I
#Dialect#: North-East Midland of Lincolnshire.
#Inflexions#:—
VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _hast_ 131.
3 sg. _stondeþ_ 8.
3 pl. _calle_ 32, _seye_ 254; beside _dos_ 157
(see note).
imper. pl. _comeþ_ 80, _doþ_ 82.
pres. p. _karoland_ (in rime) 117, 150, 222.
strong pp. _wryte_ 37, _fal_ 195, _gone_ 161.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _she_ 48; pl. nom. _þey_ 32; poss.
_here_ 37; obj. _hem_ 39.
The inflexions are very much simplified as compared with those of the
Kentish _Ayenbyte_ (III), but the verse shows that final unaccented _-e_
was better preserved in the original than in our late MS., e.g.
_And specyaly at hygh<ė> tymės_ 13.
_For to see þys hard<ė> dome_ 173.
_And at þe þre<ė> day<ė>s endė_ 198.
_Þat nonė myȝt<ė> leye yn grauė_ 217.
#Sounds#: _ǭ_ is regular for OE. _ā_: _lothe_ 9, _wroth_ 10, &c.;
but the only decisive rime is _also_ (OE. _alswā_): _to_ (OE.
_tō_) 35-6, where _ǭ_ after _(s)w_ has become close _ọ̄_; see
Appendix § 8. ii, note.
#Syntax#: the loose constructions, e.g. ll. 15 ff. (note), 134-5, 138-9,
216-19, are characteristic of the period.
* * * * *
The history of this legend is traced by E. Schröder, _Zeitschrift für
Kirchengeschichte_, vol. xvii, 1896, pp. 94 ff., and, more summarily, by
Gaston Paris, _Les Danseurs maudits_, Paris 1900. The circumstances from
which it sprang appear to belong to the year 1021. Kölbigk, in Anhalt,
Saxony, was the scene of the dance. In 1074 it is referred to as
'famous' by a German chronicler, who records the healing of one of the
dancers in 1038 through the miraculous powers of St. Wigbert.
Mendicants who suffered from or could simulate nervous diseases like St.
Vitus's dance, were quick to realize their opportunity, and two letters
telling the story were circulated as credentials by pretended survivors
of the band. Both are influenced in form by a sermon of St. Augustine of
Hippo which embodies a similar story (Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. xxxviii,
col. 1443). The first (Letter of Otbert), which claims to be issued by
Peregrinus bishop of Cologne, spread rapidly through Western Europe.
This was the version that Mannyng found in William of Wadington. The
second (Letter of Theodric) makes Bruno bishop of Toul, afterwards Pope
Leo IX, vouch for the facts. It was incorporated in the account of the
miraculous cure of Theodric at the shrine of St. Edith of Wilton, and is
known only from English sources. This was the text that Mannyng used. A
later English version, without merit, is found in the dreary
fifteenth-century _Life of St. Editha_ (ed. Horstmann, ll. 4063 ff.).
* * * * *
1 ff. _games_: Dances and shows in the churchyard were constantly
condemned by the Church in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In
1287 a synod at Exeter rules _ne quisquam luctas, choreas, vel alios
ludos inhonestos in coemeteriis exercere praesumat, praecipue in
vigiliis et festis sanctorum_. See Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_, vol.
i, pp. 90 ff.
6. _or tabure bete_: Note the use of _bete_ infin. as a verbal noun =
_betyng_; cp. XI _b_ 184-5.
10-12. 'And he (_sc._ a good priest) will become angered sooner than one
who has no learning, and who does not understand Holy Writ.'
15 ff. _noght... none_: An accumulation of negatives in ME. makes the
negation more emphatic. Here the writer wavers between two forms of
expression: (1) 'do not sing carols in holy places', and (2) 'to sing
carols in holy places is sacrilege'.
25-8. _yn þys londe_, &c. The cure of Theodric, not the dance, took
place in England. Brightgiva is said to have been abbess of Wilton at
the time (1065), and 'King Edward' is Edward the Confessor (1042-66).
34-5. The church of Kölbigk is dedicated to St. Magnus, of whom nothing
certain is known. The memory of St. Bukcestre, if ever there was such a
saint, appears to be preserved only in this story.