NOTES.

[The following notes are abridged from the notes in Sir F. Madden’s excellent edition, the abridgement being effected almost entirely by occasional omissions, and with but very slight unimportant changes of a few words, chiefly in the case of references to later editions of various works than were existing in 1828. I have added one or two short notes upon difficult constructions, but these are distinguished by being enclosed within square brackets. —W. W. S.]

9.

This appears to have been a favourite expression of the poet, and to have comprehended, in his idea, the perfection of those qualifications required in a knight and hero. He repeats it, with some slight variation, no less than five times, viz. in ll. 25, 87, 345, 1757, and 1970. The lines, however, are by no means original, but the common property of all our early poetical writers. We find them in Laȝamon:

Laȝamon, vol. i. p. 174.

So also in the Romance of Guy of Warwick:

Coll. Garrick, K. 9. sign. Ll. ii.

Again, in the Continuation of Sir Gy, in the Auchinleck MS., (ed. for the Abbotsford Club, 1840, 4to; p. 266),

And again, in the Chronicle of England, published by Ritson from a copy in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 12. C. XII.

—l. 261.

The very close resemblance of these lines to those in Havelok, ll. 87-90, would induce a belief that the writer of the Chronicle had certainly read, and perhaps copied from, the Romance. The MS. followed by Ritson was undoubtedly written soon after the death of Piers Gaveston, in 1313, with the mention of which event it concludes; but in the Auchinleck copy it is continued, by a later hand, to the minority of Edward III. It only remains to be observed, that the poem in MS. Reg. 12. C. XII. is written by the same identical hand as the MS. Harl. 2253 (containing Kyng Horn, &c.), whence some additional light is thrown on the real age of the latter, respecting which our antiquaries so long differed.

[15. “And I will drink ere I tell my tale.” Her = ere.

19. And wite, &c., i.e. And ordain that it may be so; cf. ll. 517, 1316. Both metre and grammar require the final e.]

31. Erl and barun, dreng and kayn. The appellation of Dreng, and, in the plural, Drenges, which repeatedly occurs in the course of this poem, is uniformly bestowed on a class of men who hold a situation between the rank of Baron and Thayn. We meet with the term more than once in Doomsday Book, as, for instance, in Tit. Cestresc: “Hujus manerii [Neuton] aliam terram xv. hom. quos Drenches vocabant, pro xv. maneriis tenebant.” And in a Charter of that period we read: “Alger Prior, et totus Conventus Ecclesiæ S. Cuthberti, Edwino, et omnibus Teignis et Drengis, &c.” Hence Spelman infers, that the Drengs were military vassals, and held land by knight’s service, which was called Drengagium. This is confirmed by a document from the Chartulary of Welbeck, printed in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. V. II. p. 598, and in Blount, Jocular Tenures, p. 177, where it is stated, “In eadem villa [Cukeney, co. Nottingh.] manebat quidam homo qui vocabatur Gamelbere, et fuit vetus Dreyinghe ante Conquestum.” It appears from the same document, that this person held two carucates of land of the King in capite, and was bound to perform military service for the same, whenever the army went into Wales. In the Epistle also from the Monks of Canterbury to Henry II. printed by Somner, in his Treatise on Gavelkind, p. 123, we find: “Quia vero non erant adhuc tempore Regis Willelmi Milites in Anglia, sed Threnges, præcepit Rex, ut de eis Milites fierent, ad terram defendendam.” In Laȝamon’s translation of Wace the term is frequently used in the acceptation of thayn, and spelt either dringches, drenches, dranches, or dringes. [Cf. Sw. dräng, a man, servant; Dan. dreng, a boy.] In the Isl. and Su. Goth. Dreng originally signified vir fortis, miles strenuus, and hence Olaf, King of Norway, received the epithet of Goddreng. See Wormii Lex. Run. p. 26. Ihre, Vet. Cat. Reg. p. 109. Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic. V. I. p. 156. The term subsequently was applied to persons in a servile condition, and is so instanced by Spelman, as used in Denmark. In this latter sense it may be found in Hickes, Diction. Isl., and in Sir David Lyndsay’s Poems,

V. Pinkerton’s Scotish Poems Reprinted, ii. 97.

V. Jamieson, Dict. in voce.

45.

This insertion receives additional authority from a similar passage in the Romance of Guy of Warwick, where it is mentioned as a proof of the rigorous system of justice pursued by Earl Sigard,

Ellis, Metr. Rom. V. II. p. 9. Ed. 1811.

Many of the traits here attributed to Athelwold appear to be borrowed from the praises so universally bestowed by our ancient historians on the character of King Alfred, in whose time, as Otterbourne writes, p. 52, “armillas aureas in bivio stratas vel suspensas, nemo abripere est ausus.” Cf. Annal. Eccl. Roffens. MS. Cott. Nero, D. II. The same anecdote is related of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, by Guillaume de Jumieges, and Dudon de Saint Quentin.

91. Sprong forth so sparke of glede. Cf. l. 870. It is a very common metaphor in early English poetry.

Laȝamon v. ii. p. 565.

Sir Isumbras, st. 39 (Camd. Soc. 1844)

K. of Tars, l. 194.

Ly Beaus Desconus, l. 623.

Cf. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, l. 13833, and Tyrwhitt’s note.

110. Of his bodi, &c. Compare the French text, l. 208.

[Here Argentille is Goldborough, and Ekenbright answers to Athelwold. This quotation, and others below, shewing the passages of the French text which most nearly resemble the English poem, are from a MS. in the Herald’s College, marked E. D. N. No. 14. See the Preface.]

[118. Wat shal me to rede, lit. what shall be for a counsel to me. See Rede in the Glossary to William of Palerne.

130. And don hem of þar hire were queme, lit. and do them off where it should be agreeable to her; i.e. and keep men at a distance as she pleased. Such seems to me the meaning of this hitherto unexplained line.

132. For me we ought probably to read hit.]

136. He sende writes sone onon. We must here, and in l. 2275, simply understand letters, without any reference to the official summonses of parliament, which subsequently were so termed, κατ’ εξοχην. The word briefs is used in the same sense by the old French writers, and in Laȝamon we meet with some lines nearly corresponding with the present; see ll. 6669-6678.

[175. þa. Frequently written for þat. See William of Palerne.]

189-203. Ther-on he garte, &c. Compare the French Romance, ll. 215-228.

263.

The earliest instance produced by Dugdale of the Justices Itinerant, is in 23 Hen. II. 1176, when by the advice of the Council held at Northampton, the realm was divided into six parts, and into each were sent three Justices. Orig. Judic. p. 51. This is stated on the authority of Hoveden. Dugdale admits however the custom to have been older, and in Gervasius Dorobernensis, we find, in 1170, certain persons, called inquisitores, appointed to perambulate England. Gervase of Tilbury, or whoever was the author of the Dialogus de Scaccario, calls them deambulantes, vel perlustrantes judices. See Spelman, in voc. The office continued to the time of Edward III., when it was superseded by that of the Justices of Assize.

280. The kinges douther, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 283.

[338. Sawe, put for “Say we.” Cf. biddi for “bidde i,” l. 484; hauedet for “hauede it,” 714; &c.

365. His quiste, &c. “His bequest made, and (things) distributed for him.”]

433.

So, in the Romance of Merlin, Bishop Brice curses the enemies of Arthur,

Ellis, Metr. Rom. V. I. p. 260.

[506. For nouth we must read mouth or wolde. The sense is— “He thought that he would he were dead, except that he might not (or would not) slay him with his (own) hand.”

550. The sense is— “When he had done that deed (i.e. gagged the child), then the deceiver had commanded him,” &c.

560. with may mean knowest, but this hardly gives sense. Perhaps we should read wilt, i.e. “As thou wilt have (preserve) my life.”

567. Mr Morris suggests that the riming words are adoun and croune. We might then read—

591. Of hise mouth, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 71. sq.

676. And with thi chartre make (me) fre. Instances of the manumission of villains or slaves by charter may be found in Hickes, Diss. Epistol. p. 12, Lye’s Dict. ad calc., and Madox’s Formulare Anglicanum, p. 750. The practice was common in the Saxon times, and existed so late as the reign of Henry VIII.

[694. Wite he him onliue, if he knows him (to be) alive.

701. It is evident that the words and gate = and goats, must be supplied. For the spelling gate, cf. Pricke of Conscience, ed. Morris, l. 6134, where gayte is used collectively as a plural.]

706. Hise ship, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 89.

715-720. Hauelok the yunge, &c. Comp. the Fr. ll. 97-105.

Instead of the storm, in the French text Grim’s ship is attacked by pirates, who kill the whole of the crew, with the exception of himself and family, whom they spare on the score of his being an old acquaintance.

733-749. In Humber, &c. So in the Fr. Ceo fut el north, &c. Cf. ll. 122-135.

753.

The list of fish here enumerated may be increased from l. 896, and presents us with a sufficiently accurate notion of the different species eaten in the 13th century. Each of the names will be considered separately in the Glossary, and it is only intended here to make a few remarks on those, which in the present day appear rather strangely to have found a place on the tables of our ancestors. The sturgeon is well known to have been esteemed a dainty, both in England and France, and specially appropriated to the King’s service, but that the whale, the seal, and the porpoise should have been rendered palatable, excites our astonishment. Yet that the whale was caught for that purpose, appears not only from the present passage, but also from the Fabliau intitled Bataille de Charnage et de Caresme, written probably about the same period, and printed by Barbazan. It is confirmed, as we learn from Le Grand, by the French writers; and even Rabelais, near three centuries later, enumerates the whale among the dishes eaten by the Gastrolatres. In the list of fish also published by Le Grand from a MS. of the 13th century, and which corresponds remarkably with the names in the Romance, we meet with the Baleigne. See Vie Privée des François, T. II. sect. 8.

Among the articles at Archbishop Nevil’s Feast, 6 Edw. IV., we find, Porposes and Seales XII. and at that of Archbishop Warham, held in 1504, is an item: De Seales & Porposs. prec. in gross XXVI. s. VIII. d. Champier asserts that the Seal was eaten at the Court of Francis I., so that the taste of the two nations seems at this period to have been nearly the same. For the courses of fish in England during the 14th and 15th centuries, see Pegge’s Form of Cury, and Warner’s Antiquitates Culinariæ, to which we may add MS. Sloane, 1986. [Cf. Babees Book, &c., ed. Furnivall, 1868, p. 153.]

[784. For setes we should probably read seten or sette, which would be as good a rime as many others. The scribe has probably made the rime more perfect than the sense. It must mean, “In the sea were they oft set.” We cannot here suppose setes = set es = set them.]

839. And seyde, Hauelok, dere sone. In the French, Grim sends Havelok away for quite a different reason, viz. because he does not understand fishing.

903. The kok stod, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 242.

The last line answers to l. 942 of the English version.

939. He bar the turues, he bar the star. The meaning of the latter term will be best illustrated by a passage in Moor’s Suffolk Words, where, under the word Bent, he writes, “Bent or Starr, on the N.W. coast of England, and especially in Lancashire, is a coarse reedy shrub—like ours perhaps—of some importance formerly, if not now, on the sandy blowing lands of those counties. Its fibrous roots give some cohesion to the silicious soil. By the 15 and 16 G. II. c. 33, plucking up and carrying away Starr or Bent, or having it in possession within five miles of the sand hills, was punishable by fine, imprisonment, and whipping.” The use stated in the Act to which the Starr was applied, is, “making of Mats, Brushes, and Brooms or Besoms,” therefore it might very well be adapted to the purposes of a kitchen, and from its being coupled with turves in the poem, was perhaps sometimes burnt for fuel. The origin of the word is Danish, and still exists in the Dan. Stær, Swed. Starr, Isl. staer, a species of sedge, or broom, called by Lightfoot, p. 560, carex cespitosa. Perhaps it is this shrub alluded to in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, and this circumstance will induce us to assign its author to the district in which the Starr is found.

—l. 4438.

945. of alle men, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 254.

959. Of him ful wide the word sprong. A phrase which from the Saxon times occurs repeatedly in all our old writers. A few examples may suffice.

Beowulf, ed. Thorpe, p. 2.

Laȝamon, l. 26242.

Sir Tristrem, st. 2, p. 12.

Horn Childe, ap. Rits. Metr. Rom. V. iii. p. 291.

See also the Kyng of Tars, ll. 19, 1007, Emare, l. 256, Roland and Ferragus, as quoted by Ellis, Ly beaus Desconus, l. 172, and Chronicle of England, l. 71.

984.

The same praise is bestowed on Havelok in the French text, l. 265,—

and it was doubtless in imitation or ridicule of the qualities attributed to similar heroes, that Chaucer writes of Sir Thopas, “Of wrastling was ther non his per.” Cant. Tales, l. 13670.

1006. To ben þer at þe parlement. Cf. l. 1178. If we examine our historical records, we shall find that the only parliament held at Lincoln was in the year 1300, 28 Edw. I., and the writs to the Archbishop of York, and other Nobles, both ecclesiastical and secular, are still extant. The proceedings are detailed at some length by Robert of Brunne, Vol. II. p. 312, who might have been in Lincoln at the time, or, at all events, was sufficiently informed of all that took place, from his residence in the county. If we could suppose that the author of the Romance alluded to this very parliament, it would reduce the period of the poem’s composition to a later date, than either the style or the writing of the MS. will possibly admit of. It is therefore far more probable the writer here makes use of a poetical, and very pardonable licence, in transferring the parliament to the chief city of the county in which he was evidently born, or brought up, without any reference whatever to historical data.

1022.

This game of putting the stone, is of the highest antiquity, and seems to have been common at one period to the whole of England, although subsequently confined to the Northern counties, and to Scotland. Fitzstephen enumerates casting of stones among the amusements of the Londoners in the 12th century, and Dr Pegge, in a note on the passage, calls it “a Welch custom.” The same sport is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, among the diversions pursued at King Arthur’s feast, as will appear in a subsequent note (l. 2320). By an edict of Edward III. the practice of casting stones, wood, and iron, was forbidden, and the use of the bow substituted, yet this by no means superseded the former amusement, which was still in common use in the 16th century, as appears from Strutt’s Popular Pastimes, Introd. pp. xvii, xxxix, and p. 56, sq. In the Highlands this sport appears to have been longer kept up than in any other part of Britain, and Pennant, describing their games, writes, “Those retained are, throwing the putting-stone, or stone of strength (Cloch neart) as they call it, which occasions an emulation who can throw a weighty one the farthest.” Tour in Scotl. p. 214. 4to. 1769. See also Statist. Account of Argyleshire, xi. 287. In the French Romance of Horn, preserved in MS. Harl. 527, is almost a similar incident to the one in Havelok, and would nearly amount to a proof, that Tomas, the writer of the French text of Horn, was an Englishman.

In the Romance of Octovian Imperator it is said of Florent,

—l. 895.

It is singular enough, that the circumstance of Havelok’s throwing the stone, mentioned in the Romance, should have been founded on, or preserved in, a local tradition, as attested by Robert of Brunne, p. 26.

1077-1088. The king Athelwald, &c. Comp. the Fr. text, ll. 354-370.

1103. After Goldeborw, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 377.

The French Romance differs here very considerably from the English, and in the latter, the dream of Argentille, her visit to the hermit, and the conversation relative to Havelok’s parents, is entirely omitted.

[1174. This may mean—“He (Havelok) is given to her, and she has taken (him)”—but this makes yaf and tok past participles, which they properly are not; or else we must translate it—“He (Godard) gave them to her, and she took them,” i.e. the pence. This alone is the grammatical construction, and it suits the context best; observe, that the words ys and as are equivalent to es = them. Cf. l. 970. See Morris; Gen. & Exod., Pref. p. xviii.]

1203. Thanne he komen there, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 556.

The marriage of Kelloc, Grim’s daughter, with a merchant is skilfully intro­duced in the French, and naturally leads to the mention of Denmark. The plot of the English story is wholly dissimilar in this respect.

1247. On the nith, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 381.

The voice of the angel is completely an invention of the English author, and the dream (which is transferred from Argentille to Havelok) is altogether different in its detail.

1260. He beth heyman, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 521.

[1334. The words euere-il del are corruptly repeated from line 1330 above. Perhaps we should read wit-uten were, i.e. without doubt.]

1430. Hauede go for him gold ne fe. Cf. l. 44. So in Laȝamon:

—vol. ii. p. 537.

[1444. The French text helps but little to supply the blank. It shows that Havelok and his wife sailed to Denmark, and, on their arrival, sought out the castle belonging to Sigar, who answers to the Ubbe of the English version.]

1632. A gold ring drow he forth anon, &c. A similar incident, and in nearly the same words, occurs in Sir Tristrem.

—fytte i. st. 57, p. 39.

So also Wyntoun, who relates the subsidy of 40,000 moutons sent from France to Scotland in 1353, and adds,

[See also Piers Plowman, Text A. iii. 202.]

1646. Hw he was wel of bones, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 743.

[1678. This line has two syllables too little.]

1722. Thanne he were set, &c. This is an amplification of the Fr. l. 677, sq.

1726. Kranes, swannes, veneysun, &c. We have here the principal constituents of what formed the banquets of our ancestors. The old Romances abound with descriptions of this nature, which coincide exactly with the present. See Richard Cœur de Lion, l. 4221; Guy of Warwick; The Squyr of Lowe Degre, l. 317; and Morte Arthure, ed. Perry, p. 7.

“Wine is common,” says Dr Pegge, speaking of the entertainments of the 14th century, “both red and white. This article they partly had of their own growth, and partly by importation from France and Greece.” A few examples will illustrate this:

Sir Degore, ap. Ellis, Metr. Rom. V. 3, p. 375.

Kyng Alisaunder, l. 4178.

[Cf. Piers Plowman, Text B, at the end of the Prologue.]

In the Squyr of Lowe Degre is a long list of these wines, which has received considerable illustration in the curious work of Dr Henderson.

[1736. I print kiwing, as in Sir F. Madden’s edition; but I quite give up the meaning of it, and doubt if it is put for kirving. The word is obscurely written, and looks like kilþing, and my impression is that it is miswritten for ilk þing, the word þe being put for þer, as frequently elsewhere. We should thus get hwan he haueden þer ilk þing deled, when they had there distributed every thing. This is, at any rate, the sense of the passage.]

1749. And sende him unto the greyues. In the French, Havelok is simply sent to an ostel, and the greyve does not appear in the story.

1806. Hauelok lifte up, &c. In the French, all the amusing details relative to Robert and Huwe Raven are omitted, and Havelok is made to retire to a monastery, where he defends himself by throwing down the stones on his assailants.

[1826. wolde, offered at, intended to hit, would have hit.]

1838.

The same comparison is made use of in the Romance of Horn Childe:

Rits. Metr. Rom. V. III. p. 289.

See Note on l. 2320.

[1914. “Cursed be he who cares! for they deserved it! What did they? There were they worried.” A mark of interrogation seems required after dide he.]

1926-1930. Sket cam tiding, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 719.

[1932. Apparently corrupt. Perhaps is should be it. “That this strife—as to what it meant.”]

2045. That weren of Kaym kin and Eues. The odium affixed to the supposed progeny of Cain, and the fables engrafted on it, owe their origin to the theological opinions of the Middle Ages, which it is not worth while to trace to their authors. See Beowulf, ed. Thorpe, p. 8; and Piers Plowman, A. X. 135-156; answering to p. 177 of Whitaker’s edition. See also the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder:

—l. 1932.

In Ywaine and Gawaine, l. 559, the Giant is called “the karl of Kaymes kyn,” and so also in a poem printed by Percy, intitled Little John Nobody, written about the year 1550.

Anc. Reliq. V. II. p. 130. Ed. 1765.

2076.

These lines will receive some illustration from a passage in Sir Tristrem, where it is said,

—p. 114.

On which Sir W. Scott remarks, “The bed-chamber of the queen was constructed of wooden boards or shingles, of which one could easily be removed.” This will explain the line which occurs below, 2106, “He stod, and totede in at a bord.”

2092. Aboute the middel, &c. In the French, a person is placed by the Seneschal to watch, who first discovers the light.

2132. Bi the pappes he leyen naked. “From the latter end of the 13th to near the 16th century, all ranks, and both sexes, were universally in the habit of sleeping quite naked. This custom is often alluded to by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and all our ancient writers.” Ellis, Spec. Metr. Rom. V. I. p. 324, 4th Ed. In the Squyr of Lowe Degre is a remarkable instance of this fact:

—l. 671.

The custom subsisted both in England and France to a very recent period, and hence probably was derived the phrase naked-bed, illustrated so copiously by Archdeacon Nares in his Glossary.

2192. Cf. the French, l. 843.

[2201. Read ne neme = took not, sc. their way, just as in l. 1207.]

2240-2265. Lokes, hware he stondes her, &c. Comp. the Fr. ll. 913-921.

2314.

So likewise in the Fr. l. 928, A cheualier l’out adubbé. The ceremony of knighthood is described with greater minuteness in the Romance of Ly beaus Desconus, l. 73; and see Kyng Horn, ed. Lumby, ll. 495-504.

2320. Hwan he was king, ther mouthe men se, &c. Ritson has justly remarked, Notes to Ywaine and Gawaine, l. 15, that the elaborate description of Arthur’s feast at Carlisle, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth, l. ix. c. 12, has served as a model to all his successors. The original passage stands thus in a fine MS. of the 13th century, MS. Harl. 3773. fol. 33 b. “Refecti autem epulis diversos ludos acturi campos extra civitatem adeunt. Tunc milites simulachra belli scientes equestrem ludum componunt, mulieribus ab edito murorum aspicientibus. Alii cum cestibus, alii cum hastis, alii gravium lapidum jactu, alii cum facis, [saxis, Edd.] alii cum aleis, diversisque alii alteriusmodi jocis contendentes.” In the translation of this description by Wace we approach still nearer to the imitation of the Romance before us.

MS. Reg. 13. A. xxi.

The parallel versions, from the French, of Laȝamon, Robert of Gloucester, and Robert of Brunne, may be read in Mr Ellis’s Specimens of Early English Poets. At the feast of Olimpias, described in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, we obtain an additional imitation.

—l. 193. Cf. l. 1045.

Some additional illustrations on each of the amusements named in our text may not be unacceptable:

1. Buttinge with sharpe speres. This is tilting, or justing, expressed in Wace by buhurder. See Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, p. 96, sq. 108.

2. Skirming with taleuaces. This is described more at large by Wace, in his account of the feast of Cassibelaunus. Cf. Laȝamon, v. i. p. 347; l. 8144. In Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes is a representation of this game, taken from MS. Bodl. 264, illuminated between 1338 and 1344, in which the form of the talevas is accurately defined. It appears to have been pursued to such an excess, as to require the interference of the crown, for in 1286 an edict was issued by Edward I. prohibiting all persons Eskirmer au bokeler. This, however, had only a temporary effect in restraining it, and in later times, under the appellation of sword and buckler play, it again became universally popular.

3. Wrastling with laddes, puttinge of ston. See the notes on ll. 984 and 1022.

4. Harping and piping. This requires no illustration.

5. Leyk of mine, of hasard ok. Among the games mentioned at the marriage of Gawain, in the Fabliau of Le Chevalier à l’Epée, we have:

Le Grand, in his note on this passage, T. i. p. 57, Ed. 1779, writes: “Le Hasard était une sorte de jeu de dez. Je ne connais point la Mine; j’ai trouvé seulement ailleurs un passage qui prouve que ce jeu était tres-dangereux, et qu’on pouvait s’y ruiner en peu de tems.” It appears however from the Fabliau of Du Prestre et des deuz Ribaus, to have been certainly a species of Tables, or Backgammon, and to have been played with dice, on a board called Minete. The only passage we recollect in which any further detail of this game is given, is that of Wace, in the account of Arthur’s feast, Harl. MS. 6508, and MS. Cott. Vit. A. x., but it must be remarked, that the older copy 13 A. xxi. does not contain it, nor is it found in the translations of Laȝamon, or Robert of Gloucester.

6. Romanz reding. See Sir W. Scott’s note on Sir Tristrem, p. 290, [p. 306, ed. 1811]; and the Dissertations of Percy, Ritson, and Ellis.

7.

Cf. ll. 1838, 2438. Both these diversions are mentioned by Lucianus, in his inedited tract De laude Cestriæ, MS. Bodl. 672, who is supposed by Tanner to have written about A.D. 1100, but who must probably be placed near half a century later. They formed also part of the amusements of the Londoners in the 12th century, as we learn from Fitzstephen, p. 77, and are noticed in the passage above quoted from the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder. In later times, particularly during the 16th century, these cruel practices were in the highest estimation, as we learn from Holinshed, Stowe, Laneham, &c. See Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, p. 192, and the plate from MS. Reg. 2. B. vii. Also Pegge’s Dissertation on Bull-baiting, inserted in Vol. ii. of Archæologia.

8. Ther mouthe men se hw Grim greu. If this is to be understood of scenic representation (and we can scarcely view it in any other light), it will present one of the earliest instances on record of any attempt to represent an historical event, or to depart from the religious performances, which until a much later period were the chief, and almost only, efforts towards the formation of the drama. Of course, the words of the writer must be understood to refer to the period in which he lived, i.e. according to our supposition, about the end of Hen. III’s reign, or beginning of Edw. I. See Le Grand’s notes to the Lai de Courtois, V. i. p. 329, and Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes, B. 3, ch. 2.

2344. The feste fourti dawes sat. Cf. l. 2950. This is borrowed also from Geoffrey, and is the usual term of duration fixed in the Romances.

Octouian Imperator, l. 73.

Launfal, l. 631.

Squyr of Lowe Degre, l. 1113.

2384. The French story here differs wholly from the English. Instead of the encounter of Robert and Godard, and the cruel punishment inflicted on the latter, in the French is a regular battle between the forces of Havelok and Hodulf (Godard). A single combat takes place between the two leaders, in which Hodulf is slain.

2450. Cf. ll. 2505 and 2822. This appears to have been a common, but barbarous, method in former times of leading traitors or malefactors to execution. Thus in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, the treatment of the murderers of Darius is described:

—l. 4708.

2461. We find a similar proverb in the Historie de Melusine, tirée des Chroniques de Poitou, &c. 12mo. Par. 1698, in which (at p. 72) Thierry, Duke of Bretagne, says to Raimondin;— “Vous autorisez par votre silence notre Proverbe, qui dit, Qu’un vieux peché fait nouvelle vergogne.”

2513. Sket was seysed, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 971.

2516.

So in Sir Tristrem:

—fytte i. st. 83; p. 52.

The editor is clearly mistaken in explaining the wand to be a truncheon, or symbol of power. For the custom of giving seisin or investiture per fustim, and per baculum, see Madox’s Formul. Anglican. pref. p. ix. and Spelman, Gloss. in v. Investire, and Traditio. The same usage existed in France, par rain et par baton.

2521.

The allusion here may be made either to the Abbey of Wellow, in Grimsby, which was a monastery of Black Canons, said to have been built about A.D. 1110, or (what is more probable) to the Augustine Friary of Black Monks, which is stated in the Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, by the Rev. G. Oliver, to have been “founded about the year 1280,” p. 110. No notice of it occurs in Tanner till the year 1304. Pat. 33 Edw. I. Some old walls of this edifice, which was dissolved in 1543, still remain, and the site is still called “The Friars.” If the connection between this foundation and the one recorded in the poem be considered valid, the date of the composition must be referred to rather a later period than we wish to admit.

2530. The French supplies what is here omitted, viz. that Havelok sails to England by the persuasion of his wife.

[Indeed, ll. 979-1006 of the French text may serve to fill up the evident gap in the story; a translation of the passage is added, to shew this more clearly.

The remainder of the French poem altogether differs in its detail from the English.

2927. Hire that was ful swete in bedde.] Among Kelly’s Scotch Proverbs, p. 290, we find: “Sweet in the bed, and sweir up in the morning, was never a good housewife;” and in a ballad of the last century quoted by Laing, the editor of that highly curious collection, the Select pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland, we meet with the same expression:

[2990. The last word is written thit in the MS., but, as it rimes to rith, we should suppose tiht to be the word meant. Thit cannot be explained, but tiht (or perhaps tith, according to our scribe’s spelling) is the pp. of a verb signifying to purpose, which is the exact meaning required. Cf.

Political, Religious, and Love Poems; ed. Furnivall, 1866; p. 177.]