FEATS OF YOUTH: ENFANCES, the regular term for the romance of a knight's
early prowess.
TWO APPLES; nois gauges in the original. But _walnuts_ sound inadequate.
Here the MS. has a _lacuna_.
There is much useless learning about the realm of _Torelore_. It is
somewhere between Kor and Laputa. The custom of the _Couvade_ was dimly
known to the poet. The feigned lying-in of the father may have been
either a recognition of paternity (as in the sham birth whereby Hera
adopted Heracles) or may have been caused by the belief that the health
of the father at the time of the child's birth affected that of the
child. Either origin of the _Couvade_ is consistent with early beliefs
and customs.
EYEBRIGHT. This is a purely fanciful rendering of _Esclaire_.
Footnotes:
{1} Gaston Paris, in M. Bida's edition, p. xii. Paris, 1878. The
blending is not unknown in various countries. See note at end of
Translation.
{2} I know not if I unconsciously transferred this criticism from M.
Gaston Paris.
{3} "Love in Idleness." London, 1883, p. 169.
{4} Theocritus, x. 37.
{5} I have not thought it necessary to discuss the conjectures,--they
are no more,--about the Greek or Arabic origin of the cante-fable, about
the derivation of Aucassin's name, the supposed copying of _Floire et
Blancheflor_, the longitude and latitude of the land of Torelore, and so
forth. In truth "we are in Love's land to-day," where the ships sail
without wind or compass, like the barques of the Phaeacians. Brunner and
Suchier add nothing positive to our knowledge, and M. Gaston Paris
pretends to cast but little light on questions which it is too curious to
consider at all. In revising the translation I have used with profit the
versions of M. Bida, of Mr. Bourdillon, the glossary of Suchier, and Mr.
Bourdillon's glossary. As for the style I have attempted, if not Old
English, at least English which is elderly, with a memory of Malory.