NOTES (continued 2)

To return to our interpolation:

(1) Vogels's first piece of evidence that C, D, and E are at base one translation is the appearance in all of this interpolation, which is absent from the MSS. in French. But a passage so remarkable might spread from one to the other of two independent English texts; or if the interpolation originated in England in a MS. of the French text since lost, it might be twice translated.

(2) Vogels assumes that the interpolation first appeared in type C. But C is the form in which it would be least likely to originate, because here the contradiction of statement is sharpest owing to the rendering at ll. 313-14: and now I am comen hom, which is peculiar to C (see the French).

(3) If, in order to eliminate individual peculiarities, we take two MSS. of the D type—say Harley 2386 and Royal 17 C. XXXVIII—we find that their text of the interpolation is identical with that of E. This is consistent with Vogels's finding that the body of E derives from D; and it confirms the evidence of all the defective MSS. that the interpolation in this particular form was an integral part of the D type.

(4) But between the text of the interpolation in D and that in C there are differences in matter, in sentence order, and in phrasing, which, while they do not exclude the possibility of interdependence, do not suggest such a relation. In D the passage is a naked attempt at authentication; in C it is more artfully though more shamelessly introduced by the touch of piety conventional in epilogues. And as the signs of a French original that appear in C are absent from D, it is unlikely that the text of the interpolation in C derives from D.

(5) Again, in D and E the addition follows the matter of ll. 307-20. Unfortunately, though the balance of probability is in favour of the order in C, the order intended by the interpolator is not certain enough to be made the basis of arguments. But such a difference in position is naturally explained from the stage when the interpolation stood in the margin of a MS., or on an inserted slip, so that it might be taken into the consecutive text at different points. And an examination of the possibilities will show that if the interpolation originated in French, the different placing is more simply explained on the assumption that C and D are independent translations than on the assumption that one of them derives from the other.

To sum up: the central problem for the history of the English texts is the relation of C and D. Taken by itself the evidence afforded by the text of the interpolation is against the derivation of C from D; it neither favours nor excludes the derivation of D from C; it rather favours independent translation in C and D.

For the relations of the rest of the text these deductions afford no more than a clue. Against independent translation of C and D stands the evidence adduced by Vogels for basic unity. Much of this could be accounted for by the coincidences that are inevitable in literal prose translations from a language so near to English in vocabulary and word order; and a few striking agreements might be due to the use of French MSS. having abnormal variants in common, or even to reference by a second translator to the first. The remainder must be weighed against a considerable body of evidence in the contrary sense, e.g. several places where the manuscripts of the French text have divergent readings, of which C translates one, and D another.

It is unlikely that any simple formula will be found to cover the whole web of relationships: but any way of reconciling the conclusions of the authorities should be explored; and the first step is an impartial sifting of all the evidence, with the object of discovering to what extent C and D are interdependent, and to what extent independent translations. The chief obstacle is the difficulty of bringing the necessary texts together; for an investigator who wished to clear the ground would have to face the labour of preparing a six-text Mandeville, in the order, French, C, D, E, L, Latin.

301. Mappa Mundi: OFr. and ME. Mappemounde, was the generic name for a chart of the world, and, by extension, for a descriptive geography of the world. It is not clear what particular Mappa Mundi is referred to here, or whether such a map was attached to the manuscript copy of the Travels in which this interpolation first appeared.

329. fro whom all godenesse and grace cometh fro: cp. 24-5 the lond of the whiche on of the þre Kynges... was kyng offe; 76-8 þei... of whom all science... cometh from; and 301-2 be the whiche the Mappa Mundi was made after. The pleonasm is explained by the divergence of French and ME. word order. In French, as in modern literary English, the preposition is placed at the beginning of the clause, before the relative (de qui, dont, &c.). ME. writers naturally use the relative that, and postpone the preposition to the end of the clause: e.g. þat all godenesse cometh fro. The translator compromises between his French original and his native habit by placing the preposition both at the beginning and at the end.

X

Dialect: Northern (Scots): the MS. copy was made in 1487 more than a century after the poem was composed.

Vocabulary: Note till 'to' 4, 77 (in rime); syne 'afterwards' 35, 112; the forms sic 'such' 135, begouth 94, and the short verbal forms ma (in rime) 'make' 14, tane (in rime) 'taken' 19.

Inflexions:

Sounds: OE. ā remains: brynstane (in rime) 20, sare 51.

OE. ō (close ọ̄) appears as u (ǖ?): gude 36, fut 57, tume 143.

Unaccented -(e)d of weak pa. t. and pp. becomes -(i)t: passit 2, &c.

Spelling: i (y) following a vowel indicates length: weill 10, noyne 'noon' 67.

OE. hw- appears as quh- (indicating strong aspiration): quhelis 'wheels' 17, quhar 18.

v and w are interchanged: vithall 9, behevin 163, in swndir 106.

Book XVII of The Bruce begins with the capture of Berwick by the Scots in March 1318. Walter Stewart undertakes to hold the city, and is aided in preparing defences by a Flemish engineer, John Crab. Next year King Edward II determines to recapture the stronghold by an attack from both land and sea. He entrenches his forces and makes the first assault unsuccessfully early in September 1319. In this battle the Scotch garrison capture a clever engineer (see note to l. 71 below). King Robert Bruce meanwhile orders a raid into England as a diversion, and on 20 September 1319, an English army, led by the Archbishop of York, is disastrously defeated by the invaders at Mitton. Our extract gives the story of the second assault on Berwick, which was also fruitless. The fortress fell into English hands again as a result of the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333: see XIV a 35-6.

5-6. 'They made a sow of great joists, which had a stout covering over it.' The sow was essentially a roof on wheels. The occupants, under shelter of the roof, pushed up to the walls of the besieged place and tried to undermine them. For an illustration see Cutts, Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, Pt. VI, chap. vi, where other military engines of the time are described.

15. Crabbis consale: John Crab was the engineer of the garrison. He is no doubt the same as the John Crab who in 1332 brought Flemish ships round from Berwick to attack the English vessels at Dundee. There was an important Flemish colony at Berwick from early times.

36. Schir Valter, the gude Steward: Walter Steward, whose surname denotes his office as Steward of Scotland, was the father of Robert II, the first king of the Stuart line.

42. Rude-evyn: September 13, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

49. thame... of the toune, 'the defenders of the town'.

51. or than, 'or else'.

71 ff. The engynour: an English engineer captured by the garrison in the previous assault and forced into their service.

80. scho, 'she', some engine of war not previously referred to: apparently a mechanical sling.

123 ff. The boats were filled with men and hoisted up the masts, so as to overtop the walls and allow the besiegers to shoot at the garrison from above. The same engine that proved fatal to the sow was used to break up the boats.

146. thar wardane with him had, 'their warden <who> had with him'; cp. note to XIII a 36.

158-61. A confused construction. The writer has in mind: (1) 'Of all the men he had there remained with him only one whom he had not left to relieve', &c.; and (2) 'There were no members of his company (except one) whom he had not left', &c.

XI

Dialect: South Midland.

Inflexions: u for inflexional e, as in knowun a 2, seun a 51, aȝenus a 29, mannus b 114 is found chiefly in West Midland.

Sounds: OE. ā appears regularly as o, oo: more a 7, Hooly a 10, toolde a 65.

OE. y appears as y, i: synne a 61, stiren b 93.

The form þouþ (= þouȝ b 190 probably indicates sound-substitution; and in ynowþȝ (= ynouȝ) b 149 there is wavering between the two forms.

a 12. Wit Sunday: the first element is OE. hwīt 'white', not 'wit'.

a 25 ff. Translations of the Bible were common in France at this time. No less than six fine copies survive from the library of John, Duke of Berry (d. 1416). About the middle of the fourteenth century King John of France ordered a new translation and commentary to be made at the expense of the Jews, but it was never finished, although several scholars were still engaged on it at the end of the century. The early French verse renderings, which incorporate a good deal of mediaeval legend, are described by J. Bonnard, Les Traductions de la Bible en Vers Français au Moyen Âge (Paris 1884); the prose by S. Berger, La Bible Française au Moyen Âge (Paris 1884). Of the surviving manuscripts mentioned in these excellent monographs several were written in England.

a 28 ff. In earlier times, when most of those who could read at all were schooled in Latin, the need for English translations of the Scriptures was not so pressing, and the partial translations that were made were intended rather for the use of the clergy and their noble patrons than for the people. Bede (d. 735) completed a rendering of St. John's Gospel on his death-bed. Old English versions of the Gospels and the Psalms still survive. Abbot Aelfric (about A.D. 1000) translated the first five books of the Old Testament; and more than one Middle English version of the Psalms is known. Wiclif was perhaps unaware of the Old English precedents because French renderings became fashionable in England from the twelfth century onwards, and he would probably think of the Psalter more as a separate service book than as an integral part of the Bible. But the prologue to the Wiclifite version attributed to John Purvey quotes the example of Bede and King Alfred; and the Dialogue on Translation which, in Caxton's print, serves as preface to Trevisa's translation of Higden, emphasizes the Old English precedents. Both may be read in Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, ed. A. W. Pollard, London 1903, pp. 193 ff. The attitude of the mediaeval Church towards vernacular translations of the Bible has been studied very fully by Miss M. Deanesly, The Lollard Bible and other Medieval Biblical Versions, Cambridge 1920.

a 34. þe pley of Ȝork. The York Paternoster Play has not survived, but there are records from 1389 of a Guild of the Lord's Prayer at York, whose main object was the production of the play. It seems to have been an early example of the moral play, holding up 'the vices to scorn and the virtues to praise', and it probably consisted of several scenes, each exhibiting one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The last recorded representation was in 1572. See Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, vol. ii, p. 154. The association of the friars with the production of religious plays is confirmed by other writings of the time. They were quick to realize the value of dramatic representation as a means of gaining favour with the people, and their encouragement must be reckoned an important factor in the development of the Miracle Play.

a 51. wher, 'whether'; cp. b 207. In ll. 197, 266, 274, it introduces a direct question; see note to V 118.

b 20. Gregory, Gregory the Great. See his work In Primum Regum Expositiones, Bk. iii, c. 28: praedicatores autem Sanctae Ecclesiae... prophetae ministerio utuntur (Migne, Patrologia, vol. lxxix, col. 158).

b 44. <God>. Such omissions from the Corpus MS. are supplied throughout from the copy in Trinity College, Dublin, MS. C. III. 12.

b 79-80. Cp. Luke xxi. 36 and 1 Thessalonians v. 17.

b 89-91. Proverbs xxviii. 9.

b 126. as Ambrose: In 386 St. Ambrose, besieged in the Portian Church at Milan by Arian sectaries, kept his followers occupied and in good heart by introducing the Eastern practice of singing hymns and antiphons. See St. Augustine's Confessions Bk. ix, c. 7.

b 131-2. placebo. Vespers of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, Placebo Domino in regione vivorum (Psalm cxiv. 9).

dirige. Matins of the Dead, named from the first word of the antiphon, Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam (Psalm v. 9). Hence our word dirge.

comendacion: an office in which the souls of the dead are commended to God.

matynes of Oure Lady: one of the services in honour of the Virgin introduced in the Middle Ages.

The whole question of these accretions to the Church services is dealt with by our English master in liturgical study, the late Mr. Edmund Bishop, in his essay introductory to the Early English Text Society's edition of the Prymer, since reprinted with additional notes in his Liturgica Historica (Oxford 1918), pp. 211 ff.

b 137 f. deschaunt, countre note, and orgon, and smale brekynge. The elaboration of the Church services in mediaeval times was accompanied by a corresponding enrichment of the music. To the plain chant additional parts were joined, sung in harmony either above or below the plain chant. Descant usually means the addition of a part above, organ and countre-note (= counterpoint) the addition of parts either above or below. All these could be composed note for note with the plain chant. But smale brekyng represents a further complication, whereby the single note in the plain chant was represented by two or more notes in the accompanying parts.

b 140 f. The abuse is referred to in Piers Plowman:

and by Chaucer in his description of the Parson:

b 183. Ordynalle of Salisbury. An 'ordinal' is a book showing the order of church services and ceremonies. In mediaeval times there was considerable divergence in the usage of different churches. But after the Conquest, and more especially in the thirteenth century, there was developed at Salisbury Cathedral an elaborate order and form of service which spread to most of the English churches of any pretensions. This was called 'Sarum' or 'Salisbury' use.

b 209. þei demen it dedly synne a prest to fulfille, &c. For this construction, cp. Chaucer, Prologue 502 No wonder is a lewed man to ruste; Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, V.. iv. 108 f. It is the lesser blot... Women to change their shapes, &c. The same construction, where we now insert for, is seen in Gawayne (v. 352-3) hit were a wynne huge... a leude, þat couþe, to luf hom wel, &c.

b 221-3. 'They say that a priest may be excused from saying mass, to be the substance of which God gave Himself, provided that he hears one.'

b 228 f. newe costy portos, antifeners, graielis, and alle oþere bokis. Portos, French porte hors, represents Latin portiforium, a breviary convenient for 'carrying out of doors'. The antifener contained the antiphons, responses, &c., necessary for the musical service of the canonical hours. The graiel, or gradual, was so called from the gradual responses, sung at the steps of the altar, or while the deacon ascended the steps of the pulpit: but the book actually contained all the choral service of the Mass.

b 230. makynge of biblis. Wiclif in his Office of Curates (ed. Matthew, p. 145) complains of the scarcity of bibles. But fewe curatis han þe Bible and exposiciouns of þe Gospelis, and litel studien on hem, and lesse donne after hem. But wolde God þat euery parische chirche in þis lond hadde a good Bible! &c.

b 234. At this time books, especially illuminated books, were very dear. The Missal of Westminster Abbey, which is now shown in the Chapter-house, was written in 1382-4 at a cost of £34 14s. 7d.—a great sum in those days, for the scribe, Thomas Preston, who took two years to write it, received only £4 for his labour, 20s. for his livery, and board at the rate of 21s. 8d. the half year. The inscription in British Museum MS. Royal 19 D. II, a magnificently illustrated Bible with commentary, shows that it was captured at Poitiers with King John of France, and bought by the Earl of Salisbury for 100 marks (about £66). Edward III gave the same sum to a nun of Amesbury for a rich book of romance. In France John, Duke of Berry, paid as much as £200 for a breviary, and the appraisement of his library in 1416 shows a surprisingly high level of values (L. Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits, vol. iii, pp. 171 ff.). These were luxurious books. The books from the chapel of Archbishop Bowet of York (d. 1423) sold more reasonably: £8 for a great antiphonar and £6 13s. 4d. pro uno libro vocato 'Bibill', were the highest prices paid; and from his library there were some fascinating bargains: 4s. for a small copy of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis; 5s. pro uno libro vocato 'Johannes Andrewe', vetere et debili, which would probably turn out to be a dry work on the Decretals; and 3s. 4d. for a nameless codex, vetere et caduco, 'old and falling to pieces'. (Historians of the Church of York, ed. J. Raine, vol. iii, pp. 311, 315.)

But the failing activity of the monastic scriptoria, and the formation of libraries by the friars and by rich private collectors, made study difficult for students at the universities, where at this time a shilling per week—a third of the price of Bowet's most dilapidated volume—was reckoned enough to cover the expenses of a scholar living plainly. The college libraries were scantily supplied: books were lent only in exchange for a valuable pledge; or even pawned, in hard times, by the colleges themselves.

These conditions were not greatly improved until printing gave an easy means of duplication, and for a time caused the humble manuscripts in which most of the mediaeval vernacular literature was preserved to be treated as waste paper. As late as the eighteenth century Martène found the superb illuminated manuscripts left by John, Duke of Berry, to the Sainte Chapelle at Bourges serving as roosting places to their keeper's hens (Voyage Littéraire, Paris 1717, pt. i, p. 29).

b 261-3. The reference is to Acts vi. 2, 'It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.'

b 266. wisere þan. After these words the Corpus MS. (p. 170, col. i, l. 34 mid.), without any warning, goes on to the closing passage of an entirely unrelated 'Petition to the King and Parliament'. By way of compensation, the end of our sermon appears at the close of the Petition. Clearly the scribe (or some one of his predecessors) copied without any regard for the sense from a MS. of which the leaves had become disarranged.

b 285. Cp. Acts iii. 6.

XII

Dialect: London (SE. Midland) with Kentish features.

Inflexions:

Unaccented final -e is treated as in Chaucer, having its full value in the verse when it represents an inflexion or final vowel in Old English or Old French, e.g.

Sounds: e appears as in Kentish for OE. y: hell 'hill' a 65, 79, 86; keste 'kissed' a 178; note the rimes unschette: lette a 71-2; pet 'pit': let b 9-10; and less decisive pet: knet (OE. knyttan) b 29-30, 53-4; dreie: beie b 23-4.

Spelling: ie represents close ẹ̄: flietende a 157, hier b 34; diemed b 216.

Syntax: The elaborate machinery of sentence connexion deserves special attention; and many turns of phrase are explained by Gower's fluency in French.

a 1. Gower follows Ovid, Metamorphoses, Bk. xi. Chaucer tells the story of Ceix and Alcyone in his Death of Blanche the Duchess, ll. 62 ff. This is presumably the early work to which the Man of Law refers:

Gower's rendering is the more poetical.

a 2. Trocinie. Ovid's Trachinia tellus, so called from the city of Trachis, north-west of Thermopylae.

a 23. As he which wolde go: otiose, or at best meaning no more than 'desiring to go'. Cp. b 25 As he which hadde = 'having' simply; and similarly b 37, 203. It is an imitation of a contemporary French idiom comme celui qui.

a 26. and: the displacement of the conjunction from its natural position at the beginning of the clause is characteristic of Gower's verse. Cp. l. 152 Upon the morwe and up sche sterte = 'and in the morning she got up', and a 45, 49, b 121, 124, 135, 160, 182. See notes to ll. 32, 78 f.

a 32. Editors put a comma after wepende, and no stop after seileth: but it is Alceoun who weeps. The displacement of and is exemplified in the notes to l. 26 and ll. 78 f.

a 37. 'One had not to look for grief'; a regular formula of understatement, meaning 'her grief was great'.

a 53. Hire reyny cope, &c.: the rainbow, which was the sign or manifestation of Iris.

a 59 ff.

Much of the poetry of Gower's description is due to Ovid.

a 78 f. Editors put no stop after may and a comma after hell. Hence The New English Dictionary quotes this passage as an isolated instance of noise, transitive, meaning 'disturb with noise'. But noise is intransitive, hell is governed by aboute round, and the position of bot is abnormal as in l. 105. Cp. notes to ll. 26, 32, and render 'But all round about the hill'.

a 105. For the word order see notes to ll. 26, 32, 78 f.

a 117. The lif, 'the man', cp. IV a 43.

a 118. Ithecus: for Icelos. According to Ovid 'Icelos' was the name by which he was known to the gods, but men called him 'Phobetor'.

a 123. Panthasas: Ovid's Phantasos.

a 152. See note to l. 26.

a 197. The halcyon, usually identified with the kingfisher, was supposed to build a floating nest on the sea in midwinter, and to have power to calm the winds and waves at that season, bringing 'halcyon weather'.

b 2. I finde. Matthew Paris in his Chronica Maiora (ed. Luard, Rolls Series, vol. ii, pp. 413 ff.) gives a similar story, which, he says, King Richard the First often told to rebuke ingratitude. In this version, Vitalis of Venice falls into a pit dug as a trap for wild beasts. The rescued animals are a lion and a serpent; the rescuer is nameless, and the gem given to him by the serpent has not the magic virtue of returning whenever sold. Nearer to Gower is the story told in Nigel Wireker's Speculum Stultorum, a late twelfth-century satire in Latin verse, which, from the name of its principal character Burnellus the Ass, who is ambitious to have a longer tail, is sometimes called Burnellus; cp. Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale, l. 492:

The poem is printed in T. Wright's Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century (Rolls Series, 1872), vol. i. At the end the Ass returns disappointed to his master Bernardus (= Bardus). Bernardus, when gathering wood, hears Dryanus (= Adrian), a rich citizen of Cremona, call from a pit for help. The rescued animals are a lion, a serpent, and an ape. The gem given by the serpent in token of gratitude always returns to Bernardus, who, with more honesty than Gower's poor man shows, takes it back to the buyer. The fame of the marvellous stone reaches the king; his inquiries bring to light the whole story; and Dryanus is ordered to give half his goods to Bernardus.

Gower probably worked on a later modification of Nigel's story.

b 86. blessed, 'crossed (himself)'.

b 89. Betwen him and his asse, i.e. pulling together with the ass. The ass is, of course, the distinguished Burnellus.

b 116. his ape: for this ape (?).

b 191. Justinian, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (d. 565), was best known for his codification of the Roman Law, and so is named here as the type of a lawgiver.

XIII

Dialect: South-Western, with some Midland forms.

Inflexions:

Sounds: There is no instance of v for initial f, which is evidenced in the spelling of early South-Western writers like Robert of Gloucester (about 1300), or of z for initial s, which is less commonly shown in spelling. u for OE. y occurs in hulles 'hills' a 18 (beside bysynes b 24, where Modern English has u in spelling but i in pronunciation; and lift (OE. lyft) b 39, where Modern English has the South-Eastern form left).

a 2-3. Mayster... Minerua... hys: Trevisa appears to have understood 'Minerva' as the name of a god.

a 6-49. Higden took all this passage from Book i of the twelfth-century Annals of Alfred of Beverley (ed. Hearne, pp. 6-7). The Polychronicon is a patchwork of quotations from earlier writers.

a 7. Pectoun. Higden has ad Peccum, and Alfred of Beverley in monte qui vocatur Pec, i.e. The Peak of Derbyshire. cc and ct are not distinguishable in some hands of the time, and Trevisa has made Peccum into Pectoun.

a 14. Cherdhol. Hearne's text of Alfred of Beverley has Cherole; Henry of Huntingdon (about 1150), who gives the same four marvels in his Historia Anglorum, has Chederhole; and on this evidence the place has been identified with Cheddar in Somerset, where there are famous caves.

a 22. an egle hys nest: cp. b 23 a child hys brouch. This construction has two origins: (1) It is a periphrasis for the genitive, especially in the case of masculine and neuter proper names which had no regular genitive in English; (2) It is an error arising from false manuscript division of the genitive suffix -es, -is, from its stem.

a 36. <þat> here and in l. 52 is inserted on the evidence of the other MSS. Syntactically its omission is defensible, for the suppressed relative is a common source of difficulty in Middle English; see the notes to V 4-6, 278-9; X 146; XIV c 54; XVII 66.

a 50. Wynburney. Wimborne in Dorset. Here St. Cuthburga founded a nunnery, which is mentioned in one of Aldhelm's letters as early as A.D. 705. The information that it is 'not far from Bath', which is hardly accurate, was added by Higden to the account of the marvel he found in the Topographia Hibernica of Giraldus Cambrensis (vol. v, p. 86 of the Rolls Series edition of his works).

a 54-64. Higden took this passage from Giraldus, Itinerarium Cambriae, Bk. ii, c. 11 (vol. vi, p. 139 of the Rolls edition).

a 60-1. be at here aboue, 'be over them', 'have the upper hand'.

a 63. Pimbilmere: the English name for Lake Bala.

b 6-7. þe Flemmynges. The first settlement of Flemings in Pembrokeshire took place early in the twelfth century, and in 1154, Henry II, embarrassed alike by the turbulence of the Welsh, and of the new host of Flemish mercenaries who had come in under Stephen, encouraged a further settlement. They formed a colony still distinguishable from the surrounding Welsh population.

b 11-12. The threefold division of the English according to their Continental origin dates back to Bede's Ecclesiastical History. But the areas settled by Bede's three tribes do not correspond to Southern, Northern, and Midland. The Jutes occupied Kent, whence the South-Eastern dialect; the Saxons occupied the rest of the South, whence the South-Western dialect; and the Angles settled in the Midlands and the North; so that the Midland and Northern dialects are both Anglian, and derive from the same Continental tribe or tribal group.

b 26. þe furste moreyn: the Black Death of 1349. There were fresh outbreaks of plague in 1362, 1369, 1376.

b 26-42. The bracketed passage is an addition by Trevisa himself, and is of primary importance for the history of English and of English education. See the valuable article by W. H. Stevenson in An English Miscellany Presented to Dr. Furnivall, pp. 421 ff.

b 27-8. Iohan Cornwal, a mayster of gramere. A 'master of grammar' was a licensed teacher of grammar. Mr. Stevenson points out that in 1347-8 John of Cornwall received payment from Merton College, Oxford, for teaching the boys of the founder's kin. His countryman Trevisa probably had personal knowledge of his methods of teaching.

b 39-40. and a scholle passe þe se, 'if they should cross the sea'.

b 47-8. The bracketed words are introduced by Trevisa.

b 50 f. and ys gret wondur: and is superfluous and should perhaps be deleted.

b 58-65. Though still often quoted as a fourteenth-century witness to the pronunciation of Northern English (e.g. by K. Luick, Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache, 1914, pp. 40 f.), this passage, as Higden acknowledges, comes from the Prologue to Book iii of William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, completed in the year 1125: see the Rolls Series edition, p. 209.

XIV

a 2. Bannokburn. Minot's subject is not so much the defeat of the English at Bannockburn in 1314, as the English victory at Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333, which he regards as a vengeance for Bannockburn.

a 7. Saint Iohnes toune: Perth, so called from its church of St. John the Baptist. It was occupied by the English in 1332 after the defeat of the Scots at Dupplin Moor.

a 13. Striflin, 'Stirling'.

a 15. Hall suggests that this refers to Scotch raids on the North of England undertaken to distract Edward III from the siege of Berwick.

a 19 f. Rughfute riueling... Berebag: nicknames for the Scots, the first because they wore brogues (riuelings) of rough hide; the second because, to allow of greater mobility, each man carried his own bag of provisions instead of relying on a baggage train.

a 22. Brig = Burghes l. 25, 'Bruges'. At this time Scots, English, and French had all close connexions with the Netherlands. Observe that John Crab, who aided the Scots in the defence of Berwick (note to X 15), was a Fleming.

a 35. at Berwik. Berwick fell as a result of the battle of Halidon Hill which the Scots fought with the object of raising the siege. For an earlier siege of Berwick, in 1319, see No. X.

a 36. get, 'watch', 'be on the look out' (ON. gǽta).

b 5-6. Calais was at this time a convenient base for piracy in the Channel.

b 19. A bare: Edward III, whom Minot often refers to as 'the boar'.

b 24-6. In preparation for the long siege Edward III had built a regular camp beside Calais.

b 32. Sir Philip. Philip de Valois, Philip VI of France (1293-1350). His son, John Duke of Normandy (1319-64), who succeeded him in 1350, is of good memory as a lover of fine books. Two are mentioned in the notes to XI a 25 ff. and XI b 234. A splendid copy of the Miracles de Notre Dame, preserved until recently in the Seminary Library at Soissons, seems also to have been captured with his baggage at Poitiers, for it was bought back from the English by King Charles V. Another famous book produced by his command was the translation of Livy by Bersuire, with magnificent illuminations. The spirit of the collector was not damped by his captivity in England from 1356-60, for his account books show that he continued to employ binders and miniaturists, to encourage original composition, and to buy books, especially books of romance. See Notes et Documents relatifs à Jean, Roi de France, &c., ed. by Henry of Orleans, Duc d'Aumale (Philobiblon Soc., London 1855-6).

b 40. þe Cardinales. Pope Clement VI had sent cardinals Annibale Ceccano bishop of Frascati, and Etienne Aubert, who became Pope Innocent VI in 1352, to arrange a peace between France and England. But the English were suspicious of the Papal court at Avignon, and accused the cardinals of favouring the French cause.

b 82. Sir Iohn de Viene. Jean de Vienne, seigneur de Pagny (d. 1351), a famous captain in the French wars.

c 5 f. 'They (friends) are so slippery when put to the test, so eager to have <for themselves>, and so unwilling to give up <to others>.'

c 14. And, 'if'.

c 47. King John of France was captured at Poitiers in 1356 and held in England as a prisoner until the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. See note to XIV b 32.

c 54. Note the omission of the relative: 'which recked not a cleat for all France', and cp. ll. 43-4, XIII a 36 (note).

c 59. his helm, 'its helm'—the bar by which the rudder was moved.

c 61. 'The King sailed and rowed aright'; on him, see note to XV g 24.

c 83. An ympe: Richard II.

c 90. sarri: not in the dictionaries in this sense, is probably OFr. serré, sarré, in the developed meaning 'active', 'vigorous', seen in the adv. sarréement.

c 103-4. 'If we are disloyal and inactive, so that what is rarely seen is straightway forgotten.'

c 108. 'Who was the fountain of all courage.'

c 111. los, 'fame'.

d 1. SCHEP: here means 'shepherd', 'pastor', a name taken by Ball as appropriate to a priest.

Seynte Marie prest of Ȝork, 'priest of St. Mary's of York' (cp. note to I 44), a great Benedictine abbey founded soon after the Conquest; see Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. iii, pp. 529 ff. Marie does not take the s inflexion, because it has already the Latin genitive form, cp. Mary-ȝet X 163.

d 2. Iohan Nameles, 'John Nobody', for nameless has the sense 'obscure', 'lowly'.

d 6. Hobbe þe Robbere. Hob is a familiar form for Robert, and it has been suggested that Hobbe þe Robbere may refer to Robert Hales, the Treasurer of England, who was executed by the rebels in 1381. But Robert was a conventional name for a robber, presumably owing to the similarity of sound. Already in the twelfth century, Mainerus, the Canterbury scribe of the magnificent Bible now in the library of Sainte-Geneviève at Paris, plays upon it in an etymological account of his family: Secundus (sc. frater meus) dicebatur Robertus, quia a re nomen habuit: spoliator enim diu fuit et praedo. From the fourteenth century lawless men were called Roberts men. In Piers Plowman Passus v (A- and B-texts) there is a confession of 'Robert the Robber'; and the literary fame of the prince of highwaymen, 'Robin Hood', belongs to this period.

d 14. do wel and bettre: note this further evidence of the popularity of Piers Plowman, with its visions of Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest.

XV

a 8. Þe clot him clingge! 'May the clay cling to him!' i.e. 'Would he were dead!'

a 12. Þider: MS. Yider, and conversely MS. Þiif 23 for Yiif 'if'. y and þ are endlessly confused by scribes.

b 1. Lenten ys come... to toune. In the Old English Metrical Calendar phrases like cymeð... us to tune Martius reðe, 'fierce March comes to town', are regular. The meaning is 'to the dwellings of men', 'to the world'.

b 3. Þat: construe with Lenten.

b 7. him þreteþ, 'chides', 'wrangles' (ON. þrǽta?). See the thirteenth-century debate of The Thrush and the Nightingale (Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. i, pp. 241 ff.), of which the opening lines are closely related to this poem.

b 11. Ant wlyteþ on huere wynter wele, 'and look at their winter happiness (?)'. This conflicts with huere wynter wo above; and the explanation that the birds have forgotten the hardships of the past winter and recall only its pleasures is forced. Holthausen's emendation wynne wele 'wealth of joys' (cp. l. 35) is good.

b 20. Miles: a crux. It has been suggested without much probability that miles means 'animals' from Welsh mīl.

b 28. Deawes donkeþ þe dounes. Of the suggestions made to improve the halting metre the best is þise for þe. The poet is thinking of the sparkle of dew in the morning sun; cp. Sir Gawayne 519 f.:

b 29-30. 'Animals with their cries (rounes) unmeaning to us (derne), whereby they converse (domes for te deme).' For the weakened sense of deme (domes) see note to V 115.

c 30. Wery so water in wore: the restless lover (l. 21) has tossed all night like the troubled waters in a wore; cp. I wake so water in wore in another lyric of the same MS. It has been suggested that wore = Old High German wuor 'weir'; but the rimes in both passages show that the stem is OE. wār, not wōr.

d 2. the holy londe: because Ireland was par excellence 'the Land of the Saints'.

f. I am obliged to Professor Carleton Brown for the information that this poem is found, with two additional stanzas, in MS. 18. 7. 21 of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; and that the full text will be published shortly in his Religious Lyrics of the Fourteenth Century.

f 4. bere (OE. bȳr) riming with fere (OE. (ge)fēra) indicates a South-Eastern composition.

g 1. Scere Þorsday: Maundy Thursday, the eve of Good Friday.

g 1-2. aros: Iudas: the alternative form aras may have given the rime in the original, but it is not justifiable to accept this as certain and so to assume an early date of composition for the poem. Morsbach, ME. Grammatik, § 135, n. 4, quotes a number of parallel rimes with proper names, and the best explanation is that o in aros still represented a sound intermediate between ā and ǭ, and so served as an approximate rime to ā̆ in proper names.

g 6. cunesmen: as c and t are hard to distinguish in some ME. hands, and are often confused by copyists, this reading is more likely than tunesmen of the editors—Wright-Halliwell, Mätzner, Child, Cook (and N. E. D. s.v. townsman). For (1) tunesman is a technical, not a poetical word. (2) In a poem remarkable for its terseness, tunesmen reduces a whole line to inanity, unless the poet thinks of Judas quite precisely as a citizen of a town other than Jerusalem; and in the absence of any Biblical tradition it is unlikely that a writer who calls Pilate þe riche Ieu would gratuitously assume that Judas was not a citizen of Jerusalem, where his sister lived. (3) Christ's words are throughout vaguely prophetic, and as Judas forthwith imette wid is soster—one of his kin—cunesmen gives a pregnant sense. [I find the MS. actually has cunesmen, but leave the note, lest tunesmen might appear to be better established.]

g 8. The repetition of ll. 8, 25, 30 is indicated in the MS. by 'ii' at the end of each of these lines, which is the regular sign for bis.

g 16. 'He tore his hair until it was bathed in blood.' The MS. has top, not cop.

g 24. In him com ur Lord gon. In the MS. c'ist = Crist has been erased after Lord. Note (1) the reflexive use of him, which is very common in OE. and ME. with verbs of motion, e.g. Up him stod 27, 29; Þau Pilatus him com 30; Als I me rode XV a 4; The Kyng him rod XIV c 61; cp. the extended use ar þe coc him crowe 33, and notes to II 289, V 86: (2) the use of the infinitive (gon) following, and usually defining the sense of, a verb of motion, where Modern English always, and ME. commonly (e.g. ȝede karoland I 117; com daunceing II 298), uses the pres. p.: 'Our Lord came walking in'.

g 27. am I þat? 'Is it I?', the interrogative form of ich hit am or ich am hit. The editors who have proposed to complete the line by adding wrech, have missed the sense. The original rime was þet: spec, cp. note to I 240.

g 30. cnistes: for cniste = cnihte representing the OE. gen. pl. cnihta. On the forms meist 6, heiste 18, eiste 20, bitaiste 21, iboust 26, miste 29, cnistes 30, fiste 31, all with st for OE. ht, see Appendix § 6 end.

h 17-18. Difficult. Perhaps 'The master smith lengthens a little piece [sc. of hot iron], and hammers a smaller piece, twines the two together, and strikes [with his hammer] a treble note'.

h 21-2. cloþemerys... brenwaterys: not in the dictionaries, but both apparently nonce names for the smiths: they 'clothe horses' (for by the end of the fourteenth century a charger carried a good deal of armour and harness), and 'burn water' (when they temper the red-hot metal).

i 4. Þat: dat. rel. 'to whom'; cp. VI 64. But lowte is sometimes transitive 'to reverence'.

i 6. This line, at first sight irrelevant, supplies both rime and doctrine. See in Chaucer's Preface to his Tale of Melibeus the passage ending:

An erased t after Awangelys in the MS. shows that the scribe wavered between Awangelys 'Gospels' and Awangelystes.

i 7. Sent Geretrude: Abbess of Nivelle (d. 659), commemorated on March 17. She is appropriately invoked, for one or more rats make her emblem.

i 11. Sent Kasi. I cannot trace this saint, or his acts against the rats. But parallels are not wanting. St. Ivor, an Irish saint, banished rats from his neighbourhood per imprecationem because they gnawed his books; and the charm-harassed life of an Irish rat was still proverbial in Shakespeare's day: 'I was never so berhymed' says Rosalind (As You Like It, III. ii) 'since Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat'. In the South of France the citizens of Autun trusted more to the processes of the law, and brought a suit against the rats which ended in a victory for the defendants because the plaintiffs were unable to guarantee them safe conduct to the court (see Chambers, Book of Days, under Jan. 17). Even in such little things the Normans showed their practical genius:—A friend chancing to meet St. Lanfranc by the way inquired the cause of the strange noises that came from a bag he was carrying: 'We are terribly plagued with mice and rats', explained the good man, 'and so, to put down their ravages, I am bringing along a cat' (Mures et rati valde nobis sunt infesti, et idcirco nunc affero catum ad comprimendum furorem illorum). Acta Sanctorum for May 28, p. 824.

XVI

Dialect: Yorkshire.

Inflexions:

Sounds: ā remains in rimes: are: care 345-7, waa: gloria 406-8, lawe: knawe 313-15, moste (for māste): taste 358-60; but ō̮ is also proved for the original in restore: euermore: were (for wǭre): before 13 ff.

Spelling: In fois (= fǭs) 30, the spelling with i indicates vowel length.

17. were: rime requires the alternative form wǭre.

39. Foure thowsande and sex hundereth ȝere. I do not know on what calculation the writer changes 5,500, which is the figure in the Greek and Latin texts of the Gospel of Nicodemus, in the French verse renderings, and the ME. poem Harrowing of Hell. Cp. l. 354.

40. in þis stedde: the rimes hadde: gladde: sadde point to the Towneley MS. reading in darknes stad, 'set in darkness', as nearer the original, which possibly had in þister(nes) stad.

49. we: read ȝe (?). For what follows cp. Isaiah ix. 1-2.

59. puplisshid: the rime with Criste shows that the pronunciation was puplist. Similarly, abasshed: traste 177-9. In French these words have -ss-, which normally becomes -sh- in English. It is hard to say whether -ss- remained throughout in Northern dialects, or whether the development was OFr. -ss- ≻ ME. -sh- ≻ Northern -ss- (notes to I 128, VII 4).

62. þis: read His (?) frendis: here 'relatives', 'parents' (ON. frǽndi); see Luke ii. 27.

65-8. Luke ii. 29-32.

73-82. Matthew iii. 13-17, &c.

75. hande: the rime requires the Norse plural hend as at l. 400; cp. XVII 255, IV a 65 (Footnote).

86 ff. Cp. Matthew xvii. 3 ff., Mark ix. 2 ff.

113. Astrotte: cp. 2 Kings xxiii. 13 'Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians'. I cannot identify Anaball among the false gods.

115. Bele-Berit: Judges viii. 33 'the children of Israel... made Baal-Berith their god'. For Belial see 2 Cor. vi. 15.

122-4. A common misrendering for 'Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors', Psalm xxiv. 7.

125 ff. postulate a preceding et introibit rex glorię, which the writer has not been able to work into the frame of his verse.

128. a kyng of vertues clere = dominus virtutum, rendered 'Lord of Hosts' in Psalm xxiv. 10.

154-6. ware: ferre: the rime indicates some corruption. ware probably stands for werre 'worse'. The Towneley MS. has or it be war.

162. John xi.

165. John xiii. 27.

171 ff. 'And know he won away Lazarus, who was given to us to take charge of, do you think that you can hinder him from showing the powers that he has purposed (to show)?' But it is doubtful whether what is a true relative. Rather 'from showing his powers—those he has purposed (to show)'.

188. I prophicied: MS. of prophicie breaks the rime scheme.

190. Psalm cvii. 16 'For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.'

205 ff. The rimes saide: braide: ferde: grathed are bad. For the last two read flaide = 'terrified', and graid, a shortened form of graithed.

208. and we wer moo, 'if we were more', 'even if there were more of us'.

220. as my prisoune might be taken closely with here: 'in this place as my prison'. The Towneley MS. has in for as. Better would be prisoune<s> 'prisoners'.

240. wolle: read wille for the rime.

241. God<ys> sonne: MS. God sonne might be defended as parallel to the instances in the note to XVII 88.

256. Apparently, 'you argue his men in the mire', i.e. if Jesus is God's Son, the souls should remain in hell because God put them there. But the text may be corrupt.

267 ff. Cp. Ezekiel xxxi. 16, &c.

281 ff. Salamon saide: Proverbs ii. 18-19 taken with vii. 27 and ix. 18. It was hotly disputed in the Middle Ages whether Solomon himself was still in hell. Dante, Paradiso, x. 110, informs a world eager for tidings that he is in Paradise: but Langland declares Ich leyue he be in helle (C-text, iv. 330); and, more sweepingly, coupling him with Aristotle: Al holy chirche holden hem in helle (A-text, xi. 263).

285-8. Perhaps a gloss on Job xxxvi. 18 'Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.'

301. menys, the reading of the Towneley MS. is better than mouys, which appears to be a copyist's error due to the similarity of n and u, e and o, in the handwriting of the time.

308. Judas hanged himself, according to Matthew xxvii. 3-5; Acts i. 18 gives a different account of his end. Archedefell: Ahithophel who hanged himself (2 Samuel xvii. 23) after the failure of his plot against David.

309. Datan and Abiron: see Numbers xvi.

313-16. 'And all who do not care to learn my law (which I have left in the land newly, and which is to make known my Coming), and to go to my Sacrament, and those who will not believe in my Death and my Resurrection read in order—they are not true.'

338. þou bus, 'you ought'; bus, a Northern contracted form of behoves, is here used as a personal verb, where þe bus, 'it behoves thee', is normal. See note to XVII 196.

360. moste: read maste to rime with taste.

371. Of þis comyng: the Towneley MS. reading of Thi commyng is possible.

378-80: Corrupt. The copy from which the extant MS. was made seems to have been indistinct here. The Towneley MS. has:

which is more intelligible and nearer Psalm xvi. 10:

405. louyng: 'praise', cp. IV a 24 (note).

XVII

Dialect: Late Yorkshire.

Vocabulary: Northern are then 108 (note), and at 'to' 235.

Inflexions:

Sounds: OE. ā appears as ǭ in rime: old: cold: mold (OE. móld) 60-2, and probably dold: old 266-70; sore: store: therfor: more 91-4; but elsewhere remains ā, e.g. draw (OE. drăgan): knaw 245-6. The spelling with o is the commoner.

See notes on emong 400; grufe 463.

Spelling: Note the Northern spellings with i, y following a vowel to indicate length: moyne 'moon' 6, bayle 'bale' 26, leyde = lede 48; and conversely farest 'fairest' 79, fath 'faith' 330.

The maritime associations of the play of Noah made it a special favourite with the Trinity House guild of master mariners and pilots at Hull; and some of their records of payments for acting and equipment are preserved, although the text of their play is lost (Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, vol. ii, pp. 370-1):

10. is: read es for the rime. Cp. note to I 128-9.

42. and sythen: MS. in sythen. Cp. note to VI 36.

49. syn: 3 pl. because euery liffyng leyde is equivalent to a plural subject 'all men'.

52. coueteis: MS. couetous.

56. alod: a shortened form of allowed, apparently on the analogy of such words as lead infin., led pa. t. and pp. For a parallel see note to I 254-5.

57. Sex hundreth yeris and od: the od thrown in to rime, as Noah was exactly 600 years old according to Genesis vii. 6.

66. and my fry shal with me fall: 'and the children <that> I may have' (?).

88. for syn sake: 'because of sin'. Until modern times a genitive preceding sake usually has no s, e.g. for goodness sake. The genitive of sin historically had no s (OE. synne), but the omission in a Northern text is due rather to euphony than to survival of an old genitive form. Cp. for tempest sake I 177.

108. then: 'nor', a rare Northern usage, which is treated as an error here in England and Pollard's text, though it occurs again at l. 535. Conversely nor is used dialectally for than.

109. Hym to mekill wyn: 'to his great happiness'.

137. take: 'make', and so in l. 272.

167-71. knowe: awe. The rime requires knāwe or ǭwe.

191. 'The worse <because> I see thee.'

196. what thou thynk: 'what seems to you best', 'what you like'; thou thynk for thee thynk—the verb being properly impersonal; see notes to XVI 338 and VI 192.

200. Stafford blew: from the context this line might mean 'you are a scaremonger', for blue is the recognized colour of fear, and it might be supposed that 'Stafford blue' represents a material like 'Lincoln green'. But Mätzner is certainly right in interpreting the line 'you deserve a beating'. Stafford blew would then be the livid colour produced by blows. The reference, unless there is a play on staff, is obscure.

202. led: 'treated'.

211. sory: the rime requires sary.

220. Mary: the later marry! = 'by (the Virgin) Mary!' cp. l. 226. So Peter! 367 = 'by St. Peter!'

246. to knaw: 'to confess'.

247-8. daw to ken: 'to be recognized as stupid', 'a manifest fool'.

272. castell: note the rime with sayll: nayll: fayll, which may be due to suffix substitution on the analogy of catail beside catel 'cattle'. For take see note to 137.

281. chambre: the rime points to a by-form chamb(o)ur, but the uninflected form is awkward. Cp. thre chese chambres 'three tiers of chambers' 129, where the construction is the same as the obsolete three pair gloves.

289-92. Read lider, hider, togider.

292. must vs: cp. l. 334 and note to VI 192.

298. 'There is other yarn on the reel', i.e. there is other business on hand.

320. brether sam: 'brothers both'. Some editors prefer to read brother Sam 'brother Shem'.

336 ff. Chaucer refers to the quarrels of Noah and his wife in the Miller's Tale (ll. 352 ff.):—

The tradition is old. In the splendid tenth-century Bodleian MS. Junius 11, which contains the so-called Caedmon poems, a picture of the Ark shows Noah's wife standing at the foot of the gangway, and one of her sons trying to persuade her to come in.

370. Yei is defensible; cp. l. 353. Þe 'the' has been suggested.

383. Wat Wynk: an alliterative nick-name like Nicholl Nedy in l. 405.

400. emong: OE. gemang, here rimes as in Modern English with u (OE. iung: tunge: lungen), cp. note to VI 109 ff.; but in ll. 244-7 it rimes with lang: fang: gang—all with original a.

417. <floodis>. Some such word is missing in the MS. Cp. ll. 454 f. and 426.

461. How: MS. Now. The correction is due to Professor Child. Initial capitals are peculiarly liable to be miscopied.

463. grufe: a Northern and Scottish form of the verb grow. The sb. ro 'rest' 237 sometimes has a parallel form rufe.

525. stold: for stalled 'fixed'. Note the rime words, which all have alternative forms behald: bald: wald.