The Lay of Havelok the Dane Part 26

[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_:

And of Sab the duk Mauryn, He was of _Kaymes kunrede_. --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, int.i.tled _Little John n.o.body_, written about the year 1550.

Such caitives count to be come of Cain's kind.

_Anc. Reliq._ V. II. p. 130. Ed. 1765.

2076.

_It ne shal no thing ben bitwene Thi bour and min, also y wene, But a fayr firrene wowe._

These lines will receive some ill.u.s.tration from a pa.s.sage in Sir Tristrem, where it is said,

A borde he tok oway Of her bour. --p. 114.

On which Sir W. Scott remarks, "The bed-chamber of the queen was constructed of wooden boards or s.h.i.+ngles, 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 s.e.xes, 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:

How she rose, that lady dere, To take her leue of that squyer; Al so naked as she was borne She stod her chambre-dore beforne. --l. 671.

The custom subsisted both in England and France to a very recent period, and hence probably was derived the phrase _naked-bed_, ill.u.s.trated so copiously by Archdeacon Nares in his Glossary.

2192. Cf. the French, l. 843.

Ses chapeleins fet demander, Ses briefs escriure & enseeler; Par ses messages les manda, Et pur ses amis enuoia; Pur ses homes, pur ses parenz; Mult i a.s.sembla granz genz.

[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.

"Veez ci nostre dreit heir, Bien en deuom grant ioie aueir."

Tut primerain se desafubla, Par deuant lui s'agenuilla; Sis homs deuint, si li iura Qe leaument le seruira.

Li autre sont apres ale, Chescuns de bone volente; Tuit si home sont deuenu.

2314.

_Vbbe dubbede him to knith, With a swerd ful swithe brith._

So likewise in the Fr. l. 928, _A cheualier l'out adubbe_. 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 pa.s.sage 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 _c.u.m cestibus_, alii _c.u.m hastis_, alii _gravium lapidum jactu_, alii _c.u.m facis_, [_saxis_, Edd.] alii _c.u.m 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.

A plusurs iuis se departirent, Li vns alerent _buhurder_, E lur ignels cheuals mustrer, Li altre alerent _eskermir_, V _pere geter_, v _saillir_; Tels i-aueit ki _darz lanconent_, E tels i-aueit ki _lutouent_: Chescon del gru [geu?] s'entremetait Dunt entremettre se saueit. --MS. Reg. 13. A. xxi.

The parallel versions, from the French, of La?amon, 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.

Withoute theo toun was mury, Was reised ther al maner pley; There was knyghtis _turnyng_, There was maidenes carolyng, There was champions _skyrmyng_, Of heom and of other _wrastlyng_, Of liouns chas, of _beore baityng_, And _bay of bor_, of _bole slatyng_. --l. 193. Cf. l. 1045.

Some additional ill.u.s.trations on each of the amus.e.m.e.nts named in our text may not be unacceptable:

1. _b.u.t.tinge 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 Ca.s.sibelaunus. Cf. _La?amon_, 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 ill.u.s.tration.

5. _Leyk of mine, of hasard ok._ Among the games mentioned at the marriage of Gawain, in the Fabliau of _Le Chevalier a l'Epee_, we have:

Cil Chevalier jeuent as tables, Et as esches de l'autre part, O a la _mine_, o a _hazart_.

Le Grand, in his note on this pa.s.sage, T. i. p. 57, Ed. 1779, writes: "Le Hasard etait une sorte de jeu de dez. Je ne connais point la _Mine_; j'ai trouve seulement ailleurs un pa.s.sage qui prouve que ce jeu etait 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 pa.s.sage 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 La?amon, 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.

_Ther mouthe men se the boles beyte, And the bores, with hundes teyte._

Cf. ll. 1838, 2438. Both these diversions are mentioned by Lucia.n.u.s, in his inedited tract _De laude Cestriae_, 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 amus.e.m.e.nts of the Londoners in the 12th century, as we learn from Fitzstephen, p. 77, and are noticed in the pa.s.sage 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 Archaeologia.

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.

Fourty dayes hy helden feste, Ryche, ryall, and oneste. --_Octouian Imperator_, l. 73.

Fourty dayes leste the feste. --_Launfal_, l. 631.

And certaynly, as the story sayes, The revell lasted forty dayes.

_Squyr of Lowe Degre_, l. 1113.

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