Footnotes to Fragments

[1.] In Halliwell’s edition III.

[2.] In Halliwell’s edition II.

[3.] In Halliwell’s edition VI.

[4.] In Halliwell’s edition V.

[5.] In Halliwell’s edition IV.

[6.] Printed in Englische Studien, VII. p. 347 f.

[7.] In Halliwell’s edition I.

[8.] wepande.

[NOTES.]

[St. 1]

Page 1, [line 12]. Cf. [ll. 118], [187], [190], [198], [558], [924], [1924], [2183]. So in Eglamour (Thornton Romances), l. 408:

‘The boke of Rome thus can telle,’

and The Erl of Tolouse, ed. Lüdtke, l. 1219:

‘Yn Rome thys geste cronyculyd ys.’

See Halliwell’s and Lüdtke’s notes to these passages. I agree with both of them, that an expression like that does not earnestly refer the reader to a Latin or Italian source of the story; there is evidently no difference at all between in Rome and in romance.

[St. 2]

p. 1, [l. 15]. wyght has been inserted instead of dowghtty in order to restore the rhyme with hyght, knyght, myght; cf. Havelok, ed. Skeat, l. 344:

‘He was fayr man and wicth.’

p. 1, [l. 17] = Ipomadon, l. 63. Parallel passages to this hyperbolic expression are collected in Kölbing’s note to this line (p. 364).

p. 1, [l. 24]. We find the same idea as here, viz. that nobody can resist the will of God, who has power over death and life, in Sir Tristrem, ll. 236 ff.:

‘Þat leuedi, nouȝt to lain,

For soþe ded is sche!

Who may be ogain?

As god wil, it schal be,

Vnbliþe.’

[St. 3]

p. 2, [l. 28]. I have not met with the verb fesomnen anywhere else, and it is not mentioned in Stratmann and Mätzner. Halliwell, Dictionary, p. 354, explains it by ‘feoffed, gave in fee,’ doubtless regarding this very passage, although he doesn’t cite it; might fesomnyd not be a corruption from sesyd? cf. Havelok, ll. 250 f.:

‘Þat he ne dede al Engelond

Sone sayse intil his hond.’

Hall writes to me on this word as follows: fesomnyd is, I am convinced, not a word at all, but a scribe’s error for festonyd or festnyd = confirmed, fixed. Comp. ’And þat ich hym wolde myd trewþe siker faste on honde,’ Robert of Gloucester (Hearne), p. 150. For this use of fasten, fastnen, comp. ’But my forwarde with þe I festen on þis wyse,’ Alliterative Poems, p. 47, l. 327: ’& folden fayth to þat fre, festned so harde,’ Sir Gawayne, p. 57, l. 1783: ’And þis forward, in faith, I festyn with hond,’ Destruction of Troy, p. 22, l. 636. See also Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary, ii. p. 216, under to Fest.

p. 2, [l. 30]. I am by no means sure that fede is the original reading, but I wasn’t able to find a better word rhyming with dedde, wede; even the ne. ‘feed’ means pasture, and that is what we expect here.

p. 2, [l. 31]. For my correction cf. Lüdtke’s note to The Erl of Tolouse, l. 199, sub 2; Eglam., l. 26:

‘That was a maydyn as whyte as fome,’

Ib. l. 683:

‘Crystyabelle as whyte as fome,’

where the Percy Folio MS. reads:

‘Christabell that was as faire as sunn;’

Chronicle of England, l. 75 f.:

‘Ant nomeliche to thy lemmon,

That ys wyttore then the fom.’

[St. 5]

p. 2, [l. 50]. The alteration of And and bee into An and see seemed necessary; sayment is like Fr. essaiement, Lat. exagimentum.

p. 3, [l. 59]. Cf. [l. 1216 f.] and The Lyfe of Ipomydon, ed. Kölbing, l. 1795:

‘If thou hyr haue, thou shalt hyr bye.’

[St. 7]

p. 3, [l. 77 f.] As half of the stanza is lost, it is impossible to make out to whom they refers. Nor do I believe that [l. 78] is correct, especially as to chaunce.

[St. 8]

p. 3, [l. 79]. Cf. Ipomadon, ed. Kölbing, l. 8123:

‘A myle wyth in the Grekes see.’

p. 3, [l. 80]. in an yle is certainly the correct reading; mauyle was introduced by a scribe who supposed it to be the giant’s name; but that is mentioned some twenty lines later.

[St. 13]

p. 5, [l. 136]. The correction of lyght into ryght I owe to Hall, who refers me to the legend of Sancta Maria Egyptiaca; cf. f. i. Barbour’s Legends of Saints, ed. Horstmann, I. p. 143 ff.

[St. 14]

p. 6, [l. 153]. nowyd = ‘anoyed’ gives a poor sense. Hall suggests nowtyd; cf. E. D. S., No. 6, Ray’s North Country Words, p. 59, note, to push, strike or soar, with the horn, as a bull or ram,’ ab. A.S. huitan, ejusdem significationis. The word might then mean ‘spurred.’

[St. 16]

p. 6, [l. 171] = [l. 596]. This alliterative binding is a very frequent one; cf. Sir Orfeo, ed. Zielke, p. 9.

[St. 17]

p. 7, [l. 188]. The same rhyme, which I have restored here, occurs [l. 559 f.]

p. 7, [l. 190]. Yt tellythe = Yt is told; cf. Lüdtke, note to The Erl of Tolouse, l. 1070, and Sarrazin, note to Octavian, l. 1749.

[St. 22]

p. 9, [l. 236]. I was about to write, Crystyn men thow they were, referring this line to the guardians of the lions; but, no doubt, Hall’s reconstruction of the line, which I have put into the text, is far better.

p. 9, [l. 237]. Hys browys wexe bla, i.e. he turned pale, he was struck with fear; cf. bloo askes, P. Pl., l. 1553, and the German aschfahl. Quite a similar expression occurs in Perceval, l. 687 f.:

‘Now sone of that salle wee see,

Whose browes schalle blakke.’

Ib. l. 1056:

‘His browes to blake.’

[St. 23]

p. 9, [l. 245]. Though syghyng gives no offence, still it may be, that the author has written syngyng, and the scribe was wrong in altering it; cf. Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 5424.

p. 9, [l. 251]. Cf. [l. 802], [1204], Ipomadon, l. 6481 f.:

‘Your nece of Calabyre, that lady clere,

Ys bovnden wyth a fendes fere.’

Reliquiæ Antiquæ, i. p. 241:

‘He seith bi niȝte and eke bi day,

That hy beth fendes ifere.’

[St. 25]

p. 10, [l. 265 f.] The reading of these two lines is quite destroyed by the careless scribe. My correction is not more than an attempt to restore the rhyme.

[St. 26]

p. 10, [l. 277 ff.] There is nothing in Torrent’s words which could lead the princess to a conclusion like that. I think that after [l. 276] one stanza is wanting.

p. 11, [l. 286-8]. As to the contents of these lines, Kölbing refers me to Englische studien, vol. IV. p. 133 f., where F. Liebrecht mentions a passage in Sir Beves of Hamtoun, according to which a king’s daughter,—if she is a pure virgin,—can never be hurt by a lion. Here we have another proof for this remarkable bit of folk-lore.

[St. 27]

p. 11, [l. 292] = [l. 329].

[St. 28]

p. 11, [l. 303] = [l. 342].

p. 11, [l. 305]. I am not quite sure whether I was right in substituting the prince’s name—which is mentioned once more, the first time, as it were, [l. 341]—for the name of his father’s kingdom; but I didn’t see any other way of restoring the rhyme.

p. 12, [l. 311]. Cf. [l. 469] and Skeat’s note to Sir Thopas, l. 1927.

[St. 30]

p. 12, [l. 334]. Instead of he I should prefer to read they: Torrent has just admonished the prisoners to cheer up.

[St. 31]

p. 13, [l. 344]. There must be something wrong in this line, because the name of the third Earl’s son is missing; to write the third instead of of may not suffice to put the text right; even the names Torren and Berweyne seem to me very suspicious.

[St. 34]

p. 14, [l. 379]. Cf. Ipomadon, l. 4245, for Crystys dede; Crystys was substituted by Kölbing for mannes, which is clearly wrong; he could as well have chosen godes.

[St. 35]

p. 15, [l. 393 ff.] Cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 736.

[St. 38]

p. 16, [l. 427]. Of this allusion to Veland, Halliwell treats in his edition of Sir Torrent, p. vii f. Cf. Zupitza, Ein zeugnis für die Wieland-sage, Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, Vol. XIX, p. 129 f.

p. 16, [l. 429-31]. The line which follows l. 429 in the MS. is superfluous; it damages the metre; and the rhyme with l. 430 won’t do. The old king wishes to say; ‘I have seen the day when, if this sword wielded by me fell on any one, he was considered done for, doomed to death.’ Therefore l. 431, I fawght therfor I told has been corrected into Fawe they were I-told. The scribe did not understand the obsolescent word fawe or faye, so he wrote the nearest word to it to make sense, I-told = ‘held, considered.’—I. Hall.

[St. 41]

p. 17, [l. 458]. Cf. Breul’s note to Sir Gowther, l. 410.

p. 17, [l. 465]. Cf. [l. 2061 f.]

[St. 48]

p. 20, [l. 542]. The scribe, who evidently didn’t know the pretty rare word clow, has spoilt it to colod, or colvd; the same rhyme, clouȝ, drouȝ, anouȝ occurs in Sir Tristrem, l. 1761 ff. Nor did the scribe know the word swowe = ‘noise,’ and changed it to swayne; cf. Hall. Dict., p. 843: He come to him with a swowe.

p. 20, [l. 543]. Of and on, off and on, intermittently.

[St. 49]

p. 21, [l. 555]. schyld is not to the point here, Torrent having only his sword at hand. The scribe has forgotten what he has said himself, [l. 526] and [549]; cf. [l. 652].

[St. 51]

p. 21, [l. 582-4]. We meet with this description twice more in the poem, [ll. 1514-16], and [ll. 1858-60].

[St. 56]

p. 23, [l. 640]. On the meaning of theff, cf. Kölbing’s note to Am. and Amil., l. 787.

[St. 58]

p. 24, [l. 659]. of Perowne is certainly wrong, as it does not agree with the rhymes stere, nere, fere; but I don’t know how to amend the line.

p. 24, [l. 662]. schere gives no meaning; I write stere and translate, There might nobody move further, i.e. the giant was brought to a standstill in the glen.

p. 24, [l. 665]. Cf. [ll. 434], [791].

[St. 60]

p. 25, [l. 688]. Cf. Eglam., l. 324:

‘And to [the] herte hym bare.’

The weak preterit tense of berien is very rare; if bere = A.S. beran sometimes has the same meaning, i.e. ‘to strike,’ the reason is that A.S. beran and Icel. berja are confounded.

[St. 61]

p. 25, [l. 696]. woo can hardly stand for wood. It seems to me like a last corruption of an old romance phrase, like worthy inwith wall (woȝe); possibly the line was simply so: Thus in II journeys Torrent so.—Hall.

p. 25, [l. 700]. On the use of M.E. fote as a plural see Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 598.

[St. 63]

p. 26, [l. 722]. Hall suggests, the original phrase may have been: pomely whyt and grey; cf. Chaucer, C. T., Prol., l. 615 f.:

‘This reeve sat vpon a ful good stot,

That was al pomely gray, and highte Scot.’

[St. 65]

p. 27, [l. 744]. Cf. [l. 788]. On St. James cf. Kölbing’s note to Am. and Amil., l. 796.

[St. 70]

p. 29, [l. 808 f.] ‘In so dangerous conditions he has been before [and still come back safe], so he will come back even this time.’

[St. 71]

p. 29, [l. 819]. On the meaning of the phrase ’the bord beginne,’ cf. Kölbing, Englische studien, III. p. 104, and Zupitza, Anglia, III. p. 370 f.

[St. 73]

p. 30, [l. 838]. This stanza being incomplete, I think, the lacuna is to be put after l. 838. The missing three lines contained the fact, that the king promises Torrent, before his knights, that, when he has done this deed, he will give him his daughter, and grant him one half of his kingdom during his life, and the whole afterwards; cf. [l. 1206 ff.] The odd number of XXVII knights is probably due only to the scribe; cf. [F. III]: By VII score of hardy knyghtes.

[St. 76]

p. 31, [l. 867 f.] These two lines are poor, and the rhyme is very bad; l. 868 may have run originally, Thurrow Pervyns, for sothe, it ley; cf. [l. 949].

[St. 78]

p. 32, [l. 901]. squyere, although very odd at the first sight, may still be right; Torrent says: ‘The only squier that I took with me for this journey, is my sword’; cf. [l. 909].

[St. 80]

p. 33, [l. 922]. Cf. Kölbing’s note to Ipomadon, l. 3344.

p. 33, [l. 924-6]. On the story of a child, begotten by a devil on a sleeping woman, cf. Breul, Sir Gowther, p. 119 f.

[St. 83]

p. 34, [l. 954 ff.] Cf. Tristrem, l. 1409 ff.:

‘Out of Deuelin toun

Þe folk wel fast ran,

In a water to droun,

So ferd were þai þan.’

[St. 84]

p. 34, [l. 963 f.] Cf. Beves of Hamtoun, l. 187 f.:

‘Madame, a seide, for loue myn,

Whar mai ich finde þat wilde swin?’

[St. 87]

p. 36, [l. 1000]. Instead of spere perhaps we ought to read sworde.

[St. 89]

p. 37, [l. 1030 f.] If we compare the rests of these lines in [F. VI]., this reading or a similar one is to be expected. The reading of l. 1029 ff. in the fragments may be completed so: [Thourgh the he]lpe of god of heuen Thorough ye and] herin euen God send the spere the right way.

p. 36, [l. 1033 f.] Cf. [ll. 1166], [2468 f.], and Kölbing’s note to Sir Tristrem, l. 69 f.

[St. 92]

p. 38, [l. 1070]. ‘I came hither to seek my death,’ i.e. this expedition was so dangerous, that I expected to die.

[St. 93]

p. 38, [l. 1076]. Cf. Ipomadon, l. 239 f.:

‘Tyll vncovth contreys will I wende,

The maner wille I see.’

p. 39, [l. 1081]. is was to be corrected into it: ‘Because you slew him that possessed it.’

[St. 94]

p. 39, [l. 1086]. This line, according to Hall’s emendation, means: You owe no homage or feudal due, the manor is yours and your heirs’ for ever; i.e. the manor is in fee simple, and free from any feudal obligation.

[St. 95]

p. 39, [st. 95]. The text would be improved by putting [ll. 1104-6] before 1101-3, although this transposition is not absolutely necessary.

p. 39, [l. 1105]. lefte may be a mistake for loste; cf. Gower, I. 207:

‘Contenaunce for a þrowe

He loste.’

[St. 96]

p. 40, [l. 1117]. Cf. Ritson’s Met. Rom., III. p. 341 f., and Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 436.

[St. 97]

p. 40, [l. 1121]. he bare looks rather suspicious, but it is supported by [l. 2169]. The author is about to describe the figures inlaid on the shield. Cf. Eglamour, l. 1030 f.:

’He bare in azure[1] a grype of golde,

Rychely beton on the molde.’

p. 40, [l. 1124]. This line is hopelessly spoilt; the scribe, careless as he was, has almost literally repeated [l. 1121]; l. 1125 directly continues the description begun before.

[St. 98]

p. 40, [l. 1132]. Is than I haue in tale right? We expect rather: than I can telle in tale.

p. 41, [l. 1138 f.] Cf. [l. 1587 f.]

[St. 99]

p. 41, [l. 1143]. I thought it necessary to insert mete, although Mätzner, Wörterbuch, II. p. 274, cites this line as the only instance in the M.E. literature for glad as a substantive. But even the sense is very poor without this addition.

p. 41, [l. 1144]. As to a man riding into the hall, cf. Skeat’s note to Chaucer’s Squiere’s Tale, l. 80, and Kölbing’s note to Ipomadon, l. 6253 f.

p. 41, [l. 1150 f.] I hope my alterations in l. 1151 are right. It cannot be said that the King of Aragon defends the lady unless somebody has laid claims to her. Torrent wants either three combats or the lady, quite a regular occurrence in mediæval romances.

[St. 100]

p. 41, [l. 1154]. none, i.e. no lady.

p. 41, [l. 1160]. Cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 138.

[St. 101]

p. 41, [l. 1165]. the gres, which word is here required by the rhyme, is, in the same way as in this passage, used for ‘battle-field,’ in Perceval, l. 1225 f.:

‘Hedes and helmys ther was,

I telle ȝow withowttene lese,

Many layde one the gresse,

And many brode schelde.’

[St. 102]

p. 42, [l. 1181]. For tynding of his hand = for fear of (= for) the beating (blows) of his hand. Schoolboy slang still keeps the word ’to tund’ = to beat with something flat.—Hall.

[St. 103]

p. 42, [l. 1193]. On this expression Skeat treats in Notes to P. Pl., p. 3987, to which note I refer the reader. Cf. Li B. Disc., l. 130 f. (Ritson, Rom. II. p. 6):

‘Hys schon wer with gold ydyght

And kopeth as a knyght.’

p. 43, [l. 1198 f.]: ‘None of them said a single word, But that Torrent had been right to do so as he had done.’

[St. 104]

p. 43, [l. 1211]. There is an evident contradiction between this line and [l. 1199]. I suppose the word waried to be wrong; but I am not able to give a fairly certain emendation of it.

[St. 106]

p. 44, [l. 1228 f.]: ‘The king had supposed he was dead, and, indeed, foolhardy he was to undertake an adventure like this.’

[St. 109]

p. 45, [l. 1268 f.] This fight between the giant Cate and Torrent reminds us in some points of the combat between Guy and Colbrond. Like the old northern holmganga, both fights take place on an island, and in both cases the giant declines to sit on horseback, because he is too heavy; cf. Guy of Warwike, Edinburgh, 1840, l. 9940 ff.:

‘When þai had sworn and ostage founde,

Colbrond stirt vp in þat stounde,

To fiȝt he was ful felle.

He was so michel and so vnrede,

That no hors miȝt him lede,

In gest as y you telle.

So mani he hadde of armes gere,

Vnneþe a cart miȝt hem bere,

Þe Inglisse for to quelle.’

p. 45, [l. 1270]. he instead of him is remarkable; this personal construction, provided that it is right, would offer an analogue to I am wo instead of me is wo; cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 245.

p. 45, [l. 1271] = [l. 1546].

[St. 113]

p. 46, [l. 1307]. This line ought probably to run thus:

’Sir Torent praid, as was his wonne.’

[St. 115]

p. 47, [l. 1337 f.] This is SAINT Nycholas de Barr, not sir N., as the copyist has put. He was hardly a cleric, or he would have known the Boy Bishop. An English reference for S. Nicholas is Alban Butler, Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, etc., vol. vii. p. 989, Dublin, 1833. His day is Dec. 6th, consequently he is not in Acta Sanctorum; see besides Altenglische legenden, Neue folge, ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1881, p. 11-16, and Barbour’s Legendensammlung, ed. Horstmann, I. p. 229-245. Barr is Bari in Italy, and Barbour, I. p. 238, l. 601 f., knew it was two syllables (cf. the rhyme þame be: Barre). Nicholas was the patron of sailors, and churches on the sea-coast in all parts of Europe were dedicated to him. Now as Sir Torrent had been in peril at sea, he offers to him. It was customary to offer garments at such shrines. See Hampson, Medii Ævi Kalendarium, I. p. 72. Hence I propose for l. 1338: A grett Erldome and a simarr. Simarr is not a common word, which makes it all the more probable here, since the uncommon words are those which are corrupted and lost. See Prompt. Parv., I. p. 75: ’chymer, abella,’ that is ‘abolla, cloak.’ M.E. simar, Fr. simarre.—Hall. I have not hesitated for a moment to introduce this sagacious conjecture into the text; also the correction of redith into tas I owe to Mr. Hall.

[St. 116]

p. 48, [l. 1353]. Cf. Kölbing’s note to Sir Tristrem, l. 2508.

[St. 117]

p. 48, [l. 1364]. We ought probably to read she instead of he.

[St. 118]

p. 48, [l. 1367 f.] Cf. [l. 1756 f.]

p. 48, [l. 1378]. Cf. Sir Tristrem, l. 2458:

‘Bi holtes and bi hille.’

[St. 119]

p. 49, [l. 1385 ff.] Here he addresses the King of Portugal. In l. 1385 the is superfluous, and should perhaps be struck out.

[St. 120]

p. 49, [l. 1395]. fend = defend; cf. Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 576.

[St. 124]

p. 51, [l. 1443 f.] As the existence of fede = fode, ‘fellow’ is proved by no other passage, we ought perhaps to write As spede me god: ffode, or As g. me save: knave, instead of As god me spede: ffede.

p. 51, [l. 1445]. The alteration of fleand, which is absurd here, into failand is supported by [l. 1280].

p. 51, [l. 1446]. As to make instead of made, cf. [l. 332].

[St. 126]

p. 51, [l. 1463]. Cf. [l. 2090 f.] I am afraid neither of these passages is quite right.

[St. 131]

p. 53, [l. 1518]. Perhaps we ought to read:

‘And out of the valey he hyd swith.’

[St. 132]

p. 54, [l. 1531]. I don’t believe that the poet used the word tree thrice within these four lines; perhaps he wrote for l. 1531: Shold not drawe it, parde.

[St. 134]

p. 54, [l. 1551]. Cf. Guy, ed. Zupitza, l. 5430:

‘To reste þer horsys a lytull wyght,’

and Zupitza’s note to l. 419.

[St. 135]

p. 55, [l. 1570]. Cf. Stratmann’s note to Havelok, l. 1129 (Englische studien, I. p. 424).

[St. 137]

p. 56, [l. 1592]. To the I haue full good gate means, ‘I am fully entitled to kill you.’ I don’t recollect to have met with any parallel passage.

[St. 138]

p. 56, [l. 1600]. That dynt is wrong, the rhyme shows as well as the meaning. But whether my alteration is right, seems very doubtful, especially as [l. 1609] offers the same rhyming word.

[St. 142]

p. 58, [st. 142]. Rhymes like dight, be-taught, draught, right can by no means be admitted. Now, instead of be-taught we may be allowed to write be-teighte (cf. Beket, l. 1827), and [l. 1654] may have run:

‘He wold haue a draught, aplight.’

[St. 144]

p. 59, [l. 1676]. After was, sent may have been dropped.

[St. 145]

p. 59, [l. 1692]. For his love, i.e. ‘As his sweetheart.’

[St. 148]

p. 60, [l. 1714]. Cf. Ipomadon, l. 52:

‘Begge he wex of bonne and blode.’

Ib. l. 1763:

‘Ryghtte bygge of bone and blode.’

p. 60, [l. 1722]: ‘All his men agreed with him,’ viz. that this was the knight whom he came to seek.

[St. 152]

p. 62, [l. 1774]. Is her day = A.S. aerdagas, cf. Havelok, l. 27? The word is very rare, and in this meaning occurs only in the plural.

p. 62, [l. 1777]. After king, on kne may have dropped out.

[St. 155]

p. 63, [l. 1799]. Cf. Chaucer, C. T., the Millere’s Tale, l. 325:

‘Say what thou wolt, I schal it never telle

To child no wyf, by him that harwed helle.’

Ib., The Sompnoure’s Tale, l. 407:

‘Now help, Thomas, for him that harewed helle.’

Perhaps even here, [l. 1702], Iesu, that made hell, ought to be altered into I. that harowde hell.

[St. 159]

p. 64, [l. 1846]. Perhaps we ought to read ebbyng instead of eb, according to [l. 223]; one can hardly say, that ‘the sea is eb.’

[St. 169]

p. 68, [l. 1961]. Instead of A I should prefer to read The, because this griffon is the same which robbed the child before.

[St. 171]

p. 69, [l. 1982]. Of what lond that he is left, i.e. ‘Wherever he may be born.’

[St. 172]

p. 69, [l. 1991 f.] Cf. Ipomadon, l. 50 f.:

‘He sayd: Fro tyme he kepe tham con,

My landes I shall hym take.’

[St. 173]

p. 70, [l. 2002]. It is good in euery fight, i.e. there is a stone in the ring which heals wounds, if they are touched with it; cf. Kölbing’s note to Ipomadon, l. 8018.

p. 70, [l. 2010]. Halliwell, p. 306, explains disparlid by ‘beaten down, destroyed,’ a meaning which is not fit for this passage. I read with a slight addition disparplid = ‘dispersed,’ a rare word; cf. Stratmann, p. 156.

[St. 175]

p. 71, [l. 2026]. But is probably to be altered into And.

[St. 178]

p. 72, [l. 2053]. Cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 3068.

[St. 180]

p. 72, [l. 2075]. One might be inclined to write:

‘That my two children vncrystonyd ware,’

but I don’t think that we are obliged to change: ‘I cared only for that one thing, That my two children might be christened.’

[St. 184]

p. 74, [l. 2126]. For hing instead of heng cf. Mätzner, Sprachproben, I. 1, p. 292, note to line 675, where hynges rhymes with springes.

[St. 185]

p. 74, [l. 2135]. hede vale, i.e. principal, best choice; vale = wale, or perhaps aphetic for avale = value.—Hall.

p. 74, [l. 2138]. born seems to me somewhat suspicious, though I cannot propose a better reading; and torn instead of born wouldn’t do.

[St. 186]

p. 75, [l. 2152]. The imperfect rhyme shows that there is something wrong in this line; it may be restored thus:

‘Loo, lordys good and hende.’

p. 75, [l. 2153]. wyll haue has probably been inserted here from the following line; we ought to read has.

[St. 187]

p. 75, [l. 2157]. Season for to hold, i.e. ‘in order to hold court.’ But I don’t know another instance of season with this meaning.

[St. 188]

p. 76, [l. 2174]. This line involves a contradiction to [l. 2158 f.]

[St. 189]

p. 76, [l. 2185]. smote means the same as caste; cf. King Horn, ed. Wissmann, l. 1038:

‘And ankere gunne caste.’

The only question is, whether ankere is allowed to be supplied or must be added; cf. [l. 2203].

[St. 191]

p. 77, [l. 2209-2214]. The Sultan informs Torrent by messengers, that the inhabitants of the town are starving, evidently appealing to his generosity. Torrent answers him, that if they will lie here, i.e. leave the town, they are to have victuals enough. But the Sultan doesn’t accept this condition, and so the siege is continued. That seems to me to be the meaning of this half of the stanza.

[St. 192]

p. 77, [l. 2216 f.] dede means here, and [l. 2400], ‘exploit, battle.’ In the same way Saber, Beves’s uncle, once a year on a certain day fights against the Emperor; cf. Sir Beues, l. 2917 ff.:

’& eueri ȝer on a dai certaine

Vpon þemperur of Almaine

He ginneþ gret bataile take,

Beues, al for þine sake.’

It agrees very well with the religious feelings of the Middle Ages, when they thought it a merit to fight against the heathens on Good Friday; cf. here [l. 2230 ff.]

p. 77, [l. 2224 ff.] I am afraid there is something wrong in these lines; the copyist seems to mean, that Torrent didn’t bereave the inhabitants of their worldly goods, their treasures; then we must write them for it. But what we really expect here is, that he leaves in the town some trustworthy men to keep it. Accordingly, the fault lies in Worldely goodis. Besides, l. 2224, did wyn, instead of was yn, would improve the rhyme.

[St. 193]

p. 77, [l. 2232]. bryght is a rather odd epithet to Sarȝins.

p. 78, [l. 2233 ff.] Fifteen years have past since Torrent began to fight against the infidels: he besieges the first town two years (cf. [l. 2189]), the second, six years (cf. [l. 2206]), the third, seven years (cf. [l. 2230]). Meanwhile, the education of a young man being finished at the age of fifteen (cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 287), his son had become just old enough to win his spurs.

[St. 194]

p. 78, [l. 2240]. I doubt whether ordeyn can be allowed to stand without an object, such as your folk, or your ships; cf. Robert of Glo’ster, ed. Hearne, p. 139, l. 19:

‘He bigan to ordeyne ys folk, & to batail aȝen drow.’

[St. 195]

p. 78, [l. 2256]: ‘Woebegone was she, that must see that,’ viz. that ‘le leopard took away her sone.’

[St. 196]

p. 78, [l. 2259 f.] The meaning of these two lines is not quite perspicuous, and they may be corrupt; only this one thing is clear, that these two knights are Torrent and his son, who belong to different parties.

[St. 197]

p. 79, [l. 2269 ff.] It may be that ll. 2269-71 and ll. 2272-74 are to be transposed, but I don’t think it necessary: Torrent’s men flee when they see that their chief has surrendered.

[St. 199]

p. 80, [l. 2302]. wekid = wicked, mischievous. But I don’t recollect to have met with this adj. as an epithet to land or country.

p. 80, [l. 2304]. Cf. Tristrem, l. 88, Kölbing’s note to that passage, and York Plays, p. 438, l. 155:

‘For, certys, my lyf days are nere done.’

[St. 200]

p. 80, [l. 2316]. The alteration of this line is rather a radical one; but there was no other way to restore the rhyme; I think that first, day and nyȝt had changed their places in line 2313, and then the copyist, in order to get a rhyme to nyȝt, spoilt the latter line.

[St. 202]

p. 81, [l. 2335]. be my ffaye and parmaffay in the same stanza, and both in the rhyme, are rather poor; one of these lines may have run thus:

‘Be god of heven, the king gan say.’

[St. 204]

p. 82, [l. 2357]. The same confusion between turment and turnament occurs in Ipomadon, l. 2868; cf. Kölbing’s note to this line.

[St. 207]

p. 83, [l. 2392]. Cf. Ipomadon, l. 3958:

‘A mercy, syr, for Crystes pitte,’

and Kölbing’s note to this line.

p. 83, [l. 2395 f.] Cf. Kölbing’s note to Tristrem, l. 3064, where he cites an interesting parallel passage to this line from Guy of Warwick, ed. Zupitza, l. 4707 f.:

‘Ȝyt þou art the trewest knyght,

That euer slepyd in wynturs nyght.’

[St. 208]

p. 83, [l. 2405]. and is perhaps miswritten for an or on.

p. 83, [l. 2407]. This line, as it stands, is rather odd; perhaps it ought to be identical with [l. 1128].

[St. 209]

p. 84, [l. 2420]. juster, jouster, means here a knight who joins in a joust or tournament: in the only other passage where it is known to occur, Alis., l. 1400, it is a horse for tourneying.

[St. 210]

p. 84, [l. 2433] = [l. 2456]; cf. Ipomadon, l. 8830:

’Euery man in there degre.’

[St. 212]

p. 85, [l. 2450]. On roial, cf. Kölbing’s note to Ipomadon, l. 64. To a roall ffyght may be compared Shakespeare’s A royal battle (Rich. III., IV. iv.).

[St. 213]

p. 85, [l. 2461]. with oute lent = ‘without fasting’? I have not met with this expletive phrase anywhere else.

[St. 216]

p. 86, [l. 2493]. It was not superfluous to mention this fact, because knights were very often killed in tournaments; cf. Niedner, Das deutsche turnier im XII. und XIII. Iahrhundert, Berlin, 1881, p. 24. See also R. Brunne’s Handlyng-Synne, ed. Furnivall, 1862, p. 144-6.

[St. 218]

p. 87, [l. 2518-20]. As to the meaning of couplid, cf. Mätzner, Wörterbuch, I. p. 491. These lines evidently mean that gentlemen and ladies sit alternately, what one calls in German, bunte reihe machen. Cf. A. Schultz, Das höfische Leben Zur Zeit der Minnesinger, I. p. 330, and P. Pietsch, Bunte Reihe, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, vol. xvi. Halle, 1884, p. 231, who cites from Biterolf, l. 7399 ff.:

‘Do hiezens under mîne man

Ir ingesinde wol getân

Sich teilen in dem palas,

Daz kein mîn recke dâ was,

Ern sæze zwischen magedîn.’

[St. 219]

p. 87, [l. 2526]. emell was added by Hall in order to restore the rhyme with Desonell.

[St. 220]

p. 88, [l. 2535]. For this correction, cf. Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 600.

[St. 225]

p. 90, [l. 2593]. After marked, them may have dropped; cf. Layamon, l. 5642 f.:

‘And heom markede forđ,

Touward Munt-giu heo ferden,’

instead of which lines the later MSS. writes:

‘Hii nome riht hire way

Touward Muntageu.’

‘In Rome this romance crouned es.’

The Cambridge MS. reads instead:

‘In Rome thys geste cronyculd ys.’

I am inclined to think that crouned is nothing else but a misreading for cronyculd. Afterwards, considered to be correct, it has originated expressions like those we find here.