II. SAINT GODRIC’S HYMNS_Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes

#Manuscript:# Royal 5 F vii, British Museum; described in Casley’s

Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King’s Library, pp. 88, 89. The

pieces, with musical notation, in the order B, A, C, occur in a Latin

life of Godric by Geoffrey, a monk of Durham, on f. 85, apparently an

inserted leaf. This leaf is in a different hand from that of the life,

and belongs to the beginning of the thirteenth century; a hand of the

fourteenth century has added a Latin version beneath the lines of the

first stanza of A, and _onfong_ above _onfo_ in l. 3. The Royal MS.

alone contains C, but the first stanza of A, together with B, are found

in two MSS. of the life of Godric, written by his contemporary Reginald

of Durham, Laud Misc. 413, Bodleian Library, and Harley 153, B.M., and

the first stanza of A, also in another MS. of the same life, Harley 322

B.M., and in Mm. iv. 28, Cambridge University Library. Two MSS. of

Roger of Wendover, Douce 207, Bodleian, and Otho B v, B.M., and three of

Matthew Paris, C. C. C. Cambridge 26, Nero D v, and Harley 1620 B.M.,

have the whole of A. Most of these give Latin versions of the English

words. The filiation of the English copies has been determined by

Zupitza in the exhaustive article mentioned below: he gives a critical

text based on the Royal MS.

#Facsimile:# Saintsbury, G., History of English Prosody, frontispiece to

vol. i. London, 1906.

#Editions:# Ritson, J., Bibliographia Poetica, 1-4; Hazlitt’s Warton,

iii. 154 (reprint of A only); *Zupitza, J., Englische Studien, xi.

401-32.

#Literature:# Zupitza, J., Archiv, lxxxvi. 408 (note on the

pronunciation of druð).

#Phonology:# Godric’s Northern dialect has been well preserved, but he

would have written scild 3, ric 4, and probably birth 13. #a# is _a_ in

scamel (#sćeamol#) 9; #æ# is _a_ in þat, bare 10, at 13. #e# is _e_ in

help 3, itredie 10. #i# is _i_ in schild 3, dilie 7, and _y_ (written

for _i_ before _m_) in tymbre 12. #o# is _o_ in godes 4. #y# is _i_ in

sinne 7, winne 8. #ā# is _a_ in swa 9, clenhad 6. #ǣ{1}# (WG. ai + i) is

_e_ in clenhad 6, iledde 9; #ǣ{2}# (WG. ā) is _a_ in bare 13, þare 14.

#ō# is _o_ in moder 2, onfo 3, mod 7, fote 10. #ū# is _u_ in bur 5, hus

12. #eo# before #r# + consonant is _e_ in erðe 10. #æ# + #g# is _ai_ in

faire 12; #ēa# + #h#, _eȝ_ in heȝilich 4 (#hēa(h)līce#). Scone 12 is

Norse, the OE. is #scīene# (Björkman, Scandinavian Loan-Words, p. 77),

and burth 13 is probably so (id., p. 162). Sainte, uirgine, flur, druð,

are French. The scribe uses þ initially, ð in other positions, and once

th. So he has ƿ generally, but once w in _wel_. In selfd 8, _d_ is due

to anticipation of the following word: in wid 10 _d_ is scribal error

for ð.

#Grammar:# moderes is a new genitive (OE. #mōdor#, #mēder#); _e_ of the

dative is lost in mod, scamel, burth. fote 10 is _pl. d._, sinne _acc.

pl._ Of the possessives mine 10 is _pl. d._, the others are uninflected;

min sinne 7 is noteworthy, because the _pl._ forms at this period are

usually inflected. Iledde is a solitary _ind. pt. pl._, silde _subj. pt.

sing._; the other verbs are imperatives: rix = rixe. A new present stem

appears in onfang; it may be as old in the North as Godric’s time;

elsewhere it appears about 1200 A.D.

#Dialect:# Specifically Northern are the representation of #ā#, the form

silde and the early simplification of the inflection. The development of

#æ#, #ǣ#, and #y# exclude the South.

#Metre:# Godric’s rhythms are all to be found in the Latin hymns which

probably inspired his verses. These are S. Anselm’s Psalterium S.

Virginis (Opera, ed. Gerberon, p. 303) and the Sequence for the Feast of

S. Nicholas, to be found under Dec. 6 in the York Missal and elsewhere.

The normal line in Anselm’s hymn contains four measures with trochaic

movement, as Nón est | nóbis | récens | Déus, but there are others of

five and six, with admixture of iambic rhythm. Godric uses all these and

applies to them the licences of native prosody, elision, slurring,

omission, and doubling of light syllables. So his 1 and 5, Saínte |

differs by the slurring of _e_ before r. Line 2, móder | ihésu | crístes

| náza|réne |, has one trochee more than the normal line, one less than

restored before _sinne_ is of the same pattern, dílie | míne | sínne |

has the same mixture of trochees and iambs as Ómnis | remítt|itúr |

syllable in the first measure; similar is the rhythm of 4, ónfang |

hélp þin | gódric, has the same movement as óbdor|míens | páti|éndo, but

with omission of light syllable after stressed long syllable in the

second measure.

The long lines 9, 10 are based on a combination of two Latin ones, Críst

and | saínte | Marí|e swá || on scá|mel mé | ilédd|è, like Áve | cúius |

in fíl|iúm || Proclám|at fíd|es már|tyrúm | but with omission of light

syllable in the last foot; and þat íc | on þis ér|ðe né | sílde || wíd

mine | báre | fótẹ i|trédie | imitates indú|ti stó|la gé|mína || Dúplex

| dícunt | Álle|lúia, but with doubling of light syllables twice and

elision.

Níco|láe | with added foot of one stressed syllable; týmbrẹ us | faíre |

þáre is the normal Ád sal|útis | pórtum | tráhe | with added foot.

In Godric’s verse the strict syllabic principle, with its consequent

abandonment of alliteration, save for ornament, and its consistent

attempt at end-rhyme, has obtained already a complete mastery, whilst in

most of the contemporary poetry it is still struggling with the

traditional alliterative metric. His methods rank him with the writers

of popular topical verse, while the more conscious artists still linger

in the old ways.

#Introduction:# S. Godric, the hermit of Finchale, near Durham, died

1170 A.D. In his earlier days he had travelled much as merchant and

pilgrim, and learnt to venerate S. Nicholas as the patron of those in

peril of the sea. Reginald tells us that the Virgin Mary, accompanied by

S. Mary Magdalene, appeared to S. Godric, in the chapel which he had

dedicated to her at Finchale, and taught him both words and melody of

the first piece (Vita, ed. Stevenson, Surtees Society, no. 20, pp.

117-19). The occasion of the second piece was as follows. His sister

Burgwen having died, S. Godric earnestly desired to know what judgement

had been passed upon her, and he was privileged to see the Virgin Mary

followed by two angels, clothed in albs, bearing the soul of his sister,

who, from the centre of the altar in the Oratory, sang the hymn which

filled the saint with joy (Reginald, 143, 4). The third piece was

unknown to Reginald, but Godric told him that on one occasion S.

Nicholas appeared to him, with a company of angels, and bade him join

them in their hymns (id. 202).

The literary value of Godric’s verses is small, but they are the first

compositions we have in Northern English after the Conquest, and

metrically interesting. There are, however, three earlier documents

which have been printed by Liebermann in Archiv, cxi. 275-84; the first

of these, Gospatric’s letter, is also in the Scottish Historical Review,

i. 62, 105, 344, 353; ii. 340: it is possibly pre-Conquest.

1. #marie# has three syllables with the accent on the second; in OE. it

is usually Maria with accent on the first (but ‘þæt is MARÍA · mædena

felast,’ Be Domes Dæge, 18/293); in Orm naturalized as Marȝe and in ME.

generally Marye. From his Latin models Godric takes his pronunciation

and the associated uirgine, apparently its first occurrence in English.

2. #ihesu#, the general form for any oblique case, here genitive.

#nazarene# is an invariable adj. like cristene, but Orm has, ‘Forr

Nazarenuss tacneþþ sannt,’ 308/8865.

4. #heȝilich#, with honour; _gloriose_ in the MS. version. MS. Harley

322 has hegliche and translates _cito_; the Cambridge MS. hehtlic,

wrongly rendered _eternaliter_ as though it represented #ēcelīce#;

Zupitza explains it as the adverb of #higð#, ME. on hihðe, in haste; MS.

Harley 153 reads hehliche, rendered _alte_.

5. #xpistes bur#: comp. ‘Maria, Dei thalamus,’ Anselm 303/5; ‘Ave, de

cuius intimo | Christus processit thalamo, | in sole tabernaculum |

fixit, qui regit saeculum,’ Mone, ii. 234/69-72, which shows that this

use of the word came from Psalm xviii. 6 ‘In sole posuit tabernaculum

suum et ipse tamquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo exultavit ut gigas

ad currendam viam.’ For xp = Χρ, Chr, see Traube, Nomina Sacra, 156 ff.

6. The translation in some of the MSS. is ‘virginalis puritas, matris

flos.’ Godric has in mind, ‘Ave mater per quam via | Immaculata patuit |

Quia (Qui à in text) Deo flore | Virginitas effloruit,’ Anselm,

306/93-6; ‘Ave coeleste lilium | Per florem cuius unicum,’ &c., id.

305/153, 4. Christ then is the Virgin’s pure offspring, the mother’s

flower to whom the next two lines are addressed, and _þe_ in l. 8 (which

Zupitza rejects) presents no difficulty. The abandonment of the vocative

for a new subject is artless. The first half of 7 corresponds to, ‘O

Christe, proles Virginis | Patris compar altissimi | Per tuae mortis

merita | Dele nostra peccamina,’ Anselm, 303/22-5, and the second to

‘Ave mater cuius partus | Deus in coelis habitat | In sanctorum dum

mentibus | Dulcedine sua regnat,’ id. 306/111-4.

9. #scamel#, from L. Lat. _scamellum_, dim. of _scamnum_, step, stool;

it often means the little stool for the hands of cripples, but it is

also synonymous with _scabellum_, which in the phrase _scabellum pedum_

occurs nine times in the Vulgate, with the meaning footstool. In two of

these, Psalms xcviii. 5, cix. 1, the Surtees Psalter translates by

schamel, Eadwine’s Canterbury Psalter by scæmol, the Paris Psalter by

sceamul, the earliest Eng. Prose Psalter by shamel, the Lambeth Homilies

(OEH i. 91/11) by fot-sceomele. Comp. ‘Vor þi alle þe halewen makeden of

al þe worlde ase ane stol (scheomel, C; schamel, T) to hore uet, uorto

arechen þe heouene,’ Ancren Riwle, 166/15, 6. Psalm cix. 1 ‘Dixit

Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos,

scabellum pedum tuorum,’ is quoted five times in the New Testament, and

there may be a reference to it here. Zupitza suggests that l. 10 is

based on ‘Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te, ut custodiant te in

omnibus viis tuis. In manibus portabunt te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem

pedem tuum,’ Psalm xc. 11, 12; but _on þis erðe itredie_ is a weak

representation of _offendas ad lapidem_. Now we are told by Reginald

that the angels who bore the spirit of Burgwen halted ‘supra Altaris

crepidinem,’ and the Harleian MS. has, more definitely, ‘eam super

Altaris crepidinem statuerunt.’ The _scamel_ is simply the footpace of

the altar on which she has been set. Reginald’s version points in this

direction, ‘Sancta Maria super scamni sedile me deduxit’; as also

Geoffrey’s paraphrase, ‘Ne pede calcarem terre contagia nudo (_a. l._

mundo), | Sic mea me domina deduxit sancta Maria.’ The meaning then is,

I have been conducted to this altarstep in such a way that I should not

touch _this_ earth with my bare foot. I am divinely protected and lifted

above the world. And Godric understood, ‘statim intellexit quod anima

sororis suae super coelestibus Angelorum choreis esset associata’ (p.

145).

11. #Nicholaes# occurs in AS. Chron. E. 1067 as Nicolaes. It corresponds

to Nicolaus, which in the Latin hymns is always four syllables, and so,

I think, it must be here.

#godes druð#: comp. ‘dilectus Dei Nicholaus,’ Aberdeen Breviary; ‘amicus

Dei,’ York Breviary, ii. col. 106; ‘et amico Dei magno | Nicolao

condole,’ Anselm, 307/168, 9; ‘godes drut,’ Be Domes Dæge, 18/290.

12. #hus# does not rhyme and has no reference to anything in the legend

of S. Nicholas. But he was invoked by sailors in peril (York Breviary,

ii. 105), and we are told that Godric would often interrupt a

conversation by saying ‘Quaeso, fratres, oremus; quia ecce, navis in

pelago periclitatur,’ and that, ‘facta oratione, iterum consuevit

adjicere, “Nunc navis mea applicuit”’ (Reginald, p. 130). If _huð_ might

be restored here, as an un-umlauted form of #hȳð#, harbour, on the

evidence of _to huþe_ = _ad portum_, quoted in Bosworth-Toller from the

Lambeth Psalter, it would correspond to ‘O beate Nicolae, | Nos ad maris

portum trahe’; ‘Gloriose Nicolae, | Ad salutis portum trahe’ of the

Sequence. #tymbre# can mean provide, prepare, see Minot, vi. 2.

13. Zupitza connects this line with _druð_, but its position requires it

to be taken with _tymbre_ or _bring_, #at# means from, by the merits of

(NED i. 529 †11). The singular piety of the infant Nicholas is told in

all his legends, ‘quarta et sexta feria tantum semel (= semel tantum)

sugebat ubera,’ Aurea Legenda, ed. Graesse, p. 22; ‘Qui in cunis adhuc

iacens | Servando ieiunia | a papilla coepit summa | promereri gaudia,’

in the Sequence. And he was helpful in his tomb, ‘Ex ipsius tumba manat

| unctionis copia | quae infirmos omnes sanat | per eius suffragia.’

_Greek_

Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes · 第 33 / 959 题