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of the bow substituted, yet this by no means superseded the former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 [gh]it 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 La[gh]amon:
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 C[oe]ur 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 La[gh]amon, 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. _La[gh]amon_, 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.