INTRODUCTION NOTES
[1] The French prose says simply that King Arthur was at Carlisle: the poem takes twenty verses to tell how “When Titan with his lusty heat had made his court for twenty days in Aries, and all with divers hues had apparelled the fields and branches … in this time the worthy conqueror, Arthur, who had the flower of all the chivalry of this world pertaining to his crown, so passing were his knightes in renown, was at Carlisle, etc.” Then the prose records that the king went one morning early into the woods to hunt. This the verse expands into ten lines describing the hunt. In another place the French says, “Et quant il fut entre en la bataille il fist sonner ses busines tant que tout en retentissoit.” This the Scots turns into,
“Up goith the trumpetis, and the claryownis,
Hornys, bugillis blawing furth thar sownis,
That al the cuntre resownit hath about;
Than Arthuris folk var in dispar and dout,
That hard the noys, and saw the multitud,
Of fresch folk; thai cam as thai war wod.”
The Black Knight says, “Seigneurs, vous estes tous amys du roy. Or y perra comment vous le ferez.” This is the sole foundation for thirty-one lines in the Scots poem, including a response from his followers that is not in the prose. The Scot uses his material freely, translating faithfully when a mere pedestrian course was sufficient, letting himself go when his imagination was aroused. He is more vivid and circumstantial in narrative, fuller and more sensuous in description. Take the following; French, “Et fut a leur venue le chevalier noir mis a terre; Et aussi les six compaignons qui toute jour avoyent este pres de luy;” Scots,
“The blak knycht is born on to the ground,
His horse hyme fallith, that fellith dethis wound.
The vi falowis, that falowith hyme al day,
Sich was the press, that to the erth go thay.”
A good deal of this expansion is obviously occasioned by the demands of metre and rhyme.
[2] Mr H. R. Plomer, in an interesting paper contributed to the Library, vol. i. (New Series), pp. 195-205, shows that this was a pirated edition; and perhaps the same is the case with the Dublin edition of 1739, mentioned below.
[3] See Wood’s “Athen. Oxon.,” fol. p. 226.
[4] See his “Life,” written by Sir Fulke Greville, Kt. Lord Brook. Printed Ann. 1652, 8vo, p. 5.
[5] Wood, ut supra.
[6] See his “Life,” ut supra, p. 8.
[7] See Wood, p. 227.
[8] Annal. Camdeni, sub. Ann. 1581.
[9] Ibid. Ann. 1582.
[10] Published 1590 (Ibid. i. 324).
[11] First printed, 1591.
[12] First printed, 1595.
[13] See Wood, ut supra.
[14] See his “Life,” ut supra, p. 142 et seq.
[15] Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
[16] See his “Life,” ut supra, p. 165.
[17] Camd. Brit. in Kent.
[18] See Wood, ut supra.
[19] See his “Life,” prefixed to the last edition folio.
[20] Viz. 16th October 1586.
[21] The title of the Oxford verses published upon the death of our author.
[22] We cannot fix the date, nor on what occasion this great appearance of nobility was then at Oxford, only that the Earl of Leicester was high chancellor of that University.
[23] In opposition to Philip of Spain.