'Wherin he soughte North and South,
And oft he spied with his mouth
In many a forest wilde.'
But none of our seven MSS. agrees with this version, nor are these lines
found in the black-letter editions. The notion of _spying_ with one's
_mouth_ seems a little too far-fetched.
1995. This line is supplied from MS. Reg. 17 D. 15, where Tyrwhitt found
it; but something is so obviously required here, that we must insert it to
make some sense. It suits the tone of the context to say that 'neither wife
nor child durst oppose him.' We may, however, bear in mind that the meeting
of a knight-errant with one of these often preceded some great adventure.
'And in the midst of an highway he [Sir Lancelot] met a damsel riding on a
white palfrey, and there either saluted other. Fair damsel, said Sir
Lancelot, know ye in this country any adventures? Sir knight, said that
damsel, here are adventures near hand, and thou durst prove them'; Sir T.
Malory, Morte Arthur, bk. vi. cap. vii. The result was that Lancelot fought
with Sir Turquine, and defeated him. Soon after, he was 'required of a
damsel to heal her brother'; and again, 'at the request of a lady' he
recovered a falcon; an adventure which ended in a fight, as usual. Kölbing
points out a parallel line in Sir Guy of Warwick, 45-6:-- [191]
'In all Englond ne was ther none
That durste in wrath ayenst hym goon';
Caius MS., ed. Zupitza, p. 5.
1998. _Olifaunt_, i. e. Elephant; a proper name, as Tyrwhitt observes, for
a giant. Maundeville has the form _olyfauntes_ for _elephants_. By some
confusion the Moeso-Goth. _ulbandus_ and A. S. _olfend_ are made to signify
a _camel_. Spenser has put Chaucer's _Olifaunt_ into his Faerie Queene, bk.
iii. c. 7. st. 48, and makes him the brother of the giantess Argantè, and
son of Typhoeus and Earth. The following description of a giant is from
Libius Disconius (Percy Folio MS. vol. ii. p. 465):--
'He beareth haires on his brow
Like the bristles of a sow,
His head is great and stout;
Eche arme is the lenght of an ell,
His fists beene great and fell,
Dints for to driue about.'