NOTES. (continued 2)
Reading edition
—— sudam appears to be an error for some other word.
P. 273. Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle.—The Cambridge MS. contains only the history of Edward I., which is given as a complete work, with the title, “Ici commence le Brut coment li bon rei Edward gaigna Escotz e Galis.” The Fairfax MS. seems also to have given the same portion of Langtoft’s Chronicle. Since my text was printed, Sir Frederick Madden has kindly given me his transcripts of the English fragments as they stand in the Fairfax MS. No. 24, in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, and in the Arundel MS. No. 14, in the College of Arms. The numerous variations in these lines, and the frequent recurrence of lines in one MS. which are omitted in another, seem clearly to prove they were fragments of popular songs interwoven into the Chronicle by its writer. I ought to say that, at the time the extracts in the present volume were printed off, it was not in my power to have the sheets collated with the original. It may also be observed, that it has not been thought proper to correct the text by the various readings, but the translation is frequently made from the latter, when the text is evidently wrong.
P. 274, l. 15, Celestine la pape.—Pope Celestin the Fifth, who was elected in July, 1294, and abdicated in the December following.
P. 275, l. 50, suz Dover.—An account of this attack upon Dover will be found in Matthew of Westminster, p. 424, and in Knighton, col. 2502.
P. 278, l. 75, Thomas de Turbevile.—See, on this affair, Matthew of Westminster, p. 425, Knighton, col. 2502, Hemingford, p. 58.
—— l. 83, Cent lievre de tere.—Robert de Brunne’s version has a hundred pounds of land, i. e. lands of that yearly value.
P. 280, l. 106, Le tierz jour.—Robert de Brunne says—
Opon the thrid day, at a toun hamelet, Thomas was his pray, as he to mete was set.
—— l. 112, cum traitur est jugé.—Robert of Brunne has given more details of Turbeville’s trial than are found in the original.
P. 282, l. 135, Le counte de Nincole.—Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and Salisbury.
—— l. 136, Sir Willeam de Vescy.—William de Vescy, Lord of Alnwick, and governor of Scarborough Castle.
—— l. 153, la male rage.—“Male rage: Faim extraordinaire, enragée; mala rabies.” Roquefort.
—— l. 156, rivelins.—Apparently a kind of rough boots worn by the Scots, so called perhaps on account of their ragged and torn appearance.
—— la nue nage.—Nage is the Latin nates. The Fairfax and Arundel MS. have here a line or two of the French which is not found in the other copies, with the following fragments of English—
(F.) Tprut! Skot riveling, In unseli timing crope thu out of cage. (A.) Tprut! Scot riveling, With mikel mistiming crop thu ut of kage.
—— l. 157, Robert de Ros de Werke.—Robert de Ros was an English Baron, but, falling in love with a Scottish lady, he deserted to the Scots, for which his possessions were confiscated. See Hemingford, p. 85.
P. 284, l. 168, quatre mile.—The English version makes it forty thousand—
In the non tyme felle this cas, that slayn was ilk a man, That were in Berwik, fourti thousand and mo.
—— l. 170, Richard de Cornewalle.—Holinshed, p. 298, says Sir Richard Cornwall was brother to the Earl of Cornwall. See also Hemingford, p. 91.
—— l. 171, la sale rouge.—The Red Hall was the factory of the Flemish merchants, who carried on an extensive trade with Berwick.
P. 285, l. 175, Willeam de Douglasse.—William Douglas was captain of the garrison of Berwick. See Hemingford, ib.
—— l. 176, Ricard Fresel.—The English has Symoun Freselle.
—— l. 178, li quens de la Merche, Patrik.—Patrick, Earl of Dunbar and March, served in the English army; but his Countess, who was left in the castle of Dunbar, and who hated the English, delivered the castle to the Scots.
—— l. 180, Gilbert de Umfravile.—Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus, was one of the Scottish Barons who remained faithful to the English.
P. 286, l. 194, Piket him, etc.—The Fairfax MS. has only four lines of this song:—
Piket him and diket him, in skorn seiden he; Nu piketh he it and diketh it, his owen for to be.
In the Arundel MS. it stands thus:—
Pikit him and dikit him, in hoker seiden he; Nu pikes he it and dikes it, his owen for to be. Skiterende Scottes Hodere in their hottes, nevere thei ne the; Rigth if I rede, Thei tumbled in Twede, that woned bi the se.
Robert of Brunne gives the fragment as follows, with six additional lines:—
Now dos Edward dike Berwik brode and long, Als they bad him pike, and scorned him in ther song.
Pikit him and dikit him on scorne said he, He pikes and dikes in length as him likes how best it may be. And thou has for thi pikyng Mykille ille likyng, the sothe is to se. Without any lesyng Alle is thi hething fallen opon the, For scatred er thi Scottis, And hodred in ther hottes, never thei ne the. Right als I rede, Thei tombled in Tuede, that woned bi the se.
P. 288, l. 227, Otes de Graunt-souns.—Otho had been sent into the East to the aid of the Christians by Edward I., who intended to follow him in person. An account of the loss of Acre, and the escape of the Christians to Cyprus, will be found in Hemingford, pp. 21-28.
P. 289, l. 245, le counte de Warwik e Huge le Despencer.—Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Hugh Despencer, who was afterwards so famous as the favourite of Edward II.
P. 293, l. 299, On grene, &c.—In Robert of Brunne, these lines stand thus:—
Ther on that grene, That kynrede kene gadred als the gayte. Right als I wene, On som was it sene ther the bit bayte.
P. 294, l. 324, sire Corynée.—The fabulous hero who was said to have killed the giant Gogmagog.
P. 295, l. 338, The fote folke, etc.—Robert of Brunne gives these lines as follows, with an introduction of his own, in which he says distinctly that they were rhymes which the English made on the Scots:—
¶ The Scottis had no grace, To spede in ther space, for to mend ther misse, Thei filed ther face, That died in that place; the Inglis rymed this. Oure fote folk Put tham in the polk, and nakned ther nages, Bi no way Herd I never say of prester pages, Purses to pike, Robis to rike, and in dike tham schonne, Thou wiffin Scotte of Abrethin, kotte is thi honne.
In the Fairfax MS. they stand thus:—
Wel worthe swich a fot folk, That drof the Skottes in the polk, and paiede hem here wages. Bi wode ne bi weye, Ne herd I nevere seien of prestere pages, To pullen and to piken The robes of the rike that in the feld fellen. Fi! Skot, hu spedde ye thenne? The devel I you bikenne, that ragged rit in helle!
The Arundel MS. gives them thus:—
Wel worth swich a fote folk, That put the Scottes in the polk, and paied tham their wages. Bi wode ne bi weie, Herd I nevere seie of prestere pages, To pulle and to pike The robes of the rike that in the feld felle. Hou ferd the wreches thenne? The devel I them bikenne that ragged sit in helle.
In my transcript of the Cambridge MS. I had written wages in the third line, but, thinking it might be an error of my own, I ventured to change it to nages, in conformity with the readings of the other MSS. I have no doubt that nages, the French nages (see before, p. 283, l. 156, and the note), the Latin nates, is the right word. The other reading of the line was perhaps substituted by some one who did not understand the word.
P. 298, l. 380, For Scottes, etc.—Robert of Brunne agrees with the present text, in this song. In the Fairfax and Arundel MSS. it stands thus:—
(F.) For skiterande Skottes Tell I for sottes, of wrenches unwarre. Hem to wrothere hele Dintes to dele driven to Dunbarre. (A.) Skiterende Scottes I telle for sottes, and wreches unwar. Mikel unsele Dintes to dele them drof to Dunbar.
P. 300, l. 417, Albanak, the son of Brute, who was said to have first peopled Scotland, and given it the name of Albania.
P. 303, l. 466, For boule, etc.—Robert of Brunne, like the Museum MSS., gives only the first six lines of this fragment.
—— l. 471, hise tabard es tome.—Toom tabard (empty tabard) was a nickname given by the Scots to their King, John Baliol, on account of his little wit. In like manner, we still vulgarly call people who possess very little sense, empty bottles.
P. 304, l. 484, eces; another form of assez.
—— l. 486, Henri de Perci aid Galwei.—Henry de Percy, nephew of Warenne, was made keeper of the county of Galloway and the sheriffdom of Ayr.
P. 305, l. 504, le eveske de Duram.—The famous Anthony Beck, Bishop of Durham, who, at the head of his knights, attended Edward in all his invasions of Scotland, and commanded one division of the army at the battle of Falkirk.
—— l. 514, Kambynoy.—Robert of Brunne translates this passage as follows:—
Cambinhoy Beres him coy, that fendes whelp, Ther with craft He has tham raft, it may not help. The Trulle the Drenge on se, thei lenge the fendes tueye, The hold tham fer, And dar no ner than Orkeneye. Andrew is wroth, The wax him loth, for ther pride. He is tham fro, Now salle thei go, schame to betide. Thou scabbed Scotte, Thi neck, thi hotte, the develle it breke, It salle be hard To here Edward ageyn the speke. He salle the ken Our lond to bren, and werre begynne Thou getes no thing, Bot thi rivelyng to hang therinne. The sete of the Scone Is driven over done, to London led; I hard wele telle, That bagelle and belle be filchid and fled.
P. 306, l. 521, Ou il est mort | al mouster.—The Monastery of Hexham, which the Scots had burnt, was dedicated to their patron Saint, St. Andrew. Hemingford remarks, in a similar manner, the impiety of the Scots in burning the church of their patron. This writer, in many parts of his Chronicle, seems to paraphrase and enlarge upon the narrative of Peter Langtoft.
P. 307, l. 550, Deus! cum Merlins.—The Cambridge MS. has Teus, with a great T., by an error of the illuminator. Robert of Brunne, in translating this part of the Chronicle, quotes the original author, Peter Langtoft, as his authority:—
Nou tels Pers, on his maners, a grete selcouth, He takis witnes, that it soth es, of Merlyn mouth, etc.
The MS. from which Hearne printed contained a marginal note, “De unione Scotiæ et Angliæ secundum dicta Petri et Bridlingtone,” meaning that Bridlington had something similar in his prophecies. Hearne, not aware that it is Peter Langtoft to whom the writer refers, alters it to Petri de Bridlington; although, if he had referred to Bale, he would have found that Bridlington’s name was John, and not Peter.
P. 309, l. 582, Jon e Thomas ... Cuthbert.—John of Beverley, Thomas of Canterbury, and Cuthbert of Durham. These three saints are elsewhere spoken of in Peter Langtoft as Edward’s especial patrons and aiders.
P. 310, l. 607, Des biens de seint eglise.—See, on this transaction, Matthew of Westminster, p. 428, and Hemingford, p. 107.
P. 311. I suspect that the lines here inclosed in brackets, as not found in the Cambridge MS., were missed by myself in transcribing.
—— l. 613, disime dener.—Robert of Brunne says the twelfth penny.
P. 315, l. 683, jeo crei.—The manner in which the writer here speaks, as well as other expressions in the course of the poem, seem to show that he wrote down the events as they happened.
P. 316, l. 701, le Sire de Canturbir.—Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1294 to 1313.
P. 317, l. 709, Li sire de Nichole.—Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Lincoln, who died in the November of 1299.
—— l. 714, L’elyt de Everwyke.—Henry de Newark, who succeeded to the Archbishopric in 1297, and died in 1299.
P. 318, l. 720. These English verses are only found in the Cambridge MS.
P. 320, l. 19, Pur treys souz, &c.—Robert of Brunne translates this—
Thei profere a man to bete, for tuo schilynges or thre, With piked staves grete beten salle he be.
We learn from this writer that it was the King who gave them the name of Trailebastons.
P. 321, l. 43, Sire Jon de Meneteft.—He is said to have been incited by his personal hatred of Wallace to seek out and deliver the Scottish Chieftain to his enemies. Robert de Brunne adds something to his original in this place:—
Sir Jon of Menetest sewed William so nehi, He tok him whan he wend lest, on nyght his leman bi. That was thorght treson of Jak Schort his man, He was the encheson that Sir Jon so him nam. Jak brother had he slayn, the Waleis that is said, The more Jak was fayn to do William that braid. Selcouthly he endis the man that is fals, If he trest on his frendes, thei begile him als Begiled is William, taken is and bondon. To Inglond with him thei cam, and led him unto London.
We may take this occasion of pointing out the impropriety of quoting Robert de Brunne as Peter Langtoft. Mr. Tytler quotes this story of Jack Short upon Langtoft’s authority, which involves two serious errors, first, making Langtoft say what he did not say, and, secondly, giving the story on better authority than that on which it really rests, for, in this respect, Robert de Brunne is certainly inferior to Langtoft.
P. 323, l. 67, And tus, etc.—Robert of Brunne has six lines of this fragment more than in the French MSS.
It is not to drede, Traytour salle spede, als he is worthi, His lif salle he tyne, And die thorgh pyne, withouten merci. Thus may men here, A ladde for to lere to biggen in pays. It fallis in his iȝe, That hewes over hie, with the Walays.
P. 326, l. 66, nu.—In the MS. it is written nou. Perhaps the o was added by somebody who thought the orthography should be nou.
P. 327, l. 78, serven the chapele.—This last word, which answers to capella in the similar passage in the Song at the end of these notes (p. 401, l. 21), means here, perhaps, a wardrobe.
P. 329, l. 126, amis.—This word is added in the MS. by a later hand than that which wrote the other part.
P. 336, l. 285, turmentours that comen from clerkes plei.—Men who have performed the part of devils, or tormentors, in the miracle plays, which were performed by the clerks.
P. 338, l. 330, Theih pleien wid the hinges silver, and breden wod for wele.—They use the king’s silver for their own pleasures, and produce wood, or tallies, instead of contributing to the prosperity of the people.
P. 341, l. 392, a derthe.—l. 403, eft wele i-nouh.—P. 342, l. 409, another sorwe.—l. 416, another derthe of corn.—Our poem was probably composed in 1321. During the preceding years, the kingdom had been visited repeatedly by dearth and famine. Holinshed remarks in 1316, a great dearth and famine, insomuch that a quarter of wheat sold for forty shillings, and at the same time a murrain among the cattle; in 1317, a “pitiful famine” with a “sore mortalitie of people;” the year 1318 seems to have been free from these visitations, and may have been that in which, according to the poem, there was “eft wele i-nouh;” in 1319, again, a great murrain of cattle; and in the latter end of the following year and in 1321, broke out the “great variaunce betwixt the lords and the Spensers,” which was the cause of so much bloodshed, and which seems to be the “strif” (l. 423) under which the poet represents the people as then labouring.
P. 342, l. 418, afingred.—For other instances of the use of this form, see a note on “The Tale of the Basyn and the Frere and the Boy.” (Pickering, 1836.)
P. 344, l. 457, paunter.—The true meaning of this word seems to be a trap, or snare. An English prose treatise of counsel for hermits, probably by Hampole (MS. Trin. Coll. Cant. B. 15, 17, of the reign of Edward III.), speaking of the snares laid by the devil to deceive people, observes, “This panter leyeth owre enemy to taken us with, whan we bigynne to haten wikkednesse, and turne us to goodnesse.”
P. 345.—This poem is defective at the end, by the loss of the remainder of the MS., which is imperfect. The following curious Song, which was given me by Mr. Halliwell, bears a remarkable resemblance in some parts to the English poem of the Auchinleck MS. It is taken from a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge, Ee. VI. 29, of the beginning of the fifteenth century, though most, if not all, the articles it contains are compositions of a much earlier date.
Ecce dolet Anglia luctibus imbuta! Gens tremit tristitia, sordibus polluta; Necat pestilentia viros atque bruta. Cur? quia flagitia regnant resoluta. Heu! jam totus vertitur mundus in malignum. Inter gentes quæritur ubi cor benignum. Christus non recolitur, mortuus per lignum; Ergo plebs perimitur in vindictæ signum. Pax et patientia penitus orbantur; Amor et justitia domi non morantur; Errores et vitia gentes amplexantur; Patrum per malitia parvuli necantur. Pastorum pigritia greges disperguntur; Insontes astutia mercantum falluntur; Fraus et avaritia sorores junguntur; Divitum nequitia pauperes plectuntur. Simonia colitur, Simon Magus vivit; Æquitas opprimitur, veritas abivit; Christi grex dispergitur, lupus insanivit; Pestisque diffunditur, agnos deglutivit. Favor non scientia permovet rectores; Intrudit potentia servos ob labores, Et regum clementia quosdam per favores; Æs et amicitia juvant pervisores. Fortes Christi milites modo recesserunt; Sathanæ satellites templum subverterunt; Laceras et debiles oves prodiderunt; Cuculi degeneres nisis successerunt. Patres quondam nobiles pestes fugarunt, Et in fide stabiles languidos sanarunt; Vita venerabiles signis coruscarunt; Actus per laudabiles Christo militarunt. Tales erunt vestibus asperis vestiti; Ut moderni mollibus raro sunt potiti. Hii præclaris moribus erant insigniti; Juvenes a sordibus sacris eruditi. Heu! nunc mercenarii, nec veri pastores, Rectores, vicarii, mutaverunt mores; Ambitu denarii subeunt labores; Tales operarii merentur mœrores: Isti pro ciliciis utuntur pellura; Farciunt deliciis ventres tota cura; Dant post[ea] spurcitiis se sine mensura; Suffulti divitiis vivunt contra jura. Dum capella tegitur nobili vestura, Sponsa Christi rapitur nudata tectura; Vinea destruitur porcorum ursura, Et vitis evellitur, carens jam cultura. Sacerdotes Domini sunt incontinentes; Actus suo nomini non sunt respondentes; Sacra dantes homini forent et docentes; Sui mores ordini non sunt congruentes. Ista super æthera sanguine scribantur, Ut patenti littera sæculis legantur; Ignibus cum vetera peccata purgantur, Sua ferant onera jam qui dominantur. En! amor et caritas regnis refrigescunt; Livor et severitas gentibus ardescunt; Cleri plebis veritas et fides tepescunt; Hinc regni nobilitas et fama quiescunt. Feminæ fragilitas omni caret laude; Mercantum subtilitas versatur in fraude; Et fratrum dolositas jungit caput caudæ. Homo, si jam veritas te gubernat, gaude! Explicit.
P. 14. Song on the Times.—Giraldus Cambrensis has inserted a copy of this Song in the Speculum Ecclesiæ, MS. Cotton. Tiberius, B. XIII. fol. 126, vo, and attributes it to the famous Golias, which is commonly supposed to be only a fictitious name for Walter Mapes. This takes away all doubt as to its age, and the explanations given by Flacius Illyricus may be right. There is another copy in a Cottonian MS. of the thirteenth century, Vespas. A. XIX. fol. 59, ro, where it is entitled De veneranda justitia Romanæ curiæ. In Giraldus, the song commences with the 13th line, Roma mundi caput est, &c. In the other Cotton. MS. it begins as in our text. The variations afforded by these two MSS. are as follow:—P. 14, l. 1, Romanæ reb., C.—6, profluit, C.—9, the first est is omitted in C.—10, Tegunt picem, C.—P. 15, l. 12, ramus in sap., C.—15, trahit enim, G. and C.—17, res et sing., C.—21, In hoc consistorio, G. and C.—27, petunt quando petis, G. and C.—28, eadem et metis, C.—P. 16. The first 16 lines in this page are omitted in Giraldus.—l. 5, nummus, C.—6, rot. placet, totum pl., C.—7, ita pl. ... Romanos, C.—10, obiceret, C.—11, Et sanc., C.—12, transeunt, C.—13, venit parca, C.—15, pro munere, C.—P. 17, l. 1, et ... sit, G. and C. animanti, C.—2, Respondet hæc tibia, G. and C.—6, li mort, C.—7, G. and C. have Porta at the beginning of this line, and Papa in the next. G. omits the words chartula quærit: it ought to be observed that in this MS. the song is written as prose, so that such omissions are easily explained.—8, G. and C. omit the words cursor quærit.—9, omnis quærit, G. si des si quid uni, G. and C.—10, Totum mare salsum est, tota, G. and C. except that the former has salseum for salsum est: see another example of this expression in the present volume, p. 228, l. 19.—11, Des ... des ... addas, G.—l. 12, the extract in Giraldus ends here.—P. 18, l. 4, totum impl., C.—6, habet Pluto, C.—9, dant divitibus, C.
P. 44, l. 3 of Song against the Bishops, read fungar vice cotis, “I will perform the part of a whetstone.”
P. 282, l. 5 of translation, for Edward, read Edmund.