TO
THE TALE OF GAMELYN.
1. Litheth, hearken ye; cf. l. 169. This is the imperative plural; so also lesteneth, herkeneth. See remarks on the dialect in vol. iii. p. 400. For the explanation of the harder words, see the Glossary. Compare: 'Now list and lithe, you gentlemen'; Percy Folio MS., ii. 218; 'Now lithe and listen, gentlemen,' id. iii. 77.
3. Iohan of Boundys. It is not clear what is meant by Boundys, which is repeated in l. 226; nor is there any clear indication of the supposed locality of the story. Lodge, in his novel (see vol. iii. p. 404), ingeniously substitutes Bourdeaux, and calls the knight 'Sir John of Bourdeaux.'[[29]] In Shakespeare, he becomes Sir Roland de Bois.
The reading righte (for right) is demanded by grammar, the article being in the definite form; and the same reading is equally demanded by the metre. Where the final e is thus necessary to the grammar and metre alike, there is little difficulty in restoring the correct reading. Compare the good-e knight in ll. 11, 25, 33.
4. 'He was sufficiently instructed by right bringing up, and knew much about sport.' Nurture is the old phrase for a 'genteel education.' Thus we find 'The boke of Nurture, or Schoole of good maners: for men, seruants, and children,' written by Hugh Rhodes, and printed in 1577; and John Russell's 'Boke of Nurture,' in MS. Harl. 4011. See the Babees Book, ed. F. J. Furnivall, 1868; where much information as to the behaviour of our forefathers is given. By game is meant what is now called sport; 'The Master of the Game' is the name of an old treatise on hunting; see Reliquiae Antiquae, i. 149. Cf. As You Like It, ii. 7. 97: 'Yet am I inland bred, And know some nurture.'
5. Thre sones, three sons. They are here named Johan, Ote, and Gamelyn; Lodge calls them Saladyne, Fernandine, and Rosader; in Shakespeare, they are Oliver, Jaques, and Orlando. The characters of the three are much the same in all three versions of the story.
6. sone he began, he soon began, viz. to evince his disposition.
12. his day, his term of life, his lifetime. So in Hamlet, v. 1. 315, the 'dog will have his day.' Hence after his day is, practically, after his death.