Note 1 — PREFACE.
Reading edition
The volume contains other poems besides “Sir Lancelot.”
2 See Mr Lumby’s editions of “Early Scottish Verse” and “Ratis Raving,” both edited for the E.E.T.S. from this MS. Only the latter of these is in the hand-writing of V. de F.
3 This refers to the edition printed in 1865. In executing the present reprint, the proof-sheets have been once more compared with the MS., and a very few insignificant errors have been thus detected and rectified.
4 “As to the Romance of Sir Lancelot, our author [Gower], among others on the subject, refers to a volume of which he was the hero; perhaps that of Robert de Borron, altered soon afterwards by Godefroy de Leigny, under the title of Le Roman de la Charrette, and printed, with additions, at Paris by Antony Verard, in the year 1494.
For if thou wilt the bokes rede Of Launcelot and other mo, Then might thou seen how it was tho Of armes,” etc. (Gower: Confessio Amantis, Book iv.)
Quoted from Warton’s English Poetry, vol. ii., p. 234, ed. 1840. I quote this as bearing somewhat on the subject, though it should be observed that Le Roman de la Charrette is not the same with Lancelot du Lac, but only a romance of the same class. Chaucer also refers to Lancelot in his Nonnes Prestes Tale, l. 392; and it is mentioned in the famous lines of Dante (Inf. v. 127)—
“Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto Di Lancilotto, come amor lo strinse,” &c.
5 He does not necessarily imply that the poet invoked was still alive; and we might almost suppose Petrarch to be meant, who was more proud of his Latin poem called “Africa” than of his odes and sonnets. See Hallam’s Literary History (4 vols.), vol. i., p. 85. But this is pure conjecture.
6 But the French has “Cardueil.” See l. 2153.
7 Tytler’s History of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1841), vol. iv., p. 216.
8 The French text does not say anything about “astronomy.” We may especially note the following lines, as not being in the French, viz., lines 1473-1496, 1523-1542, 1599-1644, 1658-1680, and the long passage 1752-1998.
9 See Appendix.
10 For many valuable remarks upon the dialect of the poem I am indebted to Mr R. Morris.
11 We find the true forms occasionally, as obeisand (641), plesand (1731), thinkand (2173), prekand (3089), and fechtand (3127). Compare the form seruand (122).
12 “The Scottish pronunciation of -ing was already, as it still is, -een; and the writer, knowing that the correct spelling of dwellin, for example, was dwelling, fancied also that fallen, halden (Sc. fallyn, haldyn) were fallyng, haldyng. Lyndesay and Gawain Douglas often do the same. Compare gardinge (l. 50), laiting (l. 327).” —J. A. H. Murray.
13 “The plural in Scottish always ends in -s after a noun or when the verb is separated from its pronoun; we still say the men hes, the bairns sings, them ’at cums, not have, sing, come. Notice the frequent use of th for t, as in l. 497, Presumyth = presumit, presumed, it being presumed.” —J. A. H. Murray. [Or, presumyth may be the pl. imperative, as in Remembrith (l. 797), already noticed. —Ed.]
14 “This ȝis is the common form in the Scottish writers, though ay is largely the modern vernacular.” —J. A. H. Murray.