The Lay of Havelok the Dane Part 25

Sa niece lur fet amener, Et a Cuaran esposer; Pur lui auiler & honir, La fist la nuit lez lui gesir.

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 (G.o.dard) 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.

A Grimesby s'en alerent; Mes li prodoms estoit finiz, Et la Dame q'is out nurriz.

Kelloc sa fille i ont trouee, Vn marchant l'out esposee.

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.

Quant couche furent ambedui, Cele out grant honte de lui, Et il a.s.sez greindre de li.

As deuz se geut, si se dormi.

Ne voloit pas q'ele veist La flambe qe de lui issist.

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.

Il est ne de real lignage, Oncore auera grant heritage.

Grant gent fra vers li encline, Il serra roi & tu reyne.

[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 La?amon:

Ne sculde him neoer gon fore Gold ne na gaersume, &c.; 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.

A ring he raught him t.i.te, The porter seyd nought nay, In hand: He was ful wis, y say, That first yave yift in land. --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,

Qwha gyvis swilk gyftyis he is wyse.

[See also _Piers Plowman_, Text A. iii. 202.]

1646. _Hw he was wel of bones_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 743.

Gent cors & bele feture, Lungs braz & grant furcheure Ententiuement l'esgarda.

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

1722. _Thanne he were set_, &c. This is an amplification of the Fr.

l. 677, sq.

Quant fut houre del manger, Et qe tuz alerent lauer, Li prodoms a manger s'a.s.sist, Les .iii. valez seeir i fist, Argentille lez son seignur; Serui furent a grant honur.

1726. _Kranes, swannes, veneysun_, &c. We have here the princ.i.p.al const.i.tuents 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 Cur 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 ill.u.s.trate this:

He laid the cloth, and set forth bread, And also wine, both _white and red_.

_Sir Degore_, ap. Ellis, _Metr. Rom._ V. 3, p. 375.

And dronke wyn, and eke pyment, _Whyt and red_, al to talent.

_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 ill.u.s.tration 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 _kiling_, and my impression is that it is miswritten for _ilk ing_, the word _e_ being put for _er_, as frequently elsewhere. We should thus get _hwan he haueden er ilk ing deled_, when they had there distributed every thing. This is, at any rate, the sense of the pa.s.sage.]

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 a.s.sailants.

[1826. _wolde_, offered at, intended to hit, _would_ have hit.]

1838.

_And shoten on him, so don on bere Dogges, that wolden him to-tere._

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

The Yrise folk about him yode, As hondes do to bare.

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.

La nouele vint a chastel, Au seneschal, qui n'est pas bel, Qe cil qu'il auoit herberge Cinc de ses homes out tue.