Part 20

57. The dowfe is more gentill, her trust I vntew, 505 Like vnto the turtill, for she is ay trew. _Vxor._ Hence bot a litill she commys, lew, lew! She bryngys in her bill som novels new; Behald! It is of an olif tre 510 A branch, thynkys me. _Noe._ It is soth, perdé, Right so is it cald.

58. Doufe, byrd full blist, fayre myght the befall! Thou art trew for to trist, as ston in the wall; 515 Full well I it wist thou wold com to thi hall. _Vxor._ A trew tokyn ist we shall be sauyd all: For whi? The water, syn she com, Of depnes plom 520 Is fallen a fathom And more, hardely.

59. _Primus filius._ Thise floodis ar gone, fader, behold. _Secundus filius._ Ther is left right none, and that be ye bold. _Tercius filius._ As still as a stone oure ship is stold. 525 _Noe._ Apon land here anone that we were, fayn I wold, My childer dere, Sem, Iaphet and Cam, With gle and with gam, Com go we all sam, 530 We will no longer abide here.

60. _Vxor._ Here haue we beyn, Noy, long enogh With tray and with teyn, and dreed mekill wogh. _Noe._ Behald on this greyn nowder cart ne plogh Is left, as I weyn, nowder tre then bogh, 535 Ne other thyng; Bot all is away; Many castels, I say, Grete townes of aray, Flitt has this flowyng. 540

61. _Vxor._ Thise floodis not afright all this warld so wide Has mevid with myght on se and bi side. _Noe._ To dede ar thai dyght, prowdist of pryde, Euerich a wyght that euer was spyde With syn, 545 All ar thai slayn, And put vnto payn. _Vxor._ From thens agayn May thai neuer wyn?

62. _Noe._ Wyn? No, iwis, bot He that myght hase 550 Wold myn of thare mys, and admytte thaym to grace; As He in bayll is blis, I pray Hym in this space, In heven hye with His to purvaye vs a place, That we, With His santis in sight, 555 And His angels bright, May com to His light: Amen, for charité.

_Explicit processus Noe._

[Foot-note: 129 chese] chefe _MS._]

NOTES

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.

36. _þat þey come to_: Construe with _hyt_ in l. 35.

37 ff. _Here names of alle_: The twelve followers of Gerlew are named in the Latin text, but Mannyng gives only the principal actors. The inconsistency is still more marked in the Bodleian MS., which after l. 40 adds:—

_Þe ouþer twelue here names alle Þus were þey wrete, as y can kalle._

Otherwise the Bodleian MS. is very closely related to the Harleian, sharing most of its errors and peculiarities.

44. _þe prestes doghtyr of þe tounne_, 'the priest of the town's daughter'. In early ME. the genitive inflexion is not, as in Modern English, added to the last of a group of words: cp. XIV _d_ 10 _Þe Kynges sone of heuene_ 'the King of Heaven's son'. The same construction occurs in VIII _a_ 19 _for þe Lordes loue of heuene_ = 'for the love of the Lord of Heaven', and in VIII _a_ 214; but in these passages the genitive is objective, and Modern English does not use the inflexion at all (note to I 83). The ME. and modern expressions have their point of agreement in the position of the genitive inflexion, which always precedes immediately the noun on which the genitive depends. Cp. notes to II 518, VI 23, and XIV _d_ 1.

46. _Aȝone_: _ȝ_ = _z_ here. The name is _Azo_ in the Latin.

55. _Beu ne_: (derived from the accusative _Beuonem_) = _Beuo_ of l. 59 and _Beuolyne_ of l. 62. The form is properly _Bovo_ not _Bevo_. Considerable liberties were taken with proper names to adapt them to metre or rime: e.g. l. 52 _Merswynde_; l. 63 _Merswyne_; cp. note to l. 246. This habit, and frequent miscopying, make it difficult to rely on names in mediaeval stories.

65. _Grysly_: An error for _Gerlew_, Latin _Gerleuus_, from Low German _Gērlēf_ = OE. _Gārlāf_.

83. _for Crystys awe_: In Modern English a phrase like _Christ's awe_ could mean only 'the awe felt by Christ'. But in OE. _Cristes ege_, or _ege Cristes_, meant also 'the awe of Christ (which men feel)', the genitive being objective. In ME. the word order _eie Cristes_ is dropped, but _Cristes eie_ (or _awe_, the Norse form) is still regular for '(men's) fear of Christ'. Hence formal ambiguities like _þe Lordes loue of heuene_ VIII _a_ 19, which actually means '(men's) love of the Lord of Heaven', but grammatically might mean 'the Lord of Heaven's love (for men)'—see note to l. 44 above.

96-7. The Latin Letter of Theodric in fact has _ab isto officio ex Dei nutu amodo non cessetis_, but probably _amodo_ is miswritten for _anno_.

127. _a saue_: lit. 'have safe', i.e. 'rescue'. _Saue_ is here adj.

128-9. _ys_: _flessh_: The rime requires the alternative forms _es_ (as in l. 7) and _fles(s)_. Cp. note to VII 4.

132. _Ȝow þar nat aske_: 'There is no need for you to ask'; _ȝow_ is dative after the impersonal _þar_.

156-7. _werynes_: _dos_. The rime is false. Perhaps Mannyng wrote: _As many body for goyng es_ [sc. _wery_], and a copyist misplaced _es_, writing: _As many body es for goyng_. If _body es_ were read as _bodyes_, a new verb would then be added.

169. Note the irony of the refrain. The Letter of Otbert adds the picturesque detail that they gradually sank up to their waists in the ground through dancing on the same spot.

172. _Þe Emperoure Henry_: Probably Henry II of Germany, Emperor from 1014 to 1024. A certain vagueness in points of time and place would save the bearers of the letter from awkward questions.

188-9. _banned_: _woned_. The rime (OE. _bannan_ and _wunian_) is false, and the use of _woned_ 'remained' is suspicious. Mannyng perhaps wrote _bende_ 'put in bonds': _wende_ (= _ȝede_ l. 191) 'went'; or (if the form _band_ for _banned(e)_ could be evidenced so early) _band_ 'cursed': _wand_, pret. of _winden_, 'went'.

195. _fal yn a swone_: So MS., showing that by the second half of the fourteenth century the pp. adj. _aswon_ had been wrongly analysed into the indef. article _a_ and a noun _swon_. Mannyng may have written _fallen aswone_. See Glossary, _s.v._ _aswone_.

234. _Wyth sundyr lepys_: 'with separate leaps'; but _Wyth_ was probably added by a scribe who found in his original _sundyrlepys_, adv., meaning 'separately',—

_Kar suvent par les mains Des malvais escrivains Sunt livre corrumput._

240. _Seynt Edyght._ St. Edith (d. 984) was daughter of King Edgar, and abbess of Wilton. The rime is properly _Edit_: _Teodric_, for _t_ and _k_ are sufficiently like in sound to rime together in the best ME. verse; cp. note to XV _g_ 27.

246. _Brunyng... seynt Tolous_: Latin _Bruno Tullanus_. Robert probably did not hesitate to provide a rime by turning Toul into Toulouse. Bruno afterwards became Pope Leo IX (1049-54).

254-5. _trowed_: _God_. Read _trŏd_, a shortened form, revealed by rimes in North Midland texts. The identical rime occurs three times in Mannyng's _Chronicle_ (ed. Hearne, p. 339; ed. Furnivall, ll. 7357-8, 8111-12); and, again with substitution of _troud_ for _trod_, in _Havelok_, ll. 2338-9. Cp. note to XVII 56.

II

#Dialect#: South-Western, with some admixture of Northern forms due to a copyist.

#Inflexions#:—

VERB: pres. ind. 1 sg. _ichaue_, &c. (see note to l. 129). 2 sg. _makest_ 169, _worst_ 170. 3 sg. _geþ_ (in rime) 238; contracted _fint_ 239, _last_ 335, _sitt_ 443, _stont_ 556. 2 pl. _ȝe beþ_ 582. 3 pl. _strikeþ_ 252 (proved by rime with 3 sg. _likeþ_). imper. pl. _make_ 216, _chese_ 217; beside _doþ_ 218. pres. p. _berking_ 286 (in rime with verbal sb.); _daunceing_ (in rime) 298. The forms _kneland_ 250, _liggeand_ 388, are due to a Northern copyist. strong pp. (various forms): _go_ (: _wo_) 196, _ygo_ (: _mo_) 349, _ydone_ (: _-none_) 76, _comen_ 29, _come_ 181, _ycomen_ 203, _yborn_ 174, _bore_ 210. infin. Note _aski_ (OE. _acsian_) 467 (App. § 13 vii). PRONOUN 3 PERS.: fem. nom. _he_ 408, 446, _hye_ 337, beside _sche_ 75, 77, &c. pl. nom. _he_ (in rime) 185, _hye_ 91, beside _þai_ 32, 69, &c.; poss. _her_ 'their' 87, 413, 415; obj. _hem_ 69, &c. NOUN: Note the plurals _honden_ 79, _berien_ 258.

The original text preserved final _-e_ better than the extant MSS., e.g.

_And seyd<ė> þus þe king<ė> to_ 119. _Þat noþing help<ė> þe no schal_ 172. _Al þe vt<ė>mast<ė> wal_ 357. _So, sir, as ȝe seyd<ė> nouþė_ 466.

#Sounds#: _ǭ_ for OE. _ā_ is proved in rime: _biholde_ (OE. _beháldan_): _gold_ (OE. _góld_) 367-8 (cp. 467-8); and _yhote_ (OE. _gehāten_): _note_ (OFr. _note_) 601-2.

The rime _frut_: _lite_ 257-8 points to original _frut_: _lut_ (OE. _lȳt_), with Western _ǖ_, from OE. _ȳ_, riming with OFr. _ǖ_.

* * * * *

1-22. These lines, found also in _Lai le Freine_, would serve as preface to any of the Breton lays, with the couplet ll. 23-4 as the special connecting link. In the Auchinleck MS., _Orfeo_ begins on a fresh leaf at l. 25, without heading or capitals to indicate that it is a new poem. The leaf preceding has been lost. There is good reason to suppose that it contained the lines supplied in the text from the Harleian MS.

4. _frely_, 'goodly': _Lai le Freine_ has _ferly_ 'wondrous'.

12. MS. _moost to lowe_: means 'most (worthy) to be praised', and there are two or three recorded examples of _to lowe_ = _to alowe_ in this sense. But MS. Ashmole and the corresponding lines in _Lai le Freine_ point to _most o loue_ 'mostly of love' as the common reading. The typical 'lay' is a poem of moderate length, telling a story of love, usually with some supernatural element, in a refined and courtly style.

13. _Brytayn_, 'Brittany': so _Brytouns_ 16 = 'Bretons'. Cp. Chaucer, _Franklin's Tale, Prologue_, beginning

_Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes Of diverse aventures maden layes Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge, Whiche layes with hir instrumentz they songe_, &c.

20. The curious use of _it_ after the plural _layes_ is perhaps not original. _Lai le Freine_ has: _And maked a lay and yaf it name_.

26. _In Inglond_: an alteration of the original text to give local colour. Cp. ll. 49-50 and l. 478.

29-30. _Pluto_: the King of Hades came to be regarded as the King of Fairyland; cp. Chaucer, _Merchant's Tale_, l. 983 _Pluto that is the kyng of fairye_. The blunder by which Juno is made a king is apparently peculiar to the Auchinleck copy.

33-46. These lines are not in the Auchinleck MS., but are probably authentic. Otherwise little prominence would be given to Orfeo's skill as a harper.

41 ff. A confused construction: _In þe world was neuer man born_ should be followed by _<þat> he schulde þinke_; but the writer goes on as if he had begun with 'every man in the world'. _And_ = 'if'.

46. _ioy and_ overload the verse, and are probably an unskilful addition to the text.

49-50. These lines are peculiar to the Auchinleck MS., and are clearly interpolated; cp. l. 26 and l. 478. Winchester was the old capital of England, and therefore the conventional seat of an English king.

57. _comessing_: The metre points to a disyllabic form _comsing_ here, and to _comsi_ in l. 247.

80. _it bled wete_: In early English the clause which is logically subordinate is sometimes made formally co-ordinate. More normal would be _þat (it) bled wete_ 'until (_or_ so that) it bled wet'; i.e. until it was wet with blood.

82. _reuey d_ or some such form of _ravished_ is probably right. _reneyd_ 'apostate' is a possible reading of the MS., but does not fit the sense. _N. E. D._ suggests _remeued_.

102. _what is te?_: 'What ails you?; cp. l. 115. _Te_ for _þe_ after _s_ of _is_. Such modifications are due either to dissimilation of like sounds, as _þ_: _s_ which are difficult in juxtaposition; or to assimilation of unlike sounds, as _þatow_ 165, for _þat þow_.

115. 'What ails you, and how it came about?'; cp. l. 102.

129. _ichil_ = _ich wille_; and so _ichaue_ 209, _icham_ 382, _ichot_ XV _b_ 23. These forms, reduced to _chill_, _cham_, &c., were still characteristic of the Southern dialect in Shakespeare's time: cp. _King Lear_, IV. vi. 239 _Chill not let go, Zir_.

131. _þat nouȝt nis_: 'That cannot be'; cp. l. 457 _þat nouȝt nere_.

157-8. _palays_: _ways_. The original rime was perhaps _palys_: _wys_ 'wise'.

170. 'Wherever you may be, you shall be fetched.'

201-2. _barouns_: _renouns_. Forms like _renouns_ in rime are usually taken over from a French original.

215. The overloaded metre points to a shorter word like _wite_ for _vnderstond_.

216. _Make ȝou þan a parlement_: _ȝou_ is not nom., but dat. 'for yourselves'. Observe that Orfeo acts like a constitutional English king.

241. _þe fowe and griis_: A half translation of OFr. _vair et gris_. _Vair_ (Lat. _varius_) was fur made of alternate pieces of the grey back and white belly of the squirrel. Hence it is rendered by _fowe_, OE. _fāg_ 'varicolor'. _Griis_ is the grey back alone, and the French word is retained for the rime with _biis_, which was probably in the OFr. original.

258. _berien_: The MS. may be read _berren_, but as this form is incorrect it is better to assume that the _i_ has been carelessly shaped by the scribe.

289. _him se_, 'see (for himself), and similarly _slep þou þe_ XV _g_ 13. This reflexive use of the dative pronoun, which cannot be reproduced in a modern rendering, is common in OE. and ME., especially with verbs of motion; cp. note to XV _g_ 24. But distinguish _went him_ 475, 501, where _him_ is accusative, not dative (OE. _wente hine_), because the original sense of _went_ is 'turned', which naturally takes a reflexive object.

342. _me no reche_ = _I me no reche_. The alternative would be the impersonal _me no recheþ_.

343. _also spac_ = _also bliue_ 142 = _also swiþe_ 574: 'straightway', &c.

363. MS. _auowed_ (or _anowed_) is meaningless here. _Anow ed_, or the doubtful by-form _anow ed_ 'adorned', is probably the true reading.

382. The line is too long—a fault not uncommon where direct speech is introduced, e.g. l. 419 and I 78. Usually a correct line can be obtained by dropping words like _quath he_, which are not as necessary in spoken verse as they are where writing alone conveys the sense. But sometimes the flaw may lie in the forms of address: l. 382 would be normal without _Parfay_; l. 419 may once have been:

_And seyd 'Lord, ȝif þi wille were'._

There is no task more slippery than the metrical reconstruction of ME. poems, particularly those of which the extant text derives from the original not simply through a line of copyists, but through a line of minstrels who passed on the verses from memory and by word of mouth.

388. The line seems to be corrupt, and, as usual, the Harleian and Ashmole MSS. give little help. _Ful_ can hardly be a sb. meaning 'multitude' from the adj. _full_. Some form of _fele_ (OE. _fela_) 'a great number' would give possible grammar and sense (cp. l. 401), but bad metre. Perhaps _ful_ should be deleted as a scribe's anticipation of _folk_ in the next line; for the construction _seiȝe... of folk_ cp. XVI 388; and _Hous of Fame_, Bk. iii, ll. 147 ff.

433. _Þei we nouȝt welcom no be_: Almost contemporary with _Sir Orfeo_ is the complaint of an English writer that the halls of the nobles stood open to a lawyer, but not to a poet:

_Exclusus ad ianuam poteris sedere Ipse licet venias, Musis comitatus, Homere!_

'Though thou came thyself, Homer, with all the Muses, thou mightst sit at the door, shut out!', T. Wright, _Political Songs_ (1839), p. 209.

446. _hadde he_, 'had she'. For _he_ (OE. _hēo_) = 'she' cp. l. 408.

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_: ' 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_.