Part 21

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 chápel_ 79. || _árȝeȝ in hért _ 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,— kneeled before the prince (i.e. Gawayn) 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 ', &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 '. 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.