Part 22

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 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 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_, ' 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 , 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, 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 kande_, 'ringing'; Napier's suggestion for MS. _rykande_.

271-2. 'Nobody here has ill-treated you in an unmannerly way, nor shown you ': 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, I rightly 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 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_, ' 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 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 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 just now, coming into the vineyard in the eventide, ', &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 , the less , the more .'

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 who 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_), 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.