p. 15, l. [504]. than : gon. See Introduction, p. xxxv.
p. 15, l. [510]. oon makes no sense. I suspect the reading of this and the following stanza is quite corrupt. If ll. 510 and 511 should belong to different stanzas, the enjambement, or continuation of the [‹p106›] sense from one stanza to another, would be unusually strong. I am therefore inclined to think that originally a stanza began at l. 510, and that there is a line wanting after l. 509, which contained the rhyme to bon (l. 508). The scribe noticing the absence of rhyme tried to restore it himself. Adding oon to l. 510, he made it rhyme with bon (l. 508). Having thus destroyed the rhyme of ll. 510 and 512 (Alisaundre : Cassaundre, as in l. 984), he added gaye to l. 512, which now rhymed to l. 514, where he still added to fraye. In order to get a rhyme to l. 518, he changed in l. 516 the original laye (: Romayne) into lan (“he ceased, stopped”), and wrote “to” the grounde instead of “on” (cf. l. 1186) or “at” (cf. ll. 533, 435) the grounde, connecting thus these words with l. 515, whereas originally they belonged to there he laye, or—as there also may have been added by the scribe—to he laye. If now we read with mayne instead of ful evene, in l. 521, we get a perfect rhyme to l. 519; l. 520 having lost its rhyming line, he made it rhyme, by adding than to l. 522, which originally rhymed to l. 524. Now to get a rhyme to l. 524 he composed and inserted himself l. 526. Therefore I think the original reading of these two stanzas ran as follows:
| 510 | Sir Ferumbras of Alisaundre |
| That bolde man was in dede, | |
| Uppon a steede Cassaundre | |
| He roode in riche weede. | |
| 514 | Sir Bryer of Poyle a Romayne |
| He bare through with a spere; | |
| Dede on the ground [there] he laye, | |
| Might he no more hem dere. | |
| 518 | That saw Huberte, a worthy man, |
| Howe Briere was islayne, | |
| Ferumbras to quite than | |
| To him he rode with mayne. | |
| 522 | With a spere uppone his shelde |
| Stiffly gan he strike; | |
| The shelde he brake imiddis the feelde, | |
| His hawberke wolde not breke. | |
| 526 | Ferumbras was agreved tho, &c. |
On the rhyme Romayne : laye (l. 514) cf. ll. 536, 890.
p. 15, l. [514]. Bryer of Poyle does not occur in any of the other versions.
p. 15, l. [516]. lan, preterite of lin, “to cease;” more common in the compound blin, contracted from * be-lin.
p. 15, l. [517]. might he no more hem dere. On the order of words, cf. ll. 2954, 649, 2435.
p. 16, l. [520]. qwite, “to requite, reward, retaliate, pay off.” See below note to l. 780.
p. 16, l. [531]. On stronge (O.E. strang) : istonge (O.E. gestungen), see Introduction, p. xxxv.
p. 16, l. [532]. astraye, “out of the right way or proper place, running [‹p107›] about without guidance.” O.French estraier, which is derived from Latin ex strada, see Diez, Etym. Wörterb. I. 402; II. 296.