——of monekes blake
A priorie to seruen inne ay.
The allusion here may be made either to the Abbey of Wellow, in Grimsby, which was a monastery of Black Canons, said to have been built about A.D. 1110, or (what is more probable) to the Augustine Friary of Black Monks, which is stated in the Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, by the Rev. G. Oliver, to have been “founded about the year 1280,” p. 110. No notice of it occurs in Tanner till the year 1304. Pat. 33 Edw. I. Some old walls of this edifice, which was dissolved in 1543, still remain, and the site is still called “The Friars.” If the connection between this foundation and the one recorded in the poem be considered valid, the date of the composition must be referred to rather a later period than we wish to admit.
[2530.] The French supplies what is here omitted, viz. that Havelok sails to England by the persuasion of his wife.
[Indeed, ll. 979-1006 of the French text may serve to fill up the evident gap in the story; a translation of the passage is added, to shew this more clearly.
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Quant Haueloc est rois pussanz,
Le regne tint plus de .iiii. anz;
Merueillos tresor i auna.
Argentille li commanda
Qu’il passast en Engleterre
Pur son heritage conquerre,
Dont son oncle l’out engettée,
[Et] A grant tort desheritée.
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When Havelok is a mighty king,
He reigned more than 4 years,
Marvellous treasure he amassed.
Argentille (Goldborough) bade him
Pass into England
To conquer her heritage,
Whence her uncle had cast her out,
And very wrongly disinherited her.
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Li rois li dist qu’il fera
Ceo qu’ele li comandera.
Sa nauie fet a-turner,
Ses genz & ses ostz mander.
En mier se met quant orré a,
Et la reyne od lui mena.
Quatre vinz & quatre cenz
Out Haueloc, pleines de genz.
Tant out nagé & siglé,
Q’en Carleflure est ariué.
Sur le hauene se herbergerent,
Par le pais viande quierent.
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The king told her that he would do
That which she should command him.
He got ready his fleet,
And sent for his men and his hosts.
He puts to sea when he has prayed,
And took the queen with him.
Four score and four hundred (ships)
Had Havelok, full of men.
So far has he steered and sailed
That he has arrived at Carleflure.
Hard by the haven they abode,
And sought food in the country round.
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Puis enuoia li noble rois,
Par le consail de ses Danois,
A Alsi qu’il li rendist
La terre qe tint Ekenbright,
Q’a sa niece fut donée,
Dont il l’out desheritée;
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Then sent the noble king,
By the advice of his Danes,
To Alsi (Godrich)—that he should restore to him
The land that Ekenbright (Athelwold) held,
Which was given to his niece,
And of which he had deprived her.
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Et, si rendre n’el voleit,
Mande qu’il le purchaceroit.
Av roi uindrent li messager—
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And, if he would not give it up,
He sends word that he will take it.
To the king came the messengers.]
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The remainder of the French poem altogether differs in its detail from the English.
[2927.] Hire that was ful swete in bedde.] Among Kelly’s Scotch Proverbs, p. 290, we find: “Sweet in the bed, and sweir up in the morning, was never a good housewife;” and in a ballad of the last century quoted by Laing, the editor of that highly curious collection, the Select pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, we meet with the same expression:
A Clown is a Clown both at home and abroad,
When a Rake he is comely, and sweet in his bed.