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 La[gh]amon, 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.
2461. We find a similar proverb in the _Historie de Melusine, tirée des
Chroniques de Poitou_, &c. 12mo. Par. 1698, in which (at p. 72) Thierry,
Duke of Bretagne, says to Raimondin;-- "Vous autorisez par votre silence
_notre Proverbe_, qui dit, _Qu'un vieux peché fait nouvelle vergogne_."
2513. _Sket was seysed_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 971.
Apres cest fet, ad receu
Le regne q'a son piere fu.
2516.
_And the king ful sone it yaf
Vbbe in the hond, wit a fayr staf._
So in _Sir Tristrem_:
Rohant he yaf _the wand_,
And bad him sitte him bi,
That fre;
'Rohant lord mak y
To held this lond of me.' --fytte i. st. 83; p. 52.
The editor is clearly mistaken in explaining the _wand_ to be a
_truncheon_, or _symbol of power_. For the custom of giving seisin or
investiture _per fustim_, and _per baculum_, see Madox's _Formul.
Anglican._ pref. p. ix. and Spelman, Gloss. in v. _Investire_, and
_Traditio_. The same usage existed in France, _par rain et par baton_.
2521.
_----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.
Quant Haueloc est rois pussanz,
Le regne tint plus de .iiii. an
Merueillos tresor i auna.
When Havelok is a mighty king,
He reigned more than 4 years,
Marvellous treasure he amassed.
Argentille li commanda
Qu'il passast en Engleterre
Pur son heritage conquerre,
Dont son oncle l'out engettée,
[Et] A grant tort desheritée.
Argentille (Goldborough) bade him
Pass into England
To conquer her heritage,
Whence her uncle had cast her out,
And very wrongly disinherited her.
Li rois li dist qu'il fera
Ceo qu'ele li comandera.
Sa nauie fet a-turner,
Ses genz & ses ostz mander.
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.
En mier se met quant orré a,
Et la reyne od lui mena.
Quatre vinz & quatre cenz
Out Haueloc, pleines de genz.
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.
Tant out nagé & siglé,
Q'en Carleflure est ariué.
Sur le hauene se herbergerent,
Par le pais viande quierent.
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.
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;
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.
Et, si rendre n'el voleit,
Mande qu'il le purchaceroit.
Av roi uindrent li messager--
And, if he would not give it up,
He sends word that he will take it.
To the king came the messengers.]
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_.
[2990. The last word is written _thit_ in the MS., but, as it rimes to
_rith_, we should suppose _tiht_ to be the word meant. _Thit_ cannot be
explained, but _tiht_ (or perhaps _tith_, according to our scribe's
spelling) is the pp. of a verb signifying _to purpose_, which is the
exact meaning required. Cf.
"And y to turne to þee have _ti[gh]t_;"
i.e. "I have resolved to turn to thee."
_Political, Religious, and Love Poems_; ed. Furnivall, 1866; p. 177.]