Chapter IX: Part 9

450. 'Now ask of me whatsoever it may be'. The plots of mediaeval romances often depend on the unlimited promises of an unwary king, whose honour compels him to keep his word. So in the story of Tristram, an Irish noble disguised as a minstrel wins Ysolde from King Mark by this same device, but is himself cheated of his prize by Tristram's skill in music.

458. 'An ill-matched pair you two would be!'

479. The halting verse may be completed by adding _sum tyme_ before _his_, with the Harley and Ashmole MSS.

483. _ybilt_ of the MS. and editors cannot well be a pp. meaning 'housed'. I prefer to take _bilt_ as sb. = _bild_, _build_ 'a building'; and to suppose that _y_ has been miswritten for _ȳ_, the contraction for _yn_.

495. _gan hold_, 'held'; a good example of the ME. use of _gan_ + infinitive with the sense of the simple preterite.

515. An unhappy suggestion _home_ for the second _come_ has sometimes been accepted. But a careful Southern poet could not rime _home_ (OE. _hām_) and _some_ (OE. _sŭm_). See note to VI 224.

518. _For mi lordes loue Sir Orfeo_, 'for my lord Sir Orfeo's love'. Logically the genitive inflexion should be added to both of two substantives in apposition, as in OE. _on Herodes dagum cyninges_ 'in the days of King Herod'. But in ME. the first substantive usually has the inflexion, and the second is uninflected; cp. V 207 _kyngeȝ hous Arthor_ 'the house of King Arthur'; and notes to I 44, VI 23.

544. _Allas! wreche_: _wreche_ refers to the speaker, as in l. 333.

551. _hou it geþ—_: The sense is hard to convey without some cumbrous paraphrase like 'the inexorable law of this world—'.

552. _It nis no bot of manes deþ_: 'There is no remedy for man's death', i.e. violent grief will do no good. Note _it nis_ 'there is (not)'. In ME. the anticipated subject is commonly _it_ where we use _there_.

565. _in ynome_: '<had> taken up my abode'; _in_ 'dwelling' = NE. 'inn'.

599. _herof_ overloads the line and is omitted in the Ashmole MS.

III

#Dialect#: Pure Kentish of Canterbury.

#Inflexions# are well preserved, and are similar to those found in contemporary South-Western texts.

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _multiplieþ_ 1; contracted _ret_ 3, 16.
1 pl. _habbeþ_ 2.
strong pp. _yyeue_ 25, _yhote_ 29.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: the new forms _she_, _they_, _their_, _them_ are
not used.
3 sg. fem. nom. _hi_ 32, _hy_ 45;
poss. _hare_ 33, beside _hire_ 36;
pl. nom. _hi_ 58.
Note the objective form _his(e)_ = 'her' 32, 53 (twice);
and = 'them' 7, 8, 28.
NOUN: plurals in _-en_ occur: _uorbisnen_ 2, _ken_ 56. In
_diaknen_ 5, _-en_ represents the dat. pl. inflexion.
ADJECTIVE: _onen_ dat. sg. 4, _oþren_ dat. pl. 53, _þane_ acc. sg.
masc. 59, _þet (word)_ nom. sg. neut. 57, show survivals rare
even in the South at this date.

#Sounds#: Characteristic of the South-East is __ for OE. (West-Saxon) _ȳ̆_: _kertel_ (OE. _cyrtel_) 39, _ken_ (OE. _cȳ_) 56.

Old diphthongs are preserved in _greate_ (OE. _grēat_) 9, _yeaf_ 22. In _hyerof_ 1, _yhyerde_ 49, _hier_ 2, _þieues_ 18, _ye_, _ie_ represent diphthongs developed in Kentish rather than simple close _ē_.

Initial _z_ = _s_ in _zome_ 'some' 2, _zede_ 'said' 12, _zuo_ 'so' 17; and initial _u_ = _f_ in _uele_ 2, _uayre_ 2, _uram_ 4, _bevil_ 41, evidence dialectical changes which occurred also in the South-West.

#Syntax#: The constructions are distorted by slavish following of the French original; see note to ll. 48-60.

* * * * *

3. Saint Germain of Auxerre (MS. _Aucerne_) is famous for his missions to Britain in the first half of the fifth century. This particular story is found in the _Acta Sanctorum_ for July 31, p. 229.

16. St. John the Almoner (d. 616) was bishop of Alexandria. For the story see _Acta Sanctorum_ for January 23, p. 115.

27-8. _and huanne he hit wiste þe ilke zelue þet his hedde onderuonge_: an obscure sentence. Perhaps: 'and when he, the same who had received them (i.e. John, who had received the five hundred pounds), knew it' (sc. the truth).

38. This tale of Boniface, bishop of Ferentia in Etruria, is told in the _Dialogues_ of Gregory the Great, Bk. i, chap. 9. Its first appearance in English is in the translation of the _Dialogues_ made by Bishop Wærferth for King Alfred (ed. Hans Hecht, Leipzig 1900, pp. 67 ff.).

48-60. The French original of the passage, taken from an elegant fourteenth-century MS., Cotton Cleopatra A.V., fol. 144 a, will show how slavishly Dan Michael followed his source:—

_Apres il fu un poure home, sicom on dit, qui auoit une vache; e oi dire a son prestre en sarmon que Dieu disoit en leuangile que Dieu rendoit a cent doubles quanque on donast por lui. Le prodomme du conseil sa femme dona sa uache a son prestre, qui estoit riches. Le prestre la prist uolentiers, e lenuoia pestre auoec les autres quil auoit. Kant uint au soir, la uache au poure home sen uint a son hostel chies le poure homme, com ele auoit acoustume, e amena auoeques soi toutes les uaches au prestre, iukes a cent. Quant le bon home uit ce, si pensa que ce estoit le mot de leuangile que li auoit rendu; e li furent aiugiees deuant son euesque contre le prestre. Cest ensample moustre bien que misericorde est bone marchande, car ele multiplie les biens temporels._

58-9. 'And they were adjudged to him before his bishop against the priest', i.e. the bishop ruled that the poor man should have all the cows.

The French _fabliau_ '_Brunain_' takes up the comic rather than the moral aspect of the story. A peasant, hearing the priest say that gifts to God are doubly repaid, thought it was a favourable opportunity to give his cow Blérain—a poor milker—to the priest. The priest ties her with his own cow Brunain. To the peasant's great joy, the unprofitable Blérain returns home, leading with her the priest's good cow.

IV

#Dialect#: Northern of Yorkshire.

#Inflexions#: are reduced almost as in Modern English.

VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _settes_ _a_ 30; beside uninflected _sygh_
_a_ 69, _sob_ _a_ 69.
3 sg. _lastes_ _a_ 1.
1 pl. _flese_ _b_ 86: beside _we drede_ _b_ 85.
3 pl. _lyse_ _a_ 61, _lufes_ _b_ 7, &c.; beside
_þay take_, _þay halde_ _b_ 12, &c., which
agree with the Midland forms.
pres. p. _lastand_ _a_ 25, _byrnand_ _a_ 26, riming with
_hand_.
strong pp. _wryten_ _a_ 2.
Note the Northern and North Midland short forms _mase_
'makes' _a_ 15, _tane_ 'taken' _a_ 53 (in rime).
PRONOUN 3 pers.: sg. fem. _scho_ _b_ 1;
pl. nom. _þai_ _a_ 60;
poss. _þar_ _a_ 59 or _þair_ _a_ 65;
obj. _thaym_ _b_ 2.
The demonstrative _thire_ 'these' at _b_ 55, _b_ 59 is
specifically Northern.

#Sounds#: OE. _ā_ is regularly represented by _ā_, not by _ǭ_ of the South and most of the Midlands: _wa_ _a_ 2, _euermare_ _a_ 20, _balde_ 'bold' _a_ 51; _bane_ (in rime) _a_ 54.

_ọ̄_ becomes _ū_ (_ǖ_?) in _gud(e)_ _b_ 9, _b_ 15; and its length is sometimes indicated by adding _y_, as in _ruysand_ 'vaunting' _b_ 80.

* * * * *

_a._ 'This poem is largely a translation of sentences excerpted from Rolle's _Incendium Amoris_, cc. xl-xli (Miss Allen in _Mod. Lang. Review_ for 1919, p. 320). Useful commentaries are his prose _Form of Perfect Living_ (ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 3 ff.), and _Commandment of Love to God_ (ibid. pp. 61 ff.), which supply many parallels in thought and phrasing; see, for example, the note to l. 48 below.

* * * * *

_a_ 1. _feste._ Not the adj. 'fast', but pp. 'fastened', and so in l. 82.

_a_ 5. _louyng_, 'beloved one', here and in l. 56. This exceptional use of the verbal noun occurs again in _my ȝhernyng_ 'what I yearn for', _a_ 22; _my couaytyng_ 'what I covet', _a_ 23.

_a_ 9-12. The meaning seems to be: 'The throne of love is raised high, for it (i.e. love) ascended into heaven. It seems to me that on earth love is hidden, which makes men pale and wan. It goes very near to the bed of bliss (i.e. the bridal bed of Christ and the soul) I assure you. Though the way may seem long to us, yet love unites God and man.'

_a_ 24. _louyng_, 'praise' here and in XVI 405, from OE. _lof_ 'praise'; quite distinct from _louyng_, _lufyng_, in ll. 5 and 56.

_a_ 36. _fle þat na man it maye_, 'which no man can escape'. See Appendix § 12, Relative.

_a_ 42. _styll_, 'always' rather than 'motionless'.

_a_ 43-4. Apparently 'the nature of love (_þat kyend_) turns from care the man (_þe lyfe_) who succeeds in finding love, or who ever knew it in his heart; and brings him to joy and delight.'

_a_ 48. Cp. _Form of Perfect Living_, ed. Horstmann, vol. i, pp. 39-40: _For luf es stalworth als þe dede, þat slaes al lyuand thyng in erth; and hard als hell, þat spares noght till þam þat er dede._ In _The Commandment of Love_ Rolle explains: _For als dede slas al lyuand thyng in þis worlde, sa perfite lufe slas in a mans sawle all fleschly desyres and erthly couaytise. And als hell spares noght til dede men, bot tormentes al þat commes bartill, alswa a man þat es in þis_ [sc. the third, called 'Singular'] _degré of lufe noght anly he forsakes þe wretched solace of þis lyf, bot alswa he couaytes to sofer pynes for Goddes lufe._ (Ibid. p. 63.)

_b_ 4. _scho takes erthe_: From the _Historia Animalium_ attributed to Aristotle, Bk. ix, c. 21. This is the authority referred to at l. 18, and at l. 33 (Bk. ix, c. 9); but the citations seem to be second hand, as they do not agree closely with the text of the _Historia Animalium_.

_b_ 21-2. 'For there are many who never can keep the rule of love towards their friends, whether kinsmen or not.' MS. _ynesche_ has been variously interpreted; but it must be corrected to _ynence_.

_b_ 47. _strucyo or storke_: the ostrich, not the stork, is meant. Latin _struthio_ has both meanings. On the whole, fourteenth-century translators show a fair knowledge of Latin, but the average of scholarship, even among the clergy, was never high in the Middle Ages. In the magnificent Eadwine Psalter, written at Canterbury Cathedral in the twelfth century, Ps. ci. 7 _similis factus sum pellicano_ is rendered by 'I am become like to the skin of a dog' (= _pelli canis_), though an ecclesiastic would recite this psalm in Latin at least once every week. The records of some thirteenth-century examinations of English clergy may be found in G. G. Coulton, _A Medieval Garner_ (London 1910), pp. 270 ff. They include the classic answer of Simon, the curate of Sonning, who, being examined on the Canon of the Mass, and pressed to say what governed _Te_ in _Te igitur, clementissime Pater,... supplices rogamus_, replied '_Pater_, for He governeth all things'. As for French, Michael of Northgate, a shaky translator, is fortunate in escaping gross blunders in the specimen chosen (III); but the English rendering of Mandeville's _Travels_ is full of errors; see the notes to IX.

_b_ 60. _teches_: better _toches_, according to the foot-note.

V

#Alliterative Verse.# The long lines in _Gawayne_, with _The Destruction of Troy_, _Piers Plowman_, and _The Blacksmiths_ (XV _h_), are specimens of alliterative verse unmixed with rime, a form strictly comparable with Old English verse, from which it must derive through an unbroken oral tradition. While the detailed analysis of the Middle English alliterative line is complex and controversial, its general framework is describable in simple terms. It will be convenient to take examples from _Gawayne_, which shows most of the developments characteristic of Middle English.

1. The long line is divided by a caesura into two half lines, of which the second is the more strictly built so that the rhythm may be well marked. Each half line normally contains two principal stresses, e.g.

_And wént on his wáy || with his wýȝe óne_ 6.
_Þat schulde téche hym to tóurne || to þat téne pláce_ 7.

But three stresses are not uncommonly found in the first half line:

_Brókeȝ býled and bréke || bi bónkkeȝ abóute_ 14;

and, even for the simpler forms in Old and Middle English, the two-stress analysis has its opponents.

2. The two half lines are bound together by alliteration. In alliteration _ch_, _st_, _s(c)h_, _sk_, and usually _sp_, are treated as single consonants (see lines 64, 31, 15, 99, 25); any vowel may alliterate with any other vowel, e.g.

_Þis ~ó~ritore is ~v́gly || with ~é~rbeȝ ouergrówen_ 122;

and, contrary to the practice of correct OE. verse, _h_ may alliterate with vowels in _Gawayne_:

_~H~álde þe now þe ~h~ýȝe ~h~óde || þat ~Á~rþur þe
ráȝt_ 229.
_The ~h~áþel ~h~éldet hym fró || and on his ~á~x résted_ 263.

3. In correct OE. verse the alliteration falls on one or both of the two principal stresses of the first half line, and invariably on the first stress only of the second half line. This is the ordinary ME. type:

_Þat schulde ~t~éche hym to ~t~óurne || to þat ~t~éne pláce_ 7;

though verses with only one alliterating syllable in the first half line, e.g.

_Bot Í wyl to þe ~ch~ápel || for ~ch~áunce þat may fálle_ 64,

are less common in ME. than in OE. But in ME. the fourth stress sometimes takes the alliteration also:

_Þay ~cl~ómben bi ~cl~ýffeȝ || þer ~cl~éngeȝ þe ~c~ólde_ 10.

And when there is a third stress in the first half line, five syllables may alliterate:

_~M~íst ~m~úged on þe ~m~ór || ~m~ált on þe ~m~óunteȝ_ 12.

In sum, Middle English verse is richer than Old English in alliteration.

4. In all these verses the alliteration of the first stress in the second half line, which is essential in Old English, is maintained; but it is sometimes neglected, especially when the alliteration is otherwise well marked:

_With ~h~éȝe ~h~élme on his ~h~éde || his láunce in his
~h~ónde_ (129; cp. 75),

where the natural stress cannot fall on _his_.

5. So far attention has been confined to the stressed syllables, around which the unstressed syllables are grouped. Clearly the richer the alliteration, the more freedom will be possible in the treatment of the unstressed syllables without undue weakening of the verse form. In the first two lines of _Beowulf_—

_Hwæt we Gárdéna || in géardágum
Þéodcýninga || þrým gefrúnon—_

three of the half lines have the minimum number of syllables—four—and the other has only five. In Middle English, with more elaborate alliteration, the number of unstressed syllables is increased, so that the minimum half line of four syllables is rare, and often contains some word which may have had an additional flexional syllable in the poet's own manuscript, e.g.

|| _þe sélf<e> chápel_ 79.
|| _árȝeȝ in hért<e>_ 209.

The less regular first half line is found with as many as eleven syllables; e.g.

_And syþen he kéuereȝ bi a crágge_ || 153.

6. The grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables determines the rhythm. In Old English the falling rhythm predominates, as in || _Gáwayn þe nóble_ 81; and historically it is no doubt correct to trace the development of the ME. line from a predominantly falling rhythm. But in fact, owing to the frequent use of unstressed syllables before the first stress (even in the second half line where they are avoided in the OE. falling rhythm) the commonest type is:

|| _and þe bróde ȝáteȝ_ 1,
(× × -̍ × -̍ ×)

which from a strictly Middle English standpoint may be analysed as a falling rhythm with introductory syllables (× × | -̍ × -̍ ×), or as a rising rhythm with a weak ending (× × -̍ × -̍ | ×). A careful reader, accustomed to the usage of English verse, will have no difficulty in following the movement, without entering into nice technicalities of historical analysis.

7. _The Destruction of Troy_ is more regular than _Gawayne_ in its versification, and better preserves the Old English tradition. _Piers Plowman_ is looser and nearer to prose, so that the alliteration sometimes fails altogether, e.g. Extract _a_ 95, 138. Such differences in technique may depend on date, on locality, or on the taste, training, or skill of the author.

* * * * *

#Dialect#: West Midland of Lancashire or Cheshire. (There is evidence of local knowledge in the account of Gawayne's ride in search of the Green Chapel, ll. 691 ff. of the complete text.)

#Vocabulary.# _Sir Gawayne_ shows the characteristic vocabulary of alliterative verse.

It is rich in number and variety of words—Norse, French, and native. Besides common words like _race_ 8, _wylle_ 16, _kyrk_ 128, _aȝ-_ 267 (which displace native English forms _rēs_, _wylde_, _chyrche_, _eie_), Norse gives _mug(g)ed_ 12, _cayreȝ_ 52, _scowtes_ 99, _skayned_ 99, _wro_ 154, _broþe_ 165, _fyked_ 206, _snyrt_ 244, &c. French are _baret_ 47, _oritore_ 122, _fylor_ 157, _giserne_ 197, _kauelacion_ 207, _frounses_ 238, &c. _Myst-hakel_ 13, _orpedly_ 164 are native words; while the rare _stryþe_ 237 and _raþeled_ 226 are of doubtful origin.

Unless the alliteration is to be monotonous, there must be many synonyms for common words like _man_, _kniȝt_: e.g. _burne_ 3, _wyȝe_ 6, _lede_ 27, _gome_ 50, _freke_ 57, _tulk_ 65, _knape_ 68, _renk_ 138, most of which survive only by reason of their usefulness in alliterative formulae. Similarly, a number of verbs are used to express the common idea 'to move (rapidly)': _boȝen_ 9, _schowued_ 15, _wonnen_ 23, _ferked_ 105, _romeȝ_ 130, _keuereȝ_ 153, _whyrlande_ 154, &c. Here the group of synonyms arises from weakening of the ordinary prose meanings; and this tendency to use words in colourless or forced senses is a general defect of alliterative verse. For instance, it is hard to attach a precise meaning to _note_ 24, _gedereȝ_ 92, _glodes_ 113, _wruxled_ 123, _kest_ 308.

The _Gawayne_ poet is usually artist enough to avoid the worst fault of alliterative verse—the use of words for mere sound without regard to sense, but there are signs of the danger in the empty, clattering line:

_Bremly broþe on a bent þat brode watȝ aboute_ 165.

#Inflexions#: The rime _waþe_: _ta þe_ 287-9 shows that organic final _-e_ was sometimes pronounced in the poet's dialect.

VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _haf_ 23; _leue_ 60.
2 sg. _spelleȝ_ 72.
3 sg. _prayses_ 4; _tas_ 237.
2 pl. _ȝe han_ 25.
3 pl. _han_ 345.
imper. pl. _gotȝ_ (= _gǭs_) 51, _cayreȝ_ 52.
pres. p. normally _-ande_, e.g. _schaterande_ 15; but very
rarely _-yng_: _gruchyng_ 58.
strong pp. _born_ 2, _wonnen_ 23; _tone_ (= _taken_) 91.
The weak pa. t. and pp. show occasional _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_:
_halt_ 11, _fondet_ 57, &c.
Note that present forms in _-ie(n)_ are preserved, and the
_i_ extended to the past tense: _louy_ (OE. _lufian_)
27, _louies_ 31; _spuryed_ 25.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þay_ 9; poss. _hor_ 345, beside _her_
352; obj. _hom_, beside _hem_ 353.

#Sounds#: _ǭ_ for older _ā_ is common, and is proved for the original by rimes like _more_: _restore_ (OFr. _restorer_) 213-15, _þore_: _restore_ 286-8. But _a_ is often written in the MS.: _snaw_ 20, 166 (note rimes), _halden_ 29, &c.

_u_ for OE. _y_, characteristic of Western dialects, is found especially in the neighbourhood of labial consonants: _spuryed_ (OE. _spyrian_) 25; _muryly_ 268, 277; _munt_ vb. 194 and sb. 282; beside _myntes_ 284, _lyfte_ 78, _hille_ 13.

_u_ for OE. _eo_ (normal ME. _e_) is another Western feature: _burne_ 3, 21, &c., _rurde_ 151.

_aw_ for OE. _ēow_ (normal ME. _ew_, _ow_) as in _trawe_ 44, _trawþe_ 219, _rawþe_ 136, is still found in some Northern dialects.

#Spelling#: _ȝ_ (= _z_) is commonly written for final _s_: _bredeȝ_ 3, &c.; even when the final _s_ is certainly voiceless as in _forȝ_, 'force', 'torrent' 105, _(aȝ-)leȝ_ 'fear-less' 267. _tȝ_ is written for _s_ in monosyllabic verbal forms, where it indicates the maintenance of voiceless final _s_ under the stress (see rimes to _hatȝ_ 'has', VI 81): _watȝ_ 'was' 1, _gotȝ_ 'goes' 51, &c. In early Norman French _z_ had the sound _ts_, and so could be written _tz_, as in _Fitz-Gerald_ 'son (Mod. Fr. _fils_) of Gerald'. But later, French _(t)z_ fell together with _s_ in pronunciation, so that the spelling _tz_ was transferred to original _s_, both in fourteenth-century Anglo-French and in English.

_qu-_ occurs for strongly aspirated _hw-_ in _quyte_ 'white' 20, _quat_ 'what' 111; but the alliteration is with _w_, not with _k(w)_, e.g.

_And wyth ~qu~ettyng a~wh~arf, er he ~w~olde lyȝt_ 152.

The spelling _goud_ 5, 50, &c., for _gōd_ 'good' may indicate a sound change.

Notable is the carefully distinguished use of _ȝ_ in _ȝe_, but _y_ in _yow_, e.g. at ll. 23-6.

* * * * *

3. _blessed hym_, 'crossed himself'; cp. XII _b_ 86.

4-6. 'He gives a word of praise to the porter,—<who> kneeled before the prince (i.e. Gawayn) <and who> greeted him with "God and good day," and "May He save Gawayn!"—and went on his way, attended only by his man, who, &c.' Clumsiness in turning direct speech into reported speech is a constant source of difficulty in Middle English. For the suppressed relative cp. note to XIII _a_ 36.

11. 'The clouds were high, but it was threatening below them.' _Halt_ for _halet_ pp. 'drawn up'.

16. 'The way by which they had to go through the wood was very wild.' Note the regular omission of a verb of motion after _shall_, _will_, &c. Cp. l. 64 _I wyl to þe chapel_; l. 332 _ȝe schal... to my woneȝ_, &c.

28. 'If you would act according to my wit (i.e. by my advice) you would fare the better.'

34. _Hector, oþer oþer_, 'Hector, or any other'. Hector is quoted as the great hero of the Troy story, from which, and from the legends of Arthur, the Middle Ages drew their models of valour.

35. 'He brings it about at the green chapel <that>', &c.

37. _dyngeȝ_: for MS. _dynneȝ_; Napier's suggestion.

41. 'He would as soon (lit. it seems to him as pleasant to) kill him, as be alive himself.'

43. 'If you reach that place you will be killed, I may warn you, knight.' Possibly _I_, _y_, has fallen out of the text after _y_ of _may_ (cp. VI 3), though there are clear instances in Old and Middle English where the pronominal subject must be understood from the context, e.g. I 168, VIII _a_ 237, 273. Note the transitions from plural _ȝe_ to singular _þe_ in ll. 42-3; and the evidence at l. 72 f. that _þou_ could still be used in addressing a superior.

44. _Trawe ȝe me þat_: _trow_ has here a double construction with both _me_ and _þat_ as direct objects.

56. 'That I shall loyally screen you, and never give out the tale that you fled for fear of any man that I knew.'

64. _for chaunce þat may falle_, 'in spite of anything that may happen'.

68-9. 'Though he be a stern lord (lit. a stern man to rule), and armed with a stave'. The short lines are built more with a view to rime than to sense.

72-4. 'Marry!' said the other, 'now you say so decidedly that you will take your own harm upon yourself, and it pleases you to lose your life, I have no wish to hinder you.'

76. _ryde me_: an instance of the rare ethic dative, which expresses some interest in the action of the verb on the part of one who is neither the doer of the action nor its object. Distinguish the uses referred to in the notes to II 289, XV _g_ 24.

86. _Lepeȝ hym_, 'gallops'. For _hym_, which refers to the rider, not the horse, cp. note to XV _g_ 24.

92. _Gryngolet_: the name of Gawayn's horse. _gedereȝ þe rake_ seems to mean 'takes the path'. No similar transitive use of 'gather' is known.

95. _he wayted hym aboute_, 'he looked around him'. Cp. l. 221 _wayteȝ_, and note to l. 121.

99. 'The clouds seemed to him grazed by the crags'; i.e. the crags were so high that they seemed to him to scrape the clouds. I owe to Professor Craigie the suggestion that _skayned_ is ON. _skeina_ 'to graze', 'scratch'.

102-4. 'And soon, a little way off on an open space, a mound (as it appeared) seemed to him remarkable.'

107. _kacheȝ his caple_, 'takes control of his horse', i.e. takes up the reins again to start the horse after the halt mentioned at l. 100.

109. _his riche_: possibly 'his good steed'. The substantival use of an adjective is common in alliterative verse, e.g. l. 188 _þat schyre_ (neck); 200 _þe schene_ (axe); 245 _þe scharp_ (axe); 343 _þat cortays_ (lady). But it has been suggested that _brydel_ has fallen out of the text after _riche_.

114. 'And it was all hollow within, nothing but an old cave.'

115 f. _he couþe hit noȝt deme with spelle_, 'he could not say <which it was>'. For _deme_ 'to speak', &c., cp. VI 1, XV _b_ 29-30.

118. _Wheþer_ commonly introduces a direct question and should not be separately translated. Cp. VI 205 and note to XI _a_ 51.

121. _wysty is here_, 'it is desolate here'. Note _Wowayn_ = _Wauwayn_, an alternative form of _Gawayn_ used for the alliteration. The alternation is parallel to that in _guardian_: _warden_; _regard_: _reward_ XIV _c_ 105; _guarantee_: _warranty_; _(bi)gyled_ 359: _(bi)wyled_ 357; _werre_ 'war' beside French _guerre_; _wait_ 'watch' (as at l. 95) beside French _guetter_; and is due to dialectal differences in Old French. The Anglo-Norman dialect usually preserved _w_ in words borrowed from Germanic or Celtic, while others replaced it by _gw_, _gu_, which later became simple _g_ in pronunciation.

125. _in my fyue wytteȝ_: construe with _fele_.

127. _þat chekke hit bytyde_, 'which destruction befall!' _þat... hit_ = 'which'. _chekke_ refers to the checkmate at chess.

135. Had we not Chaucer's Miller and _The Reeves Tale_, the vividness and intimacy of the casual allusions would show the place of the flour-mill in mediaeval life. Havelok drives out his foes

_So dogges ut of milne-hous;_

and the Nightingale suggests as fit food for the Owl

_one frogge
Þat sit at mulne vnder cogge._

These are records of hours spent by the village boys amid the noise of grinding and rush of water, in times when there was no rival mechanism to share the fascination of the water-driven mill.

137-43. 'This contrivance, as I believe, is prepared, sir knight, for the honour of meeting me by the way. Let God work His will, Lo! It helps me not a bit. Though I lose my life, no noise causes me to fear.' It has been suggested that _wel o<r w>oo_ 'weal or woe' should be read instead of the interjection _we loo!_ But Gawayn's despair (l. 141) is not in keeping with ll. 70 f., 90 f., or with the rest of his speech. The looseness of the short lines makes emendation dangerous. Otherwise we might read _Hit helppeȝ þe not a mote_, i.e. whatever happens, mere noise will not help the Green Knight by making Gawayn afraid; or, alternatively, _hermeȝ_ 'harms' for _helppeȝ_.

151. 'Yet he went on with the noise with all speed for a while, and turned away <to proceed> with his grinding, before he would come down.' The nonchalance of the Green Knight is marked throughout the poem.

155. _A Deneȝ ax_: the ordinary long-bladed battle-axe was called a 'Danish' axe, in French _hache danoise_, because the Scandinavians in their raids on England and France first proved its efficiency in battle.

158. _bi þat lace_, '<measured> by the lace'. In _Gawayne_ (ll. 217 ff. of the full text) the axe used at the first encounter is described. It had:

_A lace lapped aboute, þat louked at þe hede,
And so after þe halme halched ful ofte,
Wyth tryed tasseleȝ þerto tacched innoghe, &c._

'A lace wrapped about <the handle>, which was fastened at the <axe's> head, and was wound about the handle again and again, with many choice tassels fastened to it', &c.

159. _as fyrst_, 'as at the first encounter', i.e. when he rode into Arthur's hall. His outfit of green is minutely described at ll. 151 ff. of the full text.

162. _Sette þe stele to þe stone_: i.e. he used the handle of the axe as a support when crossing rough ground. _stele_ = 'handle', not 'steel'.

164. _hypped... strydeȝ_: note the frequent alternation of past tense and historic present. So ll. 3-4 _passed... prayses_; 107-8 _kacheȝ... com... liȝteȝ_; 280-1 _haldeȝ... gef_, &c.

169 f. 'Now, sweet sir, one can trust you to keep an appointment.'

175. _þat þe falled_, 'what fell to your lot', i.e. the right to deal the first blow.

177. _oure one_, 'by ourselves'. To _one_ 'alone' in early ME. the dative pronoun was added for emphasis, _him one_, _us one_, &c. Later and more rarely the possessive pronoun is found, as here. _Al(l)_ was also used to strengthen _one_; so that there are six possible ME. types: (1) _one_, e.g. ll. 6, 50; (2) _him one_; (3) _his one_; (4) _al one_ = _alone_ l. 87; (5) _al him one_, or _him al one_; (6) _al his one_, or _his al one_.

181. _at a wap one_, 'at a single blow'.

183. 'I shall grudge you no good-will because of any harm that befalls me.'

189-90. 'And acted as if he feared nothing: he would not tremble (_dare_) with terror.'

196. 'He (Gawayn) who was ever valiant would have been dead from his blow there.'

200. It must not be supposed that the chief incidents of _Sir Gawayne_ were invented by the English poet. The three strokes, for example, two of them mere feints and the third harmless, can be shown to derive from the lost French source, which has Irish analogues. See pp. 71-4 of _A Study of Gawain and the Green Knight_ (London 1916), by Professor Kittredge, a safe guide in the difficult borderland of folklore and romance.

207. 'Nor did I raise any quibble in the house of King Arthur.' On _kyngeȝ hous Arthor_ see note to II 518.

222. _ryueȝ_: the likeness of _n_ and _u_ in MSS. of the time makes it impossible to say whether the verb is _riue_ 'to cleave', which is supported by l. 278, or _rine_, OE. _hrīnan_, 'to touch'.

230. 'And look out for your neck at this stroke, <to see> if it may survive.'

233. _I hope_: here, and often in ME., _hope_ means 'believe', 'expect'.

250. Gawayn appears to have carried his shield on his back. By a movement of his shoulders he lets it fall in front of him, so that he can use it in defence.

258. _foo_, 'fiercely', adv. parallel with _ȝederly_.

269. _ry<n>kande_, 'ringing'; Napier's suggestion for MS. _rykande_.

271-2. 'Nobody here has ill-treated you in an unmannerly way, nor shown you <discourtesy>': the object of _kyd_ being understood from _vnmanerly mysboden_. _habbeȝ_ for MS. _habbe_ is Napier's reading.

278-9. 'And cleft you with no grievous wound, <which> I rightly <merely> proffered you, because of the compact we made fast', &c. It is better to assume a suppression of the relative, than to put a strong stop after _rof_ and treat _sore_ as sb. object of _profered_. This latter punctuation gives _sore_ the chief stress in the line, and breaks the alliteration and rhythm, which is correct as long as _sore_ is taken with _rof_, so that its stress is subordinated.

286-7. 'Let a true man truly repay—then one need dread no peril.'

291. _weued_: perhaps not a weak pa. t. of _weave-woven_, but rather means 'to give', from OE. _wǣfan_, 'to move'; _weue_ in this sense occurs in _Gawayne_ l. 1976.

294-5. 'And truly you seem to me the most faultless man that ever walked on foot.' The ME. construction, _on þe fautlest_, where _on_ 'one' strengthens the superlative, is found in Chaucer, _Clerk's Tale_ 212:

_Thanne was she oon the faireste under sonne,_

and still survives in Shakespeare's time, e.g. _Henry VIII_, II. iv. 48 f. _one the wisest prince_. It has been compared with Latin _unus maximus_, &c. In modern English the apposition has been replaced, with weakening of the sense: _one_ of _the (wisest)_, &c.

298. _yow lakked... yow wonted_: impersonal, since _yow_ is dative, 'there was lacking in you'.

319. 'Let me win your good-will', 'Pardon me'.

331. I have transposed MS. #of# _þe grene chapel_ #at# _cheualrous knyȝteȝ_, because such a use of _at_ is hardly conceivable. A copyist might easily make the slip. Cp. l. 35.

344. _Boþe þat on and þat oþer_: Besides the Green Knight's young wife, there was a much older lady in the castle, 'yellow', with 'rugh, ronkled chekeȝ', and so wrapped up

_Þat noȝt watȝ bare of þat burde bot þe blake broȝes,
Þe tweyne yȝen, and þe nase, þe naked lyppeȝ,
And þose were soure to se, and sellyly blered._

_Gawayne_ ll. 961-3.

350-1. 'And David afterwards, who suffered much evil, was <morally> blinded by Bathsheba.'

352-6. 'Since these were injured with their wiles, it would be a great gain to love them well, and not believe them—for a man who could do it [cp. note to XI _b_ 209]. For these (Adam, Solomon, &c.) were of old the noblest, whom all happiness followed, surpassingly, above all the others that lived beneath the heavens.' _mused_ 'thought' is used for the rime, and means no more than 'lived'. ll. 354-6 amount to 'above all other men'.

VI

#Dialect#: West Midland, like _Gawayne_.

The metre occasionally gives clear evidence that final flexional _-e_ of the original has not always been preserved in the extant MS., e.g.

_Þaȝ cortaysly ȝe carp<ė> con_ 21.

The most noteworthy verbal forms are:

pres. ind. 1 sg. _byswykeȝ_ 208 (once only, in rime);
2 sg. _þou quyteȝ_ 235;
3 sg. _leþeȝ_ 17; _totȝ_ (= _tǭs_ = _tās_
= _takes_) 153 (note).
1 pl. _we leuen_ 65; _we calle_ 70;
3 pl. _temen_ 100 (and cp. ll. 151-2); _knawe_ 145; but
_þay gotȝ_ 150, _pykeȝ_ 213 (both in rime).
imperative pl. _dyspleseȝ_ 62; _gos_, _dotȝ_ 161.
pres. p. _spornande_ 3.
pp. _runne_ (in rime) 163, beside _wroken_ 15, &c.

Characteristic Western forms are _burne_ 37 (OE. _beorn_); _vrþe_ 82 (OE. _eorþe_).

* * * * *

5. 'Like bubbling water that flows from a spring', i.e. his wild words rise from a heart that can no longer contain its affliction.

11-12. 'You, who were once the source of all my joy, made sorrow my companion.'

15. 'From the time when you were removed from every peril'. The child died before she was two years old (l. 123).

22. 'I am but dust, and rough in manners.' The MS. has _marereȝ mysse_, which has been rendered 'botcher's waste'; but the poet is contrasting his own ill-mannered speech with the Pearl's courtesy.

23. 'But the mercy of Christ and of Mary and of John'. The genitive inflexion is confined to the noun immediately preceding _mersy_, while the two following nouns, which are logically genitives with exactly the same construction as _Crystes_, remain uninflected. For analogies see note to II 518.

36. _and_: MS. _in_. The sign for _and_ is easily mistaken for _ī_ = _in_. Cp. note to XVII 42.

48. _Þat_, 'who'.

65. _þat... of_, 'from whom'; the later relative form _of quom_ occurs at l. 93.

70. _Fenyx of Arraby_: the symbol of peerless perfection. Cp. Chaucer, _Death of Blanche the Duchess_, ll. 980-3

_Trewly she was to myn ye
The soleyn Fenix of Arabye,
For ther lyveth never but oon,
Ne swich as she ne knew I noon._

71. 'which was faultless in form'; _fleȝe_ 'flew' is used with weakened sense because a bird is normally thought of as on the wing.

74. _folde vp hyr face_, '<with> her face upturned'; _folde_ is pp.

91-2. 'And each would wish that the crowns of the others were five times as precious, if it were possible to better them.'

97. _Poule_: the common OFr. and ME. form, as at VIII _a_ 25, 270, XI _b_ 80. But the rime with _naule_ 'nail' (ON. _nagl_) points to the form _Paule_ for the original. The reference is to 1 Corinthians vi. 15 and xii. 12 ff.

100. _hys body_, 'its body', 'the body'. _tyste_: for _tyȝte_ 'tight', like l. 102 _myste_ for _myȝte_ 'might'. The rimes with _Kryst_, _gryste_, _lyste_ show that _st_ and _ȝt_ were very similar in pronunciation. See Appendix § 6 (end).

106. 'Because you wear a ring on arm or finger.'

109-11. 'I <well> believe that there is great courtesy and charity among you.' The construction of the next line (which conveys an apology, cp. l. 62) is not clear owing to the following gap in the MS.; nor is it easy to guess the missing rime word, as _emong_ can rime with OE. _-ung-_ (e.g. with _ȝonge_, ll. 114, 175), or with OE. _-ang-_; see the note to XVII 400.

116. _stronge_ may be adj. 'violent' with _worlde_, but is more likely adv. 'severely'.

124-5. Note the cumulation of negatives. _cowþeȝ_ has a double construction: 'You never knew how to please God nor pray to Him, nor <did you know even> the Paternoster and Creed.' The Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed were prescribed by the Church as the elements of faith to be taught first to a child.

137. Matthew xx. 1-16.

139. 'He represented it very aptly in a parable.'

141. _My regne... on hyȝt_, 'My kingdom on high'.

145. _þys hyne_: the labourers. _This_, _these_ are sometimes used in early English to refer to persons or things that have not been previously mentioned, but are prominent in the writer's mind. Cp. XV _b_ 4, 19; and the opening of Chaucer's _Prologue_ to the _Franklin's Tale_ quoted in the note to II 13.

150. _pené_: in ME. the final sound developed from OFr. _-é_ (_e_) fell together with the sounds arising from OE. _-ig_, OFr. _ie_, &c. Hence _pené_ or _peny_ 186 (OE. _penig_); _reprené_ 184 for _repreny_; _cortaysé_ 120, 121, beside _cortaysye_ 72, 84, 96. The acute accent is editorial.

153. 'At midmorning the master goes to the market.' _totȝ_ (= _tǭs_) = _tās_, contracted form of _takes_ 'betakes himself'; cp. _tone_ = _taken_ V 91. The spelling and rimes with _o_ (which cannot develop normally from _ă_ lengthened in open syllables because this lengthening is everywhere later than the change _ā_ > _ǭ_) are usually explained as artificial. It is assumed that as Northern _bān_ corresponded to Midland _bǭn_, so from Northern _tá_ 'take' an unhistorical Midland _tǭ_ was deduced. But it is possible that the contraction of _tăke(n)_, and consequent lengthening _tá(n)_, is older than the ordinary lengthening _tăke_ > _táke_, and also older than the development of _ā_ to _ǭ_ in North Midland.

164. _I yow pay_: note the survival of the old use of the present to express future tense.

176. _þat at ȝe moun_, 'what you can'. _At_ as a relative appears usually to be from Old Norse _at_, with the same sense, and it is not uncommon in Northern English. But _þat at_ here is more likely the normal development of _þat þat_ > _þat tat_ (note to II 102) > _þat at_.

179. _sumoun_ is infin. not sb.: 'he had (them) summoned'; cp. note to VIII _a_ 79.

192. 'It seems to us we ought to receive more.' _Vus þynk_ is a remnant of the old impersonal construction of _þynceþ_ 'it seems'. In this phrase, probably owing to confusion with _we þynk(en)_, the verb often has no flexional ending; cp. l. 192. _vus oȝe_ is formed by analogy, the verb being properly personal; cp. _must vs_ XVII 292, 334.

200. _And_, 'If'.

205-8. _More_, which is necessary for the metrical form, is best taken as conj. 'moreover', 'further'; _weþer_ introduces a direct question (note to V 118). _louyly_ is perhaps miswritten for _lauly_ 'lawful', as the _Pearl-Gawayne_ group often show the converse _au_, _aw_ for normal _ou_, _ow_, e.g. _bawe_ for _bowe_, _trawþe_ for _trowþe_. 'Further, is my power to do what pleases me with my own lawful?' The meaning is fixed by Matthew xx. 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?'

212. _mykeȝ._ In the few recorded examples _mik_, _myk_ seems to mean 'an intimate friend'. Here it is used for the sake of rime in an extended sense 'chosen companion of the Lord'.

221 f. _Wheþer_, &c., 'Although I began <only> just now, coming into the vineyard in the eventide, <yet>', &c.

224. Note the rime (OE. _sŭm_) with ON. _blóm(i)_, OE. _dōm_, _cōm_. Such rimes occur occasionally in Northern texts of the fourteenth century—never in the South.

233. Psalm lxii. 12 'Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for Thou renderest to every man according to his work.'

237-40. Loosely constructed. 'Now, if you came to payment before him that stood firm through the long day, then he who did less work would be more entitled to receive pay, and the further <it is carried>, the less <work>, the more <claim to be paid>.'

249-51. On the meaning of these lines there is no agreement. Gollancz and Osgood interpret: 'That man's privilege is great who ever stood in awe of Him (God) who rescues sinners. From such men no happiness is withheld, for,' &c. Yet it is difficult to believe that even a poet hard pressed would use _dard to Hym_ to mean 'feared Him'. One of several rival interpretations will suffice to show the ambiguities of the text: 'His (God's) generosity, which is always inscrutable (lit. lay hidden), is abundant to the man who recovers his soul from sin. From such men no happiness is withheld', &c. The sense and construction of _dard_ (for which the emendation _fard_, pret. of _fere_ 'to go', has been suggested, the rest of the interpretation following Gollancz), and the obscurity of the argument, are the chief obstacles to a satisfactory solution.

VII

#Dialect#: Irregular, but predominantly North-West Midland; cp. V and VI.

#Inflexions#:—

VERB: pres. ind. 3 sg. _warys_ 19, _has_ 20.
3 pl. _ben_ 11, _sayn_ 182, _haue_ 31.
pres. p. _claterand_ 137, _þriuaund_ 158, _leymonde_ 153;
beside _blowyng_ 106, _doutyng_ 114.
strong pp. _slydyn_ 6, _stoken_ 11.
The weak pp. and pa. t. have _-it_, _-(e)t_ for _-(e)d_:
_drepit_ 9, _suet_ 24.
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þai_ 45;
poss. _hor_ 8, beside _þere_ 9, 10;
obj. _hom_ 24.

#Sounds and Spelling#: Northern and North Midland forms are _qwiles_ (= _whiles_) 39, _hondqwile_ 117; and _wysshe_ 4 (note). West Midland indications are _buernes_ 'men' 90, 91 = OE. _beorn_ (but _buerne_ 'sea' 159 = OE. _burn-_ is probably miswritten owing to confusion with _buern_ 'man'); and perhaps the spelling _u_ in unaccented syllables: _mecull_ 10, _watur_ 119, _wintur_ 124.

* * * * *

4. _wysshe_ = _wisse_ 'guide'. In the North final _sh_ was commonly pronounced _ss_; cp. note to I 128-9, and the rimes in XVII 1-4. Conversely etymological _ss_ was sometimes spelt _ssh_.

7-8. _strongest... and wisest... to wale_, 'the strongest... and wisest... that could be chosen' (lit. 'to choose').

15. _On lusti to loke_, 'pleasant to look upon'.

21 ff. A typical example of the vague and rambling constructions in which this writer indulges: apparently 'but old stories of the valiant <men> who <once> held high rank may give pleasure to some who never saw their deeds, through the writings of men who knew them at first hand (?) (_in dede_), <which remained> to be searched by those who followed after, in order to make known (_or_ to know?) all the manner in which the events happened, by looking upon letters (i.e. writings) that were left behind of old'.

45. Benoît de Sainte-Maure says the Athenians rejected Homer's story of gods fighting like mortals, but charitably explains that, as Homer lived a hundred years after the siege, it is no wonder if he made mistakes:

_N'est merveille s'il i faillit,
Quar onc n'i fu ne rien n'en vit._

_Prologue_, ll. 55-6.

53-4. 'That was elegantly compiled by a wise clerk—one Guido, a man who had searched carefully, and knew all the actions from authors whom he had by him.' See Introductory note, pp. 68 f.

66-7. Cornelius Nepos was supposed to have found the Greek work of Dares at Athens when rummaging in an old cupboard (Benoît de Sainte-Maure, _Prologue_, ll. 77 ff.).

157. Note the slovenly repetition from l. 151. So l. 159 repeats l. 152.

168-9. I have transposed these lines, assuming that they were misplaced by a copyist. Guido's Latin favours the change, and the whole passage will illustrate the English translator's methods:

_Oyleus uero Aiax qui cum 32 nauibus suis in predictam incidit tempestatem, omnibus nauibus suis exustis et submersis in mari, in suis uiribus brachiorum nando semiuiuus peruenit ad terram; et, inflatus pre nimio potu aque, uix se nudum recepit in littore, vbi usque ad superuenientis diei lucem quasi mortuus iacuit in arena, [et] de morte sua sperans potius quam de uita. Sed cum quidam ex suis nando similiter a maris ingluuie iam erepti nudi peruenissent ad littus, dominum eorum querunt in littore [et] si forsitan euasisset. Quem in arena iacentem inueniunt, dulcibus uerborum fouent affatibus, cum nec in uestibus ipsum nec in alio possunt subsidio refouere._ (MS. Harley 4123, fol. 117 a—the bracketed words are superfluous.)

178. _Telamon_ was not at the siege, and his name appears here and in l. 150 as the result of a tangle which begins in the confusion of Oyleus Ajax with Ajax the son of Telamon. In classical writers after Homer it is Oyleus Ajax who, at the sack of Troy, drags Cassandra from the temple of Minerva. This is the story in Dictys. Dares, like Homer, is silent. In Benoît de Sainte-Maure's poem (ll. 26211-16), the best MSS. name Oyleus Ajax as Cassandra's captor, but others have '_Thelamon Aiax_', i.e. Ajax, the son of Telamon. Guido read Benoît in a MS. of the latter class, and accordingly makes _Telamonius Aiax_ do the sacrilege. With the English translator this becomes _Telamon_ simply (Bk. xxix, ll. 11993-7). So when later, in Bk. xxxi, he comes to describe the shipwreck, he replaces Guido's _Aiax_ by _Telamon_, and spoils the story of Minerva's vengeance on the actual violator of her sanctuary.

VIII

#Dialect#: South Midland, with mixture of forms.

_a._ VERB: pres. ind. 2 sg. _seist_ 226, _wilnest_ 256.
3 sg. _comaundeth_ 16.
1 pl. _haue_ 118, _preye_ 119.
2 pl. _han_ 11, _wasten_ 127.
3 pl. _liggeth_ 15, &c.; beside _ben_ 50,
_waste_ 155.
imper. pl. _spynneth_ 13.
pres. p. (none in _a_); _romynge_ _b_ 11.
strong pp. _bake_ 187, _ybake_ 278, _ybaken_ 175.
Infinitives in _-ie_ (OE. _-ian_) are retained: _erye_
4, _hatie_ 52, _tilye_ 229 (OE. _erian_, _hatian_,
_tilian_).
PRONOUN 3 PERS.: pl. nom. _þei_ 126, &c., beside _hii_ 15;
poss. _her_ 54; obj. _hem_ 2.

#Sounds#: OE. _y_ often shows the Western development, as in _huyre(d)_ 108, 133, &c.; _abugge_ 75, 159; beside _bigge_ 275. So _Cornehulle_ _b_ 1. But such forms were not uncommon in the London dialect of the time.

_b._ The second extract has a more Southern dialectal colouring. Note especially the gen. pl. forms _lollarene_ 31, _knauene_ 56, _lordene_ 77, continuing or extending the OE. weak gen. pl. in _-ena_; and _menne_ 29, 74, retaining the ending of the OE. gen. pl. _manna_.

The representation of unaccented vowels by _u_ in _hure_ (= 'their') 50, (= 'her') 53; _(h)us_ 'his' 60, 101; _clerkus_ 65, is commonest in Western districts. _h(w)_ is no longer aspirated: _wanne_ 1, _werby_ 35, MS. _eggen_ 19; and conversely _hyf_ 'if' 43, _his_ 'is' 105.

* * * * *

_a_ 9. _for shedyng_, 'to prevent spilling'; and so _for colde_ 62 'as a protection against cold'; _for bollyng_ 209 'to prevent swelling'; _for chillyng_ 306, &c.

_a_ 11. _Þat ȝe han silke and sendal to sowe_: The construction changes as if Piers had begun: _Ich praye ȝow_, which is the reading in the C-text. The difficulty of excluding modern ideas from the interpretation of the Middle Ages is shown by the comment of a scholar so accomplished as M. Petit-Dutaillis: 'Il attaque les riches peu miséricordieux, les _dames charmantes aux doigts effilés_, qui ne s'occupent pas des pauvres' (_Soulèvement_, p. lxii). But there is no hint of satire or reproach in the text. The poet, always conventional, assigns to high-born ladies the work which at the time was considered most fitting for them. So it is reported in praise of the sainted Isabella of France, sister of St. Louis: _Quand elle fust introduicte des lettres suffisamment, elle s'estudioit à apprendre à ouurer de soye, et faisoit estolles et autres paremens à saincte Eglise_—'When she was sufficiently introduced to letters, she set herself to learn how to work in silk, and made stoles and other vestments for Holy Church.' (Joinville, _Histoire d. S. Louys_, Paris 1668, pt. i, p. 169.)

_a_ 19. _for þe Lordes loue of heuene_: cp. l. 214, and notes to I 44, I 83, II 518.

_a_ 23. _on þe teme_, 'on this subject'; _teme_ 'theme' is a correct form, because Latin _th_ was pronounced _t_. The modern pronunciation is due to the influence of classical spelling.

_a_ 32. _affaite þe_, 'tame for thyself'; cp. l. 64 _(I shal) brynge me_ = 'bring (for myself)', and the note to II 289.

_a_ 40-1. 'And though you should fine them, let Mercy be the assessor, and let Meekness rule over you, in spite of Gain.' This is a warning against abuse of the lord of the manor's power to impose fines in the manorial court with the object of raising revenue rather than of administering justice. Cp. Ashley, _Introduction to English Economic History_, vol. i (1894), pt. ii, p. 266. For _maugré Medes chekes_ cp. 151.

_a_ 49. Luke xiv. 10.

_a_ 50. _yuel to knowe_, 'hard to distinguish'.

_a_ 72-5. These clumsy lines, which are found in all versions, exemplify the chief faults in _Piers Plowman_: structural weakness and superfluous allegory.

_a_ 79. _I wil... do wryte my biqueste_, 'I will have my will written'; _make(n)_, _ger_ (_gar_), and _lete(n)_ are commonly used like _do(n)_ with an active infinitive, which is most conveniently rendered by the passive; so _do wryte_ 'cause to be written'; _dyd werche_ 'caused to be made' I 218; _mad sumoun_ 'caused to be summoned' VI 179; _gert dres vp_ 'caused to be set up' X 16; _leet make_ 'caused to be made' IX 223, &c.

_a_ 80. _In Dei nomine, amen_: A regular opening phrase for wills.

_a_ 84. 'I trust to have a release from and remission of my debts which are recorded in that book.' _Rental_, a book in which the sums due from a tenant were noted, here means 'record of sins'.

_a_ 86. _he_: the parson, as representing the Church.

_a_ 91. _douȝtres._ In l. 73 only one daughter is named. In the B-text, Passus xviii. 426, she is called _Kalote_ (see note to _b_ 2 below).

_a_ 94. _bi þe rode of Lukes_: at Lucca (French _Lucques_) is a Crucifix and a famous representation of the face of Christ, reputed to be the work of the disciple Nicodemus. From Eadmer and William of Malmesbury we learn that William the Conqueror's favourite oath was 'By the Face of Lucca!', and it is worth noting that the frequent and varied adjurations in Middle English are copied from the French.

_a_ 114. 'May the Devil take him who cares!'

_a_ 115 ff. _faitoures_ (cp. ll. 185 ff.), who feigned some injury or disease to avoid work and win the pity of the charitable, multiplied in the disturbed years following the Black Death. Statutes were passed against them, and even against those who gave them alms (Jusserand, _English Wayfaring Life_, pp. 261 ff.). But the type was long lived. In the extract from _Handlyng Synne_ (No. I), we have already a monument of their activities.

_a_ 141. 'And those that have cloisters and churches (i.e. monks and priests) shall have some of my goods to provide themselves with copes.'

_a_ 142. _Robert Renne-aboute._ The type of a wandering preacher; _posteles_ are clearly preachers with no fixed sphere of authority, like the mendicant friars and Wiclif's 'poor priests'. Against both the regular clergy constantly complained that they preached without the authority of the bishop.

_a_ 186. _Þat seten_: the MS. by confusion has _þat seten to seten to begge_, &c.

_a_ 187. _þat was bake for Bayarde_: i.e. 'horse-bread' (l. 208), which used to be made from beans and peas only. _Bayard_, properly a 'bay horse', was, according to romance, the name of the horse given by Charlemagne to Rinaldo. Hence it became the conventional name for a horse, just as _Reynard_ was appropriated to the fox. Chaucer speaks of _proude Bayard_ (_Troilus_, Bk. i. 218) and, referring to an unknown story, _Bayard the blynde_ (_Canon's Yeoman's Tale_, 860).

_a_ 221. _Michi vindictam_: Romans xii. 19.

_a_ 224. Luke xvi. 9.

_a_ 229. Genesis iii. 19.

_a_ 231. _Sapience_: the Book of Wisdom, but the quotation is actually from Proverbs xx. 4.

_a_ 234. _Mathew with mannes face._ Each of the evangelists had his symbol: Matthew, a man; Mark, a lion; Luke, a bull; John, an eagle; and in early Gospel books their portraits are usually accompanied by the appropriate symbols.