NOTES.

PAGE 1, line 12. Cf. ll. 118, 187, 190, 198, 558, 924, 1924, 2183. So in

_Eglamour_ (Thornton Romances), l. 408:

‘The boke of Rome thus can telle,’

and _The Erl of Tolouse_, ed. Lüdtke, l. 1219:

‘Yn Rome thys geste cronyculyd ys.’

See Halliwell’s and Lüdtke’s notes to these passages. I agree with both

of them, that an expression like that does not earnestly refer the

reader to a Latin or Italian source of the story; there is evidently no

difference at all between _in Rome_ and _in romance_.

p. 1, l. 15. _wyght_ has been inserted instead of _dowghtty_ in order to

restore the rhyme with _hyght_, _knyght_, _myght_; cf. _Havelok_, ed.

Skeat, l. 344:

‘He was fayr man and wicth.’

p. 1, l. 17 = _Ipomadon_, l. 63. Parallel passages to this hyperbolic

expression are collected in Kölbing’s note to this line (p. 364).

p. 1, l. 24. We find the same idea as here, viz. that nobody can resist

the will of God, who has power over death and life, in _Sir Tristrem_,

ll. 236 ff.:

‘Þat leuedi, nouȝt to lain,

For soþe ded is sche!

Who may be ogain?

As god wil, it schal be,

Vnbliþe.’

p. 2, l. 28. I have not met with the verb _fesomnen_ anywhere else, and

it is not mentioned in Stratmann and Mätzner. Halliwell, Dictionary,

p. 354, explains it by ‘feoffed, gave in fee,’ doubtless regarding this

very passage, although he doesn’t cite it; might _fesomnyd_ not be a

corruption from _sesyd_? cf. _Havelok_, ll. 250 f.:

‘Þat he ne dede al Engelond

Sone sayse intil his hond.’

Hall writes to me on this word as follows: _fesomnyd_ is, I am

convinced, not a word at all, but a scribe’s error for _festonyd_ or

_festnyd_ = confirmed, fixed. Comp. ’_And þat ich hym wolde myd trewþe

siker faste on honde_,’ Robert of Gloucester (Hearne), p. 150. For this

use of _fasten, fastnen_, comp. ’_But my forwarde with þe I festen on

þis wyse_,’ Alliterative Poems, p. 47, l. 327: ’_& folden fayth to þat

fre, festned so harde_,’ Sir Gawayne, p. 57, l. 1783: ’_And þis forward,

in faith, I festyn with hond_,’ Destruction of Troy, p. 22, l. 636. See

also Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary, ii. p. 216, under _to Fest_.

p. 2, l. 30. I am by no means sure that _fede_ is the original reading,

but I wasn’t able to find a better word rhyming with _dedde_, _wede_;

even the _ne._ ‘feed’ means _pasture_, and that is what we expect here.

p. 2, l. 31. For my correction cf. Lüdtke’s note to _The Erl of

Tolouse_, l. 199, sub 2; _Eglam._, l. 26:

‘That was a maydyn as whyte as fome,’

_Ib._ l. 683:

‘Crystyabelle as whyte as fome,’

where the _Percy Folio MS._ reads:

‘Christabell that was as faire as sunn;’

_Chronicle of England_, l. 75 f.:

‘Ant nomeliche to thy lemmon,

That ys wyttore then the fom.’

p. 2, l. 50. The alteration of _And_ and _bee_ into _An_ and _see_

seemed necessary; _sayment_ is like Fr. _essaiement_, Lat.

_exagimentum_.

p. 3, l. 59. Cf. l. 1216 f. and _The Lyfe of Ipomydon_, ed. Kölbing,

l. 1795:

‘If thou hyr haue, thou shalt hyr bye.’

p. 3, l. 77 f. As half of the stanza is lost, it is impossible to make

out to whom _they_ refers. Nor do I believe that l. 78 is correct,

especially as to _chaunce_.

p. 3, l. 79. Cf. _Ipomadon_, ed. Kölbing, l. 8123:

‘A myle wyth in the Grekes see.’

p. 3, l. 80. _in an yle_ is certainly the correct reading; _mauyle_ was

introduced by a scribe who supposed it to be the giant’s name; but that

is mentioned some twenty lines later.

p. 5, l. 136. The correction of _lyght_ into _ryght_ I owe to Hall, who

refers me to the legend of _Sancta Maria Egyptiaca_; cf. f. i. Barbour’s

_Legends of Saints_, ed. Horstmann, I. p. 143 ff.

p. 6, l. 153. _nowyd_ = ‘anoyed’ gives a poor sense. Hall suggests

_nowtyd_; cf. E. D. S., No. 6, Ray’s _North Country Words_, p. 59,

_note_, to push, strike or soar, with the horn, as a bull or ram,’ ab.

A.S. _huitan_, ejusdem significationis. The word might then mean

‘spurred.’

p. 6, l. 171 = l. 596. This alliterative binding is a very frequent one;

cf. _Sir Orfeo_, ed. Zielke, p. 9.

p. 7, l. 188. The same rhyme, which I have restored here, occurs

l. 559 f.

p. 7, l. 190. _Yt tellythe_ = _Yt is told_; cf. Lüdtke, note to _The Erl

of Tolouse_, l. 1070, and Sarrazin, note to _Octavian_, l. 1749.

p. 9, l. 236. I was about to write, _Crystyn men thow they were_,

referring this line to the guardians of the lions; but, no doubt, Hall’s

reconstruction of the line, which I have put into the text, is far

better.

p. 9, l. 237. _Hys browys wexe bla_, i.e. he turned pale, he was struck

with fear; cf. _bloo askes_, P. Pl., l. 1553, and the German _aschfahl_.

Quite a similar expression occurs in _Perceval_, l. 687 f.:

‘Now sone of that salle wee see,

Whose browes schalle blakke.’

_Ib._ l. 1056:

‘His browes to blake.’

p. 9, l. 245. Though _syghyng_ gives no offence, still it may be, that

the author has written _syngyng_, and the scribe was wrong in altering

it; cf. Zupitza’s note to _Guy_, l. 5424.

p. 9, l. 251. Cf. l. 802, 1204, _Ipomadon_, l. 6481 f.:

‘Your nece of Calabyre, that lady clere,

Ys bovnden wyth a fendes fere.’

_Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, i. p. 241:

‘He seith bi niȝte and eke bi day,

That hy beth fendes ifere.’

p. 10, l. 265 f. The reading of these two lines is quite destroyed by

the careless scribe. My correction is not more than an attempt to

restore the rhyme.

p. 10, l. 277 ff. There is nothing in Torrent’s words which could lead

the princess to a conclusion like that. I think that after l. 276 one

stanza is wanting.

p. 11, l. 286-8. As to the contents of these lines, Kölbing refers me to

_Englische studien_, vol. IV. p. 133 f., where F. Liebrecht mentions a

passage in _Sir Beves of Hamtoun_, according to which a king’s

daughter,--if she is a pure virgin,--can never be hurt by a lion. Here

we have another proof for this remarkable bit of folk-lore.

p. 11, l. 292 = l. 329.

p. 11, l. 303 = l. 342.

p. 11, l. 305. I am not quite sure whether I was right in substituting

the prince’s name--which is mentioned once more, the first time, as it

were, l. 341--for the name of his father’s kingdom; but I didn’t see any

other way of restoring the rhyme.

p. 12, l. 311. Cf. l. 469 and Skeat’s note to _Sir Thopas_, l. 1927.

p. 12, l. 334. Instead of _he_ I should prefer to read _they_: Torrent

has just admonished the prisoners to cheer up.

p. 13, l. 344. There must be something wrong in this line, because the

name of the third Earl’s son is missing; to write _the third_ instead of

_of_ may not suffice to put the text right; even the names _Torren_ and

_Berweyne_ seem to me very suspicious.

p. 14, l. 379. Cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 4245, _for Crystys dede_; _Crystys_

was substituted by Kölbing for _mannes_, which is clearly wrong; he

could as well have chosen _godes_.

p. 15, l. 393 ff. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 736.

p. 16, l. 427. Of this allusion to Veland, Halliwell treats in his

edition of _Sir Torrent_, p. vii f. Cf. Zupitza, _Ein zeugnis für die

Wieland-sage_, _Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum_, Vol. XIX,

p. 129 f.

p. 16, l. 429-31. The line which follows l. 429 in the MS. is

superfluous; it damages the metre; and the rhyme with l. 430 won’t do.

The old king wishes to say; ‘I have seen the day when, if this sword

wielded by me fell on any one, he was considered done for, doomed to

death.’ Therefore l. 431, _I fawght therfor I told_ has been corrected

into _Fawe they were I-told_. The scribe did not understand the

obsolescent word _fawe_ or _faye_, so he wrote the nearest word to it to

make sense, _I-told_ = ‘held, considered.’--I. Hall.

p. 17, l. 458. Cf. Breul’s note to _Sir Gowther_, l. 410.

p. 17, l. 465. Cf. l. 2061 f.

p. 20, l. 542. The scribe, who evidently didn’t know the pretty rare

word _clow_, has spoilt it to _colod_, or _colvd_; the same rhyme,

_clouȝ_, _drouȝ_, _anouȝ_ occurs in _Sir Tristrem_, l. 1761 ff. Nor did

the scribe know the word _swowe_ = ‘noise,’ and changed it to _swayne_;

cf. Hall. Dict., p. 843: _He come to him with a swowe_.

p. 20, l. 543. _Of and on_, off and on, intermittently.

p. 21, l. 555. _schyld_ is not to the point here, Torrent having only

his sword at hand. The scribe has forgotten what he has said himself,

l. 526 and 549; cf. l. 652.

p. 21, l. 582-4. We meet with this description twice more in the poem,

ll. 1514-16, and ll. 1858-60.

p. 23, l. 640. On the meaning of _theff_, cf. Kölbing’s note to _Am. and

Amil._, l. 787.

p. 24, l. 659. _of Perowne_ is certainly wrong, as it does not agree

with the rhymes _stere_, _nere_, _fere_; but I don’t know how to amend

the line.

p. 24, l. 662. _schere_ gives no meaning; I write _stere_ and translate,

There might nobody move further, _i.e._ the giant was brought to a

standstill in the glen.

p. 24, l. 665. Cf. ll. 434, 791.

p. 25, l. 688. Cf. _Eglam._, l. 324:

‘And to [the] herte hym bare.’

The weak preterit tense of _berien_ is very rare; if _bere_ = A.S.

_beran_ sometimes has the same meaning, _i.e._ ‘to strike,’ the reason

is that A.S. _beran_ and Icel. _berja_ are confounded.

p. 25, l. 696. _woo_ can hardly stand for _wood_. It seems to me like a

last corruption of an old romance phrase, like _worthy inwith wall

(woȝe)_; possibly the line was simply so: _Thus in II journeys Torrent

so_.--Hall.

p. 25, l. 700. On the use of M.E. _fote_ as a plural see Zupitza’s note

to _Guy_, l. 598.

p. 26, l. 722. Hall suggests, the original phrase may have been: _pomely

whyt and grey_; cf. Chaucer, _C. T._, Prol., l. 615 f.:

‘This reeve sat vpon a ful good stot,

That was al {pomely gray}, and highte Scot.’

p. 27, l. 744. Cf. l. 788. On _St. James_ cf. Kölbing’s note to _Am. and

Amil._, l. 796.

p. 29, l. 808 f. ‘In so dangerous conditions he has been before [and

still come back safe], so he will come back even this time.’

p. 29, l. 819. On the meaning of the phrase ’_the bord beginne_,’ cf.

Kölbing, _Englische studien_, III. p. 104, and Zupitza, _Anglia_, III.

p. 370 f.

p. 30, l. 838. This stanza being incomplete, I think, the lacuna is to

be put after l. 838. The missing three lines contained the fact, that

the king promises Torrent, before his knights, that, when he has done

this deed, he will give him his daughter, and grant him one half of his

kingdom during his life, and the whole afterwards; cf. l. 1206 ff. The

odd number of XXVII knights is probably due only to the scribe; cf. F.

III: _By VII score of hardy knyghtes_.

p. 31, l. 867 f. These two lines are poor, and the rhyme is very bad;

l. 868 may have run originally, _Thurrow Pervyns, for sothe, it ley_;

cf. l. 949.

p. 32, l. 901. _squyere_, although very odd at the first sight, may

still be right; Torrent says: ‘The only squier that I took with me for

this journey, is my sword’; cf. l. 909.

p. 33, l. 922. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Ipomadon_, l. 3344.

p. 33, l. 924-6. On the story of a child, begotten by a devil on a

sleeping woman, cf. Breul, _Sir Gowther_, p. 119 f.

p. 34, l. 954 ff. Cf. _Tristrem_, l. 1409 ff.:

‘Out of Deuelin toun

Þe folk wel fast ran,

In a water to droun,

So ferd were þai þan.’

p. 34, l. 963 f. Cf. _Beves of Hamtoun_, l. 187 f.:

‘Madame, a seide, for loue myn,

Whar mai ich finde þat wilde swin?’

p. 36, l. 1000. Instead of _spere_ perhaps we ought to read _sworde_.

p. 37, l. 1030 f. If we compare the rests of these lines in F. VI., this

reading or a similar one is to be expected. The reading of l. 1029 ff.

in the fragments may be completed so: _[Thourgh the he]lpe of god of

heuen Thorough ye and] herin euen God send the spere the right way_.

p. 36, l. 1033 f. Cf. ll. 1166, 2468 f., and Kölbing’s note to _Sir

Tristrem_, l. 69 f.

p. 38, l. 1070. ‘I came hither to seek my death,’ _i.e._ this expedition

was so dangerous, that I expected to die.

p. 38, l. 1076. Cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 239 f.:

‘Tyll vncovth contreys will I wende,

The maner wille I see.’

p. 39, l. 1081. _is_ was to be corrected into _it_: ‘Because you slew

him that possessed it.’

p. 39, l. 1086. This line, according to Hall’s emendation, means: You

owe no homage or feudal due, the manor is yours and your heirs’ for

ever; _i.e._ the manor is in fee simple, and free from any feudal

obligation.

p. 39, st. 95. The text would be improved by putting ll. 1104-6 before

1101-3, although this transposition is not absolutely necessary.

p. 39, l. 1105. _lefte_ may be a mistake for _loste_; cf. _Gower_, I.

207:

‘Contenaunce for a þrowe

He loste.’

p. 40, l. 1117. Cf. Ritson’s _Met. Rom._, III. p. 341 f., and Zupitza’s

note to _Guy_, l. 436.

p. 40, l. 1121. _he bare_ looks rather suspicious, but it is supported

by l. 2169. The author is about to describe the figures inlaid on the

shield. Cf. _Eglamour_, l. 1030 f.:

’_He bare_ in azure[N1] a grype of golde,

Rychely beton on the molde.’

[Footnote N1: So _Percy Fol. MS._; _aserre_ Thornt.]

p. 40, l. 1124. This line is hopelessly spoilt; the scribe, careless as

he was, has almost literally repeated l. 1121; l. 1125 directly

continues the description begun before.

p. 40, l. 1132. Is _than I haue in tale_ right? We expect rather: _than

I can telle in tale_.

p. 41, l. 1138 f. Cf. l. 1587 f.

p. 41, l. 1143. I thought it necessary to insert _mete_, although

Mätzner, _Wörterbuch_, II. p. 274, cites this line as the only instance

in the M.E. literature for _glad_ as a substantive. But even the sense

is very poor without this addition.

p. 41, l. 1144. As to a man riding into the hall, cf. Skeat’s note to

Chaucer’s _Squiere’s Tale_, l. 80, and Kölbing’s note to _Ipomadon_

l. 6253 f.

p. 41, l. 1150 f. I hope my alterations in l. 1151 are right. It cannot

be said that the King of Aragon defends the lady unless somebody has

laid claims to her. Torrent wants either three combats or the lady,

quite a regular occurrence in mediæval romances.

p. 41, l. 1154. _none_, i.e. _no lady_.

p. 41, l. 1160. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 138.

p. 41, l. 1165. _the gres_, which word is here required by the rhyme,

is, in the same way as in this passage, used for ‘battle-field,’ in

_Perceval_, l. 1225 f.:

‘Hedes and helmys ther was,

I telle ȝow withowttene lese,

Many layde {one the gresse},

And many brode schelde.’

p. 42, l. 1181. _For tynding of his hand_ = for fear of (= _for_) the

beating (blows) of his hand. Schoolboy slang still keeps the word ’_to

tund_’ = to beat with something flat.--HALL.

p. 42, l. 1193. On this expression Skeat treats in _Notes to P. Pl._,

p. 3987, to which note I refer the reader. Cf. _Li B. Disc._, l. 130 f.

(Ritson, _Rom._ II. p. 6):

‘Hys schon wer with gold ydyght

And {kopeth} as a knyght.’

p. 43, l. 1198 f.: ‘None of them said a single word, But that Torrent

had been right to do so as he had done.’

p. 43, l. 1211. There is an evident contradiction between this line and

l. 1199. I suppose the word _waried_ to be wrong; but I am not able to

give a fairly certain emendation of it.

p. 44, l. 1228 f.: ‘The king had supposed he was dead, and, indeed,

foolhardy he was to undertake an adventure like this.’

p. 45, l. 1268 f. This fight between the giant Cate and Torrent reminds

us in some points of the combat between Guy and Colbrond. Like the old

northern _holmganga_, both fights take place on an island, and in both

cases the giant declines to sit on horseback, because he is too heavy;

cf. _Guy of Warwike_, Edinburgh, 1840, l. 9940 ff.:

‘When þai had sworn and ostage founde,

Colbrond stirt vp in þat stounde,

To fiȝt he was ful felle.

He was so michel and so vnrede,

That no hors miȝt him lede,

In gest as y you telle.

So mani he hadde of armes gere,

Vnneþe a cart miȝt hem bere,

Þe Inglisse for to quelle.’

p. 45, l. 1270. _he_ instead of _him_ is remarkable; this personal

construction, provided that it is right, would offer an analogue to _I

am wo_ instead of _me is wo_; cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 245.

p. 45, l. 1271 = l. 1546.

p. 46, l. 1307. This line ought probably to run thus:

’_Sir Torent praid, as was his wonne._’

p. 47, l. 1337 f. This is SAINT _Nycholas de Barr_, not sir N., as the

copyist has put. He was hardly a cleric, or he would have known the Boy

Bishop. An English reference for S. Nicholas is Alban Butler, _Lives of

the Fathers, Martyrs_, etc., vol. vii. p. 989, Dublin, 1833. His day is

Dec. 6th, consequently he is not in _Acta Sanctorum_; see besides

_Altenglische legenden, Neue folge_, ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1881, p.

11-16, and Barbour’s _Legendensammlung_, ed. Horstmann, I. p. 229-245.

_Barr_ is _Bari_ in Italy, and Barbour, I. p. 238, l. 601 f., knew it

was two syllables (cf. the rhyme _þame be: Barre_). Nicholas was the

patron of sailors, and churches on the sea-coast in all parts of Europe

were dedicated to him. Now as Sir Torrent had been in peril at sea, he

offers to him. It was customary to offer garments at such shrines. See

Hampson, _Medii Ævi Kalendarium_, I. p. 72. Hence I propose for l. 1338:

_A grett Erldome and a simarr_. _Simarr_ is not a common word, which

makes it all the more probable here, since the uncommon words are those

which are corrupted and lost. See _Prompt. Parv._, I. p. 75: ’_chymer,

abella_,’ that is ‘abolla, cloak.’ M.E. _simar_, Fr. _simarre_.--HALL.

I have not hesitated for a moment to introduce this sagacious conjecture

into the text; also the correction of _redith_ into _tas_ I owe to Mr.

Hall.

p. 48, l. 1353. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Sir Tristrem_, l. 2508.

p. 48, l. 1364. We ought probably to read _she_ instead of _he_.

p. 48, l. 1367 f. Cf. l. 1756 f.

p. 48, l. 1378. Cf. _Sir Tristrem_, l. 2458:

‘Bi holtes and bi hille.’

p. 49, l. 1385 ff. Here he addresses the King of Portugal. In l. 1385

_the_ is superfluous, and should perhaps be struck out.

p. 49, l. 1395. _fend_ = _defend_; cf. Zupitza’s note to _Guy_, l. 576.

p. 51, l. 1443 f. As the existence of _fede_ = _fode_, ‘fellow’ is

proved by no other passage, we ought perhaps to write _As spede me god:

ffode_, or _As g. me save: knave_, instead of _As god me spede: ffede_.

p. 51, l. 1445. The alteration of _fleand_, which is absurd here, into

_failand_ is supported by l. 1280.

p. 51, l. 1446. As to _make_ instead of _made_, cf. l. 332.

p. 51, l. 1463. Cf. l. 2090 f. I am afraid neither of these passages is

quite right.

p. 53, l. 1518. Perhaps we ought to read:

‘And out of the valey he hyd swith.’

p. 54, l. 1531. I don’t believe that the poet used the word _tree_

thrice within these four lines; perhaps he wrote for l. 1531: _Shold not

drawe it, parde_.

p. 54, l. 1551. Cf. _Guy_, ed. Zupitza, l. 5430:

‘To reste þer horsys a lytull wyght,’

and Zupitza’s note to l. 419.

p. 55, l. 1570. Cf. Stratmann’s note to _Havelok_, l. 1129 (_Englische

studien_, I. p. 424).

p. 56, l. 1592. _To the I haue full good gate_ means, ‘I am fully

entitled to kill you.’ I don’t recollect to have met with any parallel

passage.

p. 56, l. 1600. That _dynt_ is wrong, the rhyme shows as well as the

meaning. But whether my alteration is right, seems very doubtful,

especially as l. 1609 offers the same rhyming word.

p. 58, st. 142. Rhymes like _dight_, _be-taught_, _draught_, _right_ can

by no means be admitted. Now, instead of _be-taught_ we may be allowed

to write _be-teighte_ (cf. _Beket_, l. 1827), and l. 1654 may have run:

‘He wold haue a draught, aplight.’

p. 59, l. 1676. After _was_, _sent_ may have been dropped.

p. 59, l. 1692. _For his love_, i.e. ‘As his sweetheart.’

p. 60, l. 1714. Cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 52:

‘Begge he wex of bonne and blode.’

_Ib._ l. 1763:

‘Ryghtte bygge of bone and blode.’

p. 60, l. 1722: ‘All his men agreed with him,’ viz. that this was the

knight whom he came to seek.

p. 62, l. 1774. Is _her day_ = A.S. _aerdagas_, cf. _Havelok_, l. 27?

The word is very rare, and in this meaning occurs only in the plural.

p. 62, l. 1777. After _king_, _on kne_ may have dropped out.

p. 63, l. 1799. Cf. Chaucer, _C. T._, the Millere’s Tale, l. 325:

‘Say what thou wolt, I schal it never telle

To child no wyf, by him that harwed helle.’

_Ib._, The Sompnoure’s Tale, l. 407:

‘Now help, Thomas, for him that harewed helle.’

Perhaps even here, l. 1702, _Iesu, that made hell_, ought to be altered

into _I. that harowde hell_.

p. 64, l. 1846. Perhaps we ought to read _ebbyng_ instead of _eb_,

according to l. 223; one can hardly say, that ‘the sea is eb.’

p. 68, l. 1961. Instead of _A_ I should prefer to read _The_, because

this griffon is the same which robbed the child before.

p. 69, l. 1982. _Of what lond that he is left_, i.e. ‘Wherever he may be

born.’

p. 69, l. 1991 f. Cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 50 f.:

‘He sayd: Fro tyme he kepe tham con,

My landes I shall hym take.’

p. 70, l. 2002. _It is good in euery fight_, i.e. there is a stone in

the ring which heals wounds, if they are touched with it; cf. Kölbing’s

note to _Ipomadon_, l. 8018.

p. 70, l. 2010. Halliwell, p. 306, explains _disparlid_ by ‘beaten down,

destroyed,’ a meaning which is not fit for this passage. I read with a

slight addition _disparplid_ = ‘dispersed,’ a rare word; cf.

_Stratmann_, p. 156.

p. 71, l. 2026. _But_ is probably to be altered into _And_.

p. 72, l. 2053. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 3068.

p. 72, l. 2075. One might be inclined to write:

‘That my two children vncrystonyd ware,’

but I don’t think that we are obliged to change: ‘I cared only for that

one thing, That my two children might be christened.’

p. 74, l. 2126. For _hing_ instead of _heng_ cf. Mätzner,

_Sprachproben_, I. 1, p. 292, note to line 675, where _hynges_ rhymes

with _springes_.

p. 74, l. 2135. _hede vale_, i.e. principal, best choice; _vale_ =

_wale_, or perhaps aphetic for _avale_ = value.--HALL.

p. 74, l. 2138. _born_ seems to me somewhat suspicious, though I cannot

propose a better reading; _and torn_ instead of _born_ wouldn’t do.

p. 75, l. 2152. The imperfect rhyme shows that there is something wrong

in this line; it may be restored thus:

‘Loo, lordys good and hende.’

p. 75, l. 2153. _wyll haue_ has probably been inserted here from the

following line; we ought to read _has_.

p. 75, l. 2157. _Season for to hold_, i.e. ‘in order to hold court.’ But

I don’t know another instance of _season_ with this meaning.

p. 76, l. 2174. This line involves a contradiction to l. 2158 f.

p. 76, l. 2185. _smote_ means the same as _caste_; cf. _King Horn_, ed.

Wissmann, l. 1038:

‘And ankere gunne caste.’

The only question is, whether _ankere_ is allowed to be supplied or must

be added; cf. l. 2203.

p. 77, l. 2209-2214. The Sultan informs Torrent by messengers, that the

inhabitants of the town are starving, evidently appealing to his

generosity. Torrent answers him, that if they will lie here, _i.e._

leave the town, they are to have victuals enough. But the Sultan doesn’t

accept this condition, and so the siege is continued. That seems to me

to be the meaning of this half of the stanza.

p. 77, l. 2216 f. _dede_ means here, and l. 2400, ‘exploit, battle.’ In

the same way Saber, Beves’s uncle, once a year on a certain day fights

against the Emperor; cf. _Sir Beues_, l. 2917 ff.:

’& eueri ȝer on a dai certaine

Vpon þemperur of Almaine

He ginneþ gret bataile take,

Beues, al for þine sake.’

It agrees very well with the religious feelings of the Middle Ages, when

they thought it a merit to fight against the heathens on Good Friday;

cf. here l. 2230 ff.

p. 77, l. 2224 ff. I am afraid there is something wrong in these lines;

the copyist seems to mean, that Torrent didn’t bereave the inhabitants

of their worldly goods, their treasures; then we must write _them_ for

_it_. But what we really expect here is, that he leaves in the town some

trustworthy men to keep it. Accordingly, the fault lies in _Worldely

goodis_. Besides, l. 2224, _did wyn_, instead of _was yn_, would improve

the rhyme.

p. 77, l. 2232. _bryght_ is a rather odd epithet to _Sarȝins_.

p. 78, l. 2233 ff. Fifteen years have past since Torrent began to

fight against the infidels: he besieges the first town two years (cf.

l. 2189), the second, six years (cf. l. 2206), the third, seven years

(cf. l. 2230). Meanwhile, the education of a young man being finished at

the age of fifteen (cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 287), his son

had become just old enough to win his spurs.

p. 78, l. 2240. I doubt whether _ordeyn_ can be allowed to stand without

an object, such as _your folk_, or _your ships_; cf. _Robert of

Glo’ster_, ed. Hearne, p. 139, l. 19:

‘He bigan to ordeyne ys folk, & to batail aȝen drow.’

p. 78, l. 2256: ‘Woebegone was she, that must see that,’ viz. that ‘le

leopard took away her sone.’

p. 78, l. 2259 f. The meaning of these two lines is not quite

perspicuous, and they may be corrupt; only this one thing is clear, that

these two knights are Torrent and his son, who belong to different

parties.

p. 79, l. 2269 ff. It may be that ll. 2269-71 and ll. 2272-74 are to be

transposed, but I don’t think it necessary: Torrent’s men flee when they

see that their chief has surrendered.

p. 80, l. 2302. _wekid_ = wicked, mischievous. But I don’t recollect to

have met with this adj. as an epithet to _land_ or _country_.

p. 80, l. 2304. Cf. _Tristrem_, l. 88, Kölbing’s note to that passage,

and _York Plays_, p. 438, l. 155:

‘For, certys, my lyf days are nere done.’

p. 80, l. 2316. The alteration of this line is rather a radical one; but

there was no other way to restore the rhyme; I think that first, _day_

and _nyȝt_ had changed their places in line 2313, and then the copyist,

in order to get a rhyme to _nyȝt_, spoilt the latter line.

p. 81, l. 2335. _be my ffaye_ and _parmaffay_ in the same stanza, and

both in the rhyme, are rather poor; one of these lines may have run

thus:

‘Be god of heven, the king gan say.’

p. 82, l. 2357. The same confusion between _turment_ and _turnament_

occurs in _Ipomadon_, l. 2868; cf. Kölbing’s note to this line.

p. 83, l. 2392. Cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 3958:

‘A mercy, syr, for Crystes pitte,’

and Kölbing’s note to this line.

p. 83, l. 2395 f. Cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_, l. 3064, where he

cites an interesting parallel passage to this line from _Guy of

Warwick_, ed. Zupitza, l. 4707 f.:

‘Ȝyt þou art the trewest knyght,

That euer slepyd in wynturs nyght.’

p. 83, l. 2405. _and_ is perhaps miswritten for _an_ or _on_.

p. 83, l. 2407. This line, as it stands, is rather odd; perhaps it ought

to be identical with l. 1128.

p. 84, l. 2420. _juster_, _jouster_, means here a knight who joins in a

joust or tournament: in the only other passage where it is known to

occur, _Alis._, l. 1400, it is a horse for tourneying.

p. 84, l. 2433 = l. 2456; cf. _Ipomadon_, l. 8830:

’_Euery man in there degre._’

p. 85, l. 2450. On _roial_, cf. Kölbing’s note to _Ipomadon_, l. 64. To

_a roall ffyght_ may be compared Shakespeare’s _A royal battle_ (_Rich.

III._, IV. iv.).

p. 85, l. 2461. _with oute lent_ = ‘without fasting’? I have not met

with this expletive phrase anywhere else.

p. 86, l. 2493. It was not superfluous to mention this fact, because

knights were very often killed in tournaments; cf. Niedner, _Das

deutsche turnier im XII. und XIII. Iahrhundert_, Berlin, 1881, p. 24.

See also R. Brunne’s _Handlyng-Synne_, ed. Furnivall, 1862, p. 144-6.

p. 87, l. 2518-20. As to the meaning of _couplid_, cf. Mätzner,

_Wörterbuch_, I. p. 491. These lines evidently mean that gentlemen and

ladies sit alternately, what one calls in German, _bunte reihe machen_.

Cf. A. Schultz, _Das höfische Leben Zur Zeit der Minnesinger_, I.

p. 330, and P. Pietsch, Bunte Reihe, _Zeitschrift für deutsche

Philologie_, vol. xvi. Halle, 1884, p. 231, who cites from _Biterolf_,

l. 7399 ff.:

‘Do hiezens under mîne man

Ir ingesinde wol getân

Sich teilen in dem palas,

Daz kein mîn recke dâ was,

Ern sæze zwischen magedîn.’

p. 87, l. 2526. _emell_ was added by Hall in order to restore the rhyme

with _Desonell_.

p. 88, l. 2535. For this correction, cf. Zupitza’s note to _Guy_,

l. 600.

p. 90, l. 2593. After _marked_, _them_ may have dropped; cf. _Layamon_,

l. 5642 f.:

‘And heom markede forđ,

Touward Munt-giu heo ferden,’

instead of which lines the later MSS. writes:

‘Hii nome riht hire way

Touward Muntageu.’

p. 90, l. 2597. On _castelletoure_ cf. Kölbing’s note to _Tristrem_,

l. 158.

p. 91, l. 2636. Cf. Kölbing’s notes to _Amis and Amiloun_, l. 1019, and

to _The lyfe of Ipomadon_, l. 506. Here the expression, _no good he ne

couth_ means, he was quite feeble and strengthless.

p. 92, l. 2658. _up-tyed_ = so limited by the deed of foundation that

they (the churches and abbeys) could not be diverted to any other

purpose.--HALL.

p. 92, l. 2661. Cf. _Eglamour_, l. 1339, Lincoln MS.:

‘In Rome this romance crouned es.’

The Cambridge MS. reads instead:

‘In Rome thys geste cronyculd ys.’

I am inclined to think that _crouned_ is nothing else but a misreading

for _cronyculd_. Afterwards, considered to be correct, it has originated

expressions like those we find here.