Chapter 5

The messenger of God appointed one, A man of wisdom tried, of prudent speech, To be a bishop in that city bright Over the people, and he hallowed him By virtue of his apostolic power 1650 Before the multitude for their behoof,-- His name was Platan. Strictly Andrew bade That they should keep his teachings zealously, And should work out salvation for their souls. He told them he was eager to depart, And fain would leave that city bright with gold, Their revelry and wealth, their bounteous halls, And seek a ship beside the breaking sea. Hard was it for the multitude to bear That he, their leader, would no longer dwell 1660 Among them there. But as he journeyed forth The glorious God straightway appeared to him, The Lord of hosts, and to His thane He said:-- "[Why dost thou leave this people in such haste? For hardly have they turned them from their sin], This nation from their crimes. Their minds for death Are longing, sad of heart they go about, Their grief bemoaning, men and women both; Weeping has come among them, woful hearts, [Since thou across the floods in thy sea-bark] Wilt haste away. Thou shalt not leave this flock In joy so new, but in My holy Name 1670 Fast stablish thou their hearts! Within this town, Abide, O shield of warriors, in their halls Richly adorned, the space of seven nights, Then with My favor thou shalt go thy way."

So once again that brave and mighty saint Returned to seek the Mermedonian town. In wisdom and in speech the Christians waxed, After their eyes beheld the glorious thane, The noble King's apostle. In the way Of faith he guided them; with glory bright He made them strong; a countless multitude 1680 Of glorious men he led to blessedness, Toward that most holy home in Heaven's realm, Where Father, Son, and Holy Comforter In blessed Trinity hold mighty rule, World without end, within those mansions fair. Likewise the saint attacked their idol-shrines, Banished their devil-worship, and put down Their errors. Mighty grief and hard to bear Was that for Satan, when he saw them turn 1690 With hearts of gladness from the halls of hell At Andrew's teaching to that land more bright, Where fiends and evil spirits never come.

Then was the number of the days fulfilled Which God had set, and had commanded him That he should linger in that wind-swept town; And quickly he made ready for the waves With joyful heart; he wished once more to seek Achaia in his ocean-coursing ship; 1700 (There was he doomed to lose his life and die A death of violence. This deed was fraught With little laughter for his murderer; To the jaws of hell he went, and since that day No solace has that friendless wretch e'er found.)

Then in great companies, as I have heard, They led unto his ship their master dear, Men sad of soul; the heart of many a one Was welling hot in grief within his breast. They brought the zealous champion to his ship 1710 Beside the sea-cliffs, and upon the shore They stood and mourned while they could still behold The joy of princes sailing o'er the waves, The path of seals. They praised the glorious King; The throngs cried out aloud, and thus they spake:-- "One and eternal is the God who rules O'er all created things; throughout the earth His might and His dominion far and near Are magnified. His glory over all Shines on His saints in heavenly majesty 1720 Among the angels now and evermore In splendor fair. He is a noble King!"

NOTES

38 f. Lit. "hay and grass oppressed them."

298. Reading /[=a]ra/ with Grein.

368. The MS. says /h[=i]e/ (they), with change of subject; for the sake of clearness I have kept Andrew as the subject.

424. Reading /sund/ with Grein.

592. Adopting Siever's reading, /r[=e]onigm[=o]de/ (_Beitr._ X, 506).

656. "another house"; I am at a loss to explain this apparent inconsistency.

713. That there are two images is shown by the Greek.

719. I omit /is/. The passage as it stands is meaningless.

746. Reading /g[=e] mon c[=i]gað/, with Cosijn.

826. Lit. "'Till sleep came o'er them weary of the sea"; but Andrew is already asleep. The line is probably corrupt.

828. Something is apparently missing, though the MS. shows no break. Without attempting an emendation I have supplied: "bade him seek," as completing the obvious sense.

1024. At this point a page is missing in the manuscript. It must have corresponded to the end of Chap. 19 and to Chap. 20 of the Greek, in which Andrew and Matthew exchange short speeches, after which Andrew utters a long tirade against the Devil as the author of this woe. I have omitted lines 1023^b, 1024, and 1025, which are meaningless without what has been lost.

1035. The number of men is uncertain. According to the Greek it is 270, but the Homily says 248. The manuscript reads: "two and a hundred by number, also forty," but l. 1036 is evidently deficient. Wülker emends to /swylce seofontig/. This is unsatisfactory, since the line is metrically deficient, and since, moreover, the regular word for seventy is not /seofontig/, but /hundseofontig/. Without venturing an emendation, I have taken the number 248 from the Homily, as being nearer the manuscript than the 270 of the Greek. This similarity is an additional argument for a common Latin original of the poem and the Homily.

1212. The poet has neglected to mention the circumstance, clearly stated in the Greek, that Andrew was still invisible both to the Devil and to the Mermedonians. This makes clear several passages, i.e., ll. 1203, 1212, 1223 f.

1242. Reading /untw[=e]onde/ with Grein and Cosijn. 1276. I have here omitted two half-lines, of which the sense is very obscure. Grein connects /lifrum/ with Germ. _liefern_="to coagulate" (cf. Eng. _loppered milk_), instead of assigning it to /lifer/="liver," but this interpretation is not very satisfactory. See also Cosijn's note (Paul und Braune's _Beiträge_, XXI, 17).

1338. The Greek explains that God had put the sign of the cross on Andrew's face.

1376. I have here ventured an emendation of my own. The sentence as it stands is without a main verb, and 1377^a is metrically deficient. I would read:--

Hwaet m[=e] [=e]aðe [mæg] ælmihtig God n[=i]ða [generian], se ðe in n[=i]edum [=i]u.

See under /generian/ in Grein's _Sprachschalz_.

1478 ff. This passage is certainly ambiguous. That /h[=a]liges/ refers to Andrew, and not to God, is shown by the use of /h[=e]/ in 1. 1482.

1493. I follow Grein's emendation, and read /sælwäge/ = "castle wall," although the word is not found elsewhere. If we read sælwange with Wülker, the meaning of /under/ must be greatly stretched. Moreover, the Greek says: "He saw a pillar standing in the midst of the prison."

1508. Reading /geofon/ with Grimm, Kemble, etc., as also in 393 and 1585.

1545. Reading /wadu/ with Kemble and Grein.

1663. Apparently a line or two is missing here, though there is no break in the manuscript. I have translated in brackets Grein's conjectural emendation, as supplying the probable meaning.

1667. I have again translated Grein's emendation.

1681. Reading /t[=i]r[=e]adigra/ with Kemble.

PROOFREADER'S COMMENTS

Text between slashes - e.g. /xxxxx/ - was originally BOLD. Non-Ascii characters are marked e.g. [=o] for o with a Macron. The line numbers are inconsistent, as in the original text.

End of Project Gutenberg's Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew, by Unknown