According to a popular belief in Austria, says J. Grimm, you_The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)

clean maid by her being able to blow out a candle with one puff and to

light it again with another. The phrase was known in Spain: "Matar un

candil con un soplo y encenderlo con otro." Grimm adds that it is an

article of popular faith in India that a virgin can make a ball of

water, or carry water in a sieve: Rechtsalterthümer, p. 932.[256]

An ordeal for chastity is a feature in several of the Greek romances. In

Heliodorus's Æthiopica, X, 8, 9, victims to be offered to the sun and

moon, who must be pure, are obliged to mount a #brazier# covered with a

golden grating. The soles of those who are less than perfect are burned.

Theagenes and Chariclea experience no inconvenience. The Clitophon and

Leucippe of Achilles Tatius, VIII, 6, 13, 14, has a #cave# in the grove

of Diana of Ephesus, in which they shut up a woman. If it is a virgin, a

delicious melody is presently heard from a syrinx, the doors open of

themselves, and the woman comes out crowned with pine leaves; if not a

virgin, a wail is heard, and the woman is never seen again. There is

also a not perfectly convincing trial, by the Stygian #water#, in § 12,

which seems to be imitated in the Hysmine and Hysminias of Eustathius

[Eumathius], VIII, 7, XI, 17. In the temple of Diana, at Artycomis,

stands a statue of the goddess, with bow in hand, and from about her

feet flows water like a roaring river. A woman, crowned with laurel,

being put in, she will float quietly, if all is right; but should she

not have kept her allegiance to Dian, the goddess bends her bow as if to

shoot at her head, which causes the culprit to duck, and the water

carries off her wreath.[257]

It is prescribed in Numbers v, 11-31, that any man jealous of his wife

may bring her to the priest, who shall, with and after various

ceremonies, give her a bitter drink of holy water in which dust from the

floor of the tabernacle has been infused. If she have trespassed, her

body shall swell and rot. In the Pseudo-Matthew's Gospel, ch. xii,

Joseph and Mary successively take this aquam potationis domini. No

pretender to innocence could taste this and then make seven turns round

the altar, without some sign of sin appearing in the face. The

experiment shows both to be faultless. So, with some variation, the

sixteenth chapter of the Protevangelium of James. This trial is the

subject of one of the Coventry Mysteries, No 14, p. 137 ff, ed.

Halliwell, and no doubt of other scripture plays. It is naturally

introduced into Wernher's Maria, Hoffmann, Fundgruben, II, 188, line 26

ff, and probably into other lives of the Virgin.

Herodotus relates, II, 111, that Pheron, son of Sesostris, after a

blindness of ten years' duration, received an intimation from an oracle

that he would recover his sight upon following a certain prescription,

such as we are assured is still thought well of in Egypt in cases of

ophthalmia. For this the coöperation of a chaste woman was

indispensable. Repeatedly balked, the king finally regained his vision,

and collecting in a town many women of whom he had vainly hoped aid, in

which number his queen was included, he set fire to the place and burned

both it and them, and then married the woman to whom he was so much

indebted. (First cited in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1795, vol. 65, I,

114.) The coincidence with foregoing tales is certainly curious, but to

all appearance accidental.[258]

The 'Boy and the Mantle' was printed "verbatim" from his manuscript by

Percy in the Reliques, III, 3, ed. 1765. The copy at p. 314 is of course

the same "revised and altered" by Percy, but has been sometimes mistaken

for an independent one.

* * * * *

Translated by Herder, I, 219; Bodmer, I, 18; Bothe, p. 59.

Percy MS., p. 284: Hales and Furnivall, II, 304.

In the third day of May

to Carleile did come

A kind curteous child,

that cold much of wisdome.

A kirtle and a mantle

this child had vppon,

With brauches and ringes

full richelye bedone.

He had a sute of silke,

about his middle drawne;

Without he cold of curtesye,

he thought itt much shame.

'God speed thee, K_ing_ Arthur,

sitting att thy meate!

And the goodly Queene Gueneuer!

I canott her fforgett.

'I tell you lords in this hall,

I hett you all heede,

Except you be the more surer,

is you for to dread.'

He plucked out of his potewer,

and longer wold not dwell,

He pulled forth a pretty mantle,

betweene two nut-shells.

'Haue thou here,' K_ing_ Arthure,

haue thou heere of mee;

Giue itt to thy comely queene,

shapen as itt is alreadye.

'Itt shall neu_er_ become _tha_t wiffe

_tha_t hath once done amisse:'

Then euery k_nigh_t in the k_ing_s court

began to care for his.

Forth came dame Gueneuer,

to the mantle shee her bed;

The ladye shee was new-fangle,

but yett shee was affrayd.

When shee had taken the mantle,

shee stoode as she had beene madd;

It was from the top to the toe

as sheeres had itt shread.

One while was itt gaule,

another while was itt greene;

Another while was itt wadded;

ill itt did her beseeme.

Another while was it blacke,

and bore the worst hue;

'By my troth,' q_uo_th K_ing_ Arthur,

'I thinke thou be not true.'

Shee threw downe the mantle,

_tha_t bright was of blee,

Fast with a rudd redd

to her chamber can shee flee.

Shee curst the weauer and the walker

that clothe _tha_t had wrought,

And bade a vengeance on his crowne

_tha_t hither hath itt brought.

'I had rather be in a wood,

vnder a greene tree,

Then in K_ing_ Arthurs court

shamed for to bee.'

Kay called forth his ladye,

and bade her come neere;

Saies, 'Madam, and thou be guiltye,

I pray thee hold thee there.'

Forth came his ladye

shortlye and anon,

Boldlye to the mantle

then is shee gone.

When she had tane the mantle,

and cast it her about,

Then was shee bare

all aboue the buttocckes.

Then euery knight

_tha_t was in the kings court

Talked, laughed, and showted,

full oft att _tha_t sport.

Shee threw downe the mantle,

_tha_t bright was of blee,

Ffast with a red rudd

to her chamber can shee flee.

Forth came an old k_night_,

pattering ore a creede,

And he _pro_ferred to this little boy

twenty markes to his meede,

And all the time of the Christmasse

willinglye to ffeede;

For why, this mantle might

doe his wiffe some need.

When shee had tane the mantle,

of cloth _tha_t was made,

Shee had no more left on her

but a tassell and a threed:

Then euery k_night_ in the k_ing_s court

bade euill might shee speed.

Shee threw downe the mantle,

_tha_t bright was of blee,

And fast w_i_th a redd rudd

to her chamber can shee flee.

Craddocke called forth his ladye,

and bade her come in;

Saith, 'Winne this mantle, ladye,

with a litle dinne.

'Winne this mantle, ladye,

and it shalbe thine

If thou neuer did amisse

since thou wast mine.'

Forth came Craddockes ladye

shortlye and anon,

But boldlye to the mantle

then is shee gone.

When shee had tane the mantle,

and cast itt her about,

Vpp att her great toe

itt began to crinkle and crowt;

Shee said, 'Bowe downe, mantle,

and shame me not for nought.

'Once I did amisse,

I tell you certainlye,

When I kist Craddockes mouth

vnder a greene tree,

When I kist Craddockes mouth

before he marryed mee.'

When shee had her shreeuen,

and her sines shee had tolde,

The mantle stoode about her

right as shee wold;

Seemelye of coulour,

glittering like gold;

Then euery k_nigh_t in Arthurs court

did her behold.

Then spake dame Gueneuer

to Arthur our king:

'She hath tane yonder mantle,

not with wright but w_i_th wronge!

'See you not yonder woman

_tha_t maketh her selfe soe clene?

I haue seene tane out of her bedd

of men fiueteene;

'Preists, clarkes, and wedded men,

from her by-deene;

Yett shee taketh the mantle,

and maketh her-selfe cleane!'

Then spake the litle boy

_tha_t kept the mantle in hold;

Sayes 'K_ing_, chasten thy wiffe;

of her words shee is to bold.

'Shee is a bitch and a witch,

and a whore bold;

King, in thine owne hall

thou art a cuchold.'

The litle boy stoode

looking ou_e_r a dore;

He was ware of a wyld bore,

wold haue werryed a man.

He pulld forth a wood kniffe,

fast thither _tha_t he ran;

He brought in the bores head,

and quitted him like a man.

He brought in the bores head,

and was wonderous bold;

He said there was neu_e_r a cucholds kniffe

carue itt that cold.

Some rubbed their kniues

vppon a whetstone;

Some threw them vnder the table,

and said they had none.

K_ing_ Arthur and the child

stood looking them vpon;

All their kniues edges

turned backe againe.

Craddoccke had a litle kniue

of iron and of steele;

He birtled the bores head

wonderous weele,

_Tha_t euery k_nigh_t in the k_ing_s court

had a morssell.

The litle boy had a horne,

of red gold _tha_t ronge;

He said, 'there was noe cuckolde

shall drinke of my horne,

But he shold itt sheede,

either behind or beforne.'

Some shedd on their shoulder,

and some on their knee;

He _tha_t cold not hitt his mouth

put it in his eye;

And he _tha_t was a cuckold,

euery man might him see.

Craddoccke wan the horne

and the bores head;

His ladye wan the mantle

vnto her meede;

Euerye such a lonely ladye,

God send her well to speede!

* * * * *

_& is printed ~and~, wherever it occurs._

2^3. _MS. might be read ~branches~._

5^2. all heate.

6^4. 2 nut-shells.

8^4. his wiffe.

9^2. biled. "_Query the ~le~ in the MS._" Furnivall.

18^4. _Perhaps the last word was originally ~tout~, as Mr

T. Wright has suggested._

19^2. lauged.

21^4. 20 markes.

22^2. willignglye.

33^2. _MS. perhaps has ~cleare~ altered to ~clene~._

33^4. fiueteeene.

37^1. A litle.

37^2. _Perhaps, as Percy suggested, two lines have dropped

out after this, and the two which follow belong with the

next stanza._

40^1, 41^3. kiues.

41^1. Arthus.

44^2. sone on.

[211] After I had finished what I had to say in the way of introduction

to this ballad, there appeared the study of the Trinkhorn and

Mantelsage, by Otto Warnatsch: Der Mantel, Bruchstück eines

Lanzeletromans, etc., Breslau, 1883. To this very thorough piece of

work, in which the relations of the multiform versions of the

double-branched story are investigated with a care that had never before

been attempted, I naturally have frequent occasion to refer, and by its

help I have supplied some of my deficiencies, indicating always the

place by the author's name.

[212] The Bibliothèque des Romans, 1777, Février, pp. 112-115, gives an

abstract of a small printed piece in prose, there assigned to the

beginning of the sixteenth century, which, as Warnatsch observes, p. 72,

must have been a different thing from the tale given by Legrand,

inasmuch as it brings in Lancelot and Gawain as suppressing the jests of

Kay and Dinadam.

[213] The custom of Arthur not to eat till he had heard of some

adventure or strange news was confined to those days when he held full

court, according to Perceval le Gallois, II, 217, 15,664-71, and the

Roman de Perceval, fol. lxxviii. It is mentioned, with the same

limitations, I suppose, in the Roman de Lancelot, III, fol. lxxxii, and

we learn from this last romance, I, fol. xxxvi, that Arthur was

accustomed to hold a court and wear his crown five times in the year, at

Easter, Ascension-day, Pentecost, All Saints, and Christmas. The Roman

de Merlin, II, lvi^b, or, as cited by Southey, II, 48, 49, says that

"King Arthur, after his first dinner at Logres, when he brought home his

bride, made a vow that while he wore a crown he never would seat himself

at table till some adventure had occurred." In Malory's King Arthur, Kay

reminds the king that this had been the old custom of his court at

Pentecost. Arthur is said to observe this custom on Christmas, "vpon

such a dere day," in Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight, Madden, p. 6, vv

90-99. Messire Gauvain says "à feste ne mangast, devant," etc., p. 2, vv

18-21. Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival does not limit the custom to

high holidays, ed. Bartsch, I, 331, vv 875-79; and see Riddarasögur,

Parcevals Saga, etc., ed. Kölbing, p. 26. Neither does Wigalois, vv

247-51, or a fragment of Daniel von Blühenthal, Symbolæ ad literaturam

Teutonicam, p. 465, cited by Benecke, Wigalois, p. 436 f, or the Färöe

Galians kvæði, Kölbing, in Germania, XX, 397. See Madden's Syr Gawayne,

which has furnished much of this note, pp 310-12; Southey's King Arthur,

II, 203, 462. Robin Hood imitates Arthur: see the beginning of the

Little Gest.

[214]

'Quar je vous aim tant bonement,

Que je ne voudroie savoir

Vostre mesfet por nul avoir.

Miex en veuil je estre en doutance.

Por tot le royaume de France,

N'en voudroie je estre cert;

Quar qui sa bone amie pert

Molt a perdu, ce m'est avis.' 818-25.

[215] See also Brynjúlfsson, Saga af Tristram ok Ísönd, samt Möttuls

Saga, Udtog, pp 318-26, Copenhagen, 1878. There is a general presumption

that the larger part of the works translated for King Hákon were derived

from England. C. & W., p. 47.

[216] That is, the current one. The Samson saga professes to supply the

earlier history. Samson's father is another Arthur, king of England. An

abstract of so much of the saga as pertains to the Mantle is given by

Cederschiöld and Wulff, p. 90f. Warnatsch, p. 73 f, shows that the Rímur

and Samson had probably a common source, independent of the Möttulssaga.

[217] By Warnatsch, who gives the text with the corresponding passages

of the fabliau in a parallel column, pp 8-54: the argument for

Heinrich's authorship, pp 85-105. 'Der Mantel' had been previously

printed in Haupt and Hoffmann's Altdeutsche Blätter, II, 217, and by

Müllenhoff in his Altdeutsche Sprachproben, p. 125. Of this poem, which

Warnatsch, pp 105-110, holds to be a fragment of a lost romance of

Lanzelet, written before the 'Crône,' only 994 verses are left.

Deducting about a hundred of introduction, there are some 782 German

against some 314 French verses, an excess which is owing, no doubt,

largely to insertions and expansions on the part of Heinrich, but in

some measure to the existing texts of the fabliau having suffered

abridgment. The whole matter of the church service, with the going and

coming, is dispatched in less than a dozen verses in the French, but

occupies more than seventy in German, and just here we read in the

French:

Ci ne vueil je plus demorer,

Ni de noient fere lone conte,

Si con l'estoire le raconte.

But possibly the last verse should be taken with what follows.

[218] In Hahn, Griechische Märchen, No 70, II, 60 f, a walnut contains a

dress with the earth and its flowers displayed on it, an almond one with

the heaven and its stars, a hazel-nut one with the sea and its fishes.

No 7, I, 99, a walnut contains a complete costume exhibiting heaven with

its stars, a hazel-nut another with the sea and its waves. No 67, II,

33, an almond encloses a woman's dress with heaven and its stars on it,

a hazel-nut a suit for her husband. In the Grimms' No 113, three walnuts

contain successively each a finer dress than the other, II, 142 f, ed.

1857. There are three similar nuts in Haltrich, No 43, and in

Volksmärchen aus Venetien, Jahrbuch für r. u. e. Lit., VII, 249, No 12.

Ulrich's mantle is worked with all manner of beasts, birds, and sea

monsters, on earth or under, and betwixt earth and heaven: Lanzelet,

5820-27.

[219] I cite the text according to Warnatsch. Warnatsch thinks it worth

noticing that it is the queen only, in Mantel 771 f, as in our ballad,

st. 14, that curses the maker of the mantle; not, as in the fabliau, the

gentlemen whose feelings were so much tried. These, like the queen in

the ballad, ont maudit le mantel, et celui qui li aporta.

[220] Not even for Ginovere hübsch unde guot, or Enîte diu reine. The

queen has always been heedful of her acts, and has never done anything

wrong: doch ist siu an den gedenken missevarn, Heaven knows how. Ulrich

is very feeble here.

A remark is here in place which will be still more applicable to some of

the tests that are to be spoken of further on. Both the French fabliau

and the English ballad give to the mantle the power of detecting the

woman that has once done amiss, a de rien messerré. We naturally suppose

that we understand what is meant. The trial in the fabliau is so

conducted as to confirm our original conception of the nature of the

inquest, and so it is, in the case of Arthur's queen, Kay's lady, and

the old knight's wife, in the ballad. But when we come to the charmingly

pretty passage about Cradock's wife, what are we to think? Is the mantle

in a teasing mood, or is it exhibiting its real quality? If once to have

kissed Cradock's mouth before marriage is once to have done amiss,

Heaven keep our Mirandas and our Perditas, and Heaven forgive our

Juliets and our Rosalinds! ("Les dames et demoiselles, pour être baisées

devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France," we know, but this

nice custom could hardly have had sway in England. Is then this passage

rendered from something in French that is lost?) But the mantle, in the

ballad, after indulging its humor or its captiousness for a moment, does

Cradock's wife full justice. The mantle, if uncompromising as to acts,

at least does not assume to bring thoughts under its jurisdiction. Many

of the probations allow themselves this range, and as no definite idea

is given of what is charged, no one need be shocked, or perhaps

disturbed, by the number of convictions. The satire loses zest, and the

moral effect is not improved.

[221] Nul femme que [ne] vouloit lesser sauoir à soun marry soun fet et

pensé. T. Wright, in Archæologia Cambrensis, January, 1863, p. 10. Mr

Wright gives one of the texts of Cort Mantel, with an English

translation. We are further told, in Scalachronica, that this mantle was

afterwards made into a chasuble, and that it is "to this day" preserved

at Glastonbury. Three versions of the fabliau testify that Carados and

his _amie_ deposited the mantle in a Welsh abbey. The Skikkju Rímur say

that the lady presented it to the cloister of Cologne; the Möttulssaga

has simply a monastery (and, indeed, the mantle, as described by some,

must have had a vocation that way from the beginning). "Item, in the

castel of Douer ye may see Gauwayn's skull and Cradok's mantel:" Caxton,

in his preface to Kyng Arthur, 1485, I, ii, in Southey's ed.; cited by

Michel, Tristan, II, 181, and from him by Warnatsch.

[222] For this enchanter see _Le Livre de Karados_ in Perceval le

Gallois, ed. Potvin, II, 118 ff. It is not said in the printed copy that

he sent the mantle [horn].

[223] Another copy, assigned to the end of the 14th century, from the

Kolmar MS., Barisch, p. 373, No LXIX (Warnatsch).

[224] Warnatsch shows, p. 75 f, that the fastnachtspiel must have been

made up in part from some version of the Mantle story which was also the

source of the meisterlied, and in part from a meisterlied of the Horn,

which will be mentioned further on.

[225] The Dean of Lismore's Book, edited by Rev. Thomas M'Lauchlan, p.

72 of the translation, 50/51 of the original. Repeated in Campbell's

Heroic Gaelic Ballads, p. 138 f, 'The Maid of the White Mantle.' Mr

Campbell remarks: "This ballad, or the story of it, is known in Irish

writings. It is not remembered in Scotland now." Mr Wright cites this

poem, Archæologia Cambrensis, p. 14 f, 39 f.

[226] Cf. Arthur in the Lai du Corn and Fraw Tristerat Horn, a little

further on.

[227] Wolf at first speaks of the lai as being made over into the

fabliau, in regular court style, ganz nach höfischer Weise, about the

middle of the 13th century; then goes on to say that even if the author

of the fabliau followed another version of the story, he must have known

the jongleur's poem, because he has repeated some of the introductory

lines of the lai. This excellent scholar happened, for once, not to

observe that the first fourteen lines of the lai, excepting the fourth,

which is questionable, are in a longer metre than the rest of the poem,

in eights and sevens, not sixes, and the first three of the lai, which

agree with the first three of the fabliau, in the eight-syllable verse

of the latter; so that it was not the author of the fabliau that

borrowed. Warnatsch (who has also made this last remark) has noted other

agreements between lai and fabliau, p. 61. Both of these acknowledge

their derivation from an earlier _dit, estoire_, not having which we

shall find it hard to determine by which and from what the borrowing was

done.

[228] Montpellier MS.

[229] Perceval exhibits agreements, both as to phrase and matter, now

with the lai, now with the fabliau, and this phenomenon will occur again

and again. This suggests the likelihood of a source which combined

traits of both lai and fabliau: Warnatsch, pp 62-64.

[230] So amended by Zingerle from Syrneyer lant. A third copy is cited

as in the Kolmar MS., No 806, Bartsch, Meisterlieder der Kolmarer

Handschrift, p. 74 (Warnatsch). A remarkable agreement between the

French lai, 94, 97, 99-102, and Wigamur 2623-30 convinces Warnatsch that

the source of this meisterlied must have been a Middle High German

rendering of some form of the Drinking-horn Test closely resembling the

lai. See Warnatsch, p. 66.

[231] The king of _Spain_, who is again the poorest of all the kings, p.

206, line 32, p. 214, line 22, is addressed by Arthur as his nephew, p.

207, line 11, and p. 193, line 30. Carados is called Arthur's nephew in

Perceval (he is son of Arthur's niece), e.g. 15,782, and Carados, his

father, is Carados de _Vaigne_, II, 117. It is said of Kalegras's _amie_

in the 'Mantle Rhymes,' III, 59, that many a lady looked down upon her.

This may be a chance expression, or possibly point to the poverty which

is attributed to the royal pair of Spain in Fastnachtspiele, Nos 81,

127, and in Frau Tristerat Horn. In Der Lanethen Mantel, Laneth is

Arthur's niece, and poor: see p. 261.

The fastnachtspiel has points in common with the fabliau, and the

assumption of a source which combined features of both lai and fabliau

is warrantable: Warnatsch, pp 66-68.

[232] This is a thoroughly dissolute piece, but not ambiguous. It is

also the most humorous of the whole series.

[233] Warnatsch shows that Heinrich cannot have derived any part of his

Trinkhornprobe from the Perceval of Chrestien, characteristic agreements

with Perceval being entirely wanting. There are agreements with the lai,

many more with the fabliau; and Heinrich's poem, so far as it is not of

his own invention, he believes to be compounded from his own version of

the fabliau and some lost version of the Horn-test: pp 111-114.

[234] The principal variations of this name, of which the Welsh Caradoc

is assumed to be the original, are: Craddocke (English ballad); Carados,

Caradox (Cort Mantel); Karodes (Scalachronica); Caraduz (Crône, 2309,

elsewhere) Karadas; Carigras, Kaligras (Rímur); Karodeus, Caraduel

(Perceval, 12,466, 12,457, 12,491, but generally), Carados, -ot, or;

Caraduel (Messire Gauvain, 3943); Garadue (Lai du Corn); Karadin

(Möttuls Saga). Garadue probably==Caraduel, which, in Percival twice,

and once in Messire Gauvain, is used for Carados, through confusion with

Arthur's residence, Carduel, Cardoil. So Karadas is twice put in the

Crône, 16,726, 16,743, for Karidol==Cardoil. Might not Karadin have been

written for Karadiu?

[235] Tristan of Hélie de Borron, I, 73 verso, in Rajna, Fonti dell'

Orlando Furioso, p. 498 ff. So in Malory's King Arthur, Southey, I, 297,

Wright, II, 64. The Italian Tristan, La Tavola Ritonda, ed. Polidori,

XLIII, pp 157-160, makes 686 try, of whom only 13 prove to be innocent,

and those in spite of themselves. Another account exempts 2 out of 365:

Nannucci, Manuale, II, 168-171.

[236] Un vasello fatto da ber, qual già, per fare accorto il suo

fratello del fallo di Ginevra, fe Morgana: XLIII, 28; un bel nappo d'or,

di fuor di gamme, XLII, 98. The Orlando concurs with the prose Tristan

as to the malice of Morgan, but does not, with the Tristan, depart from

prescription in making the women drink. Warnatsch observes that the

Orlando agrees with the Horn Fastnachtspiel, and may with it follow some

lost version of the story: p. 69.

Before leaving these drinking-tests, mention may be made of Oberon's

gold cup, which, upon his passing his right hand three times round it

and making the sign of the cross, fills with wine enough for all the

living and the dead; but no one can drink s'il n'est preudom, et nes et

purs et sans pecié mortel: Huon de Bordeaux, ed. Guessard et

Grandmaison, p. 109 f, vv 3652-69.

[237] The Myvyrian Archæology of Wales, II, 13, triad 54==triad 103, p.

73; p. 17, triad 78==triad 108, p. 73.

According to a popular belief in Austria, says J. Grimm, you may know a