Part 14

Among the articles at Archbishop Nevil’s Feast, 6 Edw. IV., we find, _Porposes and Seales XII._ and at that of Archbishop Warham, held in 1504, is an item: _De Seales & Porposs. prec. in gross XXVI. s. VIII. d._ Champier asserts that the Seal was eaten at the Court of Francis I., so that the taste of the two nations seems at this period to have been nearly the same. For the courses of fish in England during the 14th and 15th centuries, see Pegge’s _Form of Cury_, and Warner’s _Antiquitates Culinariæ_, to which we may add MS. Sloane, 1986. [_Cf._ _Babees Book, &c._, ed. Furnivall, 1868, p. 153.]

[784. For _setes_ we should probably read _seten_ or _sette_, which would be as good a rime as many others. The scribe has probably made the rime more perfect than the sense. It must mean, “In the sea were they oft set.” We cannot here suppose _setes_ = _set es_ = set them.]

839. _And seyde, Hauelok, dere sone._ In the French, Grim sends Havelok away for quite a different reason, viz. because he does not understand fishing.

903. _The kok stod_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 242.

Et vn keu le roi le retint, Purceo qe fort le vist & grant, Et mult le vist de bon semblant. Merueillous fes poeit leuer, Busche tailler, ewe porter.

The last line answers to l. 942 of the English version.

939. _He bar the turues, he bar the star._ The meaning of the latter term will be best illustrated by a passage in Moor’s _Suffolk Words_, where, under the word _Bent_, he writes, “_Bent_ or _Starr_, on the N.W. coast of England, and especially in Lancashire, is a coarse reedy shrub--like ours perhaps--of some importance formerly, if not now, on the sandy blowing lands of those counties. Its fibrous roots give some cohesion to the silicious soil. By the 15 and 16 G. II. c. 33, plucking up and carrying away _Starr_ or Bent, or having it in possession within five miles of the sand hills, was punishable by fine, imprisonment, and whipping.” The use stated in the Act to which the _Starr_ was applied, is, “making of Mats, Brushes, and Brooms or Besoms,” therefore it might very well be adapted to the purposes of a kitchen, and from its being coupled with turves in the poem, was perhaps sometimes burnt for fuel. The origin of the word is Danish, and still exists in the Dan. _Stær_, Swed. _Starr_, Isl. _staer_, a species of sedge, or broom, called by Lightfoot, p. 560, _carex cespitosa_. Perhaps it is this shrub alluded to in the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_, and this circumstance will induce us to assign its author to the district in which the Starr is found.

The speris craketh swithe thikke, So doth on hegge _sterre-stike_. --l. 4438.

945. _of alle men_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 254.

Tant estoit franc & deboneire, Que tuz voloit lur pleisir fere, Pur la franchise q’il out.

959. _Of him ful wide the word sprong._ A phrase which from the Saxon times occurs repeatedly in all our old writers. A few examples may suffice.

Beowulf wæs breme, Blæd wíde sprang.

_Beowulf_, ed. Thorpe, p. 2.

Welle wide sprong þas eorles word.

_Laȝamon_, l. 26242.

Of a knight is that y mene, His name is sprong wel wide.

_Sir Tristrem_, st. 2, p. 12.

The word of Horn wide sprong, How he was bothe michel and long.

_Horn Childe_, ap. Rits. _Metr. Rom._ V. iii. p. 291.

See also the _Kyng of Tars_, ll. 19, 1007, _Emare_, l. 256, _Roland and Ferragus_, as quoted by Ellis, _Ly beaus Desconus_, l. 172, and _Chronicle of England_, l. 71.

984.

_In armes him noman (ne) nam, þat he doune sone ne caste._

The same praise is bestowed on Havelok in the French text, l. 265,--

Deuant eus liuter le fesoient As plus forz homes q’il sauoient, Et il trestouz les abatit--

and it was doubtless in imitation or ridicule of the qualities attributed to similar heroes, that Chaucer writes of Sir Thopas, “Of wrastling was ther non his per.” Cant. Tales, l. 13670.

1006. _To ben þer at þe parlement._ Cf. l. 1178. If we examine our historical records, we shall find that the only parliament held at Lincoln was in the year 1300, 28 Edw. I., and the writs to the _Archbishop of York_, and other Nobles, both ecclesiastical and secular, are still extant. The proceedings are detailed at some length by Robert of Brunne, Vol. II. p. 312, who might have been in Lincoln at the time, or, at all events, was sufficiently informed of all that took place, from his residence in the county. If we could suppose that the author of the Romance alluded to this very parliament, it would reduce the period of the poem’s composition to a later date, than either the style or the writing of the MS. will possibly admit of. It is therefore far more probable the writer here makes use of a poetical, and very pardonable licence, in transferring the parliament to the chief city of the county in which he was evidently born, or brought up, without any reference whatever to historical data.

1022.

_Biforn here fet þanne lay a tre, And putten with a mikel ston_, &c.

This game of _putting the stone_, is of the highest antiquity, and seems to have been common at one period to the whole of England, although subsequently confined to the Northern counties, and to Scotland. Fitzstephen enumerates casting of stones among the amusements of the Londoners in the 12th century, and Dr Pegge, in a note on the passage, calls it “a Welch custom.” The same sport is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, among the diversions pursued at King Arthur’s feast, as will appear in a subsequent note (l. 2320). By an edict of Edward III. the practice of casting stones, wood, and iron, was forbidden, and the use of the bow substituted, yet this by no means superseded the former amusement, which was still in common use in the 16th century, as appears from Strutt’s _Popular Pastimes_, Introd. pp. xvii, xxxix, and p. 56, sq. In the Highlands this sport appears to have been longer kept up than in any other part of Britain, and Pennant, describing their games, writes, “Those retained are, throwing the _putting-stone_, or stone of strength (_Cloch neart_) as they call it, which occasions an emulation who can throw a weighty one the farthest.” _Tour in Scotl._ p. 214. 4to. 1769. See also _Statist. Account of Argyleshire_, xi. 287. In the French Romance of Horn, preserved in MS. Harl. 527, is almost a similar incident to the one in Havelok, and would nearly amount to a proof, that Tomas, the writer of the French text of Horn, was an Englishman.

In the Romance of _Octovian Imperator_ it is said of Florent,

At _wrestelyng_, and at _ston castynge_ He wan the prys, without lesynge; Ther n’as nother old ne yynge So mochell of strength, That myght the ston to hys _but_ bryng, Bi fedeme lengthe. --l. 895.

It is singular enough, that the circumstance of Havelok’s throwing the stone, mentioned in the Romance, should have been founded on, or preserved in, a local tradition, as attested by Robert of Brunne, p. 26.

Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ȝit a stone, That Hauelok kast wele forbi euerilkone.

1077-1088. _The king Athelwald_, &c. Comp. the Fr. text, ll. 354-370.

Quant Ekenbright le roi fini, En ma garde sa fille mist; Vn serement iurer me fist, Q’au plus fort home le dorroie, Qe el reaume trouer porroie. Assez ai quis & demandé, Tant q’en ai vn fort troué; Vn valet ai en ma quisine, A qui ieo dorrai la meschine; &c.

1103. _After Goldeborw_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 377.

Sa niece lur fet amener, Et a Cuaran esposer; Pur lui auiler & honir, La fist la nuit lez lui gesir.

The French Romance differs here very considerably from the English, and in the latter, the dream of Argentille, her visit to the hermit, and the conversation relative to Havelok’s parents, is entirely omitted.

[1174. This may mean-- “He (Havelok) is given to her, and she has taken (him)” --but this makes _yaf_ and _tok_ past participles, which they properly are not; or else we must translate it-- “He (Godard) gave them to her, and she took them,” i.e. the pence. This alone is the grammatical construction, and it suits the context best; observe, that the words _ys_ and _as_ are equivalent to _es_ = them. Cf. l. 970. See Morris; _Gen. & Exod._, Pref. p. xviii.]

1203. _Thanne he komen there_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 556.

A Grimesby s’en alerent; Mes li prodoms estoit finiz, Et la Dame q’is out nurriz. Kelloc sa fille i ont trouée, Vn marchant l’out esposée.

The marriage of Kelloc, Grim’s daughter, with a merchant is skilfully introduced in the French, and naturally leads to the mention of Denmark. The plot of the English story is wholly dissimilar in this respect.

1247. _On the nith_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 381.

Quant couché furent ambedui, Cele out grant honte de lui, Et il assez greindre de li. As deuz se geut, si se dormi. Ne voloit pas q’ele veist La flambe qe de lui issist.

The voice of the angel is completely an invention of the English author, and the dream (which is transferred from Argentille to Havelok) is altogether different in its detail.

1260. _He beth heyman_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 521.

Il est né de real lignage, Oncore auera grant heritage. Grant gent fra vers li encline, Il serra roi & tu reyne.

[1334. The words _euere-il del_ are corruptly repeated from line 1330 above. Perhaps we should read _wit-uten were_, i.e. without doubt.]

1430. _Hauede go for him gold ne fe._ Cf. l. 44. So in Laȝamon:

Ne sculde him neoðer gon fore Gold ne na gærsume, &c.; vol. ii. p. 537.

[1444. The French text helps but little to supply the blank. It shows that Havelok and his wife sailed to Denmark, and, on their arrival, sought out the castle belonging to Sigar, who answers to the Ubbe of the English version.]

1632. _A gold ring drow he forth anon_, &c. A similar incident, and in nearly the same words, occurs in Sir Tristrem.

A ring he raught him tite, The porter seyd nought nay, In hand: He was ful wis, y say, That first yave yift in land. --fytte i. st. 57, p. 39.

So also Wyntoun, who relates the subsidy of 40,000 moutons sent from France to Scotland in 1353, and adds,

Qwha gyvis swilk gyftyis he is wyse.

[See also _Piers Plowman_, Text A. iii. 202.]

1646. _Hw he was wel of bones_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 743.

Gent cors & bele feture, Lungs braz & grant furcheure Ententiuement l’esgarda.

[1678. This line has two syllables too little.]

1722. _Thanne he were set_, &c. This is an amplification of the Fr. l. 677, sq.

Quant fut houre del manger, Et qe tuz alerent lauer, Li prodoms a manger s’assist, Les .iii. valez seeir i fist, Argentille lez son seignur; Serui furent a grant honur.

1726. _Kranes, swannes, veneysun_, &c. We have here the principal constituents of what formed the banquets of our ancestors. The old Romances abound with descriptions of this nature, which coincide exactly with the present. See _Richard Cœur de Lion_, l. 4221; _Guy of Warwick; The Squyr of Lowe Degre_, l. 317; and _Morte Arthure_, ed. Perry, p. 7.

“Wine is common,” says Dr Pegge, speaking of the entertainments of the 14th century, “both red and white. This article they partly had of their own growth, and partly by importation from France and Greece.” A few examples will illustrate this:

He laid the cloth, and set forth bread, And also wine, both _white and red_.

_Sir Degore_, ap. Ellis, _Metr. Rom._ V. 3, p. 375.

And dronke wyn, and eke pyment, _Whyt and red_, al to talent.

_Kyng Alisaunder_, l. 4178.

[Cf. _Piers Plowman_, Text B, at the end of the _Prologue_.]

In the _Squyr of Lowe Degre_ is a long list of these wines, which has received considerable illustration in the curious work of Dr Henderson.

[1736. I print _kiwing_, as in Sir F. Madden’s edition; but I quite give up the meaning of it, and doubt if it is put for _kirving_. The word is obscurely written, and looks like _kilþing_, and my impression is that it is miswritten for _ilk þing_, the word _þe_ being put for _þer_, as frequently elsewhere. We should thus get _hwan he haueden þer ilk þing deled_, when they had there distributed every thing. This is, at any rate, the sense of the passage.]

1749. _And sende him unto the greyues._ In the French, Havelok is simply sent to an _ostel_, and the _greyve_ does not appear in the story.

1806. _Hauelok lifte up_, &c. In the French, all the amusing details relative to Robert and Huwe Raven are omitted, and Havelok is made to retire to a monastery, where he defends himself by throwing down the stones on his assailants.

[1826. _wolde_, offered at, intended to hit, _would_ have hit.]

1838.

_And shoten on him, so don on bere Dogges, that wolden him to-tere._

The same comparison is made use of in the Romance of Horn Childe:

The Yrise folk about him yode, As hondes do to bare.

Rits. _Metr. Rom._ V. III. p. 289.

See Note on l. 2320.

[1914. “Cursed be he who cares! for they deserved it! What did they? There were they worried.” A mark of interrogation seems required after _dide he_.]

1926-1930. _Sket cam tiding_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 719.

La nouele vint a chastel, Au seneschal, qui n’est pas bel, Qe cil qu’il auoit herbergé Cinc de ses homes out tué.

[1932. Apparently corrupt. Perhaps _is_ should be _it_. “That this strife--as to what it meant.”]

2045. _That weren of Kaym kin and Eues._ The odium affixed to the supposed progeny of Cain, and the fables engrafted on it, owe their origin to the theological opinions of the Middle Ages, which it is not worth while to trace to their authors. See _Beowulf_, ed. Thorpe, p. 8; and _Piers Plowman_, A. X. 135-156; answering to p. 177 of Whitaker’s edition. See also the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_:

And of Sab the duk Mauryn, He was of _Kaymes kunrede_. --l. 1932.

In _Ywaine and Gawaine_, l. 559, the Giant is called “the karl of _Kaymes kyn_,” and so also in a poem printed by Percy, intitled _Little John Nobody_, written about the year 1550.

Such caitives count to be come of Cain’s kind.

_Anc. Reliq._ V. II. p. 130. Ed. 1765.

2076.

_It ne shal no thing ben bitwene Thi bour and min, also y wene, But a fayr firrene wowe._

These lines will receive some illustration from a passage in Sir Tristrem, where it is said,

A borde he tok oway Of her bour. --p. 114.

On which Sir W. Scott remarks, “The bed-chamber of the queen was constructed of wooden boards or shingles, of which one could easily be removed.” This will explain the line which occurs below, 2106, “He stod, and totede in at a bord.”

2092. _Aboute the middel_, &c. In the French, a person is placed by the Seneschal to watch, who first discovers the light.

2132. _Bi the pappes he leyen naked._ “From the latter end of the 13th to near the 16th century, all ranks, and both sexes, were universally in the habit of sleeping quite naked. This custom is often alluded to by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and all our ancient writers.” Ellis, SPEC. METR. ROM. V. I. p. 324, 4th Ed. In the _Squyr of Lowe Degre_ is a remarkable instance of this fact:

How she rose, that lady dere, To take her leue of that squyer; Al so naked as she was borne She stod her chambre-dore beforne. --l. 671.

The custom subsisted both in England and France to a very recent period, and hence probably was derived the phrase _naked-bed_, illustrated so copiously by Archdeacon Nares in his Glossary.

2192. Cf. the French, l. 843.

Ses chapeleins fet demander, Ses briefs escriure & enseeler; Par ses messages les manda, Et pur ses amis enuoia; Pur ses homes, pur ses parenz; Mult i assembla granz genz.

[2201. Read _ne neme_ = took not, sc. their way, just as in l. 1207.]

2240-2265. _Lokes, hware he stondes her_, &c. Comp. the Fr. ll. 913-921.

“Veez ci nostre dreit heir, Bien en deuom grant ioie aueir.” Tut primerain se desafubla, Par deuant lui s’agenuilla; Sis homs deuint, si li iura Qe leaument le seruira. Li autre sont apres alé, Chescuns de bone volenté; Tuit si home sont deuenu.

2314.

_Vbbe dubbede him to knith, With a swerd ful swithe brith._

So likewise in the Fr. l. 928, _A cheualier l’out adubbé_. The ceremony of knighthood is described with greater minuteness in the Romance of _Ly beaus Desconus_, l. 73; and see _Kyng Horn_, ed. Lumby, ll. 495-504.

2320. _Hwan he was king, ther mouthe men se_, &c. Ritson has justly remarked, Notes to _Ywaine and Gawaine_, l. 15, that the elaborate description of Arthur’s feast at Carlisle, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth, l. ix. c. 12, has served as a model to all his successors. The original passage stands thus in a fine MS. of the 13th century, MS. Harl. 3773. fol. 33 _b_. “Refecti autem epulis diversos ludos acturi campos extra civitatem adeunt. Tunc milites simulachra belli scientes _equestrem ludum_ componunt, mulieribus ab edito murorum aspicientibus. Alii _cum cestibus_, alii _cum hastis_, alii _gravium lapidum jactu_, alii _cum facis_, [_saxis_, Edd.] alii _cum aleis_, diversisque alii alteriusmodi jocis contendentes.” In the translation of this description by Wace we approach still nearer to the imitation of the Romance before us.

A plusurs iuis se departirent, Li vns alerent _buhurder_, E lur ignels cheuals mustrer, Li altre alerent _eskermir_, V _pere geter_, v _saillir_; Tels i-aueit ki _darz lanconent_, E tels i-aueit ki _lutouent_: Chescon del gru [geu?] s’entremetait Dunt entremettre se saueit. --MS. Reg. 13. A. xxi.

The parallel versions, from the French, of Laȝamon, Robert of Gloucester, and Robert of Brunne, may be read in Mr Ellis’s _Specimens of Early English Poets_. At the feast of Olimpias, described in the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_, we obtain an additional imitation.

Withoute theo toun was mury, Was reised ther al maner pley; There was knyghtis _turnyng_, There was maidenes carolyng, There was champions _skyrmyng_, Of heom and of other _wrastlyng_, Of liouns chas, of _beore baityng_, And _bay of bor_, of _bole slatyng_. --l. 193. Cf. l. 1045.

Some additional illustrations on each of the amusements named in our text may not be unacceptable:

1. _Buttinge with sharpe speres._ This is tilting, or justing, expressed in Wace by _buhurder_. See Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 96, sq. 108.

2. _Skirming with taleuaces._ This is described more at large by Wace, in his account of the feast of Cassibelaunus. Cf. _Laȝamon_, v. i. p. 347; l. 8144. In Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_ is a representation of this game, taken from MS. Bodl. 264, illuminated between 1338 and 1344, in which the form of the _talevas_ is accurately defined. It appears to have been pursued to such an excess, as to require the interference of the crown, for in 1286 an edict was issued by Edward I. prohibiting all persons _Eskirmer au bokeler_. This, however, had only a temporary effect in restraining it, and in later times, under the appellation of _sword and buckler play_, it again became universally popular.

3. _Wrastling with laddes, puttinge of ston._ See the notes on ll. 984 and 1022.

4. _Harping and piping._ This requires no illustration.

5. _Leyk of mine, of hasard ok._ Among the games mentioned at the marriage of Gawain, in the Fabliau of _Le Chevalier à l’Epée_, we have:

Cil Chevalier jeuent as tables, Et as eschés de l’autre part, O à la _mine_, o à _hazart_.

Le Grand, in his note on this passage, T. i. p. 57, Ed. 1779, writes: “Le Hasard était une sorte de jeu de dez. Je ne connais point la _Mine_; j’ai trouvé seulement ailleurs un passage qui prouve que ce jeu était tres-dangereux, et qu’on pouvait s’y ruiner en peu de tems.” It appears however from the Fabliau of _Du Prestre et des deuz Ribaus_, to have been certainly a species of _Tables_, or _Backgammon_, and to have been played with dice, on a board called _Minete_. The only passage we recollect in which any further detail of this game is given, is that of Wace, in the account of Arthur’s feast, Harl. MS. 6508, and MS. Cott. Vit. A. x., but it must be remarked, that the older copy 13 A. xxi. does not contain it, nor is it found in the translations of Laȝamon, or Robert of Gloucester.

6. _Romanz reding._ See Sir W. Scott’s note on Sir Tristrem, p. 290, [p. 306, ed. 1811]; and the Dissertations of Percy, Ritson, and Ellis.

7.

_Ther mouthe men se the boles beyte, And the bores, with hundes teyte._

Cf. ll. 1838, 2438. Both these diversions are mentioned by Lucianus, in his inedited tract _De laude Cestriæ_, MS. Bodl. 672, who is supposed by Tanner to have written about A.D. 1100, but who must probably be placed near half a century later. They formed also part of the amusements of the Londoners in the 12th century, as we learn from Fitzstephen, p. 77, and are noticed in the passage above quoted from the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_. In later times, particularly during the 16th century, these cruel practices were in the highest estimation, as we learn from Holinshed, Stowe, Laneham, &c. See Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 192, and the plate from MS. Reg. 2. B. vii. Also Pegge’s Dissertation on Bull-baiting, inserted in Vol. ii. of Archæologia.

8. _Ther mouthe men se hw Grim greu._ If this is to be understood of scenic representation (and we can scarcely view it in any other light), it will present one of the earliest instances on record of any attempt to represent an historical event, or to depart from the religious performances, which until a much later period were the chief, and almost only, efforts towards the formation of the drama. Of course, the words of the writer must be understood to refer to the period in which he lived, i.e. according to our supposition, about the end of Hen. III’s reign, or beginning of Edw. I. See Le Grand’s notes to the _Lai de Courtois_, V. i. p. 329, and Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, B. 3, ch. 2.

2344. _The feste fourti dawes sat._ Cf. l. 2950. This is borrowed also from Geoffrey, and is the usual term of duration fixed in the Romances.

Fourty dayes hy helden feste, Ryche, ryall, and oneste. --_Octouian Imperator_, l. 73.

Fourty dayes leste the feste. --_Launfal_, l. 631.

And certaynly, as the story sayes, The revell lasted forty dayes.

_Squyr of Lowe Degre_, l. 1113.

2384. The French story here differs wholly from the English. Instead of the encounter of Robert and Godard, and the cruel punishment inflicted on the latter, in the French is a regular battle between the forces of Havelok and Hodulf (Godard). A single combat takes place between the two leaders, in which Hodulf is slain.

2450. Cf. ll. 2505 and 2822. This appears to have been a common, but barbarous, method in former times of leading traitors or malefactors to execution. Thus in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, the treatment of the murderers of Darius is described:

He dude quyk harnesche hors, And sette theron heore cors, Hyndeforth they seten, saun faile; In heore hand they hulden theo tailes. --l. 4708.