The Lay of Havelok the Dane Part 5

(_c_) an older termination in _-en_ or _-an_; as, er-hinne, 322, 709, 712, henne, 843, inne, 855. Cf. A.S. _heonan_, _innan_.

(_d_) It is also sounded in the termination _-like_, as, sikerlike, 422.

Hence, in baldelike, 53, _both_ the _ees_ are sounded; cf. feblelike, 418. When the final _-e_ is slurred over before an _h_ in _Chaucer_, _h_ is found commonly to begin the p.r.o.noun _he_, or its cases, the possessive p.r.o.nouns _his_, _hire_, or their cases, a part of the verb to _have_, or else the adverbs _how_ or _heer_. The same rule seems to hold in _Havelok_. Observe, that _e_ often forms a syllable in the _middle_ of a word, as, bondeman, 32, engelondes, 63, pourelik_e_, 322.

With regard to the final _-en_, it is most commonly slurred over before a vowel or the _h_ in _he_ or _haue_, not only when it is the termination of the infinitive mood, but in _many other cases_. One striking example may suffice:

He gret_en_ and gouled_en_ and gou_en_ hem ille, 164.

A still more striking peculiarity is that _the same rule often holds_ for the ending _-es_. We find it, of course, forming a distinct syllable in plurals; as, limes, 86; and in adverbs, as, liues, 509. But observe such instances as maydn_es_, 2, prest_es_, 33, vtlaw_es_, 41, si_es_, 213, &c.

In the same way, when rapid final syllables such as _-el_, _-er_, _-ere_, &c., are slurred over, it will _generally_ be found _that a vowel or_ h _follows them_. Examples: lit_el_, 6, won_eth_, 105, bed_els_, 266, bod_i_, 345, deu_el_, 446, hung_er_, 449. Compare ou_er_al, 38, 54. There are many other peculiarities which it would take long to enumerate, such as, that _sworn_ is p.r.o.nounced _sworen_, 204; that the final _-e_ is sometimes preserved before a vowel, as in _dede am_, 167; that the word _ne_ is very frequently not counted, as it were, in the scansion, as in 57, 113, 220, 419, the second _ne_ in l. 547, and in several other places. But it must suffice to state merely, that when the above rules (with allowance of a few exceptions) are carefully observed, it will be found that the metre of Havelok is _very regular_, and _valuable on account of its regularity_.

It would therefore be easy to correct the text in many places by help of an exact a.n.a.lysis of the rhythm. But this, except in a very few places, has not been attempted, because the imperfect, but unique, MS. copy is more instructive as it stands. In l. 19, e.g. _wit_ should be _wite_; in l. 47, _red_ should be _rede_; in l. 74, _his soule_ should be _of his soule_, &c. The importance of attending to the final _-e_ may be exemplified by the lines--

Alle greten swie sore, 236; But sone dede hire fete, 317; ine cherles, ine hine, 620; Grimes sones alle re, 1399; Hise sistres here lif, 2395.

Mr Ellis writes-- "These final examples suggested to me to compose the following German epitaph, which contains just as many final _e_'s, and which I think no German would find to have anything peculiar in the versification:

GRABSCHRIFT.

Diese alte reiche Frau Ha.s.ste jede eitle Schau, Preiste Gottes gute Gabe, Mehrte stets die eig'ne Habe, Liegt hier unbeweint im Grabe.

I think Havelok may be well compared with Goethe's ballad,

Es war ein Kon_ig in Thu_le, Gar treu bis an das Grab, Dem, sterbend, seine Buhle _Einen gold_enen Becher gab.

Es ging ihm nichts daruber, Er leert' ihn jeden Schmaus, Die Augen gin_gen ihm u_ber So oft er trank daraus.

Und als er kam zu sterben, Zahlt' er _seine Stadt'_ im Reich, Gonnt' alles seinem Erben, Den Becher nicht zugleich:--

and the end:--

Die Augen tha_ten ihm sin_ken, Trank nie _einen Trop_fen mehr.

The _italicised_ trisyllabic measures are fine. Observe also the elisions of final _-e_ before a following vowel (_Stadt'_ being very unusual), and the omission of the dative _-e_ in _im Reich_, to rhyme with _zugleich_."

I have only to add that my special thanks are due to Sir F. Madden for his permission to make use of his valuable notes, glossary, and preface, and for his a.s.sistance; as also to Mr Ellis for his notes, which, however, reached me only at the last moment, when much alteration of the proofs was troublesome. There are many things probably which Mr Ellis does not much approve of in this short popular sketch of the metre, in which attention is drawn only to some of the _princ.i.p.al_ points. In particular, he disapproves of the term _slurring over_, though I believe that I mean precisely the same thing aa he does, viz. that these light syllables are really _fully p.r.o.nounced_, and not in any way forcibly suppressed; but that, owing to their being light syllables, and occurring before vowel sounds, the full p.r.o.nunciation of them does not cause the verse to halt, but merely imparts to it an agreeable vivacity.

As I have already said elsewhere[46]-- "A poet's business is, in fact, to take care that the syllables which _are_ to be rapidly p.r.o.nounced are such as easily _can_ be so; and that the syllables which are to be heavily accented are naturally those that _ought_ to be. If he gives attention to this, it does not much matter whether each foot has _two_ or _three_ syllables in it."

[Footnote 45: _Riche_ being both A.S. and French, has the _e_ even when indefinite; a riche king, 841; a riche man, 373.]

[Footnote 46: Preface to Mr Morris's Genesis and Exodus, p.

x.x.xviii.]

EMENDATIONS, ETC.

[Transcriber's Note: This section is shown as printed. The editor's corrections were variously handled. Minor changes to the primary text are shown in brackets; the more complicated or tentative emendations are given as supplementary footnotes in the form [5*]. Additions to the Glossary are shown as separate, bracketed paragraphs. The following paragraph is part of the original text.]

Some emendations have been made in the text by inserting letters and words within square brackets. A few more may be noticed here.

p. 2, l. 47. The MS. has _red_; but it should be _rede_.

p. 3, l. 66. For the MS. reading _here_ Mr Garnett proposed to read _othere_, which is clearly right.

p. 3, l. 74. For _his soule_ (as in the MS.) we should probably read _of his soule_.

p. 3, l. 79. For _wo diden_ (as in the MS.) we should read _wo so dide_.

p. 6, l. 177. _Read_-- "Bi [ihesu] crist," &c, to fill up; but this is doubtful; see l. 1112.

p. 18, l. 560. For _with_, Mr Garnett proposed to read _wilt_.

p. 20, l. 640. For _ney_ (as in MS.) read _neye_, the adverbial form.

p. 21, l. 660. Perhaps there should be a comma after _Slep_, making the sense to be _sleep, son_, not _sleep soon_.

p. 23, l. 746. For _alle_, Mr Garnett proposed to read _shalle_.

p. 24, l. 784. Perhaps we should, however, read _se-weren_, and the note on the line (p. 93) may be wrong. See _Weren_ in the Glossary.

p. 32, l. 1037. For _stareden_ we should perhaps read _stradden_; see the Glossary.

p. 33, l. 1080. For _hexte_ we should rather read _hexte_ [_man_]; cf.

l. 199.

p. 38, l. 1233. Mr Garnett suggested that _cloen_ may mean _clothes_.

If so, dele the comma after it.

p. 43, l. 1420. For _wolde_ we should rather read [_he_] _wolde_.

p. 46, l. 1687. _arned_ is an error of the scribe for _oled_; see the Glossary.

p. 47, l. 1720. Perhaps we should rather read--_is womman_ [_non_].

p. 47, l. 1733. _Bidde_ must mean _offer_, rather than _bid_ (as in the Glossary); unless it be miswritten for _bide_ = tarry.

p. 47, l. 1736. The MS. reading _deled_ should be _deyled_; cf. l. 2099.

p. 76, l. 2670. The MS. reading _blinne_ should clearly be _blunne_.

A few other suggestions of emendations will be found in the Glossarial Index. See the words _Arwe_, _Bire_, _Felde_, _Sor_, _Tauhte_, _enne_, _Thit_, _Werewed_, _Wreken_, &c. See also the suggestions in the preface, pp. x.x.xix, xli, xlvi, xlvii. [-- 27: Grammatical Forms; -- 28: Metre]

p. 132, s.v. _Loken_. The reference to the Ancren Riwle is to MS. t.i.tus D 18, fol. 17; cf. the edition by Morton (Camd. Soc. 1853), p. 56.

In the Glossary, _Dunten_ is wrongly placed after _Dint_.