p. 23, l. [779]. fonde : grounde. fonde is spelt founde in ll. 1857, 3020, 344, 2353, 2363.
p. 23, l. [780]. stroyeth = “destroyeth.” “Compounds of Romance origin, the first part of which is a preposition, or words derived from such, often mutilate, or even entirely drop the preposition” (Zupitza’s note to Guy, l. 576). Thus we have sail, l. 385, = “assail;” longeth, l. 3254, = “belongeth;” skomfited, l. 1320, = “diskomfited,” ll. 336, 1464; quite, l. 520, = “requite;” perceived, l. 2659, = “aperceived;” saut, ll. 619, 2200, = “assaut,” l. 615; ginne, l. 2326, = “enginne,” l. 333; playne, l. 177, = “complayn;” skaped, l. 2049, = “askaped,” l. 2218.
p. 23, l. [787]. French: “iiiC mile François.”
p. 24, l. [812]. ychoon : Mahounde. See Introduction, p. xlii.
p. 24, l. [820]. stroke : stoupe. See Introduction, p. xliii.
p. 24, l. [820]. stenyed, “stunned,” not from O.Fr. estaindre, as the editor of the Roxb. Club ed. suggests, but from O.E. stunian, “percellere, stupefacere.” See Stratmann, p. 540.
p. 24, l. [835]. Observe the subject expressed twice; cf. ll. 723, 1031, 1682, 1814, 2331.
p. 25, l. [836]. Neymes. This celebrated hero has been especially famous by the advices and counsels of which even in matters of greatest difficulty he was never at a loss. “Tel conseiller n’orent onques li Franc,” i. e. the French had never such a counsellor. This passage of the romance of Aspremont may be looked upon as containing the portrait of Neymes as we find him described in all poems. The story of his birth and youth is in the romance of Aubri le Bourgoing. He was the son of Gasselin, king of Bavaria. Cassile, an usurper, is about to seize the throne and to kill the young Neymes, when Charlemagne comes to his help and re-establishes the legitimate inheritor.
p. 25, l. [836]. Ogier Danoys (cf. l. 1687) is one of the twelve peers in this poem. His life is contained in the French poem of the “Chevallerie Ogier” by Raimbert de Paris. According to that romance Ogier had been delivered in his youth to Charlemagne as [‹p110›] a pledge to secure the discharge of the tribute which his father Geffroi, king of Denmark, was bound to pay to the emperor. The French ambassadors having once been insulted by Geffroy, Charlemagne swears to make Ogier pay with his life the offence done by his father, and Ogier is going to be executed when the emperor, following the urgent requests of messengers arrived from Rome, suddenly starts to deliver this city from the Saracens. On this expedition the French army is hard pressed by the enemy, but Ogier by his eminent prowess and valour enables Charles to enter Rome. He now is pardoned and becomes the favourite of the emperor. Several years afterwards Ogier’s son Baudouinet is slain by Charlot, the son of Charlemagne, as they were quarrelling about a party of chess. Ogier, in order to revenge his son, goes as far as to attack Charlemagne himself, but on the point of being taken a prisoner, he escapes and flees to Didier, king of Lombardy. Charles makes war on Didier, and after a long struggle Ogier is taken and imprisoned at Reims, where he is going to be starved, when a sudden invasion of the Saracens obliges Charlemagne again to have recourse to the courage and valour of the Dane. Ogier delivers France by slaying the giant Bréhus. To reward him for the service done to his country, Charles gives him the county of Hainaut, where afterwards, as the poem tells us, he died in the renown of holiness.
p. 25, l. [845]. it = “hit.” Cf. note to l. 41.