance of the strong type is -assured. The weak forms occur not only where they are historically -justified, e.g. _ey[gh]en_ (OE. _[=e]agan_) II 111, but also by analogy -in words like _honden_ (OE. pl. _honda_) II 79, _tren_ (OE. pl. -_tr[=e]o_) XIII _a_ 51, _platen_ (OFr. _plate_) XV _g_ 4. The inflexion -still survives in three double plural formations: _children_ VIII _b_ 70 -beside _childer_ (OE. pl. _cildru_); _bretheren_ VIII _a_ 201 beside -_brether_ XVII 320 (OE. pl. _br[=o]þor_); and _ky[gh]n_ IX 256 for _ky_ -(cp. (i) above). The OE. weak gen. pl. in _-ena_ leaves its traces in -the South, e.g. _knauene_ VIII _b_ 56, XV _h_ 4, and unhistorical -_lordene_ VIII _b_ 77. - -(iv) The group _fader_, _moder_, _broþer_, _doghter_ commonly show the -historical flexionless gen. sg., e.g. _doghtyr arme_ I 136; _moder -wombe_ XI _b_ 29 f.; _brother hele_ XII _a_ 18; _Fadir voice_ XVI 79. - -(v) The historical gen. sg. of old strong feminines remains in _soule -dede_ (OE. _s[=a]wle_) I 212; but _Lady day_ (OE. _hl[=æ]fdigan dæg_) I -242 is a survival of the weak fem. gen. sg. - - -§ 11. ADJECTIVES. Separate flexional forms for each gender are not -preserved in the fourteenth century; but until its end the distinction -of strong and weak declensions remains in the South and South Midlands, -and is well marked in the careful verse of Chaucer and Gower. The strong -is the normal form. The weak form is used after demonstratives, _the_, -_his_, &c., and in the vocative. As types _god_ (OE. _g[=o]d_) 'good' -and _grene_ (OE. _gr[=e]ne_) 'green' will serve, because in OE. -_gr[=e]ne_ had a vowel-ending in the strong nom. sg. masc., while -_g[=o]d_ did not. The ME. paradigms are: - - Singular. Plural. - Strong Weak Strong and Weak - _god_ _god[.e]_ _god[.e]_ - _gren[.e]_ _gren[.e]_ _gren[.e]_ - -Examples: Strong sg. _a gret serpent_ (OE. _gr[=e]at_) XII _b_ 72; _an -unkind[.e] man_ (OE. _uncynde_) XII _b_ 1; _a still[.e] water_ (OE. -_stille_) XII _a_ 83. Weak sg. _The gret[.e] gastli serpent_ XII _b_ -126; _hire oghn[.e] hertes lif_ XII _a_ 4; _O lef liif_ (where the metre -indicates _leu[.e]_ for the original) II 102. Strong pl. _þer wer -wid[.e] wones_ II 365. Weak pl. _the smal[.e] stones_ XII _a_ 84. - -Note that strong and weak forms are identical in the plural; that even -in the singular there is no formal distinction when the OE. strong masc. -nom. ended in a vowel (_gr[=e]ne_); that monosyllables ending in a vowel -(e.g. _fre_), polysyllables, and participles, are usually invariable; -and that regular dropping of final _-e_ levels all distinctions, so that -the North and N. Midlands early reached the relatively flexionless stage -of Modern English. - -#Survivals.# The _Ayenbyte_ shows some living use of the adjective -inflexions. Otherwise the survivals are limited to set phrases, e.g. -gen. sg. _nones cunnes_ 'of no kind', _enes cunnes_ 'of any kind', XV -_g_ 20, 22. That the force of the inflexion was lost is shown by the -early wrong analysis _no skynnes_, _al skynnes_, &c. - -#Definite Article.# Parallel to the simplification of the adjective, the -full OE. declension _s[=e]_, _s[=e]o_, _þæt_, &c., is reduced to -invariable _þe_. The _Ayenbyte_ alone of our specimens keeps some of the -older distinctions. Elsewhere traces appear in set phrases, e.g. neut. -sg. _þat_, _þet_ in _þat on_ 'the one', _þat oþer_ 'the other' V 344, -and, with wrong division, _þe ton_ XI _b_ 27, _the toþer_ IX 4; neut. -sg. dat. _þen_ (OE. _þ[=æ]m_), with wrong division, in _atte nale_ (for -_at þen ale_) VIII _a_ 109. - - -§ 12. PRONOUNS. In a brilliant study (_Progress in Language_, London -1894) Jespersen exemplifies the economy and resources of English from -the detailed history of the Pronoun. In the first and second persons -fourteenth-century usage does not differ greatly from that of the -Authorized Version of the Bible. But the pronoun of the third person -shows a variety of developments. In the singular an objective case -replaces, without practical disadvantages, the older accusative and -dative: _him_ (OE. _hine_ and _him_), _her(e)_ (OE. _h[=i]e_ and -_hiere_), _(h)it_ (OE. _hit_ and _him_). The possessive _his_ still -serves for the neuter as well as the masculine, e.g. _þat ryuer... -chaungeþ ~hys~ fordes_ XIII _a_ 55 f.; though an uninflected neuter -possessive _hit_ occasionally appears in the fourteenth century. In the -plural, where one would expect objective _him_ from the regular OE. dat. -pl. _him_, clearness is gained by the choice of unambiguous _hem_, from -an OE. dat. pl. by-form _heom_. - -But as we see from _Orfeo_, ll. 408, 446, 185, in some dialects the nom. -sg. masc. (OE. _h[=e]_), nom. sg. fem. (OE. _h[=e]o_), and nom. pl. (OE. -_h[=i]e_), had all become ME. _he_. The disadvantages of such ambiguity -increased as the flexional system of nouns and adjectives collapsed, and -a remedy was found in the adoption of new forms. For the nom. sg. fem., -_s(c)he_, _s(c)ho_ (mostly Northern), come into use, which are probably -derived from _s[i(][=e]_, _s[e(][=o]_, the corresponding case of the -definite article. The innovation was long resisted in the South, and -_ho_, an unambiguous development of _he[=o]_, remains late in W. Midland -texts like _Pearl_. - -In the nom. pl. ambiguous _he_ was replaced by _þei_, the -nom. pl. of the Norse definite article. This is the regular -form in all except the Southern specimens II (orig.), III, XIII. -And although the full series of Norse forms _þei_, _þeir_, _þe(i)m_ -is found in Orm at the beginning of the thirteenth century, -Chaucer and other Midland writers of the fourteenth century -as a rule have only _þei_, with native English _her(e)_, _hem_ in the -oblique cases. (For details see the language note to each -specimen.) - -The poss. pl. _her(e)_, beside _hor(e)_, was still liable to confusion -with the obj. sg. fem. _her(e)_, cp. II 92. Consequently this was -the next point to be gained by the Norse forms, e.g. in VII 181. -In the Northern texts X, XVI, XVII, all from late MSS., the -Norse forms _þai_, _þa(i)r_, _þa(i)me_ are fully established; but -_(h)em_, which was throughout unambiguous, survived into -modern dialects in the South and Midlands. - -Note the reduced nominative form _a_ 'he', 'they' in XIII; and the -objective _his(e)_ 'her', 'them' in III, which has not been -satisfactorily explained. - -#Relative#: The general ME. relative is _þat_, representing all genders -and cases (note to XV _i_ 4). Sometimes definition is gained by adding -the personal pronoun: _þat... he (sche)_ = 'who'; _þat... it_ = 'which'; -_þat... his_ = 'whose'; _þat ... him_ = 'whom', &c.; e.g. _a well, ~þat~ -in the day ~it~ is so cold_ IX 5-6, cp. V 127 (note); _oon ~That~ with a -spere was thirled ~his~ brest-boon_ 'one whose breast-bone was pierced -with a spear', _Knight's Tale_ 1851. For the omission of _þat_ see note -to XIII _a_ 36. - -In later texts, _which_, properly an interrogative, appears commonly as -a relative, both with personal and impersonal antecedents, e.g. -_Alceone... ~which~... him loveth_ XII _a_ 3 ff.; _þat steede... fro -~whilke~ þe feende fell_ XVI 13 f. Under the influence of French -_lequel_, &c., _which_ is often compounded with the article _þe_, e.g. -_a gret serpent... ~the which~ Bardus anon up drouh_ XII _b_ 72 f.; _no -thing of newe, in ~the whiche~ the hereres myghten hauen... solace_ IX -275 f. Further compounding with _þat_ is not uncommon, e.g. _the queen -of Amazoine, ~the whiche þat~ maketh hem to ben kept in cloos_ IX 190 f. - -More restricted is the relative use of _whos_, _whom_, which are -originally interrogatives, though both are found very early in ME. as -personal relatives. Examples of the objective after prepositions are: -_my Lady, of ~quom~..._ VI 93; _God, fro ~whom~ ..._ IX 328 f.; _my -Sone... in ~whome~_ XVI 81 f. The possessive occurs in _Seynt Magne... -yn ~whos~ wurschyp_ I 90 f.; _I am ... the same, ~whos~ good_ XII _b_ 78 -f.; and, compounded with the article, in _Morpheüs, ~the whos~ nature_ -XII _a_ 113. The nominative _who_ retains its interrogative meaning, -e.g. _But ~who~ ben more heretikis?_ XI _b_ 77 f.; or is used as an -indefinite, e.g. _a tasse of grene stickes... to selle, ~who that~ wolde -hem beie_ XII _b_ 22 ff.; but it is never used as a relative; and -probably _what_ in XVI 174 is better taken as in apposition to _myghtis_ -than as a true relative. - - -§ 13. VERB. Syntactically the most interesting point in the history of -the ME. verb is the development of the compound tenses with _have_, -_be_, _will_, _shall_, _may_, _might_, _mun_, _can_, _gan_. But the -flexional forms of the simple tenses are most subject to local -variation, and, being relatively common, afford good evidence of -dialect. Throughout the period, despite the crossings and confusions -that are to be expected in a time of uncertainty and experiment, the -distinction between strong and weak verbs is maintained; and it will be -convenient to deal first with the inflexions common to both classes, and -then to notice the forms peculiar to one or the other. - -(i) #The Infinitive# had already in Northumbrian OE. lost final _-n_: -_dr[=i]fa_ 'to drive'. Hence in ME. of the North and N. Midlands the -ending is _-e_, which becomes silent at varying rates during the -fourteenth century; e.g. _dryue_ I 171, _to luf_ IV _a_ 17. In the South -and S. Midlands the common ending is _-e_, e.g. _telle_ III 3, which -usually remains syllabic to the end of the century; but _-(e)n_ is also -found, especially in verse to make a rime or to avoid hiatus: e.g. -_sein_ (: _a[gh]ein_) XII _a_ 27; _to parte and [gh]iven half his good_ -XII _b_ 201. - -(ii) #The Present Participle# (OE. _dr[=i]fende_) in the North and N. -Midlands ends in _-and(e)_, though _-yng(e)_, _-ing(e)_ is beginning to -appear in V, VII, XVI, XVII. In S. Midlands the historical ending -_-ende_ still prevails in Gower; but Chaucer has more commonly -_-yng(e)_; and in IX, XI, both late texts, only _-yng(e)_ appears. In -the South _-yng(e)_ is established as early as the beginning of the -century, e.g. in II. - -N.B. Carefully distinguish the verbal noun which always ends in -_-yng(e)_. Early confusion resulted in the transference of this ending -to the participle. - -(iii) #Present Indicative.# - -(_a_) Singular: OE. 1 _dr[=i]fe_, 2 _dr[=i]f(e)s(t)_, 3 _dr[=i]f(e)ð_ -(late Northumbrian _dr[=i]fes_). - -In ME. _-e_, _-est_, _-eþ_ are still the regular endings for the South -and most of the Midlands. Shortened forms like _fint_ = _findeþ_ II 239; -_stant_ = _standeþ_ XII _a_ 74 are commonest in the South, where in OE. -they were a feature of West Saxon and Kentish as distinguished from -Anglian. Distinct are the Northern and N. Midland _mas(e)_ 'makes', -_tas_ 'takes', with contracted infinitives _ma_, _ta_; and _bus_ -'behoves', which Chaucer uses in his imitation of Northern English, -_Reeves Tale_ 172. - -In N. Midlands the modern 3rd sg. _-(e)s_ is common (V, VI, but not in -earlier I). Farther North it is invariable (IV, X, XVI, XVII). The -distribution of _-es_ as the ending of the 2nd sg. is the same, and it -is extended even to the 1st person. - -(_b_) Plural: OE. _dr[=i]fað_ (late Northumbrian _dr[=i]fas_). - -Only Southern ME. retains the OE. inflexion as _-eþ_ (II, III, XIII). -The Midland ending, whence the modern form derives, is _-e(n)_; though -in the N. Midlands _-es_ occasionally appears. Northern has regularly -_-es_, _unless the personal pronoun immediately precedes_, when the -ending is _-e_, as in the Midlands, e.g. _þei make_ XVI 103. - -N.B. In applying this test, care must be taken to exclude inversions, -which are subject to special rules; to distinguish the subjunctive (e.g. -_falle_ XIII _a_ 52, _drawe_ XIII _b_ 6) from the indicative; and, -generally, to choose examples that are syntactically free from doubt, -because concord of number is not always logical in ME. - -SUMMARY. - - OE. - - 1. sg. _dr[=i]f-e_ - 2. _dr[=i]f-es(t)_ - 3. _dr[=i]f-eð_ (Nth. _-es_) - pl. _dr[=i]f-að_ (Nth. _-as_) - - ME. - South S. Midl. N. Midl. North - 1. sg. _-e_ _-e_ _-(e)_ _-(e)_ or _-(e)s_ - 2. _-est_ _-est_ _-es(t)_ _-es_ - 3. _-eþ_ _-eþ_ _-eþ_ or _-es_ _-es_ - pl. _-eþ_ _-e(n)_ _-e(n)_ or _-es_ _-es_ or _-(e)_ - -(iv) #The Imperative Plural# might be expected to agree with the pres. -ind. pl. In fact it has the ending _-eþ_ not merely in the South, but in -most of the Midlands, e.g. I, VIII, Gower and Chaucer. Northern and NW. -Midland (V, VI, XIV _b_, XVI) have commonly _-es_. But Chaucer, Gower, -and most late ME. texts have, beside the full inflexion, an uninflected -form, e.g. _vndo_ XVI 182. - -(v) #Past Tense.# - -(_a_) Strong: The historical distinctions of stem-vowel were often -obscured in ME. by the rise of new analogical forms, the variety of -which can best be judged from the detailed evidence presented in the -_New English Dictionary_ under each verb. But, for the common verbs or -classes, the South and S. Midlands preserved fairly well the OE. vowel -distinction of past tense singular and plural; while North and N. -Midlands usually preferred the form proper to the singular for both -singular and plural, e.g. _þey bygan_ I 72; _þey ne blan_ I 73; _thai -slang_ X 53, where OE. has sg. _gan_: _gunnon_; _blan_: _blunnon_; ON. -_sl[o,]ng_: _slungu_. - -(_b_) Weak: In the South and Midlands the weak pa. t. 2nd sg. usually -ends in _-est_ (N. Midland also _-es_): _hadest_ II 573; _cursedest_ I -130; _kyssedes_, _ra[gh]te[gh]_ V 283. In the North, and sometimes in N. -Midland, it ends in _-(e)_: _þou hadde_ XVI 219. The full ending of the -pa. t. pl. is fairly common in the South, S. Midlands, and NW. Midlands: -_wenten_ II 185, _hedden_ III 42, _maden_ XII _b_ 196, _sayden_ VI 174. - -(vi) #Past Participle (Strong)#: OE. _(ge)dr[)i]fen_. - -In the North and N. Midlands the ending _-en_ is usually preserved, but -the prefix _y-_ is dropped. In the South the type is _y-driue_, with -prefix and without final _n_. S. Midland fluctuates--for example, Gower -rarely, Chaucer commonly, uses the prefix _y-_. - -(vii) #Weak Verbs with -i- suffix#: In OE. weak verbs of Class II formed -the infinitive in _-ian_, e.g. _acsian_, _lufian_, and the _i_ appeared -also in the pres. ind. and imper. pl. _acsiað_ and pres. p. _acsiende_. -In ME. a certain number of French verbs with an _-i-_ suffix reinforced -this class. In the South and W. Midlands the _-i-_ of the suffix is -often preserved, e.g. _aski_ II 467, _louy_ V 27, and is sometimes -extended to forms in which it has no historical justification, e.g. pp. -_spuryed_ V 25. In the North and the E. Midlands the forms without _i_ -are generalized. - - - - -PRINTED IN ENGLAND -AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS - - - - -CORRIGENDA - -To Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ - -p. xlv, l. 7: _for_ carat _read_ caret - -p. xlvii: _for_ Jessop _read_ Jessopp - -p. 21, l. 259: _for_ be _read_ he - -p. 28, l. 493: _for_ enn _read_ en - -p. 43, foot-note to l. 69: _omit_ 'for:' - -p. 62, l. 100: _for_ tyste _read_ t<r>yste (_Morris_); _and adjust -note at p. 225_. - -p. 103, l. 254: _for_ largeand _read_ large and - -p. 175, l. 1: _for_ Daib. _read_ Diab. - -p. 214, note to _a_: _for_ 'The best... are' _read_ 'This poem is -largely a translation of sentences excerpted from Rolle's _Incendium -Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. Review_ for 1919, p. -320). Useful commentaries are' - -p. 226, note to l. 153: in l. 8 for _t[o,]_ read _t[=o,]_ - -p. 243, n. to ll. 5-6: _for_ 'external covering' _read_ 'covering over -it' - -p. 291, table, last column, 1 sg.: for '_-e_ or _(e)s_' read '_-(e)_ or -_-(e)s_' - - - - -[Transcriber's Note: A number of editorial corrections are without -Footnotes or Notes. The manuscript readings for these are here supplied -by the transcriber from the editions of Hamelius and England & Pollard: - - IX 166 Sy_t_hye] Sychye _MS._ - IX 270 i_t_] is _MS._ - IX 287 gr_e_uous] grouous _MS._ - XVII 85 displeas_es_] displeasse _MS._ - XVII 472 th_ou_] thi _MS._ - -Unusual characters have been transcribed in the following way: - - [=a] a with macron - [)=a] a with breve and macron - [)a] a with breve - [=æ] æ with macron - [´æ] æ with acute - ['æ] æ stressed - [=e] e with macron - [=e.] e with macron and dot below - [.e] e with dot above - [e,] e with ogonek (e caudata or tailed e) - [é,] e with ogonek and acute - [e(] e with inverted breve below - [)e] e with breve - [)=e] e with breve and macron - [)=e.] e with breve and macron with dot below - [=i] i with macron - [i(] i with inverted breve below - [)i] i with breve - [)=i] i with breve and macron - [=n] n with macron - [=o] o with macron - [=o,] o with macron and ogonek - [=o.] o with macron and dot below - [=o)] o with macron and breve below - [)o] o with breve - [)=o] o with breve and macron - [o,] o with ogonek - [ó,] o with ogonek and acute - [o.] o with dot below - ['oe] oe ligature, stressed - [)u] u with breve - [)=u] u with breve and macron - [=u] u with macron - [=ü] u with macron and diaresis - [)=ü] u with diaresis, with breve and macron - [=y] y with macron - [)=y] y with breve and macron - [gh] letter yogh - [Gh] letter Yogh - [s] long s - ['v] v stressed - [+] dagger symbol - ['-] stressed syllable - -The CORRIGENDA to Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ (see -above) from the end of the accompanying vocabulary volume has been moved -here. All items listed have been corrected, except - - p. 62, l. 100: [...] _and adjust note at p. 225_ - -which remains unadjusted. - -The line numbering has been regularised to multiples of 5. Lines -of prose have their line numbers in {braces} within the text. The -companion volume, _A Middle English Vocabulary, designed for use with -SISAM's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, by J. R. R. Tolkien is -available at PG #43737.] - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - -***** This file should be named 43736-8.txt or 43736-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43736/ - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose - -Author: Various - -Editor: Kenneth Sisam - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43736] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - - +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43736 ***</div> <h1> <span id="id1">Fourteenth Century</span> @@ -15908,385 +15864,7 @@ in some reading devices, line numbers will appear in {braces} within the text.</ </div> - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - -***** This file should be named 43736-h.htm or 43736-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43736/ - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose - -Author: Various - -Editor: Kenneth Sisam - -Release Date: September 15, 2013 [EBook #43736] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - - - - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - -[Transcriber's Note: This text has words or letters enclosed in caret -brackets < > that were added by the author to complete the manuscript; -corrupt readings retained in the text are indicated in the original by -daggers [+][+]. #Bold# text has been marked by #; _underscores_ have -been used to indicate _italic_ fonts; an emphasis by font change of -single letters within an _it~a~lic_ context has been indicated by ~. -For transcription of unusual letters and errata see the Transcriber's -Note at the end. Original spelling variants and punctuation have not -been standardized. The companion volume, _A Middle English Vocabulary, -designed for use with SISAM's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, by J. -R. R. Tolkien is available at PG #43737.] - - -Fourteenth Century - -VERSE & PROSE - -edited by - -KENNETH SISAM - -OXFORD - -AT THE CLARENDON PRESS - -M D CCCC XXI - - Oxford University Press - _London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen - New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town - Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai_ - Humphrey Milford - Publisher to the UNIVERSITY - -PRINTED IN ENGLAND. - - - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE - - - MAP viii - INTRODUCTION ix - - I. ROBERT MANNYNG OF BRUNNE'S HANDLYNG SYNNE 1 - The Dancers of Colbek 4 - II. SIR ORFEO 13 - III. MICHAEL OF NORTHGATE'S AYENBYTE OF INWYT 32 - How Mercy increases Temporal Goods 33 - IV. RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE 36 - A. Love is Life 37 - B. The Nature of the Bee 41 - C. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost 42 - V. SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT 44 - The Testing of Sir Gawayne 46 - VI. THE PEARL, ll. 361-612 57 - VII. THE GEST HYSTORIALE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY 68 - Prologue 69 - The XXXI Book: Of the Passage of the Grekys fro Troy 72 - VIII. PIERS PLOWMAN 76 - A. From the B-Text, Passus VI 78 - B. From the C-Text, Passus VI 89 - IX. MANDEVILLE'S TRAVELS 94 - Ethiopia.--Of Diamonds 96 - Beyond Cathay 100 - Epilogue 104 - X. JOHN BARBOUR'S BRUCE 107 - An Assault on Berwick (1319) 108 - XI. JOHN WICLIF 115 - A. The Translation of the Bible 117 - B. Of Feigned Contemplative Life 119 - XII. JOHN GOWER 129 - A. Ceix and Alceone 131 - B. Adrian and Bardus 137 - XIII. JOHN OF TREVISA'S TRANSLATION OF HIGDEN'S - POLYCHRONICON 145 - A. The Marvels of Britain 146 - B. The Languages of Britain 148 - XIV. POLITICAL PIECES 151 - A. On the Scots, by Minot 152 - B. The Taking of Calais, by Minot 153 - C. On the Death of Edward III 157 - D. John Ball's Letter to the Peasants of Essex 160 - E. On the Year 1390-1 161 - XV. MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN VERSE 162 - A. Now Springs the Spray 163 - B. Spring 164 - C. Alysoun 165 - D. The Irish Dancer 166 - E. The Maid of the Moor 167 - F. The Virgin's Song 167 - G. Judas 168 - H. The Blacksmiths 169 - I. Rats Away 170 - XVI. THE YORK PLAY 'HARROWING OF HELL' 171 - XVII. THE TOWNELEY PLAY OF NOAH 185 - - NOTES 204 - APPENDIX: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 265 - - - - -[Illustration: Names of Middle English texts placed on a map of England -and Wales.] - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -I - -Two periods of our early history promise most for the future of English -literature--the end of the seventh with the eighth century; the end of -the twelfth century with the thirteenth. - -In the first a flourishing vernacular poetry is secondary in importance -to the intellectual accomplishment of men like Bede and Alcuin (to name -only the greatest and the last of a line of scholars and teachers) who, -drawing their inspiration from Ireland and still more from Italy direct, -made all the knowledge of the time their own, and learned to move easily -in the disciplined forms of Latin prose. - -During the second the impulse again came from without. In -twelfth-century France the creative imagination was set free. In -England, which from the beginning of the tenth century had depended more -and more on France for guidance, the nobles, clergy, and entertainers, -in whose hands lay the fortunes of literature, had a community of -interest with their French compeers that has never since been -approached. So England shared early in the break with tradition; and -during the thirteenth century the native stock is almost hidden by the -brilliant growth of a new graft. - -Every activity of the mind was quickened. A luxuriant invention of forms -distinguished the Gothic style in architecture. All the decorative arts -showed a parallel enrichment. Oxford (at least to insular eyes) was -beginning to rival Paris in learning, and to contribute to the -over-production of clerks which at first extended the province of the -Church, and finally, by breaking the bounds set between ecclesiastics -and laymen, played an important part in the secularization of letters. -The friars, whose foundation was the last great reform of the mediaeval -Church, were at the height of their good fame; and one of them, the -Franciscan Roger Bacon, by his work in philosophy, criticism, and -physical science, raised the name of English thinkers to an eminence -unattained since Bede. If among the older monastic orders feverish and -sometimes extravagant reforms are symptoms of decline, the richness of -Latin chronicles like those of Matthew Paris of St. Albans is evidence -that in some of the great abbeys the monks were still learned and -eloquent. Nor was Latin the only medium in which educated Englishmen -were at home. They wrote French familiarly, and to some extent repaid -their debt to France by transcribing and preserving Continental -compositions that would else have perished. - -Apart from all these activities, the manifestations of a new spirit in -English vernacular works are so important, and the break with the past -is so sharp, that the late twelfth century and the thirteenth would be -chosen with more justice than Chaucer's time as the starting-point for a -study of modern literature. - -Then romance was established in English, whether we use the word to -mean the imaginative searching of dark places, or in the more general -sense of story-telling unhampered by a too strict regard for facts. -Nothing is more remarkable in pre-Conquest works than the Anglo-Saxon's -dislike of exaggeration and his devotion to plain matter of fact. Here -is the account of the whales in the far North that King Alfred received -from Ohthere (a Norseman, of course, but it is indifferent):--'they are -eight and forty ells long, and the biggest fifty ells long'. Compare -with this parsimony the full-blooded description of the griffins in -_Mandeville_:--'But o griffoun hath the body more gret, and is more -strong, [th]anne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and -more gret and strongere [th]an an hundred egles suche as we han amonges -vs, &c.', and you have a rough measure of the progress of fiction. - -To take pleasure in stories is not a privilege reserved for favoured -generations: but special conditions had transformed this pleasure into a -passion. When Edward I became King in 1272, Western Europe had enjoyed a -long period of internal peace, during which national hatreds burnt low. -The breaking down of barriers between Bretons and French, Welsh and -English, brought into the main stream of European literature the Celtic -vein of idealism and delicate fancy. At the universities, in the -Crusades, in the pilgrimages to Rome or Compostella, the nations -mingled, each bringing from home some contribution to the common stock -of stories; each gaining new experiences of the outside world, fusing -them, and repeating them with embellishments. To those who stayed at -home came the minstrels in the heyday of their craft--they were freemen -of every Christian land who reported whatever was marvellous or -amusing--and at second hand the colours of the rediscovered world seemed -no less brave. It was an age greedy for entertainment that fed a rich -sense of comedy on the jostling life around it; and to serve its ideals -called up the great men of the past--Orpheus opening the way to -fairyland, the heroes of the Trojan war, Alexander; Arthur and the -Knights of the Round Table and Merlin the enchanter; Charlemagne with -his peers--or won back from the shadows not Eurydice alone, but Helen -and Criseyde, Guinevere and Ysolde, Rymenhild and Blauncheflour. - -While she still claimed to direct public taste, the Church could not be -indifferent to the spread of romance. A policy of uniform repression was -no longer possible. Her real power to suppress books was ineffective to -bind busy tongues and minds; popular movements were assured of a measure -of practical tolerance when order competed with order and church with -church for the goodwill of the people; and even if the problem had been -well defined, a disciplined attitude unvarying throughout all the -divisions of the Church was not to be expected when her mantle covered -clerks ranging in character from the strictest ascetic to that older -Falstaff who passed under the name of Golias and found his own Muse in -the tavern,-- - - _Tales versus facio quale vinum bibo; - Nihil possum scribere nisi sumpto cibo; - Nihil valet penitus quod ieiunus scribo,-- - Nasonem post calices carmine praeibo!_ - -So it came about that while some of the clergy denounced all minstrels -as 'ministers of Satan', others made a truce with the more honest among -them, and helped them to add to their repertories the lives of saints. -Officially 'trifles and trotevales' were still censured: but it seemed -good to mould the _chansons de geste_ to pious uses,[1] and to purify -the court of King Arthur, which popularity had led into dissolute ways, -by introducing the quest of the Graal. And if Rolle preached sound -doctrine when he ranked among the Sins of the Mouth 'to syng seculere -sanges and lufe [th]am', their style and music were not despised as -baits to catch the ears of the frivolous: when a singer began - - Ase y me rod [th]is ender dai - By grene wode to seche play, - Mid herte y [th]ohte al on a may, - Suetest of alle [th]inge,-- - -the lover of secular songs would be tempted to listen; but he would stay -to hear a song of the Joys of the Virgin, to whose cult the period owes -its best devotional poetry. - -[Foot-note 1: For illustrations from Old French, see _Les L'egendes -Epiques_ by Professor Joseph B'edier, 4 vols., Paris 1907-, a book that -maintains the easy pre-eminence of the French school in the appreciation -of mediaeval literature.] - -The power of the Church to mould the early growth of vernacular -literature is so often manifested that there is a risk of -underestimating the compromises and surrenders which are the signs of -its wane. The figures of romance invaded the churches themselves, -creeping into the carvings of the portals, along the choir-stalls, and -into the historiated margins of the service books. Ecclesiastics -collected and multiplied stories to adorn their sermons or illustrate -their manuals of vices and virtues. In the lives of saints marvels -accumulated until the word 'legend' became a synonym for an untrue tale. -Though there are moments in the fourteenth century when the -preponderance of the clerical over the secular element in literature -seems as great as ever, by the end of the Middle Ages the trend of the -conflict is plain. It is the Church that draws back to attend to her own -defences, which the domestic growth of pious fictions has made -everywhere vulnerable. But imaginative literature, growing always -stronger and more confident, wins full secular liberty. - -Emancipation from the bondage of fact, and to some extent from -ecclesiastical censorship, coincided with the acquisition of a new -freedom in the form of English poetry. Old English had a single -metre--the long alliterative line without rime. It was best suited to -narrative; it was unmusical in the sense that it could not be sung; it -had marked proclivities towards rant and noise; and like blank verse it -degenerated easily into mongrel prose. - -Degeneration was far advanced in the eleventh century; and about the end -of the twelfth some large-scale experiments show that writers were no -longer content with the old medium. In _Layamon_, the last great poem in -this metre before the fourteenth century, internal rime and assonance -are common. Orm adopted the unrimed _septenarius_ from Latin, but -counted his syllables so faithfully as to produce an intolerable -monotony. Then French influence turned the scale swiftly and decisively -in favour of rime, so that in the extant poetry of the thirteenth -century alliteration is a secondary principle or a casual ornament, but -never takes the place of rime. - -The sudden and complete eclipse of a measure so firmly rooted in -tradition is surprising enough; but the wealth and elaborateness of the -new forms that replaced it are still more matter for wonder. It is -natural to think of the poets before Chaucer as children learning their -art slowly and painfully, and often stumbling on the way. Yet in this -one point of metrical technique they seem to reach mastery at a bound. - -That the development of verse forms took place outside of English is -part of the explanation. Rimed verse had its origin in Church Latin. In -the monastic schools the theory of classical and post-classical metres -was a principal study; and the practical art of chant was indispensable -for the proper conduct of the services. Under these favourable -conditions technical development was rapid, so that in such an early -example of the rimed stanza as the following, taken from a poem that -Godescalc wrote in exile about the year 845,-- - - _Magis mihi, miserule, - Flere libet, puerule, - Plus plorare quam cantare - Carmen tale iubes quale, - Amor care. - O, cur iubes canere?[2]--_ - -the arrangement of longer and shorter lines, the management of rime or -assonance, and the studied grouping of consonant sounds, give rather the -impression of too much than too little artifice. - -[Foot-note 2: _Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini_, vol. iii (ed. L. Traube), -p. 731.] - -From Church Latin rime passed into French, and with the twelfth century -entered on a new course of development at the hands of the _trouveres_ -and the minstrels. The _trouveres_, or 'makers', studied versification -and music as a profession, and competed in the weaving of ingenious -patterns. Since their living depended on pleasing their audience, those -minstrels who were not themselves composers spared no pains to sing or -recite well the compositions of others; and good execution encouraged -poets to try more difficult forms. - -The varied results obtained in two such excellent schools of experience -were offered to the English poets of the thirteenth century in exchange -for the monotony of the long line; and their choice was unhesitating. In -an age of lyrical poetry they learned to sing where before they could -only declaim: and because the great age of craftsmanship had begun, the -most intricate patterns pleased them best. Chaucer was perhaps not yet -born when the over-elaboration of riming metres in English drew a -protest from Robert Mannyng:[3] and when, after a period of hesitancy, -rimed verse regained its prestige in Chaucer's prime, nameless writers -again chose or invented complex stanza forms and sustained them -throughout long poems. If _The Pearl_ stood alone it might be accounted -a literary _tour de force_: the York and Towneley plays compel the -conclusion that a high standard of metrical workmanship was appreciated -by the common people. - -[Foot-note 3: - - If it were made in _ryme couwee_, - Or in strangere, or _enterlac'e_, - [Th]at rede Inglis it ere inowe - [Th]at couthe not haf coppled a kowe, - [Th]at outhere in _couwee_ or in _baston_ - Som suld haf ben fordon. - - (_Chronicle_, Prologue, ll. 85 ff.)] - -Thus far, by way of generalization and without the _caveats_ proper to a -literary history, I have indicated some aspects of the preceding period -that are important for an understanding of the fourteenth century. But -it would be misleading to pass on without a word of reservation. There -is reason to suppose that the extant texts from the thirteenth century -give a truer reflection of the tastes of the upper classes, who were in -closest contact with the French, than of the tastes of the people. But -however this may be, they do not authorize us to speak for every part of -the country. All the significant texts come from the East or the -South--especially the western districts of the South, where an -exceptional activity is perhaps to be connected with the old preference -of the court for Winchester. In the North and the North-West a silence -of five centuries is hardly broken. - - -II - -Judged by what survives, the literary output of the first half of the -fourteenth century was small in quantity; though it must be remembered -that, unlike the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries which made a fresh -start and depended almost entirely on their own production, the -fourteenth inherited and enjoyed a good stock of verse, to which the new -compositions are a supplement. - -Our first impression of this new material is negative and disappointing. -The production of rimed romances falls off: their plots become -increasingly absurd and mechanical; the action, so swift in the early -forms, moves sluggishly through a maze of decorative descriptions; and -their style at its best has the pretty inanity of _Sir Thopas_. The -succession of merry tales--such as _Dame Siriz_, or _The Fox and the -Wolf_[4] where Reynard, Isengrim, and Chauntecleer make their first bow -in English--is broken until the appearance of the _Canterbury Tales_ -themselves. To find secular lyrics we must turn to the very beginning -or the very end of the century, and Chaucer himself does not recover the -fresh gaiety of the earlier time. - -[Foot-note 4: Both are in Bodleian MS. Digby 86 (about 1280), and are -accessible in G. H. McKnight's _Middle English Humorous Tales_, Boston -1913.] - -The decline of these characteristic thirteenth-century types becomes -less surprising when we notice that literature has changed camps. The -South, more especially the South-West, is now almost silent: the North -and the North-West reach their literary period. Minot and Rolle are -Northerners, Wiclif is a Yorkshireman by birth, the York and Towneley -Miracle cycles are both from the North, and with Barbour the literature -of the Scots dialect begins; Robert Mannyng belongs to the North-East -Midlands; while _Sir Gawayne_, _The Pearl_, and _The Destruction of -Troy_ represent the North-West. This predominance in the present volume -rests on no mere chance of selection, since the Northern (Egerton) -version of _Mandeville_ might have been preferred to the Cotton; and if -the number of extracts were to be increased, the texts that first come -to mind--_Cursor Mundi_ (about 1300),[5] _Prick of Conscience_ (about -1340), _Morte Arthure_ (about 1360), the Chester Plays--are Northern and -North-Western. - -[Foot-note 5: Early English Text Society, ed. R. Morris. Unless other -editions are mentioned, the longer works which are not represented by -specimens may be read among the Early English Texts.] - -It is impossible to give more than a partial explanation of the change -in the area of production. But as the kinds of poetry that declined -early in the fourteenth century are those that owed most to French -influence, it is reasonable to assume that in the South the impulse that -produced them had spent its force. The same pause is observable at the -same time in France, where it coincides with the transition from oral -poetry to more reflective compositions written for the eye of a reader. -It is the pause between the passing of the minstrels and the coming of -men of letters. - -Such changes were felt first in the centres of government, learning, and -commerce, whence ideas and fashions spread very slowly to the country -districts. At this time the North, and above all the North-West, was the -backward quarter of England, thinly populated and in great part -uncultivated. An industrial age had not yet dotted it with inland -cities; and while America was still unknown the western havens were -neglected.[6] In these old-fashioned parts the age of minstrel poetry -was prolonged, and the wave of inspiration from France, though it came -late, stirred the North and North-West after the South had relapsed into -mediocrity or silence. - -[Foot-note 6: See p. 150.] - -So, about the middle of the century, imaginative poetry found a new home -in the West-Midlands. As before, poets turned to French for their -subjects, and often contented themselves with free adaptation of French -romances. They accepted such literary conventions as the Vision, which -was borrowed from the _Roman de la Rose_ to be the frame of _Wynnere and -Wastoure_ (1352)[7] and _The Parlement of the Thre Ages_,[8] before it -was used in _Piers Plowman_ and _The Pearl_ and by Chaucer. But time and -distance had weakened the French influence, and the new school of poets -did not catch, as the Southern poets did, the form and spirit of their -models. - -[Foot-note 7: Ed. Sir Israel Gollancz, Oxford 1920.] - -[Foot-note 8: Ed. Gollancz, Oxford 1915.] - -They preferred the unrimed alliterative verse, which from pre-Conquest -days must have lived on in the remote Western counties without a written -record; and for a generation rime is overshadowed. The suddenness and -importance of this revival in a time otherwise barren of poetry will -appear from a list of the principal alliterative poems that are commonly -assigned to the third quarter of the century:--_Wynnere and Wastoure_, -_The Parlement of the Thre Ages_, _Joseph of Arimathie_ (the first -English Graal romance), _William of Palerne_, _Piers Plowman_ (A-text), -_Patience_, _Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight_, _The Destruction of -Troy_, _Morte Arthure_. - -At the time alliterative verse was fitted to become the medium of -popular literature. Prose would not serve, because its literary life -depends on books and readers. Up to the end of the century (if we -exclude sermons and religious or technical treatises, where practical -considerations reinforced a Latin tradition) the function of prose in -English literature is to translate Latin or French prose;[9] and even -this narrow province is sometimes invaded by verse. Yet it was not easy -to write verse that depended on number of syllables, quantity, or rime. -The fall of inflexions brought confusion on syllabic metres; there were -great changes in the quantity and quality of vowels; and these -disturbances affected the dialects unevenly.[10] It must have been hard -enough for a poet to make rules for himself: but popularity involved the -recital of his work by all kinds of men in all kinds of English, when -the rimes would be broken and the rhythm lost. It is perhaps unfair to -call Michael of Northgate's doggerel (p. 33) to witness the misfortunes -of rimed metres. But the text of _Sir Orfeo_ from the Auchinleck -manuscript shows how often Englishmen who were nearly contemporary with -the composer had lost the tune of his verses. The more fortunate makers -of alliterative poems, whose work depended on the stable yet elastic -frame of stress and initial consonants, possessed a master-key to the -dialects. - -[Foot-note 9: Chaucer's prose rendering of the _Metra_ of Boethius is an -apparent exception, but Jean de Meung's French prose version lay before -him.] - -[Foot-note 10: See the Appendix.] - -Adaptability made easier the diffusion of alliterative verse: but its -revival was not due to a deliberate choice on practical grounds. It was -a phase of a larger movement, which may be described as a weakening of -foreign and learned influences, and a recovery of the native stock. And -the metrical form is only the most obvious of the old-fashioned elements -that reappeared. In spirit, too, the authors of the alliterative school -have many points of kinship with the Old English poets. They are more -moderate than enthusiastic. Left to themselves, their imaginations move -most easily among sombre shapes and in sombre tones. They have not the -intellectual brilliance and the wit of the French poets; and when they -laugh--which is not often--the lightness of the thirteenth century is -rarer than the rough note of the comic scenes in the Towneley plays. It -is hard to say how much the associations and aptitudes of the verse -react on its content: but _Sumer is icumen in_, which is the essence of -thirteenth-century poetry, is barely conceivable in Old English, where -even the cuckoo's note sounded melancholy; and it would come oddly from -the poets of the middle fourteenth century, who have learned from the -French _trouveres_ the convention of spring, with sunshine, flowers, and -singing birds, but seem unable to put away completely the memory of -winter and rough weather. - -In the last quarter of the century the tide of foreign influence runs -strong again; and the work of Gower and Chaucer discloses radical -changes in the conditions of literature which are the more important -because they are permanent. The literary centre swings back to the -capital--London now instead of Winchester--which henceforth provides the -models for authors of any pretensions throughout England and across the -Scottish border. In Chaucer we have for the first time a layman, writing -in English for secular purposes, who from the range and quality of his -work may fairly claim to be ranked among men of letters. The strictly -clerical writers had been content to follow the Scriptures, the Fathers -and commentators, the service books and legendaries; and Chaucer does -not neglect their tradition.[11] The minstrels had exploited a popular -taste for merry tales 'that sownen into synne'; and he borrowed so -gladly from them that many have doubted his repentance.[12] But his -models are men of letters:--the Latin poets headed by Ovid, who was -Gower's favourite too; French writers, from the satirical Jean de Meung -to makers of studied 'balades, roundels, virelayes' like Machaut and -Deschamps; and the greater Italian group--Boccaccio, Petrarch, and -Dante. Keeping such company, he was bound to reject the rusticity of the -alliterative school, and the middle way followed by those who added a -tag of rime at the end of a rimeless series (as in _Sir Gawayne_), or -invented stanzas in which alliteration remains, but is subservient to -rime (as in _The Pearl_ and the York plays). After his day, even for -Northerners who wish to write well, there will be no more '_rum-ram-ruf_ -by lettre'.[13] - -[Foot-note 11: - - And for to speke of other holynesse, - He hath in prose translated Boece, - And of the Wrechede Engendrynge of Mankynde - As man may in pope Innocent ifynde, - And made the Lyfe also of Seynt Cecile; - He made also, gon ys a grete while, - Origenes upon the Maudeleyne. - - (_Legend of Good Women_, Prologue A, ll. 424 ff.)] - -[Foot-note 12: _Parson's Tale_, at the end.] - -[Foot-note 13: _Prologue to Parson's Tale_, l. 43.] - - -III - -In outlining the main movements of the century, I have mentioned -incidentally the fortunes of certain kinds of composition,--the -restriction of the lyrical form to devotional uses; the long dearth in -the records of humorous tales; the decadence of romances in rime, and -the flourishing of alliterative romances. The popular taste for stories -was still unsatisfied, and guided authors, from Robert Mannyng to -Chaucer, in their choice of subjects or method of treatment. -Translators were busier than ever in making Latin and French works -available to a growing public who understood no language but English; -and of necessity the greater number of our specimens are translations, -ranging from the crude literalness of Michael of Northgate to the -artistic adaptation seen in Gower's tales. But the chief new -contribution of the century is the vernacular Miracle Play, with which -the history of the English drama begins. - -Miracle plays grew out of the services for the church festivals of -Easter and Christmas. Towards the end of the tenth century a -representation of the Three Maries at the Sepulchre is provided for in -the English Easter service. Later, the Shepherds seeking the Manger and -the Adoration of the Magi are represented in the services for the -Christmas season. In their early form these dramatic ceremonies consist -of a few sentences of Latin which were sung by the clergy with a minimum -of dignified action. - -From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the primitive form underwent -a parallel development in all parts of Europe. Records of Miracles in -England are at this time scanty and casual:--Matthew Paris notes one at -Dunstable because precious copes were borrowed for it from St. Albans, -and were accidentally burnt; another, given in the churchyard at -Beverley, is mentioned because a boy who had climbed to a post of -vantage in the church, and thence higher to escape the sextons, fell and -yet took no harm. But the scantiness of references before 1200 is in -itself evidence of growth without active enemies, and the few -indications agree with the general trend observable on the Continent. -The range of subjects was extended to include the acts of saints, and -the principal scenes of sacred history from the Fall of Lucifer to the -Last Judgement. Single scenes were elaborated to something like the -scale familiar in Middle English. By the end of the twelfth century -French begins to appear beside or in place of Latin; the French verses -were spoken, not sung; the plays were often acted outside the church; -and it may be assumed that laymen were admitted as performers alongside -the minor clergy, who seem to have been the staunchest supporters of the -plays. - -The Miracle had become popular, and there is soon evidence of its -perversion by the grotesque imaginings of the people. In 1207 masking -and buffoonery in the churches at Christmas came under the ban of Pope -Innocent III, and his prohibition was made permanent in the Decretals. -Henceforth we must look for new developments to the Miracles played -outside the church. To these freedom from the restraints of the sacred -building did not bring a better reputation. Before 1250 the most -influential churchman of the time, Bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln, who -was far from being a kill-joy, urged his clergy to stamp out Miracles; -and later William of Wadington, and Robert Mannyng his translator, while -allowing plays on the Resurrection and the Nativity if decently -presented in the church, condemn the Miracles played in open places, and -blame those of the clergy who encouraged them by lending vestments to -the performers.[14] - -[Foot-note 14: _Handlyng Synne_, ll. 4640 ff.] - -From the first three-quarters of the fourteenth century, which -include the critical period for the English Miracles, hardly a -record survives. The memoranda on which the history of the English -plays is based begin toward the end of the century, and the texts -are drawn from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscripts. Hence -it will be simplest to set out the changes that were complete by -1400 without attempting to establish their true sequence; and to -disregard the existence, side by side with the fully developed -types, of all the gradations between them and the primitive form -that might result from stunted growth or degeneration. - -The early references point to the representation of single plays or -small groups of connected scenes; and such isolated pieces survive as -long as there are Miracles: Hull, for instance, specialized on a play of -Noah's Ship. But now we have to record the appearance of series or -cycles of plays, covering in chronological order the whole span of -sacred history. Complete cycles were framed on the Continent as early as -the end of the thirteenth century. In England they are represented by -the York, Towneley (Wakefield), and Chester plays, and the so-called -_Ludus Coventriae_.[15] There are also records or fragments of cycles -from Beverley, Coventry, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Norwich. The -presentation of the cycle sometimes occupied a day (York), sometimes two -or three successive days (Chester), and sometimes a part was carried -over to the next year's festival (_Ludus Coventriae_). - -[Foot-note 15: These are not the Coventry plays, of which only two -survive, but a cycle of plays torn from their local connexions (ed. J. -O. Halliwell, Shakespeare Society, 1841). The title is due to a -seventeenth-century librarian, who possibly had heard of no Miracle -cycle but the famous one at Coventry.] - -The production of a long series of scenes in the open requires fine -weather, and once the close connexion with the church services had been -broken, there was a tendency to throw forward the presentation into May -or June. The Chester plays were given in Whitsun-week--at least in later -times. But normally the day chosen in fourteenth-century England was the -Feast of Corpus Christi (the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday), which -was made universal throughout the Church in 1311. So the Miracles get -the generic name of 'Corpus Christi Plays'. - -The feature of the Corpus Christi festival was its procession. As a -result either of inclusion in this procession or of imitation, the -cycles came to be played processionally: each play had its stage on -wheels which halted at fixed stations in the streets, and at each -station the play was reenacted. This was the usage at York, Wakefield, -Chester, Coventry, and Beverley. The older practice of presentation on -fixed stages was followed in the _Ludus Coventriae_. - -Our last records from the end of the thirteenth century indicated that -the open-air Miracle had been disowned by the Church from which it -sprang. Yet a century later processional performances appear on a scale -that postulates strong and competent management. In the interim the -control of the great cycles had passed from the clergy to the -municipalities, who laid upon each guild of craftsmen within their -jurisdiction the duty of presenting a play. Ecclesiastics still wrote -Miracles, and occasionally performed them; but when Canterbury, London, -Salisbury, Winchester, Oxford, which have no extant texts and few -records of popular performances, are named against York, Wakefield, -Chester, Coventry, Beverley, it is obvious that official Church -influences were no longer the chief factor in the development of -Miracles. For their growth and survival in England the cycles depended -on the interest of powerful corporations, willing to undertake the -financial responsibility of their production, and able to maintain them -against the attacks of the Lollards, or change of policy in the orthodox -Church, or the fickleness of fashion in entertainment. - -The steps by which the English guilds assumed the guardianship of the -plays cannot now be retraced. We must be content to note that the -undertaking called for just that combination of religious duty, civic -patriotism, and pride of craft that inspired the work of the guilds in -their best days. And the clergy had every reason to welcome the -disciplining by secular authority of a wayward offspring that had grown -beyond their own control. The York texts, which bring us nearest to the -time when the corporations and guilds first took charge of the Miracles, -are very creditable to the taste of the city, and must represent a -reform on the irresponsible productions that scandalized the thirteenth -century. The vein of coarseness in some of the comic scenes of the -Towneley group seems to be due to a later recrudescence of incongruous -elements. - -The last great change to be noted was inevitable when the plays became -popular: they were spoken in English and in rimed verse, with only an -occasional tag or stage direction or hymn in Latin to show their origin. -The variety of the texts, and of the modes and purposes of their -representation, make it impossible to assign a date to the transition -that would be generally applicable; and its course was not always the -same. There is an example of direct translation from Latin in the -Shrewsbury fragments,[16] which contain one actor's cues and parts in -three plays: first the Latin foundation is given in verse or prose, and -then its expansion in English alternate rime. That translations were -sometimes made from the French is proved by the oldest known manuscript -of a Miracle in English--an early fourteenth-century fragment of a -Nativity play, consisting of a speech in French followed by its -rendering in the same stanza form.[17] But there is no reason to doubt -that as English gained ground and secularization became more complete, -original composition appeared side by side with translation.[18] - -[Foot-note 16: Shrewsbury School MS. Mus. iii. 42 (early fifteenth -century), ed. Skeat, _Academy_, January 4 and January 11, 1890. The -fragments are (i) the part of the Third Shepherd in a Nativity play; -(ii) the part of the third Mary in a Resurrection play; (iii) the part -of Cleophas in _Pilgrims to Emmaus_. Manly, who reprints the fragments -in _Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_, vol. i (1900), pp. xxvi -ff., notes that these plays seem to have been church productions rather -than secular.] - -[Foot-note 17: See _The Times Literary Supplement_ of May 26 and June 2, -1921. The fragment comes from Bury St. Edmunds. The dialect is E. -Midland.] - -[Foot-note 18: On the production of Miracle plays see L. Toulmin Smith, -Introduction to _York Plays_, Oxford 1885; and A. F. Leach in _An -English Miscellany presented to Dr. Furnivall_, pp. 205 ff.] - -For one other kind of writing the fourteenth century is notable--its -longer commentaries on contemporary life and the art of living. In the -twelfth century England had an important group of satirical poets who -wrote in Latin; and in the thirteenth there are many French and a few -English satires. Their usual topic was the corruption of the religious -orders, varied by an occasional attack on some detail of private folly, -such as extravagance in dress or the pride of serving-men. These pieces -are mostly in the early French manner, where so much wit tempers the -indignation that one doubts whether the satirist would be really happy -if he succeeded in destroying the butts of his ridicule. - -This is not the spirit of the fourteenth century, when a darker side of -life is turned up and reported by men whose eyes are not quick to catch -brightness. The number of short occasional satires in English increases, -but they are seldom gay. The greater writers--Rolle, Wiclif, Langland, -Gower--were obsessed by the troubles of their time, and are less -satirists than moralists. Certainly the events of the century gave -little cause for optimism. The wane of enthusiasm throughout Europe and -the revival of national jealousies are evident very early in the failure -of all attempts to organize an effective Crusade after 1291, when the -Turks conquered the last Christian outposts in Palestine. There was no -peace, for the harassing wars with Scotland were followed by the long -series of campaigns against France that sapped the strength of both -countries for generations. The social and economic organization was -shaken by the severest famines (1315-21) and the greatest pestilence -(1349) in English history, and both famine and plague came back more -than once before the century was done. The conflict of popes and -anti-popes divided the Western Church, while England faced the domestic -problem of Lollardry. There was civil revolt in 1381; and the century -closed with the deposition of Richard II. A modern historian balances -the account with the growth of parliamentary institutions, the improving -status of the labouring classes, and the progress of trade: but in so -far as these developments were observable at all by contemporary -writers, they were probably interpreted as signs of general decay. - -In such an atmosphere the serene temper with which Robert Mannyng -handles the sins and follies of his generation did not last long. Rolle -tried to associate with men in order to improve their way of life: but -his intensely personal attitude towards every problem, and the low value -he set on the quality of reasonableness, made success impossible; and -after a few querulous outbursts against his surroundings, he found his -genius by withdrawing into pure idealism. - -Wiclif was the one writer who was also a practical reformer. Having made -up his mind that social evils could be remedied only through the Church, -and that the first step was a thorough reform of the government, -doctrine, and ministers of the Church, he acted with characteristic -logic. The vices and follies of the people he regarded as secondary, and -refused to dissipate his controversial energies upon them. His strength -was reserved for a grim, ordered battle against ecclesiastical abuses; -and while he pulled down, he did not neglect to lay foundations that -outlasted his own defeat. - -_Piers Plowman_ gives a full picture of the times and their bewildering -effect on the mind of a sincere and moderate man. Its author belonged to -the loosely organized secular clergy who, by reason of their middle -position, served as a kind of cement in a ramshackle society. He has no -new system and no practical schemes of reform to expound--only -perplexing dreams of a simple Christian who, with Conscience and Reason -as his guides, faces in turn the changing shapes of evil. He attacks -them bravely enough, and still they seem to evade him; because he -shrinks from destroying their roots when he finds them too closely -entwined with things to which his habits or affections cling. In the end -he cannot find a sure temporal foothold: yet he has no vision of a -Utopia to come in which society will be reorganized by men's efforts. -That idea brought no comfort to his generation who, standing on the -threshold of a new order, looked longingly backward. - -Passing over Gower, whose direct studies of contemporary conditions were -written in Latin and French, we come round again to Chaucer. He has not -Rolle's idealism, or Wiclif's fighting spirit, or Langland's -earnestness--in fact, he has no great share of moral enthusiasm. A man -of the world with keen eyes and the breadth of outlook and sympathy that -Gower lacked, he is at home in a topsy-turvy medley of things half-dead -with things half-grown, and the thousand disguises of convention and -propriety through which the new life peeped to mock at its puzzled and -despairing repressors were to him a never-ending entertainment. _Ubique -iam abundat turpitudo terrena_, says Rolle in an alliterative flight, -_vilissima voluptas in viris vacillat;... bellant ut bestiae; breviantur -beati; nullus est nimirum qui nemini non nocet_. That was one side, but -it was not the side that interested Chaucer. He had the spirit of the -thirteenth-century poets grown up, with more experience, more -reflection, and a mellower humour, but not less good temper and capacity -for enjoyment. He no longer laughs on the slightest occasion for sheer -joy of living: but he would look elvishly at Richard Rolle--a hermit who -made it a personal grievance that people left him solitary, a fugitive -from his fellows who unconsciously satisfied a very human and pleasing -love for companionship and admiration by becoming the centre of a -coterie of women recluses. A world that afforded such infinite amusement -to a quiet observer was after all not a bad place to live in. - - -IV - -Chaucer, who suffers when read in extracts, is not represented in this -book, although without him fourteenth-century literature is a body -without a head. But in the choice of literary forms and subjects, I have -aimed at illustrating the variety of interest that is to be found in the -writings of lesser men. - -It may be asked whether the choice of specimens gives a true idea of the -taste and accomplishment of the age. This issue is raised by Professor -Carleton Brown's Afterword in the second volume of his _Register of -Middle English Religious and Didactic Verse_, a book that will be to -generations of investigators a model of unselfish research. There he -emphasizes the popularity of long poems, and especially of long didactic -poems, as evidenced by the relatively great number of manuscript copies -that survive. _The Prick of Conscience_ leads with ninety-nine -manuscripts, against sixty-nine of _The Canterbury Tales_, and -forty-seven of _Piers Plowman_. What is to be said of a book that, -impoverished by the exclusion of Chaucer, passes by also the most -popular poem of his century? - -I would rest an apology on the conditions under which manuscript copies -came into being and survived; and begin with Michael of Northgate as he -brings his _Ayenbyte_ to an end in the October of 1340, before the short -days and the numbing cold should come to make writing a pain. The book -has no elegance that would commend it to special care, for Dan Michael -is a dry practical man, as indifferent to the graces of style as to the -luxury of silky vellum and miniatures stiff with gold and colour. But -from his cell it goes into the library of his monastery--a library well -ordered and well catalogued, and (as if to guarantee security) boasting -the continuous possession of books that Gregory the Great gave to the -first missionaries. We know its place exactly--the fourth shelf of -press XVI. And there it remained safe until the days of intelligent -private collectors, passing finally with the Arundel library to the -British Museum. The course was not often so smooth, for of two dozen -manuscripts left by Michael to St. Augustine's, Dr. James, in the year -1903, could identify only four survivors in as many different libraries. -But the example is enough to illustrate a proposition that will not -easily be refuted:--the chances of an English mediaeval manuscript -surviving greatly depend on its eligibility for a place in the library -of a religious house, since these are the chief sources of the -manuscripts that have come down to us. - -The attitude of the Church towards the vernacular literature of the -later Middle Ages did not differ materially from her attitude towards -the classics in earlier times, though the classics had always the -greater dignity. Literary composition as a pure art was not encouraged. -Entertainment for its own sake was discountenanced. The religious houses -were to be centres of piety and learning; and if English were admitted -at all in the strongholds of Latin and French, a work of unadorned -edification like _The Prick of Conscience_ would make very suitable -reading for those who craved relaxation from severer studies. There -were, of course, individuals among the professed religious who indulged -a taste for more worldly literature; but the surviving catalogues of -libraries that were formed under the eye of authority show a marked -discrimination in favour of didactic works. - -In England the private libraries of fourteenth-century laymen were -relatively insignificant. But Guy, Earl of Warwick, in 1315 left an -exceptionally rich collection to the Abbey of Bordesley, which failed to -conserve the legacy. The list was first printed in Todd's _Illustrations -of Gower and Chaucer_ (1810),[19] and (among devotional works and lives -of saints that merge into religious romances like _Joseph of Arimathea -and the Graal_, _Titus and Vespasian_, and _Constantine_) it includes -most of the famous names of popular history:--Lancelot, Arthur and -Modred; Charlemagne, Doon of Mayence, Aimery of Narbonne, Girard de -Vienne, William of Orange, Thibaut of Arraby, Doon of Nanteuil, Guy of -Nanteuil, William Longesp'ee, Fierebras; with two Alexander romances, a -_Troy Book_, a _Brut_; the love story of _Amadas e Idoine_; the romance -_de Guy e de la Reygne 'tut enterement'_; a book of physic and surgery; -and a miscellany--_un petit rouge livere en lequel sount contenuz mous -diverses choses_. Yet even a patron so well disposed to secular poems -did little to perpetuate the manuscripts of English verse. His education -enabled him to draw from the fountain head, and most of his books were -French. - -[Foot-note 19: p. 161.] - -Neither in the libraries of the monasteries, nor in the libraries of the -great nobles, should we expect to find a true mirror of popular taste. -The majority of the people knew no language but English; and the -relative scarcity of books of every kind, which even among the educated -classes made the hearers far outnumber the readers, was at once a cause -and a symptom of illiteracy: the majority of the people could not read. -This leads to a generalization that is cardinal for every branch of -criticism:--up to Chaucer's day, the greater the popularity of an -English poem, the less important becomes the manuscript as a means of -early transmission. The text, which would have been comparatively safe -in the keeping of scribe, book, and reader, passes to the uncertain -guardianship of memorizer, reciter, and listener; so that sometimes it -is wholly lost, and sometimes it suffers as much change in a generation -as would a classical text in a thousand years. Already Robert Mannyng -laments the mutilation of _Sir Tristrem_ by the 'sayers' (who could -hardly be expected to avoid faults of improvisation and omission in the -recitation of so long a poem from memory);[20] and his regret would -have been keener if he could have looked ahead another hundred years to -see how the texts of the verse romances paid the price of popularity by -the loss of crisp phrases and fresh images, and the intrusion of every -mode of triteness. - -[Foot-note 20: - - I see in song, in sedgeyng tale - Of Erceldoun and of Kendale, - Non [th]am says as [th]ai [th]am wroght, - And in [th]er sayng it semes noght. - [Th]at may [th]ou here in _Sir Tristrem_-- - Ouer gestes it has [th]e steem, - Ouer alle [th]at is or was, - If men it sayd as made Thomas: - But I here it no man so say, - [Th]at of som copple som is away. - - (_Chronicle_, Prologue, ll. 93 ff.) - -Robert blames the vanity of the reciters more than their memories, on -the excellence of which Petrarch remarks in his account of the -minstrels: _Sunt homines non magni ingenii, magnae vero memoriae, -magnaeque diligentiae_ (to Boccaccio, _Rerum Senilium_, Bk. v, ep. ii).] - -Of course manuscripts of the longer secular poems were made and -used,--mean, stunted copies from which the travelling entertainer could -refresh his memory or add to his stock of tales; fair closet copies that -would enable well-to-do admirers to renew their pleasure when no skilled -minstrel was by; and, occasionally, compact libraries of romance, like -the Auchinleck manuscript, which must have been the treasure of some -great household that enjoyed 'romanz-reding _on [th]e bok_'--the pastime -that encouraged the rise of prose romances in the late Middle Ages. But -as a means of circulation for popular verse, as distinct from learned -verse and from prose, the book was of secondary importance in its own -time, and was always subject to exceptional risks. The fates of three -stories in different kinds, all demonstrably favourites in the -fourteenth century, will be sufficient illustration: of _Floris and -Blauncheflour_, one of the best of the early romances in the courtly -style, several manuscripts survive, but when all are assembled the -beginning of the story is still wanting; of _Havelok_, typical of the -homely style, one imperfect copy and a few charred fragments of another -are extant; of the _Tale of Wade_, that was dear to 'olde wydwes',[21] -and yet considered worthy to entertain the noble Criseyde,[22] no text -has come down. Evidently, to determine the relative popularity of the -longer tales in verse we need not so much a catalogue of extant -manuscripts, as a census, that cannot now be taken, of the repertories -of the entertainers. - -[Foot-note 21: Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, ll. 211 ff.] - -[Foot-note 22: Chaucer, _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. iii, l. 614.] - -If the manuscript life of the longer secular poems was precarious, the -chances of the short pieces--songs, ballads, jests, comic dialogues, -lampoons--were still worse. Since they were composed for the day -without thought of the future, and were no great charge on the ordinary -memory, the chief motives for writing them down were absent; and no -doubt the professional minstrel found that to secure his proprietary -rights against competitors, he must be chary of giving copies of his -best things. Many would never be put into writing; some were jotted -down on perishable wax; but parchment, always too expensive for -ephemeral verse, was reserved for special occasions. In France, in the -thirteenth century, Henri d'Andeli adds a touch of dignity to his poem -celebrating the memory of a distinguished patron by inscribing it on -parchment instead of the wax tablets he used for lighter verses.[23] In -England in 1305, a West-Country swashbuckler, whom fear of the statute -against _Trailebastouns_ kept in the greenwood, relieves his offended -dignity by composing a poem half apologetic, half minatory, and chooses -as the safest way of publication to write it on parchment and throw it -in the high road:-- - - _Cest rym fust fet al bois desouz vn lorer, - La chaunte merle, russinole, e crye l'esperuer. - Escrit estoit en parchemyn pur mout remenbrer, - Et gitt'e en haut chemyn, qe vm le dust trouer.[24]_ - -These loose sheets or tiny rolls[25] rarely survive, and the -preservation of their contents, as of pieces launched still more -carelessly on the world, depends on the happy chance of inclusion in a -miscellany; quotation in a larger work; or entry on a fly-leaf, margin, -or similar space left blank in a book already written. - -[Foot-note 23: - - _Et icil clers qui ce trova ... - Por ce qu'il est de verit'e, - Ne l'apele mie flablel, - Ne l'a pas escrit en tablel, - Ainz l'a escrit en parchamin: - Par bois, per plains et par chamins, - Par bors, par chateals, par citez - Vorra qu'il soit bien recitez._ - - (_OEuvres_, ed. A. H'eron, Paris 1881, p. 40.)] - -[Foot-note 24: 'This rime was made in the wood beneath a bay-tree, where -blackbird and nightingale sing and the sparrow-hawk cries. It was -written on parchment for a record, and flung in the high road so that -folk should find it.' _The Political Songs of England_, ed. T. Wright -(London 1839), p. 236.] - -[Foot-note 25: A rare example of a roll made small for convenience of -carrying is the British Museum Additional MS. 23986. It is about three -inches wide and, in its imperfect state, twenty-two inches long, so that -when rolled up it is not much bigger than one's finger. On the inside it -contains a thirteenth-century _Song of the Barons_ in French (T. Wright, -_Political Songs_, 1839, pp. 59 ff.); on the outside, two scenes from a -Middle English farce called _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_ -(Chambers, _Mediaeval Stage_, vol. ii, pp. 324 ff.) which, like so many -happy experiments of the earlier time, appears to have no successor in -the fourteenth century.] - -Most productive, though not very common in the fourteenth century, are -the miscellanies of short pieces--volumes like Earl Guy's 'little red -book containing many divers things'--in which early collectors noted -down the scraps that interested them. A codex of West-Country origin, -MS. Harley 2253 in the British Museum, preserves among French poems such -as the complaint of the _Trailebastoun_, a group of English songs that -includes _Lenten is Come_ and _Alysoun_. Most of its numbers are unique, -and the loss of this one volume would have swept away the best part of -our knowledge of the early Middle English secular lyrics. - -Of survival by quotation there is an example in the history of the -Letter of Theodric, which lies behind Mannyng's tale of the Dancers of -Colbek; and the circumstances are worth lingering over both for the -number of by-paths they open to speculation, and for the glimpse they -give of Wilton in a century from which there are few records of the -nunnery outside the grim, tax-gatherer's entries of Domesday. - -In the year before the Conquest, Theodric the foreigner, still racked by -the curse that was laid on Bovo's company, made his way from the court -of Edward the Confessor to the shrine of St. Edith. As he walked through -the quiet valley to Wilton in the spring of the year, we may be sure the -thought came to him that here at last was the spot where a man wearied -with wandering from land to land, from shrine to shrine, might hope to -be cured and to set up his rest. From the moment he reaches the abbey it -is impossible not to admire his feeling for dramatic effect. By a -paroxysm of quaking he terrifies the peasants; but to the weeping nuns -he tells his story discreetly; and, lest a doubt should remain, produces -from his scrip a letter in which St. Bruno, the great Pope Leo IX, -vouches for all. It is notable that at this stage the convent appear to -have taken no steps to record a story so marvellous and so well -authenticated; and had Theodric continued his restless wandering we -should know of him as little as is known of three others from the band -of carollers, who had preceded him at Wilton with a similar story. But -when he obtains leave to sleep beside the shrine of St. Edith, and in -the morning of the great feast of Lady Day wakes up healed, exalting the -fame of their patron saint who had lifted the curse where all the saints -of Europe had failed, then, and then only, the convent order that an -official record should be made, and the letter copied: _Hec in presencia -Brichtive ipsius loci abbatisse declarata et patriis litteris[26] sunt -mandata_. Henceforth it exists only as a chapter in the Acts of St. -Edith, and as such it lay before Robert of Brunne. Of the other -communities or private persons visited by Theodric (who, whether saint -or _faitour_, certainly did not produce his letter for the first and -last time at Wilton) none have preserved his memory. It would be hard to -find a better example of the power of the clergy in early times to -control the keys to posterity, or of the practical considerations which, -quite apart from merit or curiosity, governed the preservation of -legends. - -[Foot-note 26: _Patriis litteris_ according to Schroeder and Gaston -Paris means 'English language', but if it is not a mere flourish, -it means rather the 'English script' in which the Latin letter was -copied, as distinct from the foreign hand of Theodric's original -letter. What 'English script' meant at Wilton in 1065 is a question -of some delicacy. The spelling _Folcpoldus_ for _Folcwoldus_ in some -later copies of the Wilton text must be due to confusion of _p_ and -Anglo-Saxon [wynn] = _w_. This would be decisive for 'Anglo-Saxon -script' if it occurred anywhere but in a proper name.] - -But it is the verses casually jotted down in unrelated books that bring -home most vividly the slenderness of the thread of transmission. A -student has committed _Now Springs the Spray_ to solitary imprisonment -between the joyless leaves of an old law book. The song of the Irish -Dancer and _The Maid of the Moor_ were scribbled, with some others from -a minstrel's stock, on the fly-leaf of a manuscript now in the Bodleian. -On a blank page of another a prudent man (who used vile ink, long since -faded) has written the verses that banish rats, much as a modern -householder might treasure up some annihilating prescription. To these -waifs the chance of survival did not come twice, and to a number -incalculable it never came. - -It has been the purpose of this digression to bring the extant -literature into perspective: not to raise useless regrets for what is -lost, since we can learn only from what remains; nor to contest the -value of statistics of surviving copies as a proof of circulation, -provided the works compared are similar in length and kind, and are -represented in enough manuscripts to make figures significant; nor yet -to deny that didactic verse bulks large in the output of the fourteenth -century: it could not be otherwise in an anxious age, when the scarcity -of remains gives everything written in English a place in literary -history, and when for almost everything verse was preferred to prose. It -seemed better to redress the balance of chance by stealing from the end -of the thirteenth century a few fragments that following generations -would not forget, than to lend colour to the suggestion that ninety-nine -of the men of Chaucer's century enjoyed _The Prick of Conscience_ for -every one that caught up the refrain of _Now Springs the Spray_, or -danced through _The Maid of the Moor_, or sang the praises of Alison. - - -V - -However much a maker of excerpts may stretch his commission to give -variety, it is in vain if the reader will not do his part; for it lies -with him to find interest. Really no effective attack can be made on a -crust of such diversified hardness until the reader looks at his text as -a means of winning back something of the life of the past, and feels a -pleasure in the battle against vagueness. - -The first step is to find out the verbal meaning. Strange words, that -force themselves on the attention and are easily found in dictionaries -and glossaries, try a careful reader less than groups of common -words--such lines as - - _[Th]e fairest leuedi, for [th]e nones, - [Th]at mi[gh]t gon on bodi and bones_ II 53-4 - -which, if literally transposed into modern English, are nonsense. Those -who think it is beneath the dignity of an intelligent reader to weigh -such gossamer should turn to Zupitza's commentary on the Fifteenth -Century Version of _Guy of Warwick_,[27] and see how a master among -editors of Middle English relishes every phrase, missing nothing, and -yet avoiding the opposite fault of pressing anything too hard. For these -tags, more or less emptied of meaning through common use, and ridiculous -by modern standards, have their importance in the economy of spoken -verse, where a good voice carried them off. They helped out the composer -in need of a rime; the reciter on his feet, compelled to improvise; and -the audience who, lacking the reader's privilege to linger over -close-packed lines, welcomed familiar turns that by diluting the sense -made it easier to receive. - -[Foot-note 27: Early English Text Society, extra series, 1875-6.] - -Repeated reading will bring out clearly the formal elements of -style--the management of rime and alliteration in verse, the grouping -and linking of clauses in prose, the cadences in both verse and prose: -and before the value of a word or phrase can be settled it is often -necessary to inquire how far its use was dictated by technical -conditions, compliance with which is sometimes ingenuous to the point of -crudity. Where a prose writer would be content with _Mathew sayth_, an -alliterative poet elaborates (VIII _a_ 234) into: - - _Mathew with mannes face mouthed [th]ise wordis_ - -and in such a context _mouthed_ cannot be pressed. The frequent oaths in -the speeches in _Piers Plowman_ are no more than counters in the -alliteration: being meaningless they are selected to prop up the verse, -just as the barrenest phrases in the poem _On the Death of Edward III_ -owe their inclusion to the requirements of rime. Again, it will be -easier to acquiesce in a forced sense of _bende_ in - - _On bent much baret bende_ V 47 - -when it is observed that rime and alliteration so limit the poet's -choice that no apter word could be used. Conversely, in the absence of -disturbing technical conditions, a reader who finds nonsense should -suspect his understanding of the text, or the soundness of the text, -before blaming the author. - -When the sense expressed and the methods of expression have been -studied, it remains to examine the implications of the words--an endless -task and perhaps the most entertaining of all. Take as a routine example -the place where the Green Knight, preparing a third time to deliver his -blow, says to Gawayne-- - - _Halde [th]e now [th]e hy[gh]e hode [th]at Ar[th]ur [th]e - ra[gh]t, - And kepe [th]y kanel at [th]is kest, [gh]if hit keuer - may_ V 229 f. - -A recent translator renders very freely: - - 'but yet thy hood up-pick, - Haply 'twill cover thy neck when I the buffet strike'-- - -though the etiquette of decapitation, and the delicacy of the stroke -that the Green Knight has in mind, require just the opposite -interpretation:--Gawayne's hood has become disarranged since he bared -his neck (V 188), and the Green Knight wants a clear view to make sure -of his aim. An observation of Gaston Paris on the Latin story of the -Dancers of Colbek will show how much an alert mind enriches the reading -of a text with precise detail. From the incident of Ave's arm he -concludes that the dancers did not form a closed ring, but a line with -Bovo leading (I 55) and Ave, as the last comer (I 43-54), at its end, so -that she had one arm free which her brother seized in his attempt to -drag her away (I 111 ff.). - -Intensive reading should be combined with discursive. Intensive reading -cultivates the habit of noticing detail; and it is a sound rule of -textual criticism to interpret a composition first in the light of the -evidence contained within itself. For instance, the slight flicker in -the verse - - _Sche most wi[th] him no lenger abide_ II 330 - -should recall as surely as a cross-reference the earlier line - - _No durst wi[th] hir no leng abide_ II 84 - -and raise the question whether in both places in the original work the -comparative had not the older form _leng_. Discursive reading is a -safeguard against the dangers of a narrow experience, and especially -against the assumption that details of phrase, style, or thought are -peculiar to an author or composition, when in fact they are common to a -period or a kind. A course of both will enable the reader to cope with a -school of critics who rely on superficial resemblances to strip the mask -from anonymous authors and attach their works to some favoured name. -Whether _Sir Gawayne_ and _The Destruction of Troy_ are from the same -hand is still seriously debated. Both are alliterative poems; but it is -impossible to read ten lines from each aloud without realizing the wide -gap that divides their rhythms. The differences of spirit are more -radical still. The facility of the author of _The Destruction_ is -attained at the cost of surrender to the metre. Given pens, ink, vellum, -and a good original, he could go on turning out respectable verses while -human strength endured. And because his meaning is all on the surface, -the work does not improve on better acquaintance. The author of _Sir -Gawayne_ is an artist who never ceases to struggle with a harsh medium. -He has the rare gift of visualizing every scene in his story: image -succeeds image, each so sharply drawn as to suggest that he had his -training in one of the schools of miniature-painting for which early -England was famous. It is this gift of the painter that, more than -likeness of dialect or juxtaposition in the manuscript, links _Sir -Gawayne_ with _The Pearl_. - -It cannot be too strongly urged that the purpose of a worker in Middle -English should be nothing less than to read sensitively, with the -fullest possible understanding. Of such a purpose many _curricula_ give -no hint. Nor could it be deduced readily from the latest activities of -research, where the tendency is more and more to leave the main road -(which should be crowded if the study is to thrive) for side-tracks and -by-paths of side-tracks in which the sense of direction and proportion -is easily lost. - -That much may be accomplished by specialists following a single line of -approach has been demonstrated by the philologists, who have burrowed -tirelessly to present new materials to a world which seldom rewards -their happiest elucidations with so much as a 'Well said, old mole!' The -student of literature (in the narrower modern sense of the word) brings -a new range of interests. He will be disappointed if he expects to find -a finished art, poised and sustained, in an age singularly afflicted -with growing pains; but there are compensations for any one who is -content to catch glimpses of promise, and--looking back and forward, and -aside to France--to take pleasure in tracing the rise and development of -literary forms and subjects. It is still not enough. The specialist in -language as a science, or in literature as an art, may find the Sixth -Passus of _Piers Plowman_ (VIII _a_) or the Wiclifite sermon (XI _b_) of -secondary interest. Yet both are primary documents, the one for the -history of society, the other for the history of religion. - -There is no escape from a counsel of perfection:--whoever enters on a -course of mediaeval studies must reckon as a defect his lack of interest -in any side of the life of the Middle Ages; and must be deaf to those -who, like the fox in Aesop that had lost its tail, proclaim the benefits -of truncation. The range of knowledge and experience was then more than -in later times within the compass of a single mind and life. And so much -that is necessary to a full understanding has been lost that no possible -source of information should be shut out willingly. It is an exercise in -humility to call up in all its details some scene of early English life -(better a domestic scene than one of pageantry) and note how much is -blurred. - -Every blur is a challenge. There are few familiar subjects in which a -beginner can sooner reach the limits of recorded knowledge. The great -scholars have found time to chart only a fraction of their discoveries; -and the greatest could not hope or wish for a day when the number of -quests worth the making would be appreciably less. - - * * * * * - -This book had its origin in a very different project. Professor Napier -had asked me to join him in producing for the use of language students a -volume of specimens from the Middle English dialects, with an apparatus -strictly linguistic. The work had not advanced beyond the choice of -texts when his death and my transfer to duties in which learning had no -part brought it to an end. When later the call came for a book that -would introduce newcomers to the fourteenth century, I was able to bring -into the changed plan his favourite passage from _Sir Gawayne_, and to -draw upon the notes of his lectures for its interpretation. It is a -small part of my debt to the generous and modest scholar whose mastery -of exact methods was an inspiration to his pupils. - - * * * * * - -I am obliged to the Early English Text Society and to the Clarendon -Press for permission to use extracts from certain of their publications; -to the librarians who have made their manuscripts available, or have -helped me to obtain facsimiles; to Mr. J. R. R. Tolkien who has -undertaken the preparation of the Glossary, the most exacting part of -the apparatus; and to Mr. Nichol Smith who has watched over the book -from its beginnings. - - - - -THE TEXTS - - -A single manuscript is chosen as the basis of each text, and -neither its readings nor its spellings are altered if they can -reasonably be defended. Where correction involves substitution, -the substituted letters are printed in italics, and the actual -reading of the manuscript will be found in the Foot-notes (or -occasionally in the Notes). Words or letters added to complete the -manuscript are enclosed in caret brackets < >. Corrupt readings -retained in the text are indicated by daggers [+][+]. -Paragraphing, punctuation, capitals, and the details of word -division are modern, and contractions are expanded without notice, -so that the reader shall not be distracted by difficulties that -are purely palaeographical. A final _e_ derived from OFr. _'e(e)_ -or _ie_, OE. _-ig_, is printed _'e_, to distinguish it from -unaccented final _e_ which is regularly lost in Modern English. - -The extracts have been collated with the manuscripts, or with complete -photographs, except Nos. IV (Thornton MS.), VII, VIII _b_, XI _a_, XVII, -the manuscripts of which I have not been able to consult. The foot-notes -as a rule take no account of conjectural emendations, variants from -other manuscripts, or minutiae like erasures and corrections -contemporary with the copy. - - - - -SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY[28] - -[Foot-note 28: Books primarily of reference are distinguished by an -asterisk. Details relating to texts, manuscript sources, editions, -monographs, and articles that have appeared in periodicals, will be -found in the bibliographical manuals cited.] - - -DICTIONARIES. - - *_A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles_, ed. Sir J. - A. H. Murray, H. Bradley, W. A. Craigie, C. T. Onions, Oxford - 1888--[quoted as _N.E.D._]. - - *Stratmann, F. A. _A Middle English Dictionary_, new edn. by H. - Bradley, Oxford 1891. - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. - - *Brown, Carleton. _A Register of Middle English Religious and - Didactic Verse_ (Part I, List of MSS.; Part II, Indices), Oxford - 1916-20 (Bibliographical Society). - - *Hammond, Miss E. P. _Chaucer: A Bibliographical Manual_, New York - 1908. - - *Wells, J. E. _A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, - 1050-1500_, New Haven, &c., 1916; Supplement, 1919. - - -LITERATURE AND LEARNING. - - Chambers, E. K. _The Mediaeval Stage_, 2 vols., Oxford 1903. - - Clark, J. W. _The Care of Books_, Cambridge (new edn.) 1909. - - Ker, W. P. _English Literature, Mediaeval_, London 1912. [A good - brief orientation.] - - Legouis, E. _Chaucer_ (transl. L. Lailavoix), London 1913. - - Rashdall, H. _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, 2 - vols., Oxford 1895. - - -CHURCH HISTORY. - - Capes, W. W. _The English Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth - Centuries_, London 1909. - - *Dugdale, Sir William. _Monasticon Anglicanum_, new edn. by Caley, - Ellis and Bandinel, 6 vols., London 1846. [Gives detailed - histories of the English religious houses.] - - Gasquet, Cardinal F. A. _English Monastic Life_, London, 4th edn. - 1910. - - -GENERAL HISTORY. - - Ashley, W. J. _An Introduction to English Economic History and - Theory_, 2 vols., London 1888-93. - - Bateson, Mary. _Mediaeval England (1066-1350)_, London 1903. [A - brief and exact social history.] - - Cutts, E. L. _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, London - 1872; 3rd edn. 1911. [Useful for its illustrations from MSS.] - - Gasquet, Cardinal F. A. _The Black Death of 1348 and 1349_, - London, 2nd edn. 1908. - - Jessopp, A. _The Coming of the Friars and other Historical - Essays_, London, 4th edn. 1890. - - Jusserand, J. J. _English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages_ - (transl. L. Toulmin Smith), London 1889, &c.; revised 1921. - [Invaluable.] - - Lechler, G. V. _John Wiclif and his English Precursors_ (transl. - P. Lorimer), 2 vols., London 1878. - - Oman, Sir Charles Wm. C. _The Great Revolt of 1381_, Oxford 1906. - - Reville, A., et Petit-Dutaillis, Ch. _Le Soulevement des - Travailleurs d'Angleterre en 1381_, Paris 1898. - - Riley, H. T. _Memorials of London and London Life (1270-1419)_, - London 1868. - - *Rogers, J. E. T. _A History of Agriculture and Prices in England - (1259-1793)_. 7 vols., Oxford 1866-1902. [Rich in facts.] - - Smith, S. Armitage. _John of Gaunt_, London 1904. - - *Stubbs, Wm. _The Constitutional History of England_, 3 vols., - Oxford (1st edn. 1874-78), 1903-6. - - Tout, T. F. _The History of England from the Accession of Henry - III to the Death of Edward III (1216-1377)_, London 1905; new edn. - 1920. - - Trevelyan, G. M. _England in the Age of Wycliffe_, London 1899; - new edn., 1909. [A brilliant study.] - - -WORKS RELATING CHIEFLY TO FRANCE. - - Enlart, C. _Le Costume_ (vol. iii of his _Manuel d'Arch'eologie - Francaise_), Paris 1916. - - Faral, E. _Les Jongleurs en France au Moyen Age_, Paris 1910. - - Paris, G. _La Litt'erature Francaise au Moyen Age_, Paris, 5th edn. - 1909. [A model handbook.] - - - - -I - -ROBERT MANNYNG OF BRUNNE'S -HANDLYNG SYNNE - -A.D. 1303 - - -What is known of Robert Mannyng of Brunne is derived from his own works. -In the Prologue to _Handlyng Synne_ he writes: - - To alle Crystyn men vndir sunne, - And to gode men of Brunne, - And speciali, alle be name, - [Th]e felaushepe of Symprynghame, - Roberd of Brunne grete[th] [gh]ow - In al godenesse [th]at may to prow; - Of Brunne wake yn Kesteuene, - Syxe myle besyde Sympryngham euene, - Y dwelled yn [th]e pryorye - Fyftene [gh]ere yn cumpanye.... - -And in the Introduction to his _Chronicle_: - - Of Brunne I am; if any me blame, - Robert Mannyng is my name; - Blissed be he of God of heuene - [Th]at me Robert with gude wille neuene! - In [th]e third Edwardes tyme was I, - When I wrote alle [th]is story, - In [th]e hous of Sixille I was a throwe; - Dan[gh] Robert of Malton, [th]at [gh]e know, - Did it wryte for felawes sake - When [th]ai wild solace make. - -From these passages it appears that he was born in Brunne, the modern -Bourn, in Lincolnshire; and that he belonged to the Gilbertine Order. -Sempringham was the head-quarters of the Order, and the dependent priory -of Sixhill was near by. It has been suggested, without much evidence, -that he was a lay brother, and not a full canon. - -His _Chronicle of England_ was completed in 1338. It falls into two -parts, distinguished by a change of metre and source. The first, edited -by Furnivall in the Rolls Series (2 vols. 1887), extends from the Flood -to A.D. 689, and is based on Wace's _Brut_, the French source of -Layamon's _Brut_. The second part, edited by Hearne, 2 vols., Oxford -1725, extends from A.D. 689 to the death of Edward I, and is based on -the French _Chronicle_ of a contemporary, who is sometimes called Pierre -de Langtoft, sometimes Piers of Bridlington, because he was a native of -Langtoft in Yorkshire, and a canon of the Austin priory at Bridlington -in the same county. Mannyng's _Chronicle_ has no great historical value, -and its chief literary interest lies in the references to current -traditions and popular stories. - -_Handlyng Synne_ is a much more valuable work. It was begun in 1303: - - Dane Felyp was mayster [th]at tyme - [Th]at y began [th]ys Englyssh ryme; - [Th]e [gh]eres of grace fyl [th]an to be - A [th]ousynd and [th]re hundred and [th]re. - In [th]at tyme turnede y [th]ys - On Englyssh tunge out of Frankys - Of a boke as y fonde ynne, - Men clepyn [th]e boke 'Handlyng Synne'. - -The source was again a French work written by a contemporary -Northerner--William of Wadington's _Manuel de Pechiez_. The popularity -of such treatises on the Sins may be judged from the number of works -modelled upon them: e.g. the _Ayenbyte of Inwyt_, Gower's _Confessio -Amantis_, and Chaucer's _Parson's Tale_. Their purpose was, as Robert -explains, to enable a reader to examine his conscience systematically -and constantly, and so to guard himself against vice. - -Two complete MSS. of _Handlyng Synne_ are known: British Museum MS. -Harley 1701 (about 1350-75), and MS. Bodley 415, of a slightly later -date. An important fragment is in the library of Dulwich College. The -whole text, with the French source, has been edited by Furnivall for the -Roxburghe Club, and later for the Early English Text Society. It treats, -with the usual wealth of classification, of the Commandments, the Sins, -the Sacraments, the Requisites and Graces of Shrift. But such a bald -summary gives no idea of the richness and variety of its content. For -Mannyng, anticipating Gower, saw the opportunities that the illustrative -stories offered to his special gifts, and spared no pains in their -telling. A few examples are added from his own knowledge. More often he -expands Wadington's outlines, as in the tale of the Dancers of Colbek. -Here the French source is brief and colourless. But the English -translator had found a fuller Latin version--clearly the same as that -printed from Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C 938 in the preface to Furnivall's -Roxburghe Club edition--and from it he produced the well-rounded and -lively rendering given below. - -Robert knew that a work designed to turn 'lewde men' from the ale-house -to the contemplation of their sins must grip their attention; and in the -art of linking good teaching with entertainment he is a master. He has -the gift of conveying to his audience his own enjoyment of a good story. -His loose-knit conversational style would stand the test of reading -aloud to simple folk, and he allows no literary affectations, no forced -metres or verbiage, to darken his meaning: - - Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd - In symple speche as I couthe, - [Th]at is lightest in mannes mouthe. - I mad noght for no disours, - Ne for no seggers, no harpours, - But for [th]e luf of symple men - [Th]at strange Inglis can not ken; - For many it ere [th]at strange Inglis - In ryme wate neuer what it is, - And bot [th]ai wist what it mente, - Ellis me thoght it were alle schente. - - (_Chronicle_, ll. 72 ff.) - -The simple form reflects the writer's frankness and directness. He -points a moral fearlessly, but without harshness or self-righteousness. -And the range of his sympathies and interests makes _Handlyng Synne_ the -best picture of English life before Langland and Chaucer. - - -THE DANCERS OF COLBEK - -MS. Harley 1701 (about A.D. 1375); ed. Furnivall, ll. 8987 ff. - - Karolles, wrastlynges, or somour games, 1 - Whoso euer haunte[th] any swyche shames - Yn cherche, o[th]er yn cherche[gh]erd, - Of sacrylage he may be aferd; - Or entyrludes, or syngynge, 5 - Or tabure bete, or o[th]er pypynge-- - Alle swyche [th]yng forbodyn es - Whyle [th]e prest stonde[th] at messe. - Alle swyche to euery gode preste ys lothe, - And sunner wyl he make hym wroth 10 - [Th]an he wyl, [th]at ha[th] no wyt, - Ne vndyrstonde[th] nat Holy Wryt. - And specyaly at hygh tymes - Karolles to synge and rede rymys - Noght yn none holy stedes, 15 - [Th]at my[gh]t dysturble [th]e prestes bedes, - Or [gh]yf he were yn orysun - Or any ou[th]er deuocyun: - Sacrylage ys alle hyt tolde, - [Th]ys and many o[th]er folde. 20 - But for to leue yn cherche for to daunce, - Y shal [gh]ow telle a ful grete chaunce, - And y trow [th]e most [th]at fel - Ys so[th]e as y [gh]ow telle; - And fyl [th]ys chaunce yn [th]ys londe, 25 - Yn Ingland, as y vndyrstonde, - Yn a kynges tyme [th]at hyght Edward - Fyl [th]ys chau<n>ce [th]at was so hard. - Hyt was vppon a Crystemesse ny[gh]t - [Th]at twelue folys a karolle dy[gh]t, 30 - Yn wodehed, as hyt were yn cuntek, - [Th]ey come to a tounne men calle Colbek. - [Th]e cherche of [th]e tounne [th]at [th]ey to come - Ys of Seynt Magne, [th]at suffred martyrdome; - Of Seynt Bukcestre hyt ys also, 35 - Seynt Magnes suster, [th]at [th]ey come to. - Here names of alle [th]us fonde y wryte, - And as y wote now shul [gh]e wyte: - Here lodesman, [th]at made hem glew, - [Th]us ys wryte, he hy[gh]te Gerlew. 40 - Twey maydens were yn here coueyne, - Mayden Merswynde and Wybessyne. - Alle [th]ese come [th]edyr for [th]at enchesone - Of [th]e prestes doghtyr of [th]e tounne. - [Th]e prest hy[gh]t Robert, as y kan ame; 45 - A[gh]one hyght hys sone by name; - Hys doghter, [th]at [th]ese men wulde haue, - [Th]us ys wryte, [th]at she hy[gh]t Aue. - Echoune consented to o wyl - Who shuld go Aue oute to tyl, 50 - [Th]ey graunted echone out to sende - Bo[th]e Wybessyne and Merswynde. - [Th]ese wommen [gh]ede and tolled here oute - Wy[th] hem to karolle [th]e cherche aboute. - Beu<u>ne ordeyned here karollyng; 55 - Gerlew endyted what [th]ey shuld syng. - [Th]ys ys [th]e karolle [th]at [th]ey sunge, - As telle[th] [th]e Latyn tunge: - '_Equitabat Beuo per siluam frondosam, - Ducebat secum Merswyndam formosam. 60 - Quid stamus? cur non imus?_' - 'By [th]e leued wode rode Beuolyne, - Wy[th] hym he ledde feyre Merswyne. - Why stonde we? why go we noght?' - [Th]ys ys [th]e karolle [th]at Grysly wroght; 65 - [Th]ys songe sunge [th]ey yn [th]e - cherche[gh]erd-- - Of foly were [th]ey no [th]yng aferd-- - Vnto [th]e matynes were alle done, - And [th]e messe shuld bygynne sone. - [Th]e preste hym reuest to begynne messe, 70 - And [th]ey ne left [th]erfore neuer [th]e lesse, - But daunsed fur[th]e as [th]ey bygan, - For alle [th]e messe [th]ey ne blan. - [Th]e preste, [th]at stode at [th]e autere, - And herd here noyse and here bere, 75 - Fro [th]e auter down he nam, - And to [th]e cherche porche he cam, - And seyd 'On Goddes behalue, y [gh]ow forbede - [Th]at [gh]e no lenger do swych dede, - But come[th] yn on feyre manere 80 - Goddes seruyse for to here, - And do[th] at Crystyn mennys lawe; - Karolle[th] no more, for Crystys awe! - Wurschyppe[th] Hym with alle [gh]oure my[gh]t - [Th]at of [th]e Vyrgyne was bore [th]ys ny[gh]t.' 85 - For alle hys byddyng lefte [th]ey no[gh]t, - But daunsed fur[th], as [th]ey [th]o[gh]t. - [Th]e preste [th]arefor was sore agreued; - He preyd God [th]at he on beleuyd, - And for Seynt Magne, [th]at he wulde so - werche-- 90 - Yn whos wurschyp sette was [th]e cherche-- - [Th]at swych a veniaunce were on hem sent, - Are [th]ey oute of [th]at stede were went, - [Th]at <[th]ey> my[gh]t euer ry[gh]t so wende - Vnto [th]at tyme tweluemonth ende; 95 - (Yn [th]e Latyne [th]at y fonde [th]ore - He sey[th] nat 'tweluemonth' but 'euermore';) - He cursed hem [th]ere alsaume - As [th]ey karoled on here gaume. - As sone as [th]e preste hadde so spoke 100 - Euery hand yn ou[th]th]er so fast was loke - [Th]at no man my[gh]t with no wundyr - [Th]at tweluemo<n>[th]e parte hem asundyr. - [Th]e preste [gh]ede yn, whan [th]ys was done, - And commaunded hys sone A[gh]one 105 - [Th]at <he> shulde go swy[th]e aftyr Aue, - Oute of [th]at karolle algate to haue. - But al to late [th]at wurde was seyd, - For on hem alle was [th]e veniaunce leyd. - A[gh]one wende weyl for to spede; 110 - Vnto [th]e karolle as swy[th]e he [gh]ede, - Hys systyr by [th]e arme he hente, - And [th]e arme fro [th]e body wente. - Men wundred alle [th]at [th]ere wore, - And merueyle mowe [gh]e here more, 115 - For, se[th]en he had [th]e arme yn hand, - [Th]e body [gh]ede fur[th] karoland, - And no[th]er <[th]e> body ne [th]e arme - Bledde neuer blode, colde ne warme, - But was as drye, with al [th]e haunche, 120 - As of a stok were ryue a braunche. - A[gh]one to hys fadyr went, - And broght hym a sory present: - 'Loke, fadyr,' he seyd, 'and haue hyt here, - [Th]e arme of [th]y doghtyr dere, 125 - [Th]at was myn owne syster Aue, - [Th]at y wende y my[gh]t a saue. - [Th]y cursyng now sene hyt ys - Wyth veniaunce on [th]y owne flessh. - Fellyche [th]ou cursedest, and ouer sone; 130 - [Th]ou askedest veniaunce,--[th]ou hast [th]y - bone.' - [Gh]ow [th]ar nat aske [gh]yf [th]ere was wo - Wyth [th]e preste, and wyth many mo. - [Th]e prest, [th]at cursed for [th]at daunce, - On some of hys fyl harde chaunce. 135 - He toke hys doghtyr arme forlorn - And byryed hyt on [th]e morn; - [Th]e nexte day [th]e arme of Aue - He fonde hyt lyggyng aboue [th]e graue. - He byryed <hyt> on anou[th]er day, 140 - And eft aboue [th]e graue hyt lay. - [Th]e [th]rydde tyme he byryed hyt, - And eft was hyt kast oute of [th]e pyt. - [Th]e prest wulde byrye hyt no more, - He dredde [th]e veniaunce ferly sore; 145 - Ynto [th]e cherche he bare [th]e arme, - For drede and doute of more harme, - He ordeyned hyt for to be - [Th]at euery man my[gh]t wyth ye hyt se. - [Th]ese men [th]at [gh]ede so karolland, 150 - Alle [th]at [gh]ere, hand yn hand, - [Th]ey neuer oute of [th]at stede [gh]ede, - Ne none my[gh]t hem [th]enne lede. - [Th]ere [th]e cursyng fyrst bygan, - Yn [th]at place aboute [th]ey ran, 155 - [Th]at neuer ne felte [th]ey no werynes - As many [+]bodyes for goyng dos[+], - Ne mete ete, ne drank drynke, - Ne slepte onely alepy wynke. - Ny[gh]t ne day [th]ey wyst of none, 160 - Whan hyt was come, whan hyt was gone; - Frost ne snogh, hayle ne reyne, - Of colde ne hete, felte [th]ey no peyne; - Heere ne nayles neuer grewe, - Ne solowed clo[th]es, ne turned hewe; 165 - [Th]undyr ne ly[gh]tnyng dyd hem no dere, - Goddys mercy ded hyt fro hem were;-- - But sungge [th]at songge [th]at [th]e wo wro[gh]t: - 'Why stonde we? why go we no[gh]t?' - What man shuld [th]yr be yn [th]ys lyue 170 - [Th]at ne wulde hyt see and [th]edyr dryue? - [Th]e Emperoure Henry come fro Rome - For to see [th]ys hard dome. - Whan he hem say, he wepte sore - For [th]e myschefe [th]at he sagh [th]ore. 175 - He ded come wry[gh]tes for to make - Coueryng ouer hem, for tempest sake. - But [th]at [th]ey wroght hyt was yn veyn, - For hyt come to no certeyn, - For [th]at [th]ey sette on oo day 180 - On [th]e tou[th]er downe hyt lay. - Ones, twyys, [th]ryys, [th]us [th]ey wro[gh]t, - And alle here makyng was for no[gh]t. - Myght no coueryng hyle hem fro colde - Tyl tyme of mercy [th]at Cryst hyt wolde. 185 - Tyme of grace fyl [th]urgh Hys my[gh]t - At [th]e tweluemonth ende, on [th]e [gh]ole - ny[gh]t. - [Th]e same oure [th]at [th]e prest hem banned, - [Th]e same oure atwynne [th]ey [+]woned[+]; - [Th]at houre [th]at he cursed hem ynne, 190 - [Th]e same oure [th]ey [gh]ede atwynne, - And as yn twynkelyng of an ye - Ynto [th]e cherche gun [th]ey flye, - And on [th]e pauement [th]ey fyl alle downe - As [th]ey had be dede, or fal yn a swone. 195 - [Th]re days styl [th]ey lay echone, - [Th]at none steryd o[th]er flesshe or bone, - And at [th]e [th]re days ende - To lyfe God graunted hem to wende. - [Th]ey sette hem vpp and spak apert 200 - To [th]e parysshe prest, syre Robert: - '[Th]ou art ensample and enchesun - Of oure long confusyun; - [Th]ou maker art of oure trauayle, - [Th]at ys to many grete meruayle, 205 - And [th]y traueyle shalt [th]ou sone ende, - For to [th]y long home sone shalt [th]ou wende.' - Alle [th]ey ryse [th]at yche tyde - But Aue,--she lay dede besyde. - Grete sorowe had here fadyr, here bro[th]er; 210 - Merueyle and drede had alle ou[th]er; - Y trow no drede of soule dede, - But with pyne was broght [th]e body dede. - [Th]e fyrst man was [th]e fadyr, [th]e prest, - [Th]at deyd aftyr [th]e do[gh]tyr nest. 215 - [Th]ys yche arme [th]at was of Aue, - [Th]at none my[gh]t leye yn graue, - [Th]e Emperoure dyd a vessel werche - To do hyt yn, and hange yn [th]e cherche, - [Th]at alle men my[gh]t se hyt and knawe, 220 - And [th]enk on [th]e chaunce when men hyt sawe. - [Th]ese men [th]at hadde go [th]us karolland - Alle [th]e [gh]ere, fast hand yn hand, - [Th]ogh [th]at [th]ey were [th]an asunder - [Gh]yt alle [th]e worlde spake of hem wunder. 225 - [Th]at same hoppyng [th]at [th]ey fyrst [gh]ede, - [Th]at daunce [gh]ede [th]ey [th]urgh land and lede, - And, as [th]ey ne my[gh]t fyrst be vnbounde, - So efte togedyr my[gh]t [th]ey neuer be founde, - Ne my[gh]t [th]ey neuer come a[gh]eyn 230 - Togedyr to oo stede certeyn. - Foure [gh]ede to [th]e courte of Rome, - And euer hoppyng aboute [th]ey nome, - [+]Wyth sundyr lepys[+] come [th]ey [th]edyr, - But [th]ey come neuer efte togedyr. 235 - Here clo[th]es ne roted, ne nayles grewe, - Ne heere ne wax, ne solowed hewe, - Ne neuer hadde [th]ey amendement, - [Th]at we herde, at any corseynt, - But at [th]e vyrgyne Seynt Edyght, 240 - [Th]ere was he botened, Seynt Teodryght, - On oure Lady day, yn lenten tyde, - As he slepte here toumbe besyde. - [Th]ere he had hys medycyne - At Seynt Edyght, [th]e holy vyrgyne. 245 - Brunyng [th]e bysshope of seynt Tolous - Wrote [th]ys tale so merueylous; - Se[th][th]e was hys name of more renoun, - Men called hym [th]e pope Leoun. - [Th]ys at [th]e court of Rome [th]ey wyte, 250 - And yn [th]e kronykeles hyt ys wryte - Yn many stedys be[gh]ounde [th]e see, - More [th]an ys yn [th]ys cuntr'e. - [Th]arfor men seye, an weyl ys trowed, - '[Th]e nere [th]e cherche, [th]e fyr[th]er - fro God'. 255 - So fare men here by [th]ys tale, - Some holde hyt but a troteuale, - Yn o[th]er stedys hyt ys ful dere - And for grete merueyle [th]ey wyl hyt here. - A tale hyt ys of feyre shewyng, 260 - Ensample and drede a[gh]ens cursyng. - [Th]ys tale y tolde [gh]ow to <make> [gh]ow aferde - Yn cherche to karolle, or yn cherche[gh]erde, - Namely a[gh]ens [th]e prestys wylle: - Leue[th] whan he bydde[th] [gh]ow be stylle. 265 - -[Foot-note: 21 for (2nd) _om. MS. Bodley 415_.] - -[Foot-note: 24 Ys as so[th] as [th]e gospel _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 78 behalue] halfe _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 94 [th]ey] _so MS. Bodley: om. MS. Harley_.] - -[Foot-note: 106 he] _so MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 118 [th]e] _so MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 136-7 forlor[=n]... mor[=n] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 140 hyt] _so MS. Bodley_: _om. MS. Harley._] - -[Foot-note: 171 [Th]at] [Th]at hyt _MS. Harley_.] - -[Foot-note: 221 men] [th]ey _MS. Bodley_.] - -[Foot-note: 227 [gh]ede] wente _MS. Bodley._] - -[Foot-note: 229 togedyr... neuer] my[gh]t [th]ey neuer togedyr _MS. -Bodley._] - -[Foot-note: 241 Seynt _om. MS. Bodley._] - - - - -II - -SIR ORFEO - - -_Sir Orfeo_ is found in three MSS.: (1) the Auchinleck MS. (1325-1350), -a famous Middle English miscellany now in the Advocates' Library, -Edinburgh; (2) British Museum MS. Harley 3810 (fifteenth century); (3) -Bodleian MS. Ashmole 61 (fifteenth century). Our text follows the -Auchinleck MS., with ll. 1-24 and ll. 33-46 supplied from the Harleian -MS. The critical text of O. Zielke, Breslau 1880, reproduces the MSS. -inaccurately. - -The story appears to have been translated from a French source into -South-Western English at the beginning of the fourteenth century. It -belongs to a group of 'lays' which claim to derive from Brittany, e.g. -_Lai le Freine_, which has the same opening lines (1-22); _Emar'e_; and -Chaucer's _Franklin's Tale_. - -The story of Orpheus and Eurydice was known to the Middle Ages chiefly -from Ovid (_Metamorphoses_ x) and from Virgil (_Georgics_ iv). King -Alfred's rendering of it in his _Boethius_ is one of his best prose -passages, despite the crude moralizing which makes Orpheus's backward -glance at Eurydice before she is safe from Hades a symbol of the -backslider's longing for his old sins. The Middle English poet has a -lighter and daintier touch. The Greek myth is almost lost in a tale of -fairyland, the earliest English romance of the kind; and to provide the -appropriate happy ending, Sir Orfeo is made successful in his attempt to -rescue Heurodis. The adaptation of the classical subject to a mediaeval -setting is thorough. An amusing instance is the attempt in the -Auchinleck MS. to give the poem an English interest by the unconvincing -assurance that _Traciens_ (which from 'Thracian' had come to mean -'Thrace') was the old name of Winchester (ll. 49-50). - - <We redyn ofte and fynde ywryte, - As clerkes don us to wyte, - The layes that ben of harpyng - Ben yfounde of frely thing. - Sum ben of wele, and sum of wo, 5 - And sum of ioy and merthe also; - Sum of trechery, and sum of gyle, - And sum of happes [th]at fallen by whyle; - Sum of bourdys, and sum of rybaudry, - And sum [th]er ben of the feyr'e. 10 - Of alle [th]ing [th]at men may se, - Moost _o_ lo_u_e forso[th]e [th]ey be. - In Brytayn [th]is layes arne ywryte, - Furst yfounde and for[th]e ygete, - Of aventures [th]at fillen by dayes, 15 - Wherof Brytouns made her layes. - When [th]ey myght owher heryn - Of aventures [th]at [th]er weryn, - [Th]ey toke her harpys wi[th] game, - Maden layes and [gh]af it name. 20 - Of aventures [th]at han befalle - Y can sum telle, but nou[gh]t all. - Herken, lordyngys [th]at ben trewe, - And y wol [gh]ou telle of Sir Orphewe.> - Orfeo was a king, 25 - In Inglond an hei[gh]e lording, - A stalwor[th] man and hardi bo, - Large and curteys he was also. - His fader was comen of King Pluto, - And his moder of King Iuno, 30 - [Th]at sum time were as godes yhold, - For auentours [th]at [th]ai dede and told. - <Orpheo most of ony [th]ing - Louede [th]e gle of harpyng; - Syker was euery gode harpoure 35 - Of hym to haue moche honoure. - Hymself loued for to harpe, - And layde [th]eron his wittes scharpe. - He lernyd so, [th]er no[th]ing was - A better harper in no plas; 40 - In [th]e world was neuer man born - [Th]at euer Orpheo sat byforn, - And he my[gh]t of his harpyng here, - He schulde [th]inke [th]at he were - In one of [th]e ioys of Paradys, 45 - Suche ioy and melody in his harpyng is.> - [Th]is king soiournd in Traciens, - [Th]at was a cit'e of noble defens; - For Winchester was cleped [th]o - Traciens wi[th]outen no. 50 - [Th]e king hadde a quen of priis, - [Th]at was ycleped Dame Herodis, - [Th]e fairest leuedi, for [th]e nones, - [Th]at mi[gh]t gon on bodi and bones, - Ful of loue and of godenisse; 55 - Ac no man may telle hir fairnise. - Bifel so in [th]e comessing of May, - When miri and hot is [th]e day, - And oway be[th] winter-schours, - And eueri feld is ful of flours, 60 - And blosme breme on eueri bou[gh] - Oueral wexe[th] miri anou[gh], - [Th]is ich quen, Dame Heurodis, - Tok to maidens of priis, - And went in an vndrentide 65 - To play bi an orchard side, - To se [th]e floures sprede and spring, - And to here [th]e foules sing. - [Th]ai sett hem doun al [th]re - Vnder a fair ympe-tre, 70 - And wel sone [th]is fair quene - Fel on slepe opon [th]e grene. - [Th]e maidens durst hir nou[gh]t awake, - Bot lete hir ligge and rest take. - So sche slepe til afternone, 75 - [Th]at vndertide was al ydone. - Ac as sone as sche gan awake, - Sche crid and lo[th]li bere gan make, - Sche froted hir honden and hir fet, - And crached hir visage, it bled wete; 80 - Hir riche robe hye al torett, - And was reuey<se>d out of hir witt. - [Th]e tvo maidens hir biside - No durst wi[th] hir no leng abide, - Bot ourn to [th]e palays ful ri[gh]t, 85 - And told bo[th]e squier and kni[gh]t - [Th]at her quen awede wold, - And bad hem go and hir athold. - Kni[gh]tes vrn, and leuedis also, - Damisels sexti and mo, 90 - In [th]e orchard to [th]e quen hye come, - And her vp in her armes nome, - And brou[gh]t hir to bed atte last, - And held hir [th]ere fine fast; - Ac euer sche held in o cri, 95 - And wold vp and owy. - When Orfeo herd [th]at tiding, - Neuer him nas wers for no [th]ing. - He come wi[th] kni[gh]tes tene - To chaumber ri[gh]t bifor [th]e quene, 100 - And biheld, and seyd wi[th] grete pit'e: - 'O lef liif, what is te, - [Th]at euer [gh]ete hast ben so stille, - And now gredest wonder schille? - [Th]i bodi, [th]at was so white ycore, 105 - Wi[th] [th]ine nailes is al totore. - Allas! [th]i rode, [th]at was so red, - Is al wan as [th]ou were ded; - And also [th]ine fingres smale - Be[th] al blodi and al pale. 110 - Allas! [th]i louesom ey[gh]en to - Loke[th] so man do[th] on his fo. - A! dame, ich biseche merci. - Lete ben al [th]is reweful cri, - And tel me what [th]e is, and hou, 115 - And what [th]ing may [th]e help now.' - [Th]o lay sche stille atte last, - And gan to wepe swi[th]e fast, - And seyd [th]us [th]e king to: - 'Allas! mi lord, Sir Orfeo, 120 - Se[th][th]en we first togider were, - Ones wro[th] neuer we nere, - Bot euer ich haue yloued [th]e - As mi liif, and so [th]ou me. - Ac now we mot delen ato; 125 - Do [th]i best, for y mot go.' - 'Allas!' qua[th] he, 'forlorn icham. - Whider wiltow go, and to wham? - Whider [th]ou gost, ichil wi[th] [th]e, - And whider y go, [th]ou schalt wi[th] me.' 130 - 'Nay, nay, sir, [th]at nou[gh]t nis; - Ichil [th]e telle al hou it is: - As ich lay [th]is vndertide, - And slepe vnder our orchard-side, - [Th]er come to me to fair kni[gh]tes 135 - Wele y-armed al to ri[gh]tes, - And bad me comen an hei[gh]ing, - And speke wi[th] her lord [th]e king. - And ich answerd at wordes bold, - Y durst nou[gh]t, no y nold. 140 - [Th]ai priked o[gh]ain as [th]ai mi[gh]t driue; - [Th]o com her king also bliue, - Wi[th] an hundred kni[gh]tes and mo, - And damisels an hundred also, - Al on snowe-white stedes; 145 - As white as milke were her wedes: - Y no sei[gh]e neuer [gh]ete bifore - So fair creatours ycore. - [Th]e king hadde a croun on hed, - It nas of siluer, no of gold red, 150 - Ac it was of a precious ston, - As bri[gh]t as [th]e sonne it schon. - And as son as he to me cam, - Wold ich, nold ich, he me nam, - And made me wi[th] him ride 155 - Opon a palfray, bi his side, - And brou[gh]t me to his palays, - Wele atird in ich ways, - And schewed me castels and tours, - Riuers, forestes, fri[th] wi[th] flours, 160 - And his riche stedes ichon; - And se[th][th]en me brou[gh]t o[gh]ain hom - Into our owhen orchard, - And said to me [th]us afterward: - "Loke, dame, to-morwe [th]atow be 165 - Ri[gh]t here vnder [th]is ympe-tre, - And [th]an [th]ou schalt wi[th] ous go, - And liue wi[th] ous euermo; - And [gh]if [th]ou makest ous ylet, - Whar [th]ou be, [th]ou worst yfet, 170 - And totore [th]ine limes al, - [Th]at no[th]ing help [th]e no schal; - And [th]ei [th]ou best so totorn, - [Gh]ete [th]ou worst wi[th] ous yborn."' - When King Orfeo herd [th]is cas, 175 - 'O we!' qua[th] he, 'allas, allas! - Leuer me were to lete mi liif, - [Th]an [th]us to lese [th]e quen mi wiif!' - He asked conseyl at ich man, - Ac no man him help no can. 180 - Amorwe [th]e vndertide is come, - And Orfeo ha[th] his armes ynome, - And wele ten hundred kni[gh]tes wi[th] him - Ich y-armed stout and grim; - And wi[th] [th]e quen wenten he 185 - Ri[gh]t vnto [th]at ympe-tre. - [Th]ai made scheltrom in ich a side, - And sayd [th]ai wold [th]ere abide, - And dye [th]er euerichon, - Er [th]e quen schuld fram hem gon. 190 - Ac [gh]ete amiddes hem ful ri[gh]t - [Th]e quen was oway ytui[gh]t, - Wi[th] fairi for[th] ynome; - Men wist neuer wher sche was bicome. - [Th]o was [th]er criing, wepe and wo. 195 - [Th]e king into his chaumber is go, - And oft swoned opon [th]e ston, - And made swiche diol and swiche mon - [Th]at nei[gh]e his liif was yspent: - [Th]er was non amendement. 200 - He cleped togider his barouns, - Erls, lordes of renouns; - And when [th]ai al ycomen were, - 'Lordinges,' he said, 'bifor [gh]ou here - Ich ordainy min hei[gh]e steward 205 - To wite mi kingdom afterward; - In mi stede ben he schal, - To kepe mi londes ouer al. - For, now ichaue mi quen ylore, - [Th]e fairest leuedi [th]at euer was bore, 210 - Neuer eft y nil no woman se. - Into wildernes ichil te, - And liue [th]er euermore - Wi[th] wilde bestes in holtes hore. - And when [gh]e vnderstond [th]at y be spent, 215 - Make [gh]ou [th]an a parlement, - And chese [gh]ou a newe king. - Now do[th] [gh]our best wi[th] al mi [th]ing.' - [Th]o was [th]er wepeing in [th]e halle, - And grete cri among hem alle; 220 - Vnne[th]e mi[gh]t old or [gh]ong - For wepeing speke a word wi[th] tong. - [Th]ai kneled adoun al yfere, - And praid him, [gh]if his wille were, - [Th]at he no schuld nou[gh]t fram hem go. 225 - 'Do way!' qua[th] he, 'it schal be so.' - Al his kingdom he forsoke; - Bot a sclauin on him he toke; - He no hadde kirtel no hode, - Schert, <no> no no[th]er gode. 230 - Bot his harp he tok algate, - And dede him barfot out atte [gh]ate; - No man most wi[th] him go. - O way! what [th]er was wepe and wo, - When he, [th]at hadde ben king wi[th] croun, 235 - Went so pouerlich out of toun! - [Th]urch wode and ouer he[th] - Into [th]e wildernes he ge[th]. - No[th]ing he fint [th]at him is ays, - Bot euer he liue[th] in gret malais. 240 - He [th]at hadde ywerd [th]e fowe and griis, - And on bed [th]e purper biis, - Now on hard he[th]e he li[th], - Wi[th] leues and gresse he him wri[th]. - He [th]at hadde had castels and tours, 245 - Riuer, forest, fri[th] wi[th] flours, - Now, [th]ei it comenci to snewe and frese, - [Th]is king mot make his bed in mese. - He [th]at had yhad kni[gh]tes of priis - Bifor him kneland, and leuedis, 250 - Now se[th] he no[th]ing [th]at him like[th], - Bot wilde wormes bi him strike[th]. - He [th]at had yhad plent'e - Of mete and drink, of ich deynt'e, - Now may he al day digge and wrote 255 - Er he finde his fille of rote. - In somer he liue[th] bi wild frut - And berien bot gode lite; - In winter may he no[th]ing finde - Bot rote, grases, and [th]e rinde. 260 - Al his bodi was oway duine - For missays, and al tochine. - Lord! who may telle [th]e sore - [Th]is king sufferd ten [gh]ere and more? - His here of his berd, blac and rowe, 265 - To his girdelstede was growe. - His harp, whereon was al his gle, - He hidde in an holwe tre; - And, when [th]e weder was clere and bri[gh]t, - He toke his harp to him wel ri[gh]t, 270 - And harped at his owhen wille. - Into alle [th]e wode [th]e soun gan schille, - [Th]at alle [th]e wilde bestes [th]at [th]er be[th] - For ioie abouten him [th]ai te[th]; - And alle [th]e foules [th]at [th]er were 275 - Come and sete on ich a brere, - To here his harping afine, - So miche melody was [th]erin; - And when he his harping lete wold, - No best bi him abide nold. 280 - He mi[gh]t se him bisides - Oft in hot vndertides - [Th]e king o fairy wi[th] his rout - Com to hunt him al about, - Wi[th] dim cri and bloweing; 285 - And houndes also wi[th] him berking; - Ac no best [th]ai no nome, - No neuer he nist whider [th]ai bicome. - And o[th]er while he mi[gh]t him se - As a gret ost bi him te 290 - Wele atourned ten hundred kni[gh]tes, - Ich y-armed to his ri[gh]tes, - Of cuntenaunce stout and fers, - Wi[th] mani desplaid baners, - And ich his swerd ydrawe hold, 295 - Ac neuer he nist whider [th]ai wold. - And o[th]er while he sei[gh]e o[th]er [th]ing: - Kni[gh]tes and leuedis com daunceing - In queynt atire, gisely, - Queynt pas and softly; 300 - Tabours and trunpes [gh]ede hem bi, - And al maner menstraci. - And on a day he sei[gh]e him biside - Sexti leuedis on hors ride, - Gentil and iolif as brid on ris,-- 305 - Nou[gh]t o man amonges hem [th]er nis. - And ich a faucoun on hond bere, - And riden on haukin bi o riuere. - Of game [th]ai founde wel gode haunt, - Maulardes, hayroun, and cormeraunt; 310 - [Th]e foules of [th]e water arise[th], - [Th]e faucouns hem wele deuise[th]; - Ich faucoun his pray slou[gh]. - [Th]at sei[gh]e Orfeo, and lou[gh]: - 'Parfay!' qua[th] he, '[th]er is fair game, 315 - [Th]ider ichil, bi Godes name! - Ich was ywon swiche werk to se.' - He aros, and [th]ider gan te. - To a leuedi he was ycome, - Biheld, and ha[th] wele vndernome, 320 - And se[th] bi al [th]ing [th]at it is - His owhen quen, Dam Heurodis. - [Gh]ern he biheld hir, and sche him eke, - Ac noi[th]er to o[th]er a word no speke. - For messais [th]at sche on him sei[gh]e, 325 - [Th]at had ben so riche and so hei[gh]e, - [Th]e teres fel out of her ei[gh]e. - [Th]e o[th]er leuedis [th]is ysei[gh]e, - And maked hir oway to ride, - Sche most wi[th] him no lenger abide. 330 - 'Allas!' qua[th] he, 'now me is wo. - Whi nil de[th] now me slo? - Allas! wr_e_che, [th]at y no mi[gh]t - Dye now after [th]is si[gh]t! - Allas! to long last mi liif, 335 - When y no dar nou[gh]t wi[th] mi wiif, - No hye to me, o word speke. - Allas! whi nil min hert breke? - Parfay!' qua[th] he, 'tide wat bitide, - Whider so [th]is leuedis ride, 340 - [Th]e selue way ichil streche; - Of liif no de[th] me no reche.' - His sclauain he dede on also spac, - And henge his harp opon his bac, - And had wel gode wil to gon,-- 345 - He no spard noi[th]er stub no ston. - In at a roche [th]e leuedis ride[th], - And he after, and nou[gh]t abide[th]. - When he was in [th]e roche ygo - Wele [th]re mile o[th]er mo, 350 - He com into a fair cuntray, - As bri[gh]t so sonne on somers day, - Smo[th]e and plain and al grene, - Hille no dale nas [th]er non ysene. - Amidde [th]e lond a castel he si[gh]e, 355 - Riche and real, and wonder hei[gh]e. - Al [th]e vtmast wal - Was clere and schine as cristal; - An hundred tours [th]er were about, - Degiselich, and bataild stout; 360 - [Th]e butras com out of [th]e diche, - Of rede gold y-arched riche; - [Th]e vousour was anow<rn>ed al - Of ich maner diuers animal. - Wi[th]in [th]er wer wide wones 365 - Al of precious stones. - [Th]e werst piler on to biholde - Was al of burnist gold. - Al [th]at lond was euer li[gh]t, - For when it schuld be [th]erk and ni[gh]t, 370 - [Th]e riche stones li[gh]t gonne, - As bri[gh]t as do[th] at none [th]e sonne. - No man may telle, no [th]enche in [th]ou[gh]t, - [Th]e riche werk [th]at [th]er was wrou[gh]t; - Bi al [th]ing him [th]ink [th]at it is 375 - [Th]e proude court of Paradis. - In [th]is castel [th]e leuedis ali[gh]t; - He wold in after, [gh]if he mi[gh]t. - Orfeo knokke[th] atte gate, - [Th]e porter was redi [th]erate, 380 - And asked what he wold haue ydo. - 'Parfay!' qua[th] he, 'icham a minstrel, lo! - To solas [th]i lord wi[th] mi gle, - [Gh]if his swete wille be.' - [Th]e porter vndede [th]e [gh]ate anon, 385 - And lete him into [th]e castel gon. - [Th]an he gan bihold about al, - And sei[gh]e [+]ful[+] liggeand wi[th]in [th]e wal - Of folk [th]at were [th]ider ybrou[gh]t, - And [th]ou[gh]t dede, and nare nou[gh]t. 390 - Sum stode wi[th]outen hade, - And sum non armes nade, - And sum [th]urch [th]e bodi hadde wounde, - And sum lay wode, ybounde, - And sum armed on hors sete, 395 - And sum astrangled as [th]ai ete, - And sum were in water adreynt, - And sum wi[th] fire al forschreynt - Wiues [th]er lay on childbedde, - Sum ded, and sum awedde; 400 - And wonder fele [th]er lay bisides, - Ri[gh]t as [th]ai slepe her vndertides. - Eche was [th]us in [th]is warld ynome, - Wi[th] fairi [th]ider ycome. - [Th]er he sei[gh]e his owhen wiif, 405 - Dame Heurodis, his l_e_f liif, - Slepe vnder an ympe-tre: - Bi her clo[th]es he knewe [th]at it was he. - And when he hadde bihold [th]is meruails alle, - He went into [th]e kinges halle. 410 - [Th]an sei[gh]e he [th]er a semly si[gh]t, - A tabernacle blisseful and bri[gh]t, - [Th]erin her maister king sete, - And her quen fair and swete. - Her crounes, her clo[th]es, schine so bri[gh]t, 415 - [Th]at vnne[th]e bihold he hem mi[gh]t. - When he hadde biholden al [th]at [th]ing, - He kneled adoun bifor [th]e king. - 'O lord,' he seyd, '[gh]if it [th]i wille were, - Mi menstraci [th]ou schust yhere.' 420 - [Th]e king answerd: 'What man artow, - [Th]at art hider ycomen now? - Ich, no non [th]at is wi[th] me, - No sent neuer after [th]e; - Se[th][th]en [th]at ich here regni gan, 425 - Y no fond neuer so folehardi man - [Th]at hider to ous durst wende, - Bot [th]at ichim wald ofsende.' - 'Lord,' qua[th] he, 'trowe ful wel, - Y nam bot a pouer menstrel; 430 - And, sir, it is [th]e maner of ous - To seche mani a lordes hous; - [Th]ei we nou[gh]t welcom no be, - [Gh]ete we mot proferi for[th] our gle.' - Bifor [th]e king he sat adoun, 435 - And tok his harp so miri of soun, - And tempre[th] his harp, as he wele can, - And blisseful notes he [th]er gan, - [Th]at al [th]at in [th]e palays were - Com to him for to here, 440 - And ligge[th] adoun to his fete, - Hem [th]enke[th] his melody so swete. - [Th]e king herkne[th] and sitt ful stille, - To here his gle he ha[th] gode wille; - Gode bourde he hadde of his gle, 445 - [Th]e riche quen also hadde he. - When he hadde stint his harping, - [Th]an seyd to him [th]e king: - 'Menstrel, me like[th] wele [th]i gle. - Now aske of me what it be, 450 - Largelich ichil [th]e pay. - Now speke, and tow mi[gh]t asay.' - 'Sir,' he seyd, 'ich biseche [th]e - [Th]atow woldest [gh]iue me - [Th]at ich leuedi, bri[gh]t on ble, 455 - [Th]at slepe[th] vnder [th]e ympe-tre.' - 'Nay,' qua[th] [th]e king, '[th]at nou[gh]t nere! - A sori couple of [gh]ou it were, - For [th]ou art lene, rowe, and blac, - And sche is louesum, wi[th]outen lac; 460 - A lo[th]lich [th]ing it were for[th]i - To sen hir in [th]i compayni.' - 'O sir,' he seyd, 'gentil king, - [Gh]ete were it a wele fouler [th]ing - To here a lesing of [th]i mou[th]e, 465 - So, sir, as [gh]e seyd nou[th]e, - What ich wold aski, haue y schold, - And nedes [th]ou most [th]i word hold.' - [Th]e king seyd: 'Se[th][th]en it is so, - Take hir bi [th]e hond, and go; 470 - Of hir ichil [th]atow be bli[th]e.' - He kneled adoun, and [th]onked him swi[th]e; - His wiif he tok bi [th]e hond, - And dede him swi[th]e out of [th]at lond, - And went him out of [th]at [th]ede,-- 475 - Ri[gh]t as he come [th]e way he [gh]ede. - So long he ha[th] [th]e way ynome, - To Winchester he is ycome, - [Th]at was his owhen cit'e; - Ac no man knewe [th]at it was he. 480 - No for[th]er [th]an [th]e tounes ende - For knoweleche <he> no durst wende, - Bot wi[th] a begger y<n> bilt ful narwe, - [Th]er he tok his herbarwe, - To him and to his owhen wiif, 485 - As a minstrel of pouer liif, - And asked tidinges of [th]at lond, - And who [th]e kingdom held in hond. - [Th]e pouer begger in his cote - Told him euerich a grot: 490 - Hou her quen was stole owy - Ten [gh]er gon wi[th] fairy; - And hou her king en exile [gh]ede, - Bot no man nist in wiche [th]ede; - And hou [th]e steward [th]e lond gan hold; 495 - And o[th]er mani [th]inges him told. - Amorwe, o[gh]ain nonetide, - He maked his wiif [th]er abide; - [Th]e beggers clo[th]es he borwed anon, - And heng his harp his rigge opon, 500 - And went him into [th]at cit'e, - [Th]at men mi[gh]t him bihold and se. - Erls and barouns bold, - Buriays and leuedis him gun bihold. - 'Lo,' [th]ai seyd, 'swiche a man! 505 - Hou long [th]e here honge[th] him opan! - Lo, hou his berd honge[th] to his kne! - He is yclongen also a tre!' - And as he [gh]ede in [th]e strete, - Wi[th] his steward he gan mete, 510 - And loude he sett on him a crie: - 'Sir steward,' he seyd, 'merci! - Icham an harpour of he[th]enisse; - Help me now in [th]is destresse!' - [Th]e steward seyd: 'Com wi[th] me, come; 515 - Of [th]at ichaue [th]ou schalt haue some. - Euerich gode harpour is welcom me to, - For mi lordes loue Sir Orfeo.' - In [th]e castel [th]e steward sat atte mete, - And mani lording was bi him sete. 520 - [Th]er were trompour<s> and tabourers, - Harpours fele, and crouders. - Miche melody [th]ai maked alle, - And Orfeo sat stille in [th]e halle, - And herkne[th]. When [th]ai ben al stille, 525 - He toke his harp and tempred schille, - [Th]e bli<sse>fulest notes he harped [th]ere - [Th]at euer ani man yherd wi[th] ere; - Ich man liked wele his gle. - [Th]e steward biheld and gan yse, 530 - And knewe [th]e harp als bliue. - 'Menstrel,' he seyd, 'so mot [th]ou [th]riue, - Where hadestow [th]is harp, and hou? - Y pray [th]at [th]ou me telle now.' - 'Lord,' qua[th] he, 'in vncou[th]e [th]ede, 535 - [Th]urch a wildernes as y [gh]ede, - [Th]er y founde in a dale - Wi[th] lyouns a man totorn smale, - And wolues him frete wi[th] te[th] so scharp. - Bi him y fond [th]is ich harp; 540 - Wele ten [gh]ere it is ygo.' - 'O,' qua[th] [th]e steward, 'now me is wo! - [Th]at was mi lord Sir Orfeo. - Allas! wreche, what schal y do, - [Th]at haue swiche a lord ylore? 545 - A way! [th]at ich was ybore! - [Th]at him was so hard grace y[gh]arked, - And so vile de[th] ymarked!' - Adoun he fel aswon to grounde. - His barouns him tok vp in [th]at stounde, 550 - And telle[th] him hou it ge[th]-- - It nis no bot of manes de[th]. - King Orfeo knewe wele bi [th]an - His steward was a trewe man - And loued him as he au[gh]t to do, 555 - And stont vp and seyt [th]us: 'Lo, - Steward, herkne now [th]is [th]ing: - [Gh]if ich were Orfeo [th]e king, - And hadde ysuffred ful [gh]ore - In wildernisse miche sore, 560 - And hadde ywon mi quen owy - Out of [th]e lond of fairy, - And hadde ybrou[gh]t [th]e leuedi hende - Ri[gh]t here to [th]e tounes ende, - And wi[th] a begger her in ynome, 565 - And were miself hider ycome - Pouerlich to [th]e, [th]us stille, - For to asay [th]i gode wille, - And ich founde [th]e [th]us trewe, - [Th]ou no schust it neuer rewe: 570 - Sikerlich, for loue or ay, - [Th]ou schust be king after mi day. - And [gh]if [th]ou of mi de[th] hadest ben - bli[th]e, - [Th]ou schust haue voided also swi[th]e.' - [Th]o al [th]o [th]at [th]erin sete 575 - [Th]at it was King Orfeo vnder[gh]ete, - And [th]e steward him wele knewe; - Ouer and ouer [th]e bord he [th]rewe, - And fel adoun to his fet; - So dede euerich lord [th]at [th]er sete, 580 - And al [th]ai seyd at o criing: - '[Gh]e be[th] our lord, sir, and our king!' - Glad [th]ai were of his liue. - To chaumber [th]ai ladde him als biliue, - And ba[th]ed him, and schaued his berd, 585 - And tired him as a king apert. - And se[th][th]en wi[th] gret processioun - [Th]ai brou[gh]t [th]e quen into [th]e toun, - Wi[th] al maner menstraci. - Lord! [th]er was grete melody! 590 - For ioie [th]ai wepe wi[th] her ei[gh]e - [Th]at hem so sounde ycomen sei[gh]e. - Now King Orfeo newe coround is, - And his quen Dame Heurodis, - And liued long afterward; 595 - And se[th][th]en was king [th]e steward. - Harpours in Bretaine after [th]an - Herd hou [th]is meruaile bigan, - And made herof a lay of gode likeing, - And nempned it after [th]e king; 600 - [Th]at lay 'Orfeo' is yhote, - Gode is [th]e lay, swete is [th]e note. - [Th]us com Sir Orfeo out of his care. - God graunt ous alle wele to fare. - -[Foot-note: ll. 1-24 _from Harl. 3810: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: ll. 7-8 _follow_ ll. 9-10 _in Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 12 o loue] to lowe _Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 26 In Inglond] And in his tyme _Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 33-46 _from Harl. 3810: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 49-50 _om. Harl., Ashm._] - -[Foot-note: 51 [Th]e king] He _Harl._: And _Ashm._] - -[Foot-note: 82 reueysed] rauysed _Ashm._: reueyd _MS._: wode out -_Harl._] - -[Foot-note: 230 no] ne _Ashm.: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 333 wreche] wroche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 406 lef] liif _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 478 Winchester] Traciens _Ashm._: Crassens _Harl._] - - - - -III - -MICHAEL OF NORTHGATE'S AYENBYTE -OF INWYT - -A.D. 1340. - - -Michael of Northgate was a monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. From a -library catalogue of the monastery it appears that he was a lover of -books, for he is named as the donor of twenty-five MSS., a considerable -collection for those days. Their titles show a taste not merely for -religious works, but for science--mathematics, chemistry, medicine, as -they were known at the time. Four of these MSS. have been traced, and -one of them, British Museum MS. Arundel 57, is Michael's autograph copy -of the _Ayenbyte_. On folio 2 of the MS. are the words: _[Th]is boc -is Dan Michelis of Northgate, ywrite an Englis of his o[gh]ene hand, -[th]et hatte 'Ayenbyte of Inwyt'; and is of the boc-house of Saynt -Austines of Canterberi, mid [th]e lettres. CC._ 'CC.' is the press-mark -given in the catalogue. A note at the end of the text shows that it was -finished on October 27, 1340: - -_Ymende [th]et [th]is boc is uolueld ine [th]e eue of [th]e holy -apostles Symon an Iudas_ [i.e. Oct. 27] _of ane bro[th]er of the -cloystre of Sauynt Austin of Canterberi, in the yeare of oure Lhordes -beringe 1340._ - -The _Ayenbyte_ has been edited for the Early English Text Society by R. -Morris. The title means literally 'Remorse of Conscience', but from the -contents of the work it would appear that the writer meant rather -'Stimulus to the Conscience', or 'Prick of Conscience'. It is in fact a -translation from the French _Somme des Vices et des Vertues_, compiled -by Friar Lorens in 1279 for King Philip le Hardi, and long held to be -the main source of Chaucer's _Parson's Tale_. Caxton rendered the -_Somme_ into English prose as _The Royal Book_. It treats of the -Commandments, the Creed, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Petitions of -the Paternoster, and the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. - -Dan Michael's purpose is stated in some doggerel lines at the end: - - Nou ich wille [th]et ye ywyte - Hou hit is ywent - [Th]et [th]is boc is ywrite - Mid Engliss of Kent. - [Th]is boc is ymad uor lewede men, - Vor uader, and uor moder, and uor o[th]er ken, - Ham uor to ber[gh]e uram alle manyere zen, - [Th]et ine hare inwytte ne bleue no uoul wen. - -His translation is inaccurate, and sometimes unintelligible, and -the treatment is so barren of interest that the work seems to have -fallen flat even in its own day, when the popular appetite for -edification was keen and unspoiled. But if its literary merit is -slight, linguistically it is one of the most important works in -Middle English. It provides a long prose text, exactly dated and -exactly localized; we have the author's autograph copy to work -from; and the dialect is well distinguished. These circumstances, -unique in Middle English, make it possible to study the Kentish -dialect of the mid-fourteenth century under ideal conditions. - - -HOW MERCY INCREASES TEMPORAL GOODS. - -Hou Merci multiplie[th] [th]e timliche guodes, hyerof we habbe[th] uele -uayre uorbisnen, huerof ich wille hier zome telle. Me ret of Saint -Germain of Aucer_r_e [th]et, [th]o he com uram Rome, ate outguoinge -of Melane, he acsede at onen of his diaknen yef he hedde eny zeluer, -and he ansuerede [th]et {5} he ne hedde bote [th]ri pans, uor Say<n>t -Germayn hit hedde al yeue to pouren. [Th]anne he him het [th]et he his -ssolde yeue to [th]e poure, uor God hedde yno[gh] of guode, huerof he -hise uedde uor [th]ane day. [Th]e dyacne mid greate pine and mid greate -grochinge yeaf [th]e tuaye pans, and ofhild [th]ane [th]ridde. [Th]e -{10} sergont of ane riche kni[gh]te him bro[gh]te ane his lhordes haf -tuo hondred pans. [Th]o clepede he his dyacne, and him zede [th]et -he hedde benome [th]e poure ane peny, and yef he hedde yeue [th]ane -[th]ridde peny to [th]e poure, [th]e kni[gh]t him hedde yzent [th]ri -hondred pans. {15} - -Efterward me ret ine [th]e lyue of Ion [th]e Amoner, [th]et wes zuo -ycleped uor [th]e greate elmesses [th]et he dede: A riche ientilman wes -yrobbed of [th]ieues, zuo [th]et him na[gh]t ne blefte. He him com to -playni to [th]e uorzede manne, and he him zede his cas. He hedde greate -reu[th]e [th]erof, and het his {20} desspendoure [th]et he him yeaue -uyftene pond of gold. [Th]e spendere, be his couaytise, ne yeaf bote -vyf. An haste a gentil wymman wodewe zente to [th]e uore-yzede Ion uif -hondred pond of gold. [Th]o he clepede his spendere, and him acsede hou -moche he hedde yyeue to [th]e kni[gh]te. He ansuerede {25} 'vyftene -pond.' [Th]e holy man ansuerede [th]et 'nay, he ne hedde bote vyf'; -and huanne he hit wiste [th]e ilke zelue [th]et his hedde onderuonge, -zuo zayde to his spendere [th]et yef he hedde yyeue [th]e viftene pond -[th]et he hedde yhote, oure Lhord him hede yzent be [th]e guode wyfman -a [th]ouzond and vyf {30} hondred pond. And huanne he acsede ate guode -wyfman, [th]o he hedde hise ycleped, hou moche hi hedde him ylete, hi -andzuerede [th]et uerst hi hedde ywrite ine hare testament [th]et hi -him let a [th]ousend and vyf hondred pond. Ac hi lokede efterward ine -hare testament, and hi yze[gh] [th]e [th]ousend pond {35} defaced of -hire write, and zuo ylefde [th]e guode wyfman [th]et God wolde [th]et -hi ne zente bote vif hondred. - -Efterward Saint Gregori tel[th] [th]et Saint Boniface uram [th]et he -wes child he wes zuo piteuous [th]et he yaf ofte his kertel and his -sserte to [th]e poure uor God, [th]a[gh] his moder him byete {40} ofte -[th]eruore. [Th]anne bevil [th]et [th]et child yze[gh] manie poure -[th]et hedden mezeyse. He aspide [th]et his moder nes na[gh]t [th]er. -An haste he yarn to [th]e gerniere, and al [th]et his moder hedde -ygadered uor to pasi [th]et yer he hit yaf [th]e poure. And [th]o his -moder com, and wyste [th]e ilke dede, hy wes al out of hare {45} wytte. -[Th]et child bed oure Lhorde, and [th]et gernier wes an haste al uol. - -Efterward [th]er wes a poure man, ase me zay[th], [th]et hedde ane -cou; and yhyerde zigge of his preste ine his prechinge [th]et God zede -ine his spelle [th]et God wolde yelde an hondreduald {50} al [th]et me -yeaue uor him. [Th]e guode man, mid [th]e rede of his wyue, yeaf his -cou to his preste, [th]et wes riche. [Th]e prest his nom ble[th]eliche, -and hise zente to [th]e o[th]ren [th]et he hedde. [Th]o hit com to -euen, [th]e guode mannes cou com hom to his house ase hi wes ywoned, -and ledde mid hare alle [th]e {55} prestes ken, al to an hondred. [Th]o -[th]e guode man yze[gh] [th]et, he [th]o[gh]te [th]et [th]et wes [th]et -word of [th]e Godspelle [th]et he hedde yyolde; and him hi weren yloked -beuore his bissoppe aye [th]ane prest. [Th]ise uorbisne ssewe[th] -wel [th]et merci is guod chapuare, uor hi de[th] wexe [th]e timliche -guodes. {60} - - - - -IV - -RICHARD ROLLE OF HAMPOLE - -D. 1349. - - -Richard Rolle was born at Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, in -Yorkshire. He was sent to Oxford, already a formidable rival to the -University of Paris; but the severer studies were evidently uncongenial -to his impulsive temperament. He returned home without taking orders, -improvised for himself a hermit's dress, and fled into solitude. His -piety attracted the favour of Sir John and Lady Dalton, who gave him a -cell on their estate. Here, in meditation, he developed his mystical -religion. He did not immure himself, or cut himself off from human -companionship. For a time he lived near Anderby, where was the cell of -the recluse Margaret Kirkby, to whom he addressed his _Form of Perfect -Living_. Another important work, _Ego Dormio et Cor Meum Vigilat_, was -written for a nun of Yedingham (Yorks.). Towards the end of his life he -lived in close friendship with the nuns of Hampole, and for one of them -he wrote his _Commandment of Love to God_. At Hampole he died in 1349, -the year of the Black Death. By the devout he was regarded as a saint, -and had his commemoration day, his office, and his miracles; but he was -never canonized. - -He wrote both in Latin and in English, and it is not always easy to -distinguish his work from that of his many followers and imitators. The -writings attributed to him are edited by C. Horstmann, _Yorkshire -Writers_, 2 vols., London 1895-6. Besides the prose works noted above, -he wrote, at the request of Margaret Kirkby, a _Commentary on the -Psalms_ (ed. Bramley, Oxford 1884), based on the Latin of Peter Lombard. -A long didactic poem in Northern English, the _Prick of Conscience_, has -been attributed to him from Lydgate's time onwards; but his authorship -has recently been questioned, chiefly on the ground that the poem is -without a spark of inspiration. It is not certain that he wrote _Love is -Life_, which is included here because it expresses in characteristic -language his central belief in the personal bond, the burning love, -between God and man. The first prose selection shows that he did not -disdain the examples from natural history that were so popular in the -sermons of the time. The second is chapter xi of the _Form of Perfect -Living_, which is found as a separate extract from an early date. - -With Rolle began a movement of devotional piety, which, as might be -expected from its strong appeal to the emotions, was taken up first -among religious women; and signs of a striving for effect in his style -suggest that the hermit was not indifferent to the admiration of his -followers. He brings to his teaching more heart than mind. He escapes -the problems of the world, which seemed so insistent to his -contemporaries, by denying the world's claims. His ideas and temperament -are diametrically opposed to those of the other great figure in the -religious life of fourteenth-century England--Wiclif, the schoolman, -politician, reformer, controversialist. Yet they have in common a -sincerity and directness of belief that brushes aside conventions, and -an enthusiasm that made them leaders in an age when the Church as a -whole suffered from apathy. - - -A. LOVE IS LIFE. - -Cambridge University Library MS. DD. 5. 64, III (about 1400) f. 38 a. - - <L>uf es lyf [th]at lastes ay, [th]ar it in Criste es feste, - For wele ne wa it chaunge may, als wryten has men wyseste. - [Th]e nyght it tournes intil [th]e day, [th]i trauel intyll reste; - If [th]ou wil luf [th]us as I say, [th]ou may be wyth [th]e beste. - - Lufe es thoght wyth grete desyre of a fayre louyng; 5 - Lufe I lyken til a fyre [th]at sloken may na thyng; - Lufe vs clenses of oure syn; luf vs bote sall bryng; - Lufe [th]e Keynges hert may wyn; lufe of ioy may syng. - - [Th]e settel of lufe es lyft hee, for intil heuen it ranne; - Me thynk in erth it es sle, [th]at makes men pale and - wanne; 10 - [Th]e bede of blysse it gase ful nee, I tel [th]e as I - kanne: - [Th]of vs thynk [th]e way be dregh, luf copuls God and manne. - - Lufe es hatter [th]en [th]e cole; lufe may nane beswyke. - [Th]e flawme of lufe wha myght it thole, if it war ay ilyke? - Luf vs comfortes, and mase in qwart, and lyftes tyl - heuenryke; 15 - Luf rauysches Cryste intyl owr hert; I wate na lust it lyke. - - Lere to luf, if [th]ou wyl lyfe when [th]ou sall hethen fare; - All [th]i thoght til Hym [th]ou gyf [th]at may [th]e kepe - fra kare: - Loke [th]i hert fra Hym noght twyn, if [th]ou in wandreth - ware; - Sa [th]ou may Hym welde and wyn, and luf Hym euermare. 20 - - Iesu, [th]at me lyfe hase lent, intil [Th]i lufe me bryng! - Take til [Th]e al myne entent, [th]at [Th]ow be my - [gh]hernyng. - Wa fra me away war went, and comne war my couaytyng, - If [th]at my sawle had herd and hent [th]e sang of [Th]i - louyng. - - [Th]i lufe es ay lastand, fra [th]at we may it fele; 25 - [Th]arein make me byrnand, [th]at na thyng gar it kele. - My thoght take into [Th]i hand, and stabyl it ylk a dele, - [Th]at I be noght heldand to luf [th]is worldes wele. - - If I lufe any erthly thyng [th]at payes to my wyll, - And settes my ioy and my lykyng when it may comm me tyll, 30 - I mai drede of partyng, [th]at wyll be hate and yll: - For al my welth es bot wepyng when pyne mi saule sal spyll. - - [Th]e ioy [th]at men hase sene es lyckend tyl [th]e haye, - [Th]at now es fayre and grene, and now wytes awaye. - Swylk es [th]is worlde, I wene, and bees till Domesdaye, 35 - All in trauel and tene, fle [th]at na man it maye. - - If [th]ou luf in all [th]i thoght, and hate [th]e fylth of syn, - And gyf Hym [th]i sawle [th]at it boght, [th]at He [th]e dwell - within, - Als Crist [th]i sawle hase soght, and [th]erof walde noght - blyn, - Sa [th]ou sal to blys be broght, and heuen won within. 40 - - [Th]e kynd of luf es [th]is, [th]ar it es trayst and trew, - To stand styll in stabylnes, and chaunge it for na new. - [Th]e lyfe [th]at lufe myght fynd, or euer in hert it knew, - Fra kare it tornes [th]at kyend, and lendes in myrth and glew. - - For now, lufe [th]ow, I rede, Cryste, as I [th]e tell, 45 - And with aungels take [th]i stede: [th]at ioy loke [th]ou - noght sell! - In erth [th]ow hate, I rede, all [th]at [th]i lufe may fell, - For luf es stalworth as [th]e dede, luf es hard as hell. - - Luf es a lyght byrthen; lufe gladdes [gh]ong and alde; - Lufe es withowten pyne, as lofers hase me talde; 50 - Lufe es a gastly wyne, [th]at makes men bygge and balde; - Of lufe sal he na thyng tyne [th]at hit in hert will halde. - - Lufe es [th]e swettest thyng [th]at man in erth hase tane; - Lufe es Goddes derlyng; lufe byndes blode and bane. - In lufe be owre lykyng, I ne wate na better wane, 55 - For me and my lufyng lufe makes bath be ane. - - Bot fleschly lufe sal fare as dose [th]e flowre in May, - And lastand be na mare [th]an ane houre of a day, - And sythen syghe ful sare [th]ar lust, [th]ar pryde, [th]ar - play, - When [th]ai er casten in kare til pyne [th]at lastes ay. 60 - - When [th]air bodys lyse in syn, [th]air sawls mai qwake and - drede, - For vp sal ryse al men, and answer for [th]air dede. - If [th]ai be fonden in syn, als now [th]air lyfe [th]ai lede, - [Th]ai sal sytt hel within, and myrknes hafe to mede. - - Riche men [th]air hend sal wryng, and wicked werkes sal by 65 - In flawme of fyre, bath knyght and keyng, with sorow - schamfully. - If [th]ou wil lufe, [th]an may [th]ou syng til Cryst in melody; - [Th]e lufe of Hym ouercoms al thyng, [th]arto [th]ou traiste - trewly. - - <I> sygh and sob, bath day and nyght, for ane sa fayre of hew! - [Th]ar es na thyng my hert mai light, bot lufe [th]at es ay - new. 70 - Wha sa had Hym in his syght, or in his hert Hym knew, - His mournyng turned til ioy ful bryght, his sang intil glew. - - In myrth he lyfes, nyght and day, [th]at lufes [th]at swete - chylde; - It es Iesu, forsoth I say, of al mekest and mylde. - Wreth fra hym walde al away, [th]of he wer neuer sa wylde, 75 - He [th]at in hert lufed Hym [th]at day, fra euel He wil hym - schylde. - - Of Iesu mast lyst me speke, [th]at al my bale may bete; - Me thynk my hert may al tobreke when I thynk on [th]at swete; - In lufe lacyd He hase my thoght, [th]at I sal neuer forgete. - Ful dere me thynk He hase me boght with blodi hende and fete. 80 - - For luf my hert es bowne to brest, when I [th]at faire behalde; - Lufe es fair [th]are it es fest, [th]at neuer will be calde; - Lufe vs reues [th]e nyght-rest, in grace it makes vs balde; - Of al warkes luf es [th]e best, als haly men me talde. - - Na wonder gyf I syghand be, and sithen in sorow be sette: 85 - Iesu was nayled apon [th]e tre, and al blody forbette. - To thynk on Hym es grete pyt'e--how tenderly He grette-- - [Th]is hase He sufferde, man, for [th]e, if [th]at [th]ou syn - wyll lette. - - [Th]are es na tonge in erth may tell of lufe [th]e swetnesse. - [Th]at stedfastly in lufe kan dwell, his ioy es endlesse. 90 - God schylde [th]at he sulde til hell, [th]at lufes and - langand es, - Or euer his enmys sulde hym qwell, or make his luf be lesse. - - Iesu es lufe [th]at lastes ay, til Hym es owre langyng; - Iesu [th]e nyght turnes to [th]e day, [th]e dawyng intil - spryng. - Iesu, thynk on vs now and ay, for [Th]e we halde oure keyng; 95 - Iesu, gyf vs grace, as [Th]ou wel may, to luf [Th]e withowten - endyng. - -[Foot-note: 45 For now] For[th]i _MS. Lambeth 583_.] - -[Foot-note: 51 wyne] = wynne _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 65 hend] handes _MS., apparently altered from_ hend.] - -[Foot-note: 69 I] _so MS. Lambeth 583_.] - - -B. THE NATURE OF THE BEE. - -(The Thornton MS. (before 1450); ed. Horstmann, vol. i, p. 193.) - -_Moralia Ricardi Heremite de Natura Apis._ - -The bee has thre kyndis. Ane es [th]at scho es neuer ydill, and scho es -noghte with thaym [th]at will noghte wyrke, bot castys thaym owte, and -puttes thaym awaye. Anothire es [th]at when scho flyes scho takes erthe -in hyr fette, [th]at scho be noghte lyghtly ouerheghede in the ayere -of wynde. The {5} thyrde es [th]at scho kepes clene and bryghte hire -wynge[gh]. - -Thus ryghtwyse men [th]at lufes God are neuer in ydyllnes. For owthyre -[th]ay ere in trauayle, prayand, or thynkande, or redande, or othere -gude doande; or withtakand ydill mene, and schewand thaym worthy to be -put fra [th]e ryste of heuene, {10} for [th]ay will noghte trauayle -here. - -[Th]ay take erthe, [th]at es, [th]ay halde [th]amselfe vile and -erthely, that thay be noghte blawene with [th]e wynde of vanyt'e and of -pryde. Thay kepe thaire wynges clene, that es, [th]e twa commandementes -of charyt'e [th]ay fulfill in gud concyens, and {15} thay hafe othyre -vertus, vnblendyde with [th]e fylthe of syne and vnclene luste. - -Arestotill sais [th]at [th]e bees are feghtande agaynes hym [th]at -will drawe [th]aire hony fra thayme. Swa sulde we do agayne deuells, -[th]at afforces thame to reue fra vs [th]e hony of poure {20} lyfe and -of grace. For many are, [th]at neuer kane halde [th]e ordyre of lufe -yne_n_ce [th]aire frendys, sybbe or fremmede. Bot outhire [th]ay lufe -[th]aym ouer mekill, settand thaire thoghte vnryghtwysely on thaym, -or [th]ay luf thayme ouer lyttill, yf [th]ay doo noghte all as [th]ey -wolde till [th]ame. Swylke kane {25} noghte fyghte for thaire hony, -forthy [th]e deuelle turnes it to wormes, and makes [th]eire saules -oftesythes full bitter in angwys, and tene, and besynes of vayne -thoghtes, and o[th]er wrechidnes. For thay are so heuy in erthely -frenchype [th]at [th]ay may noghte flee intill [th]e lufe of Iesu -Criste, in [th]e wylke {30} [th]ay moghte wele forgaa [th]e lufe of all -creaturs lyfande in erthe. - -Wharefore, accordandly, Arystotill sais [th]at some fowheles are of -gude flyghyng, [th]at passes fra a lande to anothire. Some are of ill -flyghynge, for heuynes of body, and for<[th]i> {35} [th]aire neste -es noghte ferre fra [th]e erthe. Thus es it of thayme [th]at turnes -[th]ame to Godes seruys. Some are of gude flyeghynge, for thay flye -fra erthe to heuene, and rystes thayme thare in thoghte, and are fedde -in delite of Goddes lufe, and has thoghte of na lufe of [th]e worlde. -Some are [th]at {40} kan noghte flyghe fra [th]is lande, bot in [th]e -waye late theyre herte ryste, and delyttes [th]aym in sere lufes of -mene and womene, als [th]ay come and gaa, nowe ane and nowe anothire. -And in Iesu Criste [th]ay kan fynde na swettnes; or if [th]ay any tyme -fele oghte, it es swa lyttill and swa schorte, for othire thoghtes {45} -[th]at are in thayme, [th]at it brynges thaym till na stabylnes. - -<F>or [th]ay are lyke till a fowle [th]at es callede strucyo or storke, -[th]at has wenges, and it may noghte flye for charge of body. Swa -[th]ay hafe vndirstandynge, and fastes, and wakes, and semes haly to -mens syghte; bot thay may noghte flye to lufe {50} and contemplacyone -of God, [th]ay are so chargede wyth othyre affeccyons and othire -vanyt'es. - -[Foot-note: 22 ynence] ynesche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 23 mekill] _MS. follows with_: or thay -lufe [th]ame ouer lyttill, _caught up from below_.] - - -THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST. - -(Chap. xi of _The Form of Perfect Living_; ed. Horstmann, vol. i, -p. 196.) - -[Th]e seuene gyftes of [th]e Haly Gaste, [th]at ere gyfene to men -and wymmene [th]at er ordaynede to [th]e ioye of heuene, and ledys -theire lyfe in this worlde reghtwysely. Thire are thay:--Wysdome, {55} -Undyrstandynge, Counsayle, Strenghe, Connynge, Pet'e, the Drede of God. -Begynne we at Consaile, for [th]areof es myster at the begynnynge of -oure werkes, [th]at vs myslyke noghte aftyrwarde. With thire seuene -gyftes [th]e Haly Gaste teches sere mene serely. {60} - -Consaile es doynge awaye of worldes reches, and of all delytes of all -thynge[gh] [th]at mane may be tagyld with, in thoghte or dede, and -[th]a_r_with drawynge intill contemplacyone of Gode. - -Undyrstandynge es to knawe whate es to doo, and whate {65} es to lefe, -and [th]at that sall be gyffene, to gyffe it to thaym [th]at has nede, -noghte till o[th]er [th]at has na myster. - -Wysedome es forgetynge of erthely thynges and thynkynge of heuen, -with discrecyone of all men_s_ dedys. In [th]is gyfte schynes -contemplacyone, [th]at es, Saynt Austyne says, a gastely {70} dede of -fleschely affeccyones, thurghe [th]e ioye of a raysede thoghte. - -Strenghe es lastynge to fullfill gude purpose, [th]at it be noghte -lefte, for wele ne for waa. - -Pet'e es [th]at a man be mylde, and gaynesay noghte Haly {75} Writte -whene it smyttes his synnys, whethire he vndyrstand it or noghte; bot -in all his myghte purge he [th]e vilt'e of syne in hyme and o[th]er. - -Connynge es [th]at makes a man of gude <hope>, noghte ruysand hyme -of his reghtewysnes, bot sorowand of his {80} synnys, and [th]at man -gedyrs erthely gude anely to the honour of God, and prow to o[th]er -mene [th]ane hymselfe. - -The Drede of God es [th]at we turne noghte agayne till oure syne -thurghe any ill eggyng. And [th]a_n_ es drede perfite in vs and -gastely, when we drede to wrethe God in [th]e leste syne {85} [th]at we -kane knawe, and flese it als venyme. - -[Foot-note: 60 teches] towches _Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_.] - -[Foot-note: 63 [th]ar] [th]at _MS. Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 69 mens] _so Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_ = mene _MS. -Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 79 hope] _from Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64: om. MS. Thornton_.] - -[Foot-note: 84 [th]an] _Cambridge MS. DD. 5. 64_: [th]en _MS. Arundel -507_: [th]at _MS. Thornton_.] - - - - -V - -SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GRENE KNIGHT - -ABOUT 1350-75. - - -_Sir Gawayne_ has been admirably edited by Sir F. Madden for the -Bannatyne Club, 1839, and later by R. Morris for the Early English Text -Society. It is found in British Museum MS. Nero A X, together with three -other alliterative poems, named from their first words _Pearl_, -_Patience_, and _Cleanness_. _Pearl_ supplies the next specimen; -_Patience_ exemplifies the virtue by the trials of Jonah; _Cleanness_ -teaches purity of life from Scriptural stories. All these poems are in -the same handwriting; all are in a West-Midland dialect; all appear to -be of the same age; and none is without literary merit. For these -reasons, which are good but not conclusive, they are assumed to be by -the same author. Attempts to identify this author have been -unsuccessful. - -The story runs as follows: - -King Arthur is making his Christmas feast with his court at Camelot. On -New Year's Day he declares that he will not eat until he has seen or -heard some marvel. The first course of the feast is barely served when a -tall knight, clad all in green, with green hair, and a green horse to -match, rides into the hall. He carries a holly bough and a huge axe, and -tauntingly invites any knight to strike him a blow with the axe, on -condition that he will stand a return blow on the same day a year hence. -Gawayne accepts the challenge and strikes off the Green Knight's head. -The Green Knight gathers up his head, gives Gawayne an appointment for -next New Year's Day at the Green Chapel, and rides off. - -The year passes, and Gawayne, despite the fears of the court, sets out -in quest of the Green Chapel. On Christmas Eve he arrives at a splendid -castle, and finding that the Green Chapel is close at hand, accepts an -invitation to stay and rest until New Year's Day. On each of three days -the knight of the castle goes hunting, and persuades Gawayne to rest at -home. They make an agreement that each shall give the other whatever he -gets. The lady of the castle makes love to Gawayne, and kisses him once -on the first day, twice on the second day, thrice on the third day; and -on the third day she gives him her girdle, which he accepts because it -has the magic power of preserving the wearer from wounds. Each evening -he duly gives the kisses to the knight, and receives in return the -spoils of the hunting of deer and boar and fox. But he conceals the -girdle. - -The extract begins with Gawayne preparing on New Year's morning to stand -the return blow at the Green Chapel. - -The poem ends by the Green Knight revealing that he is himself the lord -of the castle; that he went to Arthur's court at the suggestion of -Morgan la Fay; that he had urged his wife to make love to Gawayne and -try his virtue; and that he would not have harmed him at all, if he had -not committed the slight fault of concealing the girdle. Gawayne returns -to the court, bearing the girdle as a sign of his shame, and tells his -story. The knights of the court agree in future to wear a bright green -belt for Gawayne's sake. - -_Sir Gawayne_ is admittedly the best of the alliterative romances. It -must have come down to us practically as it was written by the poet, for -it is free from the flatness and conventional phrasing which is -characteristic of romances that have passed through many popular -recensions. The descriptions of nature, of armour and dresses, the -hunting scenes, and the love making, are all excellently done; and the -poet shows the same richness of imagination and skill in producing -pictorial effects that are so noticeable in _Pearl_. He has too a quiet -humour that recalls Chaucer in some of his moods. - - -THE TESTING OF SIR GAWAYNE. - -British Museum MS. Nero A X (about 1400); ed. R. Morris, ll. 2069 ff. - - The brygge wat[gh] brayde doun, and [th]e brode [gh]ate[gh] - Vnbarred and born open vpon bo[th]e halue. - [Th]e burne blessed hym bilyue, and [th]e brede[gh] passed; - Prayses [th]e porter bifore [th]e prynce kneled, - Gef hym God and goud day, [th]at Gawayn He saue, 5 - And went on his way with his wy[gh]e one, - [Th]at schulde teche hym to tourne to [th]at tene place - [Th]er [th]e ruful race he schulde resayue. - [Th]ay bo[gh]en bi bonkke[gh] [th]er bo[gh]e[gh] ar bare; - [Th]ay clomben bi clyffe[gh] [th]er clenge[gh] [th]e colde. 10 - [Th]e heuen wat[gh] vp halt, bot vgly [th]er vnder,-- - Mist muged on [th]e mor, malt on [th]e mounte[gh], - Vch hille hade a hatte, a myst-hakel huge. - Broke[gh] byled and breke bi bonkke[gh] aboute, - Schyre schaterande on schore[gh], [th]er [th]ay doun - schowued. 15 - Wela wylle wat[gh] [th]e way [th]er [th]ay bi wod schulden, - Til hit wat[gh] sone sesoun [th]at [th]e sunne ryses - [th]at tyde. - [Th]ay were on a hille ful hy[gh]e, - [Th]e quyte snaw lay bisyde; 20 - [Th]e burne [th]at rod hym by - Bede his mayster abide. - 'For I haf wonnen yow hider, wy[gh]e, at [th]is tyme, - And now nar [gh]e not fer fro [th]at note place - [Th]at [gh]e han spied and spuryed so specially after. 25 - Bot I schal say yow for so[th]e, sy[th]en I yow knowe, - And [gh]e ar a lede vpon lyue [th]at I wel louy, - Wolde [gh]e worch bi my wytte, [gh]e wor[th]ed [th]e better. - [Th]e place [th]at [gh]e prece to ful perelous is halden. - [Th]er wone[gh] a wy[gh]e in [th]at waste, [th]e worst vpon - er[th]e, 30 - For he is stiffe and sturne, and to strike louies, - And more he is [th]en any mon vpon myddelerde, - And his body bigger [th]en [th]e best fowre - [Th]at ar in Ar[th]ure[gh] hous, He_c_tor, o[th]er o[th]er. - He cheue[gh] [th]at chaunce at [th]e chapel grene, 35 - [Th]er passes non bi [th]at place so proude in his armes - [Th]at he ne dyn_g_e[gh] hym to de[th]e with dynt of his honde; - For he is a mon methles, and mercy non vses, - For be hit chorle o[th]er chaplayn [th]at bi [th]e chapel - rydes, - Monk o[th]er masse-prest, o[th]er any mon elles, 40 - Hym [th]ynk as queme hym to quelle as quyk go hymseluen. - For[th]y I say [th]e, as so[th]e as [gh]e in sadel sitte, - Com [gh]e [th]ere, [gh]e be kylled, may [th]e, kny[gh]t, rede-- - Trawe [gh]e me [th]at trwely--[th]a[gh] [gh]e had twenty lyues - to spende. 45 - He hat[gh] wonyd here ful [gh]ore, - On bent much baret bende, - A[gh]ayn his dynte[gh] sore - [Gh]e may not yow defende. - 'For[th]y, goude Sir Gawayn, let [th]e gome one, 50 - And got[gh] away sum o[th]er gate, vpon Godde[gh] halue! - Cayre[gh] bi sum o[th]er kyth, [th]er Kryst mot yow spede, - And I schal hy[gh] me hom a[gh]ayn, and hete yow fyrre - [Th]at I schal swere bi God and alle His gode hal[gh]e[gh], - As help me God and [th]e halydam, and o[th]e[gh] innoghe, 55 - [Th]at I schal lelly yow layne, and lance neuer tale - [Th]at euer [gh]e fondet to fle for freke [th]at I wyst.' - 'Grant merci,' quod Gawayn, and gruchyng he sayde: - 'Wel worth [th]e, wy[gh]e, [th]at wolde[gh] my gode, - And [th]at lelly me layne I leue wel [th]ou wolde[gh]. 60 - Bot helde [th]ou hit neuer so holde, and I here passed, - Founded for ferde for to fle, in fourme [th]at [th]ou telle[gh], - I were a kny[gh]t kowarde, I my[gh]t _n_ot be excused. - Bot I wyl to [th]e chapel, for chaunce [th]at may falle, - And talk wyth [th]at ilk tulk [th]e tale [th]at me lyste, 65 - Wor[th]e hit wele o[th]er wo, as [th]e wyrde lyke[gh] - hit hafe. - [Th]a[gh]e he be a sturn knape - To sti[gh]tel, and stad with staue, - Ful wel con Dry[gh]tyn schape 70 - His seruaunte[gh] for to saue.' - 'Mary!' quod [th]at o[th]er mon, 'now [th]ou so much spelle[gh] - [Th]at [th]ou wylt [th]yn awen nye nyme to [th]yseluen, - And [th]e lyst lese [th]y lyf, [th]e lette I ne kepe. - Haf here [th]i helme on [th]y hede, [th]i spere in [th]i - honde, 75 - And ryde me doun [th]is ilk rake bi [gh]on rokke syde - Til [th]ou be bro[gh]t to [th]e bo[th]em of [th]e brem valay. - [Th]enne loke a littel on [th]e launde, on [th]i lyfte honde, - And [th]ou schal se in [th]at slade [th]e self chapel, - And [th]e borelych burne on bent [th]at hit kepe[gh]. 80 - Now fare[gh] wel, on Gode[gh] half! Gawayn [th]e noble; - For alle [th]e golde vpon grounde I nolde go wyth [th]e, - Ne bere [th]e fela[gh]schip [th]ur[gh] [th]is fryth on fote - fyrre.' - Bi [th]at [th]e wy[gh]e in [th]e wod wende[gh] his brydel, - Hit [th]e hors with [th]e hele[gh] as harde as he my[gh]t, 85 - Lepe[gh] hym ouer [th]e launde, and leue[gh] [th]e kny[gh]t - [th]ere al one. - 'Bi Godde[gh] self!' quod Gawayn, - 'I wyl nau[th]er grete ne grone; - To Godde[gh] wylle I am ful bayn, 90 - And to Hym I haf me tone.' - Thenne gyrde[gh] he to Gryngolet, and gedere[gh] [th]e rake, - Schowue[gh] in bi a schore at a scha[gh]e syde, - Ride[gh] [th]ur[gh] [th]e ro[gh]e bonk ry[gh]t to [th]e dale; - And [th]enne he wayted hym aboute, and wylde hit hym - [th]o[gh]t, 95 - And se[gh]e no syngne of resette bisyde[gh] nowhere, - Bot hy[gh]e bonkke[gh] and brent vpon bo[th]e halue, - And ru[gh]e knokled knarre[gh] with knorned stone[gh]; - [Th]e skwe[gh] of [th]e scowtes skayned hym [th]o[gh]t. - [Th]enne he houed, and wythhylde his hors at [th]at tyde, 100 - And ofte chaunged his cher [th]e chapel to seche: - He se[gh] non suche in no syde, and selly hym [th]o[gh]t - Sone, a lyttel on a launde, a lawe as hit we<re>, - A bal[gh] ber[gh] bi a bonke, [th]e brymme bysyde, - Bi a for[gh] of a flode [th]at ferked [th]are; 105 - [Th]e borne blubred [th]erinne as hit boyled hade. - [Th]e kny[gh]t kache[gh] his caple, and com to [th]e lawe, - Li[gh]te[gh] doun luflyly, and at a lynde tache[gh] - [Th]e rayne and his riche with a ro[gh]e braunche. - [Th]enne he bo[gh]e[gh] to [th]e ber[gh]e, aboute hit he - walke[gh], 110 - Debatande with hymself quat hit be my[gh]t. - Hit hade a hole on [th]e ende and on ay[th]er syde, - And ouergrowen with gresse in glodes aywhere, - And al wat[gh] hol[gh] inwith, nobot an olde caue, - Or a creuisse of an olde cragge, he cou[th]e hit no[gh]t - deme 115 - with spelle. - 'We! Lorde,' quod [th]e gentyle kny[gh]t, - 'Whe[th]er [th]is be [th]e grene chapelle? - He<re> my[gh]t aboute mydny[gh]t - [Th]e dele his matynnes telle! 120 - 'Now iwysse,' quod Wowayn, 'wysty is here; - [Th]is oritore is vgly, with erbe[gh] ouergrowen; - Wel biseme[gh] [th]e wy[gh]e wruxled in grene - Dele here his deuocioun on [th]e deuele[gh] wyse. - Now I fele hit is [th]e fende, in my fyue wytte[gh], 125 - [Th]at hat[gh] stoken me [th]is steuen to strye me here. - [Th]is is a chapel of meschaunce, [th]at chekke hit bytyde! - Hit is [th]e corsedest kyrk [th]at euer I com inne!' - With he[gh]e helme on his hede, his launce in his honde, - He rome[gh] vp to [th]e rokke of [th]o ro[gh] wone[gh]. 130 - [Th]ene herde he, of [th]at hy[gh]e hil, in a harde roche, - Bi[gh]onde [th]e broke, in a bonk, a wonder breme noyse. - Quat! hit clatered in [th]e clyff, as hit cleue schulde, - As one vpon a gryndelston hade grounden a sy[th]e; - What! hit wharred and whette, as water at a mulne; 135 - What! hit rusched and ronge, raw[th]e to here. - [Th]enne 'Bi Godde!' quod Gawayn, '[th]at gere a_s_ I trowe - Is ryched at [th]e reuerence me, renk, to mete - bi rote. - Let God worche, we loo! 140 - Hit helppe[gh] me not a mote. - My lif [th]a[gh] I forgoo, - Drede dot[gh] me no lote.' - Thenne [th]e kny[gh]t con calle ful hy[gh]e: - 'Who sti[gh]tle[gh] in [th]is sted, me steuen to holde? 145 - For now is gode Gawayn goande ry[gh]t here. - If any wy[gh]e o[gh]t wyl, wynne hider fast, - O[th]er now o[th]er neuer, his nede[gh] to spede.' - 'Abyde,' quod on on [th]e bonke abouen ouer his hede, - 'And [th]ou schal haf al in hast [th]at I [th]e hy[gh]t - ones.' 150 - [Gh]et he rusched on [th]at rurde rapely a [th]rowe, - And wyth quettyng awharf, er he wolde ly[gh]t; - And sy[th]en he keuere[gh] bi a cragge, and come[gh] of a hole, - Whyrlande out of a wro wyth a felle weppen, - A Dene[gh] ax nwe dy[gh]t, [th]e dynt with <t>o [gh]elde, 155 - With a borelych bytte bende by [th]e halme, - Fyled in a fylor, fowre fote large,-- - Hit wat[gh] no lasse bi [th]at lace [th]at lemed ful bry[gh]t,-- - And [th]e gome in [th]e grene gered as fyrst, - Bo[th]e [th]e lyre and [th]e legge[gh], lokke[gh] and - berde, 160 - Saue [th]at fayre on his fote he founde[gh] on [th]e er[th]e, - Sette [th]e stele to [th]e stone, and stalked bysyde. - Whan he wan to [th]e watter, [th]er he wade nolde, - He hypped ouer on hys ax, and orpedly stryde[gh], - Bremly bro[th]e on a bent [th]at brode wat[gh] aboute, 165 - on snawe. - Sir Gawayn [th]e kny[gh]t con mete, - He ne lutte hym no [th]yng lowe; - [Th]at o[th]er sayde 'Now, sir swete, - Of steuen mon may [th]e trowe. 170 - 'Gawayn,' quod [th]at grene gome, 'God [th]e mot loke! - Iwysse [th]ou art welco_m_, wy[gh]e, to my place, - And [th]ou hat[gh] tymed [th]i trauayl as truee mon schulde, - And [th]ou knowe[gh] [th]e couenaunte[gh] kest vus bytwene: - At [th]is tyme twelmonyth [th]ou toke [th]at [th]e falled, 175 - And I schulde at [th]is nwe [gh]ere [gh]eply [th]e quyte. - And we ar in [th]is valay verayly oure one; - Here ar no renkes vs to rydde, rele as vus like[gh]. - Haf [th]y helme of [th]y hede, and haf here [th]y pay. - Busk no more debate [th]en I [th]e bede [th]enne 180 - When [th]ou wypped of my hede at a wap one.' - 'Nay, bi God' quod Gawayn, '[th]at me gost lante! - I schal gruch [th]e no grwe for grem [th]at falle[gh]. - Bot sty[gh]tel [th]e vpon on strok, and I schal stonde stylle - And warp [th]e no wernyng to worch as [th]e lyke[gh], 185 - nowhare.' - He lened with [th]e nek, and lutte, - And schewed [th]at schyre al bare, - And lette as he no[gh]t dutte; - For drede he wolde not dare. 190 - Then [th]e gome in [th]e grene gray[th]ed hym swy[th]e, - Gedere[gh] vp hys grymme tole Gawayn to smyte; - With alle [th]e bur in his body he ber hit on lofte, - Munt as ma[gh]tyly as marre hym he wolde: - Hade hit dryuen adoun as dre[gh] as he atled, 195 - [Th]er hade ben ded of his dynt [th]at do[gh]ty wat[gh] euer. - Bot Gawayn on [th]at giserne glyfte hym bysyde, - As hit com glydande adoun on glode hym to schende, - And schranke a lytel with [th]e schulderes for [th]e scharp - yrne. - [Th]at o[th]er schalk wyth a schunt [th]e schene - wythhalde[gh], 200 - And [th]enne repreued he [th]e prynce with mony prowde - worde[gh]: - '[Th]ou art not Gawayn,' quod [th]e gome, '[th]at is so goud - halden, - [Th]at neuer ar[gh]ed for no here, by hylle ne be vale, - And now [th]ou fles for ferde er [th]ou fele harme[gh]! - Such cowardise of [th]at kny[gh]t cow[th]e I neuer here. 205 - Naw[th]er fyked I ne fla[gh]e, freke, quen [th]ou myntest, - Ne kest no kauelacion, in kynge[gh] hous Arthor. - My hede fla[gh] to my fote, and [gh]et fla[gh] I neuer; - And [th]ou, er any harme hent, ar[gh]e[gh] in hert; - Wherfore [th]e better burne me burde be called 210 - [th]erfore.' - Quod Gawayn 'I schunt one[gh], - And so wyl I no more; - Bot [th]a[gh] my hede falle on [th]e stone[gh], - I con not hit restore. 215 - Bot busk, burne, bi [th]i fayth! and bryng me to [th]e poynt. - Dele to me my destin'e, and do hit out of honde, - For I schal stonde [th]e a strok, and start no more - Til [th]yn ax haue me hitte: haf here my traw[th]e.' - 'Haf at [th]e [th]enne!' quod [th]at o[th]er, and heue[gh] - hit alofte, 220 - And wayte[gh] as wro[th]ely as he wode were. - He mynte[gh] at hym ma[gh]tyly, bot not [th]e mon ryue[gh], - Withhelde heterly h<i>s honde, er hit hurt my[gh]t. - Gawayn gray[th]ely hit byde[gh], and glent with no membre, - Bot stode stylle as [th]e ston, o[th]er a stubbe au[th]er 225 - [Th]at ra[th]eled is in roch'e grounde with rote[gh] - a hundreth. - [Th]en muryly efte con he mele, [th]e mon in [th]e grene: - 'So now [th]ou hat[gh] [th]i hert holle, hitte me bihou<e>s. - Halde [th]e now [th]e hy[gh]e hode [th]at Ar[th]ur [th]e - ra[gh]t, - And kepe [th]y kanel at [th]is kest, [gh]if hit keuer may.' 230 - Gawayn ful gryndelly with greme [th]enne sayde: - 'Wy! [th]resch on, [th]ou [th]ro mon, [th]ou [th]rete[gh] - to longe. - I hope [th]at [th]i hert ar[gh]e wyth [th]yn awen seluen.' - 'For so[th]e,' quod [th]at o[th]er freke, 'so felly [th]ou - speke[gh], - I wyl no lenger on lyte lette [th]in ernde 235 - ri[gh]t nowe.' - [Th]enne tas he hym stry[th]e to stryke, - And frounses bo[th]e lyppe and browe. - No meruayle [th]a[gh] hym myslyke - [Th]at hoped of no rescowe. 240 - He lyftes ly[gh]tly his lome, and let hit doun fayre, - With [th]e barbe of [th]e bitte bi [th]e bare nek, - [Th]a[gh] he homered heterly, hurt hym no more, - Bot snyrt hym on [th]at on syde, [th]at seuered [th]e hyde; - [Th]e scharp schrank to [th]e flesche [th]ur[gh] [th]e schyre - grece 245 - [Th]at [th]e schene blod ouer his schulderes schot to [th]e er - [th]e; - And quen [th]e burne se[gh] [th]e blode blenk on [th]e snawe, - He sprit forth spenne fote more [th]en a spere len[th]e, - Hent heterly his helme, and on his hed cast, - Schot with his schuldere[gh], his fayre schelde vnder, 250 - Brayde[gh] out a bry[gh]t sworde, and bremely he speke[gh];-- - Neuer syn [th]at he wat[gh] burne borne of his moder - Wat[gh] he neuer in [th]is worlde wy[gh]e half so bly[th]e-- - 'Blynne, burne, of [th]y bur, bede me no mo! - I haf a stroke in [th]is stede withoute stryf hent, 255 - And if [th]ow reche[gh] me any mo, I redyly schal quyte, - And [gh]elde [gh]ederly a[gh]ayn--and [th]er to [gh]e tryst-- - and foo. - Bot on stroke here me falle[gh]-- - [Th]e couenaunt schop ry[gh]t so 260 - <Schapen> in Ar[th]ure[gh] halle[gh]-- - And [th]erfore, hende, now hoo!' - The ha[th]el heldet hym fro, and on his ax rested, - Sette [th]e schaft vpon schore, and to [th]e scharp lened, - And loked to [th]e leude [th]at on [th]e launde [gh]ede, 265 - How [th]at do[gh]ty, dredles, deruely [th]er stonde[gh] - Armed, ful a[gh]le[gh]: in hert hit hym lyke[gh]. - [Th]enn he mele[gh] muryly wyth a much steuen, - And wyth a ry<n>kande rurde he to [th]e renk sayde: - 'Bolde burne, on [th]is bent be not so gryndel. 270 - No mon here vnmanerly [th]e mysboden habbe<[gh]> - Ne kyd, bot as couenaunde at kynge[gh] kort schaped. - I hy[gh]t [th]e a strok and [th]ou hit hat[gh]; halde [th]e - wel payed. - I relece [th]e of [th]e remnaunt of ry[gh]tes alle o[th]er. - Iif I deliuer had bene, a boffet paraunter 275 - I cou[th]e wro[th]eloker haf waret,--to [th]e haf wro[gh]t - anger. - Fyrst I mansed [th]e muryly with a mynt one, - And roue [th]e wyth no rof sore, with ry[gh]t I [th]e profered - For [th]e forwarde [th]at we fest in [th]e fyrst ny[gh]t, - And [th]ou trystyly [th]e traw[th]e and trwly me halde[gh], 280 - Al [th]e gayne [th]ow me gef, as god mon schulde. - [Th]at o[th]er munt for [th]e morne, mon, I [th]e profered, - [Th]ou kyssedes my clere wyf, [th]e cosse[gh] me ra[gh]te[gh]. - For bo[th]e two here I [th]e bede bot two bare myntes - boute sca[th]e. 285 - Trwe mon trwe restore, - [Th]enne [th]ar mon drede no wa[th]e. - At [th]e [th]rid [th]ou fayled [th]ore, - And [th]erfor [th]at tappe ta [th]e. - For hit is my wede [th]at [th]ou were[gh], [th]at ilke wouen - girdel, 290 - Myn owen wyf hit [th]e weued, I wot wel forso[th]e. - Now know I wel [th]y cosses, and [th]y costes als, - And [th]e wowyng of my wyf: I wro[gh]t hit myseluen. - I sende hir to asay [th]e, and sothly me [th]ynkke[gh] - On [th]e fautlest freke [th]at euer on fote [gh]ede. 295 - As perle bi [th]e quite pese is of prys more, - So is Gawayn, in god fayth, bi o[th]er gay kny[gh]te[gh]. - Bot here yow lakked a lyttel, sir, and lewt'e yow wonted; - Bot [th]at wat[gh] for no wylyde werke, ne wowyng nau[th]er, - Bot for [gh]e lufed your lyf; [th]e lasse I yow blame.' 300 - [Th]at o[th]er stif mon in study stod a gret whyle, - So agreued for greme he gryed withinne; - Alle [th]e blode of his brest blende in his face, - [Th]at al he schrank for schome [th]at [th]e schalk talked. - [Th]e forme worde vpon folde [th]at [th]e freke meled: 305 - 'Corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse bo[th]e! - In yow is vylany and vyse [th]at vertue disstrye[gh].' - [Th]enne he ka[gh]t to [th]e knot, and [th]e kest lawse[gh], - Brayde bro[th]ely [th]e belt to [th]e burne seluen: - 'Lo! [th]er [th]e falssyng! foule mot hit falle! 310 - For care of [th]y knokke cowardyse me ta[gh]t - To acorde me with couetyse, my kynde to forsake, - [Th]at is larges and lewt'e [th]at longe[gh] to kny[gh]te[gh]. - Now am I fawty and falce, and ferde haf ben euer - Of trecherye and vntraw[th]e: bo[th]e bityde sor[gh]e 315 - and care! - I biknowe yow, kny[gh]t, here stylle, - Al fawty is my fare; - Lete[gh] me ouertake your wylle - And efte I schal be ware.' 320 - Thenn lo[gh]e [th]at o[th]er leude, and luflyly sayde: - 'I halde hit hardily hole, [th]e harme [th]at I hade. - [Th]ou art confessed so clene, beknowen of [th]y mysses, - And hat[gh] [th]e penaunce apert of [th]e poynt of myn egge, - I halde [th]e polysed of [th]at ply[gh]t, and pured as clene 325 - As [th]ou hade[gh] neuer forfeted sy[th]en [th]ou wat[gh] - fyrst borne; - And I gif [th]e, sir, [th]e gurdel [th]at is golde-hemmed, - For hit is grene as my goune. Sir Gawayne, [gh]e maye - [Th]enk vpon [th]is ilke [th]repe, [th]er [th]ou forth - [th]rynge[gh] - Among prynces of prys; and [th]is a pure token 330 - Of [th]e chaunce _at_ [th]e grene chapel _of_ cheualrous - kny[gh]te[gh]. - And [gh]e schal in [th]is nwe [gh]er a[gh]ayn to my wone[gh], - And we schyn reuel [th]e remnaunt of [th]is ryche fest - ful bene.' - [Th]er la[th]ed hym fast [th]e lord, 335 - And sayde 'With my wyf, I wene, - We schal yow wel acorde, - [Th]at wat[gh] your enmy kene.' - 'Nay, for so[th]e,' quod [th]e segge, and sesed hys helme, - And hat[gh] hit of hendely, and [th]e ha[th]el - [th]onkke[gh], 340 - 'I haf soiorned sadly; sele yow bytyde! - And He [gh]elde hit yow [gh]are [th]at [gh]arkke[gh] al - menskes! - And comaunde[gh] me to [th]at cortays, your comlych fere, - Bo[th]e [th]at on and [th]at o[th]er myn honoured ladye[gh], - [Th]at [th]us hor kny[gh]t wyth hor kest han koyntly - bigyled. 345 - Bot hit is no ferly [th]a[gh] a fole madde, - And [th]ur[gh] wyles of wymmen be wonen to sor[gh]e, - For so wat[gh] Adam in erde with one bygyled, - And Salamon with fele sere, and Samson eftsone[gh] - Dalyda dalt hym hys wyrde, and Dauyth [th]erafter 350 - Wat[gh] blended with Barsabe, [th]at much bale [th]oled. - Now [th]ese were wrathed wyth her wyles, hit were a wynne huge - To luf hom wel, and leue hem not, a leude [th]at cou[th]e. - For [th]es wer forne [th]e freest, [th]at fol[gh]ed alle [th]e - sele - Exellently of alle [th]yse o[th]er vnder heuenryche 355 - [th]at mused; - And alle [th]ay were biwyled - With wymmen [th]at [th]ay vsed. - [Th]a[gh] I be now bigyled, - Me [th]ink me burde be excused.' 360 - -[Foot-note: 34 Hector] Hestor _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 37 dynge[gh]] dynne[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 63 not] mot _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 69 and] & & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 137 as] at _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 172 welcom] welcon _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 179 [th]y (1st)] [th]y [th]y _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 237 he] he he _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 322 hardily] hardilyly _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 331 _at... of_ (2nd)] _transposed in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 358 With] With wyth _MS._] - - - - -VI - -THE PEARL - -ABOUT 1375. - - -The facts leading to the presumption that _Pearl_ and _Sir Gawayne_ are -by the same author have been mentioned in the prefatory note to _Sir -Gawayne_. But the poems are markedly different in subject and tone. -_Pearl_, like Chaucer's _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, is an elegy cast -in the vision form made popular by the _Roman de la Rose_. The subject -is a little girl, who died before she was two years old, and the -treatment is deeply religious. Her death is symbolized as the loss of a -pearl without spot, that slipped from its owner's hand through the grass -into the earth. - -On a festival day in August, the poet, while mourning his loss, falls -asleep on his child's grave. His spirit passes to a land of flowers and -rich fruits, where birds of flaming hues sing incomparably, where the -cliffs are of crystal and beryl, and a river runs in a bed of gleaming -jewels. On the other side of the river, which is lovelier still, sits a -maiden dressed all in white, with coronet and ornaments of pearl. The -poet recognizes his lost child, but cannot call to her for wonder and -dread, until she rises and salutes him. He complains that since her loss -he has been a joyless jeweller. She rebukes him gently; she is not lost, -but made safe and beautiful for ever. Overjoyed, he says he will cross -the river and live with her in this paradise; but she warns him against -such presumption, for since Adam's fall the river may be crossed only by -the way of death. He is in despair to think that now that his Pearl is -found, he must still live joyless, apart from her; but he is bidden to -resign himself to God's will and mercy, because rebellion will avail him -nothing. - -At this point begins the argument on salvation by grace or salvation by -works which is here reprinted. - -The maiden then continues the discussion, explaining that 'the innocent -are ay safe by right', and that only those who come as little children -can win the bliss sought by the man who sold his all for a matchless -pearl. - -Next the poet asks whence her beauty comes, and what her office is. She -replies that she is one of the brides of Christ, whom St. John in the -Apocalypse saw arrayed for the bridal in the New Jerusalem. He asks to -see their mansions, and by special grace is allowed to view the holy -city from without. He sees it as St. John saw it, gleaming with gold, -with its pillars of precious stone, its gates of pearl; its streets -lighted by a divine radiance, so that there is no need of moon or sun. -There is no church or chapel or temple there: God himself is the -minister, and Christ is the sacrifice. Mortal eye could not bear the -splendour, and he stood 'as stylle as dased quayle'. At evening came the -procession of the virgin brides of Christ, each bearing on her breast -the pearl of perfect happiness. The Lamb leads them, in pearl-white -robes, his side bleeding, his face rapt; while elders make obeisance, -and angels sing songs of joy as He nears the throne of God. - -Suddenly the poet sees his Pearl among her companions. Overcome with -longing and delight, he tries to cross the river, only to wake in the -garden where he fell asleep. Henceforth he is resigned to the pleasure -of the Prince of Heaven. - -The reader will be able to judge the author's poetical gift from the -selection, which has been chosen as one of the less ornate passages. -Even here the form distracts attention from the matter by its -elaborateness. A difficult rime scheme is superimposed on the -alliterative line; stanza is interlinked with stanza; each group of five -stanzas is distinguished by a similar refrain, and bound to the -preceding and following groups by repetition in the first and last -lines. So too the close of the poem echoes the beginning. With such -intricacy of plan, it is not surprising that the rime is sometimes -forced, and the sense strained or obscure. It is rather a matter for -wonder that, in so long a work, the author was able to maintain his -marvellous technique without completely sacrificing poetry to metrical -gymnastics. - -The highly wrought, almost overwrought, effect is heightened when the -poem is read as a whole. If _Piers Plowman_ gives a realistic picture of -the drabness of mediaeval life, _Pearl_, more especially in the early -stanzas, shows a richness of imagery and a luxuriance in light and -colour that seem scarcely English. Yet they have their parallels in the -decorative art of the time--the elaborate carving in wood and stone; the -rich colouring of tapestries, of illuminated books and painted glass; -the designs of the jewellers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths, which even -the notaries who made the old inventories cannot pass without a word of -admiration. The _Pearl_ reminds us of the tribute due to the artists and -craftsmen of the fourteenth century. - -The edition by C. G. Osgood, Boston 1906, is the handiest. - - -THE PEARL, ll. 361-612. - -(MS. Cotton Nero A X (about 1400).) - - Thenne demed I to [th]at damyselle: - 'Ne wor[th]e no wrath[th]e vnto my Lorde, - If rapely <I> raue, spornande in spelle; - My herte wat[gh] al wyth mysse remorde, - As wallande water got[gh] out of welle. 5 - I do me ay in Hys myserecorde; - Rebuke me neuer wyth worde[gh] felle, - [Th]a[gh] I forloyne, my dere endorde, - Bot _k_y[th]e[gh] me kyndely your coumforde, - Pytosly [th]enkande vpon [th]ysse: 10 - Of care and me [gh]e made acorde, - [Th]at er wat[gh] grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'My blysse, my bale, [gh]e han ben bo[th]e, - Bot much [th]e bygger [gh]et wat[gh] my mon; - Fro [th]ou wat[gh] wroken fro vch a wo[th]e, 15 - I wyste neuer quere my perle wat[gh] gon. - Now I hit se, now le[th]e[gh] my lo[th]e; - And, quen we departed, we wern at on; - God forbede we be now wro[th]e, - We meten so selden by stok o[th]er ston. 20 - [Th]a[gh] cortaysly [gh]e carp con, - I am bot mol and ma_n_ere[gh] mysse; - Bot Crystes mersy, and Mary, and Ion, - [Th]ise arn [th]e grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'In blysse I se [th]e bly[th]ely blent, 25 - And I a man al mornyf mate; - [Gh]e take [th]eron ful lyttel tente, - [Th]a[gh] I hente ofte harme[gh] hate. - Bot now I am here in your presente, - I wolde bysech, wythouten debate, 30 - [Gh]e wolde me say in sobre asente - What lyf [gh]e lede erly and late. - For I am ful fayn [th]at your astate - Is wor[th]en to worschyp and wele, iwysse; - Of alle my ioy [th]e hy[gh]e gate 35 - Hit is, _and_ grounde of alle my blysse.' - - 'Now blysse, burne, mot [th]e bytyde,' - [Th]en sayde [th]at lufsoum of lyth and lere, - 'And welcum here to walk and byde, - For now [th]y speche is to me dere. 40 - Maysterful mod and hy[gh]e pryde, - I hete [th]e, arn heterly hated here. - My Lorde ne loue[gh] not for to chyde, - For meke arn alle [th]at wone[gh] Hym nere; - And when in Hys place [th]ou schal apere, 45 - Be dep deuote in hol mekenesse; - My Lorde [th]e Lamb loue[gh] ay such chere, - [Th]at is [th]e grounde of alle my blysse. - - 'A blysful lyf [th]ou says I lede; - [Th]ou wolde[gh] knaw [th]erof [th]e stage. 50 - [Th]ow wost wel when [th]y perle con schede - I wat[gh] ful [gh]ong and tender of age; - Bot my Lorde [th]e Lombe, [th]ur[gh] Hys Godhede, - He toke myself to Hys maryage, - Corounde me quene in blysse to brede 55 - In lenghe of daye[gh] [th]at euer schal wage; - And sesed in alle Hys herytage - Hys lef is, I am holy Hysse; - Hys prese, Hys prys, and Hys parage - Is rote and grounde of alle my blysse.' 60 - - 'Blysful,' quod I, 'may [th]ys be trwe?-- - Dysplese[gh] not if I speke errour-- - Art [th]ou [th]e quene of heuene[gh] blwe, - [Th]at al [th]ys worlde schal do honour? - We leuen on Marye [th]at grace of grewe, 65 - [Th]at ber a barne of vyrgynflour; - [Th]e croune fro hyr quo mo[gh]t remwe - Bot ho hir passed in sum fauour? - Now, for synglerty o hyr dousour, - We calle hyr Fenyx of Arraby, 70 - [Th]at freles fle[gh]e of hyr fasor, - Lyk to [th]e quen of cortaysye.' - - 'Cortayse Quen,' [th]enne s<a>yde [th]at gaye, - Knelande to grounde, folde vp hyr face, - 'Makele[gh] Moder and myryest May, 75 - Blessed Bygynner of vch a grace!' - [Th]enne ros ho vp and con restay, - And speke me towarde in [th]at space: - 'Sir, fele here porchase[gh] and fonge[gh] pray, - Bot supplantore[gh] none wythinne [th]ys place. 80 - [Th]at emperise al heuene[gh] hat[gh], - And vr[th]e and helle in her bayly; - Of erytage [gh]et non wyl ho chace, - For ho is quen of cortaysye. - - 'The court of [th]e kyndom of God alyue 85 - Hat[gh] a property in hytself beyng: - Alle [th]at may [th]erinne aryue - Of alle [th]e reme is quen o[th]er kyng, - And neuer o[th]er [gh]et schal depryue, - Bot vchon fayn of o[th]ere[gh] hafyng, 90 - And wolde her coroune[gh] wern wor[th]e [th]o fyue, - If possyble were her mendyng. - Bot my Lady, of quom Iesu con spryng, - Ho halde[gh] [th]e empyre ouer vus ful hy[gh]e; - And [th]at dysplese[gh] non of oure gyng, 95 - For ho is quene of cortaysye. - - 'Of courtaysye, as sayt[gh] Saynt Poule, - Al arn we membre[gh] of Iesu Kryst; - As heued and arme and legg and naule - Temen to hys body ful trwe and t<r>yste, 100 - Ry[gh]t so is vch a Krysten sawle - A longande lym to [th]e Mayster of myste. - [Th]enne loke what hate o[th]er any gawle - Is tached o[th]er ty[gh]ed [th]y lymme[gh] bytwyste: - [Th]y heued hat[gh] nau[th]er greme ne gryste 105 - On arme o[th]er fynger [th]a[gh] [th]ou ber by[gh]e: - So fare we alle wyth luf and lyste - To kyng and quene by cortaysye.' - - 'Cortays'e,' quod I, 'I leue, - And charyt'e grete, be yow among, 110 - Bot my speche [th]at yow ne greue, - - * * * * * - - [Th]yself in heuen ouer hy[gh] [th]ou heue, - To make [th]e quen [th]at wat[gh] so [gh]onge. - What more honour mo[gh]te he acheue 115 - [Th]at hade endured in worlde stronge, - And lyued in penaunce hys lyue[gh] longe, - Wyth bodyly bale hym blysse to byye? - What more worschyp mo[gh]t h_e_ fonge, - [Th]en corounde be kyng by cortays'e? 120 - - 'That cortays'e is to fre of dede, - [Gh]yf hyt be soth [th]at [th]ou cone[gh] saye; - [Th]ou lyfed not two [gh]er in oure [th]ede; - [Th]ou cow[th]e[gh] neuer God nau[th]er plese ne pray, - Ne neuer naw[th]er Pater ne Crede; 125 - And quen mad on [th]e fyrst day! - I may not traw, so God me spede, - [Th]at God wolde wry[th]e so wrange away; - Of countes, damysel, par ma fay! - Wer fayr in heuen to halde asstate, 130 - A[th]er elle[gh] a lady of lasse aray; - Bot a quene!--hit is to dere a date.' - - '[Th]er is no date of Hys godnesse,' - [Th]en sayde to me [th]at wor[th]y wy[gh]te, - 'For al is traw[th]e [th]at He con dresse, 135 - And He may do no [th]ynk bot ry[gh]t, - As Mathew mele[gh] in your messe, - In sothful Gospel of God Almy[gh]t, - In sample he can ful gray[th]ely gesse, - And lykne[gh] hit to heuen ly[gh]te: 140 - "My regne," He sayt[gh], "is lyk on hy[gh]t - To a lorde [th]at hade a uyne, I wate. - Of tyme of [gh]ere [th]e terme wat[gh] ty[gh]t, - To labor vyne wat[gh] dere [th]e date. - - '"[Th]at date of [gh]ere wel knawe [th]ys hyne. 145 - [Th]e lorde ful erly vp he ros, - To hyre werkmen to hys vyne, - And fynde[gh] [th]er summe to hys porpos. - Into acorde [th]ay con declyne - For a pen'e on a day, and forth [th]ay got[gh], 150 - Wry[th]en and worchen and don gret pyne, - Keruen and caggen and man hit clos. - Aboute vnder, [th]e lorde to marked tot[gh], - And ydel men stande he fynde[gh] [th]erate. - 'Why stande [gh]e ydel?' he sayde to [th]os; 155 - 'Ne knawe [gh]e of [th]is day no date?' - - '"'Er date of daye hider arn we wonne;' - So wat[gh] al samen her answar so[gh]t; - 'We haf standen her syn ros [th]e sunne, - And no mon bydde[gh] vus do ry[gh]t no[gh]t.' 160 - 'Gos into my vyne, dot[gh] [th]at [gh]e conne,' - So sayde [th]e lorde, and made hit to[gh]t; - 'What resonabele hyre be na[gh]t be runne - I yow pay in dede and [th]o[gh]te.' - [Th]ay wente into [th]e vyne and wro[gh]te, 165 - And al day [th]e lorde [th]us [gh]ede his gate, - And nw men to hys vyne he bro[gh]te, - Welne[gh] wyl day wat[gh] passed date. - - '"At [th]e date of day of euensonge, - On oure byfore [th]e sonne go doun, 170 - He se[gh] [th]er ydel men ful stronge, - And sa<y>de to he_m_ wyth sobre soun: - 'Wy stonde [gh]e ydel [th]ise daye[gh] longe?' - [Th]ay sayden her hyre wat[gh] nawhere boun. - 'Got[gh] to my vyne, [gh]emen [gh]onge, 175 - And wyrke[gh] and dot[gh] [th]at at [gh]e moun.' - Sone [th]e worlde bycom wel broun, - [Th]e sunne wat[gh] doun, and hit wex late; - To take her hyre he mad sumoun; - [Th]e day wat[gh] al apassed date. 180 - - '"The date of [th]e daye [th]e lorde con knaw, - Called to [th]e reue: 'Lede, pay [th]e meyny; - Gyf hem [th]e hyre [th]at I hem owe; - And fyrre, [th]at non me may repren'e, - Set hem alle vpon a rawe, 185 - And gyf vchon ilyche a peny; - Bygyn at [th]e laste [th]at stande[gh] lowe, - Tyl to [th]e fyrste [th]at [th]ou atteny.' - And [th]enne [th]e fyrst bygonne to pleny, - And sayden [th]at [th]ay hade trauayled sore: 190 - '[Th]ese bot on oure hem con streny; - Vus [th]ynk vus o[gh]e to take more. - - '"'More haf we serued, vus [th]ynk so, - [Th]at suffred han [th]e daye[gh] hete, - [Th]enn [th]yse [th]at wro[gh]t not houre[gh] two, 195 - And [th]ou dot[gh] hem vus to counterfete.' - [Th]enne sayde [th]e lorde to on of [th]o: - 'Frende no waning I wyl [th]e [gh]ete; - Take [th]at is [th]yn owne and go. - And I hyred [th]e for a peny agrete, 200 - Quy bygynne[gh] [th]ou now to [th]rete? - Wat[gh] not a pen'e [th]y couenaunt [th]ore? - Fyrre [th]en couenaunde is no[gh]t to plete. - Wy schalte [th]ou [th]enne ask more? - - '"'More we[th]er [+]louyly[+] is me my gyfte 205 - To do wyth myn quat so me lyke[gh]? - O[th]er elle[gh] [th]yn y[gh]e to ly[th]er is lyfte - For I am goude and non byswyke[gh]?' - '[Th]us schal I,' quod Kryste, 'hit skyfte: - [Th]e laste schal be [th]e fyrst [th]at stryke[gh], 210 - And [th]e fyrst be laste, be he neuer so swyft; - For mony ben calle<d>, [th]a[gh] fewe be myke[gh].'" - [Th]us pore men her part ay pyke[gh], - [Th]a[gh] [th]ay com late and lyttel wore; - And [th]a[gh] her sweng wyth lyttel atslyke[gh], 215 - [Th]e merci of God is much [th]e more. - - 'More haf I of ioye and blysse hereinne, - Of ladyschyp gret and lyue[gh] blom, - [Th]en alle [th]e wy[gh]e[gh] in [th]e worlde my[gh]t - wynne - By [th]e way of ry[gh]t to aske dome. 220 - Whe[th]er welnygh now I con bygynne-- - In euentyde into [th]e vyne I come-- - Fyrst of my hyre my Lorde con mynne, - I wat[gh] payed anon of al and sum. - [Gh]et o[th]er [th]er werne [th]at toke more tom, 225 - [Th]at swange and swat for long [gh]ore, - [Th]at [gh]et of hyre no [th]ynk [th]ay nom, - Paraunter no[gh]t schal to[gh]ere more.' - - Then more I meled and sayde apert: - 'Me [th]ynk [th]y tale vnresounable; 230 - Godde[gh] ry[gh]t is redy and euermore rert, - O[th]er Holy Wryt is bot a fable; - In Sauter is sayd a verce ouerte - [Th]at speke[gh] a poynt determynable: - "[Th]ou quyte[gh] vchon as hys desserte, 235 - [Th]ou hy[gh]e Kyng ay pretermynable." - Now he [th]at stod [th]e long day stable, - And [th]ou to payment com hym byfore, - [Th]enne [th]e lasse in werke to take more able, - And euer [th]e lenger [th]e lasse [th]e more.' 240 - - 'Of more and lasse in Gode[gh] ryche,' - [Th]at gentyl sayde, 'lys no ioparde, - For [th]er is vch mon payed ilyche, - Whe[th]er lyttel o[th]er much be hys rewarde, - For [th]e gentyl Cheuentayn is no chyche; 245 - Que[th]ersoeuer He dele nesch o[th]er harde, - He laue[gh] Hys gyfte[gh] as water of dyche, - O[th]er gote[gh] of golf [th]at neuer charde. - Hys fraunchyse is large [th]at euer dard - To Hym [th]at mat[gh] in synne rescoghe; 250 - No blysse bet[gh] fro hem reparde, - For [th]e grace of God is gret inoghe. - -[Foot-note: 9 ky[th]e[gh]] ly[th]e[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 22 manere[gh]] marere[gh] _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 36 and] in _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 112 _a line omitted in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 119 he] ho _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 164 pay] pray _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 169 date of day] day of date _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 172 hem] hen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 178 and] & & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 186 ilyche] [=i]lyche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 243 ilyche] inlyche _MS._] - - - - -VII - -THE GEST HYSTORIALE OF THE -DESTRUCTION OF TROY - -ABOUT 1375. - - -The Fall of Troy was one of the most popular subjects of mediaeval -story. Lydgate wrote a _Troy Book_ about 1420; fragments of another are -attributed to 'Barbour', whose identity with the author of _The Bruce_ -has been questioned; a third version, anonymous, is known as the _Laud -Troy Book_; and Caxton chose as the first work to be printed in English -the _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_ (about 1474). More famous than -any of these full histories are two single stories detached from the -cycle: Jason's Quest of the Golden Fleece, which is admirably told by -Gower in the fifth book of his _Confessio Amantis_; and the Love of -Troilus and Cressida, which gave a theme both to Chaucer and to -Shakespeare. - -The _Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy_, from which our -extracts are taken, is a free rendering of the prose _Historia Troiana_ -finished in 1287 by Guido de Columna (most probably the modern Terranova -in Sicily). The translation, which appears to have been made in the -North or North-West Midlands in the second half of the fourteenth -century, is preserved only in an imperfect fifteenth-century MS. at the -Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. In the Early English Text Society's print, -edited by Panton and Donaldson, the text extends to over 14,000 lines. - -The table of contents prefixed to the MS. promises '_the nome of the -knight [th]at causet it_ [sc. _the story_] _to be made, and the nome of -hym that translatid it out of Latyn into Englysshe_'; but the extant -MS. does not fulfil the promise. The execution suggests a set task and -a journeyman poet. Phrases are repeated carelessly; there is a great -deal of padding; the versification is monotonous; and the writer is too -often at the mercy of the alliteration to maintain a serious level. Yet -he is not a slavish or a dull translator. The more romantic elements -of the story, such as the matter of the _Odyssey_, had already been -whittled away in his original, and he shows little desire or capacity -to restore them. But he knew as well as the Old English poets the -forcefulness of alliterative verse in scenes of violence, and describes -with unflagging zest and vigour the interminable battles of the siege, -and storms such as that which wrecked the fleet of Ajax. - -The Prologue is a curious example of the pseudo-critical attitude of the -Middle Ages. Homer is despised as a teller of impossible tales, and a -partisan of the Greeks,--for Hector is the popular hero of the mediaeval -versions. The narratives of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, -products of the taste for fictitious history that spread westward from -Greek-speaking lands in the fourth and following centuries, are accepted -as reliable documents; and Guido de Columna as their authoritative -literary interpreter. No mention is made of Benoit de Sainte-Maure, -whose _Roman de Troie_, written in French about 1184, served as source -to Guido, and, directly or indirectly, as inspiration to the whole body -of Western writers who dealt with the 'Matter of Troy'. For these lapses -the English translator need not be held responsible. On the merits of -Homer, Dares, Dictys, and Guido de Columna, he probably accepted without -question the word of his master Guido. - - -PROLOGUE. - - Maistur in magest'e, Maker of alle, - Endles and on, euer to last! - Now, God, of [th]i grace, graunt me [th]i helpe, - And wysshe me with wyt [th]is werke for to ende - Off aunters ben olde of aunsetris nobill, 5 - And slydyn vppon shlepe by slomeryng of age; - Of stithe men in stoure, strongest in armes, - And wisest in wer, to wale in hor tyme, - [Th]at ben drepit with deth, and [th]ere day paste, - And most out of mynd for [th]ere mecull age. 10 - Sothe stories ben stoken vp, and straught out of mynde, - And swolowet into swym by swiftenes of yeres, - For new [th]at ben now next at our hond, - Breuyt into bokes for boldyng of hertes, - On lusti to loke with lightnes of wille, 15 - Cheuyt throughe chaunce and chaungyng of peopull; - Sum tru for to traist, triet in [th]e ende, - Sum feynit o fere and ay false vnder. - Yche wegh as he will warys his tyme, - And has lykyng to lerne [th]at hym list after. 20 - But olde stories of stithe [th]at astate helde - May be solas to sum [th]at it segh neuer, - Be writyng of wees [th]at wist it in dede, - With sight for to serche of hom [th]at suet after, - To ken all the crafte how [th]e case felle 25 - By lokyng of letturs [th]at lefte were of olde. - - Now of Troy for to telle is myn entent euyn, - Of the stoure and [th]e stryffe when it distroyet was. - [Th]of fele yeres ben faren syn [th]e fight endid, - And it meuyt out of mynd, myn hit I thinke, 30 - Alss wise men haue writen the wordes before, - Left it in Latyn for lernyng of us. - But sum poyetis full prist [th]at put hom [th]erto - With fablis and falshed fayned [th]ere speche, - And made more of [th]at mater [th]an hom maister were. 35 - Sum lokyt ouer litle, and lympit of the sothe. - Amonges [th]at menye, to myn hym be nome, - Homer was holden haithill of dedis - Qwiles his dayes enduret, derrist of other, - [Th]at with the Grekys was gret, and of Grice comyn. 40 - He feynet myche fals was neuer before wroght, - And turnet [th]e truth, trust ye non other. - Of his trifuls to telle I haue no tome nowe, - Ne of his feynit fare [th]at he fore with: - How goddes foght in the filde, folke as [th]ai were! 45 - And other errours vnable, [th]at after were knowen, - That poyetis of prise have preuyt vntrew: - Ouyde and othir [th]at onest were ay, - Virgille [th]e virtuus, verrit for nobill, - Thes dampnet his dedys, and for dull holdyn. 50 - But [th]e truth for to telle, and [th]e text euyn, - Of [th]at fight, how it felle in a few yeres, - [Th]at was clanly compilet with a clerk wise, - On Gydo, a gome [th]at graidly hade soght, - And wist all [th]e werks by weghes he hade, 55 - That bothe were in batell while the batell last, - And eu[th]er sawte and assembly see with [th]ere een. - Thai wrote all [th]e werkes wroght at [th]at tyme - In letturs of [th]ere langage, as [th]ai lernede hade: - Dares and Dytes were duly [th]ere namys. 60 - Dites full dere was dew to the Grekys, - A lede of [th]at lond, and logede hom with. - The tother was a tulke out of Troy selfe, - Dares, [th]at duly the dedys behelde. - Aither breuyt in a boke on [th]ere best wise, 65 - That sithen at a sit'e somyn were founden, - After, at Atthenes, as aunter befell. - The whiche bokes barely, bothe as [th]ai were, - A Romayn ouerraght, and right hom hymseluyn, - That Cornelius was cald to his kynde name. 70 - He translated it into Latyn for likyng to here, - But he shope it so short [th]at no shalke might - Haue knowlage by course how [th]e case felle; - For he brought it so breff, and so bare leuyt, - [Th]at no lede might have likyng to loke [th]erappon; 75 - Till [th]is Gydo it gate, as hym grace felle, - And declaret it more clere, and on clene wise. - In this shall faithfully be founden, to the fer ende, - All [th]e dedis bydene as [th]ai done were: - How [th]e groundes first grew, and [th]e grete hate, 80 - Bothe of torfer and tene [th]at hom tide aftur. - And here fynde shall ye faire of [th]e felle peopull: - What kynges [th]ere come of costes aboute; - Of dukes full doughty, and of derffe erles, - That assemblid to [th]e citie [th]at sawte to defend; 85 - Of [th]e Grekys [th]at were gedret how gret was [th]e - nowmber, - How mony knightes [th]ere come, and kynges enarmede, - And what dukes thedur droghe for dedis of were; - What shippes [th]ere were shene, and shalkes within, - Bothe of barges and buernes [th]at broght were fro Grese; 90 - And all the batels on bent [th]e buernes betwene; - What duke [th]at was dede throughe dyntes of hond, - Who fallen was in fylde, and how it fore after. - Bothe of truse and trayne [th]e truthe shalt [th]u here, - And all the ferlies [th]at fell, vnto the ferre ende. 95 - Fro this prologe I passe, and part me [th]erwith. - Frayne will I fer, and fraist of [th]ere werkes, - Meue to my mater, and make here an ende. - -EXPLICIT PROLOGUE. - - -THE XXXI BOKE: OF THE PASSAGE OF THE -GREKYS FRO TROY (ll. 12463-12547). - - Hyt fell thus, by fortune, [th]e fairest of [th]e yere - Was past to the point of the pale wintur. 100 - Heruest, with the heite and the high sun, - Was comyn into colde, with a course low. - Trees, thurgh tempestes, tynde hade [th]ere leues, - And briddes abatid of hor brem songe; - The wynde of the west wackenet aboue, 105 - Blowyng full bremly o the brode ythes; - The clere aire ouercast with cloudys full thicke, - With mystes full merke mynget with showres. - Flodes were felle thurgh fallyng of rayne, - And wintur vp wacknet with his wete aire. 110 - The gret nauy of the Grekes and the gay kynges - Were put in a purpos to pas fro the toune. - Sore longit [th]o lordis hor londys to se, - And dissiret full depely, doutyng no wedur. - [Th]ai counted no course of the cold stormys, 115 - Ne the perellis to passe of the pale windes. - Hit happit hom full hard in a hondqwile, - And mony of [th]o mighty to misse of hor purpos. - Thus tho lordes in hor longyng laghton [th]e watur, - Shotton into ship mong shene knightes, 120 - With the tresowre of [th]e toune [th]ai token before, - Relikes full rife, and miche ranke godes. - Clere was the course of the cold flodis, - And the firmament faire, as fell for the wintur. - Thai past on the pale se, puld vp hor sailes, 125 - Hadyn bir at [th]ere backe, and the bonke leuyt. - Foure dayes bydene, and hor du nyghtis, - Ful soundly [th]ai sailed with seasonable windes. - The fyft day fuersly fell at the none, - Sodonly the softe winde vnsoberly blew; 130 - A myste and a merkenes myngit togedur; - A thoner and a thicke rayne [th]rublet in the skewes, - With an ugsom noise, noy for to here; - All flasshet in a fire the firmament ouer; - Was no light but a laite [th]at launchit aboue: 135 - Hit skirmyt in the skewes with a skyre low, - Thurgh the claterand clowdes clos to the heuyn, - As the welkyn shuld walt for wodenes of hete; - With blastes full bigge of the breme wyndes, - Walt vp the waghes vpon wan hilles. 140 - Stith was the storme, stird all the shippes, - Hoppit on hegh with heste of the flodes. - The sea was unsober, sondrit the nauy, - Walt ouer waghes, and no way held, - Depertid the pepull, pyne to behold, 145 - In costes vnkowthe; cut down [th]ere sailes, - Ropis al torochit, rent vp the hacches, - Topcastell ouerturnyt, takelles were lost. - The night come onone, noye was the more! - All the company cleane of the kyng Telamon, 150 - With [th]ere shippes full shene, and [th]e shire godis, - Were brent in the bre with the breme lowe - Of the leymonde laite [th]at launchit fro heuyn, - And euyn drownet in the depe, dukes and other! - Oelius Aiax, as aunter befelle, 155 - Was stad in the storme with the stith windes, - With his shippes full shene and the shire godes. - Thrifty and [th]riuaund, thretty and two - There were brent on the buerne with the breme low, - And all the freikes in the flode floterand aboue. 160 - Hymseluyn in the sea sonkyn belyue, - Swalprit and swam with swyngyng of armys. - [Gh]et he launchet to londe, and his lyf hade, - Bare of his body, bretfull of water, - In the slober and the sluche slongyn to londe; 165 - There he lay, if hym list, the long night ouer, - Till the derke was done, and the day sprang; - [Th]are sum of his sort, [th]at soght were to lond - And than wonen of waghes, with wo as [th]ai might, - Laited [th]ere lord on the laund-syde, 170 - If hit fell h_y_m by fortune the flodes to passe. - [Th]an found [th]ai the freike in the fome lye, - And comford hym kyndly, as [th]ere kyd lord; - With worchip and wordes wan hym to fote. - Bothe failet hym the fode and the fyne clothes. 175 - Thus [th]ere goddes with gremy with [th]e Grekes fore, - Mighty Myner<u>a, of malis full grete, - For Telamon, in tene, tid for to pull - Cassandra the clene out of hir cloise temple. - Thus hit fell hom by fortune of a foule ende, 180 - For greuyng [th]ere goddes in hor gret yre. - Oftsythes men sayn, and sene is of olde, - [Th]at all a company is cumbrit for a cursed shrewe. - -[Foot-note: 168-9 _transposed in MS._] - -[Foot-note: 171 hym] hom _MS._] - - - - -VIII - -PIERS PLOWMAN - -(1362-1400) - -BY WILLIAM LANGLAND - - -Recent criticism of _Piers Plowman_ has done more to weaken the hold of -opinions once generally accepted than to replace them by others better -founded. It is still most probable that 'Long Will', who is more than -once mentioned in the text as the poet, was William Langland. The -earliest external evidence of his home and parentage is given in a -fifteenth-century note in MS. Dublin D 4. 1, of which both the matter -and the vile Latinity bear the stamp of genuineness: 'Memorandum quod -Stacy de Rokayle, pater Willielmi de Langlond, qui Stacius fuit -generosus, et morabatur in Schiptone under Whicwode, tenens domini le -Spenser in comitatu Oxon., qui praedictus Willielmus fecit librum qui -vocatur Perys Ploughman.' Shipton-under-Wychwood is near Burford in -Oxfordshire. The poem shows familiarity with the Malvern Hills and the -streets of London; but it is hard to say how much is fact and how much -is fiction in the references to Long Will in the text itself, more -especially the description of his London life added as the Sixth Passus -in Version C, and reproduced here as the second extract. - -Since Skeat's edition for the Early English Text Society, the many -manuscripts have been grouped into three main types. The shortest, or -A-text, appears from internal evidence to have been written about 1362. -The B-text (about 1377) has the most compact manuscript tradition. It is -distinguished by considerable additions throughout, and by the -reconstruction and expansion of the visions of Dowel, Dobet, Dobest, -which make up the second half of the poem. The C-text, the latest and -fullest form, appears to have been completed in the last decade of the -fourteenth century. - -Until recently it has been assumed that these three versions represent -progressive revisions by the author. But Professor Manly has found -considerable support for his view that more than one writer--perhaps as -many as five--had a share in the work. For the present, judgement on -this question, and on the intricate problem of the relations of the -different versions, is suspended until the results of a complete -re-examination of all the MSS. are available. It would not be surprising -to find that even when this necessary work is done differences of -opinion on the larger questions remain as acute as ever. - -It is impossible in short space to give an outline of the whole work, -which describes no less than eleven visions. The structure is loose, and -allegory is developed or dropped with disconcerting abruptness, for the -writer does not curb his vigorous imagination in the interests of formal -correctness. - -The first part is the best known. On a May morning the poet falls asleep -on the Malvern Hills and sees a 'Field full of Folk', where all classes -of men are busy about their occupations, more particularly the nefarious -occupations that engage the attention of the moralist. Holy Church -explains that a high tower in the Field is the home of Truth; and that a -'deep dale' is the Castle of Care, where Wrong dwells with the wicked. -She points out Falseness, who is about to marry Lady Meed (i.e. Reward, -whether deserved reward or bribe). Lady Meed and her company are haled -before the King, who, with Reason and Conscience as his guides, decides -her case, and upholds the plea of Peace against Wrong. - -The second vision is prefaced (in the C-text only) by the passage -printed as the second selection. The poet falls asleep again, and sees -Conscience preaching to the people in the Field. Representatives of the -Seven Deadly Sins are vividly described. They are brought to penitence, -and all set out in search of Truth. But no one knows the way. A palmer -who wears the trophies of many pilgrimages to distant saints is puzzled -by their inquiries, for he has never heard of pilgrims seeking Truth. -Then Peter the Plowman comes forward and explains the way in -allegorical terms. Here the first extract begins. The second vision -closes with a general pardon given by Truth to Piers Plowman in this -simple form: - - Do wel, and haue wel, and God shal haue [th]i sowle; - And do yuel, and haue yuel, hope [th]ow non other - But after [th]i ded-day [th]e Deuel shal haue [th]i sowle. - -The several visions of the second part make up the lives of -Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest. Piers Plowman is there identified -with Christ, and the poem ends with Conscience, almost overcome -by sin, setting out resolutely in search of Piers. - -First impressions of mediaeval life are usually coloured by the -courtly romances of Malory and his later refiners. Chaucer -brings us down to reality, but his people belong to a prosperous -middle-class world, on holiday and in holiday mood. _Piers Plowman_ -stands alone as a revelation of the ignorance and misery of -the lower classes, whose multiplied grievances came to a head in -the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It must not be supposed that -Langland idealized the labourers. Their indolence and improvidence -are exposed as unsparingly as the vices of the rich; and -Piers himself is not so much a representative of the English workman -in the fourteenth century as a character drawn straight -from the Gospels. Still, such an eager plea for humbleness, simplicity, -and honest labour, could not fail to encourage the political -hopes of the poor, and we see in John Ball's letter (p. 160) that -'Piers Plowman' had become a catchword among them. The -poet himself rather deprecates political action. His satire is -directed against the general slackening of the bonds of duty that -marked the last years of an outworn system of society. For the -remedy of abuses he appeals not to one class but to all: king, -nobles, clergy, and workers must model their lives on the pattern -of the Gospels. - - -A. FROM THE B-TEXT, PASSUS VI. - -Bodleian MS. Laud 581 (about 1400). - - 'This were a wikked way, but whoso hadde a gyde - That wolde folwen vs eche a fote:' [th]us [th]is folke hem mened. - Quat[gh] Perkyn [th]e plouman: 'Bi Seynt Peter of Rome! - I haue an half-acre to erye bi [th]e heigh way. - Hadde I eried [th]is half-acre, and sowen it after, 5 - I w_o_l_de_ wende with [gh]ow, and [th]e way teche.' - '[Th]is were a longe lettynge,' quod a lady in a sklayre; - 'What sholde we wommen worche [th]erewhiles?' - 'Somme shal sowe <[th]e> sakke,' quod Piers, 'for shedyng - of [th]e whete; - And [gh]e, louely ladyes, with [gh]oure longe fyngres, 10 - [Th]at [gh]e han silke and sendal to sowe, whan tyme is, - Chesibles for chapelleynes, cherches to honoure; - Wyues and wydwes wolle and flex spynneth, - Maketh cloth, I conseille [gh]ow, and kenneth so - [gh]owre dou[gh]tres; - [Th]e nedy and [th]e naked, nymmeth hede how hii liggeth, 15 - And casteth hem clothes, for so comaundeth Treuthe. - For I shal lene hem lyflode, but [gh]if [th]e londe faille, - Flesshe and bred, bothe to riche and to pore, - As longe as I lyue, for [th]e Lordes loue of heuene. - And alle manere of men [th]at [th]orw mete and drynke - lybbeth, 20 - Helpith hym to worche wi[gh]tliche [th]at wynneth [gh]owre - fode.' - 'Bi Crist!' quod a kny[gh]te [th]o, 'he kenneth vs [th]e - best; - Ac on [th]e teme trewly tau[gh]te was I neuere. - Ac kenne me,' quod [th]e kny[gh]te, 'and, bi Cryst! I wil - assaye.' - 'Bi seynt Poule!' quod Perkyn, '[gh]e profre [gh]ow so - faire, 25 - [Th]at I shal swynke, and swete, and sowe for vs bothe, - And o[th]er laboures do for [th]i loue al my lyf tyme, - In couenaunt [th]at [th]ow kepe Holi Kirke and myselue - Fro wastoures and fro wykked men [th]at [th]is worlde - struyeth; - And go hunte hardiliche to hares and to foxes, 30 - To bores and to brockes [th]at breketh adown myne hegges, - And go affaite [th]e faucones wilde foules to kille, - For suche cometh to my croft, and croppeth my whete.' - Curteislich [th]e kny[gh]te [th]anne comsed [th]ise wordes: - 'By my power, Pieres,' quod he, 'I pli[gh]te [th]e my - treuthe 35 - To fulfille [th]is forward, [th]ow[gh] I fi[gh]te sholde; - Als longe as I lyue, I shal [th]e mayntene.' - '[Gh]e, and [gh]it a poynt,' quod Pieres, 'I preye [gh]ow - of more; - Loke [gh]e tene no tenaunt, but Treuthe wil assent. - And [th]owgh [gh]e mowe amercy hem, late Mercy be taxoure, 40 - And Mekenesse [th]i mayster, maugr'e Medes chekes; - And [th]owgh pore men profre [gh]ow presentis and [gh]iftis, - Nym it nau[gh]te, an auenture [gh]e mowe it nau[gh]te deserue; - For [th]ow shalt [gh]elde it a[gh]ein at one [gh]eres ende - In a ful perillous place, Purgatorie it hatte. 45 - And mysbede nou[gh]te [th]i bondemen, [th]e better may [th]ow - spede; - [Th]owgh he be [th]yn vnderlynge here, wel may happe in heuene - [Th]at he worth worthier sette and with more blisse: - _Amice, ascende superius_. - For in charnel atte chirche cherles ben yuel to knowe, 50 - Or a kni[gh]te fram a knaue [th]ere,--knowe [th]is in [th]in - herte. - And [th]at [th]ow be trewe of [th]i tonge, and tales [th]at - [th]ow hatie, - But if [th]ei ben of wisdome or of witte, [th]i werkmen to - chaste. - Holde with none harlotes, ne here nou[gh]te her tales, - And nameliche atte mete suche men eschue, 55 - For it ben [th]e deueles disoures, I do [th]e to vnderstande.' - 'I assente, bi Seynt Iame!' seyde [th]e kni[gh]te [th]anne, - 'Forto worche bi [th]i wordes [th]e while my lyf dureth.' - 'And I shal apparaille me,' quod Perkyn, 'in pilgrimes wise, - And wende with [gh]ow I wil til we fynde Treuthe, 60 - And cast on me my clothes, yclouted and hole, - My cokeres and my coffes, for colde of my nailles, - And hange myn hoper at myn hals, in stede of a scrippe, - A busshel of bredcorne brynge me [th]erinne, - For I wil sowe it myself; and sitthenes wil I wende 65 - To pylgrymage, as palmers don, pardoun forto haue. - Ac whoso helpeth me to erie or sowen here, ar I wende, - Shal haue leue, bi owre Lorde, to lese here in heruest, - And make hem mery [th]eremydde, maugr'e whoso bigruccheth it. - And alkyn crafty men, [th]at konne lyuen in treuthe, 70 - I shal fynden hem fode, [th]at feithfulliche libbeth.'... - (Dame 'Worche-whan-tyme-is' Pieres wyf hi[gh]te; - His dou[gh]ter hi[gh]te 'Do-ri[gh]te-so- - or-[th]i-dame-shal-[th]e-bete'; - His sone hi[gh]te 'Suffre-[th]i-souereynes- - to-hauen-her-wille-, - Deme-hem-nou[gh]te-, for-, if-[th]ow-doste-, - [th]ow-shalt-it-dere-abugge.') 75 - 'Late God yworth with al, for so His worde techeth; - For now I am olde and hore, and haue of myn owen, - To penaunce and to pilgrimage I wil passe with [th]ise other. - For[th]i I wil, or I wende, do wryte my biqueste. - _In Dei nomine, amen_, I make it myseluen. 80 - He shal haue my soule [th]at best hath yserued it, - And fro [th]e fende it defende, for so I bileue, - Til I come to His acountes, as my _Credo_ me telleth, - To haue a relees and a remissioun on [th]at rental I leue. - [Th]e kirke shal haue my caroigne and kepe my bones, 85 - For of my corne and catel he craued [th]e tythe; - I payed it hym prestly, for peril of my soule, - Forthy is he holden, I hope, to haue me in his masse, - And mengen in his memorye amonge alle Crystene. - My wyf shal haue of [th]at I wan with treuthe, and nomore, 90 - And dele amonge my dou[gh]tres and my dere children; - For [th]owgh I deye todaye, my dettes ar quitte; - I bare home [th]at I borwed, ar I to bedde [gh]ede. - And with [th]e residue and [th]e remenaunte, bi [th]e rode of - Lukes! - I wil worschip [th]erwith Treuthe bi my lyue, 95 - And ben his pilgryme atte plow, for pore mennes sake. - My plow-fote shal be my pyk-staf, and picche atwo [th]e rotes, - And helpe my culter to kerue, and clense [th]e forwes.' - Now is Perkyn and his pilgrymes to [th]e plowe faren; - To erie [th]is halue-acre holpyn hym manye. 100 - Dikeres and delueres digged vp [th]e balkes; - [Th]erewith was Perkyn apayed, and preysed hem faste. - Other werkemen [th]ere were [th]at wrou[gh]ten ful [gh]erne; - Eche man in his manere made hymself to done, - And some, to plese Perkyn, piked vp [th]e wedes. 105 - At heighe pryme Peres lete [th]e plowe stonde, - To ouersen hem hymself, and whoso best wrou[gh]te - He shulde be huyred [th]erafter whan heruest-tyme come. - And [th]anne seten somme and songen atte nale, - And hulpen erie his half-acre with 'how! trollilolli!' 110 - 'Now, bi [th]e peril of my soule!' quod Pieres, al in pure - tene, - 'But [gh]e arise [th]e rather, and rape [gh]ow to worche, - Shal no greyne [th]at groweth glade [gh]ow at nede; - And [th]ough [gh]e deye for dole, [th]e deuel haue [th]at - reccheth!' - Tho were faitoures aferde, and feyned hem blynde; 115 - Somme leyde here legges aliri, as suche loseles conneth, - And made her mone to Pieres, and preyde hym of grace: - 'For we haue no lymes to laboure with, lorde, ygraced be - [gh]e! - Ac we preye for [gh]ow, Pieres, and for [gh]owre plow bothe, - [Th]at God of His grace [gh]owre grayne multiplye, 120 - And [gh]elde [gh]ow of [gh]owre almesse [th]at [gh]e [gh]iue - vs here; - For we may nou[gh]te swynke ne swete, suche sikenesse vs - eyleth.' - 'If it be soth,' quod Pieres, '[th]at [gh]e seyne, I shal - it sone asspye. - [Gh]e ben wastoures, I wote wel, and Treuthe wote [th]e sothe, - And I am his olde hyne, and hi[gh]te hym to warne 125 - Which [th]ei were in [th]is worlde his werkemen appeyred. - [Gh]e wasten [th]at men wynnen with trauaille and with tene, - Ac Treuthe shal teche [gh]ow his teme to dryue, - Or [gh]e shal ete barly bred and of [th]e broke drynke. - But if he be blynde, _or_ broke-legged, or bolted with - yrnes, 130 - He shal ete whete bred and drynke with myselue, - Tyl God of his goodnesse amendement hym sende. - Ac [gh]e my[gh]te trauaille as Treuthe wolde, and take mete - and huyre - To kepe kyne in [th]e felde, [th]e corne fro [th]e bestes, - Diken, or deluen, or dyngen vppon sheues, 135 - Or helpe make morter, or bere mukke afelde. - In lecherye an in losengerye [gh]e lyuen, and in sleuthe, - And al is [th]orw suffrance [th]at veniaunce [gh]ow ne taketh. - Ac ancres and heremytes, [th]at eten but at nones, - And namore er morwe, myne almesse shul [th]ei haue, 140 - And of my catel to cope hem with [th]at han cloistres and - cherches. - Ac Robert Renne-aboute shal nou[gh]e haue of myne, - Ne posteles, but [th]ey preche conne, and haue powere of [th]e - bisschop; - They shal haue payne and potage, and make hemself at ese, - For it is an vnresonable religioun [th]at hath ri[gh]te - nou[gh]te of certeyne.' 145 - And [th]anne gan a Wastoure to wrath hym, and wolde haue - yfou[gh]te, - And to Pieres [th]e plowman he profered his gloue; - A Brytonere, a braggere, abosted Pieres als:-- - 'Wiltow or neltow, we wil haue owre wille - Of [th]i flowre and of [th]i flessche, fecche whan vs - liketh, 150 - And make vs myrie [th]ermyde, maugr'e [th]i chekes!' - Thanne Pieres [th]e plowman pleyned hym to [th]e kny[gh]te, - To kepe hym, as couenaunte was, fram cursed shrewes, - And fro [th]is wastoures wolues-kynnes, [th]at maketh [th]e - worlde dere: - 'For [th]o waste, and wynnen nou[gh]te, and [th]at ilke - while 155 - Worth neuere plent'e amonge [th]e poeple [th]erwhile my plow - liggeth.' - Curteisly [th]e kny[gh]te [th]anne, as his kynde wolde, - Warned Wastoure, and wissed hym bettere, - 'Or [th]ow shalt abugge by [th]e lawe, by [th]e ordre [th]at - I bere!' - 'I was nou[gh]t wont to worche,' quod Wastour, 'and now - wil I nou[gh]t bigynne', 160 - And lete li[gh]te of [th]e lawe, and lasse of [th]e kny[gh]te, - And sette Pieres at a pees, and his plow bothe, - And manaced Pieres and his men [gh]if [th]ei mette eftsone. - 'Now, by [th]e peril of my soule!' quod Pieres, 'I shal - apeyre [gh]ow alle!' - And houped after Hunger, [th]at herd hym atte firste: 165 - 'Awreke me of [th]ise wastoures,' quod he '[th]at [th]is - worlde schendeth!' - Hunger in haste [th]o hent Wastour bi [th]e mawe, - And wronge hym so bi [th]e wombe [th]at bothe his eyen wattered. - He buffeted [th]e Britoner aboute [th]e chekes, - [Th]at he loked like a lanterne al his lyf after. 170 - He bette hem so bothe, he barste nere here guttes; - Ne hadde Pieres with a pese-lof preyed Hunger to cesse, - They hadde ben doluen bothe, ne deme [th]ow non other. - 'Suffre hem lyue,' he seyde 'and lete hem ete with hogges, - Or elles benes and bren ybaken togideres, 175 - Or elles melke and mene ale;' [th]us preyed Pieres for hem. - Faitoures for fere herof flowen into bernes, - And flapten on with flayles fram morwe til euen, - That Hunger was nou[gh]t so hardy on hem for to loke, - For a potful of peses [th]at Peres hadde ymaked. 180 - An heep of heremites henten hem spades, - And ketten here copes, and courtpies hem made, - And wenten as werkemen with spades and with schoueles, - And doluen and dykeden to dryue aweye Hunger. - Blynde and bedreden were botened a [th]ousande, 185 - [Th]at seten to begge syluer; sone were [th]ei heled. - For [th]at was bake for Bayarde was bote for many hungry, - And many a beggere for benes buxome was to swynke, - And eche a pore man wel apayed to haue pesen for his huyre, - And what Pieres preyed hem to do as prest as a sperhauke. 190 - And [th]ereof was Peres proude, and put hem to werke, - And [gh]af hem mete as he my[gh]te aforth, and mesurable - huyre. - [Th]anne hadde Peres pit'e, and preyed Hunger to wende - Home into his owne erde, and holden hym [th]ere: - 'For I am wel awroke now of wastoures, [th]orw [th]i - my[gh]te. 195 - Ac I preye [th]e, ar [th]ow passe,' quod Pieres to Hunger, - 'Of beggeres and of bidderes what best be <to> done? - For I wote wel, be [th]ow went, [th]ei wil worche ful ille; - For myschief it maketh [th]ei beth so meke nouthe, - And for defaute of her fode [th]is folke is at my wille. 200 - [Th]ey are my blody bretheren,' quod Pieres, 'for God - bou[gh]te vs alle; - Treuthe tau[gh]te me ones to louye hem vchone, - And to helpen hem of alle [th]inge ay as hem nedeth. - And now wolde I witen of [th]e what were [th]e best, - An how I my[gh]te amaistrien hem, and make hem to worche.' 205 - 'Here now,' quod Hunger 'and holde it for a wisdome: - Bolde beggeres and bigge, [th]at mowe her bred biswynke, - With houndes bred and hors bred holde vp her hertis, - Abate hem with benes for bollyng of her wombe; - And [gh]if [th]e gomes grucche, bidde hem go swynke, 210 - And he shal soupe swettere whan he it hath deseruid. - And if [th]ow fynde any freke, [th]at fortune hath appeyred - Or any maner fals men, fonde [th]ow suche to cnowe; - Conforte hym with [th]i catel, for Crystes loue of heuene; - Loue hem and lene hem, so lawe of God techeth:-- 215 - _Alter alterius onera portate_. - And alle maner of men [th]at [th]ow my[gh]te asspye - That nedy ben and nau[gh]ty, helpe hem with [th]i godis; - Loue hem, and lakke hem nou[gh]te; late God take [th]e - veniaunce; - Theigh [th]ei done yuel, late [th]ow God aworthe:-- 220 - _Michi vindictam, et ego retribuam_. - And if [th]ow wil be graciouse to God, do as [th]e Gospel - techeth, - And bilow [th]e amonges low men; so shaltow lacche grace:-- - _Facite vobis amicos de mamona iniquitatis_.' - 'I wolde nou[gh]t greue God,' quod Piers, 'for al [th]e - good on grounde; 225 - Mi[gh]te I synnelees do as [th]ow seist?' seyde Pieres - [th]anne. - '[Gh]e, I bihote [th]e,' quod Hunger, 'or ellis [th]e Bible - lieth; - Go to Genesis [th]e gyaunt, [th]e engendroure of vs alle:-- - "_In sudore_ and swynke [th]ow shalt [th]i mete tilye, - And laboure for [th]i lyflode," and so owre Lorde hy[gh]te. 230 - And Sapience seyth [th]e same, I seigh it in [th]e Bible:-- - "_Piger pro frigore_ no felde nolde tilye, - And [th]erfore he shal begge and bidde, and no man bete his - hunger." - Mathew with mannes face mouthed [th]ise wordis:-- - [Th]at _seruus nequam_ had a nam, and for he wolde nou[gh]te - chaffare, 235 - He had maugr'e of his maistre for euermore after, - And binam <hym> his mnam, for he ne wolde worche, - And [gh]af [th]at mnam to hym [th]at ten mnames hadde; - And with [th]at he seyde, [th]at Holi Cherche it herde, - "He [th]at hath shal haue, and helpe [th]ere it nedeth, 240 - And he [th]at nou[gh]t hath shal nou[gh]t haue, and no man - hym helpe; - And [th]at he weneth wel to haue, I wil it hym bireue." - Kynde Witt wolde [th]at eche a wyght wrou[gh]te, - Or in dykynge, or in deluynge, or trauaillynge in preyeres, - Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf, Cryst wolde men wrou[gh]te. 245 - [Th]e Sauter seyth in [th]e psalme of _Beati omnes_, - [Th]e freke [th]at fedeth hymself with his feythful laboure, - He is blessed by [th]e boke, in body and in soule:-- - _Labores manuum tuarum, etc._' - '[Gh]et I prey [gh]ow,' quod Pieres, '_par charit'e!_ and - [gh]e kunne 250 - Eny leef of lechecraft, lere it me, my dere. - For somme of my seruaunt[gh], and myself bothe, - Of al a wyke worche nou[gh]t, so owre wombe aketh.' - 'I wote wel,' quod Hunger, 'what sykenesse [gh]ow eyleth; - [Gh]e han maunged ouermoche, and [th]at maketh [gh]ow - grone. 255 - Ac I hote [th]e,' quod Hunger, 'as [th]ow [th]yne hele - wilnest, - That [th]ow drynke no day ar [th]ow dyne somwhat. - Ete nou[gh]te, I hote [th]e, ar hunger [th]e take, - And sende [th]e of his sauce to sauoure with [th]i lippes; - And kepe some tyl sopertyme, and sitte nou[gh]t to longe; 260 - Arise vp ar appetit haue eten his fulle. - Lat nou[gh]t Sire Surfait sitten at [th]i borde.... - And [gh]if [th]ow diete [th]e [th]us, I dar legge myne eres - [Th]at Phisik shal his furred hodes for his fode selle, - And his cloke of Calabre, with alle [th]e knappes of golde, 265 - And be fayne, bi my feith, his phisik to lete, - And lerne to laboure with londe, for lyflode is swete; - For morthereres aren mony leches, Lorde hem amende! - [Th]ei do men deye [th]orw here drynkes, ar Destin'e it wolde.' - 'By Seynt Poule!' quod Pieres, '[th]ise aren profitable - wordis. 270 - Wende now, Hunger, whan [th]ow wolt, [th]at wel be [th]ow - euere, - For this is a louely lessoun; Lorde it [th]e for[gh]elde!' - 'Byhote God,' quod Hunger, 'hennes ne wil I wende, - Til I haue dyned bi [th]is day, and ydronke bothe.' - 'I haue no peny,' quod Peres 'poletes forto bigge, 275 - Ne neyther gees ne grys, but two grene cheses, - A fewe cruddes and creem, and an hauer-cake, - And two loues of benes and bran ybake for my fauntis; - And [gh]et I sey, by my soule, I haue no salt bacoun - Ne no kokeney, bi Cryst, coloppes forto maken. 280 - Ac I haue percil, and porettes, and many koleplantes, - And eke a cow and a kalf, and a cart-mare - To drawe afelde my donge [th]e while [th]e drought lasteth. - And bi [th]is lyflode we mot lyue til Lammasse tyme; - And bi [th]at I hope to haue heruest in my croft, 285 - And [th]anne may I di[gh]te [th]i dyner as me dere liketh.' - Alle [th]e pore peple [th]o pesecoddes fetten, - Benes and baken apples [th]ei brou[gh]te in her lappes, - Chibolles and cheruelles and ripe chiries manye, - And profred Peres [th]is present to plese with Hunger. 290 - Al Hunger eet in hast, and axed after more. - [Th]anne pore folke for fere fedde Hunger [gh]erne - With grene poret and pesen--to poysoun Hunger [th]ei - [th]ou[gh]te. - By [th]at it neighed nere heruest, newe corne cam to - chepynge; - [Th]anne was folke fayne, and fedde Hunger with [th]e best, 295 - With good ale, as Glotoun tau[gh]te, and gerte Hunger go - slepe. - And [th]o wolde Wastour nou[gh]t werche, but wandren - aboute, - Ne no begger ete bred that benes inne were, - But of coket, or clerematyn, or elles of clene whete, - Ne none halpeny ale in none wise drynke, 300 - But of [th]e best and of [th]e brounest [th]at in borgh is - to selle. - Laboreres [th]at haue no lande to lyue on but her handes, - Deyned nou[gh]t to dyne aday ny[gh]t-olde wortes; - May no peny-ale hem paye, ne no pece of bakoun, - But if it be fresch flesch, other fische, fryed other bake, 305 - And that _chaude_ or _plus chaud_, for chillyng of here - mawe. - And but if he be heighlich huyred, ellis wil he chyde, - And [th]at he was werkman wrou[gh]t waille [th]e tyme; - A[gh]eines Catones conseille comseth he to iangle:-- - _Paupertatis onus pacienter ferre memento_. 310 - He greueth hym a[gh]eines God, and gruccheth a[gh]eines - resoun, - And [th]anne curseth he [th]e kynge, and al his conseille - after, - Suche lawes to loke, laboreres to greue. - Ac whiles Hunger was her maister, [th]ere wolde none of hem - chyde, - Ne stryue a[gh]eines his statut, so sterneliche he loked. 315 - Ac I warne [gh]ow, werkemen, wynneth while [gh]e mowe, - For Hunger hide<r>ward hasteth hym faste, - He shal awake with water wastoures to chaste. - Ar fyue <[gh]ere> be fulfilled suche famyn shal aryse, - Thorwgh flodes and [th]ourgh foule wederes frutes shul - faille; 320 - And so sayde Saturne, and sent [gh]ow to warne: - Whan [gh]e se [th]e sonne amys, and two monkes hedes, - And a mayde haue [th]e maistrie, and multiplied bi eight, - [Th]anne shal Deth withdrawe, and Derthe be Iustice, - And Dawe [th]e Dyker deye for hunger, 325 - But if God of his goodnesse graunt vs a trewe. - -[Foot-note: 6 wolde] wil _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 130 or] and _MS._] - - -B. FROM THE C-TEXT, PASSUS VI, ll. 1-104. - -MS. Phillips 8231 (about 1400). - - Thus ich awaked, wot God, wanne ich wonede on Cornehulle, - Kytte and ich in a cote, clo[th]ed as a lollere, - And lytel _ylete_ by, leyue me for so[th]e, - Among lollares of London and lewede heremytes; - For ich made of [th]o men as Reson me tauhte. 5 - For as ich cam by Conscience, wit Reson ich mette, - In an hote heruest, wenne ich hadde myn hele, - And lymes to labore with, and louede wel fare, - And no dede to do bote drynke and to slepe: - In hele and in vnit'e on me aposede, 10 - Romynge in remembraunce, thus Reson me aratede:-- - 'Canstow seruen,' he seide, 'o[th]er syngen in a churche, - O[th]er coke for my cokers, o[th]er to [th]e cart picche, - Mowe, o[th]er mowen, o[th]er make bond to sheues, - Repe, o[th]er be a repereyue, and aryse erliche, 15 - O[th]er haue an horne and be haywarde, and liggen oute - a nyghtes, - And kepe my corn in my croft fro pykers and [th]eeues? - O[th]er shappe shon o[th]er clo[th]es, o[th]er shep o[th]er - kyn kepe, - <H>eggen o[th]er harwen, o[th]er swyn o[th]er gees dryue, - O[th]er eny kyns craft [th]at to [th]e comune nude[th], 20 - Hem [th]at bedreden be bylyue to fynde?' - 'Certes,' ich seyde, 'and so me God helpe, - Ich am to waik to worche with sykel o[th]er with sythe, - And to long, leyf me, lowe for to stoupe, - To worchen as a workeman eny wyle to dure.' 25 - 'Thenne hauest [th]ow londes to lyue by,' quath Reson, - 'o[th]er - lynage riche - That fynden [th]e [th]y fode? For an hydel man [th]ow semest, - A spendour [th]at spende mot, o[th]er a spille-tyme, - O[th]er beggest [th]y bylyue aboute ate menne hacches, - O[th]er faitest vpon Frydays o[th]er feste-dayes in churches, 30 - The wiche is lollarene lyf, [th]at lytel ys preysed - [Th]er Ryghtfulnesse rewarde[th] ryght as men deserue[th]:-- - _Reddit unicuique iuxta opera sua_. - O[th]er [th]ow ert broke, so may be, in body o[th]er in membre, - O[th]er ymaymed [th]orw som myshap werby [th]ow my[gh]t - be excused?' 35 - 'Wanne ich [gh]ong was,' quath ich, 'meny [gh]er hennes, - My fader and my frendes founden me to scole, - Tyl ich wiste wyterliche wat Holy Wryt menede, - And wat is best for [th]e body, as [th]e Bok telle[th], - And sykerest for [th]e soule, by so ich wolle continue. 40 - And [gh]ut fond ich neuere, in faith, sytthen my frendes - deyden, - Lyf [th]at me lyked, bote in [th]es longe clothes. - Hyf ich by laboure sholde lyue and lyflode deseruen, - That labour [th]at ich lerned best [th]er_with_ lyue ich - sholde:-- - _In eadem uocatione qua uocati estis_. 45 - And ich lyue in Londene and on Londen bothe; - The lomes [th]at ich laboure with and lyflode deserue - Ys _Paternoster_, and my Prymer, _Placebo_ and _Dirige_, - And my Sauter som tyme, and my Seuene Psalmes. - Thus ich synge for hure soules of suche as me helpen, 50 - And [th]o [th]at fynden me my fode vochen saf, ich trowe, - To be wolcome wanne ich come o[th]erwyle in a monthe, - Now with hym and now with hure; and [th]usgate ich begge - Withoute bagge o[th]er botel bote my wombe one. - And also, moreouer, me [th]ynke[th], syre Reson, 55 - Men sholde constreyne no clerke to knauene werkes; - For by lawe of _Leuitici_, [th]at oure Lord ordeynede, - Clerkes [th]at aren crouned, of kynde vnderstondyng, - Sholde no[th]er swynke, ne swete, ne swere at enquestes, - Ne fyghte in no vauntwarde, ne hus fo greue:-- 60 - _Non reddas malum pro malo_. - For it ben aires of heuene alle [th]at ben crounede, - And in queer in churches Cristes owene mynestres:-- - _Dominus pars hereditatis mee_; & alibi: _Clementia non - constringit_. - Hit bycome[th] for clerkus Crist for to seruen, 65 - And knaues vncrouned to cart and to worche. - For shold no clerk be crouned bote yf he ycome were - Of franklens and free men, and of folke yweddede. - Bondmen and bastardes and beggers children, - Thuse bylonge[th] to labour, and lordes children sholde - seruen, 70 - Bothe God and good men, as here degree aske[th]; - Some to synge masses, o[th]er sitten and wryte, - Rede and receyue [th]at Reson ouhte spende; - And sith bondemenne barnes han be mad bisshopes, - And barnes bastardes han ben archidekenes, 75 - And sopers and here sones for seluer han be knyghtes, - And lordene sones here laborers, and leid here rentes to wedde, - For [th]e ryght of [th]es reame ryden a[gh]ens oure enemys, - In confort of [th]e comune and [th]e kynges worshep, - And monkes and moniales, [th]at mendinauns sholden fynde, 80 - Han mad here kyn knyghtes, and knyghtfees purchase<d>, - Popes and patrones poure gentil blod refuse[th], - And taken Symondes sone seyntewarie to kepe. - Lyf-holynesse and loue han ben longe hennes, - And wole, til hit be wered out, or o[th]erwise ychaunged. 85 - For[th]y rebuke me ryght nouht, Reson, ich [gh]ow praye; - For in my conscience ich knowe what Crist wolde [th]at ich - wrouhte. - Preyers of <a> parfyt man and penaunce discret - Ys [th]e leueste labour [th]at oure Lord plese[th]. - _Non de solo_,' ich seide, 'for so[th]e _uiuit homo, 90 - Nec in pane et pabulo_, [th]e _Paternoster_ witnesse[th]: - _Fiat uoluntas tua_ fynt ous alle [th]ynges.' - Quath Conscience, 'By Crist! ich can nat see this lye[th]; - Ac it semeth nouht parfytnesse in cytees for to begge, - Bote he be obediencer to pryour o[th]er to mynstre.' 95 - 'That ys soth,' ich seide 'and so ich byknowe - That ich haue tynt tyme, and tyme mysspended; - And [gh]ut, ich hope, as he [th]at ofte haue[th] chaffared, - [Th]at ay hath lost and lost, and at [th]e laste hym happed - He bouhte suche a bargayn he was [th]e bet euere, 100 - And sette hus lost at a lef at [th]e laste ende, - Suche a wynnynge hym warth [th]orw wyrdes of hus grace:-- - _Simile est regnum celorum thesauro abscondito in agro, et - cetera_; - _Mulier que inuenit dragmam, et cetera_; - So hope ich to haue of Hym [th]at his almyghty 105 - A gobet of Hus grace, and bygynne a tyme - [Th]at alle tymes of my tyme to profit shal turne.' - 'Ich rede [th]e,' quath Reson [th]o 'rape [th]e to bygynne - [Th]e lyf [th]at ys lowable and leel to [th]e soule'-- - '[Gh]e, and continue,' quath Conscience; and to [th]e churche - ich wente. 110 - -[Foot-note: 3 And a lytel ich let by _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 19 Heggen] Eggen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 44 [th]erwith] [th]erhwit _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 62 alle] and alle _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 63 in churches] and in kirkes _Ilchester MS._] - -[Foot-note: 92 tua] tuas _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 99 laste] latiste _MS._] - - - - -IX - -MANDEVILLE'S TRAVELS - - -_Mandeville's Travels_ were originally written in French, perhaps in -1356 or 1357. Their popularity was immediate, and Latin and English -translations soon appeared. The English texts published show three -forms. The first, imperfect, is the text of the early prints. The -second, from Cotton MS. Titus C xvi (about 1400-25), was first printed -in 1725, and is followed in the editions by Halliwell, 1839 and 1866, -and by Hamelius, 1919. The third, from Egerton MS. 1982 (about 1400-25), -has been edited for the Roxburghe Club by G. F. Warner, with the French -text, and an excellent apparatus. Our selections follow the Cotton MS. - -The _Travels_ fall into two parts: (i) a description of the routes to -the Holy Land, and an account of the Holy Places; (ii) a narrative of -travel in the more distant parts of Asia. Throughout the author poses as -an eyewitness. But in fact the book is a compilation, made without much -regard to time or place. For the first part William de Boldensele, who -wrote in 1336 an account of a visit to the Holy Land, is the main -source. The second part follows the description of an Eastern voyage -written by Friar Odoric of Pordenone in 1330. Other materials from the -mediaeval encyclopaedists are woven in, and there is so little trace of -original observation that it is doubtful whether the author travelled -far beyond his library. - -In the preface he claims to be Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman born -at St. Albans. The people of St. Albans were driven to desperate shifts -to explain the absence of his tomb from their abbey; but until 1798 it -was actually to be seen at the church of the Guillemins, Liege, with -this inscription: - -'Hic iacet vir nobilis Dom Ioannes de Mandeville, alias dictus ad -Barbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de Anglia, medicinae professor, -devotissimus orator, et bonorum suorum largissimus pauperibus erogator, -qui, toto quasi orbe lustrato, Leodii diem vitae suae clausit extremum -A.D. MCCCLXXII, mensis Nov. die xvii.' - -A Liege chronicler, Jean d'Outremeuse (d. 1399), who claims the -invidious position of his confidant and literary executor, gives further -details: Mandeville was 'chevalier de Montfort en Angleterre'; he was -obliged to leave England because he had slain a nobleman; he came to -Liege in 1343; and was content to be known as 'Jean de Bourgogne dit a -la Barbe'. - -Now Jean de Bourgogne, with whom Sir John Mandeville is identified by -d'Outremeuse, is known as the writer of a tract on the Plague, written -at Liege in 1365. Further, the Latin text of the _Travels_ mentions that -the author met at Liege a certain 'Johannes ad Barbam', recognized him -as a former physician at the court of the Sultan of Egypt, and took his -advice and help in the writing of the _Travels_. - -Again, in 1322, the year in which Sir John Mandeville claims to have -left England, a Johan de Burgoyne was given good reason to flee the -country, because a pardon, granted to him the previous year for his -actions against the Despensers, was then withdrawn. Curiously enough, a -John Mandeville was also of the party opposed to the Despensers. - -Nothing has come of the attempts to attach the clues--St. Albans, -Montfort, Campdi, the arms on the tomb at Liege--to the English family -of Mandeville. It seems likely that 'Sir John Mandeville' was an alias -adopted by Jean de Bourgogne, unless both names cover Jean d'Outremeuse. -The Epilogue to the Cotton version shows how early the plausible -fictions of the text had infected the history of its composition. - -It is clear that the English versions do not come from the hand of -the writer of the _Travels_, who could not have been guilty of such -absurdities as the translation of _montaignes_ by '[th]e hille of -Aygnes' in the Cotton MS. But whoever the author was, he shows a -courtesy and modesty worthy of a knight, begging those with more recent -experience to correct the lapses of his memory, and remembering always -the interests of later travellers, who might wish to glean some marvels -still untold. He might well have pleaded in the fourteenth century that -the time had not come when prose fiction could afford to throw off the -disguise of truth. - - -[THE VOIAGE AND TRAVAILE OF SIR -IOHN MAUNDEVILE, KT.] - -British Museum MS. Cotton Titus C xvi (about 1400-25). - -From chap. xiv (xviii), f. 65 b. - -Ethiope is departed in two princypall parties; and [th]at is in the Est -partie, and in the Meridionall partie, the whiche partie meridionall -is clept Moretane. And the folk of [th]at contree ben blake ynow, and -more blake [th]an in the to[th]er partie; and [th]ei ben clept Mowres. -In [th]at partie is a well, {5} [th]at in the day it is so cold [th]at -no man may drynke [th]ereoffe; and in the nyght it is so hoot [th]at -no man may suffre hys hond [th]erein. And be[gh]onde [th]at partie, -toward the South, to passe by the See Occean, is a gret lond and a gret -contrey. But men may not duell [th]ere, for the feruent brennynge of -the {10} sonne, so is it passynge hoot in [th]at contrey. - -In Ethiope all the ryueres and all the watres ben trouble, and [th]ei -ben somdell salte, for the gret hete [th]at is [th]ere. And the folk -of [th]at contree ben lyghtly dronken, and han but litill appetyt to -mete.... {15} - -In Ethiope ben many dyuerse folk, and Ethiope is clept 'Cusis.' In -[th]at contree ben folk [th]at han but o foot; and [th]ei gon so blyue -[th]at it is meruaylle; and the foot is so large [th]at it schadeweth -all the body a[gh]en the sonne, whanne [th]ei wole lye and reste hem. -{20} - -In Ethiope, whan the children ben [gh]onge and lytill, [th]ei ben all -[gh]alowe; and whan [th]at [th]ei wexen of age, [th]at [gh]alownesse -turneth to ben all blak. In Ethiope is the cytee of Saba, and the lond -of the whiche on of the [th]re Kynges, [th]at presented oure Lord in -Bethleem, was kyng offe. {25} - -Fro Ethiope men gon into Ynde be manye dyuerse contreyes. And men -clepen the high Ynde 'Emlak'. And Ynde is devyded in [th]re princypall -parties; [th]at is: the more, [th]at is a full hoot contree; and Ynde -the lesse, [th]at is a full atempree contrey, [th]at streccheth to the -lond of Med'e; and the [th]ridde {30} part, toward the Septentrion, -is full cold, so [th]at for pure cold and contynuell frost the water -becometh cristall. - -And vpon tho roches of cristall growen the gode dyamandes, [th]at ben -of trouble colour. [Gh]alow cristall draweth <to> colour lyke oylle. -And [th]ei ben so harde [th]at no man may pollysch {35} hem; and men -clepen hem 'dyamandes' in [th]at contree, and 'hamese' in ano[th]er -contree. Othere dyamandes men fynden in Arabye, [th]at ben not so gode; -and [th]ei ben more broun and more tendre. And o[th]er dyamandes also -men fynden in the Ile of Cipre, [th]at ben [gh]it more tendre; and hem -men may wel {40} pollische. And in the lond of Macedoyne men fynden -dyamaundes also. But the beste and the moste precyiouse ben in Ynde. - -And men fynden many tyme harde dyamandes in a masse, [th]at cometh out -of gold, whan men puren it and fynen it out {45} of the myne, whan men -breken [th]at masse in smale peces. And sum tyme it happeneth [th]at -men fynden summe as grete as a pese, and summe lasse; and [th]ei ben -als harde as [th]o of Ynde. - -And all be it [th]at men fynden gode dyamandes in Ynde, {50} [gh]it -natheles men fynden hem more comounly vpon the roches in the see, and -vpon hilles where the myne of gold is. And [th]ei growen many togedre, -on lytill, another gret. And [th]er ben summe of the gretnesse of a -bene, and summe als grete as an hasell-note. And [th]ei ben square and -poynted of here owne {55} kynde, bo[th]e abouen and benethen, withouten -worchinge of mannes hond. - -And [th]ei growen togedre, male and femele. And [th]ei ben norysscht -with the dew of heuene. And [th]ei engendren comounly, and bryngen -forth smale children, [th]at multiplyen {60} and growen all the -[gh]eer. I haue often tymes assayed [th]at [gh]if a man kepe hem with -a lityll of the roche, and wete hem with May dew oftesithes, [th]ei -schull growe eueryche [gh]eer; and the smale wole wexen grete. For -right as the fyn perl congeleth and wexeth gret of the dew of heuene, -right so doth the verray {65} dyamand; and right as the perl, of his -owne kynde, taketh roundnesse, right so the dyamand, be vertu of God, -taketh squarenesse. - -And men schall bere the dyamaund on his left syde; for it is of -grettere vertue [th]anne, [th]an on the right syde. For the {70} -strengthe of here growynge is toward the North, [th]at is the left syde -of the world, and the left partie of man is, whan he turneth his face -toward the Est. - -And [gh]if [gh]ou lyke to knowe the vertues of [th]e dyamand, as men -may fynden in [th]e Lapidarye, [th]at many men knowen {75} noght, I -schall telle [gh]ou, as [th]ei be[gh]onde the see seyn and affermen, of -whom all science and all philosophie cometh from. - -He [th]at bereth the dyamand vpon him, it [gh]eueth him hardynesse and -manhode, and it kepeth the lemes of his body hole. {80} It [gh]eueth -him victorye of his enemyes, in plee and in werre, [gh]if his cause -be rightfull; and it kepeth him [th]at bereth it in gode wytt; and -it kepeth him fro strif and ryot, fro euyll sweuenes, from sorwes, -and from enchauntementes, and from fantasyes and illusiouns of wykked -spirites. And [gh]if ony cursed wycche {85} or enchauntour wolde -bewycche him [th]at bereth the dyamand, all [th]at sorwe and myschance -schall turne to himself, [th]orgh vertue of [th]at ston. And also no -wylde best dar assaylle the man [th]at bereth it on him. Also the -dyamand scholde ben [gh]ouen frely, withouten coueytynge, and withouten -byggynge; {90} and [th]an it is of grettere vertue. And it maketh a -man more strong and more sad a[gh]enst his enemyes. And it heleth him -[th]at is lunatyk, and hem [th]at the fend pursueth or trauayleth. And -[gh]if venym or poysoun be brought in presence of the dyamand, anon it -begynneth to wexe moyst, and for to {95} swete. - -[Th]ere ben also dyamandes in Ynde [th]at ben clept 'violastres',--for -here colour is liche vyolet, or more browne [th]an the -violettes,--[th]at ben full harde and full precyous. But [gh]it sum men -loue not hem so wel as the o[th]ere. But in soth to {100} me, I wolde -louen hem als moche as [th]e o[th]ere; for I haue seen hem assayed. -Also [th]ere is ano[th]er maner of dyamandes [th]at ben als white as -cristall, but [th]ei ben a lityll more trouble; and [th]ei ben gode -and of gret vertue, and all [th]ei ben square and poynted of here owne -kynde. And summe {105} ben six squared, summe four squared, and summe -[th]re, as nature schapeth hem. - -And [th]erfore whan grete lordes and knyghtes gon to seche worschipe -in armes, [th]ei beren gladly the dyamaund vpon hem. I schal speke -a litill more of the dyamandes, all[th]ough {110} I tarye my matere -for a tyme, to [th]at ende [th]at [th]ei [th]at knowen hem not be not -disceyued be gabberes [th]at gon be the contree, [th]at sellen hem. -For whoso wil bye the dyamand, it is nedefull to him [th]at he knowe -hem, because [th]at men counterfeten hem often of cristall [th]at is -[gh]alow; and of saphires of cytryne {115} colour, [th]at is [gh]alow -also; and of the saphire loupe; and of many o[th]er stones. But, I tell -[gh]ou, theise contrefetes ben not so harde; and also the poyntes wil -breken lightly; and men may esily pollissche hem. But summe werkmen, -for malice, wil not pollische hem, to [th]at entent to maken men beleue -[th]at [th]ei may {120} not ben pollisscht. But men may assaye hem in -this manere: First schere with hem, or write with hem, in saphires, -in cristall, or in o[th]er precious stones. After [th]at men taken -the ademand, [th]at is the schipmannes ston, [th]at draweth the nedle -to him, and men leyn the dyamand vpon the ademand, and leyn the nedle -{125} before the ademand; and [gh]if the dyamand be gode and vertuous, -the ademand draweth not the nedle to him, whils the dyamand is [th]ere -present. And this is the preef [th]at [th]ei be[gh]onde the see maken. -Natheles it befalleth often tyme [th]at the gode dyamand leseth his -vertue, be synne and for incontynence of him [th]at {130} bereth it. -And [th]anne is it nedfull to make it to recoueren his vertue a[gh]en, -or ell it is of litill value. - -Chap. xxvi (xxx), f. 112 a. - -Now schall I seye [gh]ou sewyngly of contrees and yles [th]at ben -be[gh]onde the contrees [th]at I haue spoken of. Wherfore {135} I seye -[gh]ou, in passynge be the lond of Cathaye toward the high Ynde, and -toward Bacharye, men passen be a kyngdom [th]at men clepen 'Caldilhe', -[th]at is a full fair contr'e. And [th]ere groweth a maner of fruyt, -as [th]ough it weren gowrdes; and whan [th]ei ben rype, men kutten hem -ato, and men fynden {140} withinne a lytyll best, in flesch, in bon, -and blode as [th]ough it were a lytill lomb, withouten wolle. And men -eten bothe the frut and the best: and [th]at is a gret merueylle. Of -[th]at frute I haue eten, all[th]ough it were wondirfull: but [th]at -I knowe wel, [th]at God is merueyllous in his werkes. And natheles I -tolde {145} hem of als gret a merueyle to hem, [th]at is amonges vs: -and [th]at was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem [th]at in oure contree -weren trees [th]at baren a fruyt [th]at becomen briddes fleeynge; and -[th]o [th]at fellen in the water lyuen; and [th]ei [th]at fallen on the -erthe dyen anon; and [th]ei ben right gode to mannes mete. And hereof -{150} had [th]ei als gret meruaylle [th]at summe of hem trowed it were -an inpossible thing to be. In [th]at contr'e ben longe apples of gode -sauour, whereof ben mo [th]an an hundred in a clustre, and als manye in -another: and [th]ei han grete longe leves and large, of two fote long -or more. And in [th]at contree, and in {155} o[th]er contrees [th]ere -abouten, growen many trees, [th]at beren clowe gylofres, and notemuges, -and grete notes of Ynde, and of canell, and of many o[th]er spices. -And [th]ere ben vynes [th]at beren so grete grapes [th]at a strong man -scholde haue ynow to done for to bere o clustre with all the grapes. -In {160} [th]at same regioun ben the mountaynes of Caspye [th]at men -clepen 'Vber' in the contree. Betwene [th]o mountaynes the Iewes of ten -lynages ben enclosed, [th]at men clepen Goth and Magoth; and [th]ei -mowe not gon out on no syde. [Th]ere weren enclosed twenty two kynges -with hire peple, [th]at dwelleden {165} betwene the mountaynes of -Sy_t_hye. [Th]ere Kyng Alisandre chacede hem betwene [th]o mountaynes; -and [th]ere he thoughte for to enclose hem [th]orgh werk of his men. -But whan he saugh [th]at he myghte not don it, ne bryng it to an ende, -he preyed to God of Nature [th]at He wolde parforme [th]at [th]at he -{170} had begonne. And all were it so [th]at he was a payneme, and -not worthi to ben herd, [gh]it God of His grace closed the mountaynes -togydre; so [th]at [th]ei dwellen [th]ere, all faste ylokked and -enclosed with high mountaynes alle aboute, saf only on o syde; and on -[th]at syde is the See of Caspye. Now {175} may sum men asken: sith -[th]at the see is on [th]at o syde, wherfore go [th]ei not out on the -see syde, for to go where [th]at hem lyketh? But to this questioun -I schal answere: [th]at See of Caspye goth out be londe, vnder the -mountaynes, and renneth be the desert at o syde of the contree; and -after it streccheth vnto the endes {180} of Persie. And all[th]ough it -be clept a see, it is no see, ne it toucheth to non o[th]er see; but it -is a lake, the grettest of the world. And [th]ough [th]ei wolden putten -hem into [th]at see, [th]ei ne wysten neuer where [th]at [th]ei scholde -arryuen. And also [th]ei conen no langage but only hire owne, [th]at no -man {185} knoweth but [th]ei: and [th]erfore mowe [th]ei not gon out. -And also [gh]ee schull vnderstonde [th]at the Iewes han no propre lond -of hire owne, for to dwellen inne, in all the world, but only [th]at -lond betwene the mountaynes. And [gh]it [th]ei [gh]elden tribute for -[th]at lond to the queen of Amazoine, the whiche [th]at {190} maketh -hem to ben kept in cloos full diligently, [th]at [th]ei schull not gon -out on no syde, but be the cost of hire lond. For hire lond marcheth -to [th]o mountaynes. And often it hath befallen [th]at summe of [th]e -Iewes han gon vp the mountaynes, and avaled down to the valeyes: but -gret nombre of folk ne {195} may not do so. For the mountaynes ben so -hye, and so streght vp, [th]at [th]ei moste abyde [th]ere, maugree hire -myght. For [th]ei mowe not gon out, but be a litill issue [th]at was -made be strengthe of men; and it lasteth wel a four grete myle. And -after is [th]ere [gh]it a lond all desert, where men {200} may fynde -no water, ne for dyggynge, ne for non other [th]ing: wherfore men may -not dwellen in [th]at place. So is it full of dragounes, of serpentes, -and of o[th]er venymous bestes, [th]at no man dar not passe, but [gh]if -it be be strong wynter. And [th]at streyt passage men clepen in [th]at -contree 'Clyron'. And [th]at {205} is the passage [th]at the Queen of -Amazoine maketh to ben kept. And [th]ogh it happene sum of hem, be -fortune, to gon out, [th]ei conen no maner of langage but Ebrew, so -[th]at [th]ei can not speke to the peple. And [gh]it natheles, men -seyn [th]ei schull gon out in the tyme of Antecrist, and [th]at [th]ei -schull maken {210} gret slaughter of Cristene men. And [th]erfore -all the Iewes [th]at dwellen in all londes lernen allweys to speken -Ebrew, in hope [th]at whan the o[th]er Iewes schull gon out, [th]at -[th]ei may vnderstonden hire speche, and to leden hem into Cristendom, -for to destroye the Cristene peple. For the Iewes seyn [th]at {215} -[th]ei knowen wel be hire prophecyes [th]at [th]ei of Caspye schull -gon out and spreden [th]orghout all the world; and [th]at the Cristene -men schull ben vnder hire subieccioun als longe as [th]ei han ben in -subieccioun of hem. And [gh]if [th]at [gh]ee wil wyte how [th]at [th]ei -schull fynden hire weye, after [th]at I haue herd {220} seye, I schall -tell [gh]ou. In the tyme of Antecrist, a fox schall make [th]ere his -[+]trayne[+], and mynen an hole, where Kyng Alisandre leet make the -[gh]ates: and so longe he schall mynen and percen the erthe, til [th]at -he schall passe [th]orgh towardes [th]at folk. And whan [th]ei seen -the fox, they schull {225} haue gret merueylle of him, because [th]at -[th]ei saugh neuer such a best. For of all o[th]ere bestes [th]ei han -enclosed amonges hem, saf only the fox. And [th]anne [th]ei schulle -chacen him and pursuen him so streyte, till [th]at he come to the same -place [th]at he cam fro. And [th]anne [th]ei schulle {230} dyggen and -mynen so strongly, till [th]at [th]ei fynden the [gh]ates [th]at King -Alisandre leet make of grete stones and passynge huge, wel symented and -made stronge for the maystrie. And [th]o [gh]ates [th]ei schull breken, -and so gon out, be fyndynge of [th]at issue. {235} - -Fro [th]at lond gon men toward the lond of Bacharie, where ben full -yuele folk and full cruell. In [th]at lond ben trees [th]at beren -wolle, as [th]ogh it were of scheep; whereof men maken clothes, and -all [th]ing [th]at may ben made of wolle. In [th]at contree ben many -ipotaynes, [th]at dwellen som tyme in the {240} water, and somtyme on -the lond: and [th]ei ben half man and half hors, as I haue seyd before; -and [th]ei eten men, whan [th]ei may take hem. And [th]ere ben ryueres -and watres [th]at ben fulle byttere, [th]ree sithes more [th]an is the -water of the see. In [th]at contr'e ben many griffounes, more plentee -[th]an in ony {245} other contree. Sum men seyn [th]at [th]ei han the -body vpward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly [th]ei seyn -soth [th]at [th]ei ben of [th]at schapp. But o griffoun hath the body -more gret, and is more strong, [th]anne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns -as ben o this half; and more gret and strongere [th]an an {250} hundred -egles, suche as we han amonges vs. For o griffoun [th]ere wil bere -fleynge to his nest a gret hors, [gh]if he may fynde him at the poynt, -or two oxen [gh]oked togidere, as [th]ei gon at the plowgh. For he hath -his talouns so longe and so large and grete vpon his feet, as [th]ough -[th]ei weren hornes of grete oxen, or of {255} bugles, or of ky[gh]n; -so [th]at men maken cuppes of hem, to drynken of. And of hire ribbes, -and of the pennes of hire wenges, men maken bowes full stronge, to -schote with arwes and quarell. - -From [th]ens gon men be many iourneyes [th]orgh the lond of Prestre -Iohn, the grete emperour of Ynde. And men clepen {260} his roialme the -Yle of Pentexoire. - -EPILOGUE. - -[Th]ere ben manye o[th]er dyuerse contrees and many o[th]er merueyles -be[gh]onde, [th]at I haue not seen: wherfore of hem I can not speke -propurly, to tell [gh]ou the manere of hem. And also in the contrees -where I haue ben, ben manye {265} mo dyuersitees of many wondirfull -thinges [th]anne I make mencioun of, for it were to longe thing to -deuyse [gh]ou the manere. And [th]erfore [th]at [th]at I haue deuysed -[gh]ou of certeyn contrees, [th]at I haue spoken of before, I beseche -[gh]oure worthi and excellent noblesse [th]at i_t_ suffise to [gh]ou -at this tyme. For {270} [gh]if [th]at I deuysed [gh]ou all [th]at is -be[gh]onde the see, another man peraunter, [th]at wolde peynen him -and trauaylle his body for to go into [th]o marches for to encerche -[th]o contrees, myghte ben blamed be my wordes, in rehercynge manye -straunge thinges; for he myghte not seye no thing of newe, in the {275} -whiche the hereres myghten hauen ou[th]er solace or desport or lust or -lykyng in the herynge. For men seyn allweys [th]at newe thinges and -newe tydynges ben plesant to here. Wherfore I wole holde me stille, -withouten ony more rehercyng of dyuersitee[gh] or of meruaylles [th]at -ben be[gh]onde, to [th]at entent {280} and ende [th]at whoso wil gon -into [th]o contrees, he schall fynde ynowe to speke of, [th]at I haue -not touched of in no wyse. - -And [gh]ee schull vndirstonde, [gh]if it lyke [gh]ou, [th]at at myn -hom comynge I cam to Rome, and schewed my lif to oure {285} holy fadir -the Pope, and was assoylled of all [th]at lay in my conscience, of -many a dyuerse gr_e_uous poynt, as men mosten nedes [th]at ben in -company, dwellyng amonges so many a dyuerse folk of dyuerse secte -and of beleeve, as I haue ben. And amonges all, I schewed hym this -tretys, [th]at I had made {290} after informacioun of men [th]at -knewen of thinges [th]at I had not seen myself; and also of merueyles -and customes [th]at I hadde seen myself, as fer as God wolde [gh]eue -me grace: and besoughte his holy fadirhode [th]at my boke myghte ben -examyned and corrected be avys of his wyse and discreet {295} conseill. -And oure holy fader, of his special grace, remytted my boke to ben -examyned and preued be the avys of his seyd conseill. Be the whiche -my boke was preeued for trewe; in so moche [th]at [th]ei schewed me a -boke, [th]at my boke was examynde by, [th]at comprehended full moche -more be an {300} hundred part; be the whiche the _Mappa Mundi_ was made -after. And so my boke (all be it [th]at many men ne list not to [gh]eue -credence to no [th]ing, but to [th]at [th]at [th]ei seen with hire eye, -ne be the auctour ne the persone neuer so trewe) is affermed and preued -be oure holy fader, in maner and forme {305} as I haue seyd. - -And I Iohn Maundevyll knyght aboueseyd, (all[th]ough I be vnworthi) -[th]at departed from oure contrees and passed the see the [gh]eer of -grace 1322, [th]at haue passed many londes and manye yles and contrees, -and cerched manye full {310} strange places, and haue ben in many a -full gode honourable companye, and at many a faire dede of armes, all -be it [th]at I dide none myself, for myn vnable insuffisance; and -now I am comen hom, mawgree myself, to reste, for gowtes artetykes -[th]at me distreynen, [th]at diffynen the ende of my labour, a[gh]enst -{315} my will, God knoweth. And [th]us takynge solace in my wrechched -reste, recordynge the tyme passed, I haue fulfilled [th]eise thinges -and putte hem wryten in this boke, as it wolde come into my mynde, -the [gh]eer of grace 1356 in the 34th [gh]eer [th]at I departede from -oure contrees. Wherfore I preye to all {320} the rederes and hereres -of this boke, [gh]if it plese hem, [th]at [th]ei wolde preyen to God -for me, and I schall preye for hem. And alle [th]o [th]at seyn for -me a _Paternoster_, with an _Aue Maria_, [th]at God for[gh]eue me my -synnes, I make hem parteneres and graunte hem part of all the gode -pilgrymages, {325} and of all the gode dedes [th]at I haue don, [gh]if -ony ben to his plesance; and noght only of [th]o, but of all [th]at -euere I schall do vnto my lyfes ende. And I beseche Almyghty God, fro -whom all godenesse and grace cometh fro, [th]at He vouchesaf of His -excellent mercy and habundant grace to {330} fullfylle hire soules with -inspiracioun of the Holy Gost, in makynge defence of all hire gostly -enemyes here in erthe, to hire saluacioun, bothe of body and soule; -to worschipe and thankynge of Him [th]at is [th]ree and on, withouten -begynnynge and withouten endyng; [th]at is withouten qualitee good, -{335} withouten quantytee gret; [th]at in alle places is present, and -all thinges conteynynge; the whiche [th]at no goodnesse may amende, ne -non euell empeyre; [th]at in perfyte Trynytee lyueth and regneth God, -be alle worldes and be all tymes. Amen, Amen, Amen. {340} - - - - -X - -THE BRUCE - -WRITTEN IN 1375 BY JOHN BARBOUR. - - -John Barbour was archdeacon of Aberdeen, an auditor of the Scottish -exchequer, and a royal pensioner. Consequently a number of isolated -records of his activities have been preserved. In 1364 he was granted a -safe-conduct to travel with four students to Oxford. In 1365 and 1368 he -had permission to travel through England so that he might study in -France. The notices of his journeys, his offices, and his rewards point -to a busy and successful life. He died in 1395. - -According to Wyntoun, Barbour's works were (1) _The Bruce_; (2) _The -Stewartis Oryginalle_ (or _Pedigree of the Stewarts_), now lost; (3) a -_Brut_, which some have identified with extant fragments of a Troy Book -(see the prefatory note to No. VII), and others with (2) _The Stewartis -Oryginalle_. - -_The Bruce_ is found in two late MSS., both copied by John Ramsay; the -first, St. John's College, Cambridge, MS. G 23, in the year 1487; the -second, now at the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, in 1489. It has been -edited by Skeat for the Early English Text Society, and for the Scottish -Text Society. The poem is valuable for the history, more especially the -traditional history, of the period 1304-33. Barbour speaks of it as a -romance, and the freedom and vividness of the narrative, with its -hero-worship of Robert Bruce and Douglas, place it well above the -ordinary chronicle. But far from disclaiming historical accuracy, -Barbour prides himself that truth well told should have a double claim -to popularity: - - Storys to rede ar delitabill - Suppos that thai be nocht bot fabill: - Than suld storys that suthfast wer, - And thai war said on gud maner, - Hawe doubill plesance in heryng: - The fyrst plesance is the carpyng, - And the tothir the suthfastnes, - That schawys the thing rycht as it wes. - -He did not misjudge the taste of his country, and _The Bruce_, -with which the Scottish contribution to English literature begins, -long held its place as the national epic of Scotland. - -The specimen describes an incident in the unsuccessful siege -of Berwick, 1319. - - -THE BRUCE, Bk. xvii, ll. 593 ff. - -St. John's College (Cambridge) MS. G 23 (A.D. 1487). - - Thai <that> at the sege lay, - Or it wes passit the fift day, - Had maid thame syndry apparale - To gang eftsonis till assale. - Of gret gestis ane sow thai maid 5 - That stalward heling owth it had, - With armyt men enew tharin, - And instrumentis als for to myne. - Syndry scaffatis thai maid vithall - That war weill hyar than the wall, 10 - And ordanit als that by the se - The toune suld weill assal[gh]eit be. - And thai vithin that saw thame swa - So gret apparale schap till ma, - Throu Cra_bb_is consale, that ves sle, 15 - Ane cren thai haf gert dres vp hye, - Rynand on quhelis, that thai mycht bring - It quhar neid war of mast helping. - And pik and ter als haf thai tane, - And lynt <and> hardis, with brynstane, 20 - And dry treis that weill wald byrne, - And mellit syne athir othir in; - And gret flaggatis tharof thai maid, - Gyrdit with irnebandis braid; - Of thai flaggatis mycht mesurit be 25 - Till a gret twnnys quantit'e. - Thai flaggatis, byrnand in a baill, - With thair cren thoucht thai till availl, - And, gif the sow come to the wall, - Till lat thame byrnand on hir fall, 30 - And with ane stark cheyne hald thame thar - Quhill all war brint <vp> that ves thar. - Engynys alsua for till cast - Thai ordanit and maid redy fast, - And set ilk man syne till his ward; 35 - And Schir Valter, the gude Steward, - With armyt men suld ryde about, - And se quhar at thar var mast dout, - And succur thar with his men[gh]he. - And quhen thai into sic degr'e 40 - Had maid thame for thair assaling, - On the Rude-evyn in the dawing, - The Inglis host blew till assale. - Than mycht men with ser apparale - Se that gret host cum sturdely. 45 - The toune enveremyt thai in hy, - And assalit with sa gud will,-- - For all thair mycht thai set thartill,-- - That thai thame pressit fast of the toune. - Bot thai that can thame abandoune 50 - Till ded, or than till woundis sare, - So weill has thame defendit thare - That ledderis to the ground thai slang, - And vith stanys so fast thai dang - Thair fais, that feill thai left lyand, 55 - Sum ded, sum hurt, and sum swavnand. - Bot thai that held on fut in hy - Drew thame avay deliuerly, - And skunnyrrit tharfor na kyn thing, - Bot went stoutly till assalyng; 60 - And thai abovin defendit ay, - And set thame till so harde assay, - _Quhill_ that feill of thame voundit war, - _And_ thai so gret defens maid thar, - That thai styntit thair fais mycht. 65 - Apon sic maner can thai ficht - Quhill it wes neir noyne of the day. - Than thai without, in gret aray, - Pressit thair sow toward the wall; - And thai within weill soyne gert call 70 - The engynour that takyne was, - And gret manans till him mais, - And swoir that he suld de, bot he - Provit on the sow sic sutelt'e - That he t_o_frusch_yt_ hir ilke deill. 75 - And he, that has persauit weill - That the dede wes neir hym till, - Bot gif he mycht fulfill thar will, - Thoucht that he all his mycht vald do: - Bendit in gret hy than wes scho, 80 - And till the sow wes soyn evin set. - In hye he gert draw the cleket, - And smertly swappit out the stane, - That evyn out our the sow is gane, - And behynd hir a litill we 85 - It fell, and than thai cryit hye - That war in hir: 'Furth to the wall, - For dreid<les> it is ouris all.' - The engynour than deliuerly - Gert bend the gyne in full gret hy, 90 - And the stane smertly swappit out. - It flaw <out> quhedirand with a rout, - And fell richt evin befor the sow. - Thair hertis than begouth till grow, - Bot [gh]eit than with thair mychtis all 95 - Thai pressit the sow toward the wall, - And has hir set thar_to_ iuntly. - The gynour than gert bend in hy - The gyne, and swappit out the stane, - That evin toward the lift is gane, 100 - And with gret wecht syne duschit doune - Richt by the wall, in a randoune, - That hyt the sow in sic maner - That it that wes the mast summer, - And starkast for till stynt a strak, 105 - In swndir with that dusche he brak. - The men ran out in full gret hy, - And on the wallis thai can cry - That 'thair sow ferryit wes thair!' - Iohne Crab, that had his geir all [gh]ar, 110 - In his faggatis has set the fyre, - And our the wall syne can thame wyre, - And brynt the sow till brandis bair. - With all this fast assal[gh]eand war - The folk without, with felloune ficht; 115 - And thai within with mekill mycht - Defendit manfully thar stede - Intill gret auentur of dede. - The schipmen with gret apparale - Com with thair schippes till assale, 120 - With top-castellis warnist weill, - And wicht men armyt intill steill; - Thair batis vp apon thair mastis - Drawyn weill hye and festnyt fast is, - And pressit with that gret atour 125 - Toward the wall. Bot the gynour - Hit in ane hespyne with a stane, - And the men that war tharin gane - Sum dede, _sum_ dosnyt, <come doun> vyndland. - Fra thine furth durst nane tak vpon hand 130 - With schippes pres thame to the vall. - But the laiff war assal[gh]eand all - On ilk a syde sa egyrly, - That certis it wes gret ferly - That thai folk sic defens has maid, 135 - For the gret myscheif that thai had: - For thair wallis so law than weir - That a man richt weill with a sper - Micht strik ane othir vp in the face, - As eir befor tald till [gh]ow was; 140 - And feill of thame war woundit sare, - And the layf so fast travaland war - That nane had tume rest for till ta, - Thair aduersouris assail[gh]eit swa. - Thai war within sa stratly stad 145 - That thar wardane with _him_ had - Ane hundreth men in cumpany - Armyt, that wicht war and hardy, - And raid about for till se quhar - That his folk hardest pressit war, 150 - Till releif thame that had mister, - Com syndry tymes in placis ser - Quhar sum of the defensouris war - All dede, and othir woundit sare, - Swa that he of his cumpany 155 - Behufit to leiff thair party; - Swa that, be he ane cours had maid - About, _of_ all _the_ men he had - Thair wes levit with him bot ane, - That he ne had thame left ilkane 160 - To releve quhar he saw mister. - And the folk that assal[gh]eand wer - At Mary-[gh]et behevin had - The barras, and a fyre had maid - At the drawbrig, and brynt it doune, 165 - And war thringand in gret foysoune - Richt in the [gh]et, ane fire till ma. - And thai within gert smertly ga - Ane to the wardane, for till say - How thai war set in hard assay. 170 - And quhen Schir Valter Steward herd - How men sa stratly with thame ferd, - He gert cum of the castell then - All that war thar of armyt men,-- - For thar that day assal[gh]eit nane,-- 175 - And with that rout in hy is gane - Till Mary-[gh]et, and till the wall - Is went, and saw the myscheif all, - And vmbethoucht hym suddandly, - Bot gif gret help war set in hy 180 - Tharto, thai suld burne vp the [gh]et - _With_ the fire _he_ fand tharat. - Tharfor apon gret hardyment - He suddanly set his entent, - And gert all wyde set vp the [gh]et, 185 - And the fyre that he fand tharat - With strinth of men he put avay. - He set hym in full hard assay, - For thai that war assal[gh]eand thar - Pressit on hym with vapnys bair, 190 - And he defendit with all his mycht. - Thar mycht men se a felloune sicht: - With staffing, stoking, and striking - Thar maid thai sturdy defending, - For with gret strynth of men the [gh]et 195 - Thai defendit, and stude tharat, - Magr'e thair fais, quhill the nycht - Gert thame on bath halfis leif the ficht. - -[Foot-note: 15 Crabbis] Craggis _MS._: Crabys _MS. Edinburgh_.] - -[Foot-note: 63 Quhill] How _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 64 And] [th]at _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 75 tofruschyt] till frusche _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 97 tharto] [th]ar in _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 129 Sum dede dosnyt sum dede vyndland _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 146 him] [th]ame _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 158 of] to _MS._ the] to _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 182 With] And _MS._ he fand] haffand _MS._] - - - - -XI - -JOHN WICLIF - -D. 1384. - - -Like Richard Rolle, Wiclif was a Yorkshireman by birth. Of his career at -Oxford little is known until 1360, when he is described as 'master of -Balliol'. From Balliol he was presented to the living of Fillingham, -and, after a series of preferments, he accepted in 1374 the rectory of -Lutterworth, which he held till his death in 1384. - -Wiclif's life was stormy. His acknowledged pre-eminence as a theologian -and doctor in the University did not satisfy his active and combative -mind. 'False peace', he said, 'is grounded in rest with our enemies, -when we assent to them without withstanding; and sword against such -peace came Christ to send.' He lacked neither enemies nor the moral -courage to withstand them. - -At first, under the powerful patronage of John of Gaunt, he entered into -controversies primarily political, opposing the right of the Pope to -make levies on England, which was already overburdened with -war-taxation, and to appoint foreigners to English benefices. On these -questions popular opinion was on his side. - -He proceeded to attack the whole system of Church government, urging -disendowment; rejecting the papal authority, which had been weakened in -1378 by the fierce rivalry of Urban VI and Clement VII; attacking -episcopal privileges, the established religious orders, and the abuse of -indulgences, pardons, and sanctuary. Still his opinions found a good -deal of popular and political support. - -Then in 1380 he publicly announced his rejection of the doctrine of -transubstantiation. From the results of such a heresy his friends could -no longer protect him. Moderate opinion became alarmed and conservative -after the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Richard II was no friend of -heretics. John of Gaunt, himself unpopular by this time, commanded -silence. And in 1382 the secular party in Oxford were compelled, after -a struggle, to condemn and expel their favourite preacher and his -followers. Wiclif retired to Lutterworth, and continued, until struck -down by paralysis in the last days of 1384, to inspire his 'poor -preachers'--the founders of the Lollard sect which lived on to join -forces with Lutheranism in the sixteenth century--and to develop in a -series of Latin and English works the doctrines that later came to be -associated with Puritanism. - -His authorship is often doubtful. In the interests of orthodoxy the -early MSS. of his writings were ruthlessly destroyed, as in the famous -bonfire of his works at Carfax, Oxford, in 1411. And his followers -included not only the simple folk from whom later the 'poor priests' -were recruited, but able University men, trained in his new doctrines, -bred in the same traditions, and eager to emulate their master in -controversy. So his share in the famous Wiclif Bible (ed. Forshall and -Madden, Oxford 1850) is still uncertain. Part of the translation seems -to have been made by Nicholas of Hereford, and a later recension is -claimed for another Oxford disciple, John Purvey. But Wiclif probably -inspired the undertaking, for to him, as to the later Puritans, the word -of the Bible was the test by which all matters of belief, ritual, and -Church government must be tried; and he was particularly anxious, in -opposition to the established clergy and the friars, that laymen should -read it in their own language. Contemporaries, friend and foe, ascribe -the actual translation to him. John Huss, the Bohemian reformer, who was -martyred in 1416 for teaching Wiclif's doctrines, states that Wiclif -'translated all the Bible into English'. Arundel, Archbishop of -Canterbury, is equally positive when he writes to the Pope in 1412 that -'the son of the Old Serpent filled up the cup of his malice against Holy -Church by the device of a new translation of the Scriptures into his -native tongue'. - -The first selection, chapter xv of the _De Officio Pastorali_ (ed. -Matthew, pp. 429 f.), states the case for translation. In the second -(ed. Matthew, pp. 188 ff.) some essential points of Wiclif's teaching -are explained. - -In abuse of his opponents he maintains the sturdy tradition of -controversy that still survives in Milton's prose. The style is rugged -and vigorous; the thought logical and packed close. And it is easy to -see the source of his strength. In an age whose evils were patent to -all, many reproved this or that particular abuse, but the system as a -whole passed unchallenged. Wiclif, almost alone in his generation, had -the reasoning power to go to the root of the matter, and the moral -courage not only to state fearlessly what, rightly or wrongly, he found -to be the source of evil, but to insist on basic reform. It is difficult -nowadays, when modern curiosity has made familiar the practice of mining -among the foundations of beliefs, society, and government, to realize -the force of authority that was ranged against unorthodox reformers in -the fourteenth century. If the popular support he received indicates -that this force was already weakening, Wiclif must still be reckoned -among the greatest of those who broke the way for the modern world. - - -A. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. - -_De Officio Pastorali, chap. xv._ - -MS. Ashburnham XXVII (15th century). - -Ant heere [th]e freris wi[th] [th]er fautours seyn [th]at it is -heresye to write [th]us Goddis lawe in English, and make it knowun to -lewid men. And fourty signes [th]at [th]ey bringen for to shewe an -heretik ben not wor[th]y to reherse, for nou[gh]t groundi[th] hem but -nygromansye. {5} - -It semy[th] first [th]at [th]e wit of Goddis lawe shulde be tau[gh]t -in [th]at tunge [th]at is more knowun, for [th]is wit is Goddis word. -Whanne Crist sei[th] in [th]e Gospel [th]at bo[th]e heuene and er[th]e -shulen passe, but His wordis shulen not passe, He vndirstondith bi His -woordis His wit. And [th]us Goddis wit is Hooly Writ, {10} [th]at may -on no maner be fals. Also [th]e Hooly Gost [gh]af to apostlis wit at -Wit Sunday for to knowe al maner langagis, to teche [th]e puple Goddis -lawe [th]erby; and so God wolde [th]at [th]e puple were tau[gh]t Goddis -lawe in dyuerse tungis. But what man, on Goddis half, shulde reuerse -Goddis ordenaunse and {15} His wille? - -And for [th]is cause Seynt Ierom trauelide and translatide [th]e Bible -fro dyuerse tungis into Lateyn, [th]at it my[gh]te be aftir translatid -to o[th]ere tungis. And [th]us Crist and His apostlis tau[gh]ten [th]e -puple in [th]at tunge [th]at was moost knowun to [th]e {20} puple. Why -shulden not men do nou so? - -And herfore autours of [th]e newe law, [th]at weren apostlis of Iesu -Crist, writen [th]er Gospels in dyuerse tungis [th]at weren more knowun -to [th]e puple. - -Also [th]e wor[th]y reume of Fraunse, notwi[th]stondinge alle {25} -lettingis, ha[th] translatid [th]e Bible and [th]e Gospels, wi[th] -o[th]ere trewe sentensis of doctours, out of Lateyn into Freynsch. Why -shulden not Engli[gh]schemen do so? As lordis of Englond han [th]e -Bible in Freynsch, so it were not a[gh]enus resoun [th]at [th]ey hadden -[th]e same sentense in Engli[gh]sch; for {30} [th]us Goddis lawe wolde -be betere knowun, and more trowid, for onehed of wit, and more acord be -bitwixe reumes. - -And herfore freris han tau[gh]t in Englond [th]e Paternoster in -Engli[gh]sch tunge, as men seyen in [th]e pley of [Gh]ork, and in many -o[th]ere cuntreys. Si[th]en [th]e Paternoster is part of Matheus {35} -Gospel, as clerkis knowen, why may not al be turnyd to Engli[gh]sch -trewely, as is [th]is part? Specialy si[th]en alle Cristen men, lerid -and lewid, [th]at shulen be sauyd, moten algatis sue Crist, and knowe -His lore and His lif. But [th]e comyns of Engli[gh]schmen knowen it -best in [th]er modir tunge; and [th]us it {40} were al oon to lette -siche knowing of [th]e Gospel and to lette Engli[gh]sch men to sue -Crist and come to heuene. - -Wel y woot defaute may be in vntrewe translating, as my[gh]ten haue -be many defautis in turnyng fro Ebreu into Greu, and fro Greu into -Lateyn, and from o langage into {45} ano[th]er. But lyue men good lif, -and studie many persones Goddis lawe, and whanne chaungyng of wit is -foundun, amende [th]ey it as resoun wole. - -Sum men seyn [th]at freris trauelen, and [th]er fautours, in [th]is -cause for [th]re chesouns, [th]at y wole not aferme, but God woot -{50} wher [th]ey ben so[th]e. First [th]ey wolden be seun so nedeful -to [th]e Engli[gh]schmen of oure reume [th]at singulerly in her wit -lay[gh] [th]e wit of Goddis lawe, to telle [th]e puple Goddis lawe on -what maner euere [th]ey wolden. And [th]e secound cause herof is seyd -to stonde in [th]is sentense: freris wolden lede [th]e puple in {55} -techinge hem Goddis lawe, and [th]us [th]ei wolden teche sum, and sum -hide, and docke sum. For [th]anne defautis in [th]er lif shulden be -lesse knowun to [th]e puple, and Goddis lawe shulde be vntreweliere -knowun bo[th]e bi clerkis and bi comyns. [Th]e [th]ridde cause [th]at -men aspien stondi[th] in [th]is, as [th]ey seyn: alle {60} [th]es newe -ordris dreden hem [th]at [th]er synne shulde be knowun, and hou [th]ei -ben not groundid in God to come into [th]e chirche; and [th]us [th]ey -wolden not for drede [th]at Goddis lawe were knowun in Engli[gh]sch; -but [th]ey my[gh]ten putte heresye on men [gh]if Engli[gh]sch toolde -not what [th]ey seyden. {65} - -God moue lordis and bischops to stonde for knowing of His lawe! - - -B. OF FEIGNED CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. - -Corpus Christi College (Cambridge) MS. 296 (1375-1400), p. 165. - -Of feyned contemplatif lif, of song, of [th]e Ordynal of Salisbury, and -of bodely almes and worldly bysynesse of prestis; hou bi [th]es foure -[th]e fend letti[th] hem fro prechynge of [th]e Gospel.-- - -First, whanne trewe men techen bi Goddis lawe wit and {5} reson, [th]at -eche prest owi[th] to do his my[gh]t, his wit, and his wille to preche -Cristis Gospel, [th]e fend blyndi[th] ypocritis to excuse hem by -feyned contemplatif lif, and to seie [th]at, si[th] it is [th]e beste, -and [th]ei may not do bo[th]e togidre, [th]ei ben nedid for charit'e -of God to leue [th]e prechynge of [th]e Gospel, and {10} lyuen in -contemplacion. - -See nowe [th]e ypocrisie of [th]is false seiynge. Crist tau[gh]t and -dide [th]e beste lif for prestis, as oure fei[th] techi[th], si[th] -He was God and my[gh]te not erre. But Crist preched [th]e Gospel, and -charged alle His apostlis and disciplis to goo and preche [th]e {15} -Gospel to alle men. [Th]an it is [th]e beste lif for prestis in [th]is -world to preche [th]e Gospel. - -Also God in [th]e olde lawe techi[th] [th]at [th]e office of a prophete -is to schewe to [th]e peple here foule synnys. But eche prest is a -prophete bi his ordre, as Gregory sey[th] vpon [th]e Gospellis. {20} -[Th]anne it is [th]e office of eche prest to preche and telle [th]e -synnys of [th]e peple; and in [th]is manere schal eche prest be an -aungel of God, as Holy Writt sei[th]. - -Also Crist and Ion Baptist leften desert and precheden [th]e Gospel to -here de[th] [th]erfore; and [th]is was most charit'e; for ellis {25} -[th]ei weren out of charit'e, or peierid in charit'e, [th]at my[gh]te -not be in hem bo[th]e, si[th] [th]e ton was God, and no man after Crist -was holyere [th]an Baptist, and he synned not for [th]is prechynge. - -Also [th]e holy prophete Ieromye, halwid in his moder wombe, my[gh]tte -not be excused fro prechynge bi his contemplacion, {30} but chargid of -God to preche [th]e synnes of [th]e peple, and suffre peyne [th]erfore, -and so weren alle [th]e prophetis of God. - -A Lord! si[th] Crist and Ion Baptist and alle [th]e prophetis of God -weren nedid bi charit'e to come out of desert to preche {35} to [th]e -peple, and leue here sol<it>arie preiere, hou dore we fonnyd heretikys -seie [th]at it is betre to be stille, and preie oure owen fonnyd -ordynaunce, [th]an to preche Cristis Gospel? - -Lord! what cursed spirit of lesyngis stiri[th] prestis to close hem in -stonys or wallis for al here lif, si[th] Crist comaundi[th] to {40} -alle His apostlis and prestis to goo into alle [th]e world and preche -[th]e Gospel. Certis [th]ei ben opyn foolis, and don pleynly a[gh]enst -Cristis Gospel; and, [gh]if [th]ei meyntenen [th]is errour, [th]ei ben -cursed of <God>, and ben perilous ypocritis and heretikis also. And -si[th] men ben holden heretikis [th]at done {45} a[gh]enst [th]e popis -lawe, <and [th]e beste part of [th]e popis lawe> sei[th] pleynly [th]at -eche [th]at come[th] to presthod taki[th] [th]e office of a bedele, -or criere, to goo bifore Domesday to crie to [th]e peple here synnes -and vengaunce of God, whi ben not [th]o prestis heretikis [th]at leuen -to preche Cristis Gospel, and {50} compelle o[th]ere treue men to -leue prechynge of [th]e Gospel? Si[th] [th]is lawe is Seynt Gregoryes -lawe, groundid opynly in Goddis lawe and reson and charit'e; and -o[th]ere lawes of [th]e peple ben contrarie to Holy Writt and reson and -charit'e, for to meyntene pride and coueitise of Anticristis worldly -clerkis. {55} - -But ypocritis allegen [th]e Gospel,--[th]at Magdaleyne chees to -hereself [th]e beste part whanne she saat bisiden Cristis feet and -herde His word. So[th] it is [th]at [th]is meke sittynge and deuout -herynge of Cristis wordis was best to Magdeleyne, for sche hadde not -office of prechynge as prestis han, si[th] sche was {60} a womman, -[th]at hadde not auctorit'e of Goddis lawe to teche and preche -opynly. But what is [th]is dede to prestis, [th]at han expresse [th]e -comaundement of God and men to preche [th]e Gospel? Where [th]ei -wolen alle be wommen in ydelnesse, and suen not Iesu Crist in lif and -prechynge [th]e Gospel, [th]at {65} He comandi[th] Hymself bo[th]e in -[th]_e_ olde lawe and newe? - -Also [th]is p_e_sible herynge of Cristis word and brennynge loue -[th]at Magdeleyne hadde was [th]e beste part, for it schal be ende in -heuene of good lif in [th]is world. But in [th]is _world_ [th]e beste -lif for prestis is holy lif in kepynge Goddis hestis, and {70} trewe -prechynge of [th]e Gospel, as Crist dide, and chargid alle His prestis -to do <[th]e same>. And [th]es ypocritis wenen [th]at here dremys and -fantasies of hemself ben contemplacion, and [th]at prechynge of [th]e -Gospel be actif lif; and so [th]ei menen [th]at Crist tok [th]e worse -lif for [th]is world, and nedid alle His prestis {75} to leue [th]e -betre and take [th]e worse lif; and [th]us [th]es fonnyd ypocritis -putten errour in Iesu Crist. But who ben more heretikis? - -Also [th]es blynde ypocritis alleggen [th]at Crist biddi[th] vs preie -euermore, and Poul biddi[th] [th]at we preie wi[th]oute lettynge, -and {80} [th]an we prestis may not preche, as [th]ei feynen falsly. -But here [th]es ypocritis schullen wite [th]at Crist and Poul -vnderstonden of preiere of holy lif, [th]at eche man do[th] as longe -as he dwelli[th] in charit'e; and not of babelynge of lippis, [th]at -no man may euere do wi[th]outen cessynge; for ellis no man in [th]is -{85} world my[gh]te fulfille [th]e comaundement of Crist; and [th]is -techi[th] Austyn and o[th]ere seyntis. - -And si[th] men [th]at fulfillen not Goddis lawe, and ben out of -charit'e, ben not acceptid in here preiynge of lippis,--for here -preiere in lippis is abhomynable, as Holy Writt sei[th] bi {90} -Salomon,--[th]es prestis [th]at prechen not [th]e Gospel, as Crist -biddi[th], ben not able to preie <God> for mercy, but disceyuen hemself -and [th]e peple, and dispisen God, and stiren Hym to wra[th][th]e and -vengaunce, as Austyn and Gregory and o[th]ere seyntis techen. {95} - -And principaly [th]es ypocritis [th]at han rentes, and worldly -lordischipes, and parische chirchis approprid to hem, a[gh]enst Holy -Writt bo[th]e old and newe, by symonye and lesyngis _on_ Crist and His -apostelis, for stynkynge gronyngys and abite of holynesse, and f_or_ -distroiynge of Goddis ordynaunce, and for {100} singuler profession -maade to foolis and, in cas, to fendis of helle,--[th]es foolis -schullen lerne what is actif lif and contemplatif bi Goddis lawe, and -[th]anne [th]ei my[gh]tten wite [th]at [th]ei han nei[th]er [th]e ton -ne [th]e toi[th]er, si[th] [th]ei chargen more veyn statutis _of_ -synful men, and, in cas, <of> deuelys, [th]an [th]ei {105} chargen -[th]e heste of God, and werkis of mercy, and poyntis of charit'e. And -[th]e fende blyndi[th] hem so moche, [th]at [th]ei seyn indede [th]at -[th]ei moten neuere preie to p_le_synge of God, si[th] [th]ei vnablen -hemself to do [th]e office of prestis bi Goddis lawe, and purposen to -ende in here feyned deuocion, [th]at is blasphemye {110} to God. - -Also bi song [th]e fend letti[th] men to studie and preche [th]e -Gospel; for si[th] mannys wittis ben of certeyn mesure and my[gh]t, -[th]e more [th]at [th]ei ben occupied aboute siche mannus song, [th]e -lesse moten [th]ei be sette aboute Goddis lawe. For {115} [th]is -stiri[th] men to pride, and iolit'e, and o[th]ere synnys, and so -vnable[th] hem many gatis to vnderstonde and kepe Holy Writt, [th]at -teche[th] mekenesse, mornynge for oure synnys and o[th]ere mennus, and -stable lif, and charit'e. And [gh]it God in all [th]e lawe of grace -chargi[th] not siche song, but deuocion in {120} herte, trewe techynge, -and holy spekynge in tonge, and goode werkis, and holy lastynge in -charit'e and mekenesse. But mannus foly and pride stie[th] vp euere -more and more in [th]is veyn nouelrie. - -First men ordeyned songe of mornynge whanne [th]ei weren {125} in -prison, for techynge of [th]e Gospel, as Ambrose, _as_ men seyn, to -putte awey ydelnesse, and to be not vnoccupied in goode manere for -[th]e tyme. And [th]at songe and o_u_r<e> acordi[th] not, for oure -stiri[th] to iolit'e and pride, and here stiri[th] to mornynge, and -to dwelle lenger in wordis of Goddis lawe. {130} [Th]an were matynys, -and masse, and euensong, _placebo_ and _dirige_, and comendacion, -and matynes of Oure Lady, ordeyned of synful men to be songen wi[th] -hei[gh]e criynge, to lette men fro [th]e sentence and vnderstondynge of -[th]at [th]at was [th]us songen, and to maken men wery, and vndisposid -to studie {135} Goddis lawe for akyng of hedis. And of schort tyme -[th]anne <weren> more veyn iapis founden: deschaunt, countre note, and -orgon, and smale brekynge, [th]at stiri[th] veyn men to daunsynge more -[th]an <to> mornynge; and herefore ben many proude lorelis founden and -dowid wi[th] temperal and worldly {140} lordischipis and gret cost. But -[th]es foolis schulden drede [th]e scharpe wordis of Austyn, [th]at -sei[th]: 'As oft as [th]e song liki[th] me more [th]an do[th] [th]e -sentence [th]at is songen, so oft I confesse [th]at I synne greuously.' - -And [gh]if [th]es knackeris excusen hem bi song in [th]e olde lawe, -{145} seie [th]at Crist, [th]at best kepte [th]e olde lawe as it -schulde be aftirward, tau[gh]t not ne chargid vs wi[th] sich bodely -song, ne ony of His apostlis, but wi[th] deuocion in herte, and holy -lif, and trewe prechynge, and [th]at is ynow[th][gh] and [th]e beste. -But who schulde [th]anne charge vs wi[th] more, oure [th]e fredom and -{150} li[gh]tnesse of Cristis lawe? - -And [gh]if [th]ei seyn [th]at angelis heryen God bi song in heuene, -seie [th]at we kunnen not [th]at song; but [th]ei ben in ful victorie -of here enemys, and we ben in perilous b_atai_le, and in [th]e valeye -of wepynge and mornynge; and oure song letti[th] vs {155} fro betre -occupacion, and stiri[th] vs to many grete synnes, and to for[gh]ete vs -self. - -But oure flecshly peple ha[th] more lykynge in here bodely eris in -sich knackynge and taterynge, [th]an in herynge of Goddis lawe, and -spekynge of [th]e blisse of heuene; for [th]ei {160} wolen hire proude -prestis and o[th]ere lorelis [th]us to knacke notis for many markis -and poundis. But [th]ei wolen not [gh]eue here almes to prestis and -children to lerne and teche Goddis lawe. And [th]us, bi [th]is nouelrie -of song, is Goddis lawe vnstudied and not kepte, and pride and o[th]ere -grete {165} synnys meyntenyd. - -And [th]es fonnyd lordis and peple gessen to haue more [th]ank of God, -and <to> worschipe Hym more, in haldynge vp of here owen nouelries -wi[th] grete cost, [th]an in lernynge, and techynge, and meyntenynge -of his lawe, and his seruauntis, {170} and his ordynaunce. But where -is more disceit in fei[th], hope and charit'e? For whanne [th]er ben -fourty or fyfty in a queer, [th]re or foure proude lorellis schullen -knacke [th]e most deuout seruyce [th]at no man schal here [th]e -sentence, and alle o[th]ere schullen be doumbe, and loken on hem as -foolis. And [th]anne {175} strumpatis and [th]euys preisen Sire Iacke, -or Hobbe, and Williem [th]e proude clerk, hou smale [th]ei knacken here -notis; and seyn [th]at [th]ei seruen wel God and Holy Chirche, whanne -[th]ei dispisen God in his face, and letten o[th]ere Cristene men of -here deuocion and compunccion, and stiren hem to worldly {180} vanyt'e. -And [th]us trewe seruyce of God is lettid, and [th]is veyn knackynge -for oure iolit'e and pride is preised abouen [th]e mone. - -Also [th]e Ordynalle of Salisbury letti[th] moche prechynge of [th]e -Gospel; for folis chargen [th]at more [th]an [th]e maundementis of God, -and to studie and teche Cristis Gospel. For [gh]if {185} a man faile in -his Ordynale, men holden [th]at grete synne, and reprouen hym [th]erof -faste; but [gh]if a preste breke [th]e hestis of God, men chargen -[th]at litel or nou[gh]t. And so [gh]if prestis seyn here matynes, -masse, and euensong aftir Salisbury vsse, [th]ei hemself and o[th]ere -men demen it is ynow[gh], [th]ou[th] [th]ei nei[th]er {190} preche ne -teche [th]e hestis of God and [th]e Gospel. And [th]us [th]ei wenen -[th]at it is ynow[gh] to fulfille synful mennus ordynaunce, and to leue -[th]e ri[gh]tfulleste ordynaunce of God, [th]at He chargid prestis to -performe. - -But, Lord! what was prestis office ordeyned bi God bifore {195} [th]at -Salisbury vss was maad of proude prestis, coueitous and dronkelewe? -Where God, [th]at dampne[th] alle ydelnesse, charg_id_ hem not at [th]e -ful wi[th] [th]e beste occupacion for hemself and o[th]ere men? Hou -doren synful folis chargen Cristis prestis wi[th] so moche nouelrie, -and euermore cloute more to, {200} [th]at [th]ei may not frely do -Goddis ordynaunce? For [th]e Iewis in [th]e olde lawe haden not so -manye serymonyes of sacrifices ordeyned bi God as prestis han now -ri[gh]ttis and reulis maade of synful men. And [gh]it [th]e olde lawe -in [th]es charious customes mosten nedes cesse for fredom of Cristis -Gospel. But [th]is {205} fredom is more don awei bi [th]is nouelrie -[th]an bi customes of [th]e olde lawe. And [th]us many grete axen -where a prest may, wi[th]outen dedly synne, seie his masse wi[th]outen -matynys; and [th]ei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille [th]e -ordynaunce of God in his fredom, wi[th]oute nouelrie of synful men, -[th]at letti[th] {210} prestis fro [th]e betre occupacion; as [gh]if -[th]ei demen it dedly synne to leue [th]e worse [th]ing, and take [th]e -betre, whanne [th]ei may not do bo[th]e togidre. - -And [th]us, Lord! [Th]in owen ordynaunce [th]at [Th]ou madist for [Th]i -prestis is holden errour, and distroied for [th]e fonnyd nouelrie {215} -of synful foolis, and, in cas, of fendis in helle. - -But here men moste be war [th]at vnder colour of [th]is fredom [th]ei -ben betre occupied in [th]e lawe of God to studie it and teche it, -and not slou[gh] ne ydel in ouermoche sleep, and vanyt'e, and o[th]er -synnes, for [th]at is [th]e fendis panter. {220} - -See now [th]e blyndnesse of [th]es foolis. [Th]ei seyn [th]at a prest -may be excused fro seiynge of masse, [th]at God comaundid Himself to -[th]e substance [th]erof, so [th]at he here on. But he schal not be -excused but [gh]if he seie matynes and euensong himself, [th]at synful -men han ordeyned; and [th]us [th]ei chargen {225} more here owene -fyndynge [th]an Cristis comaundement. - -A Lord! [gh]if alle [th]e studie and traueile [th]at men han now abowte -Salisbury vss, wi[th] multitude _of_ newe costy portos, antifeners, -graielis, and alle o[th]ere bokis, weren turned into makynge of biblis, -and in studiynge and techynge [th]erof, hou {230} moche schulde Goddis -lawe be for[th]ered, and knowen, and kept, and now in so moche it -is hyndrid, vnstudied, and vnkept. Lord! hou schulden riche men ben -excused [th]at costen so moche in grete schapellis, and costy bokis of -mannus ordynaunce, for fame and nobleie of [th]e world, and wolen not -{235} spende so moche aboute bokis of Goddis lawe, and for to studie -hem and teche hem: si[th] [th]is were wi[th]oute comparison betre on -alle siddis, and ly[gh]ttere, and sykerere? - -But [gh]it men [th]at knowen [th]e fredom of Goddis ordynaunce for -prestis to be [th]e beste, wi[th] grete sorow of herte seyn here -{240} matynes, masse, and euensong, whanne [th]ei schulden ellis be -betre occupied, last [th]ei sclaundren [th]e sike conscience of here -bre[th]eren, [th]at [gh]it knowen not Goddis lawe. God brynge [th]es -prestis to [th]e fredom to studie Holy Writt, and lyue [th]erafter, and -teche it o[th]er men frely, and to preie as long and as {245} moche as -God meue[th] hem [th]erto, and ellis turne to o[th]ere medeful werkis, -as Crist and His apostlis diden; and [th]at [th]ei ben not constreyned -to blabre alle day wi[th] tonge and grete criynge, as pies and iaies, -[th]ing [th]at [th]ei knowen not, and to peiere here owen soule for -defaute of wis deuocion and charit'e! {250} - -Also bysynesse of worldly occupacion of prestis letti[th] prechynge -of [th]e Gospel, for [th]ei ben so besy <[th]er>aboute, and namely in -herte, [th]at [th]ei [th]enken litel on Goddis lawe, and han no sauour -[th]erto. And seyn [th]at [th]ei don [th]us for hospitalit'e, and to -releue pore men wi[th] dedis of charit'e. But, hou euere {255} men -speken, it his for here owen couetise, and lustful lif in mete and -drynk and precious clo[th]is, and for name of [th]e world in fedynge of -riche men; and litel or nou[gh]t come[th] frely to pore men [th]at han -most nede. - -But [th]es prestis schulden sue Crist in manere of lif and {260} trewe -techynge. But Crist lefte sich occupacion, and His apostlis also, -and weren betre occupied in holy preiere and trewe techynge of [th]e -Gospel. And [th]is determinacion and ful sentence was [gh]ouen of alle -[th]e apostlis togidre, whanne [th]ei hadden resceyued [th]e plenteuous -[gh]iftis of [th]e Holy Gost. Lord! {265} where [th]es worldly prestis -<ben> wisere [th]an ben alle [th]e apostlis of Crist? It semeth [th]at -[th]ei ben, or ellis <[th]ei ben> fooles. - -Also Crist wolde not take [th]e kyngdom whan [th]e puple wolde haue -maad Him kyng, as Iones Gospel telle[th]. But if it haade be a prestis -office to dele aboute [th]us bodi<ly> almes, {270} Crist, [th]at coude -best haue do [th]is office, wolde haue take [th]es temperal goodis to -dele hem among poeuere men. But He wolde not do [th]us, but fley, and -took no man of [th]e aposteles wi[th] him, so faste He hiede. Lord! -where worldly prestis kunnen bettere don [th]is partinge of worldly -goodis _[th]an_ Iesu {275} Crist? - -And [gh]if [th]ei seyn [th]at Crist fedde [th]e puple in desert with -bodily almes, manye [th]ousand, as [th]e Gospel sai[th]: [th]at dide -Crist by miracle, to shewe His godhede, and to teche prestes {280} -hou[gh] [th]ei schulden fede gostly Cristene men by Goddis word. For -so dide Cristis aposteles, and hadde not whereof to do bodily almes, -whan [th]ei mi[gh]ten haue had tresour and iuelis ynowe of kynggis and -lordis. - -Also Peter sai[th] in Dedis of Apostlis to a pore man [th]at to {285} -him nei[th]er was gold ne siluer; and [gh]it he performede wel [th]e -office of a trewe prest. But oure prestis ben so bysye aboute worldly -occupacioun [th]at [th]ei semen bettere bailyues or reues [th]an gostly -prestis of Iesu Crist. For what man is so bysy aboute marchaundise, and -o[th]ere worldly doyngis, as ben {290} preostes, [th]at shulden ben -ly[gh]t of heuenly lif to alle men abouten hem? - -But certes [th]ei shulde be as bysy aboute studyinge of Goddys lawe, -and holy preyer, not of _Famulorum_, but of holy desires, and clene -meditacioun of God, and trewe techinge of {295} [th]e Gospel, as ben -laboreris aboute worldly labour for here sustenaunce. And muche more -bysie, [gh]if [th]ei mi[gh]ten, for [th]ey ben more holden for to lyue -wel, and <[gh]eue> ensaumple of holi lif to [th]e puple, and trewe -techinge of Holy Writ, [th]anne [th]e people is holden to [gh]yue hem -dymes or offringis or ony {300} bodily almes. And [th]erfore prestis -shulde not leue ensaumple of good lif, and studyinge of Holi Writ, and -trewe techinge [th]erof, ne <for> bodily almes, ne for worldly goodis, -ne for sauynge of here bodily lif. - -And as Crist sauede [th]e world by writynge and techinge of {305} -foure Euaungelistis, so [th]e fend caste[th] to dampne [th]e world and -prestis for lettynge to preche [th]e Gospel by [th]es foure: by feyned -contemplacioun, by song, by Salisbury vse, and by worldly bysynes of -prestis. - -God for His mercy styre [th]es prestis to preche [th]e Gospel in {310} -word, in lif; and be war of Sathanas disceitis. Amen. - -[Foot-note: 7 fend] fendis _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 66 [th]e] [th]o _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 67 pesible] posible _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 69 world] lif _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 98 on] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 100 for (1st)] fro _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 105 of (1st)] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 108 plesynge] preisynge _MS. altered later_.] - -[Foot-note: 126 as (2nd)] and _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 128 oure] o[th]er _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 154 bataile] baitale _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 198 chargid] chargen _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 202 not so] _repeated MS._] - -[Foot-note: 228 of] & _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 275 [th]an] of _MS._] - - - - -XII - -JOHN GOWER - -D. 1408. - - -John Gower, a Londoner himself, came of a good Kentish family. Chaucer -must have known him well, for he chose him as his attorney when leaving -for the Continent in 1378, and, with the dedication of _Troilus and -Criseyde_, labelled him for ever as 'moral Gower'. Gower's marriage with -Agnes Groundolf, probably a second marriage, is recorded in 1398. -Blindness came on him a few years later. His will, dated August 15, -1408, was proved on October 24, 1408, so that his death must fall -between those two points. By his own wish he was buried in St. -Saviour's, Southwark, the church of the canons of St. Mary Overy, to -whom he was a liberal benefactor. - -On his tomb in St. Saviour's Church, Gower is shown with his head -resting on three great volumes, representing his principal works--the -_Speculum Meditantis_, the _Vox Clamantis_, and the _Confessio Amantis_. - -The _Speculum Meditantis_, or _Mirour de l'Omme_, is a handbook of sins -and sinners, written in French. - -The _Vox Clamantis_, written in Latin, covers similar ground. Opening -with a vision of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the poet passes in review -the faults of the different grades of society--clergy, nobles, -labourers, traders, lawyers--and ends with an admonition to the young -King Richard II. - -In his English work, the _Confessio Amantis_, he expressly abandons the -task of setting the world to rights, and promises to change his style -henceforth. Now he will sing of Love. The machinery of the poem is -suggested by the great source of mediaeval conventions, the _Roman de la -Rose_. On a May morning the poet, a victim of love, wanders afield and -meets the Queen of Love (cp. the beginning of Chaucer's _Legend of Good -Women_). She bids him confess to her priest Genius. Genius hears the -confession, sustaining with some incongruity the triple role of high -priest of Love, Christian moralist, and entertainer--for it is he who -tells the stories which, woven about the frame work of the Seven Deadly -Sins, make the real matter of the poem. - -The first form of the _Confessio_ was completed in 1390. It contains a -Prologue in which the suggestion for the poem is ascribed to Richard II, -and an Epilogue in his praise. In this version the Queen of Love at -parting gives Gower a message for Chaucer: - - And gret wel Chaucer whan ye mete, - As mi disciple and mi poete: - For in the floures of his youthe - In sondri wise, as he wel couthe, - Of ditees and of songes glade, - The whiche he for mi sake made, - The lond fulfild is overal. - Wherof to him in special - Above alle othre I am most holde. - Forthi now, in hise daies olde, - Thow schalt him telle this message, - That he upon his latere age, - To sette an ende of alle his werk, - As he which is myn owne clerk, - Do make his testament of love, - As thou hast do thi schrifte above, - So that mi Court it mai recorde. - -In the final form, completed in 1392-3, Richard's name disappears from -the Prologue; the dedication to his popular rival, Henry of Lancaster, -is made prominent; the eulogy in the Epilogue is dropped; and with it -the compliment to Chaucer. Whether this last omission is due to chance, -or to some change in the relations between the two poets, is not clear. - -In his own day Gower was ranked with Chaucer. His reputation was still -high among the Elizabethans; and he has the distinction of appearing as -Chorus in a Shakespearian play--_Pericles_--of which his story of -_Apollonius of Tyre_, in Bk. viii of the _Confessio_, was the immediate -source. - -A selection gives a very favourable impression of his work. He has a -perfect command of the octosyllabic couplet; an easy style, well suited -to narrative; and a classic simplicity of expression for which the work -of his predecessors in Middle English leaves us unprepared. Throughout -the whole of the _Confessio Amantis_, more than 30,000 lines, the level -of workmanship is remarkable, and almost every page shows some graceful -and poetical verses. - -Yet the poem as a whole suffers from the fault that Gower tried to -avoid: - - It dulleth ofte a mannes wit - To him that schal it aldai rede. - -One defect, obvious to a modern reader, would hardly be noticed by his -contemporaries: he often incorporates in his poetry matter proper only -to an encyclopaedia, such as the discourse on the religions of the world -in Bk. v, or that on Philosophy in Bk. vii. Another is more radical: for -all his wide reading, his leading ideas lack originality. It is hardly a -travesty to say that the teaching of his works amounts to this: 'In the -moral world, avoid the Seven Deadly Sins in the five sub-classifications -of each; in the political world keep your degree without presuming'. -Such a negative and conventional message cannot sustain the fabric of -three long poems. Their polished and facile moralizing becomes almost -exasperating if it be remembered that the poet wrote when a whole system -of society was falling, and falling noisily, about him. Modern taste -rejects Gower the moralist and political writer, and his claim to -present as apart from historical value rests on the delightful single -stories which served as embroidery to his serious themes. - -The extracts are taken from the admirable edition by G. C. Macaulay: -'The Works of John Gower', 4 vols., Oxford 1899-1902. - - -A. CEIX AND ALCEONE. - -From Bk. iv, ll. 2927 ff. - - This finde I write in Poesie: - Ceix the king of Trocinie - Hadde Alceone to his wif, - Which as hire oghne hertes lif - Him loveth; and he hadde also 5 - A brother, which was cleped tho - Dedalion, and he per cas - Fro kinde of man forschape was - Into a goshauk of liknesse; - Wherof the king gret hevynesse 10 - Hath take, and thoghte in his corage - To gon upon a pelrinage - Into a strange regioun, - Wher he hath his devocioun - To don his sacrifice and preie, 15 - If that he mihte in eny weie - Toward the goddes finde grace - His brother hele to pourchace, - So that he mihte be reformed - Of that he hadde be transformed. 20 - To this pourpos and to this ende - This king is redy for to wende, - As he which wolde go be schipe; - And for to don him felaschipe - His wif unto the see him broghte, 25 - With al hire herte and him besoghte - That he the time hire wolde sein - Whan that he thoghte come a[gh]ein: - 'Withinne,' he seith, 'tuo monthe day.' - And thus in al the haste he may 30 - He tok his leve, and forth he seileth, - Wepende and sche hirself beweileth, - And torneth hom, ther sche cam fro. - Bot whan the monthes were ago, - The whiche he sette of his comynge, 35 - And that sche herde no tydinge, - Ther was no care for to seche: - Wherof the goddes to beseche - Tho sche began in many wise, - And to Iuno hire sacrifise 40 - Above alle othre most sche dede, - And for hir lord sche hath so bede - To wite and knowe hou that he ferde, - That Iuno the goddesse hire herde, - Anon and upon this matiere 45 - Sche bad Yris hir messagere - To Slepes hous that <sc>he schal wende, - And bidde him that he make an ende, - Be swevene and schewen al the cas - Unto this ladi, hou it was. 50 - This Yris, fro the hihe stage - Which undertake hath the message, - Hire reyny cope dede upon, - The which was wonderli begon - With colours of diverse hewe, 55 - An hundred mo than men it knewe; - The hevene lich unto a bowe - Sche bende, and so she cam doun lowe, - The god of Slep wher that sche fond; - And that was in a strange lond, 60 - Which marcheth upon Chymerie: - For ther, as seith the Poesie, - The God of Slep hath mad his hous, - Which of entaille is merveilous. - Under an hell ther is a cave, 65 - Which of the sonne mai noght have, - So that noman mai knowe ariht - The point betwen the dai and nyht: - Ther is no fyr, ther is no sparke, - Ther is no dore, which mai charke, 70 - Wherof an yhe scholde unschette, - So that inward ther is no lette. - And for to speke of that withoute, - Ther stant no gret tree nyh aboute - Wher on ther myhte crowe or pie 75 - Alihte, for to clepe or crie; - Ther is no cok to crowe day, - Ne beste non which noise may; - The hell bot al aboute round - Ther is growende upon the ground 80 - Popi, which berth the sed of slep, - With othre herbes suche an hep. - A stille water for the nones - Rennende upon the smale stones, - Which hihte of Lethes the rivere, 85 - Under that hell in such manere - Ther is, which [gh]ifth gret appetit - To slepe. And thus full of delit - Slep hath his hous; and of his couche - Withinne his chambre if I schal touche, 90 - Of hebenus that slepi tree - The bordes al aboute be, - And for he scholde slepe softe, - Upon a fethrebed alofte - He lith with many a pilwe of doun. 95 - The chambre is strowed up and doun - With swevenes many thousendfold. - Thus cam Yris into this hold, - And to the bedd, which is al blak, - Sche goth, and ther with Slep sche spak, 100 - And in the wise as sche was bede - The message of Iuno sche dede. - Ful ofte hir wordes sche reherceth, - Er sche his slepi eres perceth; - With mochel wo bot ate laste 105 - His slombrende yhen he upcaste - And seide hir that it schal be do. - Wherof among a thousend tho - Withinne his hous that slepi were, - In special he ches out there 110 - Thre, whiche scholden do this dede: - The ferste of hem, so as I rede, - Was Morpheus, the whos nature - Is for to take the figure - Of what persone that him liketh, 115 - Wherof that he ful ofte entriketh - The lif which slepe schal be nyhte; - And Ithecus that other hihte, - Which hath the vois of every soun, - The chiere and the condicioun 120 - Of every lif, what so it is: - The thridde suiende after this - Is Panthasas, which may transforme - Of every thing the rihte forme, - And change it in an other kinde. 125 - Upon hem thre, so as I finde, - Of swevenes stant al thapparence, - Which other while is evidence, - And other while bot a iape. - Bot natheles it is so schape, 130 - That Morpheus be nyht al one - Appiereth until Alceone - In liknesse of hir housebonde - Al naked ded upon the stronde, - And hou he dreynte in special 135 - These othre tuo it schewen al: - The tempeste of the blake cloude, - The wode see, the wyndes loude, - Al this sche mette, and sih him dyen; - Wherof that sche began to crien, 140 - Slepende abedde ther sche lay, - And with that noise of hire affray - Hir wommen sterten up aboute, - Whiche of here ladi were in doute, - And axen hire hou that sche ferde; 145 - And sche, riht as sche syh and herde, - Hir swevene hath told hem everydel: - And thei it halsen alle wel - And sein it is a tokne of goode. - Bot til sche wiste hou that it stode, 150 - Sche hath no confort in hire herte, - Upon the morwe and up sche sterte, - And to the see, wher that sche mette - The bodi lay, withoute lette - Sche drowh, and whan that sche cam nyh, 155 - Stark ded, hise armes sprad, sche syh - Hire lord flietende upon the wawe. - Wherof hire wittes ben withdrawe, - And sche, which tok of deth no kepe, - Anon forth lepte into the depe 160 - And wolde have cawht him in hire arm. - This infortune of double harm - The goddes fro the hevene above - Behielde, and for the trowthe of love, - Which in this worthi ladi stod, 165 - Thei have upon the salte flod - Hire dreinte lord and hire also - Fro deth to lyve torned so - That thei ben schapen into briddes - Swimmende upon the wawe amiddes. 170 - And whan sche sih hire lord livende - In liknesse of a bridd swimmende, - And sche was of the same sort, - So as sche mihte do desport, - Upon the ioie which sche hadde 175 - Hire wynges bothe abrod sche spradde, - And him, so as sche mai suffise, - Beclipte and keste in such a wise, - As sche was whilom wont to do: - Hire wynges for hire armes tuo 180 - Sche tok, and for hire lippes softe - Hire harde bile, and so ful ofte - Sche fondeth in hire briddes forme, - If that sche mihte hirself conforme - To do the plesance of a wif, 185 - As sche dede in that other lif: - For thogh sche hadde hir pouer lore, - Hir will stod as it was tofore, - And serveth him so as sche mai. - Wherof into this ilke day 190 - Togedre upon the see thei wone, - Wher many a dowhter and a sone - Thei bringen forth of briddes kinde; - And for men scholden take in mynde - This Alceoun the trewe queene, 195 - Hire briddes [gh]it, as it is seene, - Of Alceoun the name bere. - - -B. ADRIAN AND BARDUS. - -From Bk. v, ll. 4937 ff. - - To speke of an unkinde man, - I finde hou whilom Adrian, - Of Rome which a gret lord was, - Upon a day as he per cas - To wode in his huntinge wente, 5 - It hapneth at a soudein wente, - After his chace as he poursuieth, - Thurgh happ, the which noman eschuieth, - He fell unwar into a pet, - Wher that it mihte noght be let. 10 - The pet was dep and he fell lowe, - That of his men non myhte knowe - Wher he becam, for non was nyh - Which of his fall the meschief syh. - And thus al one ther he lay 15 - Clepende and criende al the day - For socour and deliverance, - Til a[gh]ein eve it fell per chance, - A while er it began to nyhte, - A povere man, which Bardus hihte, 20 - Cam forth walkende with his asse, - And hadde gadred him a tasse - Of grene stickes and of dreie - To selle, who that wolde hem beie, - As he which hadde no liflode, 25 - Bot whanne he myhte such a lode - To toune with his asse carie. - And as it fell him for to tarie - That ilke time nyh the pet, - And hath the trusse faste knet, 30 - He herde a vois, which cride dimme, - And he his ere to the brimme - Hath leid, and herde it was a man, - Which seide, 'Ha, help hier Adrian, - And I wol [gh]iven half mi good.' 35 - The povere man this understod, - As he that wolde gladly winne, - And to this lord which was withinne - He spak and seide, 'If I thee save, - What sikernesse schal I have 40 - Of covenant, that afterward - Thou wolt me [gh]ive such reward - As thou behihtest nou tofore?' - That other hath his othes swore - Be hevene and be the goddes alle, 45 - If that it myhte so befalle - That he out of the pet him broghte, - Of all the goodes whiche he oghte - He schal have evene halvendel. - This Bardus seide he wolde wel; 50 - And with this word his asse anon - He let untrusse, and therupon - Doun goth the corde into the pet, - To which he hath at [th]e ende knet - A staf, wherby, he seide, he wolde 55 - That Adrian him scholde holde. - Bot it was tho per chance falle, - Into that pet was also falle - An ape, which at thilke throwe, - Whan that the corde cam doun lowe, 60 - Al sodeinli therto he skipte - And it in bothe hise armes clipte. - And Bardus with his asse anon - Him hath updrawe, and he is gon. - But whan he sih it was an ape, 65 - He wende al hadde ben a iape - Of faierie, and sore him dradde: - And Adrian eftsone gradde - For help, and cride and preide faste, - And he eftsone his corde caste; 70 - Bot whan it cam unto the grounde, - A gret serpent it hath bewounde, - The which Bardus anon up drouh. - And thanne him thoghte wel ynouh - It was fantosme, bot yit he herde 75 - The vois, and he therto ansuerde, - 'What wiht art thou in Goddes name?' - 'I am,' quod Adrian, 'the same, - Whos good thou schalt have evene half.' - Quod Bardus, 'Thanne a Goddes half 80 - The thridde time assaie I schal': - And caste his corde forth withal - Into the pet, and whan it cam - To him, this lord of Rome it nam, - And therupon him hath adresced, 85 - And with his hand ful ofte blessed, - And thanne he bad to Bardus hale. - And he, which understod his tale, - Betwen him and his asse, al softe, - Hath drawe and set him up alofte 90 - Withouten harm, al esely. - He seith noght ones 'grant merci,' - Bot strauhte him forth to the cit'e, - And let this povere Bardus be. - And natheles this simple man 95 - His covenant, so as he can, - Hath axed; and that other seide, - If so be that he him umbreide - Of oght that hath be speke or do, - It schal ben venged on him so, 100 - That him were betre to be ded. - And he can tho non other red, - But on his asse a[gh]ein he caste - His trusse, and hieth homward faste: - And whan that he cam hom to bedde, 105 - He tolde his wif hou that he spedde. - Bot finaly to speke oght more - Unto this lord he dradde him sore. - So that a word ne dorste he sein. - And thus upon the morwe a[gh]ein, 110 - In the manere as I recorde, - Forth with his asse and with his corde - To gadre wode, as he dede er, - He goth; and whan that he cam ner - Unto the place where he wolde, 115 - He hath his ape anon beholde, - Which hadde gadred al aboute - Of stickes hiere and there a route, - And leide hem redy to his hond, - Wherof he made his trosse and bond. 120 - Fro dai to dai and in this wise - This ape profreth his servise, - So that he hadde of wode ynouh. - Upon a time and as he drouh - Toward the wode, he sih besyde 125 - The grete gastli serpent glyde, - Til that sche cam in his presence, - And in hir kinde a reverence - Sche hath him do, and forth withal - A ston mor briht than a cristall 130 - Out of hir mouth tofore his weie - Sche let doun falle, and wente aweie - For that he schal noght ben adrad. - Tho was this povere Bardus glad, - Thonkende God and to the ston 135 - He goth and takth it up anon, - And hath gret wonder in his wit - Hou that the beste him hath aquit, - Wher that the mannes sone hath failed, - For whom he hadde most travailed. 140 - Bot al he putte in Goddes hond, - And torneth hom, and what he fond - Unto his wif he hath it schewed; - And thei, that weren bothe lewed, - Acorden that he scholde it selle. 145 - And he no lengere wolde duelle, - Bot forth anon upon the tale - The ston he profreth to the sale; - And riht as he himself it sette, - The iueler anon forth fette 150 - The gold and made his paiement; - Therof was no delaiement. - Thus whan this ston was boght and sold, - Homward with ioie manyfold - This Bardus goth; and whan he cam 155 - Hom to his hous and that he nam - His gold out of his purs, withinne - He fond his ston also therinne, - Wherof for ioie his herte pleide, - Unto his wif and thus he seide, 160 - 'Lo, hier my gold, lo, hier mi ston!' - His wif hath wonder therupon, - And axeth him hou that mai be. - 'Nou, be mi trouthe! I not,' quod he, - 'Bot I dar swere upon a bok 165 - That to my marchant I it tok, - And he it hadde whan I wente: - So knowe I noght to what entente - It is nou hier, bot it be grace. - Forthi tomorwe in other place 170 - I wole it fonde for to selle, - And if it wol noght with him duelle, - Bot crepe into mi purs a[gh]ein, - Than dar I saufly swere and sein - It is the vertu of the ston.' 175 - The morwe cam, and he is gon - To seche aboute in other stede - His ston to selle, and he so dede, - And lefte it with his chapman there. - Bot whan that he cam elleswhere 180 - In presence of his wif at hom, - Out of his purs and that he nom - His gold, he fond his ston withal. - And thus it fell him overal, - Where he it solde in sondri place, 185 - Such was the fortune and the grace. - Bot so wel may nothing ben hidd, - That it nys ate laste kidd: - This fame goth aboute Rome - So ferforth that the wordes come 190 - To themperour Iustinian; - And he let sende for the man, - And axede him hou that it was. - And Bardus tolde him al the cas, - Hou that the worm and ek the beste, 195 - Althogh thei maden no beheste, - His travail hadden wel aquit; - Bot he which hadde a mannes wit, - And made his covenant be mouthe, - And swor therto al that he couthe, 200 - To parte and [gh]iven half his good, - Hath nou for[gh]ete hou that it stod, - As he which wol no trouthe holde. - This Emperour al that he tolde - Hath herd, and thilke unkindenesse 205 - He seide he wolde himself redresse. - And thus in court of iuggement - This Adrian was thanne assent, - And the querele in audience - Declared was in the presence 210 - Of themperour and many mo; - Wherof was mochel speche tho - And gret wondringe among the press. - Bot ate laste natheles - For the partie which hath pleigned 215 - The lawe hath diemed and ordeigned - Be hem that were avised wel, - That he schal have the halvendel - Thurghout of Adrianes good. - And thus of thilke unkinde blod 220 - Stant the memoire into this day, - Wherof that every wys man may - Ensamplen him, and take in mynde - What schame it is to ben unkinde; - A[gh]ein the which reson debateth, 225 - And every creature it hateth. - - - - -XIII - -JOHN OF TREVISA'S TRANSLATION OF -HIGDEN'S POLYCHRONICON - -1387. - - -Ranulph Higden (d. 1364) was a monk of St. Werburgh's at Chester, and -has been doubtfully identified with the 'Randal Higden' who is said to -have travelled to Rome to get the Pope's consent to the acting of the -Chester miracle plays in English. - -His _Polychronicon_, so called because it is the chronicle of many ages, -is a compilation covering the period from the Creation to 1352. In the -fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was the favourite universal -history; and the First Book, which deals with general geography, has -still a special interest for the light it throws on the state of -knowledge in Chaucer's day. - -Two English prose translations are known: Trevisa's, completed in 1387, -and modernized and printed by Caxton in 1482; and an anonymous rendering -made in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. Both are printed, -with Higden's Latin, in the edition by Babington and Lumby, Rolls -Series, 9 vols., 1865-86. - -John of Trevisa was a Cornishman. He was a fellow of Exeter College, -Oxford, from 1362 to 1365; and was one of those expelled from Queen's -College for 'unworthiness' in 1379. He became vicar of Berkeley, and at -the request of Sir Thomas Berkeley undertook the translation of the -_Polychronicon_. In 1398 he brought to an end another long work, the -translation of _Bartholomaeus de Proprietatibus Rerum_, the great -encyclopaedia of natural science at this time. He died at Berkeley in -1402. - -Trevisa was a diligent but not an accurate or graceful translator. He -rarely adds anything from his own knowledge, though we have an example -in the account of the reform of teaching at Oxford while he was there. -The interest of his work depends chiefly on the curiosity of some -passages in his originals. - - -A. THE MARVELS OF BRITAIN. - -CHAP. xlii. - -MS. Tiberius D. vii (about 1400), f. 39 a. - -In Brytayn bu[th] hoot welles wel arayed and yhy[gh]t to [th]e vse of -mankunde. Mayster of [th]ulke welles ys [th]e gret spyryt of Minerua. -Yn hys hous fuyr duyre[th] alwey, [th]at neuer chaunge[th] into askes, -bote [th]ar [th]e fuyr slake[th], hyt change[th] ynto stony clottes. {5} - -Yn Brytayn bu[th] meny wondres. No[th]eles foure bu[th] most wonderfol. -[Th]e furste ys at Pectoun. [Th]ar blowe[th] so strong a wynd out -of [th]e chenes of [th]e eor[th]e [th]at hyt caste[th] vp a[gh]e -clo[th]es [th]at me caste[th] yn. [Th]e secunde ys at Stonhenge bysydes -Salesbury. [Th]ar gret stones and wondur huge bu[th] {10} arered an -hy[gh], as hyt were [gh]ates, so [th]at [th]ar seme[th] [gh]ates yset -apon o[th]er [gh]ates. No[th]eles hyt ys no[gh]t clerlych yknowe -no[th]er parceyuet hou[gh] and wharfore a bu[th] so arered and so -wonderlych yhonged. [Th]e [th]ridde ys at Cherdhol. [Th]er ys gret -holwenes vndur eor[th]e. Ofte meny men habbe[th] {15} ybe [th]erynne, -and ywalked aboute wi[th]ynne, and yseye ryuers and streemes, bote -nowhar conne[th] hy fynde non ende. [Th]e feur[th]e ys [th]at reyn -ys yseye arered vp of [th]e hulles, and anon yspronge aboute yn -[th]e feeldes. Also [th]er ys a gret pond [th]at conteyne[th] [th]re -score ylondes couenable for men to dwelle {20} ynne. [Th]at pound ys -byclypped aboute wi[th] six score rooches. Apon euerych rooch ys an -egle hys nest; and [th]re score ryuers eorne[th] into [th]at pound, -and non of ham alle eorne[th] into [th]e se, bot on. [Th]ar ys a pound -yclosed aboute wi[th] a wal of tyyl and of ston. Yn [th]at pound men -wasche[th] and ba[th]e[th] {25} wel ofte, and euerych man feele[th] -[th]e water hoot o[th]er cold ry[gh]t as a wol hymsylf. [Th]ar bu[th] -also salt welles fer fram [th]e se, and bu[th] salt al [th]e woke long -forto Saturday noon, and fersch fram Saturday noon forto Moneday. [Th]e -water of [th]is welles, whanne hyt ys ysode, turne[th] into smal salt, -fayr and {30} whyyt. Also [th]ar ys a pond [th]e water [th]erof ha[th] -wondur worchyng, for [th]ey al an ost stood by [th]e pond, and turnede -[th]e face [th]yderward, [th]e water wolde drawe <hem> vyolentlych -toward [th]e pond, and weete al here clo[th]es. So scholde hors be -drawe yn [th]e same wyse. Bote [gh]ef [th]e face ys aweyward {35} fram -[th]e water, [th]e water noye[th] no[gh]t. [Th]er ys a welle <[th]at> -non streem eorne[th] [th]arfram no[th]er [th]erto, and [gh]et four -maner fysch bu[th] ytake [th]arynne. [Th]at welle ys bote twenty foot -long, and twenty foot brood, and no[gh]t deop bote to [th]e kneo, and -ys yclosed wi[th] hy[gh] bankkes in euerych syde. {40} - -Yn [th]e contray aboute Wynchestre ys a den. Out of [th]at den alwey -blowe[th] a strong wynd, so [th]at no man may endure for to stonde -tofor [th]at den. [Th]ar ys also a pond [th]at turne[th] tre into yre -and hyt be [th]erynne al a [gh]er, and so tren bu[th] yschape into -whestones. Also [th]er ys yn [th]e cop of an hul {45} a buryel. Euerych -man [th]at come[th] and mete[th] [th]at buriel a schal fynde hyt euene -ry[gh]t of hys oune meete; and [gh]ef a pylgrym o[th]er eny wery man -kneole[th] [th]erto, anon a schal be al fersch, and of werynes schal he -feele non nuy. - -Fast by pe Ministre of Wynburney, [th]at ys no[gh]t fer fram {50} -Bathe, ys a wode [th]at bere[th] moche fruyt. [Gh]ef pe tren of [th]at -wode falle into a water o[th]er grounde <[th]at> [th]ar ys ny[gh], and -lygge [th]ar al a [gh]er, [th]e tren teorne[th] ynto stoones. - -Vndur [th]e cit'e of Chestre eorne[th] [th]e ryuer Dee, [th]at now -todele[th] Engelond and Wales. [Th]at ryuer euerych monthe {55} -chaunge[th] hys fordes, as men of [th]e contray telle[th], and leue[th] -ofte [th]e chanel. Bote whe[th]er [th]e water drawe more toward -Engelond o[th]er toward Wales, to what syde [th]at hyt be, [th]at -[gh]er men of [th]at syde schal habbe [th]e wors ende and be ouerset, -and [th]e men of [th]e o[th]er syde schal habbe [th]e betre ende and be -{60} at here aboue. Whanne [th]e water chaunge[th] so hys cours, hyt -bode[th] such happes. [Th]is ryuer Dee eorne[th] and come[th] out of a -lake [th]at hatte Pimbilmere. Yn [th]e ryuer ys gret plent'e of samon. -No[th]eles in [th]e lake ys neuer samon yfounde. - - -B. THE LANGUAGES OF BRITAIN. - -CHAP. lix. - -As hyt ys yknowe hou[gh] meny maner people bu[th] in [th]is ylond, -[th]er bu[th] also of so meny people longages and tonges. No[th]eles -Walschmen and Scottes, [th]at bu[th] no[gh]t ymelled wi[th] o[th]er -nacions, holde[th] wel ny[gh] here furste longage and speche, bote -[gh]ef Scottes, [th]at were som tyme confederat and wonede {5} -wi[th] [th]e Pictes, drawe somwhat after here speche. Bote [th]e -Flemmynges [th]at wone[th] in [th]e west syde of Wales habbe[th] yleft -here strange speche, and speke[th] Saxonlych ynow. Also Englysch -men, [th]ey[gh] hy hadde fram [th]e bygynnyng [th]re maner speche, -Sou[th]eron, Nor[th]eron, and Myddel speche in [th]e {10} myddel of -[th]e lond, as hy come of [th]re maner people of Germania, no[th]eles -by commyxstion and mellyng, furst wi[th] Danes and afterward wi[th] -Normans, in menye [th]e contray longage ys apeyred, and som vse[th] -strange wlaffyng, chyteryng, harryng, and garryng grisbittyng. [Th]is -apeyryng of [th]e {15} bur[th]tonge ys bycause of twey [th]inges. On ys -for chyldern in scole, a[gh]enes [th]e vsage and manere of al o[th]er -nacions, bu[th] compelled for to leue here oune longage, and for to -construe here lessons and here [th]inges a Freynsch, and habbe[th] -su[th]the [th]e Normans come furst into Engelond. Also gentil men {20} -children bu[th] ytau[gh]t for to speke Freynsch fram tyme [th]at a -bu[th] yrokked in here cradel, and conne[th] speke and playe wi[th] a -child hys brouch; and oplondysch men wol lykne hamsylf to gentil men, -and fonde[th] wi[th] gret bysynes for to speke Freynsch, for to be more -ytold of. {25} - -[[Th]ys manere was moche y-vsed tofore [th]e furste moreyn, and ys -se[th]the somdel ychaunged. For Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere, -chayngede [th]e lore in gramerscole and construccion of Freynsch into -Englysch; and Richard Pencrych lurnede [th]at manere techyng of hym, -and o[th]er men of Pencrych, so [th]at {30} now, [th]e [gh]er of oure -Lord a [th]ousond [th]re hondred foure score and fyue, of [th]e secunde -kyng Richard after [th]e Conquest nyne, in al [th]e gramerscoles of -Engelond childern leue[th] Frensch, and construe[th] and lurne[th] an -Englysch, and habbe[th] [th]erby avauntage in on syde, and desavauntage -yn ano[th]er. {35} Here avauntage ys [th]at a lurne[th] here gramer yn -lasse tyme [th]an childern wer ywoned to do. Disavauntage ys [th]at -now childern of gramerscole conne[th] no more Frensch [th]an can here -lift heele, and [th]at ys harm for ham and a scholle passe [th]e se and -trauayle in strange londes, and in meny caas also. {40} Also gentil -men habbe[th] now moche yleft for to teche here childern Frensch.] Hyt -seme[th] a gret wondur hou[gh] Englysch, [th]at ys [th]e bur[th] tonge -of Englysch men, and here oune longage and tonge, ys so dyuers of soon -in [th]is ylond; and [th]e longage of Normandy ys comlyng of ano[th]er -lond, and ha[th] on maner {45} soon among al men [th]at speke[th] -hyt ary[gh]t in Engelond. [No[th]eles [th]er ys as meny dyuers maner -Frensch yn [th]e rem of Fraunce as ys dyuers manere Englysch in [th]e -rem of Engelond.] - -Also of [th]e forseyde Saxon tonge, [th]at ys deled a [th]re, and ys -abyde scarslych wi[th] feaw vplondysch men, and ys gret {50} wondur, -for men of [th]e est wi[th] men of [th]e west, as hyt were vnder [th]e -same party of heuene, acorde[th] more in sounyng of speche [th]an men -of [th]e nor[th] wi[th] men of [th]e sou[th]. [Th]erfore hyt ys [th]at -Mercii, [th]at bu[th] men of myddel Engelond, as hyt were parteners -of [th]e endes, vndurstonde[th] betre [th]e syde {55} longages, -Nor[th]eron and Sou[th]eron, [th]an Nor[th]eron and Sou[th]eron -vndurstonde[th] ey[th]er o[th]er. - -Al [th]e longage of [th]e Nor[th]humbres, and specialych at [Gh]ork, ys -so scharp, slyttyng, and frotyng, and vnschape, [th]at we Sou[th]eron -men may [th]at longage vnne[th]e vndurstonde. Y trowe {60} [th]at -[th]at ys bycause [th]at a bu[th] ny[gh] to strange men and aliens, -[th]at speke[th] strangelych, and also bycause [th]at [th]e kynges of -Engelond wone[th] alwey fer fram [th]at contray; for a bu[th] more -yturnd to [th]e sou[th] contray, and [gh]ef a go[th] to [th]e nor[th] -contray, a go[th] wi[th] gret help and strengthe. {65} - -[Th]e cause why a bu[th] more in [th]e sou[th] contray [th]an in [th]e -nor[th] may be betre cornlond, more people, more noble cyt'es, and more -profytable hauenes. - - - - -XIV - -POLITICAL PIECES - - -In the thirteenth century political poems were written chiefly in Latin -or French. In the fourteenth century a steadily growing tendency to use -English witnesses the increased interest of the people in politics and -social questions. The fullest collections are those edited by T. Wright, -_Political Songs of England_ (John to Edward II), Camden Society, 1839; -and _Political Poems and Songs_ (Edward III to Richard III), Rolls -Series, 2 vols., 1859-61. - -The selections A and B are from the poems of Laurence Minot, of which -the best edition is the third by J. Hall, Oxford 1914. Minot was a -better patriot than a poet, and his boisterous contempt for the Scots -and French reflects the spirit of England in the early days of Edward -III's greatness. - -The empty phrases in which the anonymous piece C abounds do not disguise -a note of despair. The long war with France was becoming more and more -hopeless. The plague that added to its miseries had carried off Henry, -first Duke of Lancaster, in 1361. The Black Prince, to whom the nation -looked for guidance, had died in 1376. The inglorious old age of Edward -III ended in the following year. But there remained the hope, soon to be -falsified, that the boy king Richard II would steer the ship of state to -safety. - -D is the earliest text of the letter which John Ball addressed to the -Essex members of the Great Society of Peasants on the eve of the revolt -of 1381. It shows how deep an impression the characters and allegorical -form of _Piers Plowman_ had made on the oppressed serfs and labourers, -and it gives some idea of the vague and incoherent thinking that brought -ruin on their enterprise. Ball, who had defied established authority all -his life, was freed from prison by the rebels, became a ringleader, and -preached to their assembly on Blackheath a famous sermon with the text: - - When Adam dalf, and Eve span, - Who was then the gentleman? - -A few weeks later he was executed by sentence of Lord Chief Justice -Tressilian, who had been charged by the King to take vengeance on the -rebels. - -The distich E sums up briefly the history of a year which turned -moderate men against Richard II. A fuller contemporary picture of the -events that led to his deposition is found in the alliterative poem -_Richard the Redeles_, attributed by Skeat to the author of _Piers -Plowman_. - - -A. ON THE SCOTS (ABOUT 1333). - -BY LAURENCE MINOT. - -MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (about 1425), f. 52 a. - - _Now for to tell [gh]ou will I turn - Of batayl of Banocburn_ - - Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene - At [th]e Bannokburn war [gh]e to kene; - [Th]are slogh [gh]e many sakles, als it was sene, - And now has King Edward wroken it, I wene. - It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth [th]e while! 5 - War [gh]it with [th]e Skottes for [th]ai er ful of gile! - - Whare er [gh]e Skottes of Saint Iohnes toune? - [Th]e boste of [gh]owre baner es betin all doune. - When [gh]e bosting will bede, Sir Edward es boune - For to kindel [gh]ow care, and crak [gh]owre crowne. 10 - He has crakked [gh]owre croune, wele worth [th]e while - Schame bityde [th]e Skottes, for [th]ai er full of gile! - - Skottes of Striflin war steren and stout, - Of God ne of gude men had [th]ai no dout. - Now haue [th]ai, [th]e pelers, priked obout, 15 - Bot at [th]e last Sir Edward rifild [th]aire rout. - He has rifild [th]aire rout, wele wurth [th]e while! - Bot euer er [th]ai vnder bot gaudes and gile. - - Rughfute riueling, now kindels [th]i care; - Berebag with [th]i boste, [th]i biging es bare; 20 - Fals wretche and forsworn, whider wiltou fare? - Busk [th]e vnto Brig, and abide [th]are. - [Th]are, wretche, saltou won, and wery [th]e while; - [Th]i dwelling in Dond'e es done for [th]i gile. - - [Th]e Skottes gase in Burghes and betes [th]e stretes; 25 - Al [th]ise Inglis men harmes he hetes; - Fast makes he his mone to men [th]at he metes, - Bot fone frendes he findes [th]at his bale betes. - Fune betes his bale, wele wurth [th]e while! - He vses al threting with gaudes and gile. 30 - - Bot many man thretes and spekes ful ill - [Th]at sum tyme war better to be stane--still. - [Th]e Skot in his wordes has wind for to spill, - For at [th]e last Edward sall haue al his will. - He had his will at Berwik, wele wurth [th]e while! 35 - Skottes broght him [th]e kayes,--bot get for [th]aire gile. - - -B. THE TAKING OF CALAIS (1347). - -BY LAURENCE MINOT. - -MS. Cotton Galba E. ix (about 1425), f. 55 b. - - _How Edward als [th]e romance sais - Held his sege bifor Calais._ - - Calays men, now mai [gh]e care, - And murni<n>g mun [gh]e haue to mede; - Mirth on mold get [gh]e no mare, - Sir Edward sall ken [gh]ow [gh]owre crede. - Whilum war [gh]e wight in wede 5 - To robbing rathly for to ren; - Mend [gh]ow sone of [gh]owre misdede: - [Gh]owre care es cumen, will [gh]e it ken. - - Kend it es how [gh]e war kene - Al Inglis men with dole to dere. 10 - [Th]aire gudes toke [gh]e al bidene, - No man born wald [gh]e forbere. - [Gh]e spared noght with swerd ne spere - To stik [th]am, and [th]aire gudes to stele. - With wapin and with ded of were 15 - [Th]us haue [gh]e wonnen werldes wele. - - Weleful men war [gh]e iwis, - Bot fer on fold sall [gh]e noght fare: - A bare sal now abate [gh]owre blis - And wirk [gh]ow bale on bankes bare. 20 - He sall [gh]ow hunt, als hund dose hare, - [Th]at in no hole sall [gh]e [gh]ow hide; - For all [gh]owre speche will he noght spare, - Bot bigges him right by [gh]owre side. - - Biside [gh]ow here [th]e bare bigins 25 - To big his boure in winter tyde, - And all bityme takes he his ines - With semly se<r>gantes him biside. - [Th]e word of him walkes ful wide-- - Iesu saue him fro mischance! 30 - In bataill dar he wele habide - Sir Philip and Sir Iohn of France. - - [Th]e Franche men er fers and fell, - And mase grete dray when [th]ai er dight; - Of [th]am men herd slike tales tell, 35 - With Edward think [th]ai for to fight, - Him for to hald out of his right, - And do him treson with [th]aire tales: - [Th]at was [th]aire purpos, day and night, - Bi counsail of [th]e Cardinales. 40 - - Cardinales with hattes rede - War fro Calays wele thre myle; - [Th]ai toke [th]aire counsail in [th]at stede - How [th]ai might Sir Edward bigile. - [Th]ai lended [th]are bot litill while 45 - Till Franche men to grante [th]aire grace: - Sir Philip was funden a file, - He fled and faght noght in [th]at place. - - In [th]at place [th]e bare was blith, - For all was funden [th]at he had soght. 50 - Philip [th]e Valas fled ful swith - With [th]e batail [th]at he had broght. - For to haue Calays had he thoght - All at his ledeing, loud or still; - Bot all [th]aire wiles war for noght: 55 - Edward wan it at his will. - - Lystens now, and [gh]e may lere, - Als men [th]e suth may vnderstand, - [Th]e knightes [th]at in Calais were - Come to Sir Edward sare wepeand. 60 - In kirtell one, and swerd in hand, - And cried, 'Sir Edward, [th]ine <we> are. - Do now, lord, bi law of land - [Th]i will with vs for euermare'. - - [Th]e nobill burgase and [th]e best 65 - Come vnto him to haue [th]aire hire. - [Th]e comun puple war ful prest - Rapes to bring obout [th]aire swire. - [Th]ai said all: 'Sir Philip, oure syre, - And his sun, Sir Iohn of France, 70 - Has left vs ligand in [th]e mire, - And broght vs till [th]is doleful dance. - - Our horses [th]at war faire and fat - Er etin vp ilkone bidene; - Haue we now[th]er conig ne cat 75 - [Th]at [th]ai ne er etin, and hundes kene - Al er etin vp ful clene-- - Es nowther leuid biche ne whelp-- - [Th]at es wele on oure sembland sene, - And [th]ai er fled [th]at suld vs help.' 80 - - A knight [th]at was of grete renowne-- - Sir Iohn de Viene was his name-- - He was wardaine of [th]e toune - And had done Ingland mekill schame. - For all [th]aire boste [th]ai er to blame, 85 - Ful stalworthly [th]are haue [th]ai streuyn. - A bare es cumen to mak [th]am tame, - Kayes of [th]e toun to him er gifen. - - [Th]e kaies er [gh]olden him of [th]e [gh]ate,-- - Lat him now kepe [th]am if he kun. 90 - To Calais cum [th]ai all to late, - Sir Philip, and Sir Iohn his sun. - Al war ful ferd [th]at [th]are ware fun, - [Th]aire leders may [th]ai barely ban. - All on [th]is wise was Calais won: 95 - God saue [th]am [th]at it sogat wan! - - -C. ON THE DEATH OF EDWARD III, A.D. 1377. - -Bodleian MS. Vernon (about 1400), f. 4106. - - A! dere God, what mai [th]is be, - [Th]at alle [th]ing weres and waste[th] awai? - Frendschip is but a vanyt'e, - Vnne[th]e hit dures al a day. - [Th]ei beo so sliper at assai, 5 - So leof to han, and lo[th] to lete, - And so fikel in heore fai, - [Th]at selden isei[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - I sei hit not wi[th]outen a cause, - And [th]erfore takes riht good hede, 10 - For [gh]if [gh]e construwe wel [th]is clause, - I puit [gh]ou holly out of drede - [Th]at for puire schame [gh]or hertes wol blede - And [gh]e [th]is matere wysli trete: - He [th]at was vr moste spede 15 - Is selden iseye and sone for[gh]ete. - - Sum tyme an Englisch schip we had, - Nobel hit was and heih of tour, - [Th]orw al Cristendam hit was drad, - And stif wolde stande in vch a stour, 20 - And best dorst byde a scharp schour, - And o[th]er stormes, smale and grete. - Now is [th]at schip, [th]at bar [th]e flour, - Selden se[gh]e and sone for[gh]ete. - - Into [th]at schip [th]er longed a roo[th]ur 25 - [Th]at steered [th]e schip and gouerned hit; - In al [th]is world nis such ano[th]ur, - As me [th]inke[th] in my wit. - Whyl schip and ro[th]ur togeder was knit, - [Th]ei dredde nou[th]er tempest, druy[gh]e nor wete; 30 - Nou be [th]ei bo[th]e in synder flit, - [Th]at selden sey[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - Scharpe wawes [th]at schip has sayled, - And sayed alle sees at auentur. - For wynt ne wederes neuer hit fayled 35 - Whil [th]e ro[th]ur mihte enduir. - [Th]ou[gh] [th]e see were rouh or elles dimuir, - Gode hauenes [th]at schip wolde gete. - Nou is [th]at schip, I am wel suir, - Selde iseye and sone for[gh]ete. 40 - - [Th]is goode schip I may remene - To [th]e chiualrye of [th]is londe; - Sum tyme [th]ei counted nou[gh]t a bene - Beo al Fraunce, ich vnderstonde. - [Th]ei tok and slou[gh] hem with heore honde, 45 - [Th]e power of Fraunce, bo[th] smal and grete, - And brou[gh]t [th]e king hider to byde her bonde: - And nou riht sone hit is for[gh]ete. - - [Th]at schip hadde a ful siker mast, - And a sayl strong and large, 50 - [Th]at made [th]e gode schip neuer agast - To vndertake a [th]ing of charge; - And to [th]at schip [th]er longed a barge - Of al Fraunce [gh]af nou[gh]t a clete; - To vs hit was a siker targe, 55 - And now riht clene hit is for[gh]ete. - - [Th]e ro[th]ur was nou[th]er ok ne elm,-- - Hit was Edward [th]e [Th]ridde, [th]e noble kniht. - [Th]e Prince his sone bar vp his helm, - [Th]at neuer scoumfited was in fiht. 60 - The Kyng him rod and rouwed ariht; - [Th]e Prince dredde nou[th]ur stok nor strete. - Nou of hem we lete ful liht: - [Th]at selde is se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - [Th]e swifte barge was Duk Henri, 65 - [Th]at noble kniht and wel assayed, - And in his leggaunce wor[th]ili - He abod mony a bitter brayd. - [Gh]if [th]at his enemys ou[gh]t outrayed, - To chastis hem wolde he not lete. 70 - Nou is [th]at lord ful lowe ileyd: - [Th]at selde is se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - [Th]is gode Comunes, bi [th]e rode! - I likne hem to the schipes mast, - [Th]at with heore catel and heore goode 75 - Mayntened [th]e werre bo[th] furst and last, - [Th]e wynd [th]at bleu[gh] [th]e schip wi[th] blast - Hit was gode pre[gh]ers, I sei hit atrete. - Nou is deuoutnes out icast, - And mony gode dedes ben clen for[gh]ete. 80 - - [Th]us ben [th]is lordes ileid ful lowe: - [Th]e stok is of [th]e same rote; - An ympe biginnes for to growe - And [gh]it I hope schal ben vr bote, - To holde his fomen vnder fote, 85 - And as a lord be set in sete. - Crist leue [th]at he so mote, - [Th]at selden ise[gh]e be not for[gh]ete! - - Weor [th]at impe fully growe, - [Th]at he had sarri sap and pi[th], 90 - I hope he schulde be kud and knowe - For conquerour of moni a ki[th]. - He is ful lyflich in lyme and li[th] - In armes to trauayle and to swete. - Crist leeue we so fare him wi[th] 95 - [Th]at selden se[gh]e be neuer for[gh]ete! - - And [th]erfore holliche I ou rede, - Til [th]at [th]is ympe beo fully growe, - [Th]at vch a mon vp wi[th] [th]e hede - And mayntene him, bo[th]e hei[gh]e and lowe. 100 - [Th]e Frensche men cunne bo[th]e boste and blowe, - And wi[th] heore scornes vs to[th]rete, - And we beo[th] bo[th]e vnkuynde and slowe, - [Th]at selden se[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - - And [th]erfore, gode sires, take[th] reward 105 - Of [gh]or douhti kyng [th]at dy[gh]ede in age, - And to his sone, Prince Edward, - [Th]at welle was of alle corage. - Suche two lordes of hei[gh] parage - I not in eor[th]e whon we schal gete; 110 - And nou heore los biginne[th] to swage, - [Th]at selde ise[gh]e is sone for[gh]ete. - -[Foot-note: 42 chilualrye _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 110 I] In _MS._] - - -D. JOHN BALL'S LETTER TO THE PEASANTS -OF ESSEX, 1381. - -St. Albans MS. British Museum Royal 13. E. ix (about 1400), f. 287 a. - -Iohon Schep, som tyme Seynte Marie prest of [Gh]ork, and now of -Colchestre, greteth wel Iohan Nameles, and Iohan [th]e Mullere, -and Iohon Cartere, and bidde[th] hem [th]at [th]ei bee war of gyle -in borugh, and stondeth togidre in Godes name, and bidde[th] Peres -Plou[gh]man go to his werk, and chastise {5} wel Hobbe [th]e Robbere, -and take[th] wi[th] [gh]ow Iohan Trewman, and alle hiis felawes, and no -mo, and loke schappe [gh]ou to on heued, and no mo. - - Iohan [th]e Mullere ha[th] ygrounde smal, smal, smal; - [Th]e Kynges sone of heuene schal paye for al. 10 - Be war or _y_e be wo; - Knowe[th] [gh]our freend fro [gh]our foo; - Haueth ynow, and seith 'Hoo'; - And do wel and bettre, and fleth synne, - And seke[th] pees, and hold [gh]ou [th]erinne; 15 - -and so bidde[th] Iohan Trewman and alle his felawes. - -[Foot-note: 4 togidre] togidedre _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 11 ye] [th]e _MS._] - - -E. ON THE YEAR 1390-1. - -St. John's College (Oxford) MS. 209, f. 57 a. - - The ax was sharpe, the stokke was harde, - In the xiiii yere of Kyng Richarde. - - - - -XV - -MISCELLANEOUS PIECES IN VERSE - - -Under this head are grouped a number of short poems, representing forms -of composition that survive only by fortunate chance. - -A is a curious little song, which has been printed from Hale MS. 135 by -G. E. Woodbine in _Modern Language Review_, vol. iv, p. 236, and -reconstructed by Skeat at vol. v, p. 105, of the same periodical. - -B and C are the best-known lyrics of the important collection edited by -Boeddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harley 2253_, Berlin 1878. -They are literary and rather artificial in form. - -D and E are minstrels' songs found, among other popular snatches, on a -fly-leaf of Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913, and edited by Heuser in -_Anglia_, vol. xxx, p. 173. In E lines 14-16 and ll. 17-19 are to be -expanded on the model of ll. 7-13. - -All these songs are early, and have a lightness and gaiety that become -rare as the fourteenth century advances. - -F is one of several English scraps (ed. Furnivall in _Political, -Religious, and Love Poems_, E.E.T.S., pp. 249 ff.) that are found -scattered through the Latin text of MS. Harley 7322. Most of the English -pieces are without poetical merit, but in this one poem the writer has -attained a perfect simplicity. - -G, printed in Wright and Halliwell's _Reliquiae Antiquae_, 1845, vol. i, -p. 144, has been recognized as the first of the English ballads. It is -the only example before 1400 of the swift and dramatic movement, the -sudden transitions, and the restrained expression, characteristic of the -ballad style. - -H, first printed in _Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, p. 240, is the latest -of the short pieces. With onomatopoeic effects it gives a vivid if -unfriendly picture of a blacksmith's forge on a busy night. - -I is a charm edited by Furnivall at p. 43 of the E.E.T.S. volume in -which F appears. - - -A. NOW SPRINGS THE SPRAY. - -Lincoln's Inn MS. Hale 135 (about 1300). - - _Nou sprinkes [th]e sprai, - Al for loue icche am so seek - [Th]at slepen I ne mai._ - - Als I me rode [th]is endre dai - O mi playinge, 5 - Seih I hwar a litel mai - Bigan to singge: - '[Th]e clot him clingge! - Wai es him i louue-longinge - Sal libben ai!' 10 - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - - Son icche herde [th]at mirie note, - _[Th]_ider I drogh; - I fonde hire in an herber swot - Vnder a bogh, - With ioie inogh. 15 - Son I asked: '[Th]ou mirie mai, - Hwi sinkestou ai?' - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - - [Th]an answerde [th]at maiden swote - Midde wordes fewe: - 'Mi lemman me haues bihot 20 - Of louue trewe: - He chaunges anewe. - _Y_iif I mai, it shal him rewe - Bi [th]is dai.' - _Nou sprinkes, &c._ - -[Foot-note: 4 [Th]is endre dai als I me rode _MS.; corr. Skeat_.] - -[Foot-note: 5 playinge] _indistinct_.] - -[Foot-note: 8 clingge] clingges _MS._] - - -B. SPRING. - -MS. Harley 2253 (about 1325), f. 71 b. - - Lenten ys come wi[th] loue to toune, - Wi[th] blosmen and wi[th] briddes roune, - [Th]at al [th]is blisse brynge[th]. - Dayese[gh]es in [th]is dales, - Notes suete of nyhtegales, 5 - Vch foul song singe[th]. - [Th]e [th]restelcoc him [th]rete[th] oo, - Away is huere wynter wo, - When woderoue springe[th]. - [Th]is foules singe[th] ferly fele, 10 - Ant wlyte[th] on huere [+]wynter[+] wele, - [Th]at al [th]e wode rynge[th]. - - [Th]e rose rayle[th] hire rode, - [Th]e leues on [th]e lyhte wode - Waxen al wi[th] wille. 15 - [Th]e mone mande[th] hire bleo, - [Th]e lilie is lossom to seo, - [Th]e fenyl and [th]e fille. - Wowes [th]is wilde drakes; - [+]Miles[+] murge[th] huere makes, 20 - Ase strem [th]at strike[th] stille. - Mody mene[th], so do_[th]_ mo-- - Ichot ycham on of [th]o, - For loue [th]at likes ille. - - [Th]e mone mande[th] hire lyht; 25 - So do[th] [th]e semly sonne bryht, - When briddes singe[th] breme. - Deawes donke[th] [th]e dounes; - Deores wi[th] huere derne rounes, - Domes for te deme; 30 - Wormes wowe[th] vnder cloude; - Wymmen waxe[th] wounder proude, - So wel hit wol hem seme. - [Gh]ef me shal wonte wille of on, - [Th]is wunne weole y wole forgon, 35 - Ant wyht in wode be fleme. - -[Foot-note: 22 do[th]] doh _MS._] - - -C. ALYSOUN. - -MS. Harley 2253, f. 63 b. - - Bytuene Mersh and Aueril, - When spray biginne[th] to springe, - [Th]e lutel foul ha[th] hire wyl - On hyre lud to synge. - Ich libbe in loue-longinge 5 - For semlokest of alle [th]ynge; - He may me blisse bringe-- - Icham in hire baundoun. - _An hendy hap ichabbe yhent; - Ichot from heuene it is me sent; 10 - From alle wymmen mi loue is lent, - And lyht on Alysoun._ - - On heu hire her is fayr ynoh, - Hire browe broune, hire e[gh]e blake; - Wi[th] lossum chere he on me loh, 15 - Wi[th] middel smal and wel ymake. - Bote he me wolle to hire take, - For te buen hire owen make, - Longe to lyuen ichulle forsake, - And feye fallen adoun. 20 - _An hendy hap, &c._ - - Nihtes when y wende and wake, - For[th]i myn wonges waxe[th] won, - Leuedi, al for [th]ine sake - Longinge is ylent me on. - In world nis non so wyter mon 25 - [Th]at al hire bount'e telle con; - Hire swyre is whittore [th]en [th]e swon, - And feyrest may in toune. - _An hend<y hap>, &c._ - - Icham for wowyng al forwake, - Wery so water in wore, 30 - Lest eny reue me my make, - Ychabbe y[gh]yrned [gh]ore. - Betere is [th]olien whyle sore - [Th]en mournen euermore. - Geynest vnder gore, 35 - Herkne to my roun. - _An hendi <hap ichabbe yhent; - Ichot from heuene it is me sent; - From alle wymmen mi loue is lent, - And lyht on Alysoun>._ 40 - - -D. THE IRISH DANCER. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913. - - Icham of Irlaunde, - Ant of the holy londe - Of Irlande. - Gode sire, pray ich _[th]_e, - For of saynte charit'e, 5 - Come ant daunce wyt me - In Irlaunde. - -[Foot-note: 4 [th]e] [gh]e _MS._] - - -E. THE MAID OF THE MOOR. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson D. 913. - - Maiden in the mor lay, - In the mor lay, - Seuenyst fulle, seuenist fulle, - Maiden in the mor lay, - In the mor lay, 5 - Seuenistes fulle ant a day. - - Welle wa_s_ hire mete; - Wat was hire mete? - [Th]e primerole ant the,-- - [Th]e primerole ant the,-- 10 - Welle was hire mete; - Wat was hire mete?-- - The primerole ant the violet. - - Welle <was hire dryng>; - Wat was hire dryng? 15 - [Th]e chelde water of <[th]e> welle-spring. - - Welle was hire bour; - Wat was hire bour? - [Th]e rede rose an te lilie flour. - -[Foot-note: 7 was] wat _MS._] - - -F. THE VIRGIN'S SONG. - -British Museum MS. Harley 7322 (about 1375), f. 135 b. - - Iesu, swete sone dere! - On porful bed list [th]ou here, - And [th]at me greue[th] sore; - For [th]i cradel is ase a bere, - Oxe and asse be[th] [th]i fere: - Weepe ich mai [th]arfore. - Iesu, swete, beo noth wro[th], - [Th]ou ich nabbe clout ne clo[th] - [Th]e on for to folde, - [Th]e on to folde ne to wrappe, 10 - For ich nabbe clout ne lappe; - Bote ley [th]ou [th]i fet to my pappe, - And wite [th]e from [th]e colde. - - -G. JUDAS. - -Trinity College (Cambridge) MS. B. 14. 39 (about 1300), f. 34 a. - - Hit wes upon a Scere [Th]orsday [th]at vre Louerd aros; - Ful milde were [th]e wordes He spec to Iudas: - - Iudas, [th]ou most to Iurselem, oure mete for to bugge; - [Th]ritti platen of seluer [th]ou bere upo [th]i rugge. - - [Th]ou comest fer i [th]e brode stret, fer i [th]e brode - strete; 5 - Summe of [th]ine cunesmen [th]er [th]ou meist imete. - - Imette wid is soster, [th]e swikele wimon: - 'Iudas, [th]ou were wr[th]e me stende [th]e wid ston, (_bis_) - For [th]e false prophete [th]at tou bileuest upon.' - - 'Be stille, leue soster, [th]in herte [th]e tobreke! 10 - Wiste min Louerd Crist, ful wel He wolde be wreke.' - - 'Iudas, go [th]ou on [th]e roc, heie upon [th]e ston, - Lei [th]in heued i my barm, slep [th]ou [th]e anon.' - - Sone so Iudas of slepe was awake, - [Th]ritti platen of seluer from hym weren itake. 15 - - He drou hymselve bi [th]e top, [th]at al it lauede a blode; - [Th]e Iewes out of Iurselem awenden he were wode. - - Foret hym com [th]e riche Ieu [th]at heiste Pilatus: - 'Wolte sulle [th]i Louerd, [th]at hette Iesus?' - - 'I nul sulle my Louerd for nones cunnes eiste, 20 - Bote hit be for [th]e [th]ritti platen [th]at He me bitaiste.' - - 'Wolte sulle [th]i Lord Crist for enes cunnes golde?' - 'Nay, bote hit be for [th]e platen [th]at He habben wolde.' - - In him com ur Lord gon, as is postles seten at mete: - 'Wou sitte ye, postles, ant wi nule ye ete? (_bis_) 25 - Ic am iboust ant isold today for oure mete.' - - Up stod him Iudas: 'Lord, am I [th]at? - I nas neuer o [th]e stude [th]er me [Th]e euel spec.' - - Up him stod Peter, ant spec wid al is miste: - '[Th]au Pilatus him come wid ten hundred cnistes, (_bis_) 30 - Yet ic wolde, Louerd, for [Th]i loue fiste.' - - 'Stille [th]ou be, Peter! Wel I [th]e icnowe; - [Th]ou wolt fursake me [th]rien ar [th]e coc him crowe.' - - -H. THE BLACKSMITHS. - -British Museum MS. Arundel 292 (about 1425-50), f. 71 b. - - Swarte smekyd sme[th]es smateryd wyth smoke - Dryue me to deth wyth den of here dyntes. - Swech noys on nyghtes ne herd men neuer: - What knauene cry and clateryng of knockes! - [Th]e cammede kongons cryen after 'col, col!' 5 - And blowen here bellewys, [th]at al here brayn brestes: - 'Huf, puf!' seith [th]at on; 'haf, paf!' [th]at o[th]er. - [Th]ei spyttyn and spraulyn and spellyn many spelles; - [Th]ei gnauen and gnacchen, [th]ei gronys togydere, - And holdyn hem hote wyth here hard hamers. 10 - Of a bole-hyde ben here barm-fellys; - Here schankes ben schakeled for the fere flunderys; - Heuy hamerys [th]ei han, [th]at hard ben handled, - Stark strokes [th]ei stryken on a stelyd stokke: - Lus, bus! las, das! rowtyn be rowe. 15 - Swech dolful a dreme [th]e deuyl it todryue! - [Th]e mayster longith a lityl, and lascheth a lesse, - Twyneth hem tweyn, and towchith a treble: - Tik, tak! hic, hac! tiket, taket! tyk, tak! - Lus, bus! lus, das! swych lyf thei ledyn 20 - Alle clo[th]emerys: Cryst hem gyue sorwe! - May no man for brenwaterys on nyght han hys rest! - - -I. RATS AWAY. - -Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C. 288, f. 113 (15th-century writing, blurred). - - I comawnde alle [th]e ratones [th]at are here abowte, - [Th]at non dwelle in [th]is place, withinne ne withowte, - Thorgh [th]e vertu of Iesu Crist, [th]at Mary bare abowte, - [Th]at alle creatures owyn for to lowte, - And thorgh [th]e vertu of Mark, Mathew, Luke, an Ion,-- 5 - Alle foure Awangelys corden into on,-- - Thorgh [th]e vertu of Sent Geretrude, [th]at mayde clene, - God graunte [th]at grace - [Th]at <non> raton dwelle in [th]e place - [Th]at here namis were nemeled in; 10 - And thorgh [th]e vertu of Sent Kasi, - [Th]at holy man, [th]at prayed to God Almyty - For skathes [th]at [th]ei deden - Hys medyn - Be dayes and be ny[gh]t, 15 - God bad hem flen and gon out of euery manesse sy[gh]t. - _Dominus Deus Sabaot!_ Emanuel, [th]e gret Godes name! - I betweche [th]es place from ratones and from alle o[th]er - schame. - God saue [th]is place fro alle o[th]er wykked wytes, - Bo[th]e be dayes and be nytes! _et in nomine Patris et - Filii_, 20 - &c. - -[Foot-note: 13 skathes] t _altered from_ f (?) _MS._] - - - - -XVI - -THE YORK PLAY 'HARROWING OF HELL' - -British Museum MS. Addit. 35290 (about 1430-40), f. 193 b. - - -The miracle play _Harrowing of Hell_ is assigned to the craft of -Saddlers in the York cycle, edited by Miss L. Toulmin-Smith, Oxford -1885, pp. 372 ff. This is the text reproduced below. It is also found, -though in a less perfect form, among the _Towneley Plays_, ed. England -and Pollard, E.E.T.S., 1897, pp. 293 ff. - -All the mediaeval stories of Christ's Descent into Hell are based on the -gospel of Nicodemus, which seems to date from the fourth century, though -the legend is referred to nearly two centuries earlier. This apocryphal -narrative was popular throughout the Middle Ages. There is a prose -translation in late Anglo-Saxon, and a Middle English verse rendering -supplies some of the phrases in the play. - -Two points deserve notice for their bearing on the development of -miracles. A trace of their origin in the services of the Church is seen -in the use made of the Scriptural passage 'Attollite portas, principes, -vestras, et elevamini portae aeternales, et introibit rex gloriae', the -dramatic possibilities of which were recognized in ritual from an early -date. And the growing taste for comic scenes is met, without prejudice -to the serious characters, by the rudimentary buffoonery of the Devil -and his companions. - - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - ADAME - EUA - ISAIAH - SYMEON - IESUS - IOHANNES BAPTISTA - MOYSES - BELSABUB - SATTAN - DAUID - BELLIALL - MICHILL (Archangel) - PRIMUS DIABOLUS - SECUNDUS DIABOLUS - - -[SCENE I, _outside the gates of Hell_.] - - 1. <_Iesus._ M>anne on molde, be meke to me, - And haue thy Maker in [th]i mynde, - And thynke howe I haue tholid for [th]e - With pereles paynes for to be pyned. - The forward of my Fadir free 5 - Haue I fulfillid, as folke may fynde, - [Th]erfore aboute nowe woll I bee - [Th]at I haue bought for to vnbynde. - [Th]e feende [th]ame wanne with trayne, - Thurgh frewte of erthely foode; 10 - I haue [th]ame getyn agayne - Thurgh bying with my bloode. - - 2. And so I schall [th]at steede restore - F_ro_ whilke [th]e feende fell for synne; - [Th]are schalle mankynde wonne euermore 15 - In blisse [th]at schall neuere blynne. - All [th]at in werke my werkemen were, - Owte of thare woo I wol [th]ame wynne, - And some signe schall I sende before - Of grace, to garre [th]er gamys begynne. 20 - A light I woll [th]ei haue - To schewe [th]ame I schall come sone; - My bodie bidis in graue - Tille alle thes dedis be done. - - 3. My Fadir ordand on [th]is wise 25 - Aftir His will [th]at I schulde wende, - For to fulfille [th]e prophicye<s>, - And als I spake my solace to spende. - My frendis, [th]at in me faith affies, - Nowe fro ther fois I schall [th]ame fende, 30 - And on the thirde day ryght vprise, - And so tille heuen I schall assende. - Sithen schall I come agayne - To deme bothe goode and ill - Tille endles ioie or peyne; 35 - [Th]us is my Fadris will. - -[SCENE II, _Hell; at one side Limbo, enclosing the -patriarchs and prophets; a light shines across_.] - - 4. _Adame._ Mi bretheren, harkens to me here, - Swilke hope of heele neuere are we hadde. - Foure thowsande and sex hundereth [gh]ere - Haue we bene heere in [+][th]is stedde[+]. 40 - Nowe see I signe of solace seere, - A glorious gleme to make vs gladde, - Wherfore I hope oure helpe is nere, - And sone schall sesse oure sorowes sadde. - _Eua._ Adame, my husband hende, 45 - [Th]is menys solas certayne; - Such light gune on vs lende - In Paradise full playne. - - 5. _Isaiah._ Adame, we schall wele vndirstande; - I, Ysaias, as God me kende, 50 - I prechid in Neptalym [th]at lande, - And [Gh]abulon, even vntill ende. - I spake of folke in mirke walkand, - And saide a light schulde on [th]ame lende; - This lered I whils I was leuand, 55 - Nowe se I God [th]is same hath sende. - [Th]is light comes all of Criste, - [Th]at seede, to saue vs nowe, - [Th]us is my poynte puplisshid. - But Symeon, what sais [th]ou? 60 - - 6. _Symeon._ [Th]his, my tale of farleis feele, - For in [th]is temple His frendis me fande; - I hadde delite with Hym to dele, - And halsed homely with my hande. - I saide, 'Lorde, late thy seruaunt lele 65 - Passe nowe in pesse to liffe lastand, - For nowe myselfe has sene Thy hele, - Me liste no lengar to liffe in lande.' - [Th]is light [Th]ou hast purueyed - To folkes [th]at liffis in leede, 70 - [Th]e same [th]at I [th]ame saide, - I see fulfillid in dede. - - 7. _Iohan. Baptista._ Als voyce criand to folke - I kende - [Th]e weyes of Criste, als I wele kanne; - I baptiste Hym with bothe my hande 75 - Euen in [th]e floode of flume Iordanne. - [Th]e Holy Goste fro heuene discende - Als a white dowue doune on Hym [th]anne; - The Fadir voice, my mirthe to mende, - Was made to me euen als manne, 80 - 'This is my Sone,' he saide, - 'In whome me paies full wele.' - His light is on vs laide, - He comes oure cares to kele. - - 8. _Moyses._ Of [th]at same light lernyng haue I, 85 - To me Moyses He mustered his myght, - And also vnto anodir, Hely, - Wher we were on an hille on hight. - Whyte as snowe was His body, - And His face like to [th]e sonne to sight: 90 - No man on molde was so myghty - Grathely to loke agaynste [th]at light; - [Th]at same light se I nowe - Shynyng on vs sarteyne, - Wherfore trewly I trowe 95 - We schalle sone passe fro payne. - - 9. _i Diabolus._ Helpe! Belsabub! to bynde [th]er - boyes, - Such harrowe was neuer are herde in helle. - _ii Diab._ Why rooris [th]ou soo, Rebalde? [th]ou - royis; - What is betidde, canne [th]ou ought telle? 100 - _i Diab._ What! heris [th]ou no[gh]t [th]is vggely - noyse? - [Th]es lurdans [th]at in Lymbo dwelle, - [Th]ei make menyng of many ioies, - And musteres grete mirthe [th]ame emell. - _ii Diab._ Mirthe? nay, nay, [th]at poynte is - paste, 105 - More hele schall [th]ei neuer haue. - _i Diab._ [Th]ei crie on Criste full faste, - And sais he schal [th]ame saue. - - 10. _Belsabub._ [Gh]a, if he saue [th]ame noght, we - schall, - For they are sperde in speciall space; 110 - Whils I am prince and principall - Schall [th]ei neuer passe oute of [th]is place. - Calle vppe Astrotte and Anaball - To giffe [th]er counsaille in [th]is case, - Bele-Berit and Belial, 115 - To marre [th]ame [th]at swilke maistries mase. - Say to Satan oure sire, - And bidde [th]ame bringe also - Lucifer louely of lyre. - _i Diab._ Al redy, lorde, I goo. 120 - - 11. _Iesus [Without]._ _Attollite portas, - principes_, - Oppen vppe, [gh]e princes of paynes sere, - _Et eleuamini eternales_, - Youre yendles [gh]atis [th]at [gh]e haue here. - _Sattan._ What page is [th]ere [th]at makes - prees, 125 - And callis hym kyng of vs in fere? - _Dauid [in Limbo]._ I lered leuand, withouten - lees, - He is a kyng of vertues clere. - A! Lorde, mekill of myght, - And stronge in ilke a stoure, 130 - In batailes ferse to fight, - And worthy to wynne honnoure. - - 12. _Sattan._ Honnoure! in [th]e deuel way, for - what dede? - All erthely men to me are thrall; - [Th]e lady [th]at calles hym lorde in leede 135 - Hadde neuer [gh]itt herberowe, house, ne halle. - _i Diab._ Harke, Belsabub! I haue grete drede, - For hydously I herde hym calle. - _Belliall._ We! spere oure [gh]ates, all ill mot - [th]ou spede! - And sette furthe watches on [th]e wall. 140 - And if he calle or crie - To make vs more debate, - Lay on hym [th]an hardely, - And garre hym gang his gate. - - 13. _Sattan._ Telle me what boyes dare be so - bolde 145 - For drede to make so mekill draye. - _i Diab._ Itt is [th]e Iewe [th]at Iudas solde - For to be dede, [th]is othir daye. - _Sattan._ O we! [th]is tale in tyme is tolde, - [Th]is traytoure traues<es> vs alway; 150 - He schall be here full harde in holde, - Loke [th]at he passe noght, I [th]e praye. - _ii Diab._ Nay, nay, he will no[gh]t wende - Away or I be ware, - He shappis hym for to schende 155 - Alle helle, or he go ferre. - - 14. _Sattan._ Nay, faitour, [th]erof schall he - faile, - For alle his fare I hym deffie; - I knowe his trantis fro toppe to taile, - He leuys with gaudis and with gilery. 160 - [Th]erby he brought oute of oure bale, - Nowe late, La[gh]ar of Betannye, - [Th]erfore I gaffe to [th]e Iewes counsaille - [Th]at [th]ei schulde alway garre hym dye. - I entered in Iudas 165 - [Th]at forwarde to fulfille, - [Th]erfore his hire he has, - Allway to wonne here stille. - - 15. _Belsabub._ Sir Sattanne, sen we here [th]e - saie - [Th]at [th]ou and _[th]_e Iewes wer same - assente, 170 - And wotte he wanne La[gh]ar awaye, - [Th]at tille vs was tane for to tente, - Trowe [th]ou [th]at [th]ou marre hym maye - To mustir myghtis, what he has mente? - If he nowe depriue vs of oure praye, 175 - We will [gh]e witte whanne [th]ei are wente. - _Sattan._ I bidde [gh]ou be no[gh]t abasshed, - But boldely make youe boune - With toles [th]at [gh]e on traste, - And dynge [th]at dastard doune. 180 - - 16. _Iesus [Without]._ _Principes, portas tollite_, - Vndo youre [gh]atis, [gh]e princis of pryde, - _Et introibit rex glorie_, - [Th]e kyng of blisse comes in [th]is tyde. - [_Enters the gates of Hell._ - _Sattan._ Owte! harrowe <what harlot> is hee 185 - [Th]at sais his kyngdome schall be cryed? - _Dauid [in Limbo]._ [Th]at may [th]ou in my Sawter - see - For [th]at poynte _I_ prophicie<d>. - I saide [th]at he schuld breke - Youre barres and bandis by name, 190 - And on youre werkis take wreke; - Nowe schalle [gh]e see [th]e same. - - 17. _Iesus._ [Th]is steede schall stonde no lenger - stoken; - Opynne vppe, and latte my pepul passe! - _Diabolus._ Owte! beholdes, oure baill is - brokynne, 195 - And brosten are alle oure bandis of bras. - Telle Lucifer alle is vnlokynne. - _Belsabub._ What [th]anne, is Lymbus lorne? allas! - Garre Satan helpe [th]at we wer wroken; - [Th]is werke is werse [th]anne euere it was. 200 - _Sattan._ I badde [gh]e schulde be boune - If he made maistries more; - Do dynge [th]at dastard doune, - And sette hym sadde and sore. - - 18. _Belsabub._ [Gh]a, sette hym sore, [th]at is - sone saide, 205 - But come [th]iselffe and serue hym soo; - We may not bide his bittir braide, - He wille vs marre and we wer moo. - _Sattan._ What! faitours, wherfore are [gh]e - ferde? - Haue [gh]e no force to flitte hym froo? 210 - Belyue loke [th]at my gere be grathed, - Miselffe schall to [th]at gedlyng goo. - [_To Iesus._] Howe! belamy, abide, - With al thy booste and bere, - And telle to me [th]is tyde, 215 - What maistries makes [th]ou here? - - 19. _Iesus._ I make no maistries but for myne, - [Th]ame wolle I saue, I telle [th]e nowe; - [Th]ou hadde no poure [th]ame to pyne, - But as my prisoune for [th]er prowe 220 - Here haue [th]ei soiorned, noght as thyne, - But in thy warde, [th]ou wote wele howe. - _Sattan._ And what deuel haste [th]ou done ay syne, - [Th]at neuer wolde negh [th]ame nere, or nowe? - _Iesus._ Nowe is [th]e tyme certayne 225 - Mi Fadir ordand before - [Th]at they schulde passe fro payne, - And wonne in mirthe euer more. - - 20. _Sattan._ Thy fadir knewe I wele be sight, - He was a write his mette to wynne, 230 - And Marie me menys [th]i modir hight, - [Th]e vttiremeste ende of all [th]i kynne. - Who made [th]e be so mekill of myght? - _Iesus._ [Th]ou wikid feende, latte be thy dynne! - Mi Fadir wonnys in heuen on hight, 235 - With blisse [th]at schall neuere blynne. - I am His awne sone, - His forward to fulfille; - And same ay schall we wonne, - And sundir whan we wolle. 240 - - 21. _Sattan._ God<ys> sonne! [th]anne schulde [th]ou - be ful gladde, - Aftir no catel neyd thowe craue! - But [th]ou has leued ay like a ladde, - And in sorowe, as a symple knaue. - _Iesus._ [Th]at was for hartely loue I hadde 245 - Vnto mannis soule, it for to saue; - And for to make [th]e mased and madde, - And by [th]at resoune [th]us dewly to haue - Mi godhede here, I hidde - In Marie modir myne, 250 - For it schulde no[gh]t be kidde - To [th]e, nor to none of thyne. - - 22. _Sattan._ A! [th]is wolde I were tolde in ilke - a toune. - So, sen [th]ou sais God is thy sire, - I schall [th]e proue, be right resoune, 255 - [Th]ou motes His men into [th]e myre. - To breke His bidding were [th]ei boune, - And, for they did at my desire, - Fro Paradise He putte [th]ame doune - In helle here to haue [th]er hyre. 260 - And thyselfe, day and nyght, - Has taught al men emang - To do resoune and right, - And here werkis [th]ou all wrang. - - 23. _Iesus._ I wirke noght wrang, [th]at schal - [th]ow witte, 265 - If I my men fro woo will wynne; - Mi prophetis playnly prechid it, - All [th]is note [th]at nowe begynne. - [Th]ai saide [th]at I schulde be obitte, - To hell [th]at I schulde entre in, 270 - And saue my seruauntis fro [th]at pitte, - Wher dampned saulis schall sitte for synne. - And ilke trewe prophettis tale - Muste be fulfillid in mee; - I haue [th]ame boughte with bale, 275 - And in blisse schal [th]ei be. - - 24. _Sattan._ Nowe sen [th]e liste allegge [th]e - lawes, - [Th]ou schalte be atteynted, or we twynne, - For [th]o [th]at [th]ou to wittenesse drawes - Full even agaynste [th]e will begynne. 280 - Salamon saide in his sawes - [Th]at whoso enteres helle withynne - Shall neuer come oute, [th]us clerkis knawes, - And [th]erfore, felowe, leue [th]i dynne. - Iob, [th]i seruaunte, also 285 - [Th]us in his tyme gune telle, - [Th]at nowthir frende nor foo - Shulde fynde reles in helle. - - 25. _Iesus._ He saide full soth, [th]at schall - [th]ou see, - [Th]at in helle may be no reles, 290 - But of [th]at place [th]an preched he - Where synffull care schall euere encrees. - And in [th]at bale ay schall [th]ou be, - Whare sorowes sere schall neuer sesse, - And for my folke [th]erfro wer free, 295 - Nowe schall [th]ei passe to [th]e place of pees. - [Th]ai were here with my wille, - And so schall [th]ei fourthe wende, - And [th]iselue schall fulfille - [Th]er wooe withouten ende. 300 - - 26. _Sattan._ O we! [th]anne se I howe [th]ou menys - emang - Some mesure with malice to melle, - Sen [th]ou sais all schall no[gh]t gang, - But some schalle alway with vs dwelle. - _Iesus._ [Gh]aa, witte [th]ou wele, ellis were it - wrang, 305 - Als cursed Cayme [th]at slewe Abell, - And all [th]at hastis hemselue to hange, - Als Iudas and Archedefell, - Datan and Abiron, - And alle of [th]are assente; 310 - Als tyrantis euerilkone - [Th]at me and myne turmente. - - 27. And all [th]at liste noght to lere my lawe, - [Th]at I haue lefte in lande nowe newe, - [Th]at is my comyng for to knawe, 315 - And to my sacramente pursewe, - Mi dede, my rysing, rede be rawe, - Who will noght trowe, [th]ei are noght trewe, - Vnto my dome I schall [th]ame drawe, - And iuge [th]ame worse [th]anne any Iewe. 320 - And all [th]at likis to leere - My lawe, and leue [th]erbye, - Shall neuere haue harmes heere, - But welthe, as is worthy. - - 28. _Sattan._ Nowe here my hande, I halde me - paied; 325 - [Th]is poynte is playnly for oure prowe; - If [th]is be soth [th]at [th]ou hast saide, - We schall haue moo [th]anne we haue nowe. - [Th]is lawe [th]at [th]ou nowe late has laide - I schall lere men no[gh]t to allowe. 330 - Iff [th]ei it take, [th]ei be betraied, - For I schall turne [th]ame tyte, I trowe. - I schall walke este and weste, - And garre [th]ame werke wele werre. - _Iesus._ Naye, feende, [th]ou schall be feste, 335 - [Th]at [th]ou schalte flitte not ferre. - - 29. _Sattan._ Feste! [th]at were a foule reasoune, - Nay, bellamy, [th]ou bus be smytte. - _Iesus._ Mighill! myne aungell, make [th]e boune, - And feste yone fende, [th]at he noght flitte. 340 - And Deuyll, I comaunde [th]e go doune - Into thy selle where [th]ou schalte sitte. - [_Satan sinks._ - _Sattan._ Owt, ay! herrowe! helpe Mahounde! - Nowe wex I woode oute of my witte. - _Belsabub._ Sattan, [th]is saide we are, 345 - Nowe schall [th]ou fele [th]i fitte. - _Sattan._ Allas! for dole and care, - I synke into helle pitte. - [_Falls into the pit._ - - 30. _Adame._ A! Iesu Lorde, mekill is [Th]i myght, - That mekis [Th]iselffe in [th]is manere, 350 - Vs for to helpe, as [Th]ou has hight, - Whanne both forfette, I and my feere. - Here haue we leuyd withouten light - Foure thousand and six hundred [gh]ere; - Now se I be [th]is solempne sight 355 - Howe Thy mercy hath made vs cle_r_e. - _Eue._ A! Lorde, we were worthy - Mo turmentis for to taste, - But mende vs with mercye, - Als [Th]ou of myght is moste. 360 - - 31. _Baptista._ A! Lorde, I loue [Th]e inwardly, - That me wolde make [Th]i messengere - Thy comyng in erth for to crye, - And teche [Th]i faith to folke in feere; - And sithen before [Th]e for to dye, 365 - And bringe boodworde to [th]ame here, - How [th]ai schulde haue Thyne helpe in hye: - Nowe se I all [Th]i poyntis appere. - Als Dauid prophete trewe - Ofte tymes tolde vntill vs, 370 - Of [th]is comyng he knewe, - And saide it schulde be [th]us. - - 32. _Dauid._ Als I haue saide, [gh]itt saie - I soo, - _Ne derelinquas, Domine, - Animam meam <in> inferno_, 375 - Leffe noght my saule, Lorde, aftir [Th]e, - In depe helle where dampned schall goo, - Ne suffre neuere [+]saules fro [Th]e be[+] - The sorowe of [th]ame [th]at wonnes in woo - Ay full of filthe, [+][th]at may repleye[+]. 380 - _Adame._ We thanke His grete goodnesse - He fette vs fro [th]is place, - Makes ioie nowe more and lesse; - _Omnis._ We laude God of His grace. - - 33. _Iesus._ Adame and my frendis in feere, 385 - Fro all youre fooes come fourth with me, - [Gh]e schalle be sette in solas seere, - Wher [gh]e schall neuere of sorowes see. - And Mighill, myn aungell clere, - Ressayue [th]es saules all vnto [th]e, 390 - And lede [th]ame als I schall [th]e lere - To Paradise with playe and plent'e. - [_They come out of Limbo._ - Mi graue I woll go till, - Redy to rise vpperight, - And so I schall fulfille 395 - That I before haue highte. - - 34. _Michill._ Lorde, wende we schall aftir - [Th]i sawe, - To solace sere [th]ai schall be sende, - But [th]at [th]er deuelis no draught vs drawe, - Lorde, blisse vs with [Th]i holy hende. 400 - _Iesus._ Mi blissing haue [gh]e all on rawe, - I schall be with youe, wher [gh]e wende, - And all [th]at lelly luffes my lawe, - [Th]ai schall be blissid withowten ende. - _Adame._ To [Th]e, Lorde, be louyng, 405 - [Th]at vs has wonne fro waa, - For solas will we syng, - _Laus Tibi cum gloria_. - [_Exeunt._ - -[Foot-note: 14 Fro] For _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 40 in [th]is stedde] in darknes stad _Towneley_.] - -[Foot-note: 49 Isaiah] Isaac _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 170 [th]e] [gh]e _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 185 what harlot] _from Towneley MS.: om. MS._] - -[Foot-note: 188 I] of _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 242 neyd thowe craue] [th]us [th]e I telle _first hand_.] - -[Foot-note: 244 as] _added later MS._] - -[Foot-note: 244 knaue] braide _first hand_.] - -[Foot-note: 347 dole] dolee _MS._] - -[Foot-note: 356 clere] clene _MS._] - - - - -XVII - -THE TOWNELEY PLAY OF NOAH - -Towneley MS. (about 1475), ff. 76 ff. - - -The Towneley Miracles, so called because the manuscript belonged in -recent times to the library of Towneley Hall in Lancashire, are edited -by England and Pollard, E.E.T.S., 1897. The cycle is a composite -one--for instance it includes a later form of the York play _Harrowing -of Hell_ (No. XVI, above)--but it is distinguished by a group of plays -and interpolated scenes which seem to have been specially composed for -representation at Wakefield. Formally this group is marked by the use of -a peculiar nine-lined stanza, riming a a a a b c c c b, with central -rimes in the first four lines. The rough vigour of the comic scenes is -still more distinctive, and there can be little doubt that all are the -work of one man. The specimen of his style most often reprinted is _The -Second Shepherd's Play_, which has an original and purely secular comic -plot. The _Play of Noah_ is more typical of the English Miracle in its -later development. This subject was always popular with early -playwrights, for the Ark made a spectacle, and the traditional quarrels -of Noah and his wife gave scope for contests in fisticuffs and rough -raillery--the stuff of primitive comedy. - - -DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - NOE - DEUS - VXOR NOE - - PRIMUS FILIUS - SECUNDUS FILIUS - TERCIUS FILIUS - - PRIMA MULIER - SECUNDA MULIER - TERCIA MULIER - - - 1. _Noe._ Myghtfull God veray, Maker of all that is, - Thre persons withoutten nay, oone God in endles blis, - Thou maide both nyght and day, beest, fowle, and fysh, - All creatures that lif may wroght Thou at Thi wish, - As Thou wel myght; 5 - The son, the moyne, verament, - Thou maide, the firmament, - The sternes also full feruent - To shyne Thou maide ful bright. - - 2. Angels Thou maide ful euen, all orders that is, 10 - To haue the blis in heuen; this did Thou, more and les, - Full mervelus to neuen; yit was ther vnkyndnes - More bi foldis seuen then I can well expres; - For whi? - Of all angels in brightnes 15 - God gaf Lucifer most lightnes, - Yit prowdly he flyt his des, - And set hym euen Hym by. - - 3. He thoght hymself as worthi as Hym that hym made, - In brightnes, in bewty, therfor He hym degrade, 20 - Put hym in a low degr'e soyn after, in a brade, - Hym and all his menye, wher he may be vnglad - For euer. - Shall thay neuer wyn away - Hence vnto Domysday, 25 - Bot burne in bayle for ay; - Shall thay neuer dysseuer. - - 4. Soyne after, that gracyous Lord to his liknes maide man, - That place to be restord euen as He began, - Of the Trinit'e bi accord, Adam and Eue that woman, 30 - To multiplie without discord, in Paradise put He thaym, - And sithen to both - Gaf in commaundement - On the Tre of Life to lay no hend. - Bot yit the fals feynd 35 - Made Hym with man wroth, - - 5. Entysyd man to glotony, styrd him to syn in pride; - Bot in Paradise, securly, myght no syn abide, - And therfor man full hastely was put out in that tyde, - In wo and wandreth for to be, in paynes full vnrid 40 - To knowe, - Fyrst in erth, _and_ sythen in hell - With feyndis for to dwell, - Bot He his mercy mell - To those that will Hym trawe. 45 - - 6. Oyle of mercy He hus hight, as I haue hard red, - To euery lifyng wight that wold luf Hym and dred; - Bot now before His sight euery liffyng leyde, - Most party day and nyght, syn in word and dede - Full bold; 50 - Som in pride, ire, and enuy, - Som in couet_ei_s and glotyny, - Som in sloth and lechery, - And other wise many fold. - - 7. Therfor I drede lest God on vs will take veniance, 55 - For syn is now alod, without any repentance. - Sex hundreth yeris and od haue I, without distance, - In erth, as any sod, liffyd with grete grevance - Allway; - And now I wax old, 60 - Seke, sory, and cold, - As muk apon mold - I widder away. - - 8. Bot yit will I cry for mercy and call: - Noe, Thi seruant, am I, Lord ouer all! 65 - Therfor me, and my fry shal with me fall, - Saue from velany, and bryng to Thi hall - In heuen; - And kepe me from syn - This warld within; 70 - Comly Kyng of mankyn, - I pray The, here my stevyn! - - [_God appears above._] - - 9. _Deus._ Syn I haue maide all thyng that is liffand, - Duke, emperour, and kyng, with Myne awne hand, - For to haue thare likyng, bi see and bi sand, 75 - Euery man to My bydyng shuld be bowand - Full feruent, - That maide man sich a creatoure, - Farest of favoure; - Man must luf Me paramoure 80 - By reson, and repent. - - 10. Me thoght I shewed man luf when I made hym to be - All angels abuf, like to the Trynyt'e; - And now in grete reprufe full low ligis he, - In erth hymself to stuf with syn that displeas_es_ Me 85 - Most of all. - Veniance will I take - In erth for syn sake; - My grame thus will I wake - Both of grete and small. 90 - - 11. I repente full sore that euer maide I man; - Bi me he settis no store, and I am his soferan; - I will distroy therfor both beest, man and woman, - All shall perish, les and more; that bargan may thay ban - That ill has done. 95 - In erth I se right noght - Bot syn that is vnsoght; - Of those that well has wroght - Fynd I bot a fone. - - 12. Therfor shall I fordo all this medill-erd 100 - With floodis that shall flo and ryn with hidous rerd; - I haue good cause therto; for Me no man is ferd. - As I say shal I do--of veniance draw My swerd, - And make end - Of all that beris life, 105 - Sayf Noe and his wife, - For thay wold neuer stryfe - With Me, then Me offend. - - 13. Hym to mekill wyn, hastly will I go - To Noe my seruand, or I blyn, to warn hym of his wo. 110 - In erth I se bot syn reynand to and fro, - Emang both more and myn, ichon other fo - With all thare entent. - All shall I fordo - With floodis that shall floo; 115 - Wirk shall I thaym wo - That will not repent. - - [_God descends and addresses Noah._] - - 14. Noe, My freend, I thee commaund, from cares the to keyle, - A ship that thou ordand of nayle and bord ful wele. - Thou was alway well-wirkand, to Me trew as stele, 120 - To My bydyng obediand: frendship shal thou fele - To mede. - Of lennthe thi ship be - Thre hundreth cubettis, warn I the, - Of heght euen thirt'e, 125 - Of fyfty als in brede. - - 15. Anoynt thi ship with pik and tar, without and als within, - The water out to spar--this is a noble gyn; - Look no man the mar, thre che_s_e chambres begyn; - Thou must spend many a spar this wark or thou wyn 130 - To end fully. - Make in thi ship also - Parloures oone or two, - And houses of offyce mo - For beestis that ther must be. 135 - - 16. Oone cubite on hight a wyndo shal thou make; - On the syde a doore, with slyght, beneyth shal thou take; - With the shal no man fyght, nor do the no kyn wrake. - When all is doyne thus right, thi wife, that is thi make, - Take in to the; 140 - Thi sonnes of good fame, - Sem, Iaphet, and Came, - Take in also <t>hame, - Thare wifis also thre. - - 17. For all shal be fordone that lif in land, bot ye, 145 - With floodis that from abone shal fall, and that plent'e; - It shall begyn full sone to rayn vncessantl'e, - After dayes seuen be done, and induyr dayes fourty, - Withoutten fayll. - Take to thi ship also 150 - Of ich kynd beestis two, - Mayll and femayll, bot no mo, - Or thou pull vp thi sayll, - - 18. For thay may the avayll when al this thyng is wroght. - Stuf thi ship with vitayll, for hungre that ye perish - noght. - Of beestis, foull, and catayll, for thaym haue thou in 155 - thoght, - For thaym is My counsayll that som socour be soght - In hast. - Thay must haue corn and hay, - And oder mete alway. 160 - Do now as I the say, - In the name of the Holy Gast. - - 19. _Noe._ A! _benedicite!_ what art thou that thus - Tellys afore that shall be? Thou art full mervelus! - Tell me, for charit'e, thi name so gracius. 165 - _Deus._ My name is of dignyt'e, and also full glorius - To knowe. - I am God most myghty, - Oone God in Trynyty, - Made the and ich man to be; 170 - To luf Me well thou awe. - - 20. _Noe._ I thank The, Lord so dere, that wold vowchsayf - Thus low to appere to a symple knafe. - Blis vs, Lord, here, for charit'e I hit crafe, - The better may we stere the ship that we shall hafe, 175 - Certayn. - _Deus._ Noe, to the and to thi fry - My blyssyng graunt I; - Ye shall wax and multiply - And fill the erth agane, 180 - - 21. When all thise floodis ar past, and fully gone away. - _Noe._ Lord, homward will I hast as fast as that I may; - My <wife> will I frast what she will say, - [_Exit_ Deus.] - And I am agast that we get som fray - Betwixt vs both; 185 - For she is full tethee, - For litill oft angr'e; - If any thyng wrang be, - Soyne is she wroth. - - _Tunc perget ad vxorem._ - - 22. God spede, dere wife, how fayre ye? 190 - _Vxor._ Now, as euer myght I thryfe, the wars I thee - see. - Do tell me belife where has thou thus long be? - To dede may we dryfe, or lif, for the, - For want. - When we swete or swynk, 195 - Thou dos what thou thynk, - Yit of mete and of drynk - Haue we veray skant. - - 23. _Noe._ Wife, we ar hard sted with tythyngis new. - _Vxor._ Bot thou were worthi be cled in Stafford - blew; 200 - For thou art alway adred, be it fals or trew, - Bot God knowes I am led, and that may I rew, - Full ill; - For I dar be thi borow, - From euen vnto morow 205 - Thou spekis euer of sorow; - God send the onys thi fill! - - 24. We women may wary all ill husbandis; - I haue oone, bi Mary that lowsyd me of my bandis! - If he teyn, I must tary, how so euer it standis, 210 - With seymland full sory, wryngand both my handis - For drede. - Bot yit other while, - What with gam and with gyle, - I shall smyte and smyle, 215 - And qwite hym his mede. - - 25. _Noe._ We! hold thi tong, ram-skyt, or I shall the - still. - _Vxor._ By my thryft, if thou smyte, I shal turne the - vntill. - _Noe._ We shall assay as tyte. Haue at the, Gill! - Apon the bone shal it byte. - _Vxor._ A, so, Mary! thou smytis ill! 220 - Bot I suppose - I shal not in thi det - Flyt of this flett! - Take the ther a langett - To tye vp thi hose! 225 - - 26. _Noe._ A! wilt thou so? Mary! that is myne. - _Vxor._ Thou shal thre for two, I swere bi Godis pyne! - _Noe._ And I shall qwyte the tho, in fayth, or syne. - _Vxor._ Out apon the, ho! - _Noe._ Thou can both byte and whyne - With a rerd; 230 - For all if she stryke, - Yit fast will she skryke; - In fayth, I hold none slyke - In all medill-erd. - - 27. Bot I will kepe charyt'e, for I haue at do. 235 - _Vxor._ Here shal no man tary the, I pray the go to! - Full well may we mys the, as euer haue I ro; - To spyn will I dres me. - _Noe._ We! fare well, lo; - Bot wife, - Pray for me besel'e 240 - To eft I com vnto the. - _Vxor._ Euen as thou prays for me, - As euer myght I thrife. - [_Exit_ Vxor.] - - 28. _Noe._ I tary full lang fro my warke, I traw; - Now my gere will I fang, and thederward draw; 245 - I may full ill gang, the soth for to knaw, - Bot if God help amang, I may sit downe daw - To ken; - Now assay will I - How I can of wrightry, 250 - _In nomine patris, et filii, - Et spiritus sancti. Amen._ - - 29. To begyn of this tree my bonys will I bend, - I traw from the Trynyt'e socoure will be send; - It fayres full fayre, thynk me, this wark to my hend; 255 - Now blissid be He that this can amend. - Lo, here the lenght, - Thre hundreth cubettis euenly; - Of breed, lo, is it fyfty; - The heght is euen thyrty 260 - Cubettis full strenght. - - 30. Now my gowne will I cast and wyrk in my cote, - Make will I the mast or I flyt oone foote; - A! my bak, I traw, will brast! This is a sory note! - Hit is wonder that I last, sich an old dote, 265 - All dold, - To begyn sich a wark! - My bonys ar so stark, - No wonder if thay wark, - For I am full old. 270 - - 31. The top and the sayll both will I make, - The helme and the castell also will I take, - To drife ich a nayll will I not forsake, - This gere may neuer fayll, that dar I vndertake - Onone. 275 - This is a nobull gyn, - Thise nayles so thay ryn - Thoro more and myn - Thise bordis ichon. - - 32. Wyndow and doore, euen as He saide, 280 - Thre ches chambre, thay ar well maide, - Pyk and tar full sure therapon laide; - This will euer endure, therof am I paide; - For why? - It is better wroght 285 - Then I coude haif thoght. - Hym that maide all of noght - I thank oonly. - - 33. Now will I hy me, and no thyng be leder, - My wife and my meneye to bryng euen heder. 290 - Tent hedir tydely, wife, and consider, - Hens must vs fle, all sam togeder, - In hast. - _Vxor._ Whi, syr, what alis you? - Who is that asalis you? 295 - To fle it avalis you - And ye be agast. - - 34. _Noe._ Ther is garn on the reyll other, my dame. - _Vxor._ Tell me that ich a deyll, els get ye blame. - _Noe._ He that cares may keill--blissid be His - name!-- 300 - He has <het> for oure seyll to sheld vs fro shame, - And sayd - All this warld aboute - With floodis so stoute, - That shall ryn on a route, 305 - Shall be ouerlaide. - - 35. He saide all shall be slayn, bot oonely we, - Oure barnes that ar bayn, and thare wifis thre. - A ship He bad me ordayn, to safe vs and oure fee; - Therfor with all oure mayn thank we that fre, 310 - Beytter of bayll. - Hy vs fast, go we thedir. - _Vxor._ I wote neuer whedir, - I dase and I dedir - For ferd of that tayll. 315 - - 36. _Noe._ Be not aferd, haue done, trus sam oure gere, - That we be ther or none, without more dere. - _Primus filius._ It shall be done full sone. Brether, - help to bere. - _Secundus filius._ Full long shall I not hoyne to do - my devere, - Brether sam. 320 - _Tercius filius._ Without any yelp, - At my myght shall I help. - _Vxor._ Yit, for drede of a skelp, - Help well thi dam. - - 37. _Noe._ Now ar we there as we shuld be; 325 - Do get in oure gere, oure catall and fe, - Into this vessell here, my chylder fre. - _Vxor._ I was neuer bard ere, as euer myght I the, - In sich an oostr'e as this. - In fath, I can not fynd 330 - Which is before, which is behynd. - Bot shall we here be pynd, - Noe, as haue thou blis? - - 38. _Noe._ Dame, as it is skill, here must vs abide - grace; - Therfor, wife, with good will, com into this place. 335 - _Vxor._ Sir, for Iak nor for Gill will I turne my - face, - Till I haue on this hill spon a space - On my rok. - Well were he myght get me! - Now will I downe set me; 340 - Yit reede I no man let me, - For drede of a knok. - - 39. _Noe._ Behold to the heuen the cateractes all, - That are open full euen, grete and small, - And the planettis seuen left has thare stall. 345 - Thise thoners and levyn downe gar fall - Full stout - Both halles and bowers, - Castels and towres. - Full sharp ar thise showers 350 - That renys aboute. - - 40. Therfor, wife, haue done, com into ship fast. - _Vxor._ Yei, Noe, go cloute thi shone, the better will - thai last. - _Prima mulier._ Good moder, com in sone, for all is - ouercast - Both the son and the mone. - _Secunda mulier._ And many wynd blast 355 - Full sharp. - Thise floodis so thay ryn, - Therfor, moder, come in. - _Vxor._ In fayth, yit will I spyn; - All in vayn ye carp. 360 - - 41. _Tercia mulier._ If ye like ye may spyn, moder, in the - ship. - _Noe._ Now is this twyys com in, dame, on my frenship. - _Vxor._ Wheder I lose or I wyn, in fayth, thi felowship - Set I not at a pyn. This spyndill will I slip - Apon this hill, 365 - Or I styr oone fote. - _Noe._ Peter! I traw we dote. - Without any more note - Come in if ye will. - - 42. _Vxor._ Yei, water nyghys so nere that I sit not dry, 370 - Into ship with a byr therfor will I hy - For drede that I drone here. - _Noe._ Dame, securly, - It bees boght full dere ye abode so long by - Out of ship. - _Vxor._ I will not, for thi bydyng, 375 - Go from doore to mydyng. - _Noe._ In fayth, and for youre long taryyng - Ye shal lik on the whyp. - - 43. _Vxor._ Spare me not, I pray the, bot euen as thou - thynk, - Thise grete wordis shall not flay me. - _Noe._ Abide, dame, and drynk, 380 - For betyn shall thou be with this staf to thou stynk; - Ar strokis good? say me. - _Vxor._ What say ye, Wat Wynk? - _Noe._ Speke! - Cry me mercy, I say! - _Vxor._ Therto say I nay. 385 - _Noe._ Bot thou do, bi this day! - Thi hede shall I breke. - - 44. _Vxor._ Lord, I were at ese, and hertely full hoylle, - Might I onys haue a measse of wedows coyll; - For thi saull, without lese, shuld I dele penny doyll, 390 - So wold mo, no frese, that I se on this sole - Of wifis that ar here, - For the life that thay leyd, - Wold thare husbandis were dede, - For, as euer ete I brede, 395 - So wold I oure syre were. - - 45. _Noe._ Yee men that has wifis, whyls they ar yong, - If ye luf youre lifis, chastice thare tong: - Me thynk my hert ryfis, both levyr and long, - To se sich stryfis wedmen emong. 400 - Bot I, - As haue I blys, - Shall chastyse this. - _Vxor._ Yit may ye mys, - Nicholl Nedy! 405 - - 46. _Noe._ I shall make [th]e still as stone, begynnar of - blunder! - I shall bete the bak and bone, and breke all in sonder. - [_They fight._] - _Vxor._ Out, alas, I am gone! Oute apon the, mans - wonder! - _Noe._ Se how she can grone, and I lig vnder; - Bot, wife, 410 - In this hast let vs ho, - For my bak is nere in two. - _Vxor._ And I am bet so blo - That I may not thryfe. - - [_They enter the Ark._] - - 47. _Primus filius._ A! whi fare ye thus, fader and moder - both? 415 - _Secundus filius._ Ye shuld not be so spitus, standyng - in sich a woth. - _Tercius filius._ Thise <floodis> ar so hidus, with - many a cold coth. - _Noe._ We will do as ye bid vs, we will no more be - wroth, - Dere barnes! - Now to the helme will I hent, 420 - And to my ship tent. - _Vxor._ I se on the firmament, - Me thynk, the seven starnes. - - 48. _Noe._ This is a grete flood, wife, take hede. - _Vxor._ So me thoght, as I stode; we ar in grete - drede; 425 - Thise wawghes ar so wode. - _Noe._ Help, God, in this nede! - As Thou art stereman good, and best, as I rede, - Of all; - Thou rewle vs in this rase, - As Thou me behete hase. 430 - _Vxor._ This is a perlous case. - Help, God, when we call! - - 49. _Noe._ Wife, tent the stere-tre, and I shall asay - The depnes of the see that we bere, if I may. - _Vxor._ That shall I do ful wysely. Now go thi way, 435 - For apon this flood haue we flett many day - With pyne. - _Noe._ Now the water will I sownd: - A! it is far to the grownd; - This trauell I expownd 440 - Had I to tyne. - - 50. Aboue all hillys bedeyn the water is rysen late - Cubettis fyfteyn, bot in a higher state - It may not be, I weyn, for this well I wate: - This forty dayes has rayn beyn; it will therfor abate 445 - Full lele. - This water in hast - Eft will I tast. - Now am I agast, - It is wanyd a grete dele. 450 - - 51. Now are the weders cest, and cateractes knyt, - Both the most and the leest. - _Vxor._ Me thynk, bi my wit, - The son shynes in the eest. Lo, is not yond it? - We shuld haue a good feest, were thise floodis flyt - So spytus. 455 - _Noe._ We haue been here, all we, - Thre hundreth dayes and fyfty. - _Vxor._ Yei, now wanys the see; - Lord, well is vs! - - 52. _Noe._ The thryd tyme will I prufe what depnes we - bere. 460 - _Vxor._ _H_ow long shall thou hufe? Lay in thy lyne - there. - _Noe._ I may towch with my lufe the grownd evyn here. - _Vxor._ Then begynnys to grufe to vs mery chere; - Bot, husband, - What grownd may this be? 465 - _Noe._ The hyllys of Armonye. - _Vxor._ Now blissid be He - That thus for vs can ordand! - - 53. _Noe._ I see toppys of hyllys he, many at a syght, - No thyng to let me, the wedir is so bright. 470 - _Vxor._ Thise ar of mercy tokyns full right. - _Noe._ Dame, th_ou_ counsell me, what fowll best myght, - And cowth, - With flight of wyng - Bryng, without taryying, 475 - Of mercy som tokynyng, - Ayther bi north or southe? - - 54. For this is the fyrst day of the tent moyne. - _Vxor._ The ravyn, durst I lay, will com agane sone; - As fast as thou may, cast hym furth, haue done; 480 - He may happyn today com agane or none - With grath. - _Noe._ I will cast out also - Dowfys oone or two. - Go youre way, go, 485 - God send you som wathe! - - 55. Now ar thise fowles flone into seyr countr'e; - Pray we fast ichon, kneland on our kne, - To Hym that is alone worthiest of degr'e, - That He wold send anone oure fowles som fee 490 - To glad vs. - _Vxor._ Thai may not fayll of land, - The water is so wanand. - _Noe._ Thank we God Allweldand, - That Lord that made vs! 495 - - 56. It is a wonder thyng, me thynk, sothl'e, - Thai ar so long taryyng, the fowles that we - Cast out in the mornyng. - _Vxor._ Syr, it may be - Thai tary to thay bryng. - _Noe._ The ravyn is a-hungrye - All way; 500 - He is without any reson; - And he fynd any caryon, - As peraventure may be fon, - He will not away. - - 57. The dowfe is more gentill, her trust I vntew, 505 - Like vnto the turtill, for she is ay trew. - _Vxor._ Hence bot a litill she commys, lew, lew! - She bryngys in her bill som novels new; - Behald! - It is of an olif tre 510 - A branch, thynkys me. - _Noe._ It is soth, perd'e, - Right so is it cald. - - 58. Doufe, byrd full blist, fayre myght the befall! - Thou art trew for to trist, as ston in the wall; 515 - Full well I it wist thou wold com to thi hall. - _Vxor._ A trew tokyn ist we shall be sauyd all: - For whi? - The water, syn she com, - Of depnes plom 520 - Is fallen a fathom - And more, hardely. - - 59. _Primus filius._ Thise floodis ar gone, fader, behold. - _Secundus filius._ Ther is left right none, and that be - ye bold. - _Tercius filius._ As still as a stone oure ship is - stold. 525 - _Noe._ Apon land here anone that we were, fayn I wold, - My childer dere, - Sem, Iaphet and Cam, - With gle and with gam, - Com go we all sam, 530 - We will no longer abide here. - - 60. _Vxor._ Here haue we beyn, Noy, long enogh - With tray and with teyn, and dreed mekill wogh. - _Noe._ Behald on this greyn nowder cart ne plogh - Is left, as I weyn, nowder tre then bogh, 535 - Ne other thyng; - Bot all is away; - Many castels, I say, - Grete townes of aray, - Flitt has this flowyng. 540 - - 61. _Vxor._ Thise floodis not afright all this warld so wide - Has mevid with myght on se and bi side. - _Noe._ To dede ar thai dyght, prowdist of pryde, - Euerich a wyght that euer was spyde - With syn, 545 - All ar thai slayn, - And put vnto payn. - _Vxor._ From thens agayn - May thai neuer wyn? - - 62. _Noe._ Wyn? No, iwis, bot He that myght hase 550 - Wold myn of thare mys, and admytte thaym to grace; - As He in bayll is blis, I pray Hym in this space, - In heven hye with His to purvaye vs a place, - That we, - With His santis in sight, 555 - And His angels bright, - May com to His light: - Amen, for charit'e. - - _Explicit processus Noe._ - -[Foot-note: 129 chese] chefe _MS._] - - - - -NOTES - - -I - -#Dialect#: North-East Midland of Lincolnshire. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _hast_ 131. - 3 sg. _stonde[th]_ 8. - 3 pl. _calle_ 32, _seye_ 254; beside _dos_ 157 - (see note). - imper. pl. _come[th]_ 80, _do[th]_ 82. - pres. p. _karoland_ (in rime) 117, 150, 222. - strong pp. _wryte_ 37, _fal_ 195, _gone_ 161. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _she_ 48; pl. nom. _[th]ey_ 32; poss. - _here_ 37; obj. _hem_ 39. - -The inflexions are very much simplified as compared with those of the -Kentish _Ayenbyte_ (III), but the verse shows that final unaccented _-e_ -was better preserved in the original than in our late MS., e.g. - - _And specyaly at hygh<[.e]> tym[.e]s_ 13. - _For to see [th]ys hard<[.e]> dome_ 173. - _And at [th]e [th]re<[.e]> day<[.e]>s end[.e]_ 198. - _[Th]at non[.e] my[gh]t<[.e]> leye yn grau[.e]_ 217. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ is regular for OE. _[=a]_: _lothe_ 9, _wroth_ 10, &c.; -but the only decisive rime is _also_ (OE. _alsw[=a]_): _to_ (OE. -_t[=o]_) 35-6, where _[=o,]_ after _(s)w_ has become close _[=o.]_; see -Appendix [P] 8. ii, note. - -#Syntax#: the loose constructions, e.g. ll. 15 ff. (note), 134-5, 138-9, -216-19, are characteristic of the period. - - * * * * * - -The history of this legend is traced by E. Schroeder, _Zeitschrift fuer -Kirchengeschichte_, vol. xvii, 1896, pp. 94 ff., and, more summarily, by -Gaston Paris, _Les Danseurs maudits_, Paris 1900. The circumstances from -which it sprang appear to belong to the year 1021. Koelbigk, in Anhalt, -Saxony, was the scene of the dance. In 1074 it is referred to as -'famous' by a German chronicler, who records the healing of one of the -dancers in 1038 through the miraculous powers of St. Wigbert. - -Mendicants who suffered from or could simulate nervous diseases like St. -Vitus's dance, were quick to realize their opportunity, and two letters -telling the story were circulated as credentials by pretended survivors -of the band. Both are influenced in form by a sermon of St. Augustine of -Hippo which embodies a similar story (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. xxxviii, -col. 1443). The first (Letter of Otbert), which claims to be issued by -Peregrinus bishop of Cologne, spread rapidly through Western Europe. -This was the version that Mannyng found in William of Wadington. The -second (Letter of Theodric) makes Bruno bishop of Toul, afterwards Pope -Leo IX, vouch for the facts. It was incorporated in the account of the -miraculous cure of Theodric at the shrine of St. Edith of Wilton, and is -known only from English sources. This was the text that Mannyng used. A -later English version, without merit, is found in the dreary -fifteenth-century _Life of St. Editha_ (ed. Horstmann, ll. 4063 ff.). - - * * * * * - -1 ff. _games_: Dances and shows in the churchyard were constantly -condemned by the Church in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In -1287 a synod at Exeter rules _ne quisquam luctas, choreas, vel alios -ludos inhonestos in coemeteriis exercere praesumat, praecipue in -vigiliis et festis sanctorum_. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_, vol. -i, pp. 90 ff. - -6. _or tabure bete_: Note the use of _bete_ infin. as a verbal noun = -_betyng_; cp. XI _b_ 184-5. - -10-12. 'And he (_sc._ a good priest) will become angered sooner than one -who has no learning, and who does not understand Holy Writ.' - -15 ff. _noght... none_: An accumulation of negatives in ME. makes the -negation more emphatic. Here the writer wavers between two forms of -expression: (1) 'do not sing carols in holy places', and (2) 'to sing -carols in holy places is sacrilege'. - -25-8. _yn [th]ys londe_, &c. The cure of Theodric, not the dance, took -place in England. Brightgiva is said to have been abbess of Wilton at -the time (1065), and 'King Edward' is Edward the Confessor (1042-66). - -34-5. The church of Koelbigk is dedicated to St. Magnus, of whom nothing -certain is known. The memory of St. Bukcestre, if ever there was such a -saint, appears to be preserved only in this story. - -36. _[th]at [th]ey come to_: Construe with _hyt_ in l. 35. - -37 ff. _Here names of alle_: The twelve followers of Gerlew are named in -the Latin text, but Mannyng gives only the principal actors. The -inconsistency is still more marked in the Bodleian MS., which after l. -40 adds:-- - - _[Th]e ou[th]er twelue here names alle - [Th]us were [th]ey wrete, as y can kalle._ - -Otherwise the Bodleian MS. is very closely related to the Harleian, -sharing most of its errors and peculiarities. - -44. _[th]e prestes doghtyr of [th]e tounne_, 'the priest of the -town's daughter'. In early ME. the genitive inflexion is not, as in -Modern English, added to the last of a group of words: cp. XIV _d_ 10 -_[Th]e Kynges sone of heuene_ 'the King of Heaven's son'. The same -construction occurs in VIII _a_ 19 _for [th]e Lordes loue of heuene_ = -'for the love of the Lord of Heaven', and in VIII _a_ 214; but in these -passages the genitive is objective, and Modern English does not use the -inflexion at all (note to I 83). The ME. and modern expressions have -their point of agreement in the position of the genitive inflexion, -which always precedes immediately the noun on which the genitive -depends. Cp. notes to II 518, VI 23, and XIV _d_ 1. - -46. _A[gh]one_: _[gh]_ = _z_ here. The name is _Azo_ in the Latin. - -55. _Beu<u>ne_: (derived from the accusative _Beuonem_) = _Beuo_ of -l. 59 and _Beuolyne_ of l. 62. The form is properly _Bovo_ not _Bevo_. -Considerable liberties were taken with proper names to adapt them to -metre or rime: e.g. l. 52 _Merswynde_; l. 63 _Merswyne_; cp. note to l. -246. This habit, and frequent miscopying, make it difficult to rely on -names in mediaeval stories. - -65. _Grysly_: An error for _Gerlew_, Latin _Gerleuus_, from Low German -_G[=e]rl[=e]f_ = OE. _G[=a]rl[=a]f_. - -83. _for Crystys awe_: In Modern English a phrase like _Christ's awe_ -could mean only 'the awe felt by Christ'. But in OE. _Cristes ege_, -or _ege Cristes_, meant also 'the awe of Christ (which men feel)', -the genitive being objective. In ME. the word order _eie Cristes_ is -dropped, but _Cristes eie_ (or _awe_, the Norse form) is still regular -for '(men's) fear of Christ'. Hence formal ambiguities like _[th]e -Lordes loue of heuene_ VIII _a_ 19, which actually means '(men's) love -of the Lord of Heaven', but grammatically might mean 'the Lord of -Heaven's love (for men)'--see note to l. 44 above. - -96-7. The Latin Letter of Theodric in fact has _ab isto officio ex Dei -nutu amodo non cessetis_, but probably _amodo_ is miswritten for _anno_. - -127. _a saue_: lit. 'have safe', i.e. 'rescue'. _Saue_ is here adj. - -128-9. _ys_: _flessh_: The rime requires the alternative forms _es_ (as -in l. 7) and _fles(s)_. Cp. note to VII 4. - -132. _[Gh]ow [th]ar nat aske_: 'There is no need for you to ask'; -_[gh]ow_ is dative after the impersonal _[th]ar_. - -156-7. _werynes_: _dos_. The rime is false. Perhaps Mannyng wrote: _As -many body for goyng es_ [sc. _wery_], and a copyist misplaced _es_, -writing: _As many body es for goyng_. If _body es_ were read as -_bodyes_, a new verb would then be added. - -169. Note the irony of the refrain. The Letter of Otbert adds the -picturesque detail that they gradually sank up to their waists in the -ground through dancing on the same spot. - -172. _[Th]e Emperoure Henry_: Probably Henry II of Germany, Emperor from -1014 to 1024. A certain vagueness in points of time and place would save -the bearers of the letter from awkward questions. - -188-9. _banned_: _woned_. The rime (OE. _bannan_ and _wunian_) is false, -and the use of _woned_ 'remained' is suspicious. Mannyng perhaps wrote -_bende_ 'put in bonds': _wende_ (= _[gh]ede_ l. 191) 'went'; or (if the -form _band_ for _banned(e)_ could be evidenced so early) _band_ -'cursed': _wand_, pret. of _winden_, 'went'. - -195. _fal yn a swone_: So MS., showing that by the second half of the -fourteenth century the pp. adj. _aswon_ had been wrongly analysed into -the indef. article _a_ and a noun _swon_. Mannyng may have written -_fallen aswone_. See Glossary, _s.v._ _aswone_. - -234. _Wyth sundyr lepys_: 'with separate leaps'; but _Wyth_ was probably -added by a scribe who found in his original _sundyrlepys_, adv., meaning -'separately',-- - - _Kar suvent par les mains - Des malvais escrivains - Sunt livre corrumput._ - -240. _Seynt Edyght._ St. Edith (d. 984) was daughter of King Edgar, and -abbess of Wilton. The rime is properly _Edit_: _Teodric_, for _t_ and -_k_ are sufficiently like in sound to rime together in the best ME. -verse; cp. note to XV _g_ 27. - -246. _Brunyng... seynt Tolous_: Latin _Bruno Tullanus_. Robert probably -did not hesitate to provide a rime by turning Toul into Toulouse. Bruno -afterwards became Pope Leo IX (1049-54). - -254-5. _trowed_: _God_. Read _tr[)o]d_, a shortened form, revealed by -rimes in North Midland texts. The identical rime occurs three times in -Mannyng's _Chronicle_ (ed. Hearne, p. 339; ed. Furnivall, ll. 7357-8, -8111-12); and, again with substitution of _troud_ for _trod_, in -_Havelok_, ll. 2338-9. Cp. note to XVII 56. - - -II - -#Dialect#: South-Western, with some admixture of Northern forms due to a -copyist. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _ichaue_, &c. (see note to l. 129). - 2 sg. _makest_ 169, _worst_ 170. - 3 sg. _ge[th]_ (in rime) 238; - contracted _fint_ 239, _last_ 335, - _sitt_ 443, _stont_ 556. - 2 pl. _[gh]e be[th]_ 582. - 3 pl. _strike[th]_ 252 (proved by rime with 3 sg. - _like[th]_). - imper. pl. _make_ 216, _chese_ 217; beside _do[th]_ 218. - pres. p. _berking_ 286 (in rime with verbal sb.); - _daunceing_ (in rime) 298. The forms _kneland_ 250, - _liggeand_ 388, are due to a Northern copyist. - strong pp. (various forms): _go_ (: _wo_) 196, _ygo_ - (: _mo_) 349, _ydone_ (: _-none_) 76, _comen_ 29, _come_ - 181, _ycomen_ 203, _yborn_ 174, _bore_ 210. - infin. Note _aski_ (OE. _acsian_) 467 (App. [P] 13 vii). - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _he_ 408, 446, _hye_ 337, beside _sche_ - 75, 77, &c. - pl. nom. _he_ (in rime) 185, _hye_ 91, - beside _[th]ai_ 32, 69, &c.; - poss. _her_ 'their' 87, 413, 415; obj. _hem_ 69, &c. - NOUN: Note the plurals _honden_ 79, _berien_ 258. - -The original text preserved final _-e_ better than the extant MSS., e.g. - - _And seyd<[.e]> [th]us [th]e king<[.e]> to_ 119. - _[Th]at no[th]ing help<[.e]> [th]e no schal_ 172. - _Al [th]e vt<[.e]>mast<[.e]> wal_ 357. - _So, sir, as [gh]e seyd<[.e]> nou[th][.e]_ 466. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ for OE. _[=a]_ is proved in rime: _biholde_ (OE. -_beh'aldan_): _gold_ (OE. _g'old_) 367-8 (cp. 467-8); and _yhote_ (OE. -_geh[=a]ten_): _note_ (OFr. _note_) 601-2. - -The rime _frut_: _lite_ 257-8 points to original _frut_: _lut_ (OE. -_l[=y]t_), with Western _[=ue]_, from OE. _[=y]_, riming with OFr. -_[=ue]_. - - * * * * * - -1-22. These lines, found also in _Lai le Freine_, would serve as preface -to any of the Breton lays, with the couplet ll. 23-4 as the special -connecting link. In the Auchinleck MS., _Orfeo_ begins on a fresh leaf -at l. 25, without heading or capitals to indicate that it is a new poem. -The leaf preceding has been lost. There is good reason to suppose that -it contained the lines supplied in the text from the Harleian MS. - -4. _frely_, 'goodly': _Lai le Freine_ has _ferly_ 'wondrous'. - -12. MS. _moost to lowe_: means 'most (worthy) to be praised', and there -are two or three recorded examples of _to lowe_ = _to alowe_ in this -sense. But MS. Ashmole and the corresponding lines in _Lai le Freine_ -point to _most o loue_ 'mostly of love' as the common reading. The -typical 'lay' is a poem of moderate length, telling a story of love, -usually with some supernatural element, in a refined and courtly style. - -13. _Brytayn_, 'Brittany': so _Brytouns_ 16 = 'Bretons'. Cp. Chaucer, -_Franklin's Tale, Prologue_, beginning - - _Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes - Of diverse aventures maden layes - Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge, - Whiche layes with hir instrumentz they songe_, &c. - -20. The curious use of _it_ after the plural _layes_ is perhaps not -original. _Lai le Freine_ has: _And maked a lay and yaf it name_. - -26. _In Inglond_: an alteration of the original text to give local -colour. Cp. ll. 49-50 and l. 478. - -29-30. _Pluto_: the King of Hades came to be regarded as the King of -Fairyland; cp. Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, l. 983 _Pluto that is the -kyng of fairye_. The blunder by which Juno is made a king is apparently -peculiar to the Auchinleck copy. - -33-46. These lines are not in the Auchinleck MS., but are probably -authentic. Otherwise little prominence would be given to Orfeo's skill -as a harper. - -41 ff. A confused construction: _In [th]e world was neuer man born_ -should be followed by _<[th]at> he <ne> schulde [th]inke_; but the -writer goes on as if he had begun with 'every man in the world'. _And_ -= 'if'. - -46. _ioy and_ overload the verse, and are probably an unskilful addition -to the text. - -49-50. These lines are peculiar to the Auchinleck MS., and are clearly -interpolated; cp. l. 26 and l. 478. Winchester was the old capital of -England, and therefore the conventional seat of an English king. - -57. _comessing_: The metre points to a disyllabic form _comsing_ here, -and to _comsi_ in l. 247. - -80. _it bled wete_: In early English the clause which is logically -subordinate is sometimes made formally co-ordinate. More normal would -be _[th]at (it) bled wete_ 'until (_or_ so that) it bled wet'; i.e. -until it was wet with blood. - -82. _reuey<se>d_ or some such form of _ravished_ is probably right. -_reneyd_ 'apostate' is a possible reading of the MS., but does not fit -the sense. _N. E. D._ suggests _remeued_. - -102. _what is te?_: 'What ails you?; cp. l. 115. _Te_ for _[th]e_ after -_s_ of _is_. Such modifications are due either to dissimilation of like -sounds, as _[th]_: _s_ which are difficult in juxtaposition; or to -assimilation of unlike sounds, as _[th]atow_ 165, for _[th]at [th]ow_. - -115. 'What ails you, and how it came about?'; cp. l. 102. - -129. _ichil_ = _ich wille_; and so _ichaue_ 209, _icham_ 382, _ichot_ XV -_b_ 23. These forms, reduced to _chill_, _cham_, &c., were still -characteristic of the Southern dialect in Shakespeare's time: cp. _King -Lear_, IV. vi. 239 _Chill not let go, Zir_. - -131. _[th]at nou[gh]t nis_: 'That cannot be'; cp. l. 457 _[th]at -nou[gh]t nere_. - -157-8. _palays_: _ways_. The original rime was perhaps _palys_: _wys_ -'wise'. - -170. 'Wherever you may be, you shall be fetched.' - -201-2. _barouns_: _renouns_. Forms like _renouns_ in rime are usually -taken over from a French original. - -215. The overloaded metre points to a shorter word like _wite_ for -_vnderstond_. - -216. _Make [gh]ou [th]an a parlement_: _[gh]ou_ is not nom., but dat. -'for yourselves'. Observe that Orfeo acts like a constitutional English -king. - -241. _[th]e fowe and griis_: A half translation of OFr. _vair et gris_. -_Vair_ (Lat. _varius_) was fur made of alternate pieces of the grey back -and white belly of the squirrel. Hence it is rendered by _fowe_, OE. -_f[=a]g_ 'varicolor'. _Griis_ is the grey back alone, and the French -word is retained for the rime with _biis_, which was probably in the -OFr. original. - -258. _berien_: The MS. may be read _berren_, but as this form is -incorrect it is better to assume that the _i_ has been carelessly shaped -by the scribe. - -289. _him se_, 'see (for himself), and similarly _slep [th]ou [th]e_ -XV _g_ 13. This reflexive use of the dative pronoun, which cannot be -reproduced in a modern rendering, is common in OE. and ME., especially -with verbs of motion; cp. note to XV _g_ 24. But distinguish _went him_ -475, 501, where _him_ is accusative, not dative (OE. _wente hine_), -because the original sense of _went_ is 'turned', which naturally takes -a reflexive object. - -342. _me no reche_ = _I me no reche_. The alternative would be the -impersonal _me no reche[th]_. - -343. _also spac_ = _also bliue_ 142 = _also swi[th]e_ 574: -'straightway', &c. - -363. MS. _auowed_ (or _anowed_) is meaningless here. _Anow<rn>ed_, or -the doubtful by-form _anow<r>ed_ 'adorned', is probably the true -reading. - -382. The line is too long--a fault not uncommon where direct speech is -introduced, e.g. l. 419 and I 78. Usually a correct line can be obtained -by dropping words like _quath he_, which are not as necessary in spoken -verse as they are where writing alone conveys the sense. But sometimes -the flaw may lie in the forms of address: l. 382 would be normal without -_Parfay_; l. 419 may once have been: - - _And seyd 'Lord, [gh]if [th]i wille were'._ - -There is no task more slippery than the metrical reconstruction of ME. -poems, particularly those of which the extant text derives from the -original not simply through a line of copyists, but through a line of -minstrels who passed on the verses from memory and by word of mouth. - -388. The line seems to be corrupt, and, as usual, the Harleian and -Ashmole MSS. give little help. _Ful_ can hardly be a sb. meaning -'multitude' from the adj. _full_. Some form of _fele_ (OE. _fela_) 'a -great number' would give possible grammar and sense (cp. l. 401), but -bad metre. Perhaps _ful_ should be deleted as a scribe's anticipation -of _folk_ in the next line; for the construction _sei[gh]e... of folk_ -cp. XVI 388; and _Hous of Fame_, Bk. iii, ll. 147 ff. - -433. _[Th]ei we nou[gh]t welcom no be_: Almost contemporary with _Sir -Orfeo_ is the complaint of an English writer that the halls of the -nobles stood open to a lawyer, but not to a poet: - - _Exclusus ad ianuam poteris sedere - Ipse licet venias, Musis comitatus, Homere!_ - -'Though thou came thyself, Homer, with all the Muses, thou mightst sit -at the door, shut out!', T. Wright, _Political Songs_ (1839), p. 209. - -446. _hadde he_, 'had she'. For _he_ (OE. _h[=e]o_) = 'she' cp. l. 408. - -450. 'Now ask of me whatsoever it may be'. The plots of mediaeval -romances often depend on the unlimited promises of an unwary king, whose -honour compels him to keep his word. So in the story of Tristram, an -Irish noble disguised as a minstrel wins Ysolde from King Mark by this -same device, but is himself cheated of his prize by Tristram's skill in -music. - -458. 'An ill-matched pair you two would be!' - -479. The halting verse may be completed by adding _sum tyme_ before -_his_, with the Harley and Ashmole MSS. - -483. _ybilt_ of the MS. and editors cannot well be a pp. meaning -'housed'. I prefer to take _bilt_ as sb. = _bild_, _build_ 'a building'; -and to suppose that _y_ has been miswritten for _[=y]_, the contraction -for _yn_. - -495. _gan hold_, 'held'; a good example of the ME. use of _gan_ + -infinitive with the sense of the simple preterite. - -515. An unhappy suggestion _home_ for the second _come_ has sometimes -been accepted. But a careful Southern poet could not rime _home_ (OE. -_h[=a]m_) and _some_ (OE. _s[)u]m_). See note to VI 224. - -518. _For mi lordes loue Sir Orfeo_, 'for my lord Sir Orfeo's love'. -Logically the genitive inflexion should be added to both of two -substantives in apposition, as in OE. _on Herodes dagum cyninges_ 'in -the days of King Herod'. But in ME. the first substantive usually has -the inflexion, and the second is uninflected; cp. V 207 _kynge[gh] hous -Arthor_ 'the house of King Arthur'; and notes to I 44, VI 23. - -544. _Allas! wreche_: _wreche_ refers to the speaker, as in l. 333. - -551. _hou it ge[th]--_: The sense is hard to convey without some -cumbrous paraphrase like 'the inexorable law of this world--'. - -552. _It nis no bot of manes de[th]_: 'There is no remedy for man's -death', i.e. violent grief will do no good. Note _it nis_ 'there is -(not)'. In ME. the anticipated subject is commonly _it_ where we use -_there_. - -565. _in ynome_: '<had> taken up my abode'; _in_ 'dwelling' = NE. 'inn'. - -599. _herof_ overloads the line and is omitted in the Ashmole MS. - - -III - -#Dialect#: Pure Kentish of Canterbury. - -#Inflexions# are well preserved, and are similar to those found in -contemporary South-Western texts. - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _multiplie[th]_ 1; contracted _ret_ 3, 16. - 1 pl. _habbe[th]_ 2. - strong pp. _yyeue_ 25, _yhote_ 29. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: the new forms _she_, _they_, _their_, _them_ are - not used. - 3 sg. fem. nom. _hi_ 32, _hy_ 45; - poss. _hare_ 33, beside _hire_ 36; - pl. nom. _hi_ 58. - Note the objective form _his(e)_ = 'her' 32, 53 (twice); - and = 'them' 7, 8, 28. - NOUN: plurals in _-en_ occur: _uorbisnen_ 2, _ken_ 56. In - _diaknen_ 5, _-en_ represents the dat. pl. inflexion. - ADJECTIVE: _onen_ dat. sg. 4, _o[th]ren_ dat. pl. 53, - _[th]ane_ acc. sg. masc. 59, _[th]et (word)_ - nom. sg. neut. 57, show survivals rare even in - the South at this date. - -#Sounds#: Characteristic of the South-East is _[)=e]_ for OE. -(West-Saxon) _[)=y]_: _kertel_ (OE. _cyrtel_) 39, _ken_ (OE. _c[=y]_) -56. - -Old diphthongs are preserved in _greate_ (OE. _gr[=e]at_) 9, _yeaf_ -22. In _hyerof_ 1, _yhyerde_ 49, _hier_ 2, _[th]ieues_ 18, _ye_, _ie_ -represent diphthongs developed in Kentish rather than simple close -_[=e]_. - -Initial _z_ = _s_ in _zome_ 'some' 2, _zede_ 'said' 12, _zuo_ 'so' 17; -and initial _u_ = _f_ in _uele_ 2, _uayre_ 2, _uram_ 4, _bevil_ 41, -evidence dialectical changes which occurred also in the South-West. - -#Syntax#: The constructions are distorted by slavish following of the -French original; see note to ll. 48-60. - - * * * * * - -3. Saint Germain of Auxerre (MS. _Aucerne_) is famous for his missions -to Britain in the first half of the fifth century. This particular story -is found in the _Acta Sanctorum_ for July 31, p. 229. - -16. St. John the Almoner (d. 616) was bishop of Alexandria. For the -story see _Acta Sanctorum_ for January 23, p. 115. - -27-8. _and huanne he hit wiste [th]e ilke zelue [th]et his hedde -onderuonge_: an obscure sentence. Perhaps: 'and when he, the same -who had received them (i.e. John, who had received the five hundred -pounds), knew it' (sc. the truth). - -38. This tale of Boniface, bishop of Ferentia in Etruria, is told in the -_Dialogues_ of Gregory the Great, Bk. i, chap. 9. Its first appearance -in English is in the translation of the _Dialogues_ made by Bishop -Waerferth for King Alfred (ed. Hans Hecht, Leipzig 1900, pp. 67 ff.). - -48-60. The French original of the passage, taken from an elegant -fourteenth-century MS., Cotton Cleopatra A.V., fol. 144 a, will show how -slavishly Dan Michael followed his source:-- - -_Apres il fu un poure home, sicom on dit, qui auoit une vache; e oi dire -a son prestre en sarmon que Dieu disoit en leuangile que Dieu rendoit a -cent doubles quanque on donast por lui. Le prodomme du conseil sa femme -dona sa uache a son prestre, qui estoit riches. Le prestre la prist -uolentiers, e lenuoia pestre auoec les autres quil auoit. Kant uint au -soir, la uache au poure home sen uint a son hostel chies le poure homme, -com ele auoit acoustume, e amena auoeques soi toutes les uaches au -prestre, iukes a cent. Quant le bon home uit ce, si pensa que ce estoit -le mot de leuangile que li auoit rendu; e li furent aiugiees deuant son -euesque contre le prestre. Cest ensample moustre bien que misericorde -est bone marchande, car ele multiplie les biens temporels._ - -58-9. 'And they were adjudged to him before his bishop against the -priest', i.e. the bishop ruled that the poor man should have all the -cows. - -The French _fabliau_ '_Brunain_' takes up the comic rather than the -moral aspect of the story. A peasant, hearing the priest say that gifts -to God are doubly repaid, thought it was a favourable opportunity to -give his cow Bl'erain--a poor milker--to the priest. The priest ties her -with his own cow Brunain. To the peasant's great joy, the unprofitable -Bl'erain returns home, leading with her the priest's good cow. - - -IV - -#Dialect#: Northern of Yorkshire. - -#Inflexions#: are reduced almost as in Modern English. - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _settes_ _a_ 30; beside uninflected _sygh_ - _a_ 69, _sob_ _a_ 69. - 3 sg. _lastes_ _a_ 1. - 1 pl. _flese_ _b_ 86: beside _we drede_ _b_ 85. - 3 pl. _lyse_ _a_ 61, _lufes_ _b_ 7, &c.; beside - _[th]ay take_, _[th]ay halde_ _b_ 12, &c., - which agree with the Midland forms. - pres. p. _lastand_ _a_ 25, _byrnand_ _a_ 26, riming with - _hand_. - strong pp. _wryten_ _a_ 2. - Note the Northern and North Midland short forms _mase_ - 'makes' _a_ 15, _tane_ 'taken' _a_ 53 (in rime). - PRONOUN 3 pers.: sg. fem. _scho_ _b_ 1; - pl. nom. _[th]ai_ _a_ 60; - poss. _[th]ar_ _a_ 59 or _[th]air_ _a_ 65; - obj. _thaym_ _b_ 2. - The demonstrative _thire_ 'these' at _b_ 55, _b_ 59 is - specifically Northern. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ is regularly represented by _[=a]_, not by _[=o,]_ -of the South and most of the Midlands: _wa_ _a_ 2, _euermare_ _a_ 20, -_balde_ 'bold' _a_ 51; _bane_ (in rime) _a_ 54. - -_[=o.]_ becomes _[=u]_ (_[=ue]_?) in _gud(e)_ _b_ 9, _b_ 15; and its -length is sometimes indicated by adding _y_, as in _ruysand_ 'vaunting' -_b_ 80. - - * * * * * - -_a._ 'This poem is largely a translation of sentences excerpted from -Rolle's _Incendium Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. -Review_ for 1919, p. 320). Useful commentaries are his prose _Form of -Perfect Living_ (ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 3 ff.), and _Commandment of -Love to God_ (ibid. pp. 61 ff.), which supply many parallels in thought -and phrasing; see, for example, the note to l. 48 below. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 1. _feste._ Not the adj. 'fast', but pp. 'fastened', and so in l. -82. - -_a_ 5. _louyng_, 'beloved one', here and in l. 56. This exceptional use -of the verbal noun occurs again in _my [gh]hernyng_ 'what I yearn for', -_a_ 22; _my couaytyng_ 'what I covet', _a_ 23. - -_a_ 9-12. The meaning seems to be: 'The throne of love is raised high, -for it (i.e. love) ascended into heaven. It seems to me that on earth -love is hidden, which makes men pale and wan. It goes very near to the -bed of bliss (i.e. the bridal bed of Christ and the soul) I assure you. -Though the way may seem long to us, yet love unites God and man.' - -_a_ 24. _louyng_, 'praise' here and in XVI 405, from OE. _lof_ 'praise'; -quite distinct from _louyng_, _lufyng_, in ll. 5 and 56. - -_a_ 36. _fle [th]at na man it maye_, 'which no man can escape'. See -Appendix [P] 12, Relative. - -_a_ 42. _styll_, 'always' rather than 'motionless'. - -_a_ 43-4. Apparently 'the nature of love (_[th]at kyend_) turns from -care the man (_[th]e lyfe_) who succeeds in finding love, or who ever -knew it in his heart; and brings him to joy and delight.' - -_a_ 48. Cp. _Form of Perfect Living_, ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 39-40: -_For luf es stalworth als [th]e dede, [th]at slaes al lyuand thyng -in erth; and hard als hell, [th]at spares noght till [th]am [th]at -er dede._ In _The Commandment of Love_ Rolle explains: _For als dede -slas al lyuand thyng in [th]is worlde, sa perfite lufe slas in a mans -sawle all fleschly desyres and erthly couaytise. And als hell spares -noght til dede men, bot tormentes al [th]at commes bartill, alswa a man -[th]at es in [th]is_ [sc. the third, called 'Singular'] _degr'e of lufe -noght anly he forsakes [th]e wretched solace of [th]is lyf, bot alswa -he couaytes to sofer pynes for Goddes lufe._ (Ibid. p. 63.) - -_b_ 4. _scho takes erthe_: From the _Historia Animalium_ attributed to -Aristotle, Bk. ix, c. 21. This is the authority referred to at l. 18, -and at l. 33 (Bk. ix, c. 9); but the citations seem to be second hand, -as they do not agree closely with the text of the _Historia Animalium_. - -_b_ 21-2. 'For there are many who never can keep the rule of love -towards their friends, whether kinsmen or not.' MS. _ynesche_ has been -variously interpreted; but it must be corrected to _ynence_. - -_b_ 47. _strucyo or storke_: the ostrich, not the stork, is meant. Latin -_struthio_ has both meanings. On the whole, fourteenth-century -translators show a fair knowledge of Latin, but the average of -scholarship, even among the clergy, was never high in the Middle Ages. -In the magnificent Eadwine Psalter, written at Canterbury Cathedral in -the twelfth century, Ps. ci. 7 _similis factus sum pellicano_ is -rendered by 'I am become like to the skin of a dog' (= _pelli canis_), -though an ecclesiastic would recite this psalm in Latin at least once -every week. The records of some thirteenth-century examinations of -English clergy may be found in G. G. Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_ -(London 1910), pp. 270 ff. They include the classic answer of Simon, the -curate of Sonning, who, being examined on the Canon of the Mass, and -pressed to say what governed _Te_ in _Te igitur, clementissime Pater,... -supplices rogamus_, replied '_Pater_, for He governeth all things'. As -for French, Michael of Northgate, a shaky translator, is fortunate in -escaping gross blunders in the specimen chosen (III); but the English -rendering of Mandeville's _Travels_ is full of errors; see the notes to -IX. - -_b_ 60. _teches_: better _toches_, according to the foot-note. - - -V - -#Alliterative Verse.# The long lines in _Gawayne_, with _The Destruction -of Troy_, _Piers Plowman_, and _The Blacksmiths_ (XV _h_), are specimens -of alliterative verse unmixed with rime, a form strictly comparable with -Old English verse, from which it must derive through an unbroken oral -tradition. While the detailed analysis of the Middle English -alliterative line is complex and controversial, its general framework is -describable in simple terms. It will be convenient to take examples from -_Gawayne_, which shows most of the developments characteristic of Middle -English. - -1. The long line is divided by a caesura into two half lines, of which -the second is the more strictly built so that the rhythm may be well -marked. Each half line normally contains two principal stresses, e.g. - - _And w'ent on his w'ay || with his w'y[gh]e 'one_ 6. - _[Th]at schulde t'eche hym to t'ourne || to [th]at t'ene - pl'ace_ 7. - -But three stresses are not uncommonly found in the first half line: - - _Br'oke[gh] b'yled and br'eke || bi b'onkke[gh] ab'oute_ 14; - -and, even for the simpler forms in Old and Middle English, the -two-stress analysis has its opponents. - -2. The two half lines are bound together by alliteration. In -alliteration _ch_, _st_, _s(c)h_, _sk_, and usually _sp_, are treated as -single consonants (see lines 64, 31, 15, 99, 25); any vowel may -alliterate with any other vowel, e.g. - - _[Th]is ~'o~ritore is ~['v]~gly || with ~'e~rbe[gh] - ouergr'owen_ 122; - -and, contrary to the practice of correct OE. verse, _h_ may alliterate -with vowels in _Gawayne_: - - _~H~a'lde [th]e now [th]e ~h~y'[gh]e ~h~'ode || [th]at - ~A'~r[th]ur [th]e ra'[gh]t_ 229. - _The ~h~a'[th]el ~h~e'ldet hym fr'o || and on his ~a'~x - re'sted_ 263. - -3. In correct OE. verse the alliteration falls on one or both of the two -principal stresses of the first half line, and invariably on the first -stress only of the second half line. This is the ordinary ME. type: - - _[Th]at schulde ~t~'eche hym to ~t~'ourne || to [th]at ~t~'ene - pl'ace_ 7; - -though verses with only one alliterating syllable in the first half -line, e.g. - - _Bot I wyl to [th]e ~ch~'apel || for ~ch~'aunce [th]at may - f'alle_ 64, - -are less common in ME. than in OE. But in ME. the fourth stress -sometimes takes the alliteration also: - - _[Th]ay ~cl~'omben bi ~cl~'yffe[gh] || [th]er ~cl~'enge[gh] [th]e - ~c~'olde_ 10. - -And when there is a third stress in the first half line, five syllables -may alliterate: - - _~M~'ist ~m~'uged on [th]e ~m~'or || ~m~'alt on [th]e - ~m~'ounte[gh]_ 12. - -In sum, Middle English verse is richer than Old English in alliteration. - -4. In all these verses the alliteration of the first stress in the -second half line, which is essential in Old English, is maintained; but -it is sometimes neglected, especially when the alliteration is otherwise -well marked: - - _With ~h~'e[gh]e ~h~'elme on his ~h~'ede || his l'aunce in his - ~h~'onde_ (129; cp. 75), - -where the natural stress cannot fall on _his_. - -5. So far attention has been confined to the stressed syllables, around -which the unstressed syllables are grouped. Clearly the richer the -alliteration, the more freedom will be possible in the treatment of the -unstressed syllables without undue weakening of the verse form. In the -first two lines of _Beowulf_-- - - _Hwaet we G'ard'ena || in g'eard'agum - [Th]'eodc'yninga || [th]r'ym gefr'unon--_ - -three of the half lines have the minimum number of syllables--four--and -the other has only five. In Middle English, with more elaborate -alliteration, the number of unstressed syllables is increased, so that -the minimum half line of four syllables is rare, and often contains some -word which may have had an additional flexional syllable in the poet's -own manuscript, e.g. - - || _[th]e s'elf<e> ch'apel_ 79. - || _'ar[gh]e[gh] in h'ert<e>_ 209. - -The less regular first half line is found with as many as eleven -syllables; e.g. - - _And sy[th]en he k'euere[gh] bi a cr'agge_ || 153. - -6. The grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables determines the -rhythm. In Old English the falling rhythm predominates, as in || -_G'awayn [th]e n'oble_ 81; and historically it is no doubt correct to -trace the development of the ME. line from a predominantly falling -rhythm. But in fact, owing to the frequent use of unstressed syllables -before the first stress (even in the second half line where they are -avoided in the OE. falling rhythm) the commonest type is: - - || _and [th]e br'ode [gh]'ate[gh]_ 1, - (x x ['-] x ['-] x) - -which from a strictly Middle English standpoint may be analysed as a -falling rhythm with introductory syllables (x x | ['-] x ['-] x), or as -a rising rhythm with a weak ending (x x ['-] x ['-] | x). A careful -reader, accustomed to the usage of English verse, will have no -difficulty in following the movement, without entering into nice -technicalities of historical analysis. - -7. _The Destruction of Troy_ is more regular than _Gawayne_ in its -versification, and better preserves the Old English tradition. _Piers -Plowman_ is looser and nearer to prose, so that the alliteration -sometimes fails altogether, e.g. Extract _a_ 95, 138. Such differences -in technique may depend on date, on locality, or on the taste, training, -or skill of the author. - - * * * * * - -#Dialect#: West Midland of Lancashire or Cheshire. (There is evidence of -local knowledge in the account of Gawayne's ride in search of the Green -Chapel, ll. 691 ff. of the complete text.) - -#Vocabulary.# _Sir Gawayne_ shows the characteristic vocabulary of -alliterative verse. - -It is rich in number and variety of words--Norse, French, and native. -Besides common words like _race_ 8, _wylle_ 16, _kyrk_ 128, _a[gh]-_ 267 -(which displace native English forms _r[=e]s_, _wylde_, _chyrche_, -_eie_), Norse gives _mug(g)ed_ 12, _cayre[gh]_ 52, _scowtes_ 99, -_skayned_ 99, _wro_ 154, _bro[th]e_ 165, _fyked_ 206, _snyrt_ 244, &c. -French are _baret_ 47, _oritore_ 122, _fylor_ 157, _giserne_ 197, -_kauelacion_ 207, _frounses_ 238, &c. _Myst-hakel_ 13, _orpedly_ 164 are -native words; while the rare _stry[th]e_ 237 and _ra[th]eled_ 226 are of -doubtful origin. - -Unless the alliteration is to be monotonous, there must be many -synonyms for common words like _man_, _kni[gh]t_: e.g. _burne_ 3, -_wy[gh]e_ 6, _lede_ 27, _gome_ 50, _freke_ 57, _tulk_ 65, _knape_ 68, -_renk_ 138, most of which survive only by reason of their usefulness in -alliterative formulae. Similarly, a number of verbs are used to express -the common idea 'to move (rapidly)': _bo[gh]en_ 9, _schowued_ 15, -_wonnen_ 23, _ferked_ 105, _rome[gh]_ 130, _keuere[gh]_ 153, _whyrlande_ -154, &c. Here the group of synonyms arises from weakening of the -ordinary prose meanings; and this tendency to use words in colourless or -forced senses is a general defect of alliterative verse. For instance, -it is hard to attach a precise meaning to _note_ 24, _gedere[gh]_ 92, -_glodes_ 113, _wruxled_ 123, _kest_ 308. - -The _Gawayne_ poet is usually artist enough to avoid the worst fault of -alliterative verse--the use of words for mere sound without regard to -sense, but there are signs of the danger in the empty, clattering line: - - _Bremly bro[th]e on a bent [th]at brode wat[gh] aboute_ 165. - -#Inflexions#: The rime _wa[th]e_: _ta [th]e_ 287-9 shows that organic -final _-e_ was sometimes pronounced in the poet's dialect. - - VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _haf_ 23; _leue_ 60. - 2 sg. _spelle[gh]_ 72. - 3 sg. _prayses_ 4; _tas_ 237. - 2 pl. _[gh]e han_ 25. - 3 pl. _han_ 345. - imper. pl. _got[gh]_ (= _g[=o,]s_) 51, _cayre[gh]_ 52. - pres. p. normally _-ande_, e.g. _schaterande_ 15; but very - rarely _-yng_: _gruchyng_ 58. - strong pp. _born_ 2, _wonnen_ 23; _tone_ (= _taken_) 91. - The weak pa. t. and pp. show occasional _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_: - _halt_ 11, _fondet_ 57, &c. - Note that present forms in _-ie(n)_ are preserved, and the - _i_ extended to the past tense: _louy_ (OE. _lufian_) - 27, _louies_ 31; _spuryed_ 25. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _[th]ay_ 9; poss. _hor_ 345, beside - _her_ 352; obj. _hom_, beside _hem_ 353. - -#Sounds#: _[=o,]_ for older _[=a]_ is common, and is proved for the -original by rimes like _more_: _restore_ (OFr. _restorer_) 213-15, -_[th]ore_: _restore_ 286-8. But _a_ is often written in the MS.: _snaw_ -20, 166 (note rimes), _halden_ 29, &c. - -_u_ for OE. _y_, characteristic of Western dialects, is found especially -in the neighbourhood of labial consonants: _spuryed_ (OE. _spyrian_) 25; -_muryly_ 268, 277; _munt_ vb. 194 and sb. 282; beside _myntes_ 284, -_lyfte_ 78, _hille_ 13. - -_u_ for OE. _eo_ (normal ME. _e_) is another Western feature: _burne_ 3, -21, &c., _rurde_ 151. - -_aw_ for OE. _[=e]ow_ (normal ME. _ew_, _ow_) as in _trawe_ 44, -_traw[th]e_ 219, _raw[th]e_ 136, is still found in some Northern -dialects. - -#Spelling#: _[gh]_ (= _z_) is commonly written for final _s_: -_brede[gh]_ 3, &c.; even when the final _s_ is certainly voiceless as -in _for[gh]_, 'force', 'torrent' 105, _(a[gh]-)le[gh]_ 'fear-less' 267. -_t[gh]_ is written for _s_ in monosyllabic verbal forms, where it -indicates the maintenance of voiceless final _s_ under the stress (see -rimes to _hat[gh]_ 'has', VI 81): _wat[gh]_ 'was' 1, _got[gh]_ 'goes' -51, &c. In early Norman French _z_ had the sound _ts_, and so could be -written _tz_, as in _Fitz-Gerald_ 'son (Mod. Fr. _fils_) of Gerald'. But -later, French _(t)z_ fell together with _s_ in pronunciation, so that -the spelling _tz_ was transferred to original _s_, both in -fourteenth-century Anglo-French and in English. - -_qu-_ occurs for strongly aspirated _hw-_ in _quyte_ 'white' 20, _quat_ -'what' 111; but the alliteration is with _w_, not with _k(w)_, e.g. - - _And wyth ~qu~ettyng a~wh~arf, er he ~w~olde ly[gh]t_ 152. - -The spelling _goud_ 5, 50, &c., for _g[=o]d_ 'good' may indicate a sound -change. - -Notable is the carefully distinguished use of _[gh]_ in _[gh]e_, but _y_ -in _yow_, e.g. at ll. 23-6. - - * * * * * - -3. _blessed hym_, 'crossed himself'; cp. XII _b_ 86. - -4-6. 'He gives a word of praise to the porter,--<who> kneeled before the -prince (i.e. Gawayn) <and who> greeted him with "God and good day," and -"May He save Gawayn!"--and went on his way, attended only by his man, -who, &c.' Clumsiness in turning direct speech into reported speech is a -constant source of difficulty in Middle English. For the suppressed -relative cp. note to XIII _a_ 36. - -11. 'The clouds were high, but it was threatening below them.' _Halt_ -for _halet_ pp. 'drawn up'. - -16. 'The way by which they had to go through the wood was very wild.' -Note the regular omission of a verb of motion after _shall_, _will_, -&c. Cp. l. 64 _I wyl to [th]e chapel_; l. 332 _[gh]e schal... to my -wone[gh]_, &c. - -28. 'If you would act according to my wit (i.e. by my advice) you would -fare the better.' - -34. _Hector, o[th]er o[th]er_, 'Hector, or any other'. Hector is quoted -as the great hero of the Troy story, from which, and from the legends -of Arthur, the Middle Ages drew their models of valour. - -35. 'He brings it about at the green chapel <that>', &c. - -37. _dynge[gh]_: for MS. _dynne[gh]_; Napier's suggestion. - -41. 'He would as soon (lit. it seems to him as pleasant to) kill him, as -be alive himself.' - -43. 'If you reach that place you will be killed, I may warn you, -knight.' Possibly _I_, _y_, has fallen out of the text after _y_ of -_may_ (cp. VI 3), though there are clear instances in Old and Middle -English where the pronominal subject must be understood from the -context, e.g. I 168, VIII _a_ 237, 273. Note the transitions from -plural _[gh]e_ to singular _[th]e_ in ll. 42-3; and the evidence at l. -72 f. that _[th]ou_ could still be used in addressing a superior. - -44. _Trawe [gh]e me [th]at_: _trow_ has here a double construction with -both _me_ and _[th]at_ as direct objects. - -56. 'That I shall loyally screen you, and never give out the tale that -you fled for fear of any man that I knew.' - -64. _for chaunce [th]at may falle_, 'in spite of anything that may -happen'. - -68-9. 'Though he be a stern lord (lit. a stern man to rule), and armed -with a stave'. The short lines are built more with a view to rime than -to sense. - -72-4. 'Marry!' said the other, 'now you say so decidedly that you will -take your own harm upon yourself, and it pleases you to lose your life, -I have no wish to hinder you.' - -76. _ryde me_: an instance of the rare ethic dative, which expresses -some interest in the action of the verb on the part of one who is -neither the doer of the action nor its object. Distinguish the uses -referred to in the notes to II 289, XV _g_ 24. - -86. _Lepe[gh] hym_, 'gallops'. For _hym_, which refers to the rider, not -the horse, cp. note to XV _g_ 24. - -92. _Gryngolet_: the name of Gawayn's horse. _gedere[gh] [th]e rake_ -seems to mean 'takes the path'. No similar transitive use of 'gather' -is known. - -95. _he wayted hym aboute_, 'he looked around him'. Cp. l. 221 -_wayte[gh]_, and note to l. 121. - -99. 'The clouds seemed to him grazed by the crags'; i.e. the crags were -so high that they seemed to him to scrape the clouds. I owe to Professor -Craigie the suggestion that _skayned_ is ON. _skeina_ 'to graze', -'scratch'. - -102-4. 'And soon, a little way off on an open space, a mound (as it -appeared) seemed to him remarkable.' - -107. _kache[gh] his caple_, 'takes control of his horse', i.e. takes up -the reins again to start the horse after the halt mentioned at l. 100. - -109. _his riche_: possibly 'his good steed'. The substantival use of an -adjective is common in alliterative verse, e.g. l. 188 _[th]at schyre_ -(neck); 200 _[th]e schene_ (axe); 245 _[th]e scharp_ (axe); 343 _[th]at -cortays_ (lady). But it has been suggested that _brydel_ has fallen out -of the text after _riche_. - -114. 'And it was all hollow within, nothing but an old cave.' - -115 f. _he cou[th]e hit no[gh]t deme with spelle_, 'he could not say -<which it was>'. For _deme_ 'to speak', &c., cp. VI 1, XV _b_ 29-30. - -118. _Whe[th]er_ commonly introduces a direct question and should not be -separately translated. Cp. VI 205 and note to XI _a_ 51. - -121. _wysty is here_, 'it is desolate here'. Note _Wowayn_ = _Wauwayn_, -an alternative form of _Gawayn_ used for the alliteration. The -alternation is parallel to that in _guardian_: _warden_; _regard_: -_reward_ XIV _c_ 105; _guarantee_: _warranty_; _(bi)gyled_ 359: -_(bi)wyled_ 357; _werre_ 'war' beside French _guerre_; _wait_ 'watch' -(as at l. 95) beside French _guetter_; and is due to dialectal -differences in Old French. The Anglo-Norman dialect usually preserved -_w_ in words borrowed from Germanic or Celtic, while others replaced it -by _gw_, _gu_, which later became simple _g_ in pronunciation. - -125. _in my fyue wytte[gh]_: construe with _fele_. - -127. _[th]at chekke hit bytyde_, 'which destruction befall!' _[th]at... -hit_ = 'which'. _chekke_ refers to the checkmate at chess. - -135. Had we not Chaucer's Miller and _The Reeves Tale_, the vividness -and intimacy of the casual allusions would show the place of the -flour-mill in mediaeval life. Havelok drives out his foes - - _So dogges ut of milne-hous;_ - -and the Nightingale suggests as fit food for the Owl - - _one frogge - [Th]at sit at mulne vnder cogge._ - -These are records of hours spent by the village boys amid the noise of -grinding and rush of water, in times when there was no rival mechanism -to share the fascination of the water-driven mill. - -137-43. 'This contrivance, as I believe, is prepared, sir knight, for -the honour of meeting me by the way. Let God work His will, Lo! It -helps me not a bit. Though I lose my life, no noise causes me to fear.' -It has been suggested that _wel o<r w>oo_ 'weal or woe' should be read -instead of the interjection _we loo!_ But Gawayn's despair (l. 141) is -not in keeping with ll. 70 f., 90 f., or with the rest of his speech. -The looseness of the short lines makes emendation dangerous. Otherwise -we might read _Hit helppe[gh] [th]e not a mote_, i.e. whatever happens, -mere noise will not help the Green Knight by making Gawayn afraid; or, -alternatively, _herme[gh]_ 'harms' for _helppe[gh]_. - -151. 'Yet he went on with the noise with all speed for a while, and -turned away <to proceed> with his grinding, before he would come -down.' The nonchalance of the Green Knight is marked throughout the -poem. - -155. _A Dene[gh] ax_: the ordinary long-bladed battle-axe was called a -'Danish' axe, in French _hache danoise_, because the Scandinavians in -their raids on England and France first proved its efficiency in battle. - -158. _bi [th]at lace_, '<measured> by the lace'. In _Gawayne_ (ll. 217 -ff. of the full text) the axe used at the first encounter is described. -It had: - - _A lace lapped aboute, [th]at louked at [th]e hede, - And so after [th]e halme halched ful ofte, - Wyth tryed tassele[gh] [th]erto tacched innoghe, &c._ - -'A lace wrapped about <the handle>, which was fastened at the <axe's> -head, and was wound about the handle again and again, with many choice -tassels fastened to it', &c. - -159. _as fyrst_, 'as at the first encounter', i.e. when he rode into -Arthur's hall. His outfit of green is minutely described at ll. 151 ff. -of the full text. - -162. _Sette [th]e stele to [th]e stone_: i.e. he used the handle of the -axe as a support when crossing rough ground. _stele_ = 'handle', not -'steel'. - -164. _hypped... stryde[gh]_: note the frequent alternation of past tense -and historic present. So ll. 3-4 _passed... prayses_; 107-8 -_kache[gh]... com... li[gh]te[gh]_; 280-1 _halde[gh]... gef_, &c. - -169 f. 'Now, sweet sir, one can trust you to keep an appointment.' - -175. _[th]at [th]e falled_, 'what fell to your lot', i.e. the right to -deal the first blow. - -177. _oure one_, 'by ourselves'. To _one_ 'alone' in early ME. the -dative pronoun was added for emphasis, _him one_, _us one_, &c. Later -and more rarely the possessive pronoun is found, as here. _Al(l)_ was -also used to strengthen _one_; so that there are six possible ME. types: -(1) _one_, e.g. ll. 6, 50; (2) _him one_; (3) _his one_; (4) _al one_ = -_alone_ l. 87; (5) _al him one_, or _him al one_; (6) _al his one_, or -_his al one_. - -181. _at a wap one_, 'at a single blow'. - -183. 'I shall grudge you no good-will because of any harm that befalls -me.' - -189-90. 'And acted as if he feared nothing: he would not tremble -(_dare_) with terror.' - -196. 'He (Gawayn) who was ever valiant would have been dead from his -blow there.' - -200. It must not be supposed that the chief incidents of _Sir Gawayne_ -were invented by the English poet. The three strokes, for example, two -of them mere feints and the third harmless, can be shown to derive from -the lost French source, which has Irish analogues. See pp. 71-4 of _A -Study of Gawain and the Green Knight_ (London 1916), by Professor -Kittredge, a safe guide in the difficult borderland of folklore and -romance. - -207. 'Nor did I raise any quibble in the house of King Arthur.' On -_kynge[gh] hous Arthor_ see note to II 518. - -222. _ryue[gh]_: the likeness of _n_ and _u_ in MSS. of the time makes -it impossible to say whether the verb is _riue_ 'to cleave', which is -supported by l. 278, or _rine_, OE. _hr[=i]nan_, 'to touch'. - -230. 'And look out for your neck at this stroke, <to see> if it may -survive.' - -233. _I hope_: here, and often in ME., _hope_ means 'believe', 'expect'. - -250. Gawayn appears to have carried his shield on his back. By a -movement of his shoulders he lets it fall in front of him, so that he -can use it in defence. - -258. _foo_, 'fiercely', adv. parallel with _[gh]ederly_. - -269. _ry<n>kande_, 'ringing'; Napier's suggestion for MS. _rykande_. - -271-2. 'Nobody here has ill-treated you in an unmannerly way, nor shown -you <discourtesy>': the object of _kyd_ being understood from _vnmanerly -mysboden_. _habbe[gh]_ for MS. _habbe_ is Napier's reading. - -278-9. 'And cleft you with no grievous wound, <which> I rightly -<merely> proffered you, because of the compact we made fast', &c. It is -better to assume a suppression of the relative, than to put a strong -stop after _rof_ and treat _sore_ as sb. object of _profered_. This -latter punctuation gives _sore_ the chief stress in the line, and breaks -the alliteration and rhythm, which is correct as long as _sore_ is taken -with _rof_, so that its stress is subordinated. - -286-7. 'Let a true man truly repay--then one need dread no peril.' - -291. _weued_: perhaps not a weak pa. t. of _weave-woven_, but rather -means 'to give', from OE. _w[=ae]fan_, 'to move'; _weue_ in this sense -occurs in _Gawayne_ l. 1976. - -294-5. 'And truly you seem to me the most faultless man that ever walked -on foot.' The ME. construction, _on [th]e fautlest_, where _on_ 'one' -strengthens the superlative, is found in Chaucer, _Clerk's Tale_ 212: - - _Thanne was she oon the faireste under sonne,_ - -and still survives in Shakespeare's time, e.g. _Henry VIII_, II. iv. 48 -f. _one the wisest prince_. It has been compared with Latin _unus -maximus_, &c. In modern English the apposition has been replaced, with -weakening of the sense: _one_ of _the (wisest)_, &c. - -298. _yow lakked... yow wonted_: impersonal, since _yow_ is dative, -'there was lacking in you'. - -319. 'Let me win your good-will', 'Pardon me'. - -331. I have transposed MS. #of# _[th]e grene chapel_ #at# _cheualrous -kny[gh]te[gh]_, because such a use of _at_ is hardly conceivable. A -copyist might easily make the slip. Cp. l. 35. - -344. _Bo[th]e [th]at on and [th]at o[th]er_: Besides the Green Knight's -young wife, there was a much older lady in the castle, 'yellow', with -'rugh, ronkled cheke[gh]', and so wrapped up - - _[Th]at no[gh]t wat[gh] bare of [th]at burde bot [th]e blake - bro[gh]es, - [Th]e tweyne y[gh]en, and [th]e nase, [th]e naked lyppe[gh], - And [th]ose were soure to se, and sellyly blered._ - - _Gawayne_ ll. 961-3. - -350-1. 'And David afterwards, who suffered much evil, was <morally> -blinded by Bathsheba.' - -352-6. 'Since these were injured with their wiles, it would be a great -gain to love them well, and not believe them--for a man who could do it -[cp. note to XI _b_ 209]. For these (Adam, Solomon, &c.) were of old the -noblest, whom all happiness followed, surpassingly, above all the others -that lived beneath the heavens.' _mused_ 'thought' is used for the rime, -and means no more than 'lived'. ll. 354-6 amount to 'above all other -men'. - - -VI - -#Dialect#: West Midland, like _Gawayne_. - -The metre occasionally gives clear evidence that final flexional _-e_ of -the original has not always been preserved in the extant MS., e.g. - - _[Th]a[gh] cortaysly [gh]e carp<[.e]> con_ 21. - -The most noteworthy verbal forms are: - - pres. ind. 1 sg. _byswyke[gh]_ 208 (once only, in rime); - 2 sg. _[th]ou quyte[gh]_ 235; - 3 sg. _le[th]e[gh]_ 17; _tot[gh]_ (= _t[=o,]s_ = - _t[=a]s_ = _takes_) 153 (note). - 1 pl. _we leuen_ 65; _we calle_ 70; - 3 pl. _temen_ 100 (and cp. ll. 151-2); _knawe_ 145; but - _[th]ay got[gh]_ 150, _pyke[gh]_ 213 (both in - rime). - imperative pl. _dysplese[gh]_ 62; _gos_, _dot[gh]_ 161. - pres. p. _spornande_ 3. - pp. _runne_ (in rime) 163, beside _wroken_ 15, &c. - -Characteristic Western forms are _burne_ 37 (OE. _beorn_); _vr[th]e_ 82 -(OE. _eor[th]e_). - - * * * * * - -5. 'Like bubbling water that flows from a spring', i.e. his wild words -rise from a heart that can no longer contain its affliction. - -11-12. 'You, who were once the source of all my joy, made sorrow my -companion.' - -15. 'From the time when you were removed from every peril'. The child -died before she was two years old (l. 123). - -22. 'I am but dust, and rough in manners.' The MS. has _marere[gh] -mysse_, which has been rendered 'botcher's waste'; but the poet is -contrasting his own ill-mannered speech with the Pearl's courtesy. - -23. 'But the mercy of Christ and of Mary and of John'. The genitive -inflexion is confined to the noun immediately preceding _mersy_, while -the two following nouns, which are logically genitives with exactly the -same construction as _Crystes_, remain uninflected. For analogies see -note to II 518. - -36. _and_: MS. _in_. The sign for _and_ is easily mistaken for _[=i]_ = -_in_. Cp. note to XVII 42. - -48. _[Th]at_, 'wh'o. - -65. _[th]at... of_, 'from whom'; the later relative form _of quom_ -occurs at l. 93. - -70. _Fenyx of Arraby_: the symbol of peerless perfection. Cp. Chaucer, -_Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 980-3 - - _Trewly she was to myn ye - The soleyn Fenix of Arabye, - For ther lyveth never but oon, - Ne swich as she ne knew I noon._ - -71. 'which was faultless in form'; _fle[gh]e_ 'flew' is used with -weakened sense because a bird is normally thought of as on the wing. - -74. _folde vp hyr face_, '<with> her face upturned'; _folde_ is pp. - -91-2. 'And each would wish that the crowns of the others were five times -as precious, if it were possible to better them.' - -97. _Poule_: the common OFr. and ME. form, as at VIII _a_ 25, 270, XI -_b_ 80. But the rime with _naule_ 'nail' (ON. _nagl_) points to the form -_Paule_ for the original. The reference is to 1 Corinthians vi. 15 and -xii. 12 ff. - -100. _hys body_, 'its body', 'the body'. _tyste_: for _ty[gh]te_ -'tight', like l. 102 _myste_ for _my[gh]te_ 'might'. The rimes with -_Kryst_, _gryste_, _lyste_ show that _st_ and _[gh]t_ were very similar -in pronunciation. See Appendix [P] 6 (end). - -106. 'Because you wear a ring on arm or finger.' - -109-11. 'I <well> believe that there is great courtesy and charity among -you.' The construction of the next line (which conveys an apology, cp. -l. 62) is not clear owing to the following gap in the MS.; nor is it -easy to guess the missing rime word, as _emong_ can rime with OE. -_-ung-_ (e.g. with _[gh]onge_, ll. 114, 175), or with OE. _-ang-_; see -the note to XVII 400. - -116. _stronge_ may be adj. 'violent' with _worlde_, but is more likely -adv. 'severely'. - -124-5. Note the cumulation of negatives. _cow[th]e[gh]_ has a double -construction: 'You never knew how to please God nor pray to Him, nor -<did you know even> the Paternoster and Creed.' The Lord's Prayer and -the Apostles' Creed were prescribed by the Church as the elements of -faith to be taught first to a child. - -137. Matthew xx. 1-16. - -139. 'He represented it very aptly in a parable.' - -141. _My regne... on hy[gh]t_, 'My kingdom on high'. - -145. _[th]ys hyne_: the labourers. _This_, _these_ are sometimes used in -early English to refer to persons or things that have not been -previously mentioned, but are prominent in the writer's mind. Cp. XV -_b_ 4, 19; and the opening of Chaucer's _Prologue_ to the _Franklin's -Tale_ quoted in the note to II 13. - -150. _pen'e_: in ME. the final sound developed from OFr. _-'e_ (_e_) -fell together with the sounds arising from OE. _-ig_, OFr. _ie_, -&c. Hence _pen'e_ or _peny_ 186 (OE. _penig_); _repren'e_ 184 for -_repreny_; _cortays'e_ 120, 121, beside _cortaysye_ 72, 84, 96. The -acute accent is editorial. - -153. 'At midmorning the master goes to the market.' _tot[gh]_ (= -_t[=o,]s_) = _t[=a]s_, contracted form of _takes_ 'betakes himself'; cp. -_tone_ = _taken_ V 91. The spelling and rimes with _o_ (which cannot -develop normally from _[)a]_ lengthened in open syllables because this -lengthening is everywhere later than the change _[=a]_ > _[=o,]_) are -usually explained as artificial. It is assumed that as Northern _b[=a]n_ -corresponded to Midland _b[=o,]n_, so from Northern _t'a_ 'take' an -unhistorical Midland _t[=o,]_ was deduced. But it is possible that the -contraction of _t[)a]ke(n)_, and consequent lengthening _t'a(n)_, is -older than the ordinary lengthening _t[)a]ke_ > _t'ake_, and also older -than the development of _[=a]_ to _[=o,]_ in North Midland. - -164. _I yow pay_: note the survival of the old use of the present to -express future tense. - -176. _[th]at at [gh]e moun_, 'what you can'. _At_ as a relative appears -usually to be from Old Norse _at_, with the same sense, and it is not -uncommon in Northern English. But _[th]at at_ here is more likely the -normal development of _[th]at [th]at_ > _[th]at tat_ (note to II 102) > -_[th]at at_. - -179. _sumoun_ is infin. not sb.: 'he had (them) summoned'; cp. note to -VIII _a_ 79. - -192. 'It seems to us we ought to receive more.' _Vus [th]ynk_ is -a remnant of the old impersonal construction of _[th]ynce[th]_ -'it seems'. In this phrase, probably owing to confusion with _we -[th]ynk(en)_, the verb often has no flexional ending; cp. l. 192. _vus -o[gh]e_ is formed by analogy, the verb being properly personal; cp. -_must vs_ XVII 292, 334. - -200. _And_, 'If'. - -205-8. _More_, which is necessary for the metrical form, is best taken -as conj. 'moreover', 'further'; _we[th]er_ introduces a direct question -(note to V 118). _louyly_ is perhaps miswritten for _lauly_ 'lawful', -as the _Pearl-Gawayne_ group often show the converse _au_, _aw_ for -normal _ou_, _ow_, e.g. _bawe_ for _bowe_, _traw[th]e_ for _trow[th]e_. -'Further, is my power to do what pleases me with my own lawful?' The -meaning is fixed by Matthew xx. 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what -I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?' - -212. _myke[gh]._ In the few recorded examples _mik_, _myk_ seems to mean -'an intimate friend'. Here it is used for the sake of rime in an -extended sense 'chosen companion of the Lord'. - -221 f. _Whe[th]er_, &c., 'Although I began <only> just now, coming into -the vineyard in the eventide, <yet>', &c. - -224. Note the rime (OE. _s[)u]m_) with ON. _bl'om(i)_, OE. _d[=o]m_, -_c[=o]m_. Such rimes occur occasionally in Northern texts of the -fourteenth century--never in the South. - -233. Psalm lxii. 12 'Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for Thou -renderest to every man according to his work.' - -237-40. Loosely constructed. 'Now, if you came to payment before him -that stood firm through the long day, then he who did less work would be -more entitled to receive pay, and the further <it is carried>, the less -<work>, the more <claim to be paid>.' - -249-51. On the meaning of these lines there is no agreement. Gollancz -and Osgood interpret: 'That man's privilege is great who ever stood in -awe of Him (God) who rescues sinners. From such men no happiness is -withheld, for,' &c. Yet it is difficult to believe that even a poet hard -pressed would use _dard to Hym_ to mean 'feared Him'. One of several -rival interpretations will suffice to show the ambiguities of the text: -'His (God's) generosity, which is always inscrutable (lit. lay hidden), -is abundant to the man who recovers his soul from sin. From such men no -happiness is withheld', &c. The sense and construction of _dard_ (for -which the emendation _fard_, pret. of _fere_ 'to go', has been -suggested, the rest of the interpretation following Gollancz), and the -obscurity of the argument, are the chief obstacles to a satisfactory -solution. - - -VII - -#Dialect#: Irregular, but predominantly North-West Midland; cp. V and -VI. - -#Inflexions#:-- - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _warys_ 19, _has_ 20. - 3 pl. _ben_ 11, _sayn_ 182, _haue_ 31. - pres. p. _claterand_ 137, _[th]riuaund_ 158, _leymonde_ 153; - beside _blowyng_ 106, _doutyng_ 114. - strong pp. _slydyn_ 6, _stoken_ 11. - The weak pp. and pa. t. have _-it_, _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_: - _drepit_ 9, _suet_ 24. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _[th]ai_ 45; - poss. _hor_ 8, beside _[th]ere_ 9, 10; - obj. _hom_ 24. - -#Sounds and Spelling#: Northern and North Midland forms are _qwiles_ (= -_whiles_) 39, _hondqwile_ 117; and _wysshe_ 4 (note). West Midland -indications are _buernes_ 'men' 90, 91 = OE. _beorn_ (but _buerne_ 'sea' -159 = OE. _burn-_ is probably miswritten owing to confusion with _buern_ -'man'); and perhaps the spelling _u_ in unaccented syllables: _mecull_ -10, _watur_ 119, _wintur_ 124. - - * * * * * - -4. _wysshe_ = _wisse_ 'guide'. In the North final _sh_ was commonly -pronounced _ss_; cp. note to I 128-9, and the rimes in XVII 1-4. -Conversely etymological _ss_ was sometimes spelt _ssh_. - -7-8. _strongest... and wisest... to wale_, 'the strongest... and -wisest... that could be chosen' (lit. 'to choose'). - -15. _On lusti to loke_, 'pleasant to look upon'. - -21 ff. A typical example of the vague and rambling constructions in -which this writer indulges: apparently 'but old stories of the valiant -<men> who <once> held high rank may give pleasure to some who never saw -their deeds, through the writings of men who knew them at first hand -(?) (_in dede_), <which remained> to be searched by those who followed -after, in order to make known (_or_ to know?) all the manner in which -the events happened, by looking upon letters (i.e. writings) that were -left behind of old'. - -45. Benoit de Sainte-Maure says the Athenians rejected Homer's story of -gods fighting like mortals, but charitably explains that, as Homer lived -a hundred years after the siege, it is no wonder if he made mistakes: - - _N'est merveille s'il i faillit, - Quar onc n'i fu ne rien n'en vit._ - - _Prologue_, ll. 55-6. - -53-4. 'That was elegantly compiled by a wise clerk--one Guido, a man who -had searched carefully, and knew all the actions from authors whom he -had by him.' See Introductory note, pp. 68 f. - -66-7. Cornelius Nepos was supposed to have found the Greek work of Dares -at Athens when rummaging in an old cupboard (Benoit de Sainte-Maure, -_Prologue_, ll. 77 ff.). - -157. Note the slovenly repetition from l. 151. So l. 159 repeats l. 152. - -168-9. I have transposed these lines, assuming that they were misplaced -by a copyist. Guido's Latin favours the change, and the whole passage -will illustrate the English translator's methods: - -_Oyleus uero Aiax qui cum 32 nauibus suis in predictam incidit -tempestatem, omnibus nauibus suis exustis et submersis in mari, in -suis uiribus brachiorum nando semiuiuus peruenit ad terram; et, -inflatus pre nimio potu aque, uix se nudum recepit in littore, vbi -usque ad superuenientis diei lucem quasi mortuus iacuit in arena, [et] -de morte sua sperans potius quam de uita. Sed cum quidam ex suis nando -similiter a maris ingluuie iam erepti nudi peruenissent ad littus, -dominum eorum querunt in littore [et] si forsitan euasisset. Quem in -arena iacentem inueniunt, dulcibus uerborum fouent affatibus, cum nec -in uestibus ipsum nec in alio possunt subsidio refouere._ (MS. Harley -4123, fol. 117 a--the bracketed words are superfluous.) - -178. _Telamon_ was not at the siege, and his name appears here and in l. -150 as the result of a tangle which begins in the confusion of Oyleus -Ajax with Ajax the son of Telamon. In classical writers after Homer it -is Oyleus Ajax who, at the sack of Troy, drags Cassandra from the temple -of Minerva. This is the story in Dictys. Dares, like Homer, is silent. -In Benoit de Sainte-Maure's poem (ll. 26211-16), the best MSS. name -Oyleus Ajax as Cassandra's captor, but others have '_Thelamon Aiax_', -i.e. Ajax, the son of Telamon. Guido read Benoit in a MS. of the latter -class, and accordingly makes _Telamonius Aiax_ do the sacrilege. With -the English translator this becomes _Telamon_ simply (Bk. xxix, ll. -11993-7). So when later, in Bk. xxxi, he comes to describe the -shipwreck, he replaces Guido's _Aiax_ by _Telamon_, and spoils the story -of Minerva's vengeance on the actual violator of her sanctuary. - - -VIII - -#Dialect#: South Midland, with mixture of forms. - - _a._ VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _seist_ 226, _wilnest_ 256. - 3 sg. _comaundeth_ 16. - 1 pl. _haue_ 118, _preye_ 119. - 2 pl. _han_ 11, _wasten_ 127. - 3 pl. _liggeth_ 15, &c.; beside _ben_ 50, - _waste_ 155. - imper. pl. _spynneth_ 13. - pres. p. (none in _a_); _romynge_ _b_ 11. - strong pp. _bake_ 187, _ybake_ 278, _ybaken_ 175. - Infinitives in _-ie_ (OE. _-ian_) are retained: _erye_ - 4, _hatie_ 52, _tilye_ 229 (OE. _erian_, _hatian_, - _tilian_). - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _[th]ei_ 126, &c., beside _hii_ 15; - poss. _her_ 54; obj. _hem_ 2. - -#Sounds#: OE. _y_ often shows the Western development, as in _huyre(d)_ -108, 133, &c.; _abugge_ 75, 159; beside _bigge_ 275. So _Cornehulle_ _b_ -1. But such forms were not uncommon in the London dialect of the time. - -_b._ The second extract has a more Southern dialectal colouring. Note -especially the gen. pl. forms _lollarene_ 31, _knauene_ 56, _lordene_ -77, continuing or extending the OE. weak gen. pl. in _-ena_; and _menne_ -29, 74, retaining the ending of the OE. gen. pl. _manna_. - -The representation of unaccented vowels by _u_ in _hure_ (= 'their') 50, -(= 'her') 53; _(h)us_ 'his' 60, 101; _clerkus_ 65, is commonest in -Western districts. _h(w)_ is no longer aspirated: _wanne_ 1, _werby_ -35, MS. _eggen_ 19; and conversely _hyf_ 'if' 43, _his_ 'is' 105. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 9. _for shedyng_, 'to prevent spilling'; and so _for colde_ 62 'as a -protection against cold'; _for bollyng_ 209 'to prevent swelling'; _for -chillyng_ 306, &c. - -_a_ 11. _[Th]at [gh]e han silke and sendal to sowe_: The construction -changes as if Piers had begun: _Ich praye [gh]ow_, which is the reading -in the C-text. The difficulty of excluding modern ideas from the -interpretation of the Middle Ages is shown by the comment of a scholar -so accomplished as M. Petit-Dutaillis: 'Il attaque les riches peu -mis'ericordieux, les _dames charmantes aux doigts effil'es_, qui ne -s'occupent pas des pauvres' (_Soulevement_, p. lxii). But there is no -hint of satire or reproach in the text. The poet, always conventional, -assigns to high-born ladies the work which at the time was considered -most fitting for them. So it is reported in praise of the sainted -Isabella of France, sister of St. Louis: _Quand elle fust introduicte -des lettres suffisamment, elle s'estudioit a apprendre a ouurer de soye, -et faisoit estolles et autres paremens a saincte Eglise_--'When she was -sufficiently introduced to letters, she set herself to learn how to work -in silk, and made stoles and other vestments for Holy Church.' -(Joinville, _Histoire d. S. Louys_, Paris 1668, pt. i, p. 169.) - -_a_ 19. _for [th]e Lordes loue of heuene_: cp. l. 214, and notes to I -44, I 83, II 518. - -_a_ 23. _on [th]e teme_, 'on this subject'; _teme_ 'theme' is a correct -form, because Latin _th_ was pronounced _t_. The modern pronunciation is -due to the influence of classical spelling. - -_a_ 32. _affaite [th]e_, 'tame for thyself'; cp. l. 64 _(I shal) brynge -me_ = 'bring (for myself)', and the note to II 289. - -_a_ 40-1. 'And though you should fine them, let Mercy be the assessor, -and let Meekness rule over you, in spite of Gain.' This is a warning -against abuse of the lord of the manor's power to impose fines in the -manorial court with the object of raising revenue rather than of -administering justice. Cp. Ashley, _Introduction to English Economic -History_, vol. i (1894), pt. ii, p. 266. For _maugr'e Medes chekes_ cp. -151. - -_a_ 49. Luke xiv. 10. - -_a_ 50. _yuel to knowe_, 'hard to distinguish'. - -_a_ 72-5. These clumsy lines, which are found in all versions, exemplify -the chief faults in _Piers Plowman_: structural weakness and superfluous -allegory. - -_a_ 79. _I wil... do wryte my biqueste_, 'I will have my will written'; -_make(n)_, _ger_ (_gar_), and _lete(n)_ are commonly used like _do(n)_ -with an active infinitive, which is most conveniently rendered by the -passive; so _do wryte_ 'cause to be written'; _dyd werche_ 'caused to be -made' I 218; _mad sumoun_ 'caused to be summoned' VI 179; _gert dres -vp_ 'caused to be set up' X 16; _leet make_ 'caused to be made' IX 223, -&c. - -_a_ 80. _In Dei nomine, amen_: A regular opening phrase for wills. - -_a_ 84. 'I trust to have a release from and remission of my debts which -are recorded in that book.' _Rental_, a book in which the sums due from -a tenant were noted, here means 'record of sins'. - -_a_ 86. _he_: the parson, as representing the Church. - -_a_ 91. _dou[gh]tres._ In l. 73 only one daughter is named. In the -B-text, Passus xviii. 426, she is called _Kalote_ (see note to _b_ 2 -below). - -_a_ 94. _bi [th]e rode of Lukes_: at Lucca (French _Lucques_) is a -Crucifix and a famous representation of the face of Christ, reputed -to be the work of the disciple Nicodemus. From Eadmer and William of -Malmesbury we learn that William the Conqueror's favourite oath was -'By the Face of Lucca!', and it is worth noting that the frequent and -varied adjurations in Middle English are copied from the French. - -_a_ 114. 'May the Devil take him who cares!' - -_a_ 115 ff. _faitoures_ (cp. ll. 185 ff.), who feigned some injury or -disease to avoid work and win the pity of the charitable, multiplied in -the disturbed years following the Black Death. Statutes were passed -against them, and even against those who gave them alms (Jusserand, -_English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 261 ff.). But the type was long lived. In -the extract from _Handlyng Synne_ (No. I), we have already a monument of -their activities. - -_a_ 141. 'And those that have cloisters and churches (i.e. monks and -priests) shall have some of my goods to provide themselves with copes.' - -_a_ 142. _Robert Renne-aboute._ The type of a wandering preacher; -_posteles_ are clearly preachers with no fixed sphere of authority, like -the mendicant friars and Wiclif's 'poor priests'. Against both the -regular clergy constantly complained that they preached without the -authority of the bishop. - -_a_ 186. _[Th]at seten_: the MS. by confusion has _[th]at seten to -seten to begge_, &c. - -_a_ 187. _[th]at was bake for Bayarde_: i.e. 'horse-bread' (l. 208), -which used to be made from beans and peas only. _Bayard_, properly a -'bay horse', was, according to romance, the name of the horse given by -Charlemagne to Rinaldo. Hence it became the conventional name for a -horse, just as _Reynard_ was appropriated to the fox. Chaucer speaks of -_proude Bayard_ (_Troilus_, Bk. i. 218) and, referring to an unknown -story, _Bayard the blynde_ (_Canon's Yeoman's Tale_, 860). - -_a_ 221. _Michi vindictam_: Romans xii. 19. - -_a_ 224. Luke xvi. 9. - -_a_ 229. Genesis iii. 19. - -_a_ 231. _Sapience_: the Book of Wisdom, but the quotation is actually -from Proverbs xx. 4. - -_a_ 234. _Mathew with mannes face._ Each of the evangelists had his -symbol: Matthew, a man; Mark, a lion; Luke, a bull; John, an eagle; and -in early Gospel books their portraits are usually accompanied by the -appropriate symbols. - -_a_ 235 ff. Matthew xxv. 14 ff.; Luke xix. 12 ff. - -_a_ 245. _Contemplatyf lyf or actyf lyf._ The merits of these two ways -of life were endlessly disputed in the Middle Ages. In XI _b_ Wiclif -attacks the position of the monks and of Rolle's followers; and the -author of _Pearl_ (VI 61 ff.) takes up the related question of salvation -by works or by grace. - -_a_ 246. Psalm cxxviii. 1. - -_a_ 264. Jusserand gives a brief account of the old-time physicians -in _English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 177 ff. The best were somewhat -haphazard in their methods, and the mountebanks brought -discredit on the profession. Here are a few fourteenth-century -prescriptions: - -_For hym that haves the squynansy ['quinsy']_:-- - - Tak a fatte katte, and fla hit wele and clene, and draw oute the - guttes; and tak the grees of an urcheon ['hedgehog'], and the - fatte of a bare, and resynes, and feinygreke ['fenugreek'], and - sauge ['sage'], and gumme of wodebynde, and virgyn wax: al this - mye ['grate'] smal, and farse ['stuff'] the catte within als thu - farses a gos: rost hit hale, and geder the grees, and enoynt hym - tharwith. (_Reliquiae Antiquae_, ed. Wright and Halliwell (1841), - vol. i, p. 51.) - -_[Gh]yf a woud hund hat ybite a man_:-- - - Take tou<n>karsyn ['towncress'], and pulyole ['penny-royal'], and - se[th] hit in water, and [gh]ef hym to drynke, and hit schal caste - out [th]e venym: and [gh]if [th]ou miste ['might'] haue of [th]e - hundys here, ley hit [th]erto, and hit schal hele hit. (_Medical - Works of the Fourteenth Century_, ed. G. Henslow, London 1899, p. 19.) - -_A goud oynement for [th]e goute_:-- - - Take [th]e grece of a bor, and [th]e grece of a ratoun, and cattys - grece, and voxis grece, and hors grece, and [th]e grece of a brok - ['badger']; and take fe[th]eruoye ['feverfew'] and eysyl ['vinegar'], - and stampe h_e_m togedre; and take a litel lynnesed, and stampe hit - wel, and do hit [th]erto; and meng al togedre, and het hit in a - scherd, and [th]erwith anoynte [th]e goute by the fuyre. Do so ofte - and hit schal be hol. (Ibid., p. 20.) - -_a_ 284. _Lammasse tyme_: August 1, when the new corn (l. 294) would be -in. On this day a loaf was offered as firstfruits: whence the name, OE. -_hl[=a]f-maesse_. - -_a_ 307 ff. Owing to repeated famines, the wages of manual labour rose -throughout the first half of the fourteenth century. A crisis was -reached when the Black Death (1349) so reduced the number of workers -that the survivors were able to demand wages on a scale which seemed -unconscionable to their employers. By the Statute of Labourers (1350 and -1351) an attempt was made to force wages and prices back to the level of -1346. For a day's haymaking 1_d._ was to be the maximum wage; for -reaping 2_d._ or 3_d._ Throughout the second half of the fourteenth -century vain attempts were made to enforce these maxima, and the -penalties did much to fan the unrest that broke out in the Peasants' -Revolt of 1381. - -_a_ 309-10. From Bk. i of the _Disticha_ of Dionysius Cato, a collection -of proverbs famous throughout the Middle Ages. - -_a_ 321. Saturn was a malevolent planet, as we see from his speech in -Chaucer's _Knight's Tale_, 1595 ff. - -_a_ 324. _Deth_: the Plague. - -_b_ 1. _Cornehulle._ Cornhill was one of the liveliest quarters of -fourteenth-century London, and a haunt of idlers, beggars, and doubtful -characters. Its pillory and stocks were famous. Its market where, if -_The London Lickpenny_ is to be credited, dealing in stolen clothes was -a speciality, was privileged above all others in the city. See the -documents in Riley's _Memorials of London_. - -_b_ 2. _Kytte_: In the B-text, Passus xviii. 425-6, _Kytte_ is mentioned -again: - - _and ri[gh]t with [th]at I waked - And called Kitte my wyf and Kalote my dou[gh]ter._ - -_b_ 4. _lollares of London_: The followers of Wiclif were called -'Lollards' by their opponents; but the word here seems to mean 'idlers' -as in l. 31. _lewede heremytes_: 'lay hermits': hermits were not -necessarily in holy orders, and so far from seeking complete solitude, -they often lived in the cities or near the great highways, where many -passers would have opportunity to recognize their merit by giving alms. -See Cutts, _Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages_, pp. 93 ff. - -_b_ 5. 'For I judged those men as Reason taught me.' Skeat's -interpretation--that _made of_ means 'made verses about'--is forced. The -sense is that the idlers and hermits thought little of the dreamer, and -he was equally critical of them. - -_b_ 6. _as ich cam by Conscience_: 'as I passed by Conscience', -referring to a vision described in the previous Passus, in which -Conscience is the principal figure. - -_b_ 10 f. _In hele and in vnit'e_, 'in health and in my full senses', -and _Romynge in remembraunce_ qualify _me_. - -_b_ 14. _Mowe o[th]er mowen_, 'mow or stack'. For these unrelated words -see the Glossary. - -_b_ 16. _haywarde_: by derivation 'hedge-ward'. He watched over -enclosures and prevented animals from straying among the crops. Observe -that ME. nouns denoting occupation usually survive in surnames:--Baxter -'baker', Bow(y)er, Chapman, Dyer, Falconer, Fletcher 'arrow-maker', -Fo(re)ster, Franklin, Hayward, Lister (= litster, 'dyer'), Palmer, -Reeve(s), Spicer, Sumner, Tyler 'maker or layer of tiles', Warner -'keeper of warrens', Webb, Webster, Wright, Yeoman, &c. - -_b_ 20-1. 'Or craft of any kind that is necessary to the community, to -provide food for them that are bedridden.' - -_b_ 24. _to long_, 'too tall': cp. B-text, Passus xv. 148 _my name is -Longe Wille_. Consistency in such details in a poem full of -inconsistencies makes it probable that the poet is describing himself, -not an imagined dreamer. - -_b_ 33. Psalm lxii. 12. - -_b_ 45. 1 Corinthians vii. 20. - -_b_ 46 ff. Cp. the note to XI _b_ 131 f. The dreamer appears to have -made his living by saying prayers for the souls of the dead, a service -which, from small beginnings in the early Middle Ages, had by this time -withdrawn much of the energy of the clergy from their regular duties. -See note to XI _b_ 140 f. - -_b_ 49. _my Seuene Psalmes_: the Penitential Psalms, normally vi, xxxii, -xxxviii, li, cii, cxxx, cxliii, in the numbering of the Authorised -Version. The _Prymer_, which contained the devotions supplementary to -the regular Church service, included the Placebo, Dirige, and the Seven -Psalms: see the edition by Littlehales for the Early English Text -Society. - -_b_ 50. _for hure soules of suche as me helpen_: combines the -constructions _for [th]e soules of suche as me helpen_, and _for hure -soules [th]at me helpen_. - -_b_ 51. _vochen saf_: supply _me_ as object, 'warrant me that I shall be -welcome'. - -_b_ 61. 1 Thessalonians v. 15; Leviticus xix. 18. - -_b_ 63. _churches_: here and in l. 110 read the Norse form _kirkes_ for -the alliteration, as in _a_ 28, 85. But the English form also belongs to -the original, for it alliterates with _ch_ at _a_ 12, 50. - -_b_ 64. _Dominus_, &c.: Psalm xvi. 5. - -_b_ 83. _Symondes sone_: a son of Simon Magus--one guilty of simony, or -one who receives preferment merely because of his wealth. - -_b_ 90. Matthew iv. 4. - -_b_ 103-4. _Simile est_, &c.: Matthew xiii. 44. _Mulier que_, &c.: Luke -xv. 8 ff. - - -IX - -#Dialect#: South-East Midland. - -#Vocabulary#: A number of French words are taken over -from the original, e.g. _plee_ 81, _ryot_ 83, _violastres_ 97, _saphire -loupe_ 116, _gowrdes_ 139, _clowe gylofres_ 157, _canell_ 158, _avaled_ -195, _trayne_ (for _taynere_?) 222, _bugles_ 256, _gowtes artetykes_ -314, _distreynen_ 315. - -#Inflexions#: Almost modern. - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _schadeweth_ 19, _turneth_ 23. - 3 pl. _ben_ 4, _han_ 14, _wexen_ 22, _loue_ 100. - pres. p. _fle(e)ynge_ 148, 252; _recordynge_ 317. - strong pp. _[gh]ouen_ 90, _begonne_ 171. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _[th]ei_ 5; _here_ 71; _hem_ 20. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ becomes _[=o,]_: _hoot_ 11, _cold_ 31. - -OE. _y_ appears as _y_ (= _i_): _byggynge_ 90, _ky[gh]n_ 'kine' 256; -except regular _left_ (hand) 69, 71, 72, where Modern English has also -adopted the South-Eastern form of OE. _lyft_. - - * * * * * - -21-3. The French original says that the children have white _hair_ when -they are young, which becomes black as they grow up. - -24-5. The belief that one of the Three Kings came from Ethiopia is based -on Ps. lxviii. 31: 'Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon -stretch out her hands unto God.' In mediaeval representations one of the -three is usually a negro. - -27. _Emlak_: miswritten for _Euilak_, a name for India taken from -_Havilah_ of Genesis ii. 11. - -28. _[th]at is: [th]e more_: _Ynde_ has probably fallen out of the text -after _is_. - -34-5. _[Gh]alow cristall draweth <to> colour lyke oylle_: the insertion -of _to_ is necessary to give sense, and is supported by the French: -_cristal iaunastre trehant a colour doile_. (MS. Harley 4383, f. 34 b.) - -36-7. The translation is not accurate. The French has: _et appelle homme -les dyamantz en ceo pais 'Hamese'_. - -64 ff. It was supposed that the pearl-bearing shell-fish opened at low -tide to receive the dew-drops from which the pearls grew. - -74. _[gh]if [gh]ou lyke_, 'if it please you', impersonal = French _si -vous plest_. - -75. _[th]e Lapidarye_, Latin _Lapidarium_, was a manual of precious -stones, which contained a good deal of pseudo-scientific information -about their natures and virtues, just as the _Bestiary_ summed up -popular knowledge of animals. A Latin poem by Marbod bishop of -Rennes (d. 1123) is the chief source of the mediaeval lapidaries, -and, curiously enough, there is a French prose text attributed by so -intimate an authority as Jean d'Outremeuse to Mandeville himself. -Several Old French texts have been edited by L. Pannier, _Les -Lapidaires Francais du Moyen Age_, Paris 1882. Their high repute may -be judged from the inclusion of no less than seven copies in the -library of Charles V of France (d. 1380); and it is surprising that -no complete ME. version is known. But much of the matter was absorbed -into encyclopaedic works like the _De Proprietatibus Rerum_ of -Bartholomaeus, which Trevisa translated. - -97. Mistranslated. The French has: _qi sont violastre, ou pluis broun qe -violettes_. - -100-1. _But in soth to me_: French: _Mes endroit de moy_, 'but for my -part'; the English translator has rendered _en droit_ separately. - -108. _[th]erfore_: the context requires the sense 'because', but the -translator would hardly have used _[th]erfore_ had he realized that ll. -108-9 correspond to a subordinate clause in the French, and do not form -a complete independent sentence. He was misled by the bad punctuation of -some French MSS., e.g. Royal 20 B. X and (with consequent corruption) -Harley 4383. - -136. _Cathaye_: China. See the classic work of Colonel Yule, _Cathay and -the Way Thither_, 2 vols., London 1866. The modernization of the Catalan -map of 1375 in vol. i gives a good idea of Mandeville's geography. - -142. _withouten wolle_: the story of the vegetable lamb is taken from -the Voyage of Friar Odoric, which is accessible in Hakluyt's _Voyages_. -Hakluyt's translation is reprinted, with the Eastern voyages of John de -Plano Carpini (1246) and of William de Rubruquis (1253), in _The Travels -of Sir John Mandeville_, ed. A. W. Pollard, London 1900. The legend -probably arose from vague descriptions of the cotton plant; and -Mandeville makes it still more marvellous by describing as without wool -the lamb which had been invented to explain the wool's existence. - -143-4. _Of [th]at frute I haue eten_: This assertion seems to be due -to the English translator. The normal French text has simply: _et cest -bien grant meruaille de ceo fruit, et si est grant oure [= oeuvre] de -nature_ (MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 70 b). - -147. _the Bernakes_: The barnacle goose--introduced here on a hint from -Odoric--is a species of wild goose that visits the Northern coasts in -winter. It was popularly supposed to grow from the shell-fish called -'barnacle', which attaches itself to floating timber by a stalk -something like the neck and beak of a bird, and has feathery filaments -not unlike plumage. As the breeding place of the barnacle goose was -unknown, and logs with the shell-fish attached were often found on the -coasts, it was supposed that the shell-fish was the fruit of a tree, -which developed in the water into a bird. Giraldus Cambrensis, -_Topographia Hibernica_, I. xv, reproves certain casuistical members of -the Church who ate the barnacle goose on fast-days on the plea that it -was not flesh; but himself vouches for the marvel. The earliest -reference in English is No. 11 of the Anglo-Saxon _Riddles_, of which -the best solution is 'barnacle goose'. For a full account see Max -Mueller's _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii, pp. 583-604. - -157. _grete notes of Ynde_, 'coco-nuts'. - -163-4. _Goth and Magoth_: see Ezekiel xxxviii and xxxix. The forms of -the names are French. - -170. _God of Nature_: Near the end of the _Travels_ it is explained -that all the Eastern peoples are Deists, though they have not the light -of Christianity: _[th]ei beleeven in God [th]at formede all thing and -made the world, and clepen him 'God of Nature'_. - -191-2. _[th]at [th]ei schull not gon out on no syde, but be the cost -of hire lond_: the general sense requires the omission of _but_, which -has no equivalent in the original French text: _qils ne<nt> issent fors -deuers la coste de sa terre_ (MS. Sloane 1464, f. 139 b). But some MSS. -like Royal 20 B. X have _fors qe deuers_, a faulty reading that must -have stood in the copy used by the Cotton translator. Cp. note to l. -108. - -199-200. _a four grete myle_: renders the French _iiii grantz lieus_. -There is no 'great mile' among English measures. - -209 ff. In the Middle Ages references to the Jews are nearly always -hostile. They were hated as enemies of the Church, and prejudice was -hardened by stories, like that in the text, of their vengeance to come, -or of ritual murder, like Chaucer's _Prioress's Tale_. England had its -supposed boy martyrs, William of Norwich (d. 1144), and Hugh of Lincoln -(d. 1255) whom the Prioress invokes: - - _O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also - With cursed Jewes, as it is notable, - For it is but a litel while ago, - Preye eek for us_, &c. - -Religion was not the only cause of bitterness. The Jews, standing -outside the Church and its laws against usury, at a time when financial -needs had outgrown feudal revenues, became the money-lenders and bankers -of Europe; and with a standard rate of interest fixed at over 40 per -cent., debtors and creditors could hardly be friends. In England the -Jews reached the height of their prosperity in the twelfth century, so -that in 1188 nearly half the national contribution for a Crusade came -from them. In the thirteenth century their privileges and operations -were cut down, and they were finally expelled from the country in 1290 -(see J. Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, 1893). The Lombards, -whose consciences were not nice, took their place as financiers in -fourteenth-century England. - -222. _trayne_: read _taynere_, OFr. _taignere_ 'a burrow'. - -237-8. The cotton plant has already given us the vegetable lamb -(l. 142). This more prosaic account is taken from the _E[th]istola -Alexandri ad Aristotelem_: '_in Bactriacen... penitus ad abditos Seres, -quod genus hominum foliis arborum decerpendo lanuginem ex silvestri -vellere vestes detexunt_' (Julius Valerius, ed. B. Kuebler, p. 194). -From the same text come the hippopotami, the bitter waters (Kuebler, p. -195), and the griffins (Kuebler, p. 217). The _Letter of Alexander_ was -translated into Anglo-Saxon in the tenth century. - -254 ff. _talouns_ etc.: In the 1725 edition there is a reference to 'one -4 Foot long in the Cotton Library' with the inscription, _Griphi Unguis -Divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer_, 'griffin's talon, sacred to St. -Cuthbert of Durham'. This specimen is now in the Mediaeval Department of -the British Museum, and is really the slim, curved horn of an ibex. The -inscription is late (sixteenth century), but the talon was catalogued -among the treasures of Durham in the fourteenth century. - -260. _Prestre Iohn_: Old French _Prestre Jean_, or 'John the Priest', -was reputed to be the Christian ruler of a great kingdom in the East. A -rather minatory letter professing to come from him reached most of the -princes of Europe, and was replied to in all seriousness by Pope -Alexander III. Its claims include the lordship over the tribes of Gog -and Magog whom Alexander the Great walled within the mountains. Official -missions were sent to establish relations with him; but neither in the -Far East nor in Northern Africa, where the best opinion in later times -located his empire, could the great king ever be found. The history of -the legend is set out by Yule in the article _Prester John_ in the -_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. - -261. _Yle of Pentexoire_: to Mandeville most Eastern countries are -'isles'. _Pentexoire_ in the French text of Odoric is a territory about -the Yellow River (Yule, _Cathay_, vol. i, p. 146). - -262 ff.: For comparison the French text of the Epilogue is given from -MS. Royal 20 B. X, f. 83 a, the words in < > being supplied from MS. -Sloane 1464: - -'Il y a plusours autres diuers pais, et moutz dautres meruailles par de -la, qe ieo nay mie tout veu, si nen saueroye proprement parler. Et -meismement el pais en quel iay este, y a plusours diuersetes dont ieo ne -fais point el mencioun, qar trop serroit long chose a tout deuiser. Et -pur ceo qe ieo vous ay deuisez dascuns pais, vous doit suffire quant a -present. Qar, si ieo deuisoie tout quantqez y est par de la, vn autre qi -se peneroit et trauailleroit le corps pur aler en celles marches, et pur -sercher la pais, serroit empeschez par mes ditz a recompter nuls choses -estranges, qar il ne purroit rien dire de nouelle, en quoy ly oyantz y -puissent prendre solaces. Et lem dit toutdis qe choses nouelles -pleisent. Si men taceray a tant, saunz plus recompter nuls diuersetez qi -soyent par de la, a la fin qe cis qi vourra aler en celles parties y -troeue assez a dire. - -'Et ieo, Iohan Maundeuille dessudit, qi men party de nos pais et -passay le mer lan de grace mil cccxxiide; qi moint terre et moint -passage et moint pays ay puis cerchez; et qy ay este en moint -bone compaignie et en molt beal fait, come bien qe ieo <ne fuisse -dignes, et> ne feisse vncqes ne beal fait ne beal emprise; et qi -meintenant suy venuz a repos maugre mien, pur goutes artetikes qi -moy destreignont; en preignan solacz en mon cheitif repos, en -recordant le temps passe, ay cestes choses compilez et mises en -escript, si come il me poet souuenir, lan de grace mil ccc.lvime, -a xxxiiiite an qe ieo men party de noz pais. - -'Si pri a toutz les lisauntz, si lour plest, qils voillent Dieu prier -pur moy, et ieo priera pur eux. Et toutz cils qi pur moy dirrount vne -_Paternoster_ qe Dieu me face remissioun de mes pecches, ieo les face -parteners et lour ottroie part dez toutz les bons pelrinages et dez -toutz les bienfaitz qe ieo feisse vnqes, et qe ieo ferray, si Dieu -plest, vncqore iusqes a ma fyn. Et pry a Dieu, de qy toute bien et toute -grace descent, qil toutz les lisantz et oyantz Cristiens voille de sa -grace reemplir, et lour corps et les almes sauuer, a la glorie et loenge -de ly qi est trinz et vns, et saunz comencement et saunz fin, saunz -qualite bons, saunz quantite grantz, en toutz lieus present et toutz -choses contenant, et qy nul bien ne poet amender ne nul mal enpirer, qy -en Trinite parfite vit et regne par toutz siecles et par toutz temps. -Amen.' - -274. _blamed_: The Old French verb _empescher_ means both 'to hinder, -prevent', and 'to accuse, impeach'. But here _empeschez_ should have -been translated by 'prevented', not 'blamed'. - -284-306. This passage, which in one form or another appears in nearly -all the MSS. in English, has no equivalent in the MSS. in French so far -examined: and, as it conflicts with ll. 313 ff., which--apart from the -peculiarities of the Cotton rendering--indicate that the _Travels_ were -written after Mandeville's return, it must be set down as an -interpolation. - -The art of forging credentials was well understood in the Middle Ages, -and the purpose of this addition was to silence doubters by the -_imprimatur_ of the highest authority, just as the marvel of the Dancers -of Colbek is confirmed by the sponsorship of Pope Leo IX (I 246-9). The -different interpretation of the latest editor, Hamelius, who thinks it -was intended as a sly hit at the Papacy (_Quarterly Review_ for April -1917, pp. 349 f.) seems to rest on the erroneous assumption that the -passage belonged to the French text as originally written. - -The anachronism by which the author is made to seek the Pope _in Rome_ -gives a clue to the date of the interpolation. From the beginning of the -fourteenth century until 1377 Avignon, and not Rome, was the seat of the -Pope; and for another thirty years there was doubt as to the issue of -the conflict between the popes, who had their head-quarters at Rome and -were recognized by England, and the antipopes, who remained at Avignon -and had the support of the French. The facts were notorious, so that the -anachronism would hardly be possible to one who wrote much before the -end of the century, even though he were a partisan of the Roman court. - -From internal evidence it would seem that the interpolation first -appeared in French. The style is the uniform style of translation, with -the same tags--_and [gh]ee schull vndirstonde_ = _et sachiez_; _[gh]if -it lyke [gh]ou_ = _si vous plest_; and the same trick of double -rendering, e.g. _of dyuerse secte and of beleeve_; _wyse and discreet_; -_the auctour ne the persone_. More decisive is an example of the -syntactical compromise explained in the note to l. 329: #be# _the whiche -the Mappa Mundi was made_ #after#. With so many French MSS. of -Mandeville in use in England, an interpolation in French would have more -authority than one that could not be traced beyond English; and it can -hardly be an insuperable objection that no such French text exists -to-day, since our knowledge of the Cotton and Egerton versions -themselves depends in each case on the chance survival of a single MS. - -The point has a bearing on the vexed question of the relations of the -English texts one to another. For brevity we may denote by D the -defective text of the early prints and most MSS., which is specially -distinguished by a long gap near the beginning; by C the Cotton text -(ed. Halliwell, Pollard, Hamelius); by E the Egerton text (ed. Warner). -Nicholson (in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_) and Warner give priority -to D, and consider that C and E are independent revisions and expansions -of D by writers who had recourse to the French original. Their argument -seems to be this: There is precise evidence just before the gap that D -derives direct from a mutilated French text (see _Enc. Brit._), and if -it be granted that a single translation from the French is the base of -C, D, and E, it follows that C and E are based on D. - -A fuller study by Vogels (_Handschriftliche Untersuchungen ueber die -Englische Version Mandeville's_, Crefeld 1891) brings to light a new -fact: the two Bodleian MSS., E Museo 116 and Rawlinson D 99, contain an -English translation (say L) made from a Latin text of the _Travels_. -Vogels also shows that E is based on D, because the characteristic -lacuna of D is filled in E by a passage which is borrowed from L and is -not homogeneous with the rest of E. So far there is no conflict with the -view of Nicholson and Warner. But, after adducing evidence in favour of -the contention that C, D, and E are at base one translation, Vogels -concludes that D derives from C, arguing thus: There is good evidence -that C is a direct translation from the French, and if it be granted -that a single translation from the French is the base of C and D, it -follows that D derives from C. - -In short, the one party maintains that C is an expansion of D, the other -that D is an abridgement of C; and this flat opposition results from -the acceptance of common ground: that C and D represent in the main one -translation and not two translations. - -To return to our interpolation: - -(1) Vogels's first piece of evidence that C, D, and E are at base one -translation is the appearance in all of this interpolation, which is -absent from the MSS. in French. But a passage so remarkable might spread -from one to the other of two independent English texts; or if the -interpolation originated in England in a MS. of the French text since -lost, it might be twice translated. - -(2) Vogels assumes that the interpolation first appeared in type C. But -C is the form in which it would be least likely to originate, because -here the contradiction of statement is sharpest owing to the rendering -at ll. 313-14: _and now I am comen hom_, which is peculiar to C (see the -French). - -(3) If, in order to eliminate individual peculiarities, we take two MSS. -of the D type--say Harley 2386 and Royal 17 C. XXXVIII--we find that -their text of the interpolation is identical with that of E. This is -consistent with Vogels's finding that the body of E derives from D; and -it confirms the evidence of all the defective MSS. that the -interpolation in this particular form was an integral part of the D -type. - -(4) But between the text of the interpolation in D and that in C there -are differences in matter, in sentence order, and in phrasing, which, -while they do not exclude the possibility of interdependence, do not -suggest such a relation. In D the passage is a naked attempt at -authentication; in C it is more artfully though more shamelessly -introduced by the touch of piety conventional in epilogues. And as the -signs of a French original that appear in C are absent from D, it is -unlikely that the text of the interpolation in C derives from D. - -(5) Again, in D and E the addition follows the matter of ll. 307-20. -Unfortunately, though the balance of probability is in favour of the -order in C, the order intended by the interpolator is not certain enough -to be made the basis of arguments. But such a difference in position is -naturally explained from the stage when the interpolation stood in the -margin of a MS., or on an inserted slip, so that it might be taken into -the consecutive text at different points. And an examination of the -possibilities will show that if the interpolation originated in French, -the different placing is more simply explained on the assumption that C -and D are independent translations than on the assumption that one of -them derives from the other. - -To sum up: the central problem for the history of the English texts is -the relation of C and D. Taken by itself the evidence afforded by the -text of the interpolation is against the derivation of C from D; it -neither favours nor excludes the derivation of D from C; it rather -favours independent translation in C and D. - -For the relations of the rest of the text these deductions afford no -more than a clue. Against independent translation of C and D stands the -evidence adduced by Vogels for basic unity. Much of this could be -accounted for by the coincidences that are inevitable in literal prose -translations from a language so near to English in vocabulary and word -order; and a few striking agreements might be due to the use of French -MSS. having abnormal variants in common, or even to reference by a -second translator to the first. The remainder must be weighed against a -considerable body of evidence in the contrary sense, e.g. several places -where the manuscripts of the French text have divergent readings, of -which C translates one, and D another. - -It is unlikely that any simple formula will be found to cover the whole -web of relationships: but any way of reconciling the conclusions of the -authorities should be explored; and the first step is an impartial -sifting of all the evidence, with the object of discovering to what -extent C and D are interdependent, and to what extent independent -translations. The chief obstacle is the difficulty of bringing the -necessary texts together; for an investigator who wished to clear the -ground would have to face the labour of preparing a six-text -_Mandeville_, in the order, French, C, D, E, L, Latin. - -301. _Mappa Mundi_: OFr. and ME. _Mappemounde_, was the generic name for -a chart of the world, and, by extension, for a descriptive geography of -the world. It is not clear what particular _Mappa Mundi_ is referred to -here, or whether such a map was attached to the manuscript copy of the -_Travels_ in which this interpolation first appeared. - -329. _fro whom all godenesse and grace cometh fro_: cp. 24-5 _the -lond of the whiche on of the [th]re Kynges... was kyng offe_; 76-8 -_[th]ei... of whom all science... cometh from_; and 301-2 _be the -whiche the_ Mappa Mundi _was made after_. The pleonasm is explained by -the divergence of French and ME. word order. In French, as in modern -literary English, the preposition is placed at the beginning of the -clause, before the relative (_de qui_, _dont_, &c.). ME. writers -naturally use the relative _that_, and postpone the preposition to -the end of the clause: e.g. _[th]at all godenesse cometh fro_. The -translator compromises between his French original and his native habit -by placing the preposition both at the beginning and at the end. - - -X - -#Dialect#: Northern (Scots): the MS. copy was made in 1487 more than a -century after the poem was composed. - -#Vocabulary#: Note _till_ 'to' 4, 77 (in rime); _syne_ 'afterwards' 35, -112; the forms _sic_ 'such' 135, _begouth_ 94, and the short verbal -forms _ma_ (in rime) 'make' 14, _tane_ (in rime) 'taken' 19. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _has_ 76. - 3 pl. _has_ 52, _mais_ 72; but _thai haf_ 16. - pres. p. _rynand_ 17, _vyndland_ 129 (in rime). - strong pp. _gane_ 84, _drawyn_ 124. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _scho_ (in rime) 80; - pl. _thai_ 1: _thair_ 28; _thame_ 3. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ remains: _brynstane_ (in rime) 20, _sare_ 51. - -OE. _[=o]_ (close _[=o.]_) appears as _u_ (_[=ue]_?): _gude_ 36, _fut_ -57, _tume_ 143. - -Unaccented _-(e)d_ of weak pa. t. and pp. becomes _-(i)t_: _passit_ 2, -&c. - -#Spelling#: _i_ (_y_) following a vowel indicates length: _weill_ 10, -_noyne_ 'noon' 67. - -OE. _hw-_ appears as _quh-_ (indicating strong aspiration): _quhelis_ -'wheels' 17, _quhar_ 18. - -_v_ and _w_ are interchanged: _vithall_ 9, _behevin_ 163, _in swndir_ -106. - - * * * * * - -Book XVII of _The Bruce_ begins with the capture of Berwick by the Scots -in March 1318. Walter Stewart undertakes to hold the city, and is aided -in preparing defences by a Flemish engineer, John Crab. Next year King -Edward II determines to recapture the stronghold by an attack from both -land and sea. He entrenches his forces and makes the first assault -unsuccessfully early in September 1319. In this battle the Scotch -garrison capture a clever engineer (see note to l. 71 below). King -Robert Bruce meanwhile orders a raid into England as a diversion, and on -20 September 1319, an English army, led by the Archbishop of York, is -disastrously defeated by the invaders at Mitton. Our extract gives the -story of the second assault on Berwick, which was also fruitless. The -fortress fell into English hands again as a result of the battle of -Halidon Hill in 1333: see XIV _a_ 35-6. - - * * * * * - -5-6. 'They made a sow of great joists, which had a stout covering over -it.' The _sow_ was essentially a roof on wheels. The occupants, under -shelter of the roof, pushed up to the walls of the besieged place and -tried to undermine them. For an illustration see Cutts, _Scenes and -Characters of the Middle Ages_, Pt. VI, chap. vi, where other military -engines of the time are described. - -15. _Crabbis consale_: John Crab was the engineer of the garrison. He is -no doubt the same as the John Crab who in 1332 brought Flemish ships -round from Berwick to attack the English vessels at Dundee. There was an -important Flemish colony at Berwick from early times. - -36. _Schir Valter, the gude Steward_: Walter Steward, whose surname -denotes his office as Steward of Scotland, was the father of Robert II, -the first king of the Stuart line. - -42. _Rude-evyn_: September 13, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of -the Cross. - -49. _thame... of the toune_, 'the defenders of the town'. - -51. _or than_, 'or else'. - -71 ff. _The engynour_: an English engineer captured by the garrison in -the previous assault and forced into their service. - -80. _scho_, 'she', some engine of war not previously referred to: -apparently a mechanical sling. - -123 ff. The boats were filled with men and hoisted up the masts, so as -to overtop the walls and allow the besiegers to shoot at the garrison -from above. The same engine that proved fatal to the sow was used to -break up the boats. - -146. _thar wardane with him had_, 'their warden <who> had with him'; cp. -note to XIII _a_ 36. - -158-61. A confused construction. The writer has in mind: (1) 'Of all the -men he had there remained with him only one whom he had not left to -relieve', &c.; and (2) 'There were no members of his company (except -one) whom he had not left', &c. - - -XI - -#Dialect#: South Midland. - -#Inflexions#: _u_ for inflexional _e_, as in _knowun_ _a_ 2, _seun_ _a_ -51, _a[gh]enus_ _a_ 29, _mannus_ _b_ 114 is found chiefly in West -Midland. - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _madist_ _b_ 214. - 3 sg. _groundi[th]_ _a_ 4. - 3 pl. _seyn_ _a_ 1, _techen_ _b_ 5. - pres. p. _brennynge_ _b_ 67. - strong pp. _knowun_ _a_ 2, _[gh]ouen_ _b_ 264, _take_ _b_ - 271. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _[th]ey_, _[th]ei_, _a_ 3, _b_ 9; - possessive usually _[th]er_ in _a_ 1, 23, &c.; but _her_ _a_ - 52, and regularly _here_ in _b_ 25, 36, &c.; - objective _hem_ _a_ 4, _b_ 3. - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ appears regularly as _o_, _oo_: _more_ _a_ 7, -_Hooly_ _a_ 10, _toolde_ _a_ 65. - -OE. _y_ appears as _y_, _i_: _synne_ _a_ 61, _stiren_ _b_ 93. - -The form _[th]ou[th]_ (= _[th]ou[gh]_) _b_ 190 probably indicates -sound-substitution; and in _ynow[th][gh]_ (= _ynou[gh]_) _b_ 149 there -is wavering between the two forms. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 12. _Wit Sunday_: the first element is OE. _hw[=i]t_ 'white', not -'wit'. - -_a_ 25 ff. Translations of the Bible were common in France at this -time. No less than six fine copies survive from the library of John, -Duke of Berry (d. 1416). About the middle of the fourteenth century King -John of France ordered a new translation and commentary to be made at -the expense of the Jews, but it was never finished, although several -scholars were still engaged on it at the end of the century. The early -French verse renderings, which incorporate a good deal of mediaeval -legend, are described by J. Bonnard, _Les Traductions de la Bible en -Vers Francais au Moyen Age_ (Paris 1884); the prose by S. Berger, _La -Bible Francaise au Moyen Age_ (Paris 1884). Of the surviving manuscripts -mentioned in these excellent monographs several were written in England. - -_a_ 28 ff. In earlier times, when most of those who could read at all -were schooled in Latin, the need for English translations of the -Scriptures was not so pressing, and the partial translations that were -made were intended rather for the use of the clergy and their noble -patrons than for the people. Bede (d. 735) completed a rendering of St. -John's Gospel on his death-bed. Old English versions of the Gospels and -the Psalms still survive. Abbot Aelfric (about A.D. 1000) translated the -first five books of the Old Testament; and more than one Middle English -version of the Psalms is known. Wiclif was perhaps unaware of the Old -English precedents because French renderings became fashionable in -England from the twelfth century onwards, and he would probably think of -the Psalter more as a separate service book than as an integral part of -the Bible. But the prologue to the Wiclifite version attributed to John -Purvey quotes the example of Bede and King Alfred; and the Dialogue on -Translation which, in Caxton's print, serves as preface to Trevisa's -translation of Higden, emphasizes the Old English precedents. Both may -be read in _Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse_, ed. A. W. Pollard, -London 1903, pp. 193 ff. The attitude of the mediaeval Church towards -vernacular translations of the Bible has been studied very fully by Miss -M. Deanesly, _The Lollard Bible and other Medieval Biblical Versions_, -Cambridge 1920. - -_a_ 34. _[th]e pley of [Gh]ork._ The York Paternoster Play has not -survived, but there are records from 1389 of a Guild of the Lord's -Prayer at York, whose main object was the production of the play. It -seems to have been an early example of the moral play, holding up 'the -vices to scorn and the virtues to praise', and it probably consisted of -several scenes, each exhibiting one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The last -recorded representation was in 1572. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval -Stage_, vol. ii, p. 154. The association of the friars with the -production of religious plays is confirmed by other writings of the -time. They were quick to realize the value of dramatic representation -as a means of gaining favour with the people, and their encouragement -must be reckoned an important factor in the development of the Miracle -Play. - -_a_ 51. _wher_, 'whether'; cp. _b_ 207. In ll. 197, 266, 274, it -introduces a direct question; see note to V 118. - -_b_ 20. _Gregory_, Gregory the Great. See his work _In Primum Regum -Expositiones_, Bk. iii, c. 28: _praedicatores autem Sanctae Ecclesiae... -prophetae ministerio utuntur_ (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. lxxix, col. -158). - -_b_ 44. <_God_>. Such omissions from the Corpus MS. are supplied -throughout from the copy in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. C. III. 12. - -_b_ 79-80. Cp. Luke xxi. 36 and 1 Thessalonians v. 17. - -_b_ 89-91. Proverbs xxviii. 9. - -_b_ 126. _as Ambrose_: In 386 St. Ambrose, besieged in the Portian -Church at Milan by Arian sectaries, kept his followers occupied and in -good heart by introducing the Eastern practice of singing hymns and -antiphons. See St. Augustine's _Confessions_ Bk. ix, c. 7. - -_b_ 131-2. _placebo._ Vespers of the Dead, named from the first word of -the antiphon, _Placebo Domino in regione vivorum_ (Psalm cxiv. 9). - -_dirige._ Matins of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, -_Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam_ (Psalm v. 9). -Hence our word _dirge_. - -_comendacion_: an office in which the souls of the dead are commended to -God. - -_matynes of Oure Lady_: one of the services in honour of the Virgin -introduced in the Middle Ages. - -The whole question of these accretions to the Church services is dealt -with by our English master in liturgical study, the late Mr. Edmund -Bishop, in his essay introductory to the Early English Text Society's -edition of the _Prymer_, since reprinted with additional notes in his -_Liturgica Historica_ (Oxford 1918), pp. 211 ff. - -_b_ 137 f. _deschaunt, countre note, and orgon, and smale brekynge._ The -elaboration of the Church services in mediaeval times was accompanied by -a corresponding enrichment of the music. To the plain chant additional -parts were joined, sung in harmony either above or below the plain -chant. _Descant_ usually means the addition of a part above, _organ_ and -_countre-note_ (= counterpoint) the addition of parts either above or -below. All these could be composed note for note with the plain chant. -But _smale brekyng_ represents a further complication, whereby the -single note in the plain chant was represented by two or more notes in -the accompanying parts. - -_b_ 140 f. The abuse is referred to in _Piers Plowman_: - - _Persones and parsheprests pleynede to the bisshop - That hure parshens ben poore sitthe the pestelence tyme, - To haue licence and leue in Londone to dwelle, - And synge ther for symonye, for seluer ys swete._ - - _Prologue_ ll. 81-4. - -and by Chaucer in his description of the Parson: - - _He sette nat his benefice to hyre, - And leet his sheepe encombred in the myre, - And ran to Londoun, unto Seint Poules, - To seken hym a chaunterie for soules._ - - _Prologue_ ll. 507-10. - -_b_ 183. _Ordynalle of Salisbury._ An 'ordinal' is a book showing the -order of church services and ceremonies. In mediaeval times there was -considerable divergence in the usage of different churches. But after -the Conquest, and more especially in the thirteenth century, there was -developed at Salisbury Cathedral an elaborate order and form of service -which spread to most of the English churches of any pretensions. This -was called 'Sarum' or 'Salisbury' use. - -_b_ 209. _[th]ei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille_, &c. For this -construction, cp. Chaucer, _Prologue_ 502 _No wonder is a lewed man to -ruste_; Shakespeare, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, V. iv. 108 f. _It is the -lesser blot... Women to change their shapes_, &c. The same construction, -where we now insert _for_, is seen in _Gawayne_ (v. 352-3) _hit were a -wynne huge... a leude, [th]at cou[th]e, to luf hom wel_, &c. - -_b_ 221-3. 'They say that a priest may be excused from saying mass, to -be the substance of which God gave Himself, provided that he hears one.' - -_b_ 228 f. _newe costy portos, antifeners, graielis, and alle o[th]ere -bokis._ _Portos_, French _porte hors_, represents Latin _portiforium_, a -breviary convenient for 'carrying out of doors'. The _antifener_ -contained the antiphons, responses, &c., necessary for the musical -service of the canonical hours. The _graiel_, or _gradual_, was so -called from the gradual responses, sung at the steps of the altar, or -while the deacon ascended the steps of the pulpit: but the book actually -contained all the choral service of the Mass. - -_b_ 230. _makynge of biblis._ Wiclif in his _Office of Curates_ (ed. -Matthew, p. 145) complains of the scarcity of bibles. _But fewe curatis -han [th]e Bible and exposiciouns of [th]e Gospelis, and litel studien -on hem, and lesse donne after hem. But wolde God [th]at euery parische -chirche in [th]is lond hadde a good Bible!_ &c. - -_b_ 234. At this time books, especially illuminated books, were -very dear. The Missal of Westminster Abbey, which is now shown in -the Chapter-house, was written in 1382-4 at a cost of _l._34 14_s._ -7_d._--a great sum in those days, for the scribe, Thomas Preston, who -took two years to write it, received only _l._4 for his labour, 20_s._ -for his livery, and board at the rate of 21_s._ 8_d._ the half year. -The inscription in British Museum MS. Royal 19 D. II, a magnificently -illustrated Bible with commentary, shows that it was captured at -Poitiers with King John of France, and bought by the Earl of Salisbury -for 100 marks (about _l._66). Edward III gave the same sum to a nun of -Amesbury for a rich book of romance. In France John, Duke of Berry, -paid as much as _l._200 for a breviary, and the appraisement of his -library in 1416 shows a surprisingly high level of values (L. Delisle, -_Le Cabinet des Manuscrits_, vol. iii, pp. 171 ff.). These were -luxurious books. The books from the chapel of Archbishop Bowet of York -(d. 1423) sold more reasonably: _l._8 for a great antiphonar and _l._6 -13_s._ 4_d._ _pro uno libro vocato 'Bibill'_, were the highest prices -paid; and from his library there were some fascinating bargains: 4_s._ -for a small copy of Gregory's _Cura Pastoralis_; 5_s._ _pro uno libro -vocato 'Johannes Andrewe', vetere et debili_, which would probably turn -out to be a dry work on the Decretals; and 3_s._ 4_d._ for a nameless -codex, _vetere et caduco_, 'old and falling to pieces'. (_Historians of -the Church of York_, ed. J. Raine, vol. iii, pp. 311, 315.) - -But the failing activity of the monastic scriptoria, and the formation -of libraries by the friars and by rich private collectors, made study -difficult for students at the universities, where at this time a -shilling per week--a third of the price of Bowet's most dilapidated -volume--was reckoned enough to cover the expenses of a scholar living -plainly. The college libraries were scantily supplied: books were lent -only in exchange for a valuable pledge; or even pawned, in hard times, -by the colleges themselves. - -These conditions were not greatly improved until printing gave an easy -means of duplication, and for a time caused the humble manuscripts in -which most of the mediaeval vernacular literature was preserved to be -treated as waste paper. As late as the eighteenth century Martene found -the superb illuminated manuscripts left by John, Duke of Berry, to the -Sainte Chapelle at Bourges serving as roosting places to their keeper's -hens (_Voyage Litt'eraire_, Paris 1717, pt. i, p. 29). - -_b_ 261-3. The reference is to Acts vi. 2, 'It is not reason that we -should leave the word of God, and serve tables.' - -_b_ 266. _wisere [th]an._ After these words the Corpus MS. (p. 170, -col. i, l. 34 mid.), without any warning, goes on to the closing -passage of an entirely unrelated 'Petition to the King and Parliament'. -By way of compensation, the end of our sermon appears at the close of -the Petition. Clearly the scribe (or some one of his predecessors) -copied without any regard for the sense from a MS. of which the leaves -had become disarranged. - -_b_ 285. Cp. Acts iii. 6. - - -XII - -#Dialect#: London (SE. Midland) with Kentish features. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _loveth_ _a_ 5; contracted _stant_ _a_ 74. - 3 pl. _schewen_ _a_ 136, _halsen_ _a_ 148, _be_ - (in rime) _a_ 92. - pres. p. _growende_ _a_ 80. - strong pp. _schape_ (in rime) _a_ 130, beside _schapen_ _a_ - 169. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _sche_ _a_ 32; - pl. _thei_ _a_ 148; _here_ _a_ 144; _hem_ _a_ 112. - -Unaccented final _-e_ is treated as in Chaucer, having its full value in -the verse when it represents an inflexion or final vowel in Old English -or Old French, e.g. - - _And for he schold[.e] slep[.e] soft[.e]_ _a_ 93 - _An ap[.e], which at thilk[.e] throw[.e]_ _b_ 5 - -#Sounds#: _e_ appears as in Kentish for OE. _y_: _hell_ 'hill' _a_ 65, -79, 86; _keste_ 'kissed' _a_ 178; note the rimes _unschette_: _lette_ -_a_ 71-2; _pet_ 'pit': _let_ _b_ 9-10; and less decisive _pet_: _knet_ -(OE. _knyttan_) _b_ 29-30, 53-4; _dreie_: _beie_ _b_ 23-4. - -#Spelling#: _ie_ represents close _[=e.]_: _flietende_ _a_ 157, _hier_ -_b_ 34; _diemed_ _b_ 216. - -#Syntax#: The elaborate machinery of sentence connexion deserves special -attention; and many turns of phrase are explained by Gower's fluency in -French. - - * * * * * - -_a_ 1. Gower follows Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, Bk. xi. Chaucer tells the -story of Ceix and Alcyone in his _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 62 -ff. This is presumably the early work to which the Man of Law refers: - - _I kan right now no thrifty tale seyn - But Chaucer, thogh he kan but lewedly - On metres and on rymyng craftily, - Hath seyd hem, in swich Englissh as he kan, - Of olde tyme, as knoweth many a man; - And if he have noght seyd hem, leve brother, - In o book, he hath seyd hem in another; - For he hath toold of loveris up and doun - Mo than Ovide made of mencioun - In his ~Epistelles~, that been ful olde. - What sholde I tellen hem, syn they ben tolde? - In youthe he made of Ceys and Alcione_, &c. - - (Link to _Man of Law's Tale_, ll. 46 ff.) - -Gower's rendering is the more poetical. - -_a_ 2. _Trocinie._ Ovid's _Trachinia tellus_, so called from the city of -Trachis, north-west of Thermopylae. - -_a_ 23. _As he which wolde go_: otiose, or at best meaning no more than -'desiring to go'. Cp. _b_ 25 _As he which hadde_ = 'having' simply; and -similarly _b_ 37, 203. It is an imitation of a contemporary French idiom -_comme celui qui_. - -_a_ 26. _and_: the displacement of the conjunction from its natural -position at the beginning of the clause is characteristic of Gower's -verse. Cp. l. 152 _Upon the morwe and up sche sterte_ = 'and in the -morning she got up', and _a_ 45, 49, _b_ 121, 124, 135, 160, 182. See -notes to ll. 32, 78 f. - -_a_ 32. Editors put a comma after _wepende_, and no stop after -_seileth_: but it is Alceoun who weeps. The displacement of _and_ is -exemplified in the notes to l. 26 and ll. 78 f. - -_a_ 37. 'One had not to look for grief'; a regular formula of -understatement, meaning 'her grief was great'. - -_a_ 53. _Hire reyny cope_, &c.: the rainbow, which was the sign or -manifestation of Iris. - -_a_ 59 ff. - - _Prope Cimmerios longo spelunca recessu, - Mons cavus, ignavi domus et penetralia Somni._ - - (_Metamorphoses_ xi. 592-3.) - -Much of the poetry of Gower's description is due to Ovid. - -_a_ 78 f. Editors put no stop after _may_ and a comma after _hell_. -Hence _The New English Dictionary_ quotes this passage as an isolated -instance of _noise_, transitive, meaning 'disturb with noise'. But -_noise_ is intransitive, _hell_ is governed by _aboute round_, and the -position of _bot_ is abnormal as in l. 105. Cp. notes to ll. 26, 32, and -render 'But all round about the hill'. - -_a_ 105. For the word order see notes to ll. 26, 32, 78 f. - -_a_ 117. _The lif_, 'the man', cp. IV _a_ 43. - -_a_ 118. _Ithecus_: for Icelos. According to Ovid 'Icelos' was the name -by which he was known to the gods, but men called him 'Phobetor'. - -_a_ 123. _Panthasas_: Ovid's _Phantasos_. - -_a_ 152. See note to l. 26. - -_a_ 197. The halcyon, usually identified with the kingfisher, was -supposed to build a floating nest on the sea in midwinter, and to have -power to calm the winds and waves at that season, bringing 'halcyon -weather'. - -_b_ 2. _I finde._ Matthew Paris in his _Chronica Maiora_ (ed. Luard, -Rolls Series, vol. ii, pp. 413 ff.) gives a similar story, which, he -says, King Richard the First often told to rebuke ingratitude. In this -version, Vitalis of Venice falls into a pit dug as a trap for wild -beasts. The rescued animals are a lion and a serpent; the rescuer is -nameless, and the gem given to him by the serpent has not the magic -virtue of returning whenever sold. Nearer to Gower is the story told in -Nigel Wireker's _Speculum Stultorum_, a late twelfth-century satire in -Latin verse, which, from the name of its principal character Burnellus -the Ass, who is ambitious to have a longer tail, is sometimes called -_Burnellus_; cp. Chaucer, _Nun's Priest's Tale_, l. 492: - - _I have wel rad in Daun Burnel the Asse - Among his vers_, &c. - -The poem is printed in T. Wright's _Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and -Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century_ (Rolls Series, 1872), vol. i. At -the end the Ass returns disappointed to his master Bernardus (= Bardus). -Bernardus, when gathering wood, hears Dryanus (= Adrian), a rich citizen -of Cremona, call from a pit for help. The rescued animals are a lion, a -serpent, and an ape. The gem given by the serpent in token of gratitude -always returns to Bernardus, who, with more honesty than Gower's poor -man shows, takes it back to the buyer. The fame of the marvellous stone -reaches the king; his inquiries bring to light the whole story; and -Dryanus is ordered to give half his goods to Bernardus. - -Gower probably worked on a later modification of Nigel's story. - -_b_ 86. _blessed_, 'crossed (himself)'. - -_b_ 89. _Betwen him and his asse_, i.e. pulling together with the ass. -The ass is, of course, the distinguished Burnellus. - -_b_ 116. _his ape_: for _this ape_ (?). - -_b_ 191. _Justinian_, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (d. 565), was -best known for his codification of the Roman Law, and so is named here -as the type of a lawgiver. - - -XIII - -#Dialect#: South-Western, with some Midland forms. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _blowe[th]_ _a_ 7, _caste[th]_ _a_ 8. - 3 pl. _bu[th]_ _a_ 10, _habbe[th]_ _a_ 15. - pres. p. _slyttyng_, _frotyng_ _b_ 59. - strong pp. _yknowe_ _a_ 12, _ysode_ _a_ 30. - NOUN: Note the plural in _-(e)n_, _tren_ 'trees' _a_ 44, 51, 53; - _chyldern_ _b_ 16 is a double plural. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. _hy_ _a_ 17; _here_ _a_ 61; _ham_ _a_ 23. - Note the unstressed 3 sg. and 3 pl. form _a_, e.g. at _a_ - 13, 27. - -#Sounds#: There is no instance of _v_ for initial _f_, which is -evidenced in the spelling of early South-Western writers like Robert of -Gloucester (about 1300), or of _z_ for initial _s_, which is less -commonly shown in spelling. _u_ for OE. _y_ occurs in _hulles_ 'hills' -_a_ 18 (beside _bysynes_ _b_ 24, where Modern English has _u_ in -spelling but _i_ in pronunciation; and _lift_ (OE. _lyft_) _b_ 39, where -Modern English has the South-Eastern form _left_). - - * * * * * - -_a_ 2-3. _Mayster... Minerua... hys_: Trevisa appears to have understood -'Minerva' as the name of a god. - -_a_ 6-49. Higden took all this passage from Book i of the -twelfth-century Annals of Alfred of Beverley (ed. Hearne, pp. 6-7). The -_Polychronicon_ is a patchwork of quotations from earlier writers. - -_a_ 7. _Pectoun._ Higden has _ad Peccum_, and Alfred of Beverley _in -monte qui vocatur Pec_, i.e. The Peak of Derbyshire. _cc_ and _ct_ are -not distinguishable in some hands of the time, and Trevisa has made -_Peccum_ into _Pectoun_. - -_a_ 14. _Cherdhol._ Hearne's text of Alfred of Beverley has _Cherole_; -Henry of Huntingdon (about 1150), who gives the same four marvels in his -_Historia Anglorum_, has _Chederhole_; and on this evidence the place -has been identified with Cheddar in Somerset, where there are famous -caves. - -_a_ 22. _an egle hys nest_: cp. _b_ 23 _a child hys brouch_. This -construction has two origins: (1) It is a periphrasis for the genitive, -especially in the case of masculine and neuter proper names which had no -regular genitive in English; (2) It is an error arising from false -manuscript division of the genitive suffix _-es_, _-is_, from its stem. - -_a_ 36. <_[th]at_> here and in l. 52 is inserted on the evidence of the -other MSS. Syntactically its omission is defensible, for the suppressed -relative is a common source of difficulty in Middle English; see the -notes to V 4-6, 278-9; X 146; XIV _c_ 54; XVII 66. - -_a_ 50. _Wynburney._ Wimborne in Dorset. Here St. Cuthburga founded a -nunnery, which is mentioned in one of Aldhelm's letters as early as A.D. -705. The information that it is 'not far from Bath', which is hardly -accurate, was added by Higden to the account of the marvel he found in -the _Topographia Hibernica_ of Giraldus Cambrensis (vol. v, p. 86 of the -Rolls Series edition of his works). - -_a_ 54-64. Higden took this passage from Giraldus, _Itinerarium -Cambriae_, Bk. ii, c. 11 (vol. vi, p. 139 of the Rolls edition). - -_a_ 60-1. _be at here aboue_, 'be over them', 'have the upper hand'. - -_a_ 63. _Pimbilmere_: the English name for Lake Bala. - -_b_ 6-7. _[th]e Flemmynges._ The first settlement of Flemings in -Pembrokeshire took place early in the twelfth century, and in 1154, -Henry II, embarrassed alike by the turbulence of the Welsh, and of the -new host of Flemish mercenaries who had come in under Stephen, -encouraged a further settlement. They formed a colony still -distinguishable from the surrounding Welsh population. - -_b_ 11-12. The threefold division of the English according to their -Continental origin dates back to Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_. But -the areas settled by Bede's three tribes do not correspond to Southern, -Northern, and Midland. The Jutes occupied Kent, whence the South-Eastern -dialect; the Saxons occupied the rest of the South, whence the -South-Western dialect; and the Angles settled in the Midlands and the -North; so that the Midland and Northern dialects are both Anglian, and -derive from the same Continental tribe or tribal group. - -_b_ 26. _[th]e furste moreyn_: the Black Death of 1349. There were fresh -outbreaks of plague in 1362, 1369, 1376. - -_b_ 26-42. The bracketed passage is an addition by Trevisa himself, and -is of primary importance for the history of English and of English -education. See the valuable article by W. H. Stevenson in _An English -Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnivall_, pp. 421 ff. - -_b_ 27-8. _Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere._ A 'master of grammar' -was a licensed teacher of grammar. Mr. Stevenson points out that in -1347-8 John of Cornwall received payment from Merton College, Oxford, -for teaching the boys of the founder's kin. His countryman Trevisa -probably had personal knowledge of his methods of teaching. - -_b_ 39-40. _and a scholle passe [th]e se_, 'if they should cross the -sea'. - -_b_ 47-8. The bracketed words are introduced by Trevisa. - -_b_ 50 f. _and ys gret wondur_: _and_ is superfluous and should perhaps -be deleted. - -_b_ 58-65. Though still often quoted as a fourteenth-century witness to -the pronunciation of Northern English (e.g. by K. Luick, _Historische -Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, 1914, pp. 40 f.), this passage, as -Higden acknowledges, comes from the Prologue to Book iii of William of -Malmesbury's _Gesta Pontificum_, completed in the year 1125: see the -Rolls Series edition, p. 209. - - -XIV - -_a_ 2. _Bannokburn._ Minot's subject is not so much the defeat of the -English at Bannockburn in 1314, as the English victory at Halidon Hill -on 19 July 1333, which he regards as a vengeance for Bannockburn. - -_a_ 7. _Saint Iohnes toune_: Perth, so called from its church of St. -John the Baptist. It was occupied by the English in 1332 after the -defeat of the Scots at Dupplin Moor. - -_a_ 13. _Striflin_, 'Stirling'. - -_a_ 15. Hall suggests that this refers to Scotch raids on the North of -England undertaken to distract Edward III from the siege of Berwick. - -_a_ 19 f. _Rughfute riueling... Berebag_: nicknames for the Scots, the -first because they wore brogues (_riuelings_) of rough hide; the second -because, to allow of greater mobility, each man carried his own bag of -provisions instead of relying on a baggage train. - -_a_ 22. _Brig_ = _Burghes_ l. 25, 'Bruges'. At this time Scots, English, -and French had all close connexions with the Netherlands. Observe that -John Crab, who aided the Scots in the defence of Berwick (note to X 15), -was a Fleming. - -_a_ 35. _at Berwik._ Berwick fell as a result of the battle of Halidon -Hill which the Scots fought with the object of raising the siege. For an -earlier siege of Berwick, in 1319, see No. X. - -_a_ 36. _get_, 'watch', 'be on the look out' (ON. _g['oe]ta_). - -_b_ 5-6. Calais was at this time a convenient base for piracy in the -Channel. - -_b_ 19. _A bare_: Edward III, whom Minot often refers to as -'the boar'. - -_b_ 24-6. In preparation for the long siege Edward III had built a -regular camp beside Calais. - -_b_ 32. _Sir Philip._ Philip de Valois, Philip VI of France (1293-1350). -His son, John Duke of Normandy (1319-64), who succeeded him in 1350, is -of good memory as a lover of fine books. Two are mentioned in the notes -to XI _a_ 25 ff. and XI _b_ 234. A splendid copy of the _Miracles de -Notre Dame_, preserved until recently in the Seminary Library at -Soissons, seems also to have been captured with his baggage at Poitiers, -for it was bought back from the English by King Charles V. Another -famous book produced by his command was the translation of Livy by -Bersuire, with magnificent illuminations. The spirit of the collector -was not damped by his captivity in England from 1356-60, for his account -books show that he continued to employ binders and miniaturists, to -encourage original composition, and to buy books, especially books of -romance. See _Notes et Documents relatifs a Jean, Roi de France_, &c., -ed. by Henry of Orleans, Duc d'Aumale (Philobiblon Soc., London 1855-6). - -_b_ 40. _[th]e Cardinales._ Pope Clement VI had sent cardinals Annibale -Ceccano bishop of Frascati, and Etienne Aubert, who became Pope Innocent -VI in 1352, to arrange a peace between France and England. But the -English were suspicious of the Papal court at Avignon, and accused the -cardinals of favouring the French cause. - -_b_ 82. _Sir Iohn de Viene._ Jean de Vienne, seigneur de Pagny (d. -1351), a famous captain in the French wars. - -_c_ 5 f. 'They (friends) are so slippery when put to the test, so -eager to have <for themselves>, and so unwilling to give up <to -others>.' - -_c_ 14. _And_, 'if'. - -_c_ 47. King John of France was captured at Poitiers in 1356 and held in -England as a prisoner until the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. See note to -XIV _b_ 32. - -_c_ 54. Note the omission of the relative: 'which recked not a cleat for -all France', and cp. ll. 43-4, XIII _a_ 36 (note). - -_c_ 59. _his helm_, 'its helm'--the bar by which the rudder was moved. - -_c_ 61. 'The King sailed and rowed aright'; on _him_, see note to XV _g_ -24. - -_c_ 83. _An ympe_: Richard II. - -_c_ 90. _sarri_: not in the dictionaries in this sense, is probably -OFr. _serr'e_, _sarr'e_, in the developed meaning 'active', 'vigorous', -seen in the adv. _sarr'eement_. - -_c_ 103-4. 'If we are disloyal and inactive, so that what is rarely seen -is straightway forgotten.' - -_c_ 108. 'Who was the fountain of all courage.' - -_c_ 111. _los_, 'fame'. - -_d_ 1. SCHEP: here means 'shepherd', 'pastor', a name taken by Ball as -appropriate to a priest. - -_Seynte Marie prest of [Gh]ork_, 'priest of St. Mary's of York' (cp. -note to I 44), a great Benedictine abbey founded soon after the -Conquest; see Dugdale, _Monasticon Anglicanum_, vol. iii, pp. 529 ff. -_Marie_ does not take the _s_ inflexion, because it has already the -Latin genitive form, cp. _Mary-[gh]et_ X 163. - -_d_ 2. _Iohan Nameles_, 'John Nobody', for _nameless_ has the sense -'obscure', 'lowly'. - -_d_ 6. _Hobbe [th]e Robbere._ _Hob_ is a familiar form for _Robert_, -and it has been suggested that _Hobbe [th]e Robbere_ may refer to -Robert Hales, the Treasurer of England, who was executed by the rebels -in 1381. But _Robert_ was a conventional name for a robber, presumably -owing to the similarity of sound. Already in the twelfth century, -Mainerus, the Canterbury scribe of the magnificent Bible now in the -library of Sainte-Genevieve at Paris, plays upon it in an etymological -account of his family: _Secundus_ (sc. _frater meus_) _dicebatur -Robertus, quia a re nomen habuit: spoliator enim diu fuit et praedo_. -From the fourteenth century lawless men were called _Roberts men_. In -_Piers Plowman_ Passus v (A- and B-texts) there is a confession of -'Robert the Robber'; and the literary fame of the prince of highwaymen, -'Robin Hood', belongs to this period. - -_d_ 14. _do wel and bettre_: note this further evidence of the -popularity of _Piers Plowman_, with its visions of _Dowel_, _Dobet_, and -_Dobest_. - - -XV - -_a_ 8. _[Th]e clot him clingge!_ 'May the clay cling to him!' i.e. -'Would he were dead!' - -_a_ 12. _[Th]ider_: MS. _Yider_, and conversely MS. _[Th]iif_ 23 for -_Yiif_ 'if'. _y_ and _[th]_ are endlessly confused by scribes. - -_b_ 1. _Lenten ys come... to toune._ In the Old English _Metrical -Calendar_ phrases like _cyme[dh]... us to tune Martius re[dh]e_, -'fierce March comes to town', are regular. The meaning is 'to the -dwellings of men', 'to the world'. - -_b_ 3. _[Th]at_: construe with _Lenten_. - -_b_ 7. _him [th]rete[th]_, 'chides', 'wrangles' (ON. _[th]r['ae]ta_?). -See the thirteenth-century debate of _The Thrush and the Nightingale_ -(_Reliquiae Antiquae_, vol. i, pp. 241 ff.), of which the opening lines -are closely related to this poem. - -_b_ 11. _Ant wlyte[th] on huere wynter wele_, 'and look at their winter -happiness (?)'. This conflicts with _huere wynter wo_ above; and the -explanation that the birds have forgotten the hardships of the past -winter and recall only its pleasures is forced. Holthausen's emendation -_wynne wele_ 'wealth of joys' (cp. l. 35) is good. - -_b_ 20. _Miles_: a crux. It has been suggested without much probability -that _miles_ means 'animals' from Welsh _m[=i]l_. - -_b_ 28. _Deawes donke[th] [th]e dounes._ Of the suggestions made to -improve the halting metre the best is _[th]ise_ for _[th]e_. The poet -is thinking of the sparkle of dew in the morning sun; cp. _Sir Gawayne_ -519 f.: - - _When [th]e donkande dewe drope[gh] of [th]e leue[gh] - To bide a blysful blusch of [th]e bry[gh]t sunne._ - -_b_ 29-30. 'Animals with their cries (_rounes_) unmeaning to us -(_derne_), whereby they converse (_domes for te deme_).' For the -weakened sense of _deme_ (_domes_) see note to V 115. - -_c_ 30. _Wery so water in wore_: the restless lover (l. 21) has tossed -all night like the troubled waters in a _wore_; cp. _I wake so water in -wore_ in another lyric of the same MS. It has been suggested that _wore_ -= Old High German _wuor_ 'weir'; but the rimes in both passages show -that the stem is OE. _w[=a]r_, not _w[=o]r_. - -_d_ 2. _the holy londe_: because Ireland was _par excellence_ 'the Land -of the Saints'. - -_f._ I am obliged to Professor Carleton Brown for the information that -this poem is found, with two additional stanzas, in MS. 18. 7. 21 of the -Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; and that the full text will be published -shortly in his _Religious Lyrics of the Fourteenth Century_. - -_f_ 4. _bere_ (OE. _b[=y]r_) riming with _fere_ (OE. _(ge)f[=e]ra_) -indicates a South-Eastern composition. - -_g_ 1. _Scere [Th]orsday_: Maundy Thursday, the eve of Good Friday. - -_g_ 1-2. _aros_: _Iudas_: the alternative form _aras_ may have given the -rime in the original, but it is not justifiable to accept this as -certain and so to assume an early date of composition for the poem. -Morsbach, _ME. Grammatik_, [P] 135, n. 4, quotes a number of parallel -rimes with proper names, and the best explanation is that _o_ in _aros_ -still represented a sound intermediate between _[=a]_ and _[=o,]_, and -so served as an approximate rime to _[)=a]_ in proper names. - -_g_ 6. _cunesmen_: as _c_ and _t_ are hard to distinguish in some ME. -hands, and are often confused by copyists, this reading is more likely -than _tunesmen_ of the editors--Wright-Halliwell, Maetzner, Child, Cook -(and _N. E. D._ s.v. _townsman_). For (1) _tunesman_ is a technical, not -a poetical word. (2) In a poem remarkable for its terseness, _tunesmen_ -reduces a whole line to inanity, unless the poet thinks of Judas quite -precisely as a citizen of a town other than Jerusalem; and in the -absence of any Biblical tradition it is unlikely that a writer who calls -Pilate _[th]e riche Ieu_ would gratuitously assume that Judas was not a -citizen of Jerusalem, where his sister lived. (3) Christ's words are -throughout vaguely prophetic, and as Judas forthwith _imette wid is -soster_--one of his kin--_cunesmen_ gives a pregnant sense. [I find the -MS. actually has _cunesmen_, but leave the note, lest _tunesmen_ might -appear to be better established.] - -_g_ 8. The repetition of ll. 8, 25, 30 is indicated in the MS. by 'ii' -at the end of each of these lines, which is the regular sign for _bis_. - -_g_ 16. 'He tore his hair until it was bathed in blood.' The MS. has -_top_, not _cop_. - -_g_ 24. _In him com ur Lord gon._ In the MS. _c'ist_ = _Crist_ has been -erased after _Lord_. Note (1) the reflexive use of _him_, which is very -common in OE. and ME. with verbs of motion, e.g. _Up him stod_ 27, 29; -_[Th]au Pilatus him com_ 30; _Als I me rode_ XV _a_ 4; _The Kyng him -rod_ XIV _c_ 61; cp. the extended use _ar [th]e coc him crowe_ 33, and -notes to II 289, V 86: (2) the use of the infinitive (_gon_) following, -and usually defining the sense of, a verb of motion, where Modern -English always, and ME. commonly (e.g. _[gh]ede karoland_ I 117; _com -daunceing_ II 298), uses the pres. p.: 'Our Lord came walking in'. - -_g_ 27. _am I [th]at?_ 'Is it I?', the interrogative form of _ich hit -am_ or _ich am hit_. The editors who have proposed to complete the -line by adding _wrech_, have missed the sense. The original rime was -_[th]et_: _spec_, cp. note to I 240. - -_g_ 30. _cnistes_: for _cniste_ = _cnihte_ representing the OE. gen. pl. -_cnihta_. On the forms _meist_ 6, _heiste_ 18, _eiste_ 20, _bitaiste_ -21, _iboust_ 26, _miste_ 29, _cnistes_ 30, _fiste_ 31, all with _st_ for -OE. _ht_, see Appendix [P] 6 end. - -_h_ 17-18. Difficult. Perhaps 'The master smith lengthens a little -piece [sc. of hot iron], and hammers a smaller piece, twines the two -together, and strikes [with his hammer] a treble note'. - -_h_ 21-2. _clo[th]emerys... brenwaterys_: not in the dictionaries, but -both apparently nonce names for the smiths: they 'clothe horses' (for -by the end of the fourteenth century a charger carried a good deal of -armour and harness), and 'burn water' (when they temper the red-hot -metal). - -_i_ 4. _[Th]at_: dat. rel. 'to whom'; cp. VI 64. But _lowte_ is -sometimes transitive 'to reverence'. - -_i_ 6. This line, at first sight irrelevant, supplies both rime and -doctrine. See in Chaucer's Preface to his _Tale of Melibeus_ the passage -ending: - - _I meene of Marke, Mathew, Luc and John-- - Bot doutelees hir sentence is all oon._ - -An erased _t_ after _Awangelys_ in the MS. shows that the scribe wavered -between _Awangelys_ 'Gospels' and _Awangelystes_. - -_i_ 7. _Sent Geretrude_: Abbess of Nivelle (d. 659), commemorated on -March 17. She is appropriately invoked, for one or more rats make her -emblem. - -_i_ 11. _Sent Kasi._ I cannot trace this saint, or his acts against the -rats. But parallels are not wanting. St. Ivor, an Irish saint, banished -rats from his neighbourhood _per imprecationem_ because they gnawed his -books; and the charm-harassed life of an Irish rat was still proverbial -in Shakespeare's day: 'I was never so berhymed' says Rosalind (_As You -Like It_, III. ii) 'since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat'. In -the South of France the citizens of Autun trusted more to the processes -of the law, and brought a suit against the rats which ended in a victory -for the defendants because the plaintiffs were unable to guarantee them -safe conduct to the court (see Chambers, _Book of Days_, under Jan. 17). -Even in such little things the Normans showed their practical genius:--A -friend chancing to meet St. Lanfranc by the way inquired the cause of -the strange noises that came from a bag he was carrying: 'We are -terribly plagued with mice and rats', explained the good man, 'and so, -to put down their ravages, I am bringing along a cat' (_Mures et rati -valde nobis sunt infesti, et idcirco nunc affero catum ad comprimendum -furorem illorum_). _Acta Sanctorum_ for May 28, p. 824. - - -XVI - -#Dialect#: Yorkshire. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _[th]ou royis_ 99, _[th]ou is_ 360; beside - _[th]ou hast_ 69. - 3 sg. _bidis_ 23, _comes_ 57. - 1 pl. _we here_ 169. - 2 pl. _[gh]e haue_ 124. - 3 pl. _[th]ei make_ 103, _[th]ei crie_ 107, - _dwelle_ (rime) 102 ; beside _musteres_ 104, - _sais_ 108. - imper. pl. _harkens_ 37, _beholdes_ 195; but _vndo_ 182. - pres. p. _walkand_ 53 (in rime); beside _shynyng_ 94. - strong pp. _stoken_ 193, _brokynne_ 195, &c. - Contracted verbal forms are _mase_ pres. 3 pl. (in rime) - 116, _bus_ pres. 2 sg. 338, _tane_ pp. 172. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _[th]ei_ 21; poss. _thare_ 18, _[th]er_ - 20; obj. _[th]ame_ 9; but _hemselue_ 307. - The demonstrative _[th]er_ 'these' 97, 399, is Northern. - -#Sounds#: _[=a]_ remains in rimes: _are_: _care_ 345-7, _waa_: _gloria_ -406-8, _lawe_: _knawe_ 313-15, _moste_ (for _m[=a]ste_): _taste_ 358-60; -but _[=o)]_ is also proved for the original in _restore_: _euermore_: -_were_ (for _w[=o,]re_): _before_ 13 ff. - -#Spelling#: In _fois_ (= _f[=o,]s_) 30, the spelling with _i_ indicates -vowel length. - - * * * * * - -17. _were_: rime requires the alternative form _w[=o,]re_. - -39. _Foure thowsande and sex hundereth [gh]ere._ I do not know on what -calculation the writer changes 5,500, which is the figure in the Greek -and Latin texts of the Gospel of Nicodemus, in the French verse -renderings, and the ME. poem _Harrowing of Hell_. Cp. l. 354. - -40. _in [th]is stedde_: the rimes _hadde_: _gladde_: _sadde_ point -to the Towneley MS. reading _in darknes stad_, 'set in darkness', as -nearer the original, which possibly had _in [th]ister(nes) stad_. - -49. _we_: read _[gh]e_ (?). For what follows cp. Isaiah ix. 1-2. - -59. _puplisshid_: the rime with _Criste_ shows that the pronunciation -was _puplist_. Similarly, _abasshed_: _traste_ 177-9. In French these -words have _-ss-_, which normally becomes _-sh-_ in English. It is hard -to say whether _-ss-_ remained throughout in Northern dialects, or -whether the development was OFr. _-ss-_ > ME. _-sh-_ > Northern _-ss-_ -(notes to I 128, VII 4). - -62. _[th]is_: read _His (?) frendis_: here 'relatives', 'parents' (ON. -_fr['ae]ndi_); see Luke ii. 27. - -65-8. Luke ii. 29-32. - -73-82. Matthew iii. 13-17, &c. - -75. _hande_: the rime requires the Norse plural _hend_ as at l. 400; cp. -XVII 255, IV _a_ 65 (foot-note). - -86 ff. Cp. Matthew xvii. 3 ff., Mark ix. 2 ff. - -113. _Astrotte_: cp. 2 Kings xxiii. 13 'Ashtoreth, the abomination of -the Zidonians'. I cannot identify _Anaball_ among the false gods. - -115. _Bele-Berit_: Judges viii. 33 'the children of Israel... made -Baal-Berith their god'. For _Belial_ see 2 Cor. vi. 15. - -122-4. A common misrendering for 'Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors', -Psalm xxiv. 7. - -125 ff. postulate a preceding _et introibit rex glori[e,]_, which the -writer has not been able to work into the frame of his verse. - -128. _a kyng of vertues clere_ = _dominus virtutum_, rendered 'Lord of -Hosts' in Psalm xxiv. 10. - -154-6. _ware_: _ferre_: the rime indicates some corruption. _ware_ -probably stands for _werre_ 'worse'. The Towneley MS. has _or it be -war_. - -162. John xi. - -165. John xiii. 27. - -171 ff. 'And know he won away Lazarus, who was given to us to take -charge of, do you think that you can hinder him from showing the powers -that he has purposed (to show)?' But it is doubtful whether _what_ is a -true relative. Rather 'from showing his powers--those he has purposed -(to show)'. - -188. _I prophicied_: MS. _of prophicie_ breaks the rime scheme. - -190. Psalm cvii. 16 'For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the -bars of iron in sunder.' - -205 ff. The rimes _saide_: _braide_: _ferde_: _grathed_ are bad. For the -last two read _flaide_ = 'terrified', and _graid_, a shortened form of -_graithed_. - -208. _and we wer moo_, 'if we were more', 'even if there were more of -us'. - -220. _as my prisoune_ might be taken closely with _here_: 'in this place -as my prison'. The Towneley MS. has _in_ for _as_. Better would be -_prisoune<s>_ 'prisoners'. - -240. _wolle_: read _wille_ for the rime. - -241. _God<ys> sonne_: MS. _God sonne_ might be defended as parallel to -the instances in the note to XVII 88. - -256. Apparently, 'you argue his men in the mire', i.e. if Jesus is God's -Son, the souls should remain in hell because God put them there. But the -text may be corrupt. - -267 ff. Cp. Ezekiel xxxi. 16, &c. - -281 ff. _Salamon saide_: Proverbs ii. 18-19 taken with vii. 27 and ix. -18. It was hotly disputed in the Middle Ages whether Solomon himself was -still in hell. Dante, _Paradiso_, x. 110, informs a world eager for -tidings that he is in Paradise: but Langland declares _Ich leyue he be -in helle_ (C-text, iv. 330); and, more sweepingly, coupling him with -Aristotle: _Al holy chirche holden hem in helle_ (A-text, xi. 263). - -285-8. Perhaps a gloss on Job xxxvi. 18 'Because there is wrath, beware -lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot -deliver thee.' - -301. _menys_, the reading of the Towneley MS. is better than _mouys_, -which appears to be a copyist's error due to the similarity of _n_ and -_u_, _e_ and _o_, in the handwriting of the time. - -308. Judas hanged himself, according to Matthew xxvii. 3-5; Acts i. 18 -gives a different account of his end. _Archedefell_: Ahithophel who -hanged himself (2 Samuel xvii. 23) after the failure of his plot against -David. - -309. _Datan and Abiron_: see Numbers xvi. - -313-16. 'And all who do not care to learn my law (which I have left in -the land newly, and which is to make known my Coming), and to go to my -Sacrament, and those who will not believe in my Death and my -Resurrection read in order--they are not true.' - -338. _[th]ou bus_, 'you ought'; _bus_, a Northern contracted form of -_behoves_, is here used as a personal verb, where _[th]e bus_, 'it -behoves thee', is normal. See note to XVII 196. - -360. _moste_: read _maste_ to rime with _taste_. - -371. _Of [th]is comyng_: the Towneley MS. reading _of Thi commyng_ is -possible. - -378-80: Corrupt. The copy from which the extant MS. was made seems to -have been indistinct here. The Towneley MS. has: - - _Suffre thou neuer Thi sayntys to se - The sorow of thaym that won in wo, - Ay full of fylth, and may not fle_, - -which is more intelligible and nearer Psalm xvi. 10: - - _Nec dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem._ - -405. _louyng_: 'praise', cp. IV _a_ 24 (note). - - -XVII - -#Dialect#: Late Yorkshire. - -#Vocabulary#: Northern are _then_ 108 (note), and _at_ 'to' 235. - -#Inflexions#: - - VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _thou spekis_ 206. - 3 sg. _ligis he_ 84; _he settis_ 92; _(God) - knowes_ 202. - 1 pl. _we swete or swynk_ 195. - 2 pl. _ye carp_ (in rime) 360. - 3 pl. _thay ryn_ (in rime) 277, 357; beside - _has_ 345, _renys_ 351. - pres. p. _liffand_ 73, _bowand_ 76, _wirkand_ 120 (all in - rime); beside _lifyng_ 47, 48; _standyng_ 416; _taryyng_ - 497. - strong pp. _rysen_ 442; _fon_ 'found' 503 is a Northern - short form. - PRONOUN 3 PERS.: sg. fem. nom. _she_ 186; - pl. _thay_ 27; _thare_ 75; _thaym_ 31. (MS. _hame_ 143 is - miswritten for _thame_.) - -#Sounds#: OE. _[=a]_ appears as _[=o,]_ in rime: _old_: _cold_: _mold_ -(OE. _m'old_) 60-2, and probably _dold_: _old_ 266-70; _sore_: _store_: -_therfor_: _more_ 91-4; but elsewhere remains _[=a]_, e.g. _draw_ (OE. -_dr[)a]gan_): _knaw_ 245-6. The spelling with _o_ is the commoner. - -See notes on _emong_ 400; _grufe_ 463. - -#Spelling#: Note the Northern spellings with _i_, _y_ following a vowel -to indicate length: _moyne_ 'moon' 6, _bayle_ 'bale' 26, _leyde_ = -_lede_ 48; and conversely _farest_ 'fairest' 79, _fath_ 'faith' 330. - - * * * * * - -The maritime associations of the play of _Noah_ made it a special -favourite with the Trinity House guild of master mariners and pilots at -Hull; and some of their records of payments for acting and equipment are -preserved, although the text of their play is lost (Chambers, _Mediaeval -Stage_, vol. ii, pp. 370-1): - - _anno_ To the minstrels, 6d. - 1485. To Noah and his wife, 1s. 6d. - To Robert Brown playing God, 6d. - To the Ship-child, 1d. - To a shipwright for clinking Noah's ship, one day, 7d. - 22 kids for shoring Noah's ship, 2d. - To a man clearing away the snow, 1d. - Straw for Noah and his children, 2d. - Mass, bellman, torches, minstrels, garland &c., 6s. - For mending the ship, 2d. - To Noah for playing, 1s. - To straw and grease for wheels, 1/4d. - To the waits for going about with the ship, 6d. - 1494. To Thomas Sawyr playing God, 10d. - To Jenkin Smith playing Noah, 1s. - To Noah's wife, 8d. - The clerk and his children, 1s. 6d. - To the players of Barton, 8d. - For a gallon of wine, 8d. - For three skins for Noah's coat, making it, and a rope to - hang the ship in the kirk, 7s. - To dighting and gilding St. John's head, painting two - tabernacles, beautifying the boat and over the table, - 7s. 2d. - Making Noah's ship, _l._5. 8s. - Two wrights a day and a half, 1s. 6d. - A halser [i.e. hawser] 4 stone weight, 4s. 8d. - Rigging Noah's ship, 8d. - - * * * * * - -10. _is_: read _es_ for the rime. Cp. note to I 128-9. - -42. _and sythen_: MS. _in sythen_. Cp. note to VI 36. - -49. _syn_: 3 pl. because _euery liffyng leyde_ is equivalent to a plural -subject 'all men'. - -52. _coueteis_: MS. _couetous_. - -56. _alod_: a shortened form of _allowed_, apparently on the analogy of -such words as _lead_ infin., _led_ pa. t. and pp. For a parallel see -note to I 254-5. - -57. _Sex hundreth yeris and od_: the _od_ thrown in to rime, as Noah was -exactly 600 years old according to Genesis vii. 6. - -66. _and my fry shal with me fall_: 'and the children <that> I may have' -(?). - -88. _for syn sake_: 'because of sin'. Until modern times a genitive -preceding _sake_ usually has no _s_, e.g. _for goodness sake_. The -genitive of _sin_ historically had no _s_ (OE. _synne_), but the -omission in a Northern text is due rather to euphony than to survival of -an old genitive form. Cp. _for tempest sake_ I 177. - -108. _then_: 'nor', a rare Northern usage, which is treated as an error -here in England and Pollard's text, though it occurs again at l. 535. -Conversely _nor_ is used dialectally for _than_. - -109. _Hym to mekill wyn_: 'to his great happiness'. - -137. _take_: 'make', and so in l. 272. - -167-71. _knowe_: _awe_. The rime requires _kn[=a]we_ or _[=o,]we_. - -191. 'The worse <because> I see thee.' - -196. _what thou thynk_: 'what seems to you best', 'what you like'; _thou -thynk_ for _thee thynk_--the verb being properly impersonal; see notes -to XVI 338 and VI 192. - -200. _Stafford blew_: from the context this line might mean 'you are a -scaremonger', for blue is the recognized colour of fear, and it might be -supposed that 'Stafford blue' represents a material like 'Lincoln -green'. But Maetzner is certainly right in interpreting the line 'you -deserve a beating'. _Stafford blew_ would then be the livid colour -produced by blows. The reference, unless there is a play on _staff_, is -obscure. - -202. _led_: 'treated'. - -211. _sory_: the rime requires _sary_. - -220. _Mary_: the later _marry!_ = 'by (the Virgin) Mary!' cp. l. 226. So -_Peter!_ 367 = 'by St. Peter!' - -246. _to knaw_: 'to confess'. - -247-8. _daw to ken_: 'to be recognized as stupid', 'a manifest fool'. - -272. _castell_: note the rime with _sayll_: _nayll_: _fayll_, which may -be due to suffix substitution on the analogy of _catail_ beside _catel_ -'cattle'. For _take_ see note to 137. - -281. _chambre_: the rime points to a by-form _chamb(o)ur_, but the -uninflected form is awkward. Cp. _thre chese chambres_ 'three tiers of -chambers' 129, where the construction is the same as the obsolete _three -pair gloves_. - -289-92. Read _lider_, _hider_, _togider_. - -292. _must vs_: cp. l. 334 and note to VI 192. - -298. 'There is other yarn on the reel', i.e. there is other business on -hand. - -320. _brether sam_: 'brothers both'. Some editors prefer to read -_brother Sam_ 'brother Shem'. - -336 ff. Chaucer refers to the quarrels of Noah and his wife in the -_Miller's Tale_ (ll. 352 ff.):-- - - _'Hastou nat herd', quod Nicholas, 'also - The sorwe of Noe with his felaweshipe - Er that he myghte brynge his wyf to shipe? - Hym hadde be levere, I dar wel undertake, - At thilke tyme, than alle his wetheres blake, - That she hadde had a shipe hirself allone.'_ - -The tradition is old. In the splendid tenth-century Bodleian MS. Junius -11, which contains the so-called Caedmon poems, a picture of the Ark -shows Noah's wife standing at the foot of the gangway, and one of her -sons trying to persuade her to come in. - -370. _Yei_ is defensible; cp. l. 353. _[Th]e_ 'the' has been suggested. - -383. _Wat Wynk_: an alliterative nick-name like _Nicholl Nedy_ in l. -405. - -400. _emong_: OE. _gemang_, here rimes as in Modern English with _u_ -(OE. _iung_: _tunge_: _lungen_), cp. note to VI 109 ff.; but in ll. -244-7 it rimes with _lang_: _fang_: _gang_--all with original _a_. - -417. <_floodis_>. Some such word is missing in the MS. Cp. ll. 454 f. -and 426. - -461. _How_: MS. _Now_. The correction is due to Professor Child. Initial -capitals are peculiarly liable to be miscopied. - -463. _grufe_: a Northern and Scottish form of the verb _grow_. The sb. -_ro_ 'rest' 237 sometimes has a parallel form _rufe_. - -525. _stold_: for _stalled_ 'fixed'. Note the rime words, which all have -alternative forms _behald_: _bald_: _wald_. - - - - -APPENDIX - -THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH -CENTURY - - -[P] 1. GENERAL. Gower's work shows that at the end of the century Latin -and French still shared with English the place of a literary language. -But their hold was precarious. - -Latin was steadily losing ground. The Wiclifite translation of the Bible -threatened its hitherto unchallenged position as the language of the -Church; and the Renaissance had not yet come to give it a new life among -secular scholars. - -French was still spoken at the court; but in 1387 Trevisa remarks (p. -149) that it was no longer considered an essential part of a gentleman's -education: and he records a significant reform--the replacement of -French by English as the medium of teaching in schools. After the end of -the century Anglo-French, the native development of Norman, was -practically confined to legal use, and French of Paris was the accepted -standard French. - -English gained wherever Latin and French lost ground. But though the -work of Chaucer, Gower, and Wiclif foreshadows the coming supremacy of -the East Midland, or, more particularly, the London dialect, there was -as yet no recognized standard of literary English. The spoken language -showed a multiplicity of local varieties, and a writer adopted the -particular variety that was most familiar to him. Hence it is almost -true to say that every considerable text requires a special grammar. - -Confusion is increased by the scribes. Nowadays a book is issued in -hundreds or thousands of uniform copies, and within a few months of -publication it may be read in any part of the world. In the fourteenth -century a book was made known to readers only by the slow and costly -multiplication of manuscripts. The copyist might work long after the -date of composition, and he would then be likely to modernize the -language, which in its written form was not stable as it is at present: -so of Barbour's _Bruce_ the oldest extant copies were made nearly a -century after Barbour's death. Again, if the dialect of the author were -unfamiliar to the copyist, he might substitute familiar words and forms. -Defective rimes often bear witness to these substitutions. - -Nor have we to reckon only with copyists, who are as a rule careless -rather than bold innovators. While books were scarce and many could not -read them, professional minstrels and amateur reciters played a great -part in the transmission of popular literature; and they, whether from -defective memory or from belief in their own talents, treated the exact -form and words of their author with scant respect. An extreme instance -is given by the MSS. of _Sir Orfeo_ at ll. 267-8: - - Auchinleck MS.: _His harp, whereon was al his gle, - He hidde in an holwe tre;_ - - Harley MS.: _He take[th] his harpe and make[th] hym gle, - And ly[th]e al ny[gh]t vnder a tre;_ - - Ashmole MS.: _In a tre [th]at was holow - [Th]er was hys haule euyn and morow._ - -If the Ashmole MS. alone had survived we should have no hint of the -degree of corruption. - -And so, before the extant MSS. recorded the text, copyists and reciters -may have added change to change, jumbling the speech of different men, -generations, and places, and producing those 'mixed' texts which are the -will-o'-the-wisps of language study. - -Faced with these perplexities, beginners might well echo the words of -Langland's pilgrims in search of Truth: - - _This were a wikked way, but whoso hadde a gyde - That wolde folwen vs eche a fote._ - -There is no such complete guide, for the first part of Morsbach's -_Mittelenglische Grammatik_, Halle 1896, remains a splendid fragment, -and Luick's _Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, Leipzig -1914-, which promises a full account of the early periods, is still far -from completion. Happily two distinguished scholars--Dr. Henry Bradley -in _The Making of English_ and his chapter in _The Cambridge History -of English Literature_, vol. i, Dr. O. Jespersen in _Growth and -Structure of the English Language_--have given brief surveys of the -whole early period which are at once elementary and authoritative. But -for the details the student must rely on a mass of dissertations and -articles of very unequal quality, supplemented by introductions to -single texts, and, above all, by his own first-hand observations made on -the texts themselves. - -Some preliminary considerations will be helpful, though perhaps not -altogether reassuring: - -(i) A great part of the evidence necessary to a thorough knowledge of -spoken Middle English has not come down to us, a considerable part -remains unprinted, and the printed materials are so extensive and -scattered that it is easy to overlook points of detail. For instance, it -might be assumed from rimes in _Gawayne_, _Pearl_, and the Shropshire -poet Myrc, that the falling together of OE. _-ang-_, _-ung-_, which is -witnessed in NE. _among_ (OE. _gemang_), _-monger_ (OE. _mangere_), was -specifically West Midland, if the occurrence of examples in Yorkshire -(XVII 397-400) escaped notice. It follows that, unless a word or form is -so common as to make the risk of error negligible, positive -evidence--the certainty that it occurs in a given period or district--is -immeasurably more important than negative evidence--the belief that it -never did occur, or even the certainty that it is not recorded, in a -period or district. For the same reason, the statement that a word or -form is found 'in the early fourteenth century' or 'in Kent' should -always be understood positively, and should not be taken to imply that -it is unknown 'in the thirteenth century' or 'in Essex', as to which -evidence may or may not exist. - -(ii) It is necessary to clear the mind of the impression, derived from -stereotyped written languages, that homogeneity and stability are -natural states. Middle English texts represent a spoken language of many -local varieties, all developing rapidly. So every linguistic fact should -be thought of in terms of time, place, and circumstance, not because -absolute precision in these points is attainable, but because the -attempt to attain it helps to distinguish accurate knowledge from -conclusions which are not free from doubt. - -If the word or form under investigation can be proved to belong to the -author's original composition, exactness is often possible. In the -present book, we know nearly enough the date of composition of extracts -I, III, VIII, X, XI _a_, XII, XIII, XIV; the place of composition of I, -III, X, XI _a_, XII, XIII, XVI, XVII (see map). - -But if, as commonly happens, a form cannot be proved to have stood in -the original, endless difficulties arise. It will be necessary first to -determine the date of the MS. copy. This is exactly known for _The -Bruce_, and there are few Middle English MSS. which the palaeographer -cannot date absolutely within a half-century, and probably within a -generation. The place where the MS. copy was written is known nearly -enough for IV _b_, _c_, XII, XIV _e_, XV _b_, _c_ (possibly Leominster), -XVI, XVII; and ME. studies have still much to gain from a thorough -inquiry into the provenance of MSS. Yet, when the extant copy is placed -and dated, it remains to ask to what extent this MS. reproduces some -lost intermediary of different date and provenance; how many such -intermediaries there were between the author's original and our MS.; -what each has contributed to the form of the surviving copy--questions -usually unanswerable, the consideration of which will show the -exceptional linguistic value of the _Ayenbyte_, where we have the -author's own transcript exactly dated and localized, so that every word -and form is good evidence. - -Failing such ideal conditions, it becomes necessary to limit doubt by -segregating for special investigation the elements that belong to the -original composition. Hence the importance of rimes, alliteration, and -rhythm, which a copyist or reciter is least likely to alter without -leaving a trace of his activities. - - -[P] 2. DIALECTS. At present any marked variation from the practice of -educated English speakers might, if it were common to a considerable -number of persons, be described as dialectal. But as there was no such -recognized standard in the fourteenth century, it is most convenient to -consider as dialectal any linguistic feature which had a currency in -some English-speaking districts but not in all. For example, _[th]at_ -as a relative is found everywhere in the fourteenth century and is not -dialectal; _[th]ire_ 'these' is recorded only in Northern districts, -and so is dialectal. Again, _[=o,]_ represents OE. _[=a]_ in the South -and Midlands, while the North retains _[=a]_ ([P] 7 b i): since neither -_[=o,]_ nor _[=a]_ is general, both may be called dialectal. - -If a few sporadic developments be excluded because they may turn up -anywhere at any time, then, provided sufficient evidence were -available,[29] it would be possible to mark the boundaries within which -any given dialectal feature occurs at a particular period: we could draw -the line south of which _[th]ire_ 'these' is not found, or the line -bounding the district in which the Norse borrowing _kirke_ occurs; just -as French investigators in _L'Atlas linguistique de la France_ have -shown the distribution of single words and forms in the modern French -dialects. - -[Foot-note 29: Sufficient evidence is not available. If in the year 1340 -at every religious house in the kingdom a native of the district had -followed the example of Michael of Northgate, and if all their autograph -copies had survived, we should have a very good knowledge of Middle -English at that time. If the process had been repeated about every ten -years the precision of our knowledge would be greatly increased. For the -area in which any feature is found is not necessarily constant: we know -that in the pres. p. the province of _-ing_ was extending throughout the -fourteenth century; that the inflexion _-es_ in 3 sg. pres. ind. was a -Northern and North-Midland feature in the fourteenth century, but had -become general in London by Shakespeare's time. And though less is known -about the spread of sound changes as distinct from analogical -substitutions, it cannot be assumed that their final boundaries were -reached and fixed in a moment. There is reason to regret the handicap -that has been imposed on ME. studies by the old practice of writing in -Latin or French the documents and records which would otherwise supply -the exactly dated and localized specimens of English that are most -necessary to progress.] - -Of more general importance is the fixing of boundaries for sound -changes or inflexions that affect a large number of words, a task to -which interesting contributions have been made in recent years on the -evidence of place-names (see especially A. Brandl, _Zur Geographie -der altenglischen Dialekte_, Berlin 1915, which supplements the work -of Pogatscher on the compounds of _street_ and of Wyld on the ME. -developments of OE. _y_). For example, on the evidence available, which -does not permit of more than rough indications, OE. _[=a]_ remains -_[=a]_, and does not develop to _[=o,]_, north of a line drawn west -from the Humber ([P] 7 b i); _-and(e)_ occurs in the ending of the -pres. p. as far south as a line starting west from the Wash ([P] 13 -ii); farther south again, a line between Norwich and Birmingham gives -the northern limit for _Stratton_ forms as against _Stretton_ ([P] 8 -iv, note).[30] The direction of all these lines is roughly east and -west, yet no two coincide. But if the developments of OE. _y_ ([P] -7 b ii) are mapped out, _u_ appears below a line drawn athwart from -Liverpool to London, and normal _e_ east of a line drawn north and -south from the western border of Kent. Almost every important feature -has thus its own limits, and the limits of one may cross the limits of -another. - -[Foot-note 30: The evidence of place-names does not agree entirely with -the evidence of texts. _Havelok_, which is localized with reasonable -certainty in North Lincolnshire, has _(a)dradd_ in rimes that appear -to be original, and these indicate a North-Eastern extension of the -area in which OE. _str[=ae]t_, _dr[=ae]dan_ appear for normal Anglian -_str[=e]t_, _dr[=e]da(n)_. This evidence, supported by rimes in Robert -of Brunne, is too early to be disposed of by the explanation of -borrowing from other dialects, nor is the testimony of place-names so -complete and unequivocal as to justify an exclusive reliance upon it.] - -What then is a ME. dialect? The accepted classification is - - { South-Western = OE. West Saxon - Southern { - { South-Eastern = OE. Kentish - - { East Midland } - Midland { } = OE. Mercian - { West Midland } - - Northern = OE. Northumbrian - -with the Thames as boundary between Southern and Midland, and the Humber -between Midland and Northern. And yet of five actual limiting lines -taken at random, only the first coincides approximately with the line of -Humber or Thames. - -Still the classification rests on a practical truth. Although each -dialectal feature has its own boundaries, these are not set by pure -chance. Their position is to some extent governed by old tribal and -political divisions, by the influence of large towns which served as -commercial and administrative centres, and by relative ease of -communication. Consequently, linguistic features are roughly grouped, -and it is _a priori_ likely that London and Oxford would have more -features in common than would London and York, or Oxford and Hull; and -similarly it is likely that for a majority of phenomena York and Hull -would stand together against London and Oxford. Such a grouping was -recognized in the fourteenth century. Higden and his authorities -distinguish Northern and Southern speech (XIII _b_); in the Towneley -_Second Shepherds' Play_, ll. 201 ff., when Mak pretends to be a yeoman -of the king, he adopts the appropriate accent, and is promptly told to -'take outt that Sothren tothe'. In the _Reeves Tale_ Chaucer makes the -clerks speak their own Northern dialect, so we may be sure that he -thought of it as a unity. - -But had Chaucer been asked exactly where this dialect was spoken, he -would probably have replied, _Fer in the North,--I kan nat telle where_. -A dialect has really no precise boundaries; its borders are nebulous; -and throughout this book 'Southern', 'Northern', &c., are used vaguely, -and not with any sharply defined limits in mind. The terms may, however, -be applied to precise areas, so long as the boundaries of single dialect -features are not violently made to conform. It is quite accurate to say -that _-and(e)_ is the normal ending of the pres. p. north of the Humber, -and that _u_ for OE. _y_ is found south of the Thames and west of -London, provided it is not implied that the one should not be found -south of the Humber, or the other north of the Thames. Both in fact -occur in _Gawayne_ (Cheshire or Lancashire); and in general the language -of the Midlands was characterized by the overlapping of features which -distinguish the North from the South. - -From what has been said it should be plain that the localization of a -piece of Middle English on the evidence of language alone calls for an -investigation of scope and delicacy. Where the facts are so complex the -mechanical application of rules of thumb may give quick and specious -results, but must in the end deaden the spirit of inquiry, which is the -best gift a student can bring to the subject. - - -[P] 3. VOCABULARY. The readiness of English speakers to adopt words from -foreign languages becomes marked in fourteenth-century writings. But the -classical element which is so pronounced in modern literary English is -still unimportant. There are few direct borrowings from Latin, and -these, like _obitte_ XVI 269, are for the most part taken from the -technical language of the Church. The chief sources of foreign words are -Norse and French. - -(_a_) #Norse.# Although many Norse words first appear in English in late -texts, they must have come into the spoken language before the end of -the eleventh century, because the Scandinavian settlements ceased after -the Norman Conquest. The invaders spoke a dialect near enough to OE. to -be intelligible to the Angles; and they had little to teach of -literature or civilization. Hence the borrowings from Norse are all -popular; they appear chiefly in the Midlands and North, where the -invaders settled; and they witness the intimate fusion of two kindred -languages. From Norse we get such common words as _anger_, _both_, -_call_, _egg_, _hit_, _husband_, _ill_, _law_, _loose_, _low_, _meek_, -_take_, _till_ (prep.), _want_, _weak_, _wing_, _wrong_, and even the -plural forms of the 3rd personal pronoun ([P] 12). - -It is not always easy to distinguish Norse from native words, because -the two languages were so similar during the period of borrowing, and -Norse words were adopted early enough to be affected by all ME. sound -changes. But there were some dialectal differences between ON. and OE. -in the ninth and tenth centuries, and these afford the best criteria -of borrowing. For instance in ME. we have _[th]ou[gh]_, _[th]of_ (ON. -_[th][)=o]h_ for _*[th]auh_) beside _[th]ei(h)_ (OE. _[th][=e](a)h_) -II 433; _ay_ (ON. _ei_) 'ever' XVI 293 beside _oo_ (OE. _[=a]_) XV _b_ -7; _waik_ (ON. _veik-r_) VIII _b_ 23, where OE. _w[=a]c_ would yield -_w[=o,]k_; the forms _w[=o,]re_ XVI 17 (note) and _w[=a]pin_ XIV _b_ 15 -are from ON. _v'arum_, _v'apn_, whereas _w[=e]re(n)_ and _w[)e]ppen_ -V 154 represent OE. (Anglian) _w[=e]ron_, _w[=e]pn_. So we have the -pairs _awe_ (ON. _agi_) I 83 and _ay_ (OE. _ege_) II 571; _neuen_ (ON. -_nefna_) 'to name' XVII 12 and _nem(p)ne_ (OE. _nemnan_) II 600; _rot_ -(ON. _r'ot_) II 256 and _wort_ (OE. _wyrt_) VIII _a_ 303; _sterne_, -_starne_ (ON. _stjarna_) XVII 8, 423 and native _sterre_, _starre_ (OE. -_steorra_); _systyr_ (ON. _systir_) I 112 and _soster_ (OE. _sweostor_) -XV _g_ 10; _werre_, _warre_ (ON. _verri_) XVI 154 (note), 334 and -native _werse_, _wars_ (OE. _wyrsa_) XVI 200, XVII 191; _wylle_ (ON. -_vill-r_) V 16 and native _wylde_ (OE. _wilde_) XV _b_ 19. - -Note that in Norse borrowings the consonants _g_, _k_ remain stops where -they are palatalized in English words: _garn_ XVII 298, _giue_, _gete_ -(ON. _garn_, _gefa_, _geta_) beside _[gh]arn_, _[gh]iue_, _for-[gh]ete_ -(OE. _gearn_, _giefan_, _for-gietan_); _kirke_ (ON. _kirkja_) beside -_chirche_ (OE. _cirice_). Similarly OE. initial _sc-_ regularly becomes -ME. _sh-_, so that most words beginning with _sk-_, like _sky_, _skin_, -_skyfte_ VI 209 (English _shift_), _skirte_ (English _shirt_), are -Norse; see the alliterating words in V 99. - -There is an excellent monograph by E. Bjoerkman: _Scandinavian -Loan-Words in Middle English_, 1900. - -(_b_) #French.# Most early borrowings from French were again due to -invasion and settlement. But the conditions of contact were very -different. Some were unfavourable to borrowing: the Normans, who were -relatively few, were dispersed throughout the country, and not, like the -Scandinavians, massed in colonies; and their language had little in -common with English. So the number of French words in English texts is -small before the late thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Other -conditions made borrowing inevitable: the French speakers were the -governing class; they gradually introduced a new system of -administration and new standards of culture; and they had an important -literature to which English writers turned for their subject-matter and -their models of form. Fourteenth-century translators adopt words from -their French originals so freely (see note at p. 234, foot), that -written Middle English must give a rather exaggerated impression of the -extent of French influence on the spoken language. But a few examples -will show how many common words are early borrowings from French: nouns -like _country_, _face_, _place_, _river_, _courtesy_, _honour_, _joy_, -_justice_, _mercy_, _pity_, _reason_, _religion_, _war_; adjectives like -_close_, _large_, _poor_; and verbs _cry_, _pay_, _please_, _save_, -_serve_, _use_. - -Anglo-French was never completely homogeneous, and it was constantly -supplemented as a result of direct political, commercial, and literary -relations with France. Hence words were sometimes adopted into ME. in -more than one French dialectal form. For instance, Late Latin _ca-_ -became _cha-_ in most French dialects, but remained _ca-_ in the North -of France: hence ME. _catch_ and _(pur)chase_, _catel_ and _chatel_, -_kanel_ 'neck' V 230 and _chanel_ 'channel' XIII _a_ 57. So Northern -French preserves initial _w-_, for which other French dialects -substitute _g(u)_: hence _Wowayn_ V 121 beside _Gawayn_ V 4, &c. (see -note to V 121). Again, in Anglo-French, _a_ before nasal + consonant -alternates with _au_:--_dance_: _daunce_; _chance_: _chaunce_; _change_: -_chaunge_; _chambre_ XVII 281: _chaumber_ II 100. English still has the -verbs _launch_ and _lance_, which are ultimately identical. - -As borrowing extended over several centuries, the ME. form sometimes -depends on the date of adoption. Thus Latin _fidem_ becomes early -French _fei[dh]_, later _fei_, and later still _foi_. ME. has both -_fei[th]_ and _fay_, and by Spenser's time _foy_ appears. - -The best study of the French element in ME. is still that of D. -Behrens: _Beitraege zur Geschichte der franzoesischen Sprache -in England_, 1886. A valuable supplement, dealing chiefly with -Anglo-French as the language of the law, is the chapter by F. W. -Maitland in _The Cambridge History of English Literature_, vol. i. - - -[P] 4. HANDWRITING. In the ME. period two varieties of script were in -use, both developed from the Caroline minuscule which has proved to be -the most permanent contribution of the schools of Charlemagne. The one, -cursive and flourished, is common in charters, records, and memoranda; -see C. H. Jenkinson and C. Johnson, _Court Hand_, 2 vols., Oxford -1915. The other, in which the letters are separately written, with few -flourishes or adaptations of form in combination, is the 'book hand', -so called because it is regularly used for literary texts. Between the -extreme types there are many gradations; and fifteenth-century copies, -such as the Cambridge MS. of Barbour's _Bruce_, show an increasing use -of cursive forms, which facilitate rapid writing. - -The shapes of letters were not always so distinct as they are in print, -so that copyists of the time, and even modern editors, are liable to -mistake one letter for another. Each hand has its own weaknesses, but -the letters most commonly misread are:-- - -_e_ : _o_ e.g. _Beuo_ for _Bouo_ I 59; _wroche_ for _wreche_ II 333; -_teches_ IV _b_ 60, where _toches_ (foot-note) is probably right; -pesible (MS. _posible_) XI _b_ 67. - -_u_ : _n_ (practically indistinguishable) e.g. _menys_ (MS. _mouys_) XVI -301; _skayned_ (edd. _skayued_) V 99; _ryue[gh]_ or _ryne[gh]_ V 222 -(note). This is only a special case of the confusion of letters and -combinations formed by repetition of the downstroke, e.g. _u_, _n_, _m_, -and _i_ (which is not always distinguished by a stroke above). Hence -_dim_ II 285 where modern editors have _dun_, although _i_ has the -distinguishing stroke. - -_y_ : _[th]_ e.g. _ye_ (MS. _[th]e_) XIV _d_ 11; see note to XV _a_ 12. -Confusion is increased by occasional transference to _[th]_ of the dot -which historically may stand over _y_. _[gh]_ for _[th]_ initially, -as in XVI 170, is more often due to confusion of the letters _[th]_: -_y_ and subsequent preference of _[gh]_ for _y_ in spelling ([P] 5 i) -than to direct confusion of _[th]_: _[gh]_, which are not usually very -similar in late Middle English script. - -_[th]_ : _h_ e.g. _do[th]_ (MS. _doh_) XV _b_ 22; and notes to XII _b_ -116, XVI 62. - -_b_ : _v_ e.g. _vousour_ (edd. _bonsour_) II 363. - -_c_ : _t_ e.g. _cunesmen_ (edd. _tunesmen_) XV _g_ 6 (note); _top_ (edd. -_cop_) ibid. 16; see note to XIII _a_ 7. - -_f_ : _[s]_ (= _s_) e.g. _slang_ (variant _flang_) X 53. - -_l_ : _[s]_ (= _s_) e.g. _al_ (edd. _as_) II 108. - -_l_ : _k_ e.g. _ky[th]e[gh]_ (MS. _ly[th]e[gh]_) VI 9. - - -[P] 5. SPECIAL LETTERS. Two letters now obsolete are common in -fourteenth-century MSS.: _[th]_ and _[gh]_. - -_[th]_: 'thorn', is a rune, and stands for the voiced and voiceless -sounds now represented by _th_ in _this_, _thin_. The gradual -displacement of _[th]_ by _th_, which had quite a different sound -in classical Latin (note to VIII _a_ 23), may be traced in the MSS. -printed (except X, XII). _[th]_ remained longest in the initial -position, but by the end of the fifteenth century was used chiefly in -compendia like _[th]e_ 'the', _[th]t_ 'that'. - -_[gh]_: called '_[gh]o[gh]_' or '_yogh_', derives from _<g>_, the OE. -script form of the letter _g_. It was retained in ME. after the Caroline -form _g_ had become established in vernacular texts, to represent a -group of spirant sounds: - -(i) The initial spirant in _[gh]oked_ IX 253 (OE. _geoc-_), _[gh]ere_ I -151 (OE. _g[=e]ar_), where the sound was approximately the same as in -our _yoke_, _year_. Except in texts specially influenced by the -tradition of French spelling, _y_ (which is ambiguous owing to its -common use as a vowel = _i_) is less frequent than _[gh]_ initially. -Medially the palatal spirant is represented either by _[gh]_ or _y_: -_e[gh]e_ (OE. _[=e](a)[gh]-_) XV _c_ 14 beside _eyen_ VIII _a_ 168; -_ise[gh]e_ (OE. _gesegen_) XIV _c_ 88 beside _iseye_ XIV _c_ 16. The -medial guttural spirant more commonly develops to _w_ in the fourteenth -century: _awe_ (ON. _agi_) I 83, _felawe_ (ON. _f'elagi_) XIV _d_ 7, -_halwes_ (OE. _halg-_), beside _a[gh]-_ V 267, _fela[gh]-_ V 83, -_hal[gh]-_ V 54. - -(ii) The medial or final spirant, guttural or palatal, which is lost -in standard English, but still spelt in _nought_, _through_, _night_, -_high_: ME. _no[gh]t_, _[th]ur[gh]_, _ny[gh]t_, _hy[gh]_: OE. _noht_, -_[th]urh_, _niht_, _h[=e]h_. The ME. sound was probably like that in -German _ich_, _ach_. The older spelling with _h_ is occasionally found; -more often _ch_ as in _mycht_ X 17; but the French spelling _gh_ gains -ground throughout the century. Abnormal are _write_ for _wrighte_ XVI -230, _wytes_, _nytes_ for _wy[gh]tes_, _ny[gh]tes_ XV _i_ 19 f. - -(iii) As these sounds weakened in late Southern ME., _[gh]_ was -sometimes used without phonetic value, or at the most to reinforce a -long _i_: e.g. _Engli[gh]sch_ XI _a_ 28, 37, &c.; _ky[gh]n_ 'kine' IX -256. - -N.B.--Entirely distinct in origin and sound value, but identical in -script form, is _[gh]_, the minuscule form of _z_, in _A[gh]one_ (= -_Azone_) I 105, _clyffe[gh]_ 'cliffs' V 10, &c. It would probably be -better to print _z_ in such words. - - -[P] 6. SPELLING. Modern English spelling, which tolerates almost any -inconsistency in the representation of sounds provided the same word -is always spelt in the approved way, is the creation of printers, -schools, and dictionaries. A Middle English writer was bound by no -such arbitrary rules. Michael of Northgate, whose autograph MS. -survives, writes _diaknen_ III 5 and _dyacne_ 9; _vyf_ 22, _uif_ 23, -_vif_ 37; _[th]ouzond_ 30 and _[th]ousend_ 34. Yet his spelling is not -irrational. The comparative regularity of his own speech, which he -reproduced directly, had a normalizing influence; and by natural habit -he more often than not solved the same problem of representation in the -same way. Scribes, too, like printers in later times, found a measure -of consistency convenient, and the spelling of some transcripts, e.g. -I and X, is very regular. If at first ME. spelling appears lawless to -a modern reader, it is because of the variety of dialects represented -in literature, the widely differing dates of the MSS. printed, and the -tendency of copyists to mix their own spellings with those of their -original. - -The following points must be kept in mind: - -(i) _i_ : _y_ as vowels are interchangeable. In some MSS. (for instance, -I) _y_ is used almost exclusively; in others (VIII _a_) it is preferred -for distinctness in the neighbourhood of _u_, _n_, _m_, so that the -scribe writes _hym_, but _his_. - -(ii) _ie_ is found in later texts for long close _[=e.]_: _chiere_ XII -_a_ 120, _flietende_ XII _a_ 157, _diemed_ XII _b_ 216. - -(iii) _ui_ (_uy_), in the South-West and West Midlands, stands for -_[=ue]_ (sounded as in French _amuser_): _puit_ XIV _c_ 12; _vnkuynde_ -XIV _c_ 103. The corresponding short _ue_ is spelt _u_: _hull_ '_hill_', -&c. - -(iv) Quite distinct is the late Northern addition of _i_ (_y_), to -indicate the long vowels _[=a]_, _[=e]_, _[=o]_: _neid_ X 18, _noyne_ -'noon' X 67. - -(v) _ou_ (_ow_) is the regular spelling of long _[=u]_ (sounded as in -_too_): _hous_, _now_, _founden_, &c. - -(vi) _o_ is the regular spelling for short _u_ (sounded as in _put_) in -the neighbourhood of _u_, _m_, _n_, because if _u_ is written in -combination with these letters an indistinct series of downstrokes -results. Hence _loue_ but _luf_, _come_ infin., _sone_ 'son', _dronken_ -'drunk'. In _Ayenbyte_ _o_ for _[)u]_ is general, e.g. _grochinge_ III -10. In other texts it is common in _bote_ 'but'. - -(vii) _u_ : _v_ are not distinguished as consonant and vowel. _v_ is -preferred in initial position, _u_ medially or finally: _valay_ -'valley', _vnder_ 'under', _vuel_ (= _uevel_) 'evil', _loue_ 'love'. -(Note that in XII the MS. distinction of _v_ and _u_ is not reproduced.) - -(viii) So _i_, and its longer form _j_, are not distinguished as vowel -and consonant. In this book _i_ is printed throughout, and so stands -initially for the sound of our _j_ in _ioy_, _iuggement_, &c. - -(ix) _c_ : _k_ for the sounds in _kit_, _cot_, are often -interchangeable; but _k_ is preferred before palatal vowels _e_, _i_ -(_y_); and _c_ before _o_, _u_. See the alliterating words in V 52, -107, 128, 153, 272, 283. - -(x) _c_ : _s_ alternate for voiceless _s_, especially in French words: -_sit'e_ 'city' VII 66, _resayue_ 'receive' V 8, _vyse_ 'vice' V 307, -_falce_ V 314; but also in _race_ (ON. _r'as_) V 8 beside _rase_ XVII -429. - -(xi) _s_ : _z_ (_[gh]_) are both used for voiced _s_, the former -predominating: _kyssedes_ beside _ra[gh]te[gh]_ V 283; _[th]ouzond_ -III 30 beside _[th]ousend_ III 34. But _[gh]_ occasionally appears for -voiceless _s_: _(a[gh]-)le[gh]_ 'awe-less' V 267, _for[gh]_ 'force' -'waterfall' V 105. - -(xii) _sh_ : _sch_ : _ss_ are all found for modern _sh_, OE. _sc_: -_shuld_ I 50; _schert_ II 230; _sserte_ III 40; but _sal_ 'shall', -_suld_ 'should' in Northern texts represent the actual Northern -pronunciation in weakly stressed words. - -(xiii) _v_ : _w_: In late Northern MSS. _v_ is often found for initial -_w_: _vithall_ X 9, _Valter_ X 36. The interchange is less common in -medial positions: _in swndir_ X 106. - -(xiv) _wh-_ : _qu(h)-_ : _w-_:--_wh-_ is a spelling for _hw-_. In the -South the aspiration is weakened or lost, and _w_ is commonly written, -e.g. VIII _b_. In the North the aspiration is strong, and the sound is -spelt _qu(h)-_, e.g. _quhelis_ 'wheels' X 17. Both _qu-_ and _wh-_ are -found in _Gawayne_. The development in later dialects is against the -assumption that _hw-_ became _kw-_ in pronunciation. - -See also [P] 5. - -The whole system of ME. spelling was modelled on French, and some -of the general features noted above (e.g. ii, iii, v, vi, x) are -essentially French. But, particularly in early MSS., there are a number -of exceptional imitations. Sometimes the spelling represents a French -scribe's attempt at English pronunciation: _foret_ in XV _g_ 18 stands -for _for[th]_, where _-r[th]_ with strongly trilled _r_ was difficult -to a foreigner; and occasionally such distortions are found as _knith_, -_knit_, and even _kint_ (_Layamon_, _Havelok_) for _kni[gh]t_, which -had two awkward consonant groups. More commonly the copyist, accustomed -to write both French and English, chose a French representation for an -English sound. So _st_ for _ht_ appears regularly in XV _e_: _seuenist_ -'sennight', and XV _g_: _iboust_ 'bought', &c. The explanation is that -in French words like _beste_ 'bete', _gist_ 'git', _s_ became only a -breathing before it disappeared; and _h_ in ME. _ht_ weakened to a -similar sound, as is shown by the rimes with _Kryste_ 'Christ' in VI -98-107. Hence the French spelling _st_ is occasionally substituted -for English _ht_. Again, in borrowings from French, _an_ + consonant -alternates with _aun_: _dance_ or _daunce_; _change_ or _chaunge_ (p. -273); and by analogy we have _Irlande_ or _Irlaunde_ in XV _d_. Another -exceptional French usage, _-tz_ for final voiceless _-s_, is explained -at p. 219, top. - - -[P] 7. SOUND CHANGES. (_a_) #Vowel Quantity.# No fourteenth-century -writer followed the early example of Orm. Marks of quantity are not -used in fourteenth-century texts; doubling of long vowels is not an -established rule; and there are no strictly quantitative metres, or -treatises on pronunciation. Consequently it is not easy to determine -how far the quantity of the vowels in any given text has been affected -by the very considerable changes that occurred in the late OE. and ME. -periods. - -Of these the chief are: - -(i) In unstressed syllables original long vowels tend to become short. -Hence _[)u]s_ (OE. _[=u]s_), and _b[)o]te_ (OE. _b[=u]tan_) 'but', which -are usually unstressed. - -(ii) All long vowels are shortened in stressed close syllables (i.e., -_usually_, when they are followed by two consonants): e.g. _k[=e]pen_, -pa. t. _k[)e]pte_, pp. _k[)e]pt_; _h[)u]sband_ beside _hous_; -_w[)i]mmen_ (from _w[)i]f-men_) beside _w[=i]f_. - -_Exception._ Before the groups _-ld_, _-nd_, _-rd_, _-r[dh]_, _-mb_, a -short vowel is lengthened in OE. unless a third consonant immediately -follows. Hence, before any of these combinations, length may be retained -in ME.: e.g. _f[=e]nd_ 'fiend', _b[=i]nden_, _ch[=i]ld_; but -_ch[)i]ldren_. - -(iii) Short vowels _[)a]_, _[)e]_, _[)o]_ are lengthened in stressed -open syllables (i.e., _usually_, when they are followed by a single -consonant with a following vowel): _t[)a]|ke_ > _t'ake_; _m[)e]|te_ > -_m'ete_ 'meat'; _br[)o]|ken_ > _br'oken_. To what extent _[)i]_ and -_[)u]_ were subject to the same lengthening in Northern districts is -still disputed. Normally they remain short in South and S. Midlands, -e.g. _dr[)i]uen_ pp.; _l[)o]uen_ = _l[)u]ven_ 'to love'. - -There are many minor rules and many exceptions due to analogy; but -roughly it may be taken that ME. vowels are: - -_short_ when unstressed; - -_short_ before two consonants, except _-ld_, _-nd_, _-rd_, _-r[dh]_, -_-mb_; - -_long_ (except _i_ (_y_), _u_) before a single medial consonant; - -otherwise of the quantity shown in the Glossary for the OE. or ON. -etymon. - -(_b_) #Vowel Quality.# The ME. sound-changes are so many and so obscure -that it will be possible to deal only with a few that contribute most to -the diversity of dialects, and it happens that the particular changes -noticed all took effect before the fourteenth century. - -(i) OE. and ON. _[=a]_ develop to long open _[=o,]_ (sounded as in -_broad_), first in the South and S. Midlands, later in the N. Midlands. -In the North _[=a]_ (sounded approximately as in _f~a~ther_) remains: -e.g. _bane_ 'bone' IV _a_ 54, _balde_ 'bold' IV _a_ 51. The boundary -seems to have been a line drawn west from the Humber, and this -approximates to the dividing line in the modern dialects. There are of -course instances of _[=o,]_ to the north and of _[=a]_ to the south of -the Humber, since border speakers would be familiar with both _[=a]_ and -_[=o,]_, or would have intermediate pronunciations; and poets might use -convenient rimes from neighbouring dialects. - -(ii) OE. _[)=y]_ (deriving from Germanic _[)=u]_ followed by _i_) -appears _normally_ in E. Midlands and the North as _[)=i]_ (_[)=y]_): -e.g. _k[=y]n_, _hill_ (OE. _c[=y]_, _hyll_). In the South-East, -particularly Kent, it appears as _[)=e.]_: _k[=e]n_, _hell_. In the -South-West, and in W. Midlands, it commonly appears as _u_, _ui_ -(_uy_), with the sound of short or long _ue_. London was apparently -at a meeting point of the _u_, _i_, and _e_ boundaries, because all -the forms appear in fourteenth-century London texts, though _[)=ue]_ -and _[)=e]_ gradually give place to _[)=i]_. The extension of _[)=ue]_ -forms to the North-West is shown by _Gawayne_, and a line drawn from -London to Liverpool would give a rough idea of the boundary. But -within this area unrounding of _[)=ue]_ to _[)=i]_ seems to have -been progressive during the century. N.B.--It is dangerous to jump -to conclusions from isolated examples. Before _r_ + consonant _e_ -is sometimes found in all dialects, e.g. _schert_ II 230. _Church_, -spelt with _u_, _i_, or _e_, had by etymology OE. _i_, not _y_. And in -Northern texts there are a number of _e_-spellings in open syllables, -both for OE. _y_ and _i_. - -(_c_) #Consonants#: - -(i) _f_ > _v_ (initial): this change, which dates back to OE. times, is -carried through in _Ayenbyte_: e.g. _uele uayre uorbisnen_ = Midland -'_fele fayre forbisnes_'. In some degree it extended over the whole of -the South. - -(ii) _s_ > _z_ (initial), parallel to the change of _f_ to _v_, is -regularly represented in spelling in the _Ayenbyte_: _zome_ 'some', &c. -Otherwise _z_ is rare in spelling, but the voiced initial sound probably -extended to most of the Southern districts where it survives in modern -dialect. - - -[P] 8. PRONUNCIATION. One of the best ways of studying ME. pronunciation -is to learn by heart a few lines of verse in a consistent dialect, and -to correct their repetition as more precise knowledge is gained. The -spelling can be relied on as very roughly phonetic if the exceptional -usages noted in [P] 6 are kept in mind. Supplementary and controlling -information is provided by the study of rimes, of alliteration, and of -the history of English and French sounds. - -#Consonants.# Where a consonant is clearly pronounced in Modern English, -its value is nearly enough the same for ME. But modern spelling -preserves many consonants that have been lost in speech, and so is -rather a hindrance than a help to the beginner in ME. For instance, the -initial sounds in ME. _kni[gh]t_ and _ni[gh]t_ were not the same, for -_kni[gh]t_ alliterates always with _k-_ (V 43, 107) and _ni[gh]t_ with -_n-_ (VII 149); and initial _wr-_ in _wringe_, _wri[gh]te_ is distinct -from initial _r-_ in _ring_, _ri[gh]t_ (cp. alliteration in VIII _a_ -168, V 136). Nor can _wri[gh]te_ rime with _write_ in a careful -fourteenth-century poem. In words like _lerne_, _doghter_, _r_ was -pronounced with some degree of trilling. And although there are signs of -confusion in late MSS. (IV _a_, XVI, XVII), double consonants were -generally distinguished from single: _sonne_ 'sun' was pronounced -_s[)u]n-ne_, and so differed from _sone_ 'son', which was pronounced -_s[)u]-ne_ ([P] 6 vi). - -#Vowels.# Short vowels _[)a]_, _[)e]_, _[)i]_, _[)o]_, _[)u]_ ([P] 6 vi) -were pronounced respectively as in French _patte_, English _pet_, _pit_, -_pot_, _put_. Final unstressed _-e_ was generally syllabic, with a sound -something like the final sound in _China_ ([P] 9). - -The long vowels _[=a]_, _[=i]_, _[=u]_ ([P] 6 v) were pronounced -approximately as in _f~a~ther_, _mach~i~ne_, _cr~u~de_. But _[=e]_ and -_[=o]_ present special difficulties, because the spelling failed to make -the broad distinction between open _[=o,]_ and close _[=o.]_, open -_[=e,]_ and close _[=e.]_--a distinction which, though relative only -(depending on the greater or less opening of the mouth passage), is -proved to have been considerable by ME. rimes, and by the earlier and -subsequent history of the long sounds represented in ME. by _e_, _o_. - - (i) Open _[=o,]_ (as in _broad_) derives: - - (_a_) from OE. _[=a]_, according to [P] 7 b i: OE. _br[=a]d_, - _b[=a]t_, _b'ald_ > ME. _br[=o,]d_, _b[=o,]t_, _b[=o,]ld_ > NE. - _broad_, _boat_, _bold_. The characteristic modern spelling is - thus _oa_. - - (_b_) from OE. _[)o]_ in open syllables according to [P] 7 a iii: - OE. _br[)o]cen_ > ME. _br['o,]ke(n)_ > NE. _broken_. - -NOTE.--In many texts the rimes indicate a distinction in -pronunciation between _[=o,]_ derived from OE. _[=a]_ and _[=o,]_ -derived from OE. _[)o]_, and the distinction is still made in NW. -Midland dialects. - - (ii) Close _[=o.]_ (pronounced rather as in French _beau_ than as - in standard English _so_ which has developed a diphthong _[o.]u_), - derives from OE. _[=o]_: OE. _g[=o]s_, _d[=o]m_, _g'old_ > ME. - _g[=o.]s_, _d[=o.]m_, _g[=o.]ld_ > NE. _goose_, _doom_, _gold_. - The characteristic modern spelling is _oo_. - -NOTE.--(1) After consonant + _w_, _[=o,]_ often develops in ME. -to _[=o.]_: OE. _(al)sw[=a]_, _tw[=a]_ > ME. _(al)s[=o,]_, _tw[=o,]_ > -later _(al)s[=o.]_, _tw[=o.]_. - -(2) In Scotland and the North _[=o.]_ becomes regularly -a sound (perhaps _[=ue]_) spelt _u_: _g[=o]d_ > _gud_, _bl[=o]d_ > -_blud_, &c. - -Whereas the distribution of _[=o,]_ and _[=o.]_ is practically the same -for all ME. dialects, the distinction of open _[=e,]_ and close _[=e.]_ -is not so regular, chiefly because the sounds from which they derive -were not uniform in OE. dialects. For simplicity, attention will be -confined to the London dialect, as the forerunner of modern Standard -English. - - (iii) South-East Midland open _[=e,]_ (pronounced as in _there_) - derives: - - (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _[=ae]_: Anglian _d[=ae]l_ > SE. Midl. - _d[=e,]l_ > NE. _deal_; - - (_b_) from OE. _[=e]a_: OE. _b[=e]atan_ > ME. _b[=e,]te(n)_ > NE. - _beat_; - - (_c_) from OE. _[)e]_ in open syllables according to [P] 7 a iii: - OE. _m[)e]te_ > ME. _m['e,]te_ > NE. _meat_. - -The characteristic modern spelling is _ea_. - - (iv) South-East Midland close _[=e.]_ (pronounced as in French - _'et'e_) derives: - - (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _[=e]_ of various origins: Anglian - _h[=e]r_, _m[=e]ta(n)_, _(ge)l[=e]fa(n)_ > SE. Midl. _h[=e.]re_, - _m[=e.]te(n)_, _l[=e.]ue(n)_ > NE. _here_, _meet_, _(be)lieve_. - - (_b_) from OE. _[=e]o_: OE. _d[=e]op_, _[th][=e]of_ > ME. _d[=e.]p_, - _[th][=e.]f_ (_[th]ief_) > NE. _deep_, _thief_. - -The characteristic modern spellings are _ee_, and _ie_ which already in -ME. often distinguishes the close sound ([P] 6 ii). - -NOTE.--The distinction made above does not apply in South-Eastern -(Kentish), because this dialect has ME. _ea_, _ia_, _ya_ for OE. -_[=e]a_ (iii b), and OE. _[=e]_ for Anglian _[=ae]_ (iii a). Nor does -it hold for South-Western, because the West Saxon dialect of OE. had -_gel[=i]efan_ for Anglian _gel[=e]fa(n)_ (iv a). West Saxon also had -_str[=ae]t_, _-dr[=ae]dan_, where normal Anglian had _str[=e.]t_, -_-dr[=e.]da(n)_, but the distribution of the place-names _Stratton_ -beside _Stretton_, and of the pa. t. and pp. _dradd(e)_ beside -_dredd(e)_ (p. 270 and n.), shows that the _[=ae]_ forms were common -in the extreme South and the East of the Anglian area; so that in -fourteenth-century London both _[=e,]_ and _[=e.]_ might occur in such -words, as against regular West Midland and Northern _[=e.]_. - -In NE. Midland and Northern texts some _[=e]_ sounds which we should -expect to be distinguished as open and close rime together, especially -before dental consonants, e.g. _[gh][=e]de_ (OE. _[=e]ode_): _l[=e]de_ -(Anglian _l[=ae]da(n)_) I 152-3. - - -[P] 9. INFLEXIONS. Weakening and levelling of inflexions is continuous -from the earliest period of English. The strong stress falling regularly -on the first or the stem syllable produced as reflex a tendency to -indistinctness in the unstressed endings. The disturbing influence of -foreign conquest played a secondary but not a negligible part, as may be -seen from a comparison of some verbal forms in the North and the N. -Midlands, where Norse influence was strongest, with those of the South, -where it was inconsiderable: - - Normal Early Early Old - OE. Sth. Nth.and Norse - ME. N. Midl. - Infin. _dr[=i]fan_ _driue(n)_ _driue_ _dr'ifa_ - Pres. p. _dr[=i]fende_ _driuinde_ _driuande_ _dr'ifandi_ - Pp. strong _gedrifen_ _ydriue_ _driuen_ _drifenn_ - -and although tangible evidence of French influence on the flexional -system is wanting (for occasional borrowings like _gowtes artetykes_ IX -314 are mere literary curiosities), every considerable settlement of -foreign speakers, especially when they come as conquerors, must shake -the traditions of the language of the conquered. A third cause of -uncertainty was the interaction of English dialects in different stages -of development. - -The practical sense of the speakers controlled and balanced these -disruptive factors. There is no better field than Middle English for a -study of the processes of vigorous growth: the regularizing of -exceptional and inconvenient forms; the choice of the most distinctive -among a group of alternatives; the invention of new modes of expression; -the discarding of what has become useless. - -At the beginning of the fourteenth century the inflexional endings -are: _-e_; _-en_; _-ene_ (weak gen. pl.); _-er_ (comparative); _-es_; -_-est_; with _-e[th]_, _-ede_ (_-de_, _-te_), _-ed_ (_-d_, _-t_), -_-ynge_ (_-inde_, _-ende_, _-ande_), which are verbal only. - -NOTE.--(_a_) Sometimes one of these inflexions may be substituted for -another: e.g. when _-es_ replaces _-e_ as the Northern ending of the 1st -sg. pres. ind. Such analogical substitutions must be distinguished from -phonetic developments. - -(_b_) In disyllabic inflexions like _-ede_, _-ynge_ (_-ande_), final -_-e_ is lost early in the North. In polysyllables it is dropped -everywhere during the century. - -(_c_) The indistinct sound of flexional _-e-_ covered by a consonant is -shown by spellings with _-i-_, _-y-_: _woundis_ X 51; _madist_ XI _b_ -214; _blyndi[th]_ XI _b_ 7; _fulfillid_ XVI 6; _etin_ XIV _b_ 76; -_brokynne_ XVI 195. And, especially in West Midland texts, _-us_, _-un_ -(_-on_) appear for _-es_, _-en_: _mannus_ XI _b_ 234; _foundun_ XI _a_ -47; _laghton_ VII 119. Complete syncope sometimes occurs: _days_ I 198, -&c. - -Otherwise all the inflexions except _-e_, _-en_, are fairly stable -throughout the century. - -#-en#: In the North _-en_ is found chiefly in the strong pp., where it -is stable. In the South (except in the strong pp.) it is better -preserved, occurring rarely in the dat. sg. of adjectives, e.g. _onen_ -III 4, dat. pl. of nouns, e.g. _diaknen_ III 5, and in the infinitive; -more commonly in the weak pl. of nouns, where it is stable, and in the -pa. t. pl., where it alternates with _-e_. In the Midlands _-en_, -alternating with _-e_, is also the characteristic ending of the pres. -ind. pl. As a rule (where the reduced ending _-e_ is found side by side -with _-en_) _-e_ is used before words beginning with a consonant, and -_-en_ before words beginning with a vowel or _h_, to avoid hiatus. But -that the preservation of _-en_ does not depend purely on phonetic -considerations is proved by its regular retention in the Northern strong -pp., and its regular reduction to _-e_ in the corresponding Southern -form. - -#-e#: Wherever _-en_ was reduced, it reinforced final _-e_, which so -became the meeting point of all the inflexions that were to disappear -before Elizabethan times. - -_-e_ was the ending of several verbal forms; of the weak adjective and -the adjective pl.; of the dat. sg. of nouns; and of adverbs like -_faste_, _deepe_, as distinguished from the corresponding adjectives -_fast_, _deep_. - -That _-e_ was pronounced is clear from the metres of -Chaucer, Gower, and most other Southern and Midland -writers of the time. For centuries the rhythm of their verse -was lost because later generations had become so used to -final _-e_ as a mere spelling that they did not suspect that it -was once syllabic. - -But already in fourteenth-century manuscripts there is evidence of -uncertainty. Scribes often omit the final vowel where the rhythm shows -that it was syllabic in the original (see the language notes to I, II). -Conversely, in _Gawayne_ forms like _burne_ (OE. _beorn_), _race_ (ON. -_r'as_), _hille_ (OE. _hyll_) appear in nominative and accusative, where -historically there should be no ending. The explanation is that, quite -apart from the workings of analogy, which now extended and now curtailed -its historical functions, _-e_ was everywhere weakly pronounced, and was -dropped at different rates in the various dialects. In the North it -hardly survives the middle of the century (IV _a_, X). In the N. -Midlands its survival is irregular. In the South and S. Midlands it is -fairly well preserved till the end of the century. But everywhere the -proportion of flexionless forms was increasing. It may be assumed that, -in speech as in verse, final _-e_ was lost phonetically first before -words beginning with a vowel or _h_. - - -[P] 10. NOUNS: Gender, which in standard West Saxon had been to a great -extent grammatical (i.e. dependent on the forms of the noun), was by the -fourteenth century natural (i.e. dependent on the meaning of the noun). -This change had accompanied and in some degree facilitated the transfer -of nearly all nouns to the strong masculine type, which was the -commonest and best defined in late OE.: - - OE. ME. - Sg. nom. acc. _cniht_ _kni[gh]t_ - gen. _cnihtes_ _kni[gh]tes_ - dat. _cnihte_ _kni[gh]te_ - - OE. ME. - Pl. nom. acc. _cnihtas_ _kni[gh]tes_ - gen. _cnihta_ _kni[gh]tes_ - dat. _cnihtum_ _kni[gh]tes_ - -In the North final _-e_ of the dat. sg. was regularly dropped early in -the fourteenth century, and even in the South the dat. sg. is often -uninflected, probably owing to the influence of the accusative. In the -plural the inflexion of the nom. acc. spreads to all cases; but in early -texts, and relatively late in the South, the historical forms are -occasionally found, e.g. gen. pl. _cniste_ (MS. _cnistes_) XV _g_ 30 -(note), dat. pl. _diaknen_ III 5. - -#Survivals#: (i) The common mutated plurals _man_: _men_, _fot_: _fet_, -&c., are preserved, and in VIII _b_ a gen. pl. _menne_ (OE. _manna_) -occurs; _ky_ pl. of _cow_ forms a new double pl. _kyn_, see (iii) below; -_hend_ pl. of _hand_ is Norse, cp. XVI 75 (note). - -(ii) Some OE. neuters like _shep_ 'sheep' VIII _b_ 18, _[gh]er_ 'year' -II 492, _[th]ing_ II 218, _folk_ II 389, resist the intrusion of the -masculine pl. _-es_ in nominative and accusative. Pl. _hors_ II 304, -XIII _a_ 34 remains beside _horses_ XIV _b_ 73; but _deores_ 'wild -animals' occurs at XV _b_ 29, where Modern English preserves _deer_. - -(iii) In the South the old weak declension with pl. _-en_ persists, -though by the fourteenth century the predominance of the strong type -is assured. The weak forms occur not only where they are historically -justified, e.g. _ey[gh]en_ (OE. _[=e]agan_) II 111, but also by analogy -in words like _honden_ (OE. pl. _honda_) II 79, _tren_ (OE. pl. -_tr[=e]o_) XIII _a_ 51, _platen_ (OFr. _plate_) XV _g_ 4. The inflexion -still survives in three double plural formations: _children_ VIII _b_ -70 beside _childer_ (OE. pl. _cildru_); _bretheren_ VIII _a_ 201 beside -_brether_ XVII 320 (OE. pl. _br[=o][th]or_); and _ky[gh]n_ IX 256 for -_ky_ (cp. (i) above). The OE. weak gen. pl. in _-ena_ leaves its traces -in the South, e.g. _knauene_ VIII _b_ 56, XV _h_ 4, and unhistorical -_lordene_ VIII _b_ 77. - -(iv) The group _fader_, _moder_, _bro[th]er_, _doghter_ commonly show -the historical flexionless gen. sg., e.g. _doghtyr arme_ I 136; _moder -wombe_ XI _b_ 29 f.; _brother hele_ XII _a_ 18; _Fadir voice_ XVI 79. - -(v) The historical gen. sg. of old strong feminines remains in _soule -dede_ (OE. _s[=a]wle_) I 212; but _Lady day_ (OE. _hl[=ae]fdigan daeg_) -I 242 is a survival of the weak fem. gen. sg. - - -[P] 11. ADJECTIVES. Separate flexional forms for each gender are not -preserved in the fourteenth century; but until its end the distinction -of strong and weak declensions remains in the South and South Midlands, -and is well marked in the careful verse of Chaucer and Gower. The strong -is the normal form. The weak form is used after demonstratives, _the_, -_his_, &c., and in the vocative. As types _god_ (OE. _g[=o]d_) 'good' -and _grene_ (OE. _gr[=e]ne_) 'green' will serve, because in OE. -_gr[=e]ne_ had a vowel-ending in the strong nom. sg. masc., while -_g[=o]d_ did not. The ME. paradigms are: - - Singular. Plural. - Strong Weak Strong and Weak - _god_ _god[.e]_ _god[.e]_ - _gren[.e]_ _gren[.e]_ _gren[.e]_ - -Examples: Strong sg. _a gret serpent_ (OE. _gr[=e]at_) XII _b_ 72; _an -unkind[.e] man_ (OE. _uncynde_) XII _b_ 1; _a still[.e] water_ (OE. -_stille_) XII _a_ 83. Weak sg. _The gret[.e] gastli serpent_ XII _b_ -126; _hire oghn[.e] hertes lif_ XII _a_ 4; _O lef liif_ (where the metre -indicates _leu[.e]_ for the original) II 102. Strong pl. _[th]er wer -wid[.e] wones_ II 365. Weak pl. _the smal[.e] stones_ XII _a_ 84. - -Note that strong and weak forms are identical in the plural; that even -in the singular there is no formal distinction when the OE. strong masc. -nom. ended in a vowel (_gr[=e]ne_); that monosyllables ending in a vowel -(e.g. _fre_), polysyllables, and participles, are usually invariable; -and that regular dropping of final _-e_ levels all distinctions, so that -the North and N. Midlands early reached the relatively flexionless stage -of Modern English. - -#Survivals.# The _Ayenbyte_ shows some living use of the adjective -inflexions. Otherwise the survivals are limited to set phrases, e.g. -gen. sg. _nones cunnes_ 'of no kind', _enes cunnes_ 'of any kind', XV -_g_ 20, 22. That the force of the inflexion was lost is shown by the -early wrong analysis _no skynnes_, _al skynnes_, &c. - -#Definite Article.# Parallel to the simplification of the adjective, -the full OE. declension _s[=e]_, _s[=e]o_, _[th]aet_, &c., is reduced -to invariable _[th]e_. The _Ayenbyte_ alone of our specimens keeps some -of the older distinctions. Elsewhere traces appear in set phrases, e.g. -neut. sg. _[th]at_, _[th]et_ in _[th]at on_ 'the one', _[th]at o[th]er_ -'the other' V 344, and, with wrong division, _[th]e ton_ XI _b_ 27, -_the to[th]er_ IX 4; neut. sg. dat. _[th]en_ (OE. _[th][=ae]m_), with -wrong division, in _atte nale_ (for _at [th]en ale_) VIII _a_ 109. - - -[P] 12. PRONOUNS. In a brilliant study (_Progress in Language_, London -1894) Jespersen exemplifies the economy and resources of English from -the detailed history of the Pronoun. In the first and second persons -fourteenth-century usage does not differ greatly from that of the -Authorized Version of the Bible. But the pronoun of the third person -shows a variety of developments. In the singular an objective case -replaces, without practical disadvantages, the older accusative and -dative: _him_ (OE. _hine_ and _him_), _her(e)_ (OE. _h[=i]e_ and -_hiere_), _(h)it_ (OE. _hit_ and _him_). The possessive _his_ still -serves for the neuter as well as the masculine, e.g. _[th]at ryuer... -chaunge[th] ~hys~ fordes_ XIII _a_ 55 f.; though an uninflected neuter -possessive _hit_ occasionally appears in the fourteenth century. In the -plural, where one would expect objective _him_ from the regular OE. dat. -pl. _him_, clearness is gained by the choice of unambiguous _hem_, from -an OE. dat. pl. by-form _heom_. - -But as we see from _Orfeo_, ll. 408, 446, 185, in some dialects the nom. -sg. masc. (OE. _h[=e]_), nom. sg. fem. (OE. _h[=e]o_), and nom. pl. (OE. -_h[=i]e_), had all become ME. _he_. The disadvantages of such ambiguity -increased as the flexional system of nouns and adjectives collapsed, and -a remedy was found in the adoption of new forms. For the nom. sg. fem., -_s(c)he_, _s(c)ho_ (mostly Northern), come into use, which are probably -derived from _s[i(][=e]_, _s[e(][=o]_, the corresponding case of the -definite article. The innovation was long resisted in the South, and -_ho_, an unambiguous development of _he[=o]_, remains late in W. Midland -texts like _Pearl_. - -In the nom. pl. ambiguous _he_ was replaced by _[th]ei_, the nom. pl. -of the Norse definite article. This is the regular form in all except -the Southern specimens II (orig.), III, XIII. And although the full -series of Norse forms _[th]ei_, _[th]eir_, _[th]e(i)m_ is found in Orm -at the beginning of the thirteenth century, Chaucer and other Midland -writers of the fourteenth century as a rule have only _[th]ei_, with -native English _her(e)_, _hem_ in the oblique cases. (For details see -the language note to each specimen.) - -The poss. pl. _her(e)_, beside _hor(e)_, was still liable to confusion -with the obj. sg. fem. _her(e)_, cp. II 92. Consequently this was -the next point to be gained by the Norse forms, e.g. in VII 181. In -the Northern texts X, XVI, XVII, all from late MSS., the Norse forms -_[th]ai_, _[th]a(i)r_, _[th]a(i)me_ are fully established; but _(h)em_, -which was throughout unambiguous, survived into modern dialects in the -South and Midlands. - -Note the reduced nominative form _a_ 'he', 'they' in XIII; and the -objective _his(e)_ 'her', 'them' in III, which has not been -satisfactorily explained. - -#Relative#: The general ME. relative is _[th]at_, representing all -genders and cases (note to XV _i_ 4). Sometimes definition is gained by -adding the personal pronoun: _[th]at... he (sche)_ = 'who'; _[th]at... -it_ = 'which'; _[th]at... his_ = 'whose'; _[th]at ... him_ = 'whom', -&c.; e.g. _a well, ~[th]at~ in the day ~it~ is so cold_ IX 5-6, cp. V -127 (note); _oon ~That~ with a spere was thirled ~his~ brest-boon_ 'one -whose breast-bone was pierced with a spear', _Knight's Tale_ 1851. For -the omission of _[th]at_ see note to XIII _a_ 36. - -In later texts, _which_, properly an interrogative, appears commonly -as a relative, both with personal and impersonal antecedents, e.g. -_Alceone... ~which~... him loveth_ XII _a_ 3 ff.; _[th]at steede... fro -~whilke~ [th]e feende fell_ XVI 13 f. Under the influence of French -_lequel_, &c., _which_ is often compounded with the article _[th]e_, -e.g. _a gret serpent... ~the which~ Bardus anon up drouh_ XII _b_ 72 -f.; _no thing of newe, in ~the whiche~ the hereres myghten hauen... -solace_ IX 275 f. Further compounding with _[th]at_ is not uncommon, -e.g. _the queen of Amazoine, ~the whiche [th]at~ maketh hem to ben kept -in cloos_ IX 190 f. - -More restricted is the relative use of _whos_, _whom_, which are -originally interrogatives, though both are found very early in ME. as -personal relatives. Examples of the objective after prepositions are: -_my Lady, of ~quom~..._ VI 93; _God, fro ~whom~ ..._ IX 328 f.; _my -Sone... in ~whome~_ XVI 81 f. The possessive occurs in _Seynt Magne... -yn ~whos~ wurschyp_ I 90 f.; _I am ... the same, ~whos~ good_ XII _b_ 78 -f.; and, compounded with the article, in _Morpheues, ~the whos~ nature_ -XII _a_ 113. The nominative _who_ retains its interrogative meaning, -e.g. _But ~who~ ben more heretikis?_ XI _b_ 77 f.; or is used as an -indefinite, e.g. _a tasse of grene stickes... to selle, ~who that~ wolde -hem beie_ XII _b_ 22 ff.; but it is never used as a relative; and -probably _what_ in XVI 174 is better taken as in apposition to _myghtis_ -than as a true relative. - - -[P] 13. VERB. Syntactically the most interesting point in the history of -the ME. verb is the development of the compound tenses with _have_, -_be_, _will_, _shall_, _may_, _might_, _mun_, _can_, _gan_. But the -flexional forms of the simple tenses are most subject to local -variation, and, being relatively common, afford good evidence of -dialect. Throughout the period, despite the crossings and confusions -that are to be expected in a time of uncertainty and experiment, the -distinction between strong and weak verbs is maintained; and it will be -convenient to deal first with the inflexions common to both classes, and -then to notice the forms peculiar to one or the other. - -(i) #The Infinitive# had already in Northumbrian OE. lost final _-n_: -_dr[=i]fa_ 'to drive'. Hence in ME. of the North and N. Midlands the -ending is _-e_, which becomes silent at varying rates during the -fourteenth century; e.g. _dryue_ I 171, _to luf_ IV _a_ 17. In the South -and S. Midlands the common ending is _-e_, e.g. _telle_ III 3, which -usually remains syllabic to the end of the century; but _-(e)n_ is also -found, especially in verse to make a rime or to avoid hiatus: e.g. -_sein_ (: _a[gh]ein_) XII _a_ 27; _to parte and [gh]iven half his good_ -XII _b_ 201. - -(ii) #The Present Participle# (OE. _dr[=i]fende_) in the North and N. -Midlands ends in _-and(e)_, though _-yng(e)_, _-ing(e)_ is beginning to -appear in V, VII, XVI, XVII. In S. Midlands the historical ending -_-ende_ still prevails in Gower; but Chaucer has more commonly -_-yng(e)_; and in IX, XI, both late texts, only _-yng(e)_ appears. In -the South _-yng(e)_ is established as early as the beginning of the -century, e.g. in II. - -N.B. Carefully distinguish the verbal noun which always ends in -_-yng(e)_. Early confusion resulted in the transference of this ending -to the participle. - -(iii) #Present Indicative.# - -(_a_) Singular: OE. 1 _dr[=i]fe_, 2 _dr[=i]f(e)s(t)_, 3 _dr[=i]f(e)[dh]_ -(late Northumbrian _dr[=i]fes_). - -In ME. _-e_, _-est_, _-e[th]_ are still the regular endings for -the South and most of the Midlands. Shortened forms like _fint_ = -_finde[th]_ II 239; _stant_ = _stande[th]_ XII _a_ 74 are commonest in -the South, where in OE. they were a feature of West Saxon and Kentish -as distinguished from Anglian. Distinct are the Northern and N. Midland -_mas(e)_ 'makes', _tas_ 'takes', with contracted infinitives _ma_, -_ta_; and _bus_ 'behoves', which Chaucer uses in his imitation of -Northern English, _Reeves Tale_ 172. - -In N. Midlands the modern 3rd sg. _-(e)s_ is common (V, VI, but not in -earlier I). Farther North it is invariable (IV, X, XVI, XVII). The -distribution of _-es_ as the ending of the 2nd sg. is the same, and it -is extended even to the 1st person. - -(_b_) Plural: OE. _dr[=i]fa[dh]_ (late Northumbrian _dr[=i]fas_). - -Only Southern ME. retains the OE. inflexion as _-e[th]_ (II, III, XIII). -The Midland ending, whence the modern form derives, is _-e(n)_; though -in the N. Midlands _-es_ occasionally appears. Northern has regularly -_-es_, _unless the personal pronoun immediately precedes_, when the -ending is _-e_, as in the Midlands, e.g. _[th]ei make_ XVI 103. - -N.B. In applying this test, care must be taken to exclude inversions, -which are subject to special rules; to distinguish the subjunctive (e.g. -_falle_ XIII _a_ 52, _drawe_ XIII _b_ 6) from the indicative; and, -generally, to choose examples that are syntactically free from doubt, -because concord of number is not always logical in ME. - -SUMMARY. - - OE. - - 1. sg. _dr[=i]f-e_ - 2. _dr[=i]f-es(t)_ - 3. _dr[=i]f-e[dh]_ (Nth. _-es_) - pl. _dr[=i]f-a[dh]_ (Nth. _-as_) - - ME. - South S. Midl. N. Midl. North - 1. sg. _-e_ _-e_ _-(e)_ _-(e)_ or _-(e)s_ - 2. _-est_ _-est_ _-es(t)_ _-es_ - 3. _-e[th]_ _-e[th]_ _-e[th]_ or _-es_ _-es_ - pl. _-e[th]_ _-e(n)_ _-e(n)_ or _-es_ _-es_ or _-(e)_ - -(iv) #The Imperative Plural# might be expected to agree with the pres. -ind. pl. In fact it has the ending _-e[th]_ not merely in the South, -but in most of the Midlands, e.g. I, VIII, Gower and Chaucer. Northern -and NW. Midland (V, VI, XIV _b_, XVI) have commonly _-es_. But Chaucer, -Gower, and most late ME. texts have, beside the full inflexion, an -uninflected form, e.g. _vndo_ XVI 182. - -(v) #Past Tense.# - -(_a_) Strong: The historical distinctions of stem-vowel were often -obscured in ME. by the rise of new analogical forms, the variety of -which can best be judged from the detailed evidence presented in the -_New English Dictionary_ under each verb. But, for the common verbs -or classes, the South and S. Midlands preserved fairly well the OE. -vowel distinction of past tense singular and plural; while North and -N. Midlands usually preferred the form proper to the singular for -both singular and plural, e.g. _[th]ey bygan_ I 72; _[th]ey ne blan_ -I 73; _thai slang_ X 53, where OE. has sg. _gan_: _gunnon_; _blan_: -_blunnon_; ON. _sl[o,]ng_: _slungu_. - -(_b_) Weak: In the South and Midlands the weak pa. t. 2nd sg. usually -ends in _-est_ (N. Midland also _-es_): _hadest_ II 573; _cursedest_ I -130; _kyssedes_, _ra[gh]te[gh]_ V 283. In the North, and sometimes in -N. Midland, it ends in _-(e)_: _[th]ou hadde_ XVI 219. The full ending -of the pa. t. pl. is fairly common in the South, S. Midlands, and -NW. Midlands: _wenten_ II 185, _hedden_ III 42, _maden_ XII _b_ 196, -_sayden_ VI 174. - -(vi) #Past Participle (Strong)#: OE. _(ge)dr[)i]fen_. - -In the North and N. Midlands the ending _-en_ is usually preserved, but -the prefix _y-_ is dropped. In the South the type is _y-driue_, with -prefix and without final _n_. S. Midland fluctuates--for example, Gower -rarely, Chaucer commonly, uses the prefix _y-_. - -(vii) #Weak Verbs with -i- suffix#: In OE. weak verbs of Class II -formed the infinitive in _-ian_, e.g. _acsian_, _lufian_, and the -_i_ appeared also in the pres. ind. and imper. pl. _acsia[dh]_ and -pres. p. _acsiende_. In ME. a certain number of French verbs with an -_-i-_ suffix reinforced this class. In the South and W. Midlands the -_-i-_ of the suffix is often preserved, e.g. _aski_ II 467, _louy_ V -27, and is sometimes extended to forms in which it has no historical -justification, e.g. pp. _spuryed_ V 25. In the North and the E. -Midlands the forms without _i_ are generalized. - - - - -PRINTED IN ENGLAND -AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS - - - - -CORRIGENDA - -To Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ - -p. xlv, l. 7: _for_ carat _read_ caret - -p. xlvii: _for_ Jessop _read_ Jessopp - -p. 21, l. 259: _for_ be _read_ he - -p. 28, l. 493: _for_ enn _read_ en - -p. 43, foot-note to l. 69: _omit_ 'for:' - -p. 62, l. 100: _for_ tyste _read_ t<r>yste (_Morris_); _and adjust -note at p. 225_. - -p. 103, l. 254: _for_ largeand _read_ large and - -p. 175, l. 1: _for_ Daib. _read_ Diab. - -p. 214, note to _a_: _for_ 'The best... are' _read_ 'This poem is -largely a translation of sentences excerpted from Rolle's _Incendium -Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. Review_ for 1919, p. -320). Useful commentaries are' - -p. 226, note to l. 153: in l. 8 for _t[o,]_ read _t[=o,]_ - -p. 243, n. to ll. 5-6: _for_ 'external covering' _read_ 'covering over -it' - -p. 291, table, last column, 1 sg.: for '_-e_ or _(e)s_' read '_-(e)_ or -_-(e)s_' - - - - -[Transcriber's Note: A number of editorial corrections are without -Footnotes or Notes. The manuscript readings for these are here supplied -by the transcriber from the editions of Hamelius and England & Pollard: - - IX 166 Sy_t_hye] Sychye _MS._ - IX 270 i_t_] is _MS._ - IX 287 gr_e_uous] grouous _MS._ - XVII 85 displeas_es_] displeasse _MS._ - XVII 472 th_ou_] thi _MS._ - -Unusual characters have been transcribed in the following way: - - [=a] a with macron - [)=a] a with breve and macron - [)a] a with breve - ['a] a wit acute - [=ae] ae with macron - ['ae] ae with acute - [=e] e with macron - [=e.] e with macron and dot below - [.e] e with dot above - [e,] e with ogonek (e caudata or tailed e) - ['e,] e with ogonek and acute - [e(] e with inverted breve below - [)e] e with breve - [)=e] e with breve and macron - [)=e.] e with breve and macron with dot below - ['e] e with acute - [=i] i with macron - [i(] i with inverted breve below - [)i] i with breve - [)=i] i with breve and macron - [=n] n with macron - [=o] o with macron - [=o,] o with macron and ogonek - [=o.] o with macron and dot below - [=o)] o with macron and breve below - [)o] o with breve - [)=o] o with breve and macron - [o,] o with ogonek - ['o,] o with ogonek and acute - [o.] o with dot below - ['oe] oe ligature, stressed - [)u] u with breve - [)=u] u with breve and macron - [=u] u with macron - [=ue] u with macron and diaresis - [)=ue] u with diaresis, with breve and macron - [=y] y with macron - [)=y] y with breve and macron - [dh] letter eth - [gh] letter yogh - [Gh] letter Yogh - [th] letter thorn - [Th] letter Thorn - [s] long s - ['v] v with acute - [+] dagger symbol - ['-] stressed syllable - [P] paragraph symbol - -The CORRIGENDA to Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ (see -above) from the end of the accompanying vocabulary volume has been moved -here. All items listed have been corrected, except - - p. 62, l. 100: [...] _and adjust note at p. 225_ - -which remains unadjusted. - -The line numbering has been regularised to multiples of 5. Lines -of prose have their line numbers in {braces} within the text. The -companion volume, _A Middle English Vocabulary, designed for use with -SISAM's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose_, by J. R. R. Tolkien is -available at PG #43737.] - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOURTEENTH CENTURY VERSE & PROSE *** - -***** This file should be named 43736.txt or 43736.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/3/43736/ - -Produced by David Starner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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