A BOOK OF MIDDLE ENGLISH

FOURTH EDITION

Thorlac Turville-Petre and J. A. Burrow†

This edition first published 2021
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Turville‐Petre, Thorlac, author. | Burrow, J. A. (John Anthony) author.
Title: A book of Middle English / Thorlac Turville‐Petre and J. A. Burrow.
Description: Fourth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020025354 (print) | LCCN 2020025355 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119619277 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119619291 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119619307 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: English language–Middle English, 1100‐1500–Grammar. | English language–Middle English, 1100‐1500–Readers. | English literature–Middle English, 1100‐1500.
Classification: LCC PE535 .B87 2021 (print) | LCC PE535 (ebook) | DDC 427/.02–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025354
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025355

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford / Bridgeman Images

List of Illustrations

The dialects of Middle English

Dot maps of THEM: ‘th‐’ type and ‘h‐’ type

Lines from St Erkenwald (MS Harley 2250)

A page from Confessio Amantis (MS Fairfax 3)

This book is dedicated to the memory of J. A. Burrow

Preface to the Fourth Edition

This book is a companion to Mitchell and Robinson’s Guide to Old English. It contains representative pieces of English writing from the period c.1150–c.1400. We have included examples of romance, battle poetry, chronicle, biblical narrative, debate, dialogue, dream vision, religious and mystical prose, miracle story, fabliau, lyric poetry and drama. Although the choice of pieces has been determined by literary considerations, the general introduction concentrates on matters of language. We have attempted, in this introduction, to give readers only such information about the language as we consider essential for the proper understanding and appreciation of the texts. Since these texts exhibit many varieties of Middle English, from different periods and regions, our account is inevitably selective and somewhat simplified. For further reading on the language, and also on the history and literature of the period, the reader is referred to the Bibliography.

The headnote to each text provides a brief introduction, together with a short reading list. Annotations and Glossary are both quite full; but, for reasons of space, explanations given in notes at the foot of the page are not duplicated in the Glossary.

The fourth edition has been revised throughout. It includes a new Chapter 8, ‘Translating Middle English’, and a new text, Chapter 19 ‘Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love’.

Our debts to earlier editors will be evident throughout. We are particularly grateful to Ronald Waldron for allowing us to use his work on the Trevisa (text 12). Hanneke Wirtjes kindly read Part One and suggested improvements. We received advice from the Custodian of Berkeley Castle, Richard Beadle, Erin Connolly, Alison McHardy, Joanna Martin, Jeremy Smith, Michael Smith, Timothy Stinson and his students, Myra Stokes, and Anthony Tuck. For help with the etymological entries in the Glossary we owe a great debt to David A. H. Evans. We are also grateful to the libraries which granted us access to their manuscripts, to Aberdeen University Press for permission to reproduce the maps on p. 16, to the many colleagues who responded to the questionnaire originally sent out by the publishers, and to several reviewers and correspondents who suggested improvements. I dedicate this edition to the memory of J. A. Burrow.

T.T.‐P.

Abbreviations

AV | Authorized Version of the Bible
Bede, History | Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969)
Chaucer | References are to The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson (Boston, 1987; Oxford, 1988)
EETS | Early English Text Society (e.s. = extra series)
Guide to Old English | Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to
| Old English (6th edn, Oxford, 2001)
Linguistic Atlas | A. McIntosh, M. L. Samuels and M. Benskin, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (Aberdeen, 1986)
ME | Middle English
MED | Middle English Dictionary
OE | Old English
OED | Oxford English Dictionary
ON | Old Norse
PL | Patrologia Latina, ed. J.‐P. Migne
Trevisa, Properties | On the Properties of Things. Ɉohn Trevisa’s Translation of Bartholomæus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Oxford, 1975)
Vulgate | References are to the Douai translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible (see 12/92n.)
Whiting | B. J. Whiting and H. W. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly Before 1500 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968)

Abbreviations of grammatical terms are listed in the Headnote to the Glossary.

Part One

1
Introducing Middle English

1.1 The Period

The term ‘Middle English’ has its origins in nineteenth‐century studies of the history of the English language. German philologists then divided the history into three main periods: Old (alt‐), Middle (mittel‐), and New or Modern (neu‐). Middle English is commonly held to begin about 1100–50 and end about 1450–1500. Unlike periods in political history, many of which can be dated quite precisely if need be (by a change of monarch or dynasty or regime), linguistic periods can be defined only loosely. Languages change all the time in all their aspects – vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical forms, syntax, etc. – and it is impossible to decide exactly when such changes add up to something worth calling a new period. Yet, for all this lack of precision, it seems clear that the language of a mid‐twelfth‐century writing such as our extract from the Peterborough Chronicle (text 1) differs sufficiently from Old English to count as belonging to a new period.

1.1.1 From Old to Middle English

The Old English described in our companion volume, Mitchell and Robinson’s Guide to Old English, is based on the language of the West‐Saxon kingdom as it was written in the days of King Alfred of Wessex (d. 899). It was the English of this part of the country which, in the last century before the Norman Conquest in 1066, came to be accepted as the standard written form of English. People went on talking in their own various dialects; but most of the English writings set down at this time (including most Old English poetry and prose known to us) conform to this Late West‐Saxon standard language. As is usually the case with such standards, this written English owed its predominance to a political fact: the predominance of Wessex itself under King Alfred and his successors over the other old kingdoms of Anglo‐Saxon England. But after 1066, Wessex became no more than one, rather remote, part of a French‐speaking king’s realm; and the language of Wessex accordingly lost its special status too, ending up eventually as just another form of written Middle English: ‘South‐Western’. This development goes a long way to explain why most writings of the twelfth century present such a different appearance from those of the tenth or eleventh. The language as spoken had, of course, changed in the interval, but the nature of our written evidence for it changed more drastically. Twelfth‐century scribes, unlike their Anglo‐Saxon predecessors, customarily employed whichever form of English they or their authors happened to use. Hence they represent in their writings changes which had already occurred in the spoken language of late Old English, but which had left no more than occasional traces in the writings of that period. For it is the nature of standard forms of language to be fixed and therefore conservative in the face of linguistic change. Three features particularly distinguish Middle from Old English:

A much simpler system of inflexions, especially in nouns and adjectives. A major cause of this simplification was the tendency to blur the distinction between vowel‐sounds in the unstressed syllables of words, reducing most of them to /ǝ/, the sound heard in the unstressed, second syllable of the modern word ‘China’. Since inflexional endings were regularly unstressed, this tendency obliterated many distinctions between them, e.g. between Old English stānes (genitive singular of the masculine noun stān, ‘stone’) and stānas (nominative and accusative plural). An associated change was the eventual loss in all Middle English dialects of ‘grammatical gender’ in nouns and adjectives, since the division of these into masculine, feminine and neuter in Old English had depended upon inflexional distinctions most of which failed to survive. (On inflexions generally, see chapter 4 below.)

Increased reliance upon word‐order and prepositions to mark the relationships of words in a sentence. This change also goes along with the simplification of inflexions. In many singular nouns, for instance, Old English had distinguished the nominative (subject) form from the accusative (object) form. Where that distinction was lost, as in Middle English generally, it was only word‐order that could distinguish the subject of a verb from its object. (On Middle English syntax, see chapter 5 below.)

An increasingly more ‘mixed’ vocabulary. English is in its origin a Germanic language. The vocabulary of Old English had relatively few words from other sources (though there were significant borrowings from the Latin of the Church). By contrast, Middle English draws heavily on French and Latin, and also on the languages of the Scandinavian settlers who had populated large areas of England (but not Wessex) in the later Anglo‐Saxon period. (On Middle English vocabulary, see chapter 3 below.)

1.1.2 From Middle to Modern English

Our anthology of prose and verse is mainly confined, for purely practical reasons, to writings before 1400; but historians of the language commonly hold the Middle English period to have extended for as much as a century after that date, placing its end at about 1450–1500. This dating evidently owes a good deal to non‐linguistic considerations (the coming of the Tudors in 1485, or even ‘the waning of the Middle Ages’), and it is not easy to justify from a strictly linguistic point of view. But two factors may be singled out:

The Great Vowel Shift. This complex set of changes in the pronunciation of English long vowels serves more than anything else to explain the differences between Chaucer’s pronunciation and our own (see below, 2.2.1). Yet these changes occurred over a long period of time and were by no means complete by 1500.

The rise of Modern Standard English. The history of this familiar form of the written (not spoken) language properly begins about 1430, with the so‐called ‘Chancery Standard’ employed by bureaucrats in Westminster and elsewhere. The advent of printing in 1473 or 1474, when William Caxton first printed a book in English, eventually served to confirm the national standing of that form of English. The Middle English period may therefore be said to have ended with the establishment of a new national written standard, just as it may be said to have begun with the disestablishment of an old one (1.1.1 above).

1.2 Varieties of Middle English

The absence of a nationally recognized standard of written English in the period unfortunately presents readers of Middle English literature with problems of linguistic diversity much greater than those encountered in the reading of post‐medieval texts – or indeed Old English ones. Geoffrey Chaucer complained of the ‘gret diversité / In Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge’ (Troilus 5.1793–4). This complaint makes a necessary distinction, between ‘Englissh’ and the ‘writyng’ of it. Any language spoken by many people for any length of time will naturally exhibit ‘gret diversité’: usage will vary from place to place, time to time, occupation to occupation, individual to individual. The function of a fixed written standard is to mask such variations in so far as they interfere with communication across barriers of place, time, etc. It is the absence of such a generally accepted standard in Middle English which leads to the ‘gret diversité in writyng of oure tonge’ observed by Chaucer.

1.2.1 Regional Dialects

The main source of diversity in written Middle English is regional and local variation. Spoken English has always been diversified in this way and still is today; but literary texts outside the Middle English period rarely exhibit any regional forms other than those represented in the written standards observed by authors, scribes or printers. By contrast, authors in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries generally wrote the English that they spoke – whether in London, Hereford, Peterborough, or York – and the scribes who copied their work either preserved that language or else more or less consistently substituted their own, equally local, forms.

There are several different ways of classifying the many regional varieties of Middle English. The simplest is to distinguish, as John Trevisa did in the fourteenth century, between ‘Southeron, Northeron, and Myddel speche’. Modern scholars commonly make further distinctions, at least for the Southern and Midland areas, which are more fully represented in surviving texts than the Northern. Thus, in our own map (p. 7), we distinguish South‐Eastern from South‐Western, and West Midland from East Midland. Further refinements are of course possible; but even these bear only a rough‐and‐ready relation to realities. To describe a regional dialect is to specify certain features which are held to be characteristic of its vocabulary, idiom, spelling, grammatical forms, sounds, etc. But if you take such features and map them individually according to their occurrence in localizable texts, as has been done for many in the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (see Bibliography, 9.2, and map p. 16 here), two awkward facts emerge. First, an individual dialect feature – say, a locally characteristic word – will not normally be separated off from its neighbouring alternatives by a clear boundary. Second, such boundaries as can be drawn, albeit roughly, for individual features – the so‐called ‘isoglosses’ – will not commonly coincide or bundle together with one another in such a way as to define a single firm and satisfactory dialect boundary. Rather, what one finds is a ‘complex of overlapping distributions’ (Linguistic Atlas I 4).

Something of the range of dialect variation in Middle English may be gathered from text 18a, the Reeve’s Tale. Here Chaucer, himself a Londoner, imitates the speech of two students from ‘fer in the north’ – probably Northumberland, and therefore well north of the northernmost of our texts (no. 15). He notices three main types of feature:

Phonological: especially the Northern preservation of Old English (and Scandinavian) /a:/ in words where London English had an ‘open o’, /ɔ:/ (see 2.2.1 below). Thus: bathe, twa, wha, when Chaucer normally has bothe, two, who.

Inflexional: especially the ‐(e)s ending for the third person present indicative of verbs (see 4.5.2 below). Thus: he fyndes, he brynges. This Northern and North Midland form later spread south and superseded Southern ‐eth, which was Chaucer’s usual form. Hence it is the students’ form, not Chaucer’s, which will in this case appear ‘normal’ to the modern reader.

Lexical: words and meanings alien to London English. Thus: the words heythen, ‘hence’, and ille, ‘bad’; and hope in the sense ‘expect’. Many of these are of Scandinavian origin (see 3.2 below).The dialect areas of Middle English cannot be at all precisely mapped, as one can map a county. It remains possible, of course, to describe this or that feature as broadly characteristic of this or that area; and later sections of this introduction will touch on some regional variations in inflexions and vocabulary. But the introduction will mostly be concerned with outlining the general features of Middle English, leaving peculiarities of individual texts to be briefly treated in their respective headnotes.

The dialects of Middle English. The mappings of the texts are approximate. They represent the dialects of the texts as printed here from scribal copies, which may differ from the author’s own regional form of English. For further details see the individual headnotes, and for comments on ‘dialect boundaries’ see 1.2.1.

The Peterborough Chronicle

The Owl and the Nightingale

Laʒamon’s Brut

Ancrene Wisse

Sir Orfeo

The Cloud of Unknowing

Langland: Piers Plowman

Patience

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Pearl

St Erkenwald

Trevisa: Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk

Gower: Confessio Amantis

Lyrics

The York Play of the Crucifixion

Chaucer: The Parliament of Fowls

Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love

1.2.2 Early and Late Middle English

It would be wrong to leave the impression that the ‘gret diversité’ of written Middle English is solely a matter of regional variation. There is variation over time as well as over space. The texts represented in this book span a period of about 250 years, and even in the Middle Ages 250 years was a long time. Our selection opens with a group of Early Middle English writings by twelfth‐ and early thirteenth‐century poets and prose writers whose language would have appeared distinctly archaic to their fourteenth‐century successors. Laʒamon and Langland both belonged to the same South‐West Midland dialect area; but Langland would have found much that was strange in the vocabulary and inflexions of Laʒamon’s Brut, had he known it.

1.2.3 Spelling

One further source of diversity remains to be mentioned. The absence of a national written standard means that, even where differences of spoken form are not in question, the same word may be spelled in a variety of different ways. The writing of Middle English was by no means an uncontrolled or anarchic activity; and in some cases the usage of a scribe can be shown to be quite strictly determined by a local school of practice, such as that in which the writer of Ancrene Wisse (text no. 4 here) was evidently trained. But the usage of such ‘schools’ prevailed only in specific areas and for limited periods of time; and in general one has to be prepared for a good deal of inconsistency in scribal spellings. The evidence for this may be found in our Glossary, where we have frequently had to cross‐refer from one form of a word to another.

2
Pronouncing Middle English

2.1 Introduction

Although the scribes who copied our texts wrote Middle English in a variety of differing forms, their spelling generally keeps closer to the sounds of words than does that of Modern English. Modern English spelling, largely fixed by the usage of early printers, has in many words preserved letters which no longer correspond to anything in the changed spoken language – as in ‘knight’, for instance. Middle English spelling, being more fluid, was better able to adapt to changes in pronunciation as they occurred. None of the spelling systems represented in this book can be called ‘phonetic’, in the sense of having one and only one written symbol for each sound; but there are relatively few words in which a letter (like k in modern ‘knight’) has no corresponding sound in the spoken form.

It is always desirable to have some idea of how poetry should sound; but in the case of Middle English writings – prose as well as verse – there are particular reasons for trying to hear as well as see them. In an age when written copies were still relatively scarce, texts were often transmitted by reading them aloud to a listener or group: in his Troilus, Chaucer describes Criseyde sitting with two other ladies in her parlour listening to a maiden reading aloud from a book (17/81–4). Even solitary readers commonly murmured as they read. The kind of speed‐reading which leaps straight from the printed form of a word to its meaning was rarely possible in an age of manuscript, where handwritings and spellings varied from copy to copy. Hence medieval texts make bold use of effects designed to strike the ear – rhymes, alliterations, rhythmical parallels, and the like.

What follows is no more than a rough guide, to enable readers to produce or imagine approximately the right sounds. These are indicated between slashes (/ /). Where modern equivalents are given, these are drawn from standard British English (RP, ‘Received Pronunciation’). For fuller accounts of Middle English phonology, see Blake (1992) and Jordan in Bibliography 9.2 below.

2.2 Vowels

2.2.1 The Long Vowels

The main system of long vowel sounds in Middle English was as follows (a colon indicates length):

/a:/ | as in modern ‘father’
/ε:/ | as in French ‘bête’ (‘open e’, roughly as in modern ‘there’)
/e:/ | as in French ‘thé’ (‘close e’, roughly as in modern ‘say’)
/i:/ | as in modern ‘see’
/ɔ:/ | roughly as in modern ‘broad’ (‘open o’)
/o:/ | as in French ‘eau’ (‘close o’, roughly as in modern ‘go’)
/u:/ | as in modern ‘do’

The following Middle English words illustrate typical ways of representing these sounds:

save and caas (modern ‘case’) have /a:/

lene, heeth and death commonly have /ε:/

nede and sweete have /e:/

fine and shyne have /i:/

holy and oon (modern ‘one’) have /ɔ:/

foot and mone (modern ‘moon’) have /o:/

hous and lowde have /u:/

Three observations may be added. The long open e, /ε:/, was unstable: words such as lene commonly have variants with the long close vowel, /e:/. Secondly, neither the distinction between open and close long e nor that between open and close long o is regularly marked by Middle English spelling. Modern spellings are a better guide, in cases where the word survives. Thus ‐ee‐ and ‐oo‐ in modern words (e.g. ‘feet’, ‘moon’) frequently indicate a close vowel in the Middle English word. Similarly, ‐ea‐ and ‐oa‐ in modern words (e.g. ‘heath’, ‘boat’) frequently indicate earlier open vowels. Finally, it should be noted that two of our early texts, nos 1 and 3, employ the Old English vowel symbol æ (known as ‘ash’), most often for /ε:/, but also for /a:/.

It will be seen that in Middle English spellings the letters a, e, i, o, and u, when they represent long vowels, have values very different from those in Modern English. But it is Modern English which is out of line here. Middle English scribes followed Latin usage (going back to the time when Anglo‐Saxon was first written in the Latin alphabet) and also, to a lesser extent, French. This is the usage which still prevails in the writing of French and other continental languages. English is now ‘out of line’ as a result of a series of changes which affected all the English sounds in question during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the so‐called Great Vowel Shift. Thus, Middle English /a:/ shifted to /e:/; but the words in which it occurred (‘case’, ‘name’ etc.) preserved their old a spelling. Similar changes affected the sounds but not the spellings of the other Middle English long vowels. So, by the eighteenth century:

/a:/ | became /e:/ and later the diphthong /ei/ (modern ‘name’)
/ε:/ | became either /e:/ (modern ‘break’) or more often /i:/ (modern ‘heath’)
/e:/ | became /i:/ (modern ‘see’)
/i:/ | became the diphthong /ai/ (modern ‘time’)
/ɔ:/ | became /o:/ (modern ‘boat’)
/o:/ | became /u:/ (modern ‘moon’)
/u:/ | became the diphthong /au/ (modern ‘house’)

2.2.2 The Short Vowels

The letters e and i or y, where they represent short vowels in words such as Middle English hell, pit or synne, are to be pronounced as in Modern English. The letter a is always to be pronounced /a/ as in French ‘patte’, not as in the modern ‘cat’ (in Received Pronunciation). The letter æ (in nos 1 and 3 only), where it represents a short vowel, signifies either /a/ or /e/. The letter u is always to be pronounced /u/ as in modern ‘put’, even in words whose modern descendants have the sound of ‘cut’; but where the modern descendant has an e or i (as in ‘merry’ for the Western Middle English murie, or ‘kin’ for Western kunne), the u is to be pronounced as in French ‘du’. The letter o is normally much as in Modern English ‘God’; but it also acts as a spelling for /u/ in words such as yong or love (where modern usage commonly offers a guide).

2.2.3 Unstressed Final ‐e

In the spelling of modern words such as ‘name’, ‘fine’ and ‘nice’, the final letter ‐e serves to define the sound of the previous vowel and often also that of the intervening consonant. In Middle English spelling, however, it had a more straightforward function: to indicate a final e sound. Sometimes it represents the sound /e:/, in which case it is distinguished in this book by an acute accent (pité, pronounced /pite:/). But its main function was to represent the unstressed final /ǝ/, as in the second syllable of modern ‘China’. Thus, in the poetry of Gower, a word such as name will have two syllables, /na:mǝ/, except where the final vowel is lost before a following word which begins with a vowel or some kinds of h‐ (see 6.2 below). There was, however, a tendency for /ǝ/ to be lost in such unstressed positions, especially in more northerly dialects. Hence the rhymes of the Gawain‐poet indicate a northerly usage varying between pronounced and silent final ‐e: compare the rhymes in 9/176, 178 and 9/413, 415 here.

2.2.4 The Diphthongs

One may start with the assumption that, in Middle English spelling, combinations of vowel‐letters such as ai or au represent (as they rarely do in modern spelling) sequences which begin with the sound indicated by the first letter and end with the sound indicated by the second. Thus, Middle English day was pronounced with /a/ + /i/, as a single syllable, much like modern ‘die’; and Middle English cause has the diphthong of modern ‘cow’, /a/ + /u/. Similarly, eu or ew represent an e sound followed by /u/, which is also as it should be. But note the following:

ei originally represented /e/ + /i/; but this diphthong developed into /a/ + /i/ in the thirteenth century. So alwey rhymes with may thereafter.

oi commonly represented /o/ + /i/, but also sometimes /u/ + /i/. The two diphthongs occur as alternatives in certain words, e.g. boy.

ou or ow represented /o/ + /u/ in such words as foughten; but in words now pronounced with /au/, like ‘house’, they represented /u:/. (See 2.2.1 above.)

ea and eo spellings do not represent diphthongs in Middle English, though they had done so in Old English. In each case, the Old English diphthong has become a single vowel sound in Middle English, while retaining the two‐letter spelling. So Middle English ea represents /ε:/; and eo represents /e/ when short, and /e:/ when long. In Early Middle English writings of Western origin such as Laʒamon’s Brut or Ancrene Wisse (texts 3 and 4 here), however, eo is to be pronounced like the vowel in French ‘peuple’ (short or long).

2.3 Consonants

We have already seen how, in the post‐medieval period, the spelling of vowels failed to keep pace with changes in the sounds themselves (2.2.1 above). The spoken language went on changing, but the written or printed language assumed a standardized, and therefore largely unchanging, set of forms. The result, so far as consonants are concerned, is that modern spelling persists in recording sounds which have long since ceased to be pronounced at all. Examples are the initial letters in modern ‘gnaw’, ‘knot’ and ‘wring’; the final letters in ‘damn’ and ‘comb’; and the medial letters of ‘would’ and (in most pronunciations) ‘night’. It can safely be assumed that letters such as these are to be pronounced whenever they occur in medieval spellings. Thus, Middle English gnawen begins with /g/ – as one might, after all, expect.

Middle English scribes, as represented in this book, employed three consonant symbols unfamiliar to the modern reader. These are: ð (known as ‘eth’), þ (‘thorn’), and ʒ (‘yogh’). Of these, the first two both represent what would now be called ‘th sounds’, without distinguishing in either case between the initial sounds of ‘thin’ and ‘this’. ‘Eth’ is the Latin d with a cross‐stroke, hence Ð in its capital form. This went out of fashion earlier than ‘thorn’, a letter borrowed by Anglo‐Saxon scribes from the runic alphabet. In some areas the letter þ became indistinguishable from y: hence the use of y for th in ‘Ye Olde Teashoppe’. This confusion no doubt contributed to the general adoption of the two‐letter spelling th after 1400. ‘Yogh’ (ʒ) is simply the descendant of the Anglo‐Saxon letter‐form for g, which Middle English scribes retained alongside the ancestor of the modern form of g. They tended to use modern g for the stop consonant as in ‘good’, reserving ʒ for other purposes. It corresponds to modern consonantal y in words such as ʒong, ‘young’, and to modern gh in words such as riʒt, ‘right’. In the latter case, ʒ represents sounds heard in Scots ‘licht’ and ‘loch’.

The adoption of th for þ and of gh for ʒ in later Middle English contributed to the establishment of a set of modern two‐letter spellings for single consonant sounds, where h is regularly the second, differentiating letter. Thus: ch, gh, sh, th. This pattern not being yet established in Middle English, ‘child’ may be spelt cild, ‘shall’ may be schal.

2.4 Stress

The main rule governing word‐stress in Middle English is to place the primary stress on a word’s first syllable unless that syllable is an unstressable prefix. Thus: wíldernes, kíngdom; but uncoúþ, bihýnden. Since this is also modern English practice, the reader will encounter no difficulty with most words.

Stressing on the first syllable was a general rule in Germanic languages, which therefore governed Scandinavian borrowings in Middle English as well as native words. The rule in medieval French, however, was almost the exact opposite: to stress a word on the heavy syllable closest to the end of the word (so not, for example, on an unstressable final /ǝ/). English has borrowed many words from French, and in most cases these now conform to the Germanic rule; but in Middle English such words commonly vary between French and native stressing – thus, natúre beside náture. Mossé, in his Handbook of Middle English, illustrates this with a line of Chaucer’s: ‘In dívers art and in divérse figures’.

Middle English words of two or more syllables have, more frequently than in Modern English, a secondary as well as a primary stress. Thus Gower can rhyme lye with avánterìe (13/39, 40) and springe with knówlechìnge (13/15, 16).

3
Vocabulary

3.1 Introduction

The vocabulary of Middle English is considerably more varied in its origins than that of Old English (see above, 1.1.1 (iii)). This variety has two main causes: the influence of Scandinavian languages, and the combined influences of Latin and its vernacular derivative, French. These influences operated in different ways. French or Latin words might be adopted or ‘borrowed’ wherever English people used those languages, which could be anywhere in the country; but Scandinavian loan‐words appeared at first only in those northern and eastern regions where Danish or Norwegian was spoken. Although many such borrowings from Scandinavia eventually came into general use, they had, to begin with, a distinctively regional distribution.

3.2 Scandinavian

Scandinavian or ‘Viking’ raids on Anglo‐Saxon England led to settlements whose southern and western limit was defined roughly by a line drawn from London to Chester in a treaty of about 886. To the north and east of this line lay the Danelaw. Large parts of this area were settled by the immigrants, as is still shown by place‐names with Scandinavian elements such as ‘‐by’ and ‘‐thorpe’ (Grimsby in Lincolnshire, Milnthorpe in Cumbria). In these circumstances, Scandinavian words naturally found their way into the speech of the native English who came into contact with the settlers, and also into the speech of the settlers themselves as they came to abandon their own Danish or Norwegian and speak the language of their adopted country – a process evidently complete by the twelfth century.

Many such Scandinavian loan‐words have continued throughout their career in English to be regional or ‘dialect’ words. Thus the borrowing from Danish, kay meaning ‘left’ (Sir Gawain, 9/422 here), survived as a Cheshire dialect word into modern times, but never achieved general currency. Chaucer attributes several such words to the two Northumbrian students in his Reeve’s Tale (text 18a here), as part of a humorous imitation of their Northern speech: e.g. lathe for ‘barn’ (Old Norse hlaða). It should be remembered, however, that local users of such words, in Cheshire or Northumberland, would not have regarded them as ‘dialectal’, still less have used them with any special intention of local colour – in the absence, that is, of any recognized national standard vocabulary with which they might be contrasted.

But Scandinavian influence upon English vocabulary is by no means confined to areas of the Danelaw. By a process of secondary, internal borrowing, many loan‐words came to be used in other, and often in all, parts of the country. In this way such very common words as ‘die’, ‘knife’, ‘law’, ‘skin’ and ‘take’ early established themselves in the mainstream of English, and so formed part of the normal vocabulary of Southern writers such as Gower or Chaucer. This process of adoption continued throughout the Middle English period. Thus the word ‘ill’, from Old Norse illr, used in Sir Gawain (9/346), had not yet penetrated to London by 1400: Chaucer attributes it to his Northern students. The most remarkable case is that of the pronouns of the third person plural, modern ‘they, their, them’. It is rare for a language to borrow pronouns from another; but in the course of the Middle English period, these Scandinavian forms in ‘th‐’ gradually replaced native forms beginning with ‘h‐’ (Old English hie, hiera, him). The first to be replaced were the nominative forms derived from Old English hie, which had become easily confused with the third person singular forms such as he or hi. By 1400, the Scandinavian ‘they’ had been adopted practically everywhere; but ‘their’ and ‘them’ are found only sporadically south of a line from the Wash to the Severn. Thus Chaucer and Gower have a mixed set: they, here, hem. (See map, p. 16.)

Since Scandinavian languages were a branch of that same Germanic family to which English also belonged, many of the settlers’ words were similar in form and meaning to kindred (‘cognate’) native words. So in Middle English we find Scandinavian forms such as kyrk (Old Norse kirkja) and gyfe (Old Norse gefa) in more northerly texts (e.g. St Erkenwald, 11/16, 276), where southerly writers will use the equivalent native forms chirche (Old English cirice) and yive (Old English giefan).

3.3 English, French and Latin

Neither English literature nor the English language, as they developed in the years 1150–1400, can be understood without appreciating that there were in England throughout this period not one but three languages in active use: English, French and Latin. Latin was especially the second (or third) language of the scholar or ‘clerk’, who learned it in the Grammar course which formed the first part and foundation of the common medieval school syllabus (the Seven Liberal Arts). It was spoken – since women more rarely had the opportunity of learning Latin – mostly by men: monks preaching, diplomats negotiating, philosophers disputing. It was also the common written language of official documents, chronicles, the liturgy of the Church, theological treatises, and the like. Many native poets, too, wrote their verses in Latin. French and English were both in more general use. Norman French had been the first, maternal language of the Norman conquerors. For how long French continued to be the first language of the aristocracy and royalty of England is a matter of considerable dispute. King Henry IV (b. 1366) is said to have been the first post‐Conquest English monarch whose maternal language was English. Many other English people, especially among the gentry, spoke and wrote French; but for them it was generally a second, acquired language, more or less familiar but increasingly recognized as foreign. It remained, however, an acknowledged medium of administrative, legal and polite discourse, used and understood throughout the country – though not, usually, by the common people, whose sole language was most often English. This was the language which, according to one mid‐fourteenth‐century writer, everyone knew, learned and ignorant alike: ‘Boþe lered and lewed, olde and ʒonge, / Alle understonden English tonge’ (Speculum Vitae).

[picture]

THEM: ‘th‐’ type, all variants.

THEM: ‘h‐’ type, all forms.

These two maps, reproduced with permission from A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (see Bibliography 9.2), show the distribution of words for ‘them’ beginning with ‘th‐’ (e.g. them, tham) and ‘h‐’ (e.g. hem, ham) respectively. The lighter dots mark the locality of the texts used as evidence by the Atlas. The heavy dots indicate the frequency of the forms in question in those texts where they occur: thus, the largest black dot indicates that the forms are either unrivalled or dominant there. These particular maps show that, in the period 1350–1450 covered by the Atlas, ‘h‐’ forms deriving from Old English were largely confined south of a line from the Mersey to the Wash, while the Northern ‘th‐’ forms, from Old Norse, were spreading south into that area: see 3.2 and 4.3.5.

Nowadays ‘literature‐in‐England’ forms only a small part of ‘literature‐in‐English’; but in the period 1150–1400 the opposite was the case. Literature‐in‐English was only a part of literature‐in‐England. Three examples will illustrate this. The early thirteenth‐century Ancrene Wisse (text 4 here) was written first in English for a community of anchoresses in Herefordshire; but it was soon translated into French and into Latin for the benefit of other readers – perhaps more noble in the one case and more learned in the other – who had devoted themselves to the religious life. Laʒamon’s Brut (also early thirteenth‐century, text 3 here) is an English version of a French poem by the Jersey poet Wace, who wrote, or so Laʒamon reports, for Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of the English king Henry II. Wace’s Brut, in turn, is a version of a Latin chronicle of the kings of Britain written by another subject of the English crown, Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the 1130s. John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, written in the late fourteenth century (text 13 here), is, for all its Latin title, a poem in English; but Gower also wrote a long poem in Latin, the Vox Clamantis, and another in French, the Mirour de l’Omme – though this last effectively marked the end of Anglo‐Norman literature.

Given the co‐existence of these three languages, it is natural that words and idioms should have been carried over from one to another by bilingual users. Thus, French borrowed learned terms from Latin, and Latin drew on both French and English for various contemporary terms of technology, law, and the like. But English was the chief ‘borrower’, partly because it was for long the language of least prestige, and partly because, as it came to share and eventually take over the functions of French and later of Latin, it took over their vocabulary for the purpose.

3.4 Latin Loan‐Words

Old English had already borrowed words from Latin, and in Middle English direct borrowing from Latin continued, but still on a fairly modest scale. Even such an evidently clerical work as St Erkenwald (text 11 here) has only four clear cases of post‐Conquest Latin borrowing: the administrative terms commit (201) and deputate (227), and the ecclesiastical martilage (‘martyrology’, 154) and pontificals (130). In the whole of the more popular romance Sir Orfeo (text 5) there are none at all. Direct borrowing from the Latin becomes more extensive in the work of fourteenth‐century translators of learned Latin treatises, such as John Trevisa (text 12 here); but these translators mark only the beginnings of the long process by which English was to supersede Latin as the language of learning and adopt much of its specialized terminology accordingly.

3.5 French Loan‐Words

Like all Romance languages, French derives from the spoken language of the Roman Empire; but medieval French also borrowed direct, in both England and France, from the Latin known to and used by the scholars of the time. Thus, the medieval French word processioun did not come down in the vernacular from Roman antiquity: it was borrowed from the medieval Latin processio(nem). The Middle English processioun (5/587 here) reflects the form of the French word; but it is difficult – and unnecessary, so far as stylistic values are concerned – to distinguish between Latin and French sources in such a case. Perhaps it would be better to say that ‐ion and ‐ation words and many other similar are ‘Latin‐French’.

But French influence upon Middle English vocabulary was by no means confined to such rather bookish‐sounding Latinate words. Consider the opening lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,

þe borʒ brittened and brent to brondez and askez …

All the words in the second line are of Germanic (Old English or Scandinavian) origin; but the first line turns on three French words alliterating together. Sese (‘cease’, Old French cesser, Latin cessare) is an example of a French word expressing a common idea with, in English, a certain extra politesse. Sege and assaut both belong to the language of post‐Conquest warfare: a castle (French castel) is first besieged and then assaulted. Yet there is no strong sense of stylistic contrast between the two lines: taken together, they illustrate rather the intimate blending of the two languages. It has been calculated that, of a total of 2,650 words in this particular poem, as many as 750 are of French origin.

4
Inflexions

4.1 Introduction

4.1.1 The Inflexional System

The inflexions of a word are its changes in form to express grammatical function and meaning. Some classes of word have preserved their system of inflexion better than others in Modern English; verbs, for example, distinguish tense, past from present, and third person (e.g. ‘goes’) from other persons; nouns distinguish number, singular from plural. The inflexional system to distinguish case has for the most part been greatly simplified. In Modern English, distinct case‐forms survive best in personal pronouns: e.g. he, his, him; where he is the subject (‘nominative’) form, his the possessive (‘genitive’) form, and him the object form, used for the direct object of verbs, the object of prepositions (as in ‘with him’), and the indirect object of verbs (as in ‘I gave him the book’). Old and Early Middle English pronouns commonly distinguish two object forms: the ‘accusative’ for the direct object of verbs (as in hine bilæfde, ‘left him’, 3/3); the ‘dative’ for the indirect object (as in him is loþ, ‘is hateful to him’, 2/194), and for the object of many prepositions. The distinction between accusative and dative forms is generally lost early in the Middle English period so that a single object case remains, as in Modern English.

4.1.2 Loss of Inflexional Endings

By comparison with Modern English, Old English was highly inflected. In Late Old English there was a gradual loss of distinctiveness in inflexional endings and short vowels in unstressed syllables were progressively simplified, until by the eleventh century in most dialects they had all been reduced to one, usually written e, and sounded as /ə/ (the final sound of Modern English ‘China’). In addition, the dative ending ‐um had in Late Old English become /ən/, which in Middle English was written as ‐en. These early sound‐changes had profound consequences for the system of inflexions as well as for the distinctions in grammatical gender that depended upon that system.

Two rather later sound‐changes that had further effects upon inflexions were the loss in unstressed syllables of final ‐n after ‐e, and then the loss of final ‐e itself. To take as an example the infinitive of a verb: drincan in Old English became drinken in Early Middle English (as in 4/68), then drinke, and finally drink. This last stage was reached during the thirteenth century in parts of the North, and had probably extended to the whole country by the beginning of the fifteenth century, although the situation is obscured by the tendency of later scribes to add final ‐e when it was not sounded.

The process of change and simplification advanced at very different rates in the various dialects of Middle English. The earliest Middle English texts of the North and East already have a system of inflexions radically different from that of standard written Old English, while the dialects of the South and West were much less innovative, no doubt partly because they were less sharply brought up against the language of the Scandinavian settlers. These variations in the pace of development are strikingly illustrated by a comparison of the earliest of our texts, the mid‐twelfth‐century Peterborough Chronicle from the North‐East Midlands (text 1), with three late twelfth‐ and thirteenth‐century texts from the South and from the South‐West Midlands, The Owl and the Nightingale, Laʒamon’s Brut and the Ancrene Wisse (texts 2–4). In very many respects the language of these latter works is much more conservative than that of The Peterborough Chronicle, and represents a transitional system undergoing a process of simplification and loss that was already well advanced in the North and East.

4.2 Nouns

4.2.1 Introduction

The blurring of vowels in unstressed syllables had consequences that may clearly be seen in the noun inflexions. The system in Old English was complex, with differentiation possible between gender, case, and strong and weak classes. So the nominative plural of nouns might be marked by ‐as, ‐u, ‐a, ‐e, ‐an or no ending at all, and other endings distinguished one case from another. With the falling together of unstressed vowels, the whole variety of inflexional endings was reduced to ‐e, ‐es, ‐en and ‐ene. In practice only those forms ending in a consonant, ‐es and ‐en, were sharply distinctive, and therefore they were useful as grammatical markers, to indicate possession and to distinguish the plural. The ending ‐es was the marker of the genitive singular of the Old English strong masculine nouns; it was the most distinctive of all the endings in the singular, and in Middle English it became generalized to serve as the ending for the genitive of the great majority of nouns, and indeed the only singular inflexion that regularly survived. Similarly the ending ‐as, the nominative and accusative plural ending of Old English strong masculine nouns, developed into ‐es in Middle English, and in many dialects became the usual way of marking the plural. Southern dialects, on the other hand, preferred the ‐en ending of the plural, derived from the Old English weak plural ending ‐an, and extended this ending to nouns that historically had other endings, as in shon, ‘shoes’ (OE plural scōs), and sunnen, ‘sins’ (OE plural synna). These endings, either ‐es or ‐en, were then extended throughout the plural, until there was no distinction of case there.

In this way the modern system of noun inflexions was reached, with distinctions in form only between singular and plural, and between the genitive singular and the other cases of the singular. (The use of an apostrophe to mark the genitive singular and genitive plural is a written convention regularized in the eighteenth century.) The concept of grammatical ‘case’ had thus been all but eliminated in the nouns, and grammatical function in Middle English is instead indicated by relatively fixed word‐order and the greatly increased use and variety of prepositions. A further consequence of the reduction of distinctive noun inflexions is that there is no longer any indication of grammatical gender except sometimes in the accompanying articles and pronouns. In Early Middle English grammatical gender survives to a limited extent (see 5.1 below); soon, however, natural gender takes its place; that is, the gender of pronouns and the like is determined not by the grammatical gender‐class of the nouns to which they refer, but by the natural distinction between human male, human female, and non‐human.

4.2.2 Noun Inflexions: Early Southern Texts

The system of noun inflexions is one of considerable variety during the Early Middle English period, particularly in the dialects of the South and the South‐West Midlands (texts 2, 3 and 4 in this book). Two basic patterns may be disentangled, principally derived from (a) OE strong masculine nouns (e.g. engel ), and (b) OE weak nouns (e.g. nama). The first pattern has no ending in the nominative and accusative singular, ‐es in the genitive and usually ‐e in the dative; the plural is marked by ‐es, often throughout, although the genitive plural sometimes ends in ‐e or ‐ene, and the dative plural sometimes in ‐e. The second pattern has ‐e throughout the singular, and generally ‐en throughout the plural. Note that in neither pattern is the accusative distinguished from the nominative. As typical paradigms we may set out engel, ‘angel’, as an example of the first pattern, and nome, ‘name’, as an example of the second:

| (a) | (b)
sg.nom./acc. | engel | nome
gen. | engles | nome
dat. | engle | nome
pl.nom./acc. | engles | nomen
gen. | engles or engle or englene | nomen
dat. | engles or engle | nomen

Some examples from texts 2, 3 and 4 in this book will better illustrate the wide diversity of noun‐endings in these early texts:

gen. sg. | havekes, ‘hawk’s’, 2/271; Drihtenes, ‘God’s’, 3/23; helle, ‘of hell’, 4/34.
dat. sg. | from þe liʒte, ‘from the light’, 2/198; to Arðure, ‘to Arthur’, 3/1; on his steden, ‘on his horse’, 3/25; in helle, ‘in hell’, 4/41; but wið ʒelp, ‘with boasting’, 4/2.
nom./acc. pl. | tide, ‘hours’, 2/26 (OE pl. tīda); crowe, ‘crows’, 2/304 (OE crāwan); wepnen, ‘weapons’, 3/52 (OE wpen); hundes, ‘dogs’, 3/115 (OE hundas); deoflen, ‘devils’, 4/32 (OE dēoflas).
gen. pl. | wise, ‘of ways’, 2/20; kingen, ‘of kings’, 3/113; Ancrene Wisse, ‘Anchoresses’ Guide’, 4/title (uninflected form Ancre).
dat. pl. | mid þine clivres, ‘with your talons’, 2/84; wit his bridde, ‘with his chicks’, 2/111; smale foʒle, ‘to small birds’, 2/277; mid sweordes, ‘with swords’, 3/69, and yet mid sweoreden, 3/143.

4.2.3 Developments in Noun Inflexions

This diversity of forms was simplified from an early date in northern and eastern parts of the country. In the mid‐twelfth century The Peterborough Chronicle (text 1) has what is essentially the modern paradigm:

sg. | nom./acc. | tun
| gen. | tunes
| dat. | tun or tune
pl. | (all cases) | tunes

After prepositions the noun in the singular sometimes has the dative ‐e, but is as often uninflected, and in later texts the inflexion is dropped altogether except in a few phrases such as of his live (rhyming with bilive), 5/583, for soþe (rhyming with to þe), 9/415. The ‐es ending, often reduced to ‐s, becomes the general marker for the plural with few exceptions; the poems of the Gawain manuscript (represented by texts 8, 9 and 10) have yʒen, ‘eyes’, and oxen. A second plural ‐en was sometimes added to yʒen, giving yʒnen (ehnen, 4/13); and similarly with child, the plural childer 8/388 (OE cildru), usual in the North, has in the South the ‘double plural’ form children, 7a/65. The genitive plural ‐(e)ne still occasionally appears in forms such as lollarne, ‘of idlers’, 7a/31.

4.2.4 Genitive Singular Without Ending

The genitive singular ending ‐e survives until the end of the period in nouns that were formerly of the feminine or weak declensions, as in fole hoves, ‘hooves of the horse’, 9/459, but it becomes increasingly rare. Gower has such genitive forms as herte, ladi, soule. The final ‐e is often dropped by later writers.

Nouns of relation ending in ‐er, such as doughter and moder, are quite commonly without ending in the genitive, as they were in Old English; examples are fader bone, ‘father’s murderer’, 11/243, fader brain, 13/170. Proper names in Northern texts often have no genitive inflection, as in Hengyst dawes, ‘Hengest’s days’, 11/8, Adam kynde, ‘Adam’s kindred’, 15/62; and note God hert, 18a/233.

4.2.5 Unchanged Plurals

A few nouns have plurals without ending. Some are survivals of Old English neuter nouns that were unchanged in the nominative and accusative plural, such as þing, 5/4, word, 2/139, wunder, 1/11, and also hors, 5/304 and other words for animals, as deore, 3/117; compare the Modern English plural ‘deer’. Others are terms of measure following a numeral: þre mile, 5/350, fyfty syþe, ‘fifty times’, 14j/46, on which see also 5.2. The plural dede, ‘deeds’, 16/82, is a late survival of the OE feminine plural dda; compare dædes already in the Peterborough Chronicle, 1/53. Words already ending in ‐s in the singular may be unchanged in the plural: kindenes, ‘kindnesses’, 6/209.

4.2.6 Mutated Plurals

Many of the Old English mutated plurals (with change of stem vowel) survive, as indeed they do in Modern English. In The Owl and the Nightingale the following forms are found for man:

sg. | nom./acc. | mon, man
| gen. | monnes
| dat. | men, manne
pl. | nom./acc. | men
| gen. | monne
| dat. | monne, manne, men

Here the mutated form men may be dative singular as well as plural. This survival of the Old English pattern is exceptional, and other texts have the mutated form only in the plural. The genitive plural is elsewhere usually men(ne)s, but note men hacches, ‘men’s kitchen‐doors’, 7a/29, and bondemen barnes, ‘villeins’ children’, 7a/70.

Other nouns of this type are:

singular | plural
fot, ‘foot’ | fet
gos, ‘goose’ | ges
mous, ‘mouse’ | mys (mus 2/87)
toþ, ‘tooth’ | teþ

Broþer had the plural breþer, 9/39, but in the South an additional ‐en plural was often added, as in bretherne, 7b/217, whence Modern English ‘brethren’.

4.3 Pronouns and Articles

4.3.1 Forms of the Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns of The Owl and the Nightingale (Southern English of c.1200) represent the forms derived from Old English. They are:

singular | plural
first person: ‘I’ and ‘we’
nom. | ich, I |  |  | we
acc. | me |  |  | us
gen. | min, mi |  | ure
dat. | me |  |  | us
second person: ‘thou’ and ‘you’
nom. | þu |  |  | ʒe
acc. | þe |  |  | ow
gen. | þin |  |  | ower
dat. | þe |  |  | ow
third person:‘he’, ‘it’, ‘she’,‘they’
singular | plural
| masc. | neut. | fem. |
nom. | he | hit | ho, he(o), hi | hi, ho, heo
acc. | hine | hit | hi, heo | hi
gen. | his | his | hire, hore | hore, heore
dat. | him | him | hire | hom, heom

4.3.2 First and Second Person Pronouns

Forms of the first and second person pronouns survived throughout the Middle English period with little change. From an early date ich is often reduced to I, as in I ne can ne I ne mai, 1/33, and in some dialects ich is attached to a verb beginning with a vowel or h or w, as in ichil, ‘I will’, 5/132, ichot (ich + wot), ‘I know’, 14g/10. Similarly þou is sometimes attached to the verb it follows, in which case its consonant is assimilated into the preceding /t/ of the verb‐ending: artow (for art þow), 5/421; neltu, ‘will you not’ (ne + wult + þu), 2/150. Min and þin are often reduced to mi and þi, but the full forms are retained before vowels and h: þi reson … þin affeccion, 6/24–5. The second person plural forms show only few variations in spelling in our texts (e.g. ʒe and ye, ow and ʒou, ower and ʒour). The general use of you as a nominative form is a development of Early Modern English, and in Middle English the distinction between the nominative ʒe and the accusative/dative ow or ʒou is generally well preserved. (On the usage of þou and ʒe see 5.4.1.)

The Old English ‘dual’ pronouns (meaning ‘we two’ and ‘you two’) survived for a short while; e.g. nominative wit, ‘we two’, 3/151, genitive unker, ‘of us two’, 2/151.

4.3.3 Third Person Pronouns: Masculine and Neuter Singular

There were minor changes in the masculine and neuter pronouns. The masculine had an unstressed nominative form a, ‘he’, as in 7b/201. The accusative hine was rapidly superseded by the dative form him; The Peterborough Chronicle already uses him as direct object, and it is universal by the fourteenth century.

In the neuter, genitive his was occasionally replaced by hit (e.g. 8/12, 11/ 309); the modern form its does not appear until the end of the sixteenth century. The dative neuter form him was also sometimes replaced by hit, but more commonly a periphrasis with ‘there‐’ was used to avoid it altogether; e.g. þarmid þu clackes, ‘you clack with it (your bill)’, 2/81; leyd þeron, ‘applied to it (harping)’, 5/30.

4.3.4 Third Person Pronouns: Feminine Singular

The changes affecting the feminine and plural pronouns over the period were far‐reaching. The forms were not sufficiently distinctive, particularly with the blurring of the quality of the vowel, and in any case varied greatly from dialect to dialect as the result of regular sound‐changes. The chaotic results are illustrated above from The Owl and the Nightingale, where he may represent either ‘he’ or ‘she’, hi may be feminine or plural, nominative or accusative.

The distinctive nominative feminine form she, the origin of which is disputed, was adopted at very different times in different parts of the country. In the spelling scæ, it first appears in the final section of The Peterborough Chronicle in the mid‐twelfth century, but two hundred years later the form ho is regularly used in the Gawain manuscript, side by side with occasional instances of scho. By the early fourteenth century, the old accusative form hi had been supplanted by the dative hire, a development that had already taken place in The Peterborough Chronicle, where hire is used as a direct object.

4.3.5 Third Person Pronouns: Plural

The forms of the plural pronoun also show major regional differences in their development. The oblique (non‐subject) forms derived from Old English survived particularly well, so that Chaucer and Gower at the end of the fourteenth century use hem, ‘them’, and here, ‘their’, but they for the nominative. The modern plural forms are Scandinavian in origin (cf. ON þeir, þeira, þeim), and they are all recorded from the beginning of the thirteenth century in the East Midlands where Scandinavian influence was strong. (See map on p. 16.)

In later texts the genitive adds ‐s when it stands alone: for hores is þe hevenryche, ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’, 8/28.

The forms of the feminine and plural pronouns as they appear in the Gawain manuscript are set out for comparison with those of The Owl and the Nightingale above:

| fem. sing. | plural (all genders)
nom. | ho or scho | þay
acc. & dat. | hir or her | hem, hom or him
gen. | hir or her | hor, her or þayr

4.3.6 The Definite Article

The definite article ‘the’ had in Old English no fewer than ten different forms depending on gender, case and number, but these distinctions could not survive the decay of the system of noun inflexions, with the result that there remained only the indeclinable form þe (or in some dialects te following ‐d/‐t, as in and te, at te). þe is the invariable form in all texts in this book except in two early works from the South and South‐West Midlands (texts 2 and 3). Forms there for the singular definite article are:

masculine: |  |
nom. | þe | (þe riche mon, 3/47)
acc. | þane, þene | (þene hul, ‘the hill’, 3/96)
gen. | þas | (þas monnes, 2/338)
dat. | þan, þon | (to þan hulle, ‘to the hill’, 3/87)
feminine: |  |
nom./acc. | þo, þa, þæ | (þo ule, ‘the owl’, 2/26)
gen./dat. | þere, þare | (þare hule, ‘of the owl’, 2/28)

The nominative and accusative neuter form is þat, still used as the definite article as well as the demonstrative: þat alre worste, ‘the worst of all’, 2/10.

Plural forms are:

nom./acc. | þa | (þa Bruttes, 3/128)
dat. | þan | (to þan hulles, 3/94)

In later texts there are occasional fossilized remains of an inflected form, as in the phrases after þan, ‘after that’, 5/597, and for þe nones, ‘indeed’, 5/53, 11/38, from the earlier for þan anes.

4.3.7 Demonstratives

As þe became the invariable form of the definite article, þat, originally its neuter form, became restricted to demonstrative use for all genders, though in early texts it is used only with singular inanimate nouns, as in al ðat iren, ‘all that iron’, 1/32–3. At first its plural is naturally that of the definite article, þa/þo, ‘those’, used for all genders: þa men, ‘those men’, 1/17, of þat stering or of þoo sterynges, 6/50.

The plural demonstrative ‘these’, þās or þs in Old English, has a range of forms in Early Middle English, as in þos word, ‘these words’, 2/139, þeose bemeres, ‘these trumpeters’, 4/8–9, þes rikeneres, ‘these auditors’, 4/46–7. In addition, a new plural þise was coined on the basis of the singular þis. Eventually two sets of forms were distinguished in sense, so that þese and þise became the forms for ‘these’, as in þise gentyle kniʒtes, ‘these noble knights’, 9/42, while þase and þose became the forms for ‘those’, as in þose traytoures, 8/77, and so displaced the earlier þa/þo as the plural of þat. In Northern texts only, the word for ‘these’ is thir/ther (15/145), of obscure origin.

The singular þis is generally undeclined, though some inflexional forms remain in Early Middle English: for example dative masculine þissen, 3/111, nominative feminine þos, 2/41.

4.3.8 The Indefinite Article

The indefinite article ‘a’ is an unstressed form of the Old English numeral ān, ‘one’. In early texts its spellings are very variable, as is illustrated within the one line An hule and one niʒtingale, ‘an owl and a nightingale’, 2/4. There are also some inflected forms, such as (in text 3) masculine accusative ænne, dative ane; (in text 2) dative feminine ore. Even in these early texts the form is often reduced to a before a consonant: a word, 2/45.

4.4 Adjectives and Adverbs

4.4.1 Definite and Indefinite Inflexions

Adjectives of one syllable ending in a consonant, e.g. old, add ‐e in the plural, and also in the singular in certain circumstances: when used with the definite article þe, a demonstrative adjective þis or þat, a possessive pronoun such as hir or our, or a name or other term of address. In other circumstances the adjective has no ending. This survival of the Old English definite (or ‘weak’) declension contrasting with the indefinite (or ‘strong’) declension may be observed up to the end of our period in the metre of careful writers of the South, such as Gower and Chaucer. Some examples are:

| singular | plural
| indefinite (without | definite (with þe, |
| þe, demonstrative | þis, þat, hire etc.) |
| or possessive) |  |
Text |  |  |
1: | god man (72) | þe ilce pining (76) | gode men (73)
4: | lud dream (3) | his wide þrote (68–9) | sharpe word (30–1)
5: | a gret ost (290) | þe selve way (341) | wide wones (365)
13: | a chambre derk (205) | þis proude vice (11) | suche wiles (190)
18a: | a whit thyng (447) | this white top (15) | wilde mares (211)

The signs are that the inflexion of adjectives was maintained in written English long after it was effectively dead in the spoken language. Though it had a metrical and rhythmic function, it could not survive the general silencing of final ‐e, and increasingly throughout the fourteenth century scribal disregard for final ‐e played havoc with the poets’ rhythms. So in Sir Orfeo, written down in about 1340, there are forms with unhistorical ‐e, such as it bled wete rhyming with fet (5/79–80), and forms that lack ‐e, such as þis ich quen (5/63), where the metre would be improved with an extra syllable.

Adjectives of more than one syllable are usually inflected in earlier texts, though less regularly in later ones: so manifældlice miracles, ‘numerous miracles’, 1/81, þe muchele angoise, ‘the great anguish’, 4/25, diverse kinges, 13/65, oþre þinges, 13/66.

Adjectives that etymologically end in ‐e in their uninflected form, such as fre, grene, swete (OE frēo, grēne, swēte), remain unchanged throughout.

4.4.2 Inflexions for Case

Though this distinction between definite and indefinite adjectival inflexions survived for a considerable time, the Old English adjectival case system was dismantled much more rapidly. In Old English the adjective agreed with its noun in case, gender and number. Only in Southern and South‐Western texts do the case‐inflexions survive to a limited extent.

In Laʒamon’s Brut (text 3) there are, in addition to the ending ‐e (or ‐en) for adjectives of the definite declension, the following inflexions for indefinite adjectives:

singular |  |
masc. | nom. | no ending: god (137)
| acc. | ‐ne: nenne (28), stærcne (59), bradne (115)
| gen. | ‐es
| dat. | ‐en: aðelen (11)
fem. | dat. | ‐ere: ludere (30), hæhʒere (126)
plural | gen. | ‐(e)re: alre (33), wihtere (125)

In The Owl and the Nightingale (text 2), adjectives add ‐e for all cases in the definite declension, and all in the indefinite declension except the nominative singular of all genders and the accusative singular masculine and neuter. So when qualifying a noun that is subject the adjective has no ending, as the three here: þat plait was stif and starc and strong (l. 5); with a feminine noun that is object, the adjective has ‐e as in grete tale, ‘a great debate’ (l. 3).

4.4.3 Comparison of Adjectives

Comparatives and superlatives are formed, as today, by the addition of ‐er, previously ‐(e)re, and ‐est to the positive form: wis, wiser, wisest; laþ, ‘hateful’, laþre, laþest. Where the vowel is long, it is often shortened in the comparative and superlative, with the final consonant doubled, as greet, ‘great’, 18a/133; grettest, 18a/200. Cortays, ‘courteous’, has superlative curtest (11/249). Adjectives ending in ‐ly or ‐lich have, beside ‐lier and ‐liest, alternative endings ‐loker and ‐lokest: semloker, ‘more seemly’, 9/83; semlokest, 14g/6.

A few adjectives change their stem vowel: long, lenger; old or ald, eldest; strong, strengest.

Irregular forms are mostly familiar from Modern English; for example, in text 9: god, better, best; littel, lasse, lest; muche, more, most; in text 1: yvel, werse.

4.4.4 Comparison of Adverbs

Adverbs have the same comparative and superlative forms as adjectives; e.g. sone, ‘quickly’, soner, sonest; wisely, comparative wiselier, 15/38; swote, ‘sweetly’, superlative (dropping the final ‐t) swotes, 14a/3. Longe, ‘for a long time’, has comparative leng or lenger: in the same text there is no leng abide, ‘stay no longer’, 5/84, and no lenger abide, 5/330. Neh, ‘nearly’, has comparative ner, and superlative next, although its comparative form is increasingly used simply to mean ‘nearly’: dispayred wel nere, 8/169. Wel has comparative bet and superlative best: ho wel wiste, ‘she knew well’, 2/147, on jousteþ wel, anoþer bet, 13/116.

4.5 Verbs

4.5.1 Introduction

In Middle English, as in Old and Modern English, the verb has just two tense‐forms, present and past. The way in which the past tense is formed divides the regular verbs into two classes, weak and strong. The great majority of verbs are weak and their numbers steadily increased, since most newly formed or introduced verbs were weak; also there was a tendency for verbs that were strong in Old English to become weak in Middle English. Many of the commonest verbs, however, are strong. The distinction between the two classes is that weak verbs form their past tense and past participle with ‘a dental suffix’, that is, an ending containing a d or t (e.g. in Modern English kill, laugh, learn, bend), whereas strong verbs form their past tense and past participle by changing their stem vowel in accordance with an ancient rule that goes right back to the remote ancestor of English, the ‘Indo‐European mother‐tongue’. Examples of strong verbs in Modern English are drive, sing, bear, choose. However, a few verbs both have a dental suffix and change their stem vowel (e.g. in Modern English seek, buy, bring, think); these are weak verbs, the change in their stem vowel not being ancient but having taken place in early Old English. See Guide to Old English, paragraphs 122–3.

The verb has three moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative. The distinction between indicative and subjunctive is explained later (5.6.6); broadly, it is that the subjunctive is a non‐factual mood, used to express a doubt, hypothesis, conjecture, wish or the like. The imperative is used for orders and requests.

In the indicative mood, verbs may distinguish in form between the first, second and third persons of the singular, but all verbs have just one form throughout the plural (for we, ʒe and hi/þei). The subjunctive has just one form throughout the singular, to which it adds ‐n throughout the plural.

There are two participles or adjectival forms of the verb: the present participle (in Modern English the ‘‐ing participle’), and the past participle (used to form verb‐tenses with ‘have’ and ‘be’, and also as an adjective).

4.5.2 Present Tense

The endings of the present tense are the same for weak and strong verbs, but there are considerable variations according to dialect. Differences may be illustrated by setting out the forms in the language of the Ancrene Wisse (early thirteenth century, South‐West Midlands) side by side with those in the language of the Gawain manuscript (late fourteenth century, North‐West Midlands), taking the verb here(n), ‘to hear’, as the example:

Ancrene Wisse | Gawain
infinitive | heren |  | here
indicative
sg. | 1 | ich | here | I | here
| 2 | þu | herest | þou | heres
| 3 | he | hereð | he | heres
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | hereð | we, ʒe, þay | here(n), heres
subjunctive
sg. | ich, þu, he | here | I, þou, he | here
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | heren | we, ʒe, þay | here(n)
imperative
sg. |  | her |  | her(e)
pl. |  | hereð |  | heres
present participle | herinde |  | herande

Wherever it occurs, the ‐en ending is gradually lost, leaving ‐e or no ending. The result of this development, in some dialects, is that only the indicative second and third persons singular and the present participle have distinctive endings. In Northern texts the verb ending is generally lost when the plural pronoun immediately precedes the verb: we tyne, 15/300.

The dialectal variations, affecting chiefly the endings of the present indicative third person singular and the plural, and the present participle, are as follows:

Third person singular

‐es is Northern and North Midland (in texts 8–11, and predominantly in 15, with a few ‐eth/‐ith forms; also in the speech of the Northern students in 18a).

‐eth is Southern and South Midland (to the south of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire).

(In Southern dialects the ending ‐eth is reduced to ‐th, which is assimilated into a stem ending in d or t, so that he findeth becomes he fint, ‘he finds’ (5/239); similarly fyght, ‘fights’ (16/103), last, ‘lasts’, sit, ‘sits’, stant, ‘stands’, went (from wenden), ‘goes’.)

Plural

‐eth is Southern and South‐West Midland (to the south of Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cambridge and Norfolk). It is the form in texts 2–5 and 12.

‐e(n)/‐on is North‐West Midland, East Midland, and from there spread to London (in texts 1, 6, 8–11, 13, 16, 17 and 18).

‐es is Northern (Lancashire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and further north), as in text 15 and occasionally 8–11; also in the speech of the Northern students in 18a.

Present participle

‐ing is the general Southern and Midland form (in texts 5–7 and 12).

‐ande is the Northern form, which is also found elsewhere, particularly around London (texts 8–11, 15, and twice in 5).

‐inde is found in the South‐West Midlands (texts 2, 3 and 4).

‐ende is used in the East (texts 1 and 13).

(Note that in many dialects the present participle, which is an adjective, is distinguishable from the verbal noun or gerund which ends in ‐ing in all dialects. Compare the participle in þe stif kyng hisselven / Talkkande, 9/107–8, with Dere dyn upon day, daunsyng on nyʒtes, 9/47, where daunsyng is a noun parallel to dyn.)

In Southern dialects, including the South‐West Midlands, some verbs have infinitives in ‐i(e)n or ‐i(e); e.g. makien, lokin, luvie. These descend from Old English Class 2 weak verbs, ending ‐ian (see Guide to Old English, §124). These verbs retain the ‐i‐ in all parts of the present except the second and third persons singular of the indicative and the imperative singular. Hence in Ancrene Wisse, makien, infinitive (4/13), makeð, third person singular (4/46), makieð, plural (4/3); in Piers Plowman, the infinitives wedy, ‘weed’, 7b/66, and gladyen, ‘gladden’, 7b/126. Some French and Scandinavian loans were conjugated according to this pattern; e.g. servið, ‘(they) serve’, 4/14, proferi (infinitive), ‘offer’, 5/434.

4.5.3 Past Tense and Past Participle

In some dialects the verb in the past tense has distinctions in form for the indicative and subjunctive in the singular, though the subjunctive plural is always the same as the indicative plural. The third person singular of the indicative has the same form as the first person singular.

In the South and South‐West Midlands the past participle has the prefix i‐ or y‐, derived from Old English ge‐, unless there is some other prefix already present: so isiʒen, ‘come’, 3/111, ybuld, ‘built’, 12/1; but bigrowe, ‘overgrown’, 2/27, already has the prefix bi‐. Langland uses this y‐ prefix sometimes – compare ycrouned, 7a/59, with crouned, 7a/63 – but Gower rarely has it.

4.5.4 Past of Weak Verbs

Weak verbs form their past tense by adding ‐ed(e), ‐d(e) or ‐t(e), and their past participle by adding ed, ‐d or ‐t; thus heren, ‘to hear’, past tense herde, past participle iherd; luvien, ‘to love’, past tense luvede, past participle iluvet; slepen, ‘to sleep’, past tense slepte.

The past tense of heren, ‘to hear’, in the language of the Ancrene Wisse:

indicative
sg. | 1 | ich | herde
| 2 | þu | herdest
| 3 | he | herde
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | herden
subjunctive
sg. | ich, þu, he | herde
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | herden
past participle |  | iherd

With the loss of ‐en and then of ‐e, the past tense is often unchanged throughout except for the ‐est of the second person singular of the indicative. In the North and the North Midlands the second person singular ends ‐es/‐ez, as in sendez, 8/415, or has ‐e or no ending so that there is one form throughout the past; e.g. second person singular þou me herde, 8/306, past participle (with ‘unhistorical’ ‐e) I haf herde, 9/26.

A few common verbs historically classed as weak not only add ‐t(e) in the past tense but also modify the stem itself. Most have survived into Modern English. Examples taken from the Gawain poems are:

infinitive | pa. and pp.
bryng, ‘bring’ | broʒt
seche, ‘seek’ | soʒt
þenk, ‘think’ | þoʒt
þynk, ‘seem’ | þuʒt
worch, ‘work’ | wroʒt

4.5.5 The Verbs ‘Have’ and ‘Say’

Two very common weak verbs show a great variety of dialectal forms. They are habben/haven, ‘have’, and seggen/sayen, ‘say’. Here for comparison are the forms in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain:

|  | Anc. W. | Gawain | Anc. W. | Gawain
infin. |  | habben | have | seggen | say
pres. indic.
sg. | 1 | habbe | haf, have | segge | saye
| 2 | havest | habbes, hatz | seist | seggez, says
| 3 | haveð | habbes, hatz | seið | says, sayez
pl. | habbeð | haf, haven, han, hatz | seggeð | sayn
imp. sg. | have | haf | sei | say
past indic.
sg. | 1 | hefde | had(e) | seide | sayd(e)
| 2 | hefdest | hadez | seidest | –
| 3 | hefde | had(e) | seide | sayd(e)
pl. | hefden | hade(n) | seiden | sayden
past ppl. | ihaved, ‐et | hade | iseid | sayd

4.5.6 Past of Strong Verbs

Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the stem vowel. In early texts a verb may exhibit as many as four different stem vowels: one in the infinitive and present tense, a second in the first and third persons singular of the past tense indicative, a third in the other forms of the past tense, and a fourth in the past participle. For example, in the language of the Ancrene Wisse, scheoten, ‘to shoot’:

infin. | pa. 1 & 3 sg. | pa. pl. | pp.
scheoten | scheat | schuten | ischoten

Gradually the two vowels of the past tense were reduced to one, sometimes settling on the stem vowel of the singular, sometimes on that of the plural; but this took place quite unsystematically, leaving doublet forms even in the same text: e.g. in Gawain there are the past tense plural forms ran and runnen. (Compare sunk and sank as alternative past tense forms in Modern English.)

The past tense of driven, ‘to drive’, in the language of the Ancrene Wisse:

indicative
sg. | 1 | ich | draf
| 2 | þu | drive
| 3 | he | draf
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | driven
subjunctive
sg. | ich, þu, he | drive
pl. | we, ʒe, ha | driven
past participle |  | idriven

Note that in the indicative the forms of the first and third persons singular are identical, and the form of the plural is that of the second person singular with the addition of ‐n. In the subjunctive the singular and plural forms are the same as the second person singular and the plural of the indicative respectively. These observations apply to all regular strong verbs.

In the same ‘class’ as driven – that is to say, with the same series of vowel changes – are riden, writen, biden, ‘to wait’, risen and others. In this class, the vowel of the infinitive stem is long, /i:/, while the vowel of the past tense plural and past participle is short, /i/; compare Modern English drive– driven, ride–ridden, etc.

In Old English seven classes of strong verbs may be distinguished. During the Middle English period these began to be affected by so many dialectal changes and alterations by analogy with other verbs that it is no longer helpful to classify strong verbs in this way. Forms in the texts in this book may be followed up in the Glossary, and for a fuller display the Oxford English Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary may be consulted.

Forms of the past tense were progressively simplified, first in Northern texts, so that in the language of the Gawain manuscript the past tense often has the same form throughout the singular and plural, indicative and subjunctive. Thus drof is both the singular and the plural form of ‘drove’, as in stremes … drof hem, 8/234–5; whereas in Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale the past tense plural form of risen, a verb in the same class, is they ryse, ‘they rose’, 18b/227.

The past participle of strong verbs retained its ‐en longest in the North, but the ending was earlier lost in the South and in the Midlands. In Sir Orfeo are the forms ynome, ‘taken’ (from nimen), 5/182, ycore, ‘chosen’, hence ‘excellent’ (from chesen), 5/105, and ydrawe, ‘drawn’, 5/295; but also yborn (from beren), 5/174, and both totore and totorn, ‘torn apart’, 5/171–3. Gower has write, ‘written’, 13/60, and ʒove, ‘given’, 13/127, together with spoken in the same line, while the Gawain manuscript usually keeps the ‐en, as in nomen, 8/360, bounden, 9/192. From such variants arise modern doublets such as the alternative British and American forms got and gotten.

4.5.7 Irregular Verbs

So‐called ‘Preterite‐Present’ verbs have a present tense that was in origin a past tense, and have formed a new past tense. The commonest are cunnen, ‘to know how to’ (modern ‘can’), mahen, ‘to be able, have the ability, may’, moten, ‘to be allowed to, compelled to’ (its past tense gives modern ‘must’), schulen, ‘to have to, shall’, and witen, ‘to know’. In the language of the Ancrene Wisse they have these forms:

present indicative
sg. | 1 | can | mei | mot | schal | wat
| 2 | canst | maht | most | schalt | wast
| 3 | can | mei | mot | schal | wat
pl. | cunnen | mahen | moten | schule(n) | witen
subjunctive
sg. | cunne | mahe | mote | schule | wite
past indicative
sg. | 1, 3 | cuðe | mahte | moste | schulde | wiste
(conjugation continues as for weak verbs: 4.5.4)

The verb willen, ‘to want, wish, will’, has the following forms in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain:

Ancrene Wisse | Gawain
present indicative
sg. | 1 | wulle | wyl(le), wol
| 2 | wult | wyl(t)
| 3 | wule | wyl
pl. | wulleð | wyl
subjunctive
sg. | wulle | wyl
pl. | wullen | wyl
past indicative
sg. | 1, 3 | walde | wolde

There are negative forms for all parts of the verb, illustrated by wolle thow, nulle thow, ‘whether you wish it or not’ (subjunctive), 7b/153. The verb may be run together with a personal pronoun, particularly in Southern texts (see 4.3.2).

4.5.8 The Verb ‘To Be’

This is particularly irregular, and has wide variation in form in different regions. Some parts of the present indicative have two forms from different stems; where there are alternatives the b‐ forms are often used in a future sense, as in swa þe bið alre laððest, ‘as shall be most hateful to you’, 3/152.

To illustrate the variety, here are the forms of the verb ‘to be’ in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain:

| Ancrene Wisse | Gawain
infinitive | beon | be, bene
present indicative
sg. | 1 | am, beo | am
| 2 | art, bist | art
| 3 | is, bið | is, betz
pl. | beoð | ar(n), ben
present subjunctive
sg. | beo | be
pl. | beon | be(n)
past indicative
sg. | 1 | wes | watz, was
| 2 | were | watz, were
| 3 | wes | watz, was
pl. | weren | wer(en)
past subjunctive
sg. | were | wer(e)
pl. | weren | wer(e), wern
past participle | ibeon | ben(e)

Chaucer gives his Northern students is throughout the singular as extreme Northernisms.

Negative forms may be illustrated from Sir Orfeo: present nam, nis; past nas, nere.

5
Syntax

5.1 Gender

In Early Middle English, as in Old English, noun, adjective and pronoun agree in gender, as well as in case and number. The decay of the system of inflexions in nouns and adjectives and the simplification of the forms of the definite article, however, left nouns with progressively fewer indications of gender. In Old English se stān (nominative singular) is clearly masculine, and þre tale (genitive singular) clearly feminine, but the corresponding þe ston and þe tales in Middle English have no indications of gender. With such developments the notion of grammatical gender could not long survive, and it was replaced by the present distinction between human male, human female, and nonhuman: ‘natural gender’. Nouns in Early Middle English still commonly retain grammatical gender, as indicated by forms of the article, or by pronouns or adjectival inflexion; e.g. (with the nominative feminine of the definite article) þo ule, ‘the owl’, 2/26, he referring to halm, ‘helmet’, 3/19, scaft stærcne (with the ‐ne masculine accusative inflexion of the adjective), 3/59.

In later texts examples of references to inanimate objects as ‘he’ or ‘she’ are generally to be explained as personifications rather than as survivals of grammatical gender: ho, ‘she’, referring to suffraunce, 8/4, Zeferus … he, þe cler sunne … ho, 8/470–2.

5.2 Number

There is variation in the treatment of collective nouns, such as ‘court’, ‘folk’, ‘world’, just as there is today: al þe tunscipe (sg.) flugæn (pl.), 1/49; al watz (sg.) þis fayre folk in her (pl.) first age, 9/54. In 8/157, bale, ‘packages’, is treated as a singular noun with plural sense.

A co‐ordinated group of nouns may be regarded as a single entity: þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed, 9/1.

After numerals nouns sometimes have no plural ending. Some (e.g. ʒer, ‘years’) may be explained as survivals of Old English nouns with unchanged plurals, and others (e.g. siþe, ‘times’) represent former genitive plurals after numerals (see 5.3.2 below). Examples are: xix wintre, 1/55, foure and twenty ʒere, 6/104, fyfty syþe, 14j/46. ‘Many’ is often accompanied by the singular: wes moni ʒimston, 3/17, mony luflych lorde, 9/38.

As in Old English, the neuter pronoun ‘it’ may be used with the verb are/were to refer to a plural subject: hit are my blody bretherne, 7b/217, hit arne refetyd, ‘they are fed’, 11/304.

5.3 Use of Cases

5.3.1 Nominative and Accusative

The nominative case is used for the subject, the accusative for the object, but the distinctions in form are rapidly lost from all except pronouns. In early texts the distinctions can still sometimes be observed in articles and adjectives: see 4.3.6 and 4.4.2.

The accusative is used after some prepositions in early texts, where it is still distinct from the dative: over bradne wæld, 3/115.

5.3.2 Genitive

The genitive indicates possession: þe kinges halle, 5/410, þas monnes earen, ‘the ears of the man’, 2/338; or definition: Ancrene Wisse, ‘Guide for Anchoresses’ (with genitive pl. ending ‐ene).

Occasionally the genitive is without ending (4.2.4), though often the relationship between the nouns is not clearly distinguishable from that of a noun‐compound where two nouns are in parallel. So while Uryn son, ‘Urien’s son’, 9/113, has an endingless genitive proper name, sister sunes, ‘nephews’, 9/111, might be analysed as ‘sister’s sons’ or ‘sister‐sons’. More clearly compounds are munster dor, 8/268, and sumere dale, 2/1.

The use of the of‐phrase as an alternative way of indicating possession or definition becomes increasingly common. Compare the early Stephnes kinges time, 1/74–5, with the later expressions þe face of frelych dryʒtyn, 8/214, þe termes of Judé, 8/61.

In a few texts, mainly from the South‐West Midlands, the genitive inflexion is replaced by his. In this book it is found only in Trevisa: God hys heste, ‘God’s commandment’, 12/167; Seint Gregore hys bokes Dialoges, ‘St Gregory’s books “The Dialogues”’, 12/121–2. The construction becomes common for a time in Early Modern English.

Two or more genitive nouns may be in parallel: He wes Uðeres þas aðelen kinges, ‘It had been the noble king Uther’s’, 3/18. If the noun that governs the genitive expression is also present, the genitive group often splits around it, and only the first element is inflected, as in this example where love governs both lordes and Sir Orfeo, but the name is not inflected: mi lordes love Sir Orfeo, ‘my lord Sir Orfeo’s love’, 5/518. With the same word‐order is for the Lordes love of hevene, ‘for the love of the Lord of heaven’, 7b/16.

The genitive is used with superlative adjectives: læðest alre þinge, ‘most hateful of all things’, 3/33 (OE genitive pl. þinga); aðelest kinge, ‘noblest of kings’, 3/53. Later of becomes standard: þe fairest of every kinne, 14a/7.

Adverbial uses of the genitive are most common in expressions of time: þu fliʒst niʒtes (genitive sg.), ‘you fly at night’, 2/238 (compare flo bi niʒte, 2/390). In be nihtes and be dæies, 1/17–18, the writer reinforces the adverbial genitive with a preposition. Other adverbial uses are hire þonkes, ‘willingly’, 2/70, wintres and sumeres, ‘in the winter and in the summer’, i.e. ‘all the time’, 3/170, nanes weis, ‘in no way, not at all’, 4/16.

After numbers the ‘partitive genitive’ is found, especially in early texts: fif and twenti þusend / Wihtere monnen, ‘25,000 (of ) bold men’, 3/124–5. By contrast, the genitive is often not used with nouns such as score, maner, kin: such manere argement, ‘such kind of argument’, 12/88, alle kyn craftes, ‘all kinds of trades’, 7b/58.

In early texts the genitive is occasionally used after some adjectives, such as ful, ‘full’, and unilic: ælchen oðere unilic, ‘unlike all others’, 3/19.

5.3.3 Dative

The most common use of the dative case is with prepositions such as to, mid and bi. Compare þi song (nominative) with bi mine songe (dative), 2/220 and 46. After the dative singular ‐e ending was lost from nouns (see 4.2.3), the dative became indistinguishable from other cases without inflexion.

The dative was used for the indirect object: hi hadden him manred maked, ‘they had done him homage’, 1/11. Without a distinct form for the dative, however, the indirect object had to be distinguished from the direct object by word‐order or the use of to, as it is in Modern English: seist me boþe tone and schame, ‘say to me both insult and shame’, 2/50; ʒeve hem benes, ‘give them beans’, 7b/177.

Some adjectives, such as loþ and lef, have a dative object: loþ smale foʒle, ‘hateful to small birds’, 2/277; lof him were niʒtingale, ‘nightingales were dear to him’, 2/203.

The Old English use of a dative pronoun to indicate possession is still found, particularly in early texts: him bræcon alle þe limes, ‘all his limbs broke’, 1/28; freshe hym þe face, ‘his face unblemished’, 11/89.

The adverbial dative of the type ludere stæfne, ‘with a loud voice’, 3/30, is rare even in early texts, and is superseded entirely by prepositional phrases; so mid fulle dreme and lude stefne, 2/314.

A pleonastic dative pronoun me, the ‘ethic dative’, is a characteristic feature of the Gawain poems: he swenges me þys swete schip, ‘it turns this fine ship’, 8/108; also made me þane unto þis tree, ‘fastened then to this tree’, 15/42. This kind of dative expresses the speaker’s interest in the fact stated.

For other uses of the dative with verbs, see 5.4.5 (reflexive pronouns), 5.6.8 (impersonal verbs) and 5.6.9 (verbs of motion).

5.4 Pronouns and Articles

5.4.1 Þou and ʒe

The use of ʒe as a polite form of address to one person is found from the late thirteenth century, and is modelled on French practice. Usage varies from text to text, and even within a text, but the distinction is broadly that þou is used between equals and to inferiors, whereas ʒe is used in representations of polite speech in address to a superior. In the selection from Gawain the usage is quite consistent: Arthur uses þou both to Gawain and to the Green Knight, but yow to Guenevere (9/470); Gawain uses þou to the Green Knight but ʒe to the King (9/343–61); the Green Knight, as a hostile challenger, always uses þou, even to the King – his ʒe in l. 265 is addressed to the court in general. In Trevisa’s Dialogue (text 12) the Clerk addresses the Lord as ʒe and the Lord replies with þou, while in Sir Orfeo þou is general, but the polite ʒe is used at a moment of solemn formality (5/582). In addressing God or the Virgin Mary, however, the singular form is customarily used, as by Chaucer’s Prioress (18b/1).

5.4.2 Non‐expression of Personal Pronouns

Quite regularly a personal pronoun, either subject or object, is not expressed in Middle English. As indeed in Modern English, the subject pronoun does not need to be expressed in a series of co‐ordinate clauses: þe niʒtingale hi iseʒ/And hi bihold and overseʒ, ‘the nightingale saw her, and beheld and watched her’, 2/29–30. There are other situations, however, where the subject pronoun would normally be expressed in Modern English but does not need to be in Middle English. A sentence may begin: Kimeð …, ‘(He) comes …’, 4/59, where the subject is understood from the previous sentence. The subject of the subordinate clause may be understood from the main clause, as in he watz sokored … þaʒ were wanlez of wele, ‘he was protected … though (he) was without hope of well‐being’, 8/262. When the subordinate clause precedes, the subject of the following main clause may be understood from it: Hwen ha ihereð þet god, skleatteð þe earen adun, ‘When they hear anything good, (they) flap their ears down’, 4/18–19. In other cases the unexpressed subject is clear from verb‐endings and other grammatical features, as in Or beggest thy bylyve, ‘Or (you) beg for your food’, 7a/29; and diden an scærp iren abuton þa mannes throte, ‘and (they/ people) put a sharp iron band round the man’s throat’, 1/30–1. The grammatical subject ‘it’ may be unexpressed: þagh had bene my fader bone, I bede hym no wranges, ‘though (it) had been my father’s murderer, I gave him no wrong decisions’, 11/243. Non‐expression of subject ‘it’ is especially common in impersonal expressions; see 5.6.8.

Similarly the object pronoun may be understood from the context. A straightforward example is lacche water / And cast upon þi faire cors, ‘fetch some water and cast (it) on your fair body’, 11/316–17. So also: þa þe castles waren maked, þa fylden hi mid deovles, ‘When the castles were made, they filled (them) with devils’ (hi is subject), 1/15–16.

5.4.3 Man

The indefinite pronoun man causes difficulties on several counts. Firstly it varies in form: man, mon, men, and often the unstressed form me, which in context can sometimes be mistaken for the first person pronoun. Secondly there is no exact equivalent for man in Modern English, for we select from a range of indefinite pronouns to suit the occasion – one, anyone, they, people, we, you – or a passive construction is used instead. All these possibilities must be considered when translating Middle English man; e.g.: me ne chide wit þe gidie, ‘one should not quarrel with fools’ (a proverbial expression), 2/291; riʒt so me grulde schille harpe, ‘just as if a shrill harp were being twanged’, or ‘someone were twanging …’, 2/142; ne isæh nævere na man selere cniht, ‘a better knight was never seen’, 3/28; me hi halt, ‘she is held’, or ‘people think her’, 2/32.

5.4.4 Self

In Modern English a reflexive pronoun is distinguished by the addition of ‐self: ‘the man hurt himself ’. In Middle English, on the other hand, self serves to reinforce the pronoun, so that Ywan, Uryn son, ette with hymselven, 9/113, means ‘ate with him’, not ‘ate by himself ’, and syre, now þouself jugge, 8/413, is ‘now, sir, you judge’, not ‘judge yourself ’. Particularly in early texts, self is simply added to the personal pronoun, as in þouself above, where it is subject. Later self is treated as a noun and accompanies the genitive pronoun, as in myselfe and my soule, 11/300, and þiself arte clensid, 6/15, though in the third person the masculine form remains himself and the plural hemselven: himself he lerned for to harp, ‘he himself learnt to harp’, 5/29.

Self is used in the same way to reinforce nouns: þe sulve mose, ‘the titmouse itself ’, 2/69, and (with the noun in the genitive) under Krystes selven, ‘under Christ himself ’, 9/51.

5.4.5 Reflexive Pronouns

There is no distinctive reflexive pronoun in Middle English. The ordinary personal pronoun is used: ʒif ich me loki, ‘if I guard myself ’, 2/56; þe byschop hym shope, ‘the bishop got (himself ) ready’, 11/129. There is reciprocal use in we custe us, ‘we kissed one another’, 14j/46. The pronoun may be reinforced by the addition of self: if any so hardy … holdez hymselven, ‘if anyone thinks himself so brave’, 9/285.

Some verbs expressing fear, anger and the like, and many verbs of motion, are accompanied by a reflexive pronoun: thenne gan Wastor to wrath hym, ‘then Waster began to get angry’, 7b/149; he gooth hym, 18a/208. Even the verb ‘be’ may occasionally take a reflexive pronoun in Laʒamon: þene him wes Arður, ‘than Arthur was’, 3/29. On verbs of motion see 5.6.9.

5.4.6 Relative Pronouns

Over most of the Middle English period the most common relative pronoun corresponding to Modern English ‘who’, ‘which’ and ‘that’ is þat, used to refer to both personal and non‐personal antecedents, singular and plural: King Pluto and … King Juno … þat sumtime were as godes yhold, ‘who were once regarded as gods’, 5/43–5.

In early texts þe and þa are also used. In Laʒamon’s Brut, þe tends to be used with reference to masculine singular antecedents, þa for plural and for feminine singular, and þat for inanimate or neuter singular: thus Hengest þe cnihten wes faʒerest, ‘Hengest who was most gracious of knights’, 3/168. Yet the distinction in usage is not clear‐cut; here þa is used to refer to a neuter noun: his spere … þa Ron wes ihaten, ‘his spear that was named Ron’, 3/24.

þat is regularly used as a relative without the antecedent noun or pronoun, when it is equivalent to modern ‘what’ or ‘he who’, ‘anyone who’ etc.: now þat London is nevenyd, ‘what is now called London’, 11/25; betere therby þat byleve the fynden, ‘benefit thereby those who provide you with food’, 7a/21; þe devel have þat reche, ‘the devil take anyone who bothers’, 7b/127. In the following example the reader may easily misinterpret þat, wrongly supposing that it is þe water that wants to escape: scopen out þe scaþel water þat fayn scape wolde, ‘those who were keen to escape scooped out the dangerous water’, 8/155.

In order to indicate case, þat is combined with a personal pronoun, so þat … his means ‘whose’: þat merkid is in oure martilage his mynde, ‘whose memory is set down in our burial‐register’, 11/154. þat may refer back to a genitive pronoun rather than its noun, in this instance his rather than bour: þer watz bylded his bour þat wyl no bale suffer, ‘there was built the bower of the man who will suffer no harm’, 8/276.

In later Middle English which becomes increasingly common as an alternative to þat, for both persons and things: sche which kepþ þe blinde whel, 13/92. Which, ‘who’, is accompanied by þat as a conjunction in This abbot, which þat, 18b/190. The combination þe which was favoured by some writers: o principal worching miʒt þe whiche is clepid a knowable miʒt, 6/63–4.

There is sometimes no relative pronoun at all. The ‘zero’ relative pronoun is used in Modern English as the object of the clause: ‘the woman (whom) I saw’. In Middle English it is also used when it is subject: fro bale has broʒt us, ‘who has brought us from anguish’, 11/340; for hym þe boght, ‘for him who redeemed you’, 15/101.

5.4.7 The Articles

Usage of the definite article is variable when proper names are accompanied by a noun. Expressions such as þe king Stephne, 1/1, are commoner in early use, and later it is Kyng Charles, 12/114; similarly Seint Jerom, 12/92, and even segge Jonas, ‘the man Jonah’, 8/409. When the noun follows the name there need be no article, especially in early texts: Martin abbot, 1/56, but Arðure þan kinge, 3/1, and Peres þe plouhman, 7b/124.

Both the definite and indefinite articles may be absent where Modern English would use them: which bar corone, ‘who was king’, 13/63; have an horn and be hayward, 7a/16; wæs god munec and god man, 1/72.

The adjectives ech and every may be followed by a: everich a grot, ‘every detail’, 5/490.

5.5 Adjectives and Adverbs

5.5.1 Position

Attributive adjectives most commonly precede the noun: not by soche a devoute and a meek blynde stering of love, bot by a proude, coryous and an ymaginatiif witte, 6/145–7. In verse they may follow the noun: sceld deore, ‘beloved shield’, 3/20; burn rych, ‘noble man’, 9/20. Two or more adjectives may be grouped around the noun: pore folke syke, 7b/147; wylde werbles and wyʒt, ‘wild and loud trillings’, 9/119; he milde man was and softe and god, 1/9–10. In Laʒamon’s Brut the adjective sometimes precedes the article or possessive pronoun: balde mine beornes, ‘my bold knights’, 3/133, mid aðelen his crafte, ‘with his excellent skill’, 3/11. Compare Shakespeare’s dear my lord.

5.5.2 Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs are formed by adding the endings ‐er and ‐est; see 4.4.3–4. The use of more and most is not so common and, in contrast to modern usage, is found chiefly with short adjectives: most kyd, 9/51. Even with an adverb such as wiseli, the comparative is wiselier, 15/38. Double comparison, with both more and the suffix ‐er, is seen in more wighter, ‘stronger’, 15/201.

Superlatives may be intensified in various ways: by adding the prefix alder‐ (from OE alra, ‘of all’): alder‐grattyst, ‘greatest of all’, 11/5; by a following phrase such as of all oþer; or by the expression one þe before the superlative: on þe most, ‘the very biggest’, 9/137; one þe unhapnest hathel, ‘quite the most unfortunate man’, 11/198. This last construction may easily be wrongly identified with the modern ‘one of the most …’.

5.5.3 Adjectives as Nouns

Adjectives may be used as nouns more freely than in Modern English, with or without an article, in both the singular and the plural. This usage is particularly characteristic of alliterative verse. So wise and snepe, ‘wise and foolish people’, 2/225; þe schene, ‘the bright sun’, 8/440; busy, ‘busy activity’, 8/157; ronk, ‘determination’, 8/298; the seke, ‘the sick man’, 16/104.

5.6 Verbs

5.6.1 Use of Present Tense

English has only two tense‐forms, present and past. The present tense expresses habitual action and general truths: þu chaterest so doþ on Irish prost, ‘you chatter like an Irish priest’, 2/322; wel fiʒt þat wel fliʒt, ‘well fights that well flees’ (proverbial), 2/176. In Middle English the simple present is also used where Modern English has the progressive ‘am’ + ‘‐ing’, to express an action that is in progress over a limited period: al dares for drede, ‘they are all cowering for fear’, 9/315.

As in Old English, the present tense is frequently used to refer to the future: þay ta me bylyve, ‘they will seize me at once’, 8/78. Nearly always the context makes it quite clear that the action is in the future, for example with an expression of time: we foure rayse it noʒt right to‐yere, ‘the four of us will not raise it upright this year’, 15/164. Compare ‘I go to London tomorrow’ in Modern English.

The historic present, not found in Old English, becomes common in the later fourteenth century, particularly in narrative of past events in order to place reader and writer in the middle of the action: þer hales in at þe halle dor an aghlich mayster, ‘there comes in at the hall door a fearsome knight’, 9/136. In relating a series of such events, the writer may switch quite freely between past tense and historic present; see for example the description of Jonah entering the whale’s mouth, 8/246–53.

5.6.2 Use of Past Tense

The past tense is similarly used to express both simple and progressive aspects; see the translation of the verbs sete and underʒete here: þo al þo þat þerin sete / þat it was King Orfeo underʒete, ‘then all those who were sitting there understood that it was King Orfeo’, 5/575–6. Especially in early texts, the past tense can be used for the perfect, where Modern English uses ‘have’ or ‘had’: ne isæh nævere na man selere cniht nenne, ‘no one had ever seen a better knight’, 3/28.

5.6.3 Auxiliaries of the Past

The perfect, bringing past action up to the present (‘have done’, etc.) or to some point in the more recent past (‘had done’, etc.), is regularly used in Middle English: þy bone þat þou boden habbes, ‘the request that you have asked for’, 9/327; uche lede as he loved and layde had his hert, ‘each man in the way he loved and had set his heart’, 8/168. To form the perfect of intransitive verbs involving change of state, and particularly verbs of motion, the auxiliary be is generally used: he is nu suþe acoled, ‘he has now cooled off considerably’, 2/205; he watz flowen, ‘he had fled’, 8/183; when he was in þe roche ygo, ‘when he had gone into the rock’, 5/349. Be is also used with verbs meaning ‘become’ which have a noun as complement: he is bicumen hunte, ‘he has become a huntsman’, 3/114; my bapteme is worthyn, ‘has become my baptism’, 11/330.

In narrative style the perfect can be used to suggest that the consequences of an action are still developing: so long he haþ þe way ynome /To Winchester he is ycome, ‘so long has he taken the way that he has arrived at Winchester’, 5/477–8; anon þe wylde loves rage … haþ mad him …, 13/222–4. As a feature of narrative style it may alternate with the simple past tense: he mette Massynysse / That hym for joy in armes hath ynome, ‘… who took him in his arms’, 16/37–8. So narrative of past events can be told with the simple past tense, the historic present, or the perfect.

The verb ginnen (also anginnen, onginnen) originally meant ‘begin’. Its past tense gan/gune (and related forms can/con) was also frequently used with an infinitive as an equivalent of a past tense. Context generally determines which sense is appropriate; so seþþen þat ich here regni gan, 5/425, is ‘ever since I began to reign here’, whereas boþe breþes con blowe, 8/138, may be translated with a simple past tense, ‘both winds blew’. In other cases the uncertainty may be a feature of the style, creating an expectant sense of events to be recounted: þa riden agon Arður, ‘then Arthur rode’ or ‘began to ride’ (when something happened), 3/47. Considerations of metre and rhyme no doubt also play a part in this example: as sone as sche gan awake / Sche crid and loþli bere gan make, ‘as soon as she woke up she cried and made/began to make a horrible noise’, 5/77–8.

5.6.4 Auxiliaries of the Future: shall and will

The original function of shall was to express obligation or necessity, and of will to express wish or intention, and this distinction is still often present when they are used as auxiliaries to refer to the future. Compare it schal be so!, 5/226, with ich wille bon of þe awreke, ‘I intend to get even with you’, 2/262; or the two verbs here: þu clumbe … swulc þu woldest to hævene; nu þu scalt to hælle, ‘You climbed as if you wished (to get) to heaven; now you shall (get) to hell’, 3/165–6. So shall often expresses the notion of what is bound to happen quite independent of what anyone wants: nu we scullen riden, ‘now we are going to ride’, 3/44; in the Beatitudes ‘Blessed are …’ for þay schal …, 8/16, 18, 20 etc. Shall becomes the general auxiliary of the future, whereas will still generally implies volition: wo schal us seme /þat kunne and wille riʒt us deme, ‘who is going to reconcile us, who is able and willing to judge us justly?’, 2/187–8; he wile gon a riʒte weie, ‘he intends to follow a right path’, 2/214; if þou be so bold … þou wyl grant me, 9/272–3. As this last instance shows, the sense of volition, though present, may be faint, and sometimes the two verbs occur simply as alternative auxiliaries without any apparent distinction in meaning: I wyl me sum oþer waye, … I schal tee into Tarce, ‘I’ll go some other way, … I’ll travel into Tarshish’, 8/86– 7.

A common construction contrasts will in a subordinate clause with shall in the main clause: if ʒe wyl lysten … I schal telle hit as tit, ‘if you are willing to listen … I’ll tell it at once’, 9/30–1; ʒif þou wilte besily travayle … þou schalt come þerto, ‘if you will work assiduously … you’ll get there’, 6/29–30.

For the use of will/wolde as a ‘modal auxiliary’ in hypothetical statements and the like, see 5.6.6.

5.6.5 The Infinitive

The infinitive form is used on its own, with to or with for to. The practice of using the plain infinitive or the infinitive with to is for the most part the same as in Modern English, though there are some differences in detail. The plain infinitive is used directly after auxiliary verbs such as shall, will, can, may, mot, and others such as dare and let etc.: ich nolde don, ‘I would not do’, 2/159; his hors he lette irnen, ‘he let his horse run’, 3/60. With some other verbs such as gin, go, here, þink, etc., where Modern English has the infinitive with to, Middle English may have a plain infinitive: cleopien agon, ‘began to call’, 3/132; þohte forð siðen and over sæ liðen, ‘intended to go forth and (to) travel over the sea’, 3/85; þee byhoveþ … riʒt so put, ‘it will be necessary for you … just so to put’, 6/181–2. With a pair of infinitives, the first may be without and the second with to, and this is different from modern usage: lovede wel fare / And no dede to do, ‘loved to live well and do nothing’, 7a/8–9; here schulde wight men worschippe wynne / And noght with gaudis al day to gone, ‘here should bold men win honour and not go …’, 15/199–200.

The infinitive may have a passive sense: avantarie is to despise, ‘boasting is to be despised’, 13/58; nas no coumfort to kever, ‘there was no comfort to be obtained’, 8/223; ha beoð þe leasse to meanen, ‘they are the less to be pitied’, 4/25–6. Verbs of commanding and the like may be followed by an infinitive with passive sense: bede unlouke þe lidde, ‘ordered the lid to be released’, 11/67; he let ordeine, ‘he caused orders to be given’, 13/106; late bere, ‘cause to be carried’, hence ‘carry!’, 15/178; do dryve out a decré, ‘have a decree issued’, 8/386; the Jewes leet he bynde, ‘he had the Jews bound’, 18b/168.

The verb come can be followed by the infinitive of another verb of motion defining the manner or direction in which the coming takes place: þenne comeð þe wulf wilde touward hire winden, ‘then the wild wolf comes moving towards her’, 3/98.

The construction with the infinitive as a complement is commoner than in Modern English, and is used where we might use the ‘‐ing’ form: Arður isæh Colgrim climben, ‘Arthur saw Colgrim climb(ing)’, 3/86; iherde ich holde grete tale / An hule and one niʒtingale, ‘I heard an owl and a nightingale conducting a great argument’, 2/3–4.

After an auxiliary verb, the infinitive be is occasionally omitted: oþir trowid ever shulde, ‘or was believed ever likely (to be)’, 11/255. On the much commoner omission of infinitive verbs of motion, see 5.6.9.

The infinitive with for to originally expressed purpose, as in: com to him for to here, ‘came in order to hear him’, 5/440. Increasingly it became used as an equivalent of the to infinitive, sometimes for reasons of metre and rhythm: ne wonde / þis aventure for to frayn, ‘do not hesitate to attempt this adventure’, 9/488–9; he may noʒt hure speche vor to lurne, ‘he is unable to learn their speech’, 12/5.

5.6.6 The Subjunctive

The subjunctive mood of the verb indicates a particular attitude in the writer’s or speaker’s mind towards the event or action described. Its use is restricted in Modern English to a few contexts: in if clauses where the event is highly improbable or impossible, ‘if I were you’; in clauses dependent upon verbs of wishing, demanding, requesting etc. (more common in American than British English), ‘I wish I were dead’, ‘He recommends that she sell the book’; and in a handful of fixed phrases, expressing wishes such as ‘God bless!’, or a hypothesis in ‘as it were’, or a condition in ‘be they good or bad’. The subjunctive form is distinct from the indicative in Modern English only in the third person singular of the present (‘sell’ above), first and third person singular ‘were’, and present tense ‘be’.

As described in 4.5, the subjunctive has distinct forms in many Middle English dialects for the whole of the present tense except the first person singular, for the second person singular of the past tense of weak verbs, and for the first and third persons singular of the past tense of strong verbs and the verb ‘to be’. It is used more widely in Middle English than today, though the basic idea is the same, in that it is a non‐factual mood, concerned with events not as actually happening, but as possibilities to be desired, envisaged or conjectured. Hence most of the following categories express such notions as wishes, commands and hypotheses.

In main clauses the present tense of the subjunctive is used for wishes and commands, as Drihten us fulsten, ‘may God help us!’, 3/46; fo we on, ‘let us proceed’, 2/179. Wishes are often introduced by so, as or þer: so hit bitide þat ich mote, ‘may it happen that I can’, 2/52; as help me … he þat on hyʒe syttes, ‘so help me he who sits on high’, 9/256; þer Ragnel … hym rere, ‘may Ragnel wake him’, 8/188. The past tense of the subjunctive is used where Modern English uses ‘would’ to express something that is unlikely to happen: that were a long lettyng, ‘that would be a long delay’, 7b/5; hit were now gret nye to neven / So hardy a here, ‘it would today be very difficult to name so bold a company’, 9/58–9; alle were þe better, ‘(to have) all would be better’, 8/34; a sory couple of ʒou it were, ‘you would make a sorry couple’, 5/458. The same writer uses the idiom þat nouʒt nere with the past subjunctive, ‘that would not be possible’, 5/457, and þat nouʒt nis, ‘that is not possible’, 5/131, with the present indicative. These hypothetical sentences often include an if or though clause: nere ich never no þe betere / þeʒ …, ‘I should not be at all better off, even though …’, 2/283–4.

In subordinate clauses the subjunctive is most commonly used for a condition or hypothesis. Such clauses are often introduced by if or sometimes so: ʒif ich were Orfeo þe king, 5/558; if þou crave batayl, 9/277; ʒ ef love wer in myn herte, 14l/9; þu starest so þu wille abiten, ‘you are staring as if you wish to bite’, 2/77. There are also conditional clauses with no conjunction where the word‐order of subject and verb is reversed (see 5.9.1 (iii) ): be Hunger went, ‘once Hunger has gone’, 7b/211; wolle thow, nulle thow, ‘whether you wish it or not’, 7b/153; wer I as hastif as þou, ‘if I were as hasty as you’, 8/520.

The verb is in the subjunctive in subordinate clauses of concession, introduced by though, never so and the like: þaʒ hit displese ofte, ‘even though it may often displease’, 8/1; ne bo þe song never so murie, ‘however delightful the song may be’, 2/345; or introduced by al, in which case the verb precedes the subject: al were his bodi sturne, ‘although his body was/may have been forbidding’, 9/143. The subjunctive is also often used in clauses of purpose or result, introduced by þat, lest, etc.: that þou betere therby, ‘so that you may thereby benefit’, 7a/21.

In subordinate clauses of time that look forward to an anticipated event, introduced by conjunctions such as er or til, the subjunctive is usual with the present tense: er þou glyde hens, ‘before you go from here’, 8/204; tyl þou fele lyst, ‘until you feel desire’, 6/19. It is quite common when the point of view is in the past: or he wer tille þe booryngis brought, ‘before he was brought to the nail‐holes’, 15/146.

With reference to place, the subjunctive is used for subordinate clauses introduced by where to express uncertainty with the indefinite meaning ‘wherever’: where he in court were, ‘wherever he may have been at court’, 9/100.

The subjunctive is very often found after verbs of thinking, seeming or saying, for indirect statements and questions, since these are not facts but reports or opinions: and weneþ it be Glodeside, ‘and believes it to be Glodeside’ (it isn’t), 13/209; I hope þat he were, ‘I believe he was’, 9/140; bet þuʒte þe dreim þat he were /Of harpe, ‘the music seemed rather to come from a harp’, 2/21–2; y preye the … what beste be to done, ‘I ask you what it is best to do’, 7b/209–10. Verbs of knowing, on the other hand, normally take the indicative if no uncertainty is involved. So compare the confident indicative in ich wot he is nu suþe acoled, ‘I know he has now cooled off considerably’, 2/205, with the subjunctive where there is a stronger element of opinion: uch wyʒe may wel wit no wont þat þer were, ‘each person may well know that there was no shortage’, 9/131.

As the distinctions between the subjunctive and the indicative forms – always only partial – were reduced, the subjunctive mood came more and more to be expressed by other means, in particular by the use of the modal auxiliaries such as shall and sholde, may and miʒt, will and wolde. Modern English has, of course, developed further along the same lines. In Middle English the modal auxiliaries are quite often found as equivalents to the subjunctive, e.g. in an indirect question: to spyr uschon oþir / Quat body hit myʒt be, ‘each one to ask the other what body it might be’, 11/93–4.

5.6.7 The Imperative

The imperative generally has distinct forms for singular (addressed to one person) and plural; see 4.5.2. It can also be expressed by do with another imperative, as in do gyf glory to þy godde, 8/204. Another common way of giving an order is with imperative look followed by the subjunctive: loke þou drynke, 7b/277; loke þee loþe, ‘make sure that you find it hateful’, 6/4 (see note there).

5.6.8 Impersonal Verbs

Some verbs which have a personal subject in Modern English, such as ‘I like’, are impersonal in Middle English, with it as subject and me etc. as dative object: it likes me. Quite regularly the dative object precedes the verb and the subject it is not expressed: me lykes / þat I schal fange, ‘it is pleasing to me/I’m glad that I shall receive’, 9/390–1. Another common impersonal verb with the same meaning is list; such constructions may need to be paraphrased rather than translated word for word: me luste bet speten, ‘it pleases me better to spit’, so ‘I’d rather spit’, 2/39; ne lust him nu to none unrede; / Nu him ne lust na more pleie, ‘nor is he attracted now to any evil counsel, nor does he like fooling around any more’, 2/212–13. Hunger, ‘be hungry’, fall, ‘happen’, need, ‘be necessary’, and reche, ‘care’, are some other common verbs that may be used impersonally: ow (dative) schal eaver hungrin, ‘you’ll always go hungry’, 4/64–5; hym neded no gyde, ‘no guide was necessary to him’, 18a/166; me no reche, ‘I don’t care’, 5/342.

The verb think is derived from two Old English verbs, þencan, ‘to think’, and þyncan, ‘to seem’. The two are still distinguished as þenk and þynk in the Gawain manuscript: þenk wel, Sir Gawan, 9/487; what maystery þe þynkez, ‘what accomplishment does it seem to you’, 8/482. In the line þenne byþenk þe, mon, if þe forþynk sore, 8/495, the first verb (OE biþencan) means ‘consider’ and has a reflexive pronoun þe; the second has an impersonal construction (and is subjunctive after if), ‘if it upsets you’. In me thynkes /Hom burde, ‘it seems to me they ought to’, 11/259–60, there are two impersonal verbs together.

Some adjectives governing the dative have similar impersonal constructions: lever me were, ‘I should rather’, 5/177; me is þe wurs, ‘it is the worse for me’, 2/34; þe is bettere, 14j/23; wel is me, 14q/17; hou wo þe beet, ‘how great is your grief ’, 14p/18.

5.6.9 Verbs of Motion

Intransitive verbs expressing movement, fare, go, turn and the like, are often accompanied by a reflexive pronoun: Jonas hym ʒede, ‘Jonah went’, 8/355; Childric … gon him to charren /And beh him over Avene, ‘Childric … turned back and made his way over the Avon’, 3/78–9. The infinitive verb of motion is often not expressed after an auxiliary verb: and wold up and owy, ‘and wanted (to get) up and (to go) away’, 5/96; þider ichil (the pronoun ich run together with the verb wil ), ‘I’ll (go) there’, 5/316; I wyl me sum oþer waye, ‘I’ll go some other way’, 8/86 (where the reflexive pronoun remains). In Ticius to Tuskan, 9/11, the verb of motion has to be understood from the context even without an auxiliary verb.

5.6.10 The Passive

The passive is most often expressed by the verb be: he … wæs wæl underfangen fram þe pape Eugenie, ‘he was well received by Pope Eugenius’, 1/63. Until the end of the fourteenth century it was also expressed by worthe, ‘to be, come to be’, particularly in a future sense: blessid þou worth, ‘may you be blessed’, 11/340; þou worst wiþ ous yborn, ‘you shall be carried off with us’, 5/174.

Only one verb, hoten, has a passive form, hat(te), ‘is called’ or ‘was called’: as hit now hat, ‘as it is now called’, 9/10. Increasingly hiʒte, in origin the active past tense, was used in a passive sense: his sone hihte, ‘his son was called’, 7b/82.

The indefinite pronoun man was frequently used where Modern English uses a passive construction; see 5.4.3.

5.7 Negation

In earlier texts the usual way of negating a verb was to place ne (or no/na) immediately in front of it, and indeed this practice continued throughout the period: I ne can ne I ne mai, ‘I do not know how to nor am I able to’, 1/33; ne wonde / þis aventure for to frayn, ‘don’t hesitate to attempt this adventure’, 9/488–9. Ne was run together with have, wil and parts of be beginning with a vowel or w‐: e.g. nadde, nil, nis, nere (4.5.7–8).

Ne could be reinforced by another negative word elsewhere in the sentence. The commonest was nouʒt, originally a noun meaning ‘nought’ or ‘nothing’, which developed into the adverb not: he no schuld nouʒt fram hem go, ‘he would not go from them’, 5/225; with the subject following the verb: ne reche ich noʒt, ‘I don’t care’, 2/58; with noʒt modifying another adverb, wel: his nest noʒt wel he ne bihedde, ‘he did not guard his nest well’, 2/102.

From the fourteenth century it became common to negate the verb with not alone, usually following the verb: I know not þe, ‘I don’t know you’, 9/400; Arthure wolde not ete, 9/85. In verse, where word‐order is more flexible, bringing noʒt forward gives it additional emphasis: þat noʒt hit yow falles, ‘that it is not fitting for you’, 9/358. The modern construction with auxiliary ‘do not’ was not fully established until the seventeenth century.

The notions that multiple negation, as in ‘he ain’t been nowhere’, is substandard, and that ‘two negatives make a positive’, have no historical basis. In Middle English piling up of negatives is very common, and its purpose is to reinforce the negative. Notable examples are: never him nas wers for noþing, ‘he was never more distressed about anything’, 5/98; ne isæh nævere na man selere cniht nenne, ‘no‐one had ever seen a better knight’, 3/28.

5.8 Questions

In direct questions the subject follows the verb, whether or not an interrogative word such as ‘why’ or ‘what’ is used: how schal I do?, 6/102; can thow serven?, 7a/12; whi seist þou so?, 14j/25. The modern use of do as an auxiliary in questions is unusual even at the end of the period; compare quotation with translation here: wenst þu þat ich ne cunne singe?, ‘do you think that I can’t sing?’, 2/47.

As in Modern English, the ‘declarative question’, in which the word‐order is that of a statement, is also possible. Here the context, and in this particular case the addition of the adverbial clause, make it clear that this is a question: thow art broke, so may be?, ‘you are injured, maybe?’, 7a/33.

A negative question has verb–subject word‐order with ne before the verb: why ne dyʒttez þou me to diʒe?, ‘why don’t you condemn me to die?’, 8/488; nas I a paynym?, ‘was I not a pagan?’, 11/285.

The word whether may be used to introduce a question, especially if there is doubt between two alternatives: wheþer ys ʒow levere have …, ‘would you rather have’ (where the choice is between rhyme or prose), 12/145.

5.9 Word‐Order

5.9.1 Inversion

As in Old English and in Modern English, the usual word‐order of a statement in Middle English was subject–verb–object. Because Middle English has fewer inflexions to mark the function of words in a sentence, there is less variation of standard patterns than in Old English, though writers of verse had more freedom than prose writers to alter the word‐order for stylistic or metrical effects, provided the relationship between the words was clear from grammatical form or context. Most instances cited here to show standard patterns are therefore taken from the prose texts.

Inversion, where the subject follows the verb, is found particularly in the following circumstances, some of which have been discussed already:

In questions (see 5.8).

In commands and wishes: construe þou cleerly, 6/126; see who bi grace see may, 6/74. (See 5.6.6.)

In conditional or concessive clauses introduced by al, ‘although’, or without a conjunction (see 5.6.6), including hypothetical sentences containing never so: be þeo neode never so gret, ‘however great the need is’, 12/9.

Often after an adverb or phrase of place, time, manner etc.: here liþ counforte, ‘here lies comfort’, 6/125–6; for ever schal he do it, and never schal he seese for to do it, 6/73–4; riʒt wel hast þou seide, 6/113; and so þarynne ys noble and gret informacion and lore, 12/27–8; on al þis yvele time heold Martin abbot his abbotrice, 1/56. In a correlative construction, most frequent in Early Middle English, the inverted word‐order is used in the main clause. Common correlatives are þa … þa, ‘when … then’, or so … so: þa þe king Stephne to Englaland com, þa macod he his gadering, ‘when King Stephen came to England, (then) he held his council’, 1/5–6; þa he hafden al his iweden, þa leop he on his steden, ‘when he had all his gear, (then) he leapt on his steed’, 3/25. The inversion in the main clause is a useful indication that þa is an adverb, ‘then’, not a conjunction, ‘when’.

After an adverbial phrase that has been fronted for emphasis: by love may he be getyn, ‘he may be reached by love’, 6/222.

In negative statements with ne, particularly in early verse: ne kep ich noʒt, ‘I don’t care’, 2/154; ne schaltu nevre, 2/209 (see 5.7).

After there, where there is used as a dummy subject: þer ys moche Latyn in þeus bokes, 12/47. Earlier it was used in place of there: it nis no bot, ‘there is no remedy’, 5/552. Sometimes, especially in early texts, there is no dummy subject: wes nævre gæt mare wreccehed on land, ‘there was never before more misery in the land’, 1/43.

5.9.2 The Object

A pronoun object often precedes the verb, its inflected form determining its relationship: þe biscopes and lered men heom cursede ævre, 1/50–1. The same order is possible with a noun object, and even a noun object with a relative clause, as lordes here: that sche þe lordes ate feste / That were obeissant to his heste / Mai knowe, ‘so that at the feast she may get to know the lords who were subject to him’, 13/103–5.

5.9.3 Prepositions

In verse, and particularly in alliterative verse, prepositions may follow the noun or pronoun: þe peple biforne, ‘in front of the people’, 9/123; him barones besyde, ‘barons beside him’, 11/142. Deferred prepositions at the end of relative or infinitive clauses, of the type þe prik þat he schoteþ to, 6/199–200, can be brought forward, especially in verse: þe werst piler on to biholde, ‘the worst pillar to look at’, 5/367; this present to plese with Honger, ‘this present to please Hunger with’, 7b/318.

5.9.4 Relative Clauses

A relative þat‐clause is quite often separated from the antecedent to which it refers, and this can cause difficulty since it is not possible in Modern English. In he shal have my soule þat alle soules made, 7b/96, it is obvious enough that the antecedent of the þat‐clause is he and not my soule, ‘he who made all souls shall have my soul’. Less obviously, al studied þat þer stod, 9/237, is ‘all those who were standing there looked intently’, not ‘all looked intently at the one who stood there’, though it is only the context that determines it; and þe man marred on þe molde þat moʒt hym not hyde, 8/479, makes better sense as ‘the man who could not shelter himself suffered on the bare earth’, than as ‘the man suffered on the bare earth that could not shelter him’.

5.9.5 Adverbial Phrases

The position of adverbial phrases is very flexible, and they may even be placed outside the clause to which they belong: in worlde quat weghe þou was, ‘what man you were in the world’, 11/186. This is especially characteristic of Gower: wiþ al his herte and most it hateþ, ‘and most hates it with all his heart’, 13/56; wiþinne his herte and tok a pride, ‘and grew proud in his heart’, 13/135.

5.9.6 Verb in Final Position

A common word‐order is for the verb to come at the end of a subordinate clause, particularly in verse: Ne schaltu nevre so him queme / þat he for þe fals dom deme, 2/209–10; þis watz kynges countenaunce where he in court were, 9/100.

5.10 Recapitulation and Anticipation

A pronoun may recapitulate or anticipate a clause or a noun phrase. There are some good examples of this in Piers Plowman. In prestes and oþer peple towarde Peres they drowe, 7b/190, they stands for the noun phrase which is separated from its verb. In meschef hit maketh they ben so meke, 7b/212, hit anticipates the clause that follows. In ho‐so beste wrouhte / He sholde be huyred, 7b/120–1, He sums up the preceding clause ‘whoever did best’, and the same structure is seen in þat was bake for Bayard hit may be here bote, ‘what was baked for Bayard, (it) may be their salvation’, 7b/178. In alle þat grat in thy gate for Godes love aftur fode / Part with hem of thy payne, 7b/284–5, the inflected form hem both sums up the clause of l. 284 and establishes its dependence on Part with. The same structure, again with an imperative verb, is illustrated from the York Play: this traitoure here teynted of treasoune / Gose faste and fette hym, 15/77–8.

6
Metre

6.1 Introduction

Two distinct metrical traditions are represented in this book: rhymed verse and alliterative verse. The verse of French and Anglo‐Norman poets was the chief model for the former; the history of alliterative verse is less clear, but it is a verse‐form native to Germanic peoples and used by the Anglo‐Saxons. English rhymed verse is based on the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables; alliterative verse is based on stress and is syllabically variable.

6.2 Rhymed Verse

Throughout the period the standard form of rhymed verse was the couplet of eight or nine syllables, with four beats or stresses. This is seen at its most controlled in Gower’s Confessio Amantis, in which the author’s metrical precision has been faithfully transmitted by a scribe no less attentive to the syllabic regularity of the metre. Almost invariably Gower has an iambic line of eight syllables:

Som góodly wórd þat þée was tóld (13/24)

or nine syllables if the last is unstressed:

Wiþ ál his hérte and móst it háteþ (13/56)

The reader may begin with the expectation that word‐endings containing a vowel, such as ‐e, ‐ed, ‐es, are to be pronounced as a syllable. So in the first line:

The více cléped Ávantánce (13/1)

both vice and cleped have two syllables, and Avantance has four. Similarly, dukes, helpe and soghte are all disyllabic in:

Wher þei þe dukes helpe soghte (13/241)

The chief exception to this is that a final vowel is elided before another vowel, and before h‐ when it is silent or in an unstressed syllable. So while the ‐e of make is sounded in make myn avant (13/37), it is lost in make avanterie (13/40), and by the same principle the word ‘token’ has one syllable in tokne or lettre (13/25). Because the h‐ of hond is aspirated, the final ‐e of the adjective ‘own’ is sounded in his oghne hond (13/81). The ‐e of scholde is sounded before have in 13/144 because have is stressed, but that same ‐e is elided in 13/41, scholde have do, where have is unstressed. Despite its spelling, hire is generally a monosyllable, whatever sound follows, as the examples of it in 13/86–8 demonstrate. Words such as evere and nevere are disyllabic, nev’re, with the second ‐e‐ elided (e.g. 13/32), so that with the final ‐e lost before a vowel they become monosyllabic, as in For évere I schál (13/220).

These rules sound complicated when listed in this way, but – such is the meticulousness of both poet and scribe – reading Gower aloud with attention to the metre will at once bring out the regularity of the rhythm. Variations upon the iambic pattern are occasional and therefore often very striking, as in Drínk wiþ þi fáder, dáme (13/153), where the inversion of the first foot gives dramatic emphasis at this crucial point in the tale (see the note there). Inversion within the line is rarer still, but it can, for example, convey the speech‐rhythm of a colloquial phrase in téll and sei hów (13/20).

The same four‐stress verse‐form is used some two centuries earlier for The Owl and the Nightingale. Perhaps because of the stronger influence of the native line upon the early poet, there is much greater freedom in rhythmic patterns than Gower permits, but even so, greater freedom does not generally mean less control. A straightforwardly regular line is:

þarmíd þu cláckes óft and lónge (2/81)

Final ‐e needs to be sounded in:

And áfter þáre lónge tále (2/140)

but within the line ‐e is elided in:

Ich hábbe on bréde and ék on léngþe (2/174)

There is striking inversion of the first foot in:

Wái þat he nís þaróf biréved (2/120)

and shifting of stress within the line brings to prominence the alliteration and rhyme of a colloquial phrase:

Wel fíʒt þat wel flíʒt séiþ þe wíse (2/176)

In

þu cháterest so dóþ on Írish próst (2/322)

the chatter of the extra syllable of chat’rest so might be regarded as artful, but it is as well to remember that this poet’s scribes were not especially faithful to his intentions, and that metrical variation may sometimes be a sign of scribal carelessness.

The text of Sir Orfeo (from about 1330) presents a rougher form of the four‐stress couplet. It is evident that at least some of the metrical irregularities were contributed by a scribe or a series of scribes, yet it is unlikely that the poet himself wrote a formal iambic line. Whatever the practices of individual poets, strict regularity of syllables was not fundamental to English verse as it was to French, and modulations of the standard pattern are often effectively used. In Sir Orfeo it may be that the marked irregularity of the passage describing the horror of the undead in the Fairy World (5/391–400) is designed as a jolt to the reader; on the other hand the restoration of earlier inflected forms (not attempted in this book) would often give a smoother line:

And súm[e] láy[en] wóde ybóunde (5/394)

So, too, the irregularity of

And whén ʒe understónd þat ý be spént (5/215)

would be improved by the substitution of the synonymous verb wite, which is actually used in the parallel line in another manuscript.

Chaucer employed short couplets in some early works, but later preferred a longer line of ten or eleven syllables, either in rhyming couplets (e.g. the Reeve’s Tale, text 18a) or in stanzaic form. The Parliament of Fowls (text 16), the Prioress’s Tale (text 18b) and Troilus (text 17) are composed in ‘rhyme‐royal’ stanzas of seven lines rhyming ababbcc. Like Gower, Chaucer was concerned with achieving the correct number of syllables in his longer line, and observed the same rules of elision; but, in the Parliament especially, the manuscripts are less faithful to his original intentions.

Rhymes in these poems are generally true, though later sound changes may have obscured this. ‘Boards’ and ‘words’ would now be half‐rhymes, but in Gower bordes and wordes (13/131–2) are true rhymes, as are dale and smale in Sir Orfeo (5/537–8). Identical rhymes are quite common, but only when they involve different parts of speech, as clawe, noun and verb, in 2/153–4, or a simple word with a compound, as soghte and besoghte in 13/241–2. For remarks on rhyme and word‐stress see 2.4 above.

Writers of lyrics chose a wide range of stanza‐forms, from the very simple patterns of the Rawlinson Lyrics (14a–f ), which are perhaps for singing, to the more complex schemes of the Harley Lyrics (14g–k). A burden or refrain accompanies one of the simplest (14b), as well as one of the most elaborate (14g). The models for lyric stanzas will again often have been French or Anglo‐Norman, though Latin hymns were also a strong and direct influence upon writers such as John of Grimestone (14l–r).

Rhymed verse frequently uses alliteration as an ornament of style; sometimes that alliteration is very heavy, as in the York Play (text 15), which is written in twelve‐line stanzas of regularly iambic lines. Pearl is also written in twelve‐line stanzas with heavy alliteration, rhyming on just three sounds: a b a b a b a b b c b c. For further details see the Headnote to text 10.

6.3 Alliterative Verse

In the later fourteenth century alliterative poetry flourished in the hands of some remarkable poets of the West and North‐West Midlands. They are represented in this book by William Langland, the Gawain‐poet, and the author of St Erkenwald (texts 7–11).

The alliterative line is based on principles quite different from those of rhymed verse, but they are essentially easy to understand. Each line is divided into half‐lines bound together by alliteration. Each half‐line normally has two stressed syllables; the two stresses of the first half‐line alliterate with the first stress of the second half‐line, while the last stress does not alliterate. So, with a standing for ‘alliteration’, the standard alliterative pattern is denoted aa/ax:

þe túlk þat þe trámmes . of trésoun þer wróʒt

Watz tríed for his trícherie . þe tréwest on érthe

Hit watz Énnias þe áthel . and his híghe kýnde (9/3–5)

In the practice of these poets, any vowel may alliterate with any other vowel and with h‐, as in the last line quoted.

This structural alliteration normally falls on stressed syllables. As already described in 2.4, the way a word is stressed in Modern English is generally a good guide to its Middle English stress‐pattern, although there are some variations, particularly in French loan‐words. So ‘deserved’ alliterates and is stressed on the first syllable in

Such a dúnt as þou hatz dált . dísserved þou hábbez (9/452)

‘Important’ words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs) are normally stressed in preference to ‘little’ words (prepositions, articles and conjunctions). When an adjective accompanies a noun, either may be stressed, as the following line illustrates:

Of brýʒt golde upon silk bórdes . bárred ful rýche (9/159)

Sometimes there are three alliterating syllables in the first half‐line. It may be appropriate to subordinate one of these, so that in the following the first word, siþen, is presumably unstressed, though alliterating:

Siþen þe sege and þe assaut . watz sesed at Troye (9/1)

Yet it is more difficult to subordinate the noun borʒ in the next line:

þe borʒ brittened and brent . to brondez and askez (9/2)

Non‐standard alliterative patterns, such as ax/ax or aa/xx, are also found, but many of them are perhaps the result of scribal error. An obvious example of such corruption is:

Wolde ʒe worþilych lorde . quoþ Gawan to þe kyng (9/343)

where we have adopted the simple emendation to Wawan, a form of Gawain’s name used elsewhere by the poet, to restore the standard alliterative pattern.

A stressed syllable is called a lift, a group of unstressed syllables a dip. The dips vary in length, and this determines the rhythmic structure of the half‐line. In the following two lines, the first has a four‐syllable dip before the first stress, while the next has no dip at all between the stresses of the second half:

þat siþen depréced próvinces . and pátrounes bicóme

Wélneʒe of al þe wéle. in þe wést íles (9/6–7)

A dip of one syllable may be called ‘weak’, and ‘strong’ if it is more than one syllable. In the second half‐line (the ‘b‐verse’) the rhythm is quite tightly controlled, with a maximum of eight syllables and a minimum of four. Furthermore, one of the dips preceding the two lifts must be strong, the other must not be strong. So in the b‐verse of l. 6 above, the first dip (‘and’) is weak, the second is strong; in l. 7 the first stress (‘west’) is preceded by a strong dip, and followed immediately without a dip by the final stressed syllable. If there is a dip at the end of the line it is always weak. For a fuller account, see H. N. Duggan in Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, eds, A Companion to the Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 221–42.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, from which all these examples have been taken, a varying number of alliterative lines is rounded off by a rhyming ‘bob and wheel’ of five lines, the ‘bob’ of one stress and the four lines of the ‘wheel’ of three stresses.

The basic description of the alliterative line applies also to the verse of Piers Plowman, but the variations in Langland’s line are considerably greater than those in the Gawain‐poet and the other writers of the North‐West. One very characteristic feature of Langland’s verse is the alliteration of an unstressed syllable before a non‐alliterating stressed syllable. So in this second half‐line, fro alliterates but morw‐ is stressed:

And flápton on with fláles . fro mórwen til éven (7b/180)

Variant alliterative patterns, in particular aaa/xx and aa/xa, are found quite frequently in Piers Plowman and are perhaps authentic, but scribal intervention in this text is a major problem, and many of the metrical anomalies may be a result of corruption.

6.4 Laʒamon’s Brut

Laʒamon, writing in about 1200, used both rhyme and alliteration, sometimes as alternatives, sometimes together. He seems to have relied on two distinct models: the stress‐based alliterative line of Germanic tradition, and the rhyming couplets of Romance verse. The alliterative line was inherited from Old English, but perhaps not directly; there are examples even from before the Conquest of a much looser alliterative line with sporadic internal rhyme. On this model Laʒamon superimposed a metre learnt from Anglo‐Norman and Latin poets writing rhyming verse. In Laʒamon’s Brut the half‐lines are of varying length, predominantly of two stresses, and are linked to one another sometimes by rhyme or half‐rhyme, sometimes by alliteration, sometimes by both. With rhyme but not alliteration is:

Híʒenliche swíðe . fórð he gon líðe (3/4)

The next line has alliteration but not rhyme:

þat he bíhalves Báðe . béh to ane vélde (3/5)

Two lines further on, the word burnen both alliterates and rhymes with the second half‐line:

And ón mid heore búrnen . béornes stúrne (3/7)

In his work Laʒamon was recreating a heroic British past for an Anglo‐Norman present, and his metrical form, like other features of his style, recalls pre‐Conquest traditions. Yet his Brut does not attempt to reproduce an Anglo‐Saxon verse form, but instead develops English verse by assimilating Continental traditions.

7
From Manuscript to Printed Text

The following is a passage from one of our texts (11), St Erkenwald lines 257–64: first, as it appears in the one surviving manuscript copy; then, as it would appear in a ‘diplomatic’ or letter‐by‐letter transcription; and finally, as it appears in our edited version.

[picture]

Lines from St Erkenwald (MS Harley 2250, folio 74v).

Reproduced by permission of the British Library.

| ye bisshop baythes h ʒet wt bale at his hert
be, cAn illustration of an alphabet representing eth in middle English. to paf | yagh mē menskid hAn illustration of an alphabet representing i in middle English. so how hit myʒt worthe
| yt his clothes weAn illustration of an alphabet representing r in middle English. so clene in cloutes me thynkes
| hom burde haue rotid & bene rent An illustration of an alphabet representing i in middle English. raAn illustration of alphabets representing the pronunciation s. lonAn illustration of an alphabet representing g in middle English. sytheAn illustration of an alphabet representing n in middle English.
∵ | yi body may be enbawmyd hit bashis me noght
| yt hit thar ryne ne roAn illustration of an alphabet representing u in middle English.te ne no ronke wormes
| bot yi colouAn illustration of an alphabet representing r in middle English. ne yi clothe I know An illustration of an alphabet representing i in middle English. no wise
| how hit myʒt lye by mōnes loAn illustration of an alphabet representing r in middle English. & last so longe

þe bisshop baythes hym ʒet with bale at his hert,

þagh men menskid him so, how hit myʒt worthe

þat his clothes were so clene. ‘In cloutes, me thynkes,

Hom burde have rotid and bene rent in rattes long sythen. 260

þi body may be enbawmyd, hit bashis me noght

þat hit thar ryne no rote ne no ronke wormes;

Bot þi coloure ne þi clothe – I know in no wise

How hit myʒt lye by monnes lore and last so longe.’

We ignore the early‐modern hand which has marked worthe and rattes with underlining, and glossed the former (correctly) ‘be, com to pas’, although such annotations have their own interest as testifying to post‐medieval study of Middle English texts. The original is written in a late fifteenth‐century hand. As was common at the time, the scribe uses a y shape for both y and þ, but we distinguish them: þe for ye (257), but myʒt (258). He also writes u for modern v in the middle of words (haue 260), but our practice is to ‘normalize’ this. We expand the abbreviation for and. The line over vowels indicates either m or n, and has been represented accordingly: hym (257), men (258), in (260, 263), monnes (264); but that over þagh (258) has been ignored, though it might be expanded, as by other editors, to (unetymological) ‐e. The ‐es abbreviation has been expanded in rattes (260), as have the customary short forms of with (257) and þat (259, 262). A final upward curl is taken to represent ‐e after r (were 259, coloure 263, lore 264), but not after other letters (long sythen 260). Editors differ in their practice on this point.

Line 262 presents editorial problems of a fairly typical kind. The scribe himself went wrong, correcting route to rote. Earlier in the line, some editors read ryue, that is, ryve, ‘tear asunder’; but, u being indistinguishable from n, we prefer to read ryne, ‘touch’. In either case, anyway, the line hardly makes sense as it stands: ‘[Your body may be embalmed, so it does not surprise me] that it need not touch/tear nor rot nor any foul worms’. We have therefore emended the first ne to no, assuming an error easily made by the scribe. This emendation turns rote into the noun ‘rot’ and makes it the subject of ryne – which is accordingly more appropriate than ryve, since rot can touch but hardly tear. So the line, in our version, means: ‘that no rot need touch it, nor any foul worms’. The word‐order object–verb–subject is common in Middle English verse.

The passage also illustrates the difficulties and responsibilities that face editors as they punctuate their texts. Most Middle English verse is not punctuated at all, as in the case of St Erkenwald, or has nothing but metrical punctuation such as marks the half‐lines in alliterative poems. So all punctuation in modern editions should be treated with scepticism, as representing nothing more authoritative than an editor’s judgement of the syntax and meaning of the original. Modern habits of punctuation, furthermore, are in many respects ill‐suited to the fluid and often colloquial structure of medieval sentences. Thus, the enclosing of the first half of line 258 between commas tends to disguise the fact that it belongs inside the clause that follows: ‘The bishop asks him further with anguish in his heart how it could be that, even though people had honoured him so, his clothes were so perfectly preserved’. Again, line 259 should slip into direct speech more easily than it does in our text, where modern punctuation has required a heavy stop, an inverted comma, and a capital letter. The comma after enbawmyd (261) is a deliberate underpointing, designed to keep the line and the sentence moving; but the awkwardly overemphatic dash in line 263 seems the only way of representing a usage hardly permissible in modern written English: coloure and clothe announce the subject of myʒt lye in the next line, to be recapitulated there by the pronoun hit (see 5.10).

Elsewhere in our texts, editorial punctuating involves more far‐reaching decisions about meaning. An extreme example, and one where the present editors have not been able to agree a solution, is presented by the opening lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (text 9 here). These appear as follows, without any punctuation, in the sole manuscript:

Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye

þe borʒ brittened and brent to brondez and askez

þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroʒt

Watz tried for his tricherie þe trewest on erthe

Hit watz Ennias þe athel and his highe kynde 5

þat siþen depreced provinces and patrounes bicome

Welneʒe of al þe wele in þe west iles

The question of interpretation at its most basic is: who is the tulk of line 3? Two answers have been proposed.

The tulk is Antenor who, according to well‐known accounts of the fall of Troy, betrayed the city to the Greeks. The opening sentence is built round a correlative pair of siþens, at lines 1 and 6: ‘After the siege and the assault of Troy were over, the city destroyed and burned to brands and ashes, … it was the noble Aeneas and his great descendants who after‐wards subjugated nations …’. On this reading, the Hit watz of line 5 points forward to what follows. Lines 3–4 are left as a parenthesis; and they should accordingly be set off by dashes: ‘– the man [Antenor] who carried out the treasonable schemes was famous for his treachery, the most notable on earth –’.

The tulk is Aeneas. Aeneas, according to the Troy story, at first conspired with Antenor to betray the city; but then he rescued the Trojan princess Polyxena from the clutches of the victorious Greeks. This further act of treachery, this time to the new masters of the city, was revealed to the Greeks who then exiled Aeneas from Troy. On this reading, the Hit watz of line 5 refers back to the tulk, identifying him as Aeneas, and so is best preceded by a colon at the end of line 4. Line 3 refers to the treason of Aeneas in betraying Troy; line 4 to his noble treachery in rescuing Polyxena: Aeneas ‘was exposed for his treachery, the most honourable on earth’.

Since the two present editors do not agree on this matter, and since in any case the issues would not have been as clear‐cut for a medieval reader or listener, we have adopted in our text a light and non‐committal punctuation.

8
Translating Middle English

‘Clerkes knoweþ wel ynow þat no synfol man doþ so wel þat he ne myʒte do betre, noþer makeþ so good a translacyon þat he ne myʒte make a betre.’ Trevisa.

8.1 Trevisa’s Dialogue

John Trevisa, chaplain at Berkeley Castle, translated three major Latin works at the command of his master Lord Berkeley. In his Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk (text 12), the preface to his translation of Higden’s Polychronicon, Trevisa imagines a conversation that raises fundamental issues about translation. The most basic of these is, what is the point of a translation? To answer this involves asking whom it is for. Because there are so many mutually incomprehensible languages, argues the Clerk, important works have been written in Latin, a lingua franca that scholars all over Europe understand; therefore there is no need to translate the Latin into English. Those who only understand English should learn Latin if they want to read the Polychronicon and other chronicles. The Lord points out that not everyone who would want to understand Latin works can read Latin easily, and not everyone has the opportunity to learn it. Citing the precedents of biblical translations from Hebrew to Greek and Greek to Latin, he argues that preachers give sermons on the Bible in English to those who do not know Latin. ‘Such Englysch prechyng ys verrey Englysch translacion, and such Englysch prechyng ys good and neodful; þanne Englysch translacion ys good and neodful’ (12/131–4). The Clerk raises a final objection, which is a strong one: that a translation risks misrepresenting the original. Conceding this point, the Lord explains that he does not demand a faultless work, ‘bote ich wolde have a skylfol translacion þat myʒt be knowe and understonde’ (12/143–4). The Clerk, accepting his brief, asks whether his translation should be in verse or prose. It may seem odd to envisage a translation of a Latin prose chronicle into verse, but that was an option for writers who wished to entertain as well as inform, with notable examples such as The Wars of Alexander. But the Lord asks for prose, since ‘prose ys more cleer þan ryme, more esy and more playn to knowe and understonde’ (12/147–8).

Trevisa thus makes the point that there is no one right way to make a translation: the nature of the translation must depend upon its purpose and the nature of the readership. A translation may be in prose or in verse; thus it may be more or less literal (but what does a ‘literal’ translation consist of?); there is no such thing as a perfect translation, for a text cannot be transposed intact from one language into another.

8.2 Words and Their Meanings

A translator, whether from German or Japanese to English, or Middle English to Modern English, must take an important consideration into account: a word in the source language is rarely exactly synonymous with another in the target language. That is to say, the range of associated senses of a word, its semantic field, does not map precisely onto a word in another language. A glossary or concise dictionary may give a different impression. For example, the glossary to this book has the following entry: ‘stout adj. bold 5/184, 293 [OF (e)stout]’. That conveys a certain amount of information in a compressed form: that the adjective stout, which is a borrowing from French, can be translated as ‘bold’ in a couple of instances in Sir Orfeo: Orfeo’s thousand armed knights are ‘stout and grim’, and similarly the fairy knights are ‘Of cuntenaunce stout and fers’. Consultation of comprehensive historical dictionaries that display a word’s semantic field at different periods provides a much richer understanding of stout. From the Oxford English Dictionary we can discover that the earliest records of stout in its common current sense of ‘fat’ date from as late as the nineteenth century, so that sense cannot be relevant to Middle English examples. In its entry for stout(e adj., the Middle English Dictionary divides the senses under six main headings, each subdivided. Some of the applications of the word are positive: (1) ‘bold’ and related senses; (4) ‘noble, splendid’ and similar senses; (5) ‘strong’, of both animate and inanimate objects. But some senses are negative: (2) ‘cruel, violent’; (3) ‘proud, arrogant’. In its printed edition, MED’s entry runs over two pages, quoting a great many examples from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century.

If we look again at the two examples of the word in Sir Orfeo in their contexts, we can see that ‘bold’ is not the only translation possible, and that some of the related meanings of stout might be brought into play. In line 184 stout is paired with grim, a word inherited from Old English: citations in MED reveal that grim is used of the Devil ‘grisely and grym’, of dogs and lions, as well as of warriors and battles. So perhaps a translation conveying hostility, such as ‘fierce’, would be more precise in line 184, though the positive senses ‘strong’, even ‘splendidly arrayed for battle’, are also appropriate parts of its semantic range. In line 293 it is the appearance (cuntenaunce) of the fairy knights that is ‘stout and fers’, so that MED cites this instance under 1(c) ‘of the countenance, eyes: reflecting a courageous spirit, bold’, also citing a description of the ‘stout visage’ of Achilles that showed that ‘he was no womman’.

There is a third instance of stout in Sir Orfeo: the fairy castle has a hundred towers that are ‘Degiselich and bataild stout’ (360), translated in our footnote as ‘Wonderful and with strong battlements’. In this case stout is an adverb, and a more literal translation would be ‘strongly fortified with battlements’. Quoting this line, MED glosses ‘richly, splendidly’, which is fair enough, but misses the idea of strength to withstand attack, as recorded in examples of the adjective (5(b)). Any word‐for‐word translation is forced to choose one of a complex of senses, inevitably ignoring others.

The glossary is unable to display the semantic field of a word as a dictionary can do. Furthermore, a selective glossary, as the one in this book, does not record words in their modern senses, so that for example the entry for stronge adj. lists one instance where strong means ‘great’, but not the many other instances where it has its current meaning. To save space, meanings given in the footnotes are not repeated in the glossary.

8.3 Dictionaries

Work began on the Oxford English Dictionary in 1857 under the editorship of James Murray. What was then envisaged as a ten‐year project was finally completed in 1928, published in ten huge volumes as A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED). Five years later the dictionary was reprinted with a supplement, and renamed the Oxford English Dictionary. Four more supplements were published between 1972 and 1986. An integrated and much expanded second edition was published in twelve volumes in 1989. From 2000 the OED has been available online to libraries and other subscribers at http://www.oed.com/. Entries are being progressively revised, with the date of the revision stated. It follows that, while many of the entries include up‐to‐date material, others are essentially as they were compiled in Victorian times. OED aims to give a complete history of a word, though Old English words are only recorded if they survived into Middle English.

The first fascicle of the Middle English Dictionary was published by the University of Michigan in 1954, and the dictionary was completed in 2001. MED is now available freely online at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary. It covers texts composed between about 1150 and 1500. The Middle English citations in the OED formed the nucleus of the collection, but the MED, which runs to 115 fascicles and 15,000 pages in its print edition, is a much more comprehensive record of Middle English than the OED.

The electronic editions make piecemeal revision possible, and furthermore they are much easier for the reader to use and explore. The wide variation in spelling in Middle English means that finding a word in the print edition of MED can be a bit of a challenge, but the online version allows a search of any of the headword forms, so that a search for stought (or even the misspelling strout) will come up with the entry for stout(e. Alternatively, if one knows the modern form of a word, the OED entry provides a link to the MED. Definitions of a word are ordered in an attempt to show its semantic development, though this is not always clear. Thus sense 5 (a) of stout(e in MED is given as: ‘Of a person, an animal: strong, sturdy’. As an instance of this is the following quotation is cited:

a1425(c1385) Chaucer TC (Benson‐Robinson) 5.1454 : His drem he tolde hire er he stente, And hire bisoughte assoilen hym the doute Of the stronge boor with tuskes stoute.

This gives first the approximate date of the manuscript chosen, a1425, i.e. before (ante) 1425, and then in brackets the date of the composition of the text, circa 1385. The text is identified as Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, as in the Benson–Robinson edition, i.e. The Riverside Chaucer, book 5, line 1454. Clicking on the bibliographical reference brings up a new page with a mine of information on the manuscripts of Chaucer’s poem, their dates, references to dialects as determined by LALME, editions and facsimiles, as well as external references to the poem in various indexes such as The Digital Index of Middle English Verse. The format in OED follows a similar system, explained in detail at https://public.oed.com/blog/dating-middle-english-evidence-in-the-oed/.

8.4 False Friends

8.4.1 ‘lewd’

A trap for the unwary in Middle English is a ‘false friend’, that is, a familiar word that has undergone semantic change. A clear example is stout, where the change in meaning has been so dramatic that the context will usually make it obvious that its modern sense is not applicable. Another instance is lewd, a word that Trevisa uses repeatedly in his Dialogue, though not in its current sense of ‘sexually offensive’. To understand what Trevisa means by it, we need to follow the semantic development of the word, which OED sets out clearly in seven steps. In Old English lwede referred to someone who was not a cleric but a layman, a sense surviving into Middle English (sense 1). Since to be a cleric was, supposedly, to be trained and specifically to know Latin, a lewd person was unlearned, in a non‐judgemental sense someone who did not know Latin, a sense first recorded early in the thirteenth century (2). But this had social implications, because knowledge of Latin distinguished not only the clergy but also all those with access to education, so that to be lewd indicated lower social status (3). At this point, inevitably, the implications of the word go downhill: a lewed person is an ignorant one, regardless of social status, often wilfully ignorant (4); and hence, more generally, a wicked person (5). It could also be applied to objects, bad or worthless (6), and finally to lascivious people or behaviour (7). OED cites senses 3–7 from the later fourteenth century, often from Chaucer, so its first citation of the modern sense ‘lascivious’ is the Reeve’s outraged reprimand to the Miller: ‘Lat be thy lewed dronken harlotrye!’ (Canterbury Tales 1.3145). MED, however, gives the definition, ‘coarse, crude’, since neither lewed nor harlotrye, ‘scurrilous story’, necessarily has sexual implications. The Reeve’s objection is to a tale that brings someone into disrepute, though indeed it does, as it turns out, involve quite a lot of sex. However, MED’s entry for lewd is less easy to find and to navigate. A search for the common spelling lewed among the headwords will not find it, since ‐w‐ is spelt ‐u‐ in the headwords, so it is listed as leued. Its senses are grouped rather counter‐intuitively under two main headings. Unhelpfully, there is an entirely separate entry for leued man, which is more sensibly integrated in OED.

Who, then, is the ‘lewed man’ (12/72) that the Lord refers to in his discussion with the Clerk? To answer that question we need to follow the Lord’s argument, which focusses on the need for translation from Latin. Although the ‘lewed man’ ‘understondeþ no Latyn’ (70), the Clerk argues he can be informed of the contents of Latin works by those who are able to read them. The Lord points to the flaw in this answer, for the ‘lewed man’ does not know what information he ought to ask for, ‘especially about the knowledge of events that never entered his mind’ (72–4). The Lord thus expresses sympathy for the ‘lewed man’ and his needs, so that the derogatory senses of lewed are inappropriate here. The Clerk has argued snootily that such people ‘may lerne and understonde’ (52), to which the Lord objects that this is impossible for those who are too busy, or too old, or too unintelligent, or without funds to pay for schooling (54–7). So lewed encompasses all who, for one reason or another, are unable to learn Latin, those occupied in worldly business as well as the poorer classes of society.

The context of the word on the page gives vital information for its interpretation. In this case there is a wider context that can usefully be considered. Trevisa’s preface to his translation of the Polychronicon is an advertisement for the work, positioning the potential readership who will recognize themselves as ‘lewed men’. Clearly derogatory senses can therefore be ruled out here: it does not do to disparage your audience. In fact those who commissioned the surviving huge manuscripts of Trevisa’s Polychronicon prefaced by the Dialogue were evidently from the upper echelons of society who could afford the major outlay required. To capture all of these implications in a single modern word is indeed a challenge, since the meanings of the word are embedded in its social and historical situation, in the relative status of Latin and English in the late fourteenth century.

The Lord becomes exasperated by the Clerk’s obtuseness, and now launches into a clever denunciation. Clerk, too, has a range of associated senses: firstly it refers to a cleric, therefore an educated and learned man, one trained to read and write Latin, a student, and thence one employed as a secretary (MED clerk, senses 1–3; and see note to 14j/17 in this book). The Lord himself uses clerkes to refer to wise men (138). The expression ‘both clerk and lewed’ means ‘everyone’, since they are antonyms. It follows that to accuse the Clerk of being lewed is a major insult, as when, in a resoundingly alliterative and metaphorical phrase, the Lord describes the Clerk’s argument as ‘worþy to be plonged yn a plod and leyd in pouþer of lewednes and of schame’ (81–2) – ‘fit to be plunged into a muddy puddle and placed in a powder of lewednes and of disgrace’. So here lewed, coupled with schame takes on a strongly derogatory sense. Not content with this derisory comment, the Lord insults the Clerk by describing his argument as ‘lewed reson’ (96, 106). Furthermore he maintains that to deliver a sermon in Latin to a congregation who only knew English would be ‘a lewed dede’ (100). Does the Clerk, asks the Lord rhetorically, really suppose that learned men were lewedlych occupied when they translated the Bible? In his Dialogue we see how Trevisa takes delight in playing with the semantic range of lewed.

8.4.2 ‘kind’

The noun kind (from OE) means ‘nature, species, sort’, as now, and the adjective kynde is related to the noun, originally meaning ‘natural, in accord with innate nature or kind’. It is a word rich in significance in Piers Plowman, especially in the semi‐personification Kynde Wit, ‘natural understanding’ who at one point teaches Piers how to prepare for his pilgrimage (7b/59): it is the innate understanding of right and wrong that belongs to all. Langland also uses the phrase ‘of kynde understondyng’ (7a/56), which has been variously interpreted. The basic idea is still ‘what is natural to humans’; here we take the phrase to mean ‘as is commonly agreed’: it is generally understood, says Will, that clerics should not testify in a lay court since they have their own ecclesiastical courts. In one stanza of Pearl (10/265–76) the poet plays on the noun and adjective: kynde decreed that a rose should flower and die, says the Maiden to the Dreamer, but through the kynde of the chest enclosing it now, the rose has become a pearl. The Dreamer’s refusal to accept this shows he is ‘no kynde jueler’: taking its sense from the preceding nouns, the adjective implies that the jeweller‐dreamer is acting against the natural course of things, he is not ‘right‐minded’ in that he is ungenerous, ‘not grateful’. At Arthur’s New Year celebrations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the court is entertained with ‘kynde caroles’ (9/473), and here the sense is ‘fitting, appropriate to the season’, what comes naturally and properly. Finally, the repentant sinner in a lyric acknowledges that Christ’s redeeming love ‘Min herte it þerlede, ʒef I wer kende’ – ‘would pierce my heart if I were kind’ (14r/19). This approaches the modern sense, ‘kind, grateful’, but still the primary meaning is ‘having natural feelings’.

8.4.3 Some Nouns and Verbs

Many of the words examined above are adjectives, which are particularly prone to semantic change, because they take on the colour of the nouns they qualify. Nouns to pay attention to are, for example, mete, ‘food’ (7b/51, 9/45, 474); daunger, primarily ‘power’, but with senses ranging from ‘reserve’ (17/384) to ‘state of longing’ (10/250); sentence, basically ‘opinion’, but with senses including ‘decision, judgement’ (16/530), ‘teaching’ (16/35), ‘subject matter’ (18b/111), and ‘meaning’ (16/126); wit, ranging in sense from ‘wisdom’ (8/129), ‘intelligence’ (12/55), ‘advice’ (7b/55), to ‘mind, thought’ (8/74). Among verbs, bowe commonly means ‘go, come’, lymp is not ‘limp’ but ‘happen’ (8/265), sterve not ‘starve’ but ‘die’ (16/420). Thynk means ‘seem’, not ‘think’ which is thenk; it is most often used in impersonal constructions: me thynkes, ‘it seems to me’ (11/259). For more impersonal verbs, such as like and list, see 5.6.8. If in any doubt about the signification of a word, the advice must be to check the footnote, look in the glossary, and for a fuller appreciation of semantic range and connotations, follow it up in OED and MED.

8.5 Idioms

Some common idioms and syntactic features that should be noted may be followed up in chapter 5, including the indefinite pronoun man / mon / me (5.4.3), gan / con used with an infinitive verb to express a past tense (5.6.3), the simple present and past tenses where today we would use progressive ‘is / was + ‐ing’ (5.6.1 ‐ 5.6.2), word‐order in that clauses (5.9.4). It is often tricky to capture the sense of the subjunctive mood, since it is so much more widely used in Middle English than today; examples of appropriate translations are given in 5.6.6.

8.6 Translating Prose

Because translation is never an exact process, it may be helpful to supply a commentary to explain why choices have been made, what the alternatives would be, and what cannot be expressed in a word‐for‐word translation. The translation will draw on the information of relevant dictionaries, of a Middle English grammar such as the introduction to this book or grammars listed in the Bibliography (9.2), and of the annotations in a reliable edition of the text. The commentary should acknowledge these sources, noting points of interest or difficulty in the text, and should relate the passage to the wider context of the work. Here is a proposed translation together with a brief commentary of a passage from Trevisa’s Dialogue (12.44–57):

Clericus:

Ȝe cunneþ speke and rede and understonde Latyn. Þanne hyt nedeþ noʒt to have such an Englysch translacion.

Dominus:

Y denye þys argument; for þey I cunne speke and rede and understonde Latyn, þer ys moche Latyn in þeus bokes of cronyks þat y can noʒt understonde, noþer þou wiþoute studyinge and avysement and lokyng of oþer bokes. Also, þey hyt were noʒt neodful vor me, hyt is neodfol vor oþere men þat understondeþ no Latyn.

Clericus:

Men þat understondeþ no Latyn may lerne and understonde.

Dominus:

Noʒt alle: for som may noʒt vor oþer maner bysynes, som vor elde, som vor defaute of wyt, som vor defaute of katel oþer of frendes to vynde ham to scole, and som vor oþere dyvers defautes and lettes.

Clerk:

You’re able to speak and read and understand Latin. So then it isn’t necessary to have an English translation.

Lord:

I deny this argument; for though I’m able to speak and read and understand Latin, there’s much Latin in these chronicle books that I can’t understand, and nor can you without studying and consultation and reading other books. Also, though it mightn’t be necessary for me, it is necessary for other people who understand no Latin.

Clerk:

People who understand no Latin may learn and understand.

Lord:

Not everyone: for some aren’t able to because of other sorts of activity, some because of old age, some for lack of intelligence, some for lack of funds or of relatives to provide for them to go to school, and some for other various defects and hindrances.

Commentary

This is a representation of conversational language, though of a rather formal sort, so that colloquial reductions such as ‘isn’t’ may be appropriate in a translation. However, the Clerk addresses the Lord with the deferential plural ʒe, while the Lord replies with þou (see 5.4.1). There is no way of conveying this distinction in a Modern English translation, with the result that a significant feature of social register is lost. Trevisa writes in a South Western dialect, with spellings such as þeus, ‘these’, vor, ‘for’, and the form ham for ‘them’.

nedeþ, ‘is necessary’, is used as an impersonal verb (5.6.8). The Lord discourses at length on the notion of necessity (ll. 59–69). In early use katel means ‘property, wealth’. Livestock was one form of property, and OED gives a detailed account of the social factors that resulted in the sense‐development to ‘cattle’. In this context frendes probably has the sense ‘relatives’ rather than ‘friends’, though either is certainly possible here. In ON frændi means ‘relative’, and this sense was borrowed in Middle English (MED frend 4). vynde is ‘provide for, support’. In this dialect initial <f> is often voiced to <v>. This sense of find, quite common in this period, is today restricted to the phrase ‘all found’, meaning ‘with everything provided’. See OED find, senses 7–18.

8.7 Translating Verse

The questions that Trevisa raises about a translation, what is its point and who is it for, are particularly pertinent when translating verse: should the translation be ‘in ryme oþer yn prose’? Here is a literal rendering of the first twelve lines of one of the most affecting religious lyrics, an address by the sinner to the infant Christ (text 14l). To modernize this as a sung lullaby, preserving its poetic form, would be a challenging task, but it would highlight how much is lost in the prose translation. Whereas Trevisa writes in a Western dialect, John of Grimestone’s lyrics are in the language of Norfolk, as described in the Headnote.

Lullay, lullay litel child, child, reste þe a þrowe.

Fro heyʒe hider art þu sent with us to wone lowe;

Pore an litel art þu mad, unkut an unknowe,

Pine an wo to suffren her for þing þat was þin owe.

 Lullay, lullay litel child, sorwe mauth þu make, 5

 Þu art sent into þis werd as tu were forsake.

Lullay, lullay litel grom, king of alle þingge.

Wan I þenke of þi methchef, me listet wol litel singge;

But caren I may for sorwe, ʒef love wer in myn herte,

For swiche peines as þu salt driʒen were nevere non so smerte. 10

 Lullay, lullay litel child, wel mauth þu criʒe,

For þan þi bodi is bleyk an blak, sone after sal ben driʒe.

Lullay, lullay, little child; child rest yourself a while. From on high you are sent to live here below. You are created poor and little, unrecognized and unknown, to suffer pain and misery for the sake of what was your own. Lullay, lullay, little child, you may well weep; you have been sent into this world as if you have been abandoned.

Lullay, lullay, little lad, king of all things; when I think of your suffering I really have little wish to sing, but I might indeed be sorrowful if love was in my heart, because no pains were so sharp as those you will suffer. Lullay, lullay, little child, well may you cry, for when your body is pale and wan, a little later it will be shrivelled.

Commentary

The traditional form of the lullaby, with its sentimental focus on the helpless baby, is in poignant contrast to the grim knowledge of the sufferings this child will undergo, for the baby is Jesus, and the speaker is perhaps gazing at a Christmas crib and reflecting on its significance. As the baby born in a stable, Christ is unkut, ‘not known’; OED uncouth traces the sense development through to its modern sense. Christ will suffer ‘for the thing that was your own’, i.e. mankind, created by God. He is forsake, anticipating his cry at his crucifixion, ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27.46).

In the second stanza the baby is a grom; the modern ‘groom’ is used in a narrower sense. In l. 9 wer is subjunctive in an if clause (5.6.6) where today the indicative would be more usual; in line 10 smerte means ‘painful’; OED smart adj. 10, records the modern sense ‘clever’ from the late sixteenth century, though we still use the verb smart in the sense ‘cause pain’. In the last line blak means ‘pale, pallid’; it is a classic false friend. Its origin is OE blāc; see MED blok. So in some dialects, as here, it has the same spelling as ‘black’ from OE blæc; see MED blak. Very confusing! The final detail, that Christ’s body is ‘dry’, is repeated in Julian of Norwich’s vision of the dead Christ as ‘dry and bloodless’.

8.8 Translating Pearl

Pearl, with its intricate metrical structure of linked twelve‐line rhyming stanzas with heavy alliteration, and its extraordinarily rich vocabulary, sets the greatest challenge to the translator, yet many have taken up that challenge with the aim of making the poem accessible to a modern audience. Some have tried to reproduce the metrical structure of the original; others have departed from it in various ways, but yet have attempted to transmit the movement and changing moods of the poem. The result is sometimes an effective and moving poem, but it is a new creation. And yet a literal translation, while transmitting the surface meaning of the text, lacks the formal structures that control the movement of the verse and the narrative. In these circumstances a commentary is particularly appropriate in order to draw attention to what is lost. Here is an example of a flat prose translation of Pearl 265–76 (text 10), followed by a commentary pointing to features not adequately conveyed by the translation:

‘Bot, jueler gente, if þou schal lose

Þy joy for a gemme þat þe watz lef,

Me þynk þe put in a mad porpose,

And busyez þe aboute a raysoun bref. 268

For þat þou lestez watz bot a rose

Þat flowred and fayled as kynde hyt gef;

Now þurʒ kynde of þe kyste þat hyt con close

To a perle of prys hit is put in pref. 272

And þou hatz called þy wyrde a þef,

Þat oʒt of noʒt hatz mad þe cler!

Þou blamez þe bote of þy meschef.

Þou art no kynde jueler!’ 276

‘But, worthy jeweller, if you’re going to lose your happiness for a gem that was precious to you, it seems to me that you are set on an irrational course, and concern yourself about a short‐lived matter; for what you lost was merely a rose that flowered and faded in accordance with nature. Now through the nature of the casket that encloses it, it has proved to be a pearl of great price. And you have called your fate a thief, which has plainly made for you something out of nothing! You are blaming what is the remedy for your misfortune. You are no right‐minded jeweller!’

Commentary

The stanza is constructed as three four‐line sentences: in the first the Maiden states her opposition to the Dreamer’s statement, in the second she explains her objection, which leads to her condemnation of the Dreamer in the third. This logical structure is signalled by the conjunctions Bot if, For, And, ‘And yet’. Sentences are divided syntactically into two‐line clauses, as in lines 265–6 (subordinate clause), 267–8 (main clause). The vocabulary is relatively idiomatic, the alliteration more restrained than elsewhere in the poem, so that rhetorical devices such as the alliterating anthesis ‘flowred and fayled’, and the rhyme ‘oʒt of noʒt’, stand out by contrast. The poet plays on the word kynde, using it in different senses: firstly (270) as Nature that controls the life and death of all creatures; in the next line as the inherent nature or property of an object; in the final line as an adjective qualifying the jeweller, with a sense broader than the modern ‘kind’. Though including ‘generous, good natured’, its basic meaning is ‘having the good qualities expected’, in this case expected of a jueler gente, as the Maiden has addressed him. MED gent adj. offers a range of meanings, beginning with ‘of noble birth’, hence ‘of noble character’, and a broader range for the related adjective gentil, also used of the Dreamer in this part of the poem. He is both an ungracious and unnatural jeweller, for refusing the gift of a pearl and for blaming his wyrde for his supposed loss. When the Dreamer had used wyrde in l. 249, he was complaining about the concept of fate or destiny operating in random fashion. The Maiden picks him up on this; destiny is in the control of God who has created something from nothing, alluding to the doctrine of ‘creatio ex nihilo’. The Dreamer has lost a rose; this looks back to the flowery mound in the garden at the start of the poem. He has gained a pearl ‘of prys’; this looks forward to the reference to the biblical ‘pearl of great price’ which the Dreamer, like the merchant of the parable, is urged to purchase (733–44). He calls himself a jeweller; if so, the Maiden implies, he should sort out his priorities. His Pearl is enclosed in a kyste, a jewel‐chest; in the previous stanza she had called it a cofer and a forser, and defined it as the garden of paradise.

The issues raised by verse translation were considered by John Lydgate, whose poetic career was built on satisfying his patrons’ demands for English versions of Latin and French classics. Where a word‐for‐word translation is impossible, says Lydgate, he follows the substance of the original, but he admits the result is never wholly satisfactory. He ends his version of the French Dance Macabre (ed. Megan L. Cook and Elizaveta Strakhov (Kalamazoo, MI, 2019)) with this apology:

Out of the Frensshe I drewe it of entente,

Not worde by worde but folwyng the substaunce,

And fro Paris to Engelonde it sente

Oonly of purpos yow to do plesaunce.

Rude of langage (I was not born in Fraunce),

Have me excusid; my name is John Lidgate.

Of her tunge I have no suffisaunce

Her corious metris in Englisshe to translate.

9
Select Bibliography

9.1 Bibliographies, Indexes, and Internet Resources

General bibliographies of Middle English studies may be found in Watson, and Severs, Hartung and Beidler. The volumes of the latter treat works in detail, according to genre (e.g. Vol. 1 Romance, Vol. 5 Drama). The standard index for verse is Mooney, Mosser and Solopova; for prose refer to the volumes of the Index of Middle English Prose (in progress).

Boffey, Julia, and Edwards, A. S. G., A New Index of Middle English Verse (London, 2005)

Brown, Carleton and Robbins, Rossell Hope, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943)

Dean, Ruth J., Anglo‐Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo‐Norman Text Society (London, 1999)

Index of Middle English Prose (Cambridge, 1984– )

Laing, Margaret, Catalogue of Sources for a Linguistic Atlas of Early Medieval English (Cambridge, 1993)

Middle English Compendium: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary (Includes the Middle English Dictionary, the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, and a bibliography of works used for the Middle English Dictionary.)

Mooney, Linne R., Daniel W. Mosser and Elizabeth Solopova, Digital Index of Middle English Verse: https://www.dimev.net/

Rice, Joanne A., Middle English Romance: An Annotated Bibliography, 1955– 1985 (New York, 1987)

Robbins, Rossell Hope and Cutler, John L., Supplement to the Index of Middle English Verse (Lexington, 1965)

Severs, J. Burke, Hartung, Albert E., and Beidler, Peter G., eds, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050–1500 (New Haven, 1967– )

Stratman, Carl J., Bibliography of Medieval Drama, 2nd edn revised, 2 vols (New York, 1972)

9.2 Language Studies

A useful guide to the basics of Middle English is Horobin and Smith. Short accounts may be found in two general histories of English, Baugh and Cable, and Strang. The latter reverses chronological order and starts in the present day, with interesting results. Crystal provides a simple guide to English grammar and to the terminology used in this book. The first section of Fulk treats Middle English sounds, grammar and syntax quite comprehensively. On sounds, see also Blake (1992), Brunner and Jordan. The grammar of individual texts is best studied in editions such as the Tolkien–Gordon–Davis Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (see text 9). The standard treatment of syntax is Mustanoja, but the second volume (on word‐order and sentence structure) has not appeared. McIntosh et al. is by far the most detailed study of Middle English dialects covering the period 1350–1450, with many maps; the electronic version of this is Benskin et al. For the companion work on Early Middle English see Laing. The Middle English Dictionary is invaluable, but does not in all respects supersede the Oxford English Dictionary. Among glossaries, that by Norman Davis in Bennett and Smithers is outstanding. Whiting is a dictionary of proverbs, alphabetically arranged.

Baugh, A. C. and Cable, T., A History of the English Language, 5th edn (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002)

Bennett, J. A. W. and Smithers, G. V., with a glossary by N. Davis, Early Middle English Verse and Prose, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1968)

Benskin, M., Laing, M., Karaiskos V, and Williamson K., An Electronic Version of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/elalme.html] (Edinburgh, 2013)

Blake, Norman, The English Language in Medieval Literature (London, 1977)

Blake, Norman, ed., The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. II 1066–1476 (Cambridge, 1992)

Brunner, Karl, An Outline of Middle English Grammar, trans. Grahame Johnston (Oxford, 1963)

Burnley, J. D., The Language of Chaucer (London, 1989)

Crystal, David, Rediscover Grammar (Harlow, 1988)

Elliott, Ralph W. V., Chaucer’s English (London, 1974)

Fulk, R. D., An Introduction to Middle English: Grammar / Texts (Peterborough, Ontario, 2012)

Greenbaum, Sidney, et al., A Student’s Grammar of the English Language (London, 1990)

Horobin, Simon, Chaucer’s Language, 2nd edn. (London, 2013)

Horobin, Simon and Smith, Jeremy, An Introduction to Middle English (Edinburgh, 2002)

Jordan, R., Handbook of Middle English Grammar: Phonology, trans. and revised E. J. Crook (The Hague, 1974)

Laing, Margaret, A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English, 1150–1325 (Edinburgh, 2013) [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/laeme2/laeme2.html]

Machan, Tim William, English in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 2003)

McIntosh, Angus, Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, Michael, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, 4 vols (Aberdeen, 1986)

Middle English Dictionary , ed. H. Kurath et al. (Ann Arbor, 1952–2001)

Mossé, Fernand, A Handbook of Middle English, trans. James A. Walker (Baltimore, 1952)

Mustanoja, Tauno F., A Middle English Syntax, Part I: Parts of Speech (Helsinki, 1960)

Serjeantson, Mary S., A History of Foreign Words in English (London, 1935)

Sheard, J. A., The Words We Use (London, 1954)

Smith, Jeremy, An Historical Study of English (London, 1996)

Smith, Jeremy J., Essentials of Early English (London, 1999)

Strang, Barbara M. H., A History of English (London, 1970)

Whiting, Bartlett Jere and Whiting, Helen Wescott, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases from English Writings Mainly Before 1500 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968)

Wright, J. and E. M., An Elementary Middle English Grammar, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1928).

9.3 General Studies of the Literature

The longest‐running series of editions is that of the Early English Text Society (1864– ). The failure of many texts to survive – see Wilson (1970) – creates difficulties for literary history. For a variety of general critical approaches, see Burrow (2008), Patterson, Spearing (1972), Simpson and Turville‐Petre (2007). Lewis (1964) gives a vivid account of a ‘world picture’. Bennett, Brown, Everett, Spearing (1987), Treharne/Walker and Woolf all have good essays on particular authors and texts. For the earlier Middle English period, Salter (1988) is especially valuable. Studies of fourteenth‐century writing are more numerous: Aers, Burrow (1971), Coleman, Muscatine and Salter (1983). On alliterative poetry, see Lawton and Turville‐Petre (1977). For prose, see Edwards (1984 and 2004). Three older studies of particular topics remain valuable: Chaytor, Lewis (1936) and Owst. On medieval literary theory and criticism, consult Minnis and (with an anthology of translated texts) Minnis and Scott. Curtius is the classic study of Latin tradition in the Middle Ages. The standard work on Anglo‐Norman literature is Legge.

Aers, David, Community, Gender, and Individual Identity: English Writing 1360–1430 (London, 1988)

Ashe, Laura, The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 1 1000–1350: Conquest and Transformation (Oxford, 2017)

Bennett, J. A. W., Middle English Literature, ed. Douglas Gray (Oxford, 1986)

Bloomfield, Morton W., The Seven Deadly Sins (Michigan, 1952)

Bolton, W. F., ed., The Middle Ages (Sphere History of Literature, Vol. I), 2nd edn revised (London, 1986)

Brown, Peter, ed., A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture c.1350–c.1500 (Oxford, 2007)

Burrow, J. A., Ricardian Poetry: Chaucer, Gower, Langland and the ‘Gawain’ Poet (London, 1971)

Burrow, J. A., Essays on Medieval Literature (Oxford, 1984)

Burrow, J. A., The Ages of Man (Oxford, 1986)

Burrow, J. A., Gestures and Looks in Medieval Narrative (Cambridge, 2002)

Burrow, J. A., Medieval Writers and Their Work: Middle English Literature 1100–1500, 2nd edn (Oxford, 2008)

Chaytor, H. J., From Script to Print: An Introduction to Medieval Literature (Cambridge, 1945)

Coleman, Janet, English Literature in History, 1350–1400: Medieval Readers and Writers (London, 1981)

Curtius, Ernst Robert, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. Willard R. Trask (London, 1953)

Edwards, A. S. G., ed., Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres (New Brunswick, NJ, 1984)

Edwards, A. S. G., ed., A Companion to Middle English Prose (Cambridge, 2004)

Everett, Dorothy, Essays on Middle English Literature, ed. Patricia Kean (Oxford, 1955)

Ford, Boris, ed., Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the Alliterative Tradition (The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vol. I Part One) (Harmondsworth, 1982)

Gillespie, Alexandra, and Daniel Wakelin, eds, The Production of Books in England 1350–1500 (Cambridge, 2011)

Green, Richard Firth, A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England (Philadelphia, 1999)

Griffiths, Jeremy, and Derek Pearsall, eds, Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375–1475 (Cambridge, 1989)

Hanna, Ralph, Pursuing History: Middle English Manuscripts and Their Texts (Stanford CA, 1996)

Lawton, David, ed., Middle English Alliterative Poetry and its Literary Background: Seven Essays (Cambridge, 1982)

Legge, M. Dominica, Anglo‐Norman Literature and its Background (Oxford, 1963)

Lewis, C. S., The Allegory of Love (Oxford, 1936)

Lewis, C. S., The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge, 1964)

Meale, Carol M., ed., Women and Literature in Britain, 1150–1500, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1996)

Minnis, A. J., Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic Literary Attitudes in the Later Middle Ages, 2nd edn (London, 1988)

Minnis, A. J. and Scott, A. B., Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism c.1100–c.1375: The Commentary‐Tradition, rev. edn (Oxford, 1991)

Muscatine, Charles, Poetry and Crisis in the Age of Chaucer (Notre Dame, 1972)

Owst, G. R., Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1961)

Patterson, Lee, Negotiating the Past: The Historical Understanding of Medieval Literature (Madison, 1987)

Pearsall, Derek, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London, 1977)

Rigg, A. G., A History of Anglo‐Latin Literature, 1066–1422 (Cambridge, 1992)

Salter, Elizabeth, Fourteenth‐Century English Poetry: Contexts and Readings (Oxford, 1983)

Salter, Elizabeth, English and International: Studies in the Literature, Art and Patronage of Medieval England, ed. Derek Pearsall and Nicolette Zeeman (Cambridge, 1988)

Simpson, James, The Oxford English Literary History, Vol. 2 1350–1547: Reform and Cultural Revolution (Oxford, 2002)

Spearing, A. C., Criticism and Medieval Poetry, 2nd edn (London, 1972)

Spearing, A. C., Readings in Medieval Poetry (Cambridge, 1987)

Treharne, Elaine, and Greg Walker, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English (Oxford, 2010)

Turville‐Petre, Thorlac, The Alliterative Revival (Cambridge, 1977)

Turville‐Petre, Thorlac, England the Nation: Language, Literature and National Identity, 1290–1340 (Oxford, 1996)

Turville‐Petre, Thorlac, Reading Middle English Literature (Oxford, 2007)

Wallace, David, ed., The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge, 1999)

Wilson, R. M., Early Middle English Literature, 2nd edn (London, 1951)

Wilson, R. M., The Lost Literature of Medieval England, 2nd edn (London, 1970)

Woolf, Rosemary, Art and Doctrine: Essays on Medieval Literature, ed. Heather O’Donoghue (London, 1986).

9.4 Studies of Particular Genres

Boitani and Mehl are useful studies of narrative poetry. For Arthurian literature from its beginnings, a comprehensive work of reference is Fulton. On the mystery plays, consult Woolf (1972) and Kolve. Duncan is a useful guide to the lyric, and excellent books on the religious lyric are Woolf (1968) and Gray. Part Two of Stevens (1979) is very good on the lyric of ‘courtly love’.

Beadle, Richard, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre (Cambridge, 1994)

Boitani, Piero, English Medieval Narrative in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, trans. J. K. Hall (Cambridge, 1982)

Duncan, Thomas G., ed., A Companion to the Middle English Lyric (Cambridge, 2005)

Fanous, S. and Gillespie, V., eds, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Mysticism (Cambridge, 2011)

Fulton, Helen, ed., A Companion to Arthurian Literature (Chichester, 2009)

Gray, Douglas, Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric (London, 1972)

Kolve, V. A., The Play Called Corpus Christi (Stanford, 1966)

Kruger, Steven F., Dreaming in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1992)

Loomis, Roger Sherman, ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History (Oxford, 1959)

Mehl, Dieter, The Middle English Romances of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (London, 1968)

Reed, Thomas L., Middle English Debate Poetry and the Aesthetics of Irresolution (Columbia, 1990)

Riehle, Wolfgang, The Middle English Mystics, trans. Bernard Standring (London, 1981)

Spearing, A. C., Medieval Dream‐Poetry (Cambridge, 1976)

Stevens, John, Medieval Romance: Themes and Approaches (London, 1973)

Stevens, John, Music and Poetry in the Early Tudor Court, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1979)

Woolf, Rosemary, The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1968)

Woolf, Rosemary, The English Mystery Plays (London, 1972).

9.5 Historical and Social Studies

On the development of medieval society Southern (1953) is excellent, as is Dyer on social and economic history. Also helpful are Morris and Clanchy (1993), the latter on the growth of literacy. For general surveys, see the Fontana Histories, Clanchy (1983) and Tuck. The standard discussion of feudal society is Bloch. On the peasantry, H. S. Bennett, Hilton and Homans offer a variety of approaches (conservative, radical and sociological, respectively). Keen (1984) gives an excellent account of chivalry. For other aspects of aristocratic life, see Given‐Wilson, McFarlane and (on ‘court culture’) Mathew and Scattergood/Sherborne. Hamilton and Southern (1970) give general surveys of the medieval church. Leclercq on monastic culture and Pantin on the later medieval English church are both specially recommended. On medieval learning, Piltz may be supplemented by Orme (on education) and Courtenay. Smalley is the indispensable guide to medieval readings of the Bible. On the merchant class, see especially Thrupp. Studies in the history of particular regions are well represented by M. J. Bennett. There are comprehensive bibliographies in Harriss and Prestwich (2005).

Bartlett, Robert, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings 1075–1225 (Oxford, 2000)

Bennett, H. S., Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions, 1150–1400, 3rd edn (Cambridge, 1948)

Bennett, Michael J., Community, Class and Careerism: Cheshire and Lancashire Society in the Age of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ (Cambridge, 1983)

Bloch, Marc, Feudal Society, trans. L. A. Manyon (London, 1961)

Chibnall, Marjorie, Anglo‐Norman England 1066–1166 (Oxford, 1987)

Clanchy, M. T., England and Its Rulers, 1066–1272 (London, 1983)

Clanchy, M. T., From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1993)

Courtenay, William J., Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth‐Century England (Princeton, 1987)

Dyer, Christopher, Making a Living in the Middle Ages (London, 2003)

Given‐Wilson, C., The English Nobility in the Late Middle Ages (London, 1987)

Hamilton, Bernard, Religion in the Medieval West (London, 1986)

Harriss, Gerald, Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461 (Oxford, 2005)

Heath, Peter, Church and Realm, 1272–1461 (London, 1988)

Hilton, R. H., Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381 (London, 1973)

Hilton, R. H., The English Peasantry in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1975)

Homans, George Caspar, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (Boston, 1941)

Keen, Maurice, England in the Later Middle Ages: A Political History (London, 1973)

Keen, Maurice, Chivalry (London, 1984)

Keen, Maurice, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 1348–1500 (London, 1990)

Leclercq, Jean, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture, trans. Catharine Misrahi (New York, 1961)

McFarlane, K. B., The Nobility of Later Medieval England (Oxford, 1973)

Mathew, Gervase, The Court of Richard II (London, 1968)

Miller, E. and Hatcher, J., Medieval England: Rural Society and Economic Change, 1086–1348 (London, 1978)

Miller, E. and Hatcher, J., Medieval England: Towns, Commerce and Crafts, 1086–1348 (London, 1995)

Morris, C., The Discovery of the Individual, 1050–1200 (London, 1972)

Orme, Nicholas, Medieval Children (New Haven, Conn., 2001)

Orme, Nicholas, Medieval Schools: From Roman Britain to Renaissance England (New Haven, Conn., 2006)

Ormrod, W. M., Political Life in Medieval England, 1300–1450 (New York, 1995)

Pantin, W. A., The English Church in the Fourteenth Century (Cambridge, 1955)

Parkes, M. B., English Cursive Book Hands 1250–1500 (Oxford, 1969; revised London, 1979)

Piltz, Anders, The World of Medieval Learning, revised edn, trans. David Jones (Totowa, NJ, 1981)

Pollard, A. J., Late Medieval England, 1399–1509 (Harlow, 2000)

Prestwich, Michael, The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272–1377, 2nd edn (London, 2003)

Prestwich, Michael, Plantagenet England 1225–1360 (Oxford 2005)

Robertson, D. W., Jr, Chaucer’s London (New York, 1968)

Scattergood, V. J. and Sherborne, J. W., eds, English Court Culture in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1983)

Schofield, Phillipp R., Peasant and Community in Medieval England 1200–1500 (Basingstoke, 2003)

Smalley, Beryl, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1952)

Southern, R. W., The Making of the Middle Ages (London, 1953)

Southern, R. W., Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 1970)

Thrupp, Sylvia L., The Merchant Class of Medieval London (1300–1500) (Ann Arbor, 1948)

Tuck, Anthony, Crown and Nobility 1272–1461: Political Conflict in Late Medieval England (London, 1985)

Ziegler, Philip, The Black Death (London, 1969).

Part Two
Prose and Verse Texts

1
The Peterborough Chronicle 1137

At some date after 1121, the Benedictine monks of Peterborough Abbey copied out a version of the Anglo‐Saxon Chronicle (see A Guide to Old English, text 7). The manuscript is now Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 636. Over the following decade, entries for the years 1122 to 1131 were added. Finally, probably in about 1155, some of the events of the intervening years were recorded, ostensibly still in the form of annals, but now with much more emphasis given to thematic relationship than to chronological order. So in the entry for 1137, given here, the writer surveys the nineteen terrible years of Stephen’s reign (1135–54), the successes of Abbot Martin who died in 1155, and the martyrdom of St William of Norwich in 1144. The cruelties in the country at large, so barbarous that men concluded that Christ was asleep (54), are set beside the account of the abbot’s achievements in rebuilding the abbey church and peacefully establishing financial stability. Lastly comes the demonstration that Christ is indeed not asleep, as the child William re‐enacts the Crucifixion and ‘through our Lord performed many wonderful miracles’ (74–82). The account of the miseries of Stephen’s reign may be read in the light of the assessment of a modern historian, David Crouch, The Reign of King Stephen, 1135–1154 (Harlow, 2000).

Since the text can be closely dated and located, it is particularly important for a study of the language at a crucial period in its development. There is a considerable Scandinavian element in the vocabulary, to be expected in an East Midland text; e.g. carlmen, ‘men’ (18), bryniges, ‘coats of mail’ (22), hærnes, ‘brains’ (24), brendon, ‘burned’ (38). Even at this early date there are several Romance loans, such as tresor (3), carited (58), privilegies (64), miracles (81). The grammar of the Chronicle is significantly more advanced than the later texts from further south and west, The Owl and the Nightingale and Laʒamon’s Brut. Nouns have already lost all indication of grammatical gender. In the singular the ending ‐e after prepositions survives only sporadically: compare in tune (40) with in the hus (58–9); in the plural the ending is generally ‐s, though wunder (11, 34) is an example of an unchanged plural. Adjective inflexions are greatly simplified: definite adjectives generally end in ‐e (or ‐æ) whatever their case, singular and plural, while indefinite adjectives have ‐e in the plural, though sometimes even this is lost in adjectives of more than one syllable; compare scærpe stanes (27) and mid … yvele men (16) with hethen men (44) and cnotted strenges (22–3). The definite article is indeclinable þe, though earlier sections of the Chronicle show some variation. The present plural ending of verbs is ‐en: lien (65), willen (74). In the past tense of weak verbs the singular ending ‐e is sometimes dropped and the plural ending ‐en (or ‐an, ‐æn, ‐on) dropped or reduced to ‐e, particularly before vowels or h; e.g. singular macod he (6), plural cursede ævre (51), pined heom (18–19) – compare pineden him (76). The third person plural pronouns are hi, ‘they’ (in l. 12 he), and heom, ‘them’. The syntax is at an interesting stage of development, retaining many of the constructions and patterns of word‐order characteristic of Old English prose despite the losses in the inflexional system.

Editions

Cecily Clark, The Peterborough Chronicle 1070–1154, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1970)

Susan Irvine, The Anglo‐Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, vol. 7, MS. E (Cambridge, 2004)

Facsimile

D. Whitelock, The Peterborough Chronicle (Copenhagen, 1954)

Study

Bruce Mitchell, ‘Syntax and Word‐Order in The Peterborough Chronicle 1122–1154’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 65 (1964), 113–44

1137.Đis gære for þe king Stephne ofer sæ to Normandi, and ther wes underfangen forþi ðat hi wenden ðat he sculde ben alswic alse the eom wes and for he hadde get his tresor – ac he todeld it and scatered sotlice. Micel hadde Henri king gadered gold and sylver, and na god ne dide me for his saule tharof. Þa þe king ⁵ Stephne to Englaland com, þa macod he his gadering æt Oxeneford, and þar he nam þe biscop Roger of Serebyri, and Alexander biscop of Lincol and te canceler Roger, hise neves, and dide ælle in prisun til hi iafen up here castles. Þa the swikes undergæton ðat he milde man was and softe and god and na justise ne dide,¹⁰ þa diden hi alle wunder. Hi hadden him manred maked and athes sworen, ac hi nan treuthe ne heolden. Alle he wæron forsworen and here treothes forloren, for ævric rice man his castles makede and agænes him heolden, and fylden þe land ful of castles. Hi swencten swyðe þe wrecce men of þe land mid ¹⁵ castel‐weorces. Þa þe castles waren maked, þa fylden hi mid deovles and yvele men. Þa namen hi þa men þe hi wenden ðat ani god hefden, bathe be nihtes and be dæies, carlmen and wimmen, and diden heom in prisun and pined heom efter gold and sylver untellendlice pining, for ne wæren nævre nan martyrs swa pined alse hi wæron. Me henged up ²⁰ bi the fet and smoked heom mid ful smoke. Me henged bi the þumbes other bi the hefed and hengen bryniges on her fet. Me dide cnotted strenges abuton here hæved and wrythen it ðat it gæde to þe hærnes. Hi diden heom in quarterne þar nadres and snakes and pades wæron inne, and drapen heom swa. Sume hi diden in ²⁵ ‘crucethur’ – ðat is, in an ceste þat was scort and narew and undep – and dide scærpe stanes þerinne, and þrengde þe man þærinne ðat him bræcon alle þe limes. In mani of þe castles wæron lof and grin – ðat wæron rachenteges ðat twa oþer thre men hadden onoh to bæron onne. Þat was swa maced ðat is fæstned to an beom; and ³⁰ diden an scærp iren abuton þa mannes throte and his hals ðat he ne myhte nowiderwardes – ne sitten, ne lien, ne slepen – oc bæron al ðat iren. Mani þusen hi drapen mid hungær. I ne can ne I ne mai tellen alle þe wunder ne alle þe pines ðat hi diden wrecce men on þis land; and ðat lastede þa xix wintre wile Stephne was king, and ³⁵ ævre it was werse and werse. Hi læiden gæildes on the tunes ævre umwile and clepeden it ‘tenserie’. Þa þe wrecce men ne hadden nammore to gyven, þa ræveden hi and brendon alle the tunes, ðat wel þu myhtes faren al a dæis fare, sculdest thu nevre finden man in tune sittende, ne land tiled. Þa was corn dære, and flec and cæse ⁴⁰ and butere, for nan ne wæs o þe land. Wrecce men sturven of hungær; sume ieden on ælmes þe waren sumwile rice men, sume flugen ut of lande. Wes nævre gæt mare wreccehed on land, ne nævre hethen men werse ne diden þan hi diden; for oversithon ne forbaren hi nouther circe ne cyrceiærd, oc namen al þe ⁴⁵ god ðat þarinne was and brenden sythen þe cyrce and al tegædere. Ne hi ne forbaren biscopes land ne abbotes ne preostes, ac ræveden munekes and clerekes, and ævric man other þe overmyhte. Gif twa men oþer iii coman ridend to an tun, al þe tunscipe flugæn for heom; wenden ðat hi wæron ræveres. Þe biscopes and lered men ⁵⁰ heom cursede ævre, oc was heom naht þarof, for hi weron al forcursæd and forsworen and forloren. Warsæ me tilede, þe erthe ne bar nan corn, for þe land was al fordon mid swilce dædes; and hi sæden openlice ðat Crist slep, and his halechen. Swilc and mare þanne we cunnen sæin we þoleden xix wintre for ure sinnes. ⁵⁵

On al þis yvele time heold Martin abbot his abbotrice xx wintre and half gær and viii dæis mid micel swinc, and fand þe munekes and te gestes al þat heom behoved, and heold mycel carited in the hus; and þoþwethere wrohte on þe circe, and sette þarto landes and rentes, and goded it swythe and læt it refen, and brohte heom into ⁶⁰ þe newæ mynstre on St Petres mæsse dæi mid micel wurtscipe; ðat was anno ab incarnatione Domini mcxl, a combustione loci xxiii. And he for to Rome and þær wæs wæl underfangen fram þe pape Eugenie, and begæt thare privilegies, an of alle þe landes of þ’abbotrice, and anoþer of þe landes þe lien to þe circewican; and, gif he leng moste ⁶⁵ liven, alse he mint to don of þe horderwycan. And he begæt in landes þat rice men hefden mid strengthe. Of Willelm Malduit þe heold Rogingham þæ castel he wan Cotingham and Estun, and of Hugo of Waltervile he wan Hyrtlingbyri and Stanewig and lx solidos of Aldewingle ælc gær. And he makede manie munekes, and plantede ⁷⁰ winiærd, and makede mani weorkes, and wende þe tun betere þan it ær wæs, and wæs god munec and god man, and forþi him luveden God and gode men.

Nu we willen sægen sumdel wat belamp on Stephnes kinges time. On his time þe Judeus of Norwic bohton an Cristen ⁷⁵ cild beforen Estren and pineden him alle þe ilce pining ðat ure Drihten was pined, and on Lang Fridæi him on rode hengen for ure Drihtines luve, and sythen byrieden him; wenden ðat it sculde ben forholen. Oc ure Dryhtin atywede ðat he was hali martyr, and to munekes him namen and bebyried him heglice in þe minstre, and he maket ⁸⁰ þurh ure Drihtin wunderlice and manifældlice miracles. And hatte he St Willelm.

1–4 During the summer of 1137, Stephen conducted an unsuccessful campaign to establish order in Normandy after the death there of his uncle, Henry I.

1 for ‘went’, past tense of faren.

3 get ‘still’.

5 me the indefinite pronoun (see 5.4.3); so ‘it was not used for the benefit of his soul’. On his deathbed Henry had ‘made his arrangements for almsgiving’ (The Historia Novella, trans. K. R. Potter (London, 1955), pp. 13–14).

5–9 Roger, bishop of Salisbury, the old king’s chief justiciar, remained in control, together with his nephews, the bishops of Lincoln and Ely and the chancellor Roger le Poer (actually his illegitimate son, according to some accounts). At his Council at Oxford in June 1139, Stephen ordered them all to surrender their offices and their castles.

8 te a form of þe after d.

9 The swikes are the nobles who supported Henry I’s daughter Matilda.

10 na justise ne dide ‘did not inflict punishment’.

11 wunder plural, ‘atrocities’.

11ff. In 1143 Stephen dispossessed Geoffrey de Mandeville, who retreated to the fenlands not far from Peterborough, where for a year he terrorized the surrounding countryside. In response the king’s supporters built castles in an attempt to contain the revolt. The Peterborough monks therefore had first‐hand knowledge of the turmoil. Accounts from other parts of the country are very similar; for example: ‘There were many castles all over England, each defending its own district or, to be more truthful, plundering it… . Even bishops or monks could not safely pass from village to village’ (Historia Novella, pp. 40–1). An even more dramatic account is given in Gesta Stephani, ed. and trans. by K. R. Potter (2nd edn, Oxford, 1976), pp. 153–7.

16 Þa fylden hi After þa in the main clause, the subject (hi) follows the verb; see 5.9.1 (iv). The object is understood from castles in the previous clause.

17–18 be nihtes and be dæies adverbial genitive (singular); see 5.3.2.

20 Me henged ‘they were hung’; see 5n. With and hengen … in l. 22, the construction changes in mid‐sentence, with a personal subject ‘they’ understood. The two past‐tense forms henged and hengen are respectively weak and strong, the former related to ON hengja, the latter from OE hōn, pa. pl. hēngon.

23 There is inconsistency in number: here hæved, ‘their head’; it referring formally to strenges.

25 pades ‘toads’, which were thought to be poisonous and to devour flesh; cf. Shakespeare’s ‘venom toads’ (King Henry VI, Part Three, II ii 138).

26 crucethur evidently a box in which victims were crushed; probably from Latin cruciator, ‘torturer’.

28 him bræcon alle Þe limes ‘all his limbs broke’. On the possessive dative him, see 5.3.3.lof and grin heavy shackles whose use is described in the next lines. A lof is a fetter for the neck, and a grin is a noose.

29–30 ðat twa … onne ‘such that two or three men could only just manage to carry one of them’; onne, ‘one’, has the masculine accusative ending ‐ne (OE ānne).

31 diden ‘they put’; see 5.4.2.

31–2 ne myhte ‘could not (turn)’; see 5.6.9.

32 bæron infinitive: ‘but (he had to) bear’.

35 xix wintre ‘nineteen years’.

36–7 ævre umwile ‘repeatedly’.

37 tenserie ‘protection money’; a French word.

44 hethen men perhaps a reference to the Viking invasions described earlier in the Chronicle; see A Guide to Old English, text 7.

47 The genitives abbotes and preostes are parallel to biscopes.

48 ævric … overmyhte The verb ræveden is understood: ‘every man who had greater power (robbed) the other’.

51 cursede ‘excommunicated’; so too forcursæd.was heom naht þarof ‘that meant nothing to them’.

55 Such disasters, both natural and man‐made, were commonly interpreted as punishment for sin.

56 Martin of Bec was abbot of Peterborough from 1132.

58 gestes monasteries were used as staging posts by nobles and ecclesiastics.

59–60 sette … rentes ‘devoted to it income from lands and other revenues’.

60 læt it refen ‘had a roof put on it’; see 5.6.5.

61 St Petres mæsse dæi the feast‐day of Saints Peter and Paul, 29 June.

62 ‘In the year 1140 after the birth of the Lord, 23 after the burning of the building.’ The old church had burnt to the ground in 1116.

63–6 Eugenius III became pope in 1145. The texts of the privilegies, dated 1146, are given in full in the Latin chronicle of the Peterborough monk Hugh Candidus. They are special papal grants to protect the abbey’s lands and their revenues from expropriation by the king or the nobles. Lands were allocated to specific offices of the abbey, as here that of the sacrist and the cellarer, both for administrative convenience and to prevent the Exchequer from claiming the revenues during a period when the abbacy was vacant.

65 circewican the office of the sacrist, who took care of the vestments and sacred vessels.

65–6 gif he leng moste liven ‘if he had been spared to live longer’.

66 horderwycan the office of steward or cellarer, in charge of buying food and clothes.

67–70 William Mauduit was constable of Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire. In the same county are Cottingham, Irthlingborough, Stanwick and Aldwinkle, with Great Easton in Leicestershire.

69 lx solidos ‘sixty shillings’.

74–82 This is the earliest of the stories, which later became widespread, of the ritual murder of Christian children. Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale (text 18b/232) refers to another supposed case, that of Hugh of Lincoln. The report of the martyrdom of the boy William caused a great stir in Norwich in 1144. According to The Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich (ed. A. Jessopp and M. R. James, Cambridge, 1896), the boy’s mother was given three shillings to allow him to go and work in the archdeacon’s kitchen. Instead he was taken to the house of a Jew, where he was tortured and crucified, and his body was then hidden in a wood, where it was revealed by a light in the sky.

77 Lang Fridæi Good Friday.

79 to ‘the’; see 8n.

2
The Owl and the Nightingale

The Owl and the Nightingale is a poem of 1794 lines, only the first 390 of which are printed here. Since it refers (1091–2) to a ‘King Henri’ as dead, it must have been written after the death of Henry II in 1189, and also probably (though not certainly) before the accession of Henry III in 1216. Though very English in setting and language (with rather few French words), the poem has its chief roots in the Latin and French literatures of twelfth‐century England and France. Its metrical form, the short or ‘octosyllabic’ couplet, was evolved by twelfth‐century French poets as their chief medium of narrative; and its genre, the debate or altercatio, was much favoured by Latin poets of the time, who evidently enjoyed mustering arguments pro and contra. The altercation between the Owl and the Nightingale involves a wealth of fact and fable about the birds themselves; but it also raises a variety of human issues, especially in that part of the poem not represented here (552–1652) where the birds argue about their usefulness to mankind. Gravity is set against gaiety, permanence against transience, religious chant against love‐songs, etc. By associating such rival views with species in God‐created nature, the poet (like Chaucer in The Parliament of Fowls, text 16 here) seems to imply that human beings also, for all their love of winning arguments, will naturally and inevitably differ in their attitudes to life. Thus, people may be inclined to favour nightingales in youth and owls in age, like that ‘Maister Nichole of Guldeforde’ whom both birds are ready to accept as judge between them (187–214). It is likely that Nicholas of Guildford, who here receives such handsome testimonials to his broad‐minded wisdom from both adversaries, himself wrote the poem. At the end of the debate, when the birds are preparing to fly off to receive his judgement (which is not reported), Nicholas is described as a country priest living in a Dorset village, Portesham, and shamefully neglected there by bishops who ought to know better than to let such wisdom go to waste in an obscure parish (1751–78). It is the poem’s last sally of wit: an amusingly devious plea for preferment.

The poem survives in two manuscripts, both of the second half of the thirteenth century: British Library MS Cotton Caligula A IX (C), upon which the present text is based, and Jesus College, Oxford, MS 29 (J). The language of Cotton is Southern but hard to locate with any greater precision. Voicing of /f/ to /v/ at the beginning of words is common (vor ‘for’, vaire ‘fair’). Confusingly, Old English words with ēo, which commonly have ee where they survive today, are written with an o, representing the vowel of French ‘peuple’ (see 2.2.4). So, flo and so (33–4) correspond to Old English flēo and sēo, and to Modern English flee and see. Similarly, bo (e.g. 315) is ‘be’.

Adjectives most often end in unstressed ‐e, the inflexional ending for all plurals and for most singular forms: see 4.4.1, 4.4.2. In nouns, inflexional ‐e has two main functions: after prepositions (compare mid riʒte 184 with riʒt 229), and in certain plural forms such as tide, ‘hours’ (26), bridde, ‘young birds’ (111), and monne, ‘of men’ (289). Nouns commonly still have grammatical gender: see 5.1. The definite article declines in agreement with its noun, as in Old English. Thus, in the masculine singular, þe nominative, þane accusative (249–50), þas genitive (þas monnes 338), þan dative (þon at 135); and in the feminine singular, þo nominative (þo ule 26), þare genitive and dative (28, 31). The indefinite article also declines: see 1n. and 17n. Similarly the demonstrative: þes dai (masculine noun), but þos hule (feminine). Among personal pronouns, note particularly the following forms: feminine singular ho, ‘she’ (less often he or hi) and accusative hi, ‘her’ (29, 30, 32); third person plurals hi, ‘they’ (less often ho), hore, ‘their’, and hom, ‘them’. The indefinite pronoun me, ‘one’ (man without stress) is common and easily mistaken for me, ‘me’ (e.g. 32, 142). In verbs, the present plural indicative ending is always ‐eþ (sometimes in the form ‐et), and past participles commonly have the prefix i‐. Old English weak verbs of the ‐ian type still preserve i in many endings (ich wundri 228).

Editions and Facsimile

J. W. H. Atkins, The Owl and the Nightingale (Cambridge, 1922)

Neil Cartlidge, The Owl and the Nightingale (Exeter, 2001)

N. R. Ker, The Owl and the Nightingale: Facsimile of the Jesus and Cotton Manuscripts, EETS 251 (1963)

Eric Stanley, The Owl and the Nightingale, Nelson’s Medieval and Renaissance Library (London and Edinburgh, 1960)

Studies

Kathryn Hume, The Owl and the Nightingale: The Poem and its Critics (Toronto, 1975)

Jill Mann, From Aesop to Reynard: Beast Literature in Medieval Britain (Oxford, 2009), pp. 149–91

Derek Pearsall, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London, 1977), pp. 91–4

Thomas L. Reed, Middle English Debate Poetry and the Aesthetics of Irresolution (Columbia, 1990)

Elizabeth Salter, English and International: Studies in the Literature, Art and Patronage of Medieval England (Cambridge, 1988), chapter 2

Ich was in one sumere dale,

In one suþe diʒele hale,

Iherde ich holde grete tale

An hule and one niʒtingale.

Þat plait was stif and starc and strong, ⁵

Sumwile softe and lud among,

An aiþer aʒen oþer swal

And let þat uvole mod ut al,

And eiþer seide of oþeres custe

Þat alre worste þat hi wuste. ¹⁰

And hure and hure of oþeres songe

Hi holde plaiding suþe stronge.

 Þe niʒtingale bigon þe speche

In one hurne of one breche,

And sat up one vaire boʒe ¹⁵

Þar were abute blosme inoʒe,

In ore vaste þicke hegge

Imeind mid spire and grene segge.

Ho was þe gladur vor þe rise

And song a vele cunne wise. ²⁰

Bet þuʒte þe dreim þat he were

Of harpe and pipe þan he nere;

Bet þuʒte þat he were ishote

Of harpe and pipe þan of þrote.

 Þo stod on old stoc þarbiside ²⁵

Þar þo ule song hire tide,

And was mid ivi al bigrowe:

Hit was þare hule eardingstowe.

 Þe niʒtingale hi iseʒ

And hi bihold and overseʒ, ³⁰

And þuʒte wel vul of þare hule,

For me hi halt lodlich and fule.

‘Unwiʒt,’ ho sede, ‘awei þu flo.

Me is þe wurs þat ich þe so.

Iwis for þine vule lete ³⁵

Wel oft ich mine song forlete.

Min horte atfliþ and falt mi tonge

Wonne þu art to me iþrunge.

Me luste bet speten þane singe

Of þine fule ʒoʒelinge.’ ⁴⁰

 Þos hule abod fort hit was eve:

Ho ne miʒte no leng bileve,

Vor hire horte was so gret

Þat welneʒ hire fnast atschet,

And warp a word þarafter longe: ⁴⁵

‘Hu þincþe nu bi mine songe?

Wenst þu þat ich ne cunne singe

Þeʒ ich ne cunne of writelinge?

Ilome þu dest me grame

And seist me boþe tone and schame. ⁵⁰

Ӡif ich þe holde on mine vote –

So hit bitide þat ich mote –

And þu were ut of þine rise,

Þu sholdest singe an oþer wise!’

Þe niʒtingale ʒaf answare: ⁵⁵

‘Ӡif ich me loki wit þe bare

And me schilde wit þe blete,

Ne reche ich noʒt of þine þrete;

Ӡif ich me holde in mine hegge,

Ne recche ich never what þu segge. ⁶⁰

Ich wot þat þu art unmilde

Wiþ hom þat ne muʒe from þe schilde,

And þu tukest wroþe and uvele,

Whar þu miʒt, over smale fuʒele.

Vorþi þu art loþ al fuelkunne, ⁶⁵

And alle ho þe driveþ honne

And þe bischricheþ and bigredet

And wel narewe þe biledet;

And ek forþe þe sulve mose

Hire þonkes wolde þe totose. ⁷⁰

Þu art lodlich to biholde

And þu art loþ in monie volde:

Þi bodi is short, þi swore is smal,

Grettere is þin heved þan þu al,

Þin eʒene boþ colblake and brode ⁷⁵

Riʒt swo ho weren ipeint mid wode.

Þu starest so þu wille abiten

Al þat þu mist mid clivre smiten.

Þi bile is stif and scharp and hoked

Riʒt so an owel þat is croked; ⁸⁰

Þarmid þu clackes oft and longe,

And þat is on of þine songe.

Ac þu þretest to mine fleshe,

Mid þine clivres woldest me meshe.

Þe were icundur to one frogge ⁸⁵

Þat sit at mulne under cogge;

Snailes, mus and fule wiʒte

Boþ þine cunde and þine riʒte.

Þu sittest adai and fliʒst aniʒt,

Þu cuþest þat þu art on unwiʒt. ⁹⁰

Þu art lodlich and unclene –

Bi þine neste ich hit mene

An ek bi þine fule brode;

Þu fedest on hom a wel ful fode.

Wel wostu þat hi doþ þarinne, ⁹⁵

Hi fuleþ hit up to þe chinne;

Ho sitteþ þar so hi bo bisne.

Þarbi men segget a vorbisne:

“Dahet habbe þat ilke best

Þat fuleþ his owe nest.” ¹⁰⁰

Þat oþer ʒer a faukun bredde;

His nest noʒt wel he ne bihedde.

Þarto þu stele in o dai

And leidest þaron þi fule ey.

Þo hit bicom þat he haʒte ¹⁰⁵

And of his eyre briddes wraʒte,

Ho broʒte his briddes mete,

Bihold his nest, iseʒ hi ete.

He iseʒ bi one halve

His nest ifuled uthalve. ¹¹⁰

The faucun was wroþ wit his bridde

And lude ʒal and sterne chidde:

“Segget me, wo havet þis ido?

Ou nas never icunde þarto.

Hit was idon ou a loþe custe; ¹¹⁵

Segget me, ʒif ʒe hit wiste.”

Þo quaþ þat on and quað þat oþer:

“Iwis hit was ure oʒe broþer,

Þe ʒond þat haveð þat grete heved.

Wai þat he nis þarof bireved! ¹²⁰

Worp hit ut mid þe alre vurste

Þat his necke him toberste.”

Þe faucun ilefde his bridde

And nom þat fule brid amidde

And warp hit of þan wilde bowe ¹²⁵

Þar pie and crowe hit todrowe.

Herbi men segget a bispel,

Þeʒ hit ne bo fuliche spel:

Also hit is bi þan ungode

Þat is icumen of fule brode ¹³⁰

And is meind wit fro monne,

Ever he cuþ þat he com þonne,

Þat he com of þan adel eye

Þeʒ he a fro nest leie.

Þeʒ appel trendli fron þon trowe ¹³⁵

Þar he and oþer mid growe,

Þeʒ he bo þarfrom bicume,

He cuþ wel whonene he is icume.’

 Þos word aʒaf þe niʒtingale,

And after þare longe tale ¹⁴⁰

He song so lude and so scharpe

Riʒt so me grulde schille harpe.

Þos hule luste þiderward

And hold hire eʒe noþerward,

And sat toswolle and ibolwe ¹⁴⁵

Also ho hadde one frogge iswolʒe;

For ho wel wiste and was iwar

Þat ho song hire a bisemar.

And noþeles ho ʒaf andsware:

‘Whi neltu flon into þe bare ¹⁵⁰

And sewi hwaþer unker bo

Of briʒter howe, of vairur blo?’

‘No, þu havest wel scharpe clawe;

Ne kep ich noʒt þat þu me clawe.

Þu havest clivers suþe stronge; ¹⁵⁵

Þu twengst þarmid so doþ a tonge.

Þu þoʒtest, so doþ þine ilike,

Mid faire worde me biswike.

Ich nolde don þat þu me raddest:

Ich wiste wel þat þu me misraddest. ¹⁶⁰

Schamie þe for þin unrede!

Unwroʒen is þi swikelhede.

Schild þine swikeldom vram þe liʒte,

And hud þat woʒe among þe riʒte.

Þane þu wilt þin unriʒt spene ¹⁶⁵

Loke þat hit ne bo isene;

Vor swikedom haveð schome and hete

Ӡif hit is ope and underʒete.

Ne speddestu noʒt mid þine unwrenche,

For ich am war and can wel blenche. ¹⁷⁰

Ne helpþ noʒt þat þu bo to þriste:

Ich wolde viʒte bet mid liste

Þan þu mid al þine strengþe.

Ich habbe on brede and ek on lengþe

Castel god on mine rise. ¹⁷⁵

“Wel fiʒt þat wel fliʒt,” seiþ þe wise.

 Ac lete we awei þos cheste,

Vor swiche wordes boþ unwreste,

And fo we on mid riʒte dome,

Mid faire worde and mid ysome. ¹⁸⁰

Þeʒ we ne bo at one acorde,

We muʒe bet mid fayre worde,

Witute cheste and bute fiʒte,

Plaidi mid foʒe and mid riʒte;

And mai ur eiþer wat hi wile ¹⁸⁵

Mid riʒte segge and mid sckile.’

 Þo quaþ þe hule, ‘Wo schal us seme

Þat kunne and wille riʒt us deme?’

‘Ich wot wel,’ quaþ þe niʒtingale,

‘Ne þaref þarof bo no tale: ¹⁹⁰

Maister Nichole of Guldeforde.

He is wis an war of worde;

He is of dome suþe glew,

And him is loþ evrich unþew.

He wot insiʒt in eche songe, ¹⁹⁵

Wo singet wel, wo singet wronge;

And he can schede vrom þe riʒte

Þat woʒe, þat þuster from þe liʒte.’

Þo hule one wile hi biþoʒte,

And after þan þis word upbroʒte: ²⁰⁰

‘Ich granti wel þat he us deme;

Vor þeʒ he were wile breme

And lof him were niʒtingale

And oþer wiʒte gente and smale,

Ich wot he is nu suþe acoled. ²⁰⁵

Nis he vor þe noʒt afoled

Þat he for þine olde luve

Me adun legge and þe buve.

Ne schaltu nevre so him queme

Þat he for þe fals dom deme. ²¹⁰

He is nu ripe and fastrede,

Ne lust him nu to none unrede;

Nu him ne lust na more pleie,

He wile gon a riʒte weie.’

 Þe niʒtingale was al ʒare; ²¹⁵

Ho hadde ilorned wel aiware.

‘Hule,’ ho sede, ‘seie me soþ,

Wi dostu þat unwiʒtis doþ?

Þu singist aniʒt and noʒt adai,

And al þi song is wailawai. ²²⁰

Þu miʒt mid þine songe afere

Alle þat ihereþ þine ibere.

Þu schrichest and ʒollest to þine fere

Þat hit is grislich to ihere:

Hit þincheþ boþe wise and snepe ²²⁵

Noʒt þat þu singe, ac þat þu wepe.

Þu fliʒst aniʒt and noʒt adai,

Þarof ich wundri and wel mai.

Vor evrich þing þat schuniet riʒt

Hit luveþ þuster and hatiet liʒt, ²³⁰

And evrich þing þat is lof misdede

Hit luveþ þuster to his dede.

A wis word, þeʒ hit bo unclene,

Is fele manne a muþe imene,

For Alvred king hit seide and wrot: ²³⁵

“He schunet þat hine vul wot.”

Ich wene þat þu dost also,

Vor þu fliʒst niʒtes ever mo.

An oþer þing me is a wene:

Þu havest aniʒt wel briʒte sene, ²⁴⁰

Bi daie þu art stareblind

Þat þu ne sichst ne bow ne rind.

Adai þu art blind oþer bisne.

Þarbi men segget a vorbisne:

Riʒt so hit farþ bi þan ungode ²⁴⁵

Þat noʒt ne suþ to none gode,

And is so ful of uvele wrenche

Þat him ne mai no man atprenche,

And can wel þane þustre wai

And þane briʒte lat awai; ²⁵⁰

So doþ þat boþ of þine cunde,

Of liʒte nabbeþ hi none imunde.’

 Þos hule luste suþe longe

And was oftoned suþe stronge.

Ho quaþ, ‘þu hattest niʒtingale; ²⁵⁵

Þu miʒtest bet hoten galegale,

Vor þu havest to monie tale.

Lat þine tunge habbe spale.

Þu wenest þat þes dai bo þin oʒe;

Lat me nu habbe mine þroʒe. ²⁶⁰

Bo nu stille and lat me speke,

Ich wille bon of þe awreke;

And lust hu ich con me bitelle

Mid riʒte soþe witute spelle.

 Þu seist þat ich me hude adai:

Þarto ne segge ich nich ne nai;

And lust, ich telle þe þarevore

Al wi hit is and warevore.

Ich habbe bile stif and stronge,

And gode clivers scharp and longe, ²⁷⁰

So hit bicumeþ to havekes cunne.

Hit is min hiʒte, hit is mi wunne

Þat ich me draʒe to mine cunde;

Ne mai me no man þarevore schende.

On me hit is wel isene, ²⁷⁵

Vor riʒte cunde ich am so kene.

Vorþi ich am loþ smale foʒle

Þat floþ bi grunde an bi þuvele:

Hi me bichermet and bigredeþ

And hore flockes to me ledeþ. ²⁸⁰

Me is lof to habbe reste

And sitte stille in mine neste;

Vor nere ich never no þe betere

Þeʒ ich mid chauling and mid chatere

Hom schende and mid fule worde, ²⁸⁵

So herdes doþ, oþer mid schitworde.

Ne lust me wit þe screwen chide,

Forþi ich wende from hom wide.

Hit is a wise monne dome,

And hi hit segget wel ilome, ²⁹⁰

Þat me ne chide wit þe gidie,

Ne wit þan ofne me ne ʒonie.

At sume siþe herde I telle

Hu Alvred sede on his spelle:

“Loke þat þu ne bo þare ²⁹⁵

Þar chauling boþ and cheste ʒare;

Lat sottes chide and vorþ þu go.”

And ich am wis and do also.

And ʒet Alvred seide an oþer side

A word þat is isprunge wide: ³⁰⁰

“þat wit þe fule haveþ imene,

Ne cumeþ he never from him cleine.”

Wenestu þat haveck bo þe worse

Þoʒ crowe bigrede him bi þe mershe

And goþ to him mid hore chirme ³⁰⁵

Riʒt so hi wille wit him schirme?

Þe havec folʒeþ gode rede

And fliʒt his wei and lat hi grede.

 Ӡet þu me seist of oþer þinge,

And telst þat ich ne can noʒt singe, ³¹⁰

Ac al mi rorde is woning

And to ihire grislich þing.

Þat nis noʒt soþ; ich singe efne

Mid fulle dreme and lude stefne.

Þu wenist þat ech song bo grislich ³¹⁵

Þat þine pipinge nis ilich.

Mi stefne is bold and noʒt unorne;

Ho is ilich one grete horne,

And þin is ilich one pipe

Of one smale wode unripe. ³²⁰

Ich singe bet þan þu dest:

Þu chaterest so doþ on Irish prost;

Ich singe an eve a riʒte time,

And soþþe won hit is bedtime,

Þe þridde siþe a middelniʒte, ³²⁵

And so ich mine song adiʒte.

Wone ich iso arise vorre

Oþer dairim oþer daisterre,

Ich do god mid mine þrote

And warni men to hore note. ³³⁰

Ac þu singest alle longe niʒt

From eve fort hit is dailiʒt,

And evre leist þin o song

So longe so þe niʒt is long,

And evre croweþ þi wrecche crei ³³⁵

Þat he ne swikeþ niʒt ne dai.

Mid þine pipinge þu adunest

Þas monnes earen þar þu wunest

And makest þine song so unwurþ

Þat me ne telþ of þar noʒt wurþ. ³⁴⁰

Evrich murʒþe mai so longe ileste

Þat ho shal liki wel unwreste,

Vor harpe and pipe and fuʒeles song

Mislikeþ ʒif hit is to long.

Ne bo þe song never so murie ³⁴⁵

Þat he ne shal þinche wel unmurie

Ӡef he ilesteþ ure unwille.

So þu miʒt þine song aspille;

Vor hit is soþ, Alvred hit seide

And me hit mai ine boke rede: ³⁵⁰

“Evrich þing mai losen his godhede

Mid unmeþe and mid overdede.”

Mid este þu þe miʒt overquatie,

And overfulle makeþ wlatie;

An evrich mureʒþe mai agon ³⁵⁵

Ӡif me hit halt evre forþ in on,

Bute one, þat is Godes riche

Þat evre is swete and evre iliche.

Þeʒ þu nime evere of þan lepe

Hit is evre ful bi hepe. ³⁶⁰

Wunder hit is of Godes riche

Þat evre spenþ and ever is iliche.

 Ӡut þu me seist on oþer shome,

Þat ich am on mine eʒen lome,

An seist, for þat ich flo bi niʒte, ³⁶⁵

Þat ich ne mai iso bi liʒte.

Þu liest! On me hit is isene

Þat ich habbe gode sene,

Vor nis non so dim þusternesse

Þat ich ever iso þe lesse. ³⁷⁰

Þu wenest þat ich ne miʒte iso

Vor ich bi daie noʒt ne flo.

Þe hare luteþ al dai,

Ac noþeles iso he mai.

Ӡif hundes urneþ to himward ³⁷⁵

He gencheþ swiþe aweyward

And hokeþ paþes swiþe narewe,

And haveþ mid him his blenches ʒarewe,

And hupþ and stard suþe cove,

And secheþ paþes to þe grove; ³⁸⁰

Ne sholde he vor boþe his eʒe

So don, ʒif he þe bet niseʒe.

Ich mai ison so wel so on hare,

Þeʒ ich bi daie sitte an dare.

Þar aʒte men boþ in worre, ³⁸⁵

An fareþ boþe ner an forre

An overvareþ fele þode,

An doþ bi niʒte gode node,

Ich folʒi þan aʒte manne

An flo bi niʒte in hore banne.’ ³⁹⁰

Notes

1 one an inflected form of the indefinite article, most often after prepositions (cf. 14–15): ‘in a summer valley’.

5 plait a legal term, ‘plea’, applied here to a debate conducted at times like a lawsuit. Cf. plaiding (12) and 217–52n.

7 An an unstressed form of and.

10 Þat alre worste ‘the worst of all’, ‘the very worst’; OE ealra, genitive plural of eall.

17 ‘In an impenetrable thick hedge’. Ore is the dative singular feminine of the indefinite article (OE anre), agreeing with the feminine noun hegge. Vaste (the reading of J) represents fast, ‘secure’, with v for initial f: see Headnote.

19 Ho ‘she’. Both birds are female.

20 a vele cunne wise ‘in many kinds of ways’. A is an unstressed form of on, ‘in’.

21–2 ‘The music seemed rather to come from harp and pipe than otherwise.’

26 hire tide ‘her hours’. The Owl’s solemn song is compared to the chanting of the daily services by priests, monks and nuns. Cf. 322–30n.

27 ivi The Owl’s evergreen ivy contrasts symbolically with the Nightingale’s spring blossom.

31 Literally: ‘And it seemed (to her) quite disgusting with regard to the Owl’.

32 me hi halt ‘one holds her’, ‘she is held’. Me is the unstressed form of impersonal man, as often.

38 ‘When you are forced upon me’.

41 Whereas nightingales sing by day as well as by night (cf. 336), owls sing only at night.

46 þincþe ‘does it seem to you’: þincþ þe run together.

51 holde ‘held’ (past subjunctive, OE heolde).

56 ‘As long as I keep clear of (literally, ‘guard myself against’) the open.’

63–4 ‘And you rough up (tukest … over) small birds cruelly and wickedly wherever you can.’

65–70 The lines refer to the mobbing of owls by other birds.

70 Hire þonkes ‘if she had her way’.

72 in monie volde ‘in many ways’.

74 þu al ‘the whole of the rest of you’.

77 so ‘as if’.

80 owel ‘hook’.

82 The sense is uncertain. Perhaps: ‘And that is all there is of your singing’, taking on, ‘one, only’, as meaning ‘all there is’.

85 ‘You would have more natural liking for a frog.’ Literally: ‘It would be more natural to you in respect of a frog’. There is a similarly unusual use of impersonal icunde at 114.

88 ‘Are natural and proper (food) for you.’ Owls deserve to eat only such foul creatures.

92 ‘I am referring to your nest.’

94 ‘You are bringing up in them a very filthy family.’

99 ‘A curse on that creature.’ This proverb (vorbisne) is common in ME (Whiting B306) and other languages.

101–38 The fable of the falcon and the owl (or buzzard) is employed from the twelfth century in French and Latin writings (printed by Cartlidge, pp. 99–101) to demonstrate that nature – and especially a bad nature – is stronger than nurture. So here, 129–38.

105–6 ‘Then it came about that she hatched and made birds from her eggs.’ The mother falcon is variously referred to by feminine pronouns (he, ‘she’) and by neuter (his, ‘its’).

114 ‘It was never natural for you to do that.’ See 85n.

115 ‘You have been treated in (a, ‘in’) a loathsome fashion.’

121 mid þe alre vurste ‘among the first of all’, i.e. ‘at once’. On alre, see 10n.

128 ‘Though it is not completely a fable’, i.e. although the story is used as a parable (bispel), such things do happen – or so the Nightingale claims. Cf. the use of spelle at 264.

131 wit fro monne ‘with freemen’.

135–8 This proverb (Whiting A169) is associated with the fable of the falcon and the owl by other authors, e.g. Nicole Bozon: ‘Trendle the appel nevere so fer, he conyes (makes known) fro what tree he cam’.

148 ‘That she sang in mockery of her.’

151 ‘And find out which of us two is …’ Unker is genitive: OE uncer from wit, ‘we two’.

154 Ne kep ich noʒt ‘I have no wish’.

157 so doþ þine ilike ‘as your sort do’.

165 Þane ‘when’.

172 liste ‘cunning, skill’. The opposition between liste and strengþe (173) was proverbial: Whiting L381. Compare 6/227 here.

176 Proverbial: ‘Well fights that well flees’, Whiting F141.

180 ysome ‘peaceable’, qualifying worde.

185–6 ‘And each of us can say justly and reasonably whatever she wishes.’

190 ‘There need be no argument about that.’

191 At the end of the poem, the birds fly off to receive the judgement of Master Nicholas at Portesham in Dorset, where he lives in undeserved obscurity as a parish priest. See Headnote.

199 hi biþoʒte ‘bethought herself’, i.e. ‘considered’.

204 gente and smale ‘gracious and slender’, epithets commonly applied in ME to young women, e.g. Alisoun in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale: ‘As any wezele hir body gent and smal’, Canterbury Tales I 3234.

205 acoled ‘cooled off’. Ageing was regarded as a process of physiological cooling. After a naturally hot youth in days gone by (wile 202), Nicholas is now naturally coolheaded and sober. So, according to the Owl, he will favour her cause.

206 ‘He is not one to be taken in by you.’

207 þine olde luve ‘his longstanding affection for you’.

210 þe ‘thee’.

212 ‘Nor is he attracted now to any evil counsel.’

217–52 In this speech the Nightingale brings three distinct charges against the Owl, each of which is answered separately in the Owl’s long reply: that the Owl hides in the daytime (answered in 265–308); that her song is ugly and depressing (answered in 309–62); and that she cannot see in daylight (answered in 363–90).

225 ‘It seems to all and sundry.’ snepe ‘foolish’.

231 ‘And every creature to which wrongdoing is dear.’

234 a ‘in’: ‘is common in the mouths of many men’.

235 Alvred King Alfred of Wessex (d. 899) was commonly named as the authority for proverbial utterances, as in the so‐called Proverbs of Alfred (found along with The Owl in the Jesus Manuscript).

236 ‘He who knows himself to be filthy keeps out of the way’: Whiting S290. The Nightingale alludes again to the toilet‐training of owls.

239 me is a wene ‘comes into my mind’ (a unstressed for on).

242 ne bow ne rind ‘neither bough nor bark’. This phrase, evidently representing the world as seen through a bird’s eyes, puzzled the scribes: see Textual Notes.

251 ‘That is what those of your sort do.’

256 galegale a made‐up word, reduplicating the second element of nightingale, which derives from OE galan, ‘sing’ (ME gale), and implying monotonous repetition: ‘sing‐sing’.

259 bo þin oʒe ‘is yours’.

266 ‘To that I will not say either “not I” or “nay” ’, i.e. ‘I will not deny that’. The Owl admits the first of the Nightingale’s three charges (217–52n.), but goes on to justify her behaviour.

267 þarevore ‘where that is concerned’.

272–3 ‘It is my delight and my joy to be true to my nature.’ The Owl is not ashamed to be a bird of prey (havekes cunne 271).

277–80 Another reference to the mobbing of owls: cf. 65–70.

283 ‘For I would not be at all better off.’

289 ‘It is in accord with the judgement of wise men.’ Dome has the dative ‐e ending, following the preposition a (unstressed for on).

291–2 ‘One should not quarrel with fools, nor try to outgape an oven’, i.e. fools will always get the better of an exchange of insults, just as an oven door will always be wider than an open mouth. Proverbial: Whiting O59.

295–7 A somewhat similar saying is attributed to Alfred in The Proverbs of Alfred (see 235n.): Whiting S91.

296 ‘Where scolding and strife are ready to hand.’

299 ‘And furthermore Alfred said on another occasion.’ Side is probably a form of siþe, ‘occasion’.

301 ‘One who has dealings with the foul.’ Proverbial: Whiting F558.

304 crowe ‘crows’.

306 wille subjunctive plural: ‘Just as if they were wanting to fight with him’. On the hostility of crows to birds of prey, see Trevisa, Properties, 620–1.

309 The Owl turns to the second of the Nightingale’s charges (217–52n.).

312 ‘And a dreadful thing to hear.’

316 ‘That is not like your piping.’

320 wode ‘plant’ (‘weed’, not ‘wood’).

322–30 Whereas the Nightingale chatters away night and day (cf. 336), like a voluble Irish priest, the Owl claims to sing at fixed intervals of the night only, as if she were a monk singing the night hours (cf. 26n.). These are: Vespers (eve 323), Compline (bedtime 324), Matins (middelniʒte 325), and Prime (dairim 328).

327 ‘When I see arising far off.’

335 crei ‘throat’ (not cry, which would not rhyme): cf. 329.

338 ‘The ears of the man where you live’, i.e. the master of the house near which the Nightingale lives.

340 of þar ‘thereof’. So: ‘That people don’t think much of it.’

345–6 The logic of these lines requires their expansion: ‘However delightful the song may be, (it will never be so delightful) that it will not seem very tiresome.’

347 ure unwille ‘against our will’, i.e. after we no longer wish to hear it (OE urum unwillum). But the reading of both manuscripts, over unwille, could mean ‘despite displeasure’.

351–2 Proverbial: Whiting E168. Proverbs commonly warn against immoderation (unmeþe). The following lines continue in proverbial style.

354 overfulle makeþ wlatie ‘surfeit causes disgust’.

356 ‘If one keeps on with it continuously without a break.’

363 The Owl answers the third charge (217–52n.).

376–7 ‘He dodges away rapidly and follows very narrow zig‐zag paths.’

378 ‘And has all his tricks ready about him.’

381–2 ‘But he would not do so, to save his life, if he were not able to see the better.’ Cf. 11/194n. Niseye represents ne + iseye.

385 ‘Where valiant men are at war.’ The Owl’s claim that, as a bird of prey, she joins warrior‐bands in their night expeditions concludes her present speech on a heroic note.

389 þan aʒte manne ‘the valiant men’, dative plural after folʒi. For the form of the noun see 4.2.6.

3
Laʒamon: Brut

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Latin History of the Kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae, first issued c.1136) tells the story of the kings of Britain from their legendary founder Brutus, greatgrandson of Aeneas of Troy (cf. text 9 here, lines 1–19), to the last of the line, Cadwallader, who finally abandoned Britain to the Saxons. The greatest of them is King Arthur, the hero of the book. In 1155 the Norman poet Wace completed his rendering of Geoffrey’s Latin into French octosyllabic couplets; and it was this, the Roman de Brut, that Laʒamon adapted into English, expanding and reshaping its episodes with considerable freedom. Laʒamon’s Historia Brutonum (‘History of the British’, now known as Brut) was probably composed some time in the first half of the thirteenth century – certainly after the death of Henry II in 1189, but not later than the second half of the thirteenth century, when the two surviving copies were made. These are British Library MS Cotton Caligula A IX (C) – which also contains The Owl and the Nightingale – and British Library MS Cotton Otho C XIII (O).

Laʒamon identifies himself in his opening lines as a parish priest:

An preost wes on leoden, Laʒamon wes ihoten;

He wes Leovenaðes sone – liðe him beo Drihten.

He wonede at Ernleʒe at æðelen are chirechen,

Uppen Sevarne staþe, sel þar him þuhte,

Onfest Radestone, þer he bock radde.

[There was a priest among the people called Laʒamon; he was the son of Leovenað – may God be gracious to him. He lived at Ernleʒe at a noble church, on the banks of the Severn, and good it seemed to him there, near Radestone, where he read books.]

‘Ernleʒe’ is Areley Kings, Worcestershire, in that part of England, the West Midlands, where native literary traditions were still strong at the time (cf. Ancrene Wisse, text 4 here, written in the same region). By comparison with Wace, Laʒamon appears both archaic and also very un‐French. In MS C especially, there are strikingly few French loan‐words (only two in 173 lines here: liun 80 and scalen 109). In the following extract, references to Wygar and Witeʒe (11–12n.) and expressions such as fæiesið makeden (144n.) look directly back to Anglo‐Saxon poetry and legend. On the other hand, the elaborate similes (see 76–7n.) probably testify to Laʒamon’s reading of Latin heroic poets such as Virgil or the twelfth‐century Joseph of Exeter. Together with the set speeches, the similes contribute to an elevated epic style which, although its language is thoroughly English, belongs in a general European tradition of heroic verse (Salter).

The structure of Laʒamon’s verse is similarly eclectic. Its main affinities are with native alliterative verse. All lines are divided into half‐lines of variable rhythm and length (marked off in the manuscripts), most often with two stressed syllables in each half‐line. In most cases (126 out of 173 lines here) half‐lines are coupled by alliteration, thus: ‘þat his halm and his hæfd . halden to grunde’ (139). But rhyme and half‐rhyme also play a part in the coupling, either with or without alliteration (in 53 lines here). Thus: ‘Nu we scullen riden . and over lond gliden’ (44), or (with alliteration also) ‘And uppen Colgrime smiten. mid swiðe smærte biten’ (127). Rhyme is rare in surviving Old English alliterative verse, and its use here reflects Laʒamon’s reading of rhymed poetry in either French (e.g. Wace) or Latin or both.

The language of the Caligula Manuscript, the source of the present text, represents the poet’s own Worcestershire English overlaid with other Southern features. Voicing of /f/ to /v/ at the beginning of words is irregular and probably scribal: it may obscure the alliteration (compare lines 8, 27 and 40). But a probably genuine authorial feature is ‘nunnation’ – the frequent addition of /n/ after final vowels (e.g. hafden 25 and weoren 80, both verbs with singular subject). Nunnation complicates the inflexion of nouns, where ‐en is anyway the proper ending of some dative singulars (others have ‐e) and of many plurals such as sconken 13 (accusative), leoden 73 (genitive) and burnen 7 (dative). Nouns generally preserve grammatical gender (see 5.1), and adjectives decline accordingly: examples are the masculine bradne 115 (accusative singular) and aðelen 11 (dative singular), and the feminine ludere 30 (dative singular). Main forms of the definite article ‘the’ are: in the masculine singular, þe nominative, þene accusative (27), þas genitive (18, 138) and þan dative (1); in the feminine singular, þa or þæ nominative (60, 63, 65) and þere genitive and dative (96n., 156); and in the neuter singular, þat (84, 158, meaning ‘the’, not ‘that’). The plural of the definite article is þa nominative and accusative (73, 128) and þan dative (137). The indefinite article also declines: ænne accusative (20), ane dative (5). So does the demonstrative: to þissen londe dative singular masculine (111). Among personal pronouns, note particularly the third person plural forms heo, ‘they’, heore, ‘their’, and hom or heom, ‘them’; also hine accusative singular masculine (3). Relative pronouns þe (11, 12) and þa (24, 26) co‐exist with þat. In verbs, the present plural indicative ends in ‐eð, and the present participle in ‐inde (3).

The following extract corresponds to lines 10534–10706 in the complete text edited by Brook and Leslie.

Editions

Rosamund Allen, trans., Lawman: ‘Brut’ (London, 1992)

G. L. Brook, with Preface by C. S. Lewis, Selections from Laʒamon’s ‘Brut’, 2nd edn, revised J. Levitt (Exeter, 1983)

G. L. Brook and R. F. Leslie, Laʒamon: ‘Brut’, EETS, Vol. I, 250 (1963), Vol. II, 277 (1978) [complete text of both manuscripts]

Joseph Hall, Layamon’s ‘Brut’: Selections (Oxford, 1924)

Lewis Thorpe, trans., Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain (Harmondsworth, 1966)

S. C. Weinberg and W. R. J. Barron, ed. and trans., Laʒamon’s Arthur: The Arthurian Section of Laʒamon’s ‘Brut’ (Harlow, 1989)

Judith Weiss, ed. and trans., Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the British, 2nd edn (Exeter, 2002)

Studies

H. S. Davies, ‘Laʒamon’s Similes’, Review of English Studies, n.s. 11 (1960), 129–42

Dorothy Everett, Essays on Middle English Literature (Oxford, 1955), Chapter II

C. S. Lewis, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 18–33

R. S. Loomis, ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1959) [Chapter 8 ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’, Chapter 9 ‘Wace’, Chapter 10 ‘Layamon’s Brut’]

Derek Pearsall, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London, 1977), pp. 108–13

Elizabeth Salter, English and International: Studies in the Literature, Art and Patronage of Medieval England (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 48–70

Françoise Le Saux, Laʒamon’s ‘Brut’: The Poem and Its Sources (Cambridge, 1989)

E. G. Stanley, ‘Laʒamon’s Antiquarian Sentiments’, Medium Ævum, 38 (1969), 23–37

J. S. P. Tatlock, The Legendary History of Britain (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1950)

Þa comen tydinge to Arðure þan kinge

Þat seoc wes Howel his mæi – þerfore he wes sari –

I Clud ligginde, and þer he hine bilæfde.

Hiʒenliche swiðe forð he gon liðe

Þat he bihalves Baðe beh to ane velde. ⁵

Þer he alihte and his cnihtes alle,

And on mid heore burnen beornes sturne,

And he a fif dæle dælde his ferde.

Þa he hafde al iset and al hit isemed,

Þa dude he on his burne ibroide of stele ¹⁰

Þe makede on alvisc smið mid aðelen his crafte:

He wes ihaten Wygar, þe Witeʒe wurhte.

His sconken he helede mid hosen of stele.

Calibeorne his sweord he sweinde bi his side:

Hit wes iworht in Avalun mid wiʒelefulle craften. ¹⁵

Halm he set on hafde, hæh of stele,

Þeron wes moni ʒimston, al mid golde bigon:

He wes Uðeres þas aðelen kinges,

He wes ihaten Goswhit, ælchen oðere unilic.

He heng an his sweore ænne sceld deore: ²⁰

His nome wes on Bruttisc Pridwen ihaten;

Þer wes innen igraven mid rede golde staven

An onlicnes deore of Drihtenes moder.

His spere he nom an honde, þa Ron wes ihaten.

 Þa he hafden al his iweden, þa leop he on his steden. ²⁵

Þa heo mihte bihalden þa bihalves stoden

Þene væireste cniht þe verde scolde leden;

Ne isæh nævere na man selere cniht nenne

Þene him wes Arður, aðelest cunnes.

Þa cleopede Arður ludere stæfne: ³⁰

‘Lou war her biforen us heðene hundes,

Þe sloʒen ure alderen mid luðere heore craften,

And heo us beoð on londe læðest alre þinge.

Nu fusen we hom to and stærcliche heom leggen on,

And wræken wunderliche ure cun and ure riche, ³⁵

And wreken þene muchele scome þat heo us iscend habbeoð

Þat heo over uðen comen to Dertemuðen;

And alle heo beoð forsworene and alle heo beoð forlorene –

Heo beoð fordemed alle mid Drihttenes fulste.

Fuse we nu forðward vaste tosomne ⁴⁰

Æfne alswa softe swa we nan ufel ne þohten;

And þenne we heom cumeð to, miseolf ic wullen onfon,

An alre freomeste þat fiht ich wulle biginnen.

Nu we scullen riden and over lond gliden,

And na man bi his live lude ne wurchen, ⁴⁵

Ah faren fæstliche. Drihten us fulsten!’

 Þa riden agon Arður þe riche mon,

Beh over wælde and Baðe wolde isechen.

Þa tidende com to Childriche þan strongen and þan riche

Þat Arður mid ferde com, al ʒaru to fihte, ⁵⁰

Childric and his ohte men leopen heom to horsen,

Igripen heore wepnen; heo wusten heom ifæied.

Þis isæh Arður, aðelest kinge,

Isæh he ænne hæðene eorl hælden him toʒeines

Mid seoven hundred cnihten al ʒærewe to fihten. ⁵⁵

Þe orl himseolf ferde biforen al his genge,

And Arður himseolf arnde bivoren al his ferde.

Arður þe ræie Ron nom an honde,

He stræhte scaft stærcne, stiðimoden king,

His hors he lette irnen þat þa eorðe dunede, ⁶⁰

Sceld he braid on breosten – þe king wes abolʒen.

He smat Borel þene eorl þurhut þa breosten

Þat þæ heorte tochan, and þe king cleopede anan:

‘Þe formeste is fæie! Nu fulsten us Drihte

And þa hefenliche quene þa Drihten akende.’ ⁶⁵

Þa cleopede Arður, aðelest kinge:

‘Nu heom to! Nu heom to! þat formest is wel idon!’

Bruttes hom leiden on, swa me scal a luðere don:

Heo bittere swipen ʒefven mid axes and mid sweordes.

Þer feolle Cheldriches men fulle twa þusend, ⁷⁰

Swa nevere Arður ne les nævere ænne of his.

Þer weoren Sæxisce men folken alre ærmest,

And þa Alemainisce men ʒeomerest alre leoden.

Arður mid his sweorde fæiescipe wurhte;

Al þat he smat to, hit wes sone fordo. ⁷⁵

Al wæs þe king abolʒen swa bið þe wilde bar

Þenne he i þan mæste monie swyn imeteð.

 Þis isæh Childric and gon him to charren

And beh him over Avene to burʒen himseolven;

And Arður him læc to, swa hit a liun weoren, ⁸⁰

And fusde heom to flode; monie þer weoren fæie.

Þer sunken to þan grunde fif and twenti hundred,

Þat al wes Avene stram mid stele ibrugged.

Cheldric over þat water flæh mid fiftene hundred cnihten,

Þohte forð siðen and over sæ liðen. ⁸⁵

 Arður isæh Colgrim climben to munten,

Buʒen to þan hulle þa over Baðen stondeð,

And Baldulf beh him after mid seove þusend cnihtes.

Heo þohten i þan hulle hæhliche atstonden,

Weorien heom mid wepnen and Arður awæmmen. ⁹⁰

Þa isæh Arður, aðelest kingen,

Whar Colgrim atstod and æc stal wrohte,

Þa clupede þe king kenliche lude:

‘Balde mine þeines, buhʒeð to þan hulles!

For ʒerstendæi wes Colgrim monnen alre kennest; ⁹⁵

Nu him is alswa þere gat, þer he þene hul wat;

Hæh uppen hulle fehteð mid hornen,

Þenne comeð þe wulf wilde touward hire winden.

Þeh þe wulf beon ane, buten ælc imane,

And þer weoren in ane loken fif hundred gaten, ¹⁰⁰

Þe wulf heom to iwiteð and alle heom abiteð.

Swa ic wulle nu todæi Colgrim al fordemen.

Ich am wulf and he is gat; þe gume scal beon fæie.’

Þa ʒet cleopede Arður, aðelest kingen:

‘Ʒurstendæi wes Baldulf cnihten alre baldest; ¹⁰⁵

Nu he stant on hulle and Avene bihaldeð,

Hu ligeð i þan stræme stelene fisces;

Mid sweorde bigeorede, heore sund is awemmed;

Heore scalen wleoteð swulc goldfaʒe sceldes,

Þer fleoteð heore spiten swulc hit spæren weoren. ¹¹⁰

Þis beoð seolcuðe þing isiʒen to þissen londe:

Swulche deor an hulle, swulche fisces in wælle.

Ʒurstendæi wes þe kaisere kennest alre kingen;

Nu he is bicumen hunte and hornes him fulieð,

Flihð over bradne wæld, beorkeð his hundes. ¹¹⁵

He hafeð bihalves Baðen his huntinge bilæfved,

Freom his deore he flicð; and we hit scullen fallen

And his balde ibeot to nohte ibringen,

And swa we scullen bruken rihte biʒæten.’

 Efne þan worde þa þe king seide ¹²⁰

He bræid hæʒe his sceld forn to his breosten,

He igrap his spere longe, his hors he gon spurie.

Neh alswa swiðe swa þe fuʒel fliʒeð

Fuleden þan kinge fif and twenti þusend

Wihtere monnen, wode under wepnen; ¹²⁵

Hælden to hulle mid hæhʒere strengðe

And uppen Colgrime smiten mid swiðe smærte biten;

And Grim heom þer hente and feolde þa Bruttes to grunde,

I þan vormeste ræse fulle fif hundred.

Þat isæh Arður, aðelest kingen, ¹³⁰

And wrað him iwræððed wunder ane swiðe;

And þus cleopien agon Arður þe hæhʒe man:

‘War beo ʒe, Bruttes, balde mine beornes?

Her stondeð us bivoren ure ifan alle icoren;

Go we mid isunde and legge we heom to grunde.’ ¹³⁵

Arður igrap his sweord riht and he smat ænne Sexise cniht

Þat þat sweord þat wes swa god æt þan toþen atstod;

And he smat enne oðer, þat wes þas cnihtes broðer,

Þat his halm and his hæfd halden to grunde;

Þene þridde dunt he sone ʒaf and enne cniht atwa clæf. ¹⁴⁰

Þa weoren Bruttes swiðe ibalded,

And leiden o þan Sæxen læʒen swiðe stronge

Mid heore speren longe and mid sweoreden swiðe stronge.

Sexes þer vullen and fæiesið makeden,

Bi hundred bi hundred hælden to þan grunde, ¹⁴⁵

Bi þusund and bi þusend þer feollen ævere in þene grund.

 Þa iseh Colgrim wær Arður com touward him;

Ne mihte Colgrim for þan wæle fleon a nare side,

Þer fæht Baldulf bisiden his broðer.

Þa cleopede Arður ludere stefne: ¹⁵⁰

‘Her ic cume, Colgrim! To cuððen wit scullen ræchen;

Nu wit scullen þis lond dalen swa þe bið alre laððest.’

Æfne þan worde þa þe king sæide

His brode swærd he up ahof and hærdliche adun sloh,

And smat Colgrimes hælm þat he amidde toclæf ¹⁵⁵

And þere burne hod, þat hit at þe breoste atstod;

And he sweinde touward Baldulfe mid his swiðren honde

And swipte þat hæfved of, forð mid þan helme.

Þa loh Arður, þe aðele king,

And þus ʒeddien agon mid gomenfulle worden: ¹⁶⁰

‘Lien nu þere, Colgrim! þu were iclumben to haʒe!

And Baldulf þi broðer lið bi þire side.

Nu ich al þis kinelond sette an eower ahʒere hond,

Dales and dunes and al mi drihtliche volc.

Þu clumbe a þissen hulle wunder ane hæʒe ¹⁶⁵

Swulc þu woldest to hævene; nu þu scalt to hælle

Þer þu miht kenne muche of þine cunne.

And gret þu þer Hengest, þe cnihten wes faʒerest,

Ebissa, Octa and Ossa and of þine cunne ma,

And bide heom þer wunie wintres and sumeres; ¹⁷⁰

And we scullen on londe libben in blisse,

Bidden for eower saulen þat sel ne wurðen heom navære;

And scullen her æuwer ban biside Baðe ligen.’

Notes

1–5 The young King Arthur, with the help of his kinsman Howel of Brittany, has defeated the pagan Germanic invaders under their ‘kaiser’ Childric and the brothers Colgrim and Baldulf, forcing them to leave Britain under oath; but while the king is campaigning in Scotland, he learns of the invaders’ treacherous return. They have landed again at Dartmouth on the south coast, and are besieging Bath.

3 Clud Dumbarton, Scotland.

5 ‘Until he came to a plain close by Bath.’ Bath, on the river Avon in Somerset, was identified by Geoffrey of Monmouth with the ‘Mons Badonis’ or Mount Badon where, according to early and possibly historical tradition, Arthur inflicted his decisive defeat on the Saxon invaders.

7 ‘And resolute warriors put on their corslets.’ On mid ‘on with’: the verb is implied, as in ‘On with the motley’.

8 a ‘into’ (unstressed form of on).

9 isemed ‘organized’ (MED semen v. (1) (c) ).

10–24 The Arming of Arthur. The arming of the hero is a common theme in epic and romance: e.g. in England, Beowulf 1441–72, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 566–89. Laʒamon here follows Wace (9274–300), with some interesting additions.

10 dude he on ‘he donned’.

11–12 ‘Which an elvish smith made with his noble skill: it was called Wygar, which Witeʒe wrought.’ An addition to Wace. Wygar perhaps goes back to Old English wigheard, ‘battle‐hard’. The scribe writes Witeʒe with a small w, presumably taking it for the common noun meaning ‘wise man’; but the absence of an article suggests a proper name. This Witeʒe is probably to be identified with the Old English Widia, a son of the legendary smith Weland. The corslet worn by Beowulf was made by Weland himself (Beowulf 455). But see Le Saux, pp. 196–9.

14 Calibeorne This name, like Pridwen (21) and Ron (24), is given by Wace, following Geoffrey. Geoffrey names Arthur’s sword Caliburnus (from a Welsh source) and says that it was ‘forged in the Isle of Avalon’. The more familiar form of the name, Excalibur, derives from later French romances.

15 mid wiʒelefulle craften ‘with magical arts’. Laʒamon’s addition.

17 bigon ‘encircled’, referring to the gold circlet round the helm (‘E d’or li cercles envirun’, Wace 9285).

18 ‘It had been the noble king Uther’s.’ Uther Pendragon was Arthur’s father.

19 Goswhit ‘Goosewhite’, a name for the shining helm, not recorded elsewhere.

ælchen oðere unilic ‘unlike all others’: see 5.3.2.

21 Pridwen The name in Welsh (Bruttisc) means ‘blessed form’, and perhaps refers to the image of the Virgin engraved on the inner side of the shield.

24 Ron from Welsh ron ‘spear’.

25 In Wace Arthur mounts, as a knight should, before receiving shield and spear – a detail missed by the priestly translator.

26 ‘Then those who stood nearby could observe.’

31–46 Arthur’s speech is loosely derived from Wace 9317–36.

31 ‘See here the heathen dogs before us.’

32 mid luðere heore craften ‘with their wicked tricks’: cf. 11, 94, 133 here, and 5.5.1.

33 alre þinge ‘of all things’, genitive plural (OE ealra þinga).

36 ‘And avenge the very shameful way in which they have injured us.’ Arthur refers to his enemies’ treacherous return to Dartmouth (see 1–5n.). The repetition of wreken ‘avenge’ in ll. 35–6 corresponds to a sevenfold repetition of venger by Wace’s Arthur.

41 ‘Just as quietly as if we intended no harm.’

43 An alre freomeste ‘alone foremost of all’.

45 lude ne wurchen ‘make any noise’.

47–83 The battle with Childric before Bath and his flight across the river Avon is added by Laʒamon. In Wace, the enemy all withdraw at once to the hills, as Colgrim and Baldulf do later here (86ff.).

52 heo wusten heom ifæied ‘they knew themselves to be the enemy’ (MED feied ppl.).

53 The line is repeated almost exactly at ll. 91 and 130.

aðslest kinge ‘noblest of kings’. See 5.3.2.

57 ferde ‘host’, a term regularly used of friendly troops, as in OE. The enemy has a genge (56), here a disrespectful term.

67 ‘Now up and at them! We’ve made a good start.’ þat formest is neuter, ‘the first thing’ (as against þe formeste 64, which is masculine).

68 swa me scal a luðere don ‘as one should do with the wicked’.

72–3 Laʒamon recognizes a distinction between the Saxons, led by Colgrim and Baldulf, and the Germans (Alemainisce) under their ‘kaiser’ Childric.

72 folken alre ærmest ‘the most wretched of all peoples’. A common second half‐line pattern: cf. 73, 95, 105, 113.

76–7 Arthur is compared to a wild boar angered by the presence in his forest of a herd of swine eating the acorns. Elaborate similes (cf. 96–101, 107–10, 114–17 here) occur especially often in that section of the Brut which concerns Arthur’s wars with the Saxons (Davies). Laʒamon probably draws hereabouts upon some source in addition to Wace, perhaps a Latin poem: see Salter (1988).

81 ‘And drove them into the water …’ There is no river in Wace. Laʒamon uses his own knowledge of local topography to good effect, vividly imagining the Saxons’ death in the Avon (cf. 106–10).

82 grunde ‘bottom of the river’.

84 Childric escapes to his ships also in Wace (9359–62), but not across a bridge of steel.

92 ‘Where Colgrim stopped and also made a stand.’

93–119 In these triumphant speeches, invented by Laʒamon, Arthur takes each of the three enemy leaders in turn and contrasts his present plight, represented by humiliating comparisons, with his brave past. In each case ‘yesterday’ is followed by ‘now’: 95–6 (Colgrim), 105–6 (Baldulf ), 113–14 (Childric).

96 ‘Now as he defends the hill, he is like the goat’; literally, ‘it is for him as for the goat’. Gat ‘goat’ is a feminine noun (whence the feminine article þere) and refers to the female animal, as usually in early English. But MS O reads him for hire at l. 98.

99 buten ælc imane ‘without any companion’.

100 loken ‘enclosure’ (cf. OE gāta loc, ‘an enclosure for goats’).

101 heom to iwiteð ‘approaches them’.

107–10 A remarkable reversed comparison. The dead warriors in the river are seen as steel fishes, whose scales and fin‐spines (spiten) are then compared to gleaming shields and floating spears.

108 ‘Equipped as they are with swords, their swimming is impeded.’

113 þe kaisere Childric, Emperor of the Germans.

114–17 Childric is first reduced from kaisere to huntsman (hunte), and then mockingly said to flee from the very animals he has been hunting.

117 and we hit scullen fallen ‘and we must put a stop to it’ (MED fallen v. 18 (b)).

119 ‘And so we shall enjoy what is rightfully ours.’

121–2 Wace 9351–2: ‘L’escu levé, l’espee traite, / Ad cuntremunt sa veie faite’ (‘With shield raised and sword drawn, he made his way up the hill’).

125 wode under wepnen ‘furious with their weapons’. Descriptions of the form ‘adjective under noun’ are common in alliterative verse: cf. ‘stifest under stel‐gere’ (No. 9 here, l. 260).

128 Grim See Textual Notes. Grim is evidently an abbreviated form of ‘Colgrim’, serving to shorten a long line, strengthen its alliteration, and accentuate the man’s ferocity.

131 ‘And became wondrously enraged.’ Wrað is metathesized from warð, ‘became’. Him is reflexive: see 5.4.5, and compare 7b/149.

134 icoren ‘excellent, worthy’ (literally ‘chosen, picked out’).

135 mid isunde ‘in security, safe and sound’, i.e. without receiving any damage to ourselves. See Textual Notes.

142 læʒen ‘blows’ (so MED lau n.). The verb leiden suggests a pun on læʒen, ‘laws’. ‘And imposed very strict laws on the Saxons’ would give an ironical metaphor of a sort common in battle‐poetry.

144 Sexes ‘Saxons’.

fæiesið makeden ‘made a death‐doomed journey’, i.e. died.

147–73 Expanding a single line of Wace: ‘Mort fu Baldulf, morz fu Colgrin’ (9358).

148 ‘Colgrim could not escape in any direction because of the corpses.’ Nare is dative singular feminine of nan, ‘no’.

151 To cuððen wit scullen ræchen ‘We two must vie for the kingdom’. But the exact sense of ræchen to is not certain. Wit, here and in the following line, is the dual pronoun ‘we two’.

152 ‘Now we two must divide up this land in the way most hateful of all to you (þe)’ (leaving Colgrim only enough land for a grave).

156 þere burne hod Arthur’s blow splits not only the helmet but also the mail hood of the corslet (þere burne, feminine genitive) under it.

157 swiðren ‘right’. The horizontal stroke which beheads Baldulf requires only one hand, as against the two‐handed vertical blow to Colgrim. Cf. the sequence of blows at 136–9.

160 gomenfulle ‘merry’. The savage and exultant humour plays on associations of high ground with ambition (161) and heaven (166).

163–4 An ironical act of submission to the two dead enemies.

166 Verbs of motion are omitted: see 5.6.9.

168–9 Hengest (of Hengest and Horsa) first led the Saxons to Britain. His son Octa succeeded him as leader. He was killed by Uther Pendragon’s men, along with his companions Ebissa and Ossa (Brut 9760), and was succeeded as leader by Colgrim.

172 ‘Pray for your souls, that good may never befall them.’

4
Ancrene Wisse

The Ancrene Wisse, ‘The Guide (or Rule) for Anchoresses’, was composed in the early thirteenth century, probably not long after 1215, originally for three sisters ‘of one father and of one mother in the blossom of your youth’, who had adopted the life of recluses. The manuscript from which this extract is taken, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 402, was copied around 1280, and is apparently a fair copy of the author’s revised text. This manuscript was donated before 1300 to the Augustinian abbey of Wigmore in north Herefordshire.

The author sets out to direct the recluses on how they should regulate their lives, and in doing so gives many indications of the routine and the difficulties of the enclosed life. The work is divided into eight parts, dealing in turn with prayers, the control of the senses, the regulation of the feelings, temptations, confession, penance, love, and the ‘outer rule’ on practical matters. The extract here is from the fourth part on temptation, where the author discusses the nature and purpose of temptation and ways of overcoming it, and then portrays the Seven Deadly Sins as beasts – the lion of pride, the bear of sloth, the scorpion of lechery and so forth – together with their progeny, that is, the sins that result from them. There follows the present extract, in which those under the influence of the beasts are described as courtiers of the devil, performing at his court for his amusement. This is a version of the motif of the ‘Infernal Pageants’, found also in a contemporary Latin account of Thurkill’s vision of Hell, where he is allowed to glimpse sinners performing before the devil.

The passage is a good representative of the stylistic features of Ancrene Wisse, with its extensive use of allegory and imagery of all sorts, and its assured control of rhythm and rhetorical devices. The author was widely read in the theological works of medieval Europe, and his style owes as much to Latin techniques of biblical exposition as to an English prose tradition reaching back to the Anglo‐Saxon models of Ælfric and others.

The work is named Ancrene Wisse only in the Corpus manuscript. Editors have adopted the name Ancrene Riwle for other versions preserved in four other thirteenth‐century manuscripts. There are also later texts and adaptations, and translations into both French and Latin.

The language of the Corpus manuscript of Ancrene Wisse and of a group of saints’ lives in MS Bodley 34 (the ‘Katherine‐group’) is a highly consistent form of a South‐West Midland dialect, and represents an early example of a literary standard, to which local scribes must have been trained to conform. Forms of the plural personal pronouns here are: for ‘you’, ʒe (nominative), ower (genitive), ow (dative); for ‘they’, ha (nominative), ham (accusative and dative), hare (genitive). In the present tense of verbs, the third person singular ending is ‐(e)ð as in wrencheð (20), except in verbs whose stem ends in ‐d or ‐t where the inflexion is simplified, as in bihalt, ‘beholds’ (48) and blent, ‘blinds’ (46). In the present plural the ending is also ‐(e)ð, as in draheð (1) and doð (3). The endings derived from Old English ‐ian verbs are well preserved, as in present plural makieð (3); verbs of this class with a long or disyllabic stem have infinitive ‐in and present plural ‐ið: lokin (16), rikenin (47), winkið (16), leornið (26). Many plural nouns end in ‐en, including those that were originally strong masculine or feminine: bemen (4), deoflen (23), pinen (35), ehnen (13). The genitive plural ending ‐ene is seen in englene, ‘of angels’ (4), and in the title itself Ancrene, ‘of Anchoresses’. In marked contrast to Laʒamon’s Brut, there is a significantly high proportion of French words; first recorded here in English are augrim (46), cuvertur (54), temptatiuns (92), and manciple (57) which is not otherwise found until the late fourteenth century.

Editions

Bella Millett and Richard Dance, Ancrene Wisse: A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, EETS 325, 326 (2005–06)

Joseph Hall, Selections from Early Middle English (Oxford, 1920), No. IX

Geoffrey Shepherd, Ancrene Wisse Parts Six and Seven (London, 1959)

Facsimile

Parker Library on the Web, https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/zh635rv2202

Translations

Bella Millett, Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses (Liverpool, 2009)

Hugh White, Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses (London, 1993)

Studies

Morton W. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins (Michigan, 1952)

E. J. Dobson, The Origins of Ancrene Wisse (Oxford, 1976)

Cate Gunn, Ancrene Wisse: From Pastoral Literature to Vernacular Spirituality (Cardiff, 2008)

Bella Millett, ‘The Origins of Ancrene Wisse: New Answers, New Questions’, Medium Ævum, 61 (1992), 206–28

Bella Millett et al., ‘Ancrene Wisse’, the Katherine Group, and the Wooing Group: An Annotated Bibliography (Woodbridge, 1996)

J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad’, Essays and Studies, 14 (1929), 104–26

Yoko Wada, ed., A Companion to Ancrene Wisse (Cambridge, 2003)

Þe prude beoð his bemeres, draheð wind inward wið worltlich hereword ant eft wið idel ʒelp puffeð hit utward as þe bemeres doð, makieð noise ant lud dream to schawin hare orhel. Ah ʒef ha wel þohten of Godes bemeres, of þe englene bemen þe schulen o fowr half þe world bivore þe grurefule dom grisliche blawen, ‘Ariseð, ⁵ deade, ariseð! Cumeð to Drihtines dom forte beon idemet, þear na prud bemere ne schal beon iborhen!’ – ʒef ha þohten þis wel, ha walden inohreaðe i þe deofles servise dimluker bemin. Of þeose bemeres seið Jeremie: Onager solitarius in desiderio anime sue attraxit ventum amoris sui – of þe wind drahinde in for luve of hereword, ¹⁰ seið as ich seide.

Summe juglurs beoð þe ne cunnen servin of nan oþer gleo bute makien cheres, wrenche þe muð mis, schulen wið ehnen. Of þis meoster servið þe unseli ontfule i þe deofles curt, to bringen o lahtre hare ondfule laverd. ʒef ei seið wel oðer deð wel, ne mahen ¹⁵ ha nanes weis lokin þider wið riht ehe of god heorte, ah winkið o þet half ant bihaldeð o luft ʒef þer is eawt to edwiten, oðer ladliche þiderward schuleð mið eiðer. Hwen ha ihereð þet god, skleatteð þe earen adun; ah þe luft aʒein þet uvel is eaver wid open. Þenne he wrencheð þe muð hwen he turneð god to uvel, ant ʒef hit is ²⁰ sumdel uvel, þurh mare lastunge wrencheð hit to wurse. Þeos beoð forecwidderes, hare ahne prophetes; þeos bodieð bivoren hu þe eateliche deoflen schulen ʒet ageasten ham wið hare grennunge, ant hu ha schulen hamseolf grennin ant nivelin ant makien sur semblant for þe muchele angoise i þe pine of helle. Ah forþi ²⁵ ha beoð þe leasse to meanen þet ha bivorenhond leornið hare meoster to makien grim chere.

Þe wreaðfule bivore þe feond skirmeð mid cnives ant is his cnifwarpere, ant pleieð mid sweordes, bereð ham bi þe scharp ord up on his tunge. Sweord ant cnif eiðer beoð scharpe ant keorvinde ³⁰ word þet he warpeð from him ant skirmeð toward oþre; ant he bodeð hu þe deoflen schulen pleien wið him mid hare scharpe eawles, skirmi wið him abuten ant dusten ase pilche clut euch toward oðer, ant wið helle sweordes asneasen him þurhut, þet beoð kene ant eateliche ant keorvinde ³⁵ pinen.

Þe slawe lið ant slepeð o þe deofles bearm as his deore deorling, ant te deovel leið his tutel dun to his eare ant tuteleð him al þet he wule. For swa hit is sikerliche to hwam se is idel of god: meaðeleð þe feond ʒeorne ant te idele underveð luveliche his lare. Idel ant ʒemeles is þes deofles bearnes slep, ah he schal o Domesdei grimliche ⁴⁰ abreiden wið þe dredfule dream of þe englene bemen ant in helle wontreaðe echeliche wakien.‘Surgite!’ aiunt, ‘mortui, surgite et venite ad judicium salvatoris!’

Þe ʒiscere is his eskibah, feareð abuten esken ant bisiliche stureð him to rukelin togederes muchele ant monie ruken, blaweð þrin ant ⁴⁵ blent himseolf, peaðereð ant makeð þrin figures of augrim as þes rikeneres doð þe habbeð muche to rikenin. Þis is al þe canges blisse, ant te feond bihalt tis gomen ant laheð þet he bersteð. Wel understont euch wis mon þet gold ba ant seolver ant euch eorðlich ahte nis bute eorðe ant esken þe ablendeð euch mon þe ham in ⁵⁰ blaweð, þet is, þe bolheð him þurh ham in heorte prude. Ant al þet he rukeleð ant gedereð togederes ant ethalt of ei þing þet nis bute esken, mare þen hit neodeð, schal in helle wurðen him tadden ant neddren; ant ba, as Ysaie seið, schulen beon of wurmes his cuvertur ant his hwitel, þe nalde þerwið neodfule feden ne schruden. Subter ⁵⁵ te sternetur tinea et operimentum tuum vermis.

Þe ʒivere glutun is þe feondes manciple, ah he stikeð eaver i celer oðer icuchene; his heorte is i þe dissches, his þoht al i þe neppes, his lif i þe tunne, his sawle i þe crohhe. Kimeð bivoren his laverd bismuddet ant bismulret, a disch in his an hond, a scale in ⁶⁰ his oðer, meaðeleð mis wordes, wigleð as fordrunke mon þe haveð imunt to fallen. Bihalt his greate wombe, ant te deovel lahheð. Þeose þreatið þus Godd þurh Ysaie: Servi mei comedent et vos esurietis et cetera. ‘Mine men schulen eoten ant ow schal eaver hungrin’, ant ʒe schule beon feondes fode world buten ende. ⁶⁵ Quantum glorificavit se et in deliciis fuit, tantum date illi tormentum et luctum. In Apocalipsi. Contra unum poculum quod miscuit miscete ei duo. ʒef þe kealche‐cuppe wallinde bres to drinken. ʒeot in his wide þrote þet he swelte inwið. Aʒein an ʒef him twa. Þullich is Godes dom aʒein ʒivere ant druncwile i þe ⁷⁰ Apocalipse.

Þe lecchurs i þe deofles curt habbeð riht hare ahne nome, for i þes muchele curz þeo me cleopeð lecchurs þe habbeð swa forlore scheome þet heom nis nawiht of scheome, ah secheð hu ha mahen meast vilainie wurchen. Þe lecchur i þe deofles curt bifuleð himseolven fulliche ant his feolahes alle, stinkeð of þet fulðe, ant ⁷⁵ paieð wel his laverd wið þet stinkinde breað betere þen he schulde wið eani swote rechles. Hu he stinke to Godd i Vitas Patrum þe engel hit schawde, þe heold his nease þa þer com þe prude lecchur ridinde, ant nawt for þet rotede lich þet he healp þe hali earmite to biburien. Of alle oþre þenne habbeð þeos þe fuleste meoster i þe ⁸⁰ feondes curt þe swa bidoð hamseolven; ant he schal bidon ham, pinin ham wið eche stench i þe put of helle.

Nu ʒe habbeð ane dale iherd, mine leove sustren, of þeo þe me cleopeð þe seove moder‐sunnen ant of hare teames, ant of hwucche meosters þes ilke men servið i þe feondes curt þe habbeð iwivet o ⁸⁵ þeose seoven haggen, ant hwi ha beoð swiðe to heatien ant to schunien. ʒe beoð ful feor from ham, ure Laverd beo iþoncket; ah þet fule breað of þis leaste unþeaw, þet is, of leccherie, stinkeð se swiðe feor, for þe feond hit saweð ant toblaweð over al, þet ich am sumdel ofdred leste hit leape sum chearre into ower heortes ⁹⁰ nease. Stench stiheð uppart, ant ʒe beoð hehe iclumben þer þe wind is muchel of stronge temptatiuns. Ure Laverd ʒeove ow strengðe wel to wiðstonden!

Notes

1 his the Devil’s. The writer has been enumerating the Seven Deadly Sins and explaining that the sinful serve in the Devil’s court.

4–5 o fowr half þe world ‘in the four quarters of the world’. The source of the trumpeting angels is the account of the Last Judgement in Matthew 24.31. Compare Donne’s sonnet, ‘At the round earths imagin’d corners, blow / Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise / From death’.

9–10 ‘A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his heart snuffed up the wind of his love’ (Jeremiah 2.24, alluding to the defection of Israel).

10–11 ‘He says what I have just said about air being snuffed up for love of praise.’

14–15 to bringen o lahtre ‘to make laugh’. The envious (ontfule) distort their eyes (16–18), their ears (18–19) and their mouths (19–21).

15 ondfule here ‘malicious’: St Augustine’s notion of envy includes not merely sorrow at others’ happiness, but also happiness at others’ sorrow.

16 ehe The Latin verb invidere, ‘to envy’, meaning literally ‘to look evilly’, lies behind this image of the ‘heart’s eye’. Much bolder is the image of the heortes nease, ‘nose of the heart’, in l. 90.

16 –17 winkið o þet half ‘close their eyes on that (right) side’. The play on the two senses of riht reinforces the traditional associations of the left side (luft) with wickedness.

18 þet god ‘anything good’.

19 ah … open ‘but the left (ear) is always open wide towards what is evil’.

21–2 ‘These are forecasters, prophets of their own doom.’

23 ʒet ‘in the future’.

26 to meanen ‘to be pitied’; passive infinitive, 5.6.5. Þet ‘in as much as’.

30 eiðer beoð ‘both represent’.

33 pilche clut ‘a bit of old fur’, a clout or remnant of clothing made of skin or fur.

34–5 The þet‐clause defines helle sweordes.

37 te After d and t, þe becomes te and þis becomes tis (e.g. l. 48). tutel ‘mouth’. The word is found only in Ancrene Wisse; it is related to a Dutch word referring to something that protrudes, a spout etc.

38 to hwam se is idel of god ‘for anyone who is devoid of virtue’. Idel also carries the sense of ‘lazy’, which is exploited in the next lines.

41 dream not ‘dream’, a sense derived from ON draumr, but rather ‘sound’ (OE drēam), as in l. 3.

42–3 ‘“Arise”, they say, “arise, you dead, and come to the judgement of the Saviour”.’ This is translated in 5–6 above.

44 eskibah literally ‘ash‐fool’. Compare the Scottish and Irish word ashiepattle, ‘a dirty child that lounges about the hearth’ (English Dialect Dictionary). The etymology is discussed by Joan Turville‐Petre, Studia Neophilologica, 41 (1969), 156–8.

46 figures of augrim ‘arithmetical figures’. Calculations were often made using dust‐boards, though Nicholas, the student in Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale, has augrym stones, counters with Arabic numerals, to make his calculations (Canterbury Tales I 3210).

49 gold ba ant seolver ‘gold and silver too’.

51 þe bolheð … prude ‘who puffs himself up in pride of heart as a consequence of them’.

53 mare þen hit neodeð ‘over and above what is essential’.

54 ba ‘both’, referring forward to cuvertur and hwitel.

55 þe ‘who’, refers back to his; see 5.4.6.

55–6 ‘Under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be your covering’ (Isaiah 14.11).

57 The manciple buys provisions for the household.

61–2 haveð imunt to ‘is about to’ (minten, ‘intend’).

62 Bihalt ‘he [the devil?] looks at’; cf. l. 48.

63–4 ‘My servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry, etc.’ (Isaiah 65.13).

64 ow dative; see 5.6.8.

65–8 ‘As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her. In the Apocalypse. In return for one cup wherein she hath mingled, mingle ye double unto her.’ Adapted from the curses on Babylon in the Apocalypse (Revelation) 18.6–7.

72 þeo me cleopeð ‘those are called’. ‘Lecher’ was also a general term of abuse for those intent on vilainie.

73 nawiht of scheome ‘nothing that is shameful’.secheð ‘they seek’. The subject is understood from the previous dative pronoun heom; see 5.4.2.

76 paieð ‘gratifies’.

77 stinke subjunctive in an indirect question; see 5.6.6.

78 hit recapitulates the hu‐clause (5.10). The source cited here, the Latin Lives of the Fathers (PL 73.1014), gives a rather different version of the story of the angel, the hermit and the corpse. Much closer is the version in the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry (c.1180–1240), ed. T. F. Crane (London, 1890), no. CIV, and the story is later widely disseminated.

82 eche ‘eternal’.

86–7 to heatien ant to schunien passive infinitives; see 5.6.5.

88 leaste ‘last’.

90 heortes nease see note to l. 16.

91–2 In his opening remarks on temptations the author had used this same image to show the greater perils to the good who have climbed high: ‘As the hill is higher, so the wind is greater on it’.

5
Sir Orfeo

Sir Orfeo was composed in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century in the South Midlands, perhaps London. There are three texts, the earliest (1330–40) in the Auchinleck manuscript, National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1, one of the most important English manuscripts of the period, apparently produced in London, and containing a large collection of romances and religious poems. Later and rather corrupt copies of the poem are in two fifteenth‐century manuscripts. The text here is based on the Auchinleck manuscript (see also 1–38n.).

The three versions of the classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice best known to the Middle Ages are in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 10–11, Virgil’s Georgics 4, and The Consolation of Philosophy 3, metre 12, by the sixth‐century writer Boethius, who moralized the story as a warning against the perils of looking back on the pleasures of the world. In all of these versions Orpheus finally loses Eurydice, but there are eleventh‐century Latin accounts, discussed by Friedman (1970), 164–75, and P. Dronke, Classica and Mediaevalia, 23 (1962), 198–215, where, as in the present poem, he succeeds in bringing her back.

In Sir Orfeo, the story has been reinterpreted as a Celtic folk‐tale. The abductor of Heurodis (Eurydice) is the Fairy King who takes her to his kingdom, the Other World rather than Hades. Other stories derived from Celtic folk‐beliefs tell how mortals, sometimes at the point of death, were snatched by the fairies and taken to their world of light and splendour. Occasionally they could be brought back, as in the late twelfth‐century story by Walter Map in which a Breton knight recovered his ‘dead’ wife from the fairies and later had children by her (De nugis curialium iv.8). There is an illuminating account of the whole subject by Allen (1964).

Such folk‐tales were passed down by the Celtic‐speaking inhabitants of Brittany in the form of musical compositions evidently accompanied by oral narratives. They were taken up by French writers, notably Marie de France who composed a series of verse lais in the later twelfth century. A fragmentary English translation of one of Marie’s lais, the Lay le Freine, also survives in the Auchinleck manuscript. Sir Orfeo is probably an adaptation of a French Breton lay. No French version survives, but there are references in French romances to a musical ‘Lai d’Orphey’. A late sixteenth‐century Scottish poem, King Orphius may be another translation of the same lost French lai; see M. Stewart, Scottish Studies, 17 (1973), 1–16.

The Breton lay seems to have enjoyed something of a vogue in English. Sir Launfal is another example, based ultimately on Marie de France’s Lanval. Chaucer’s Franklin claims to be telling a Breton lay, and he gives an interesting account of the genre in the Prologue to his tale. The author of Sir Orfeo is more successful than any other medieval English writer in capturing the world of Celtic folk‐beliefs, the mysterious powers of the fairies and their eerie kingdom at once beautiful and terrifying.

In the text, the feminine nominative pronoun is generally sche, but occasionally hye (81, 337) or he (408, 446). Forms of the third person plural pronoun are þai (except for hye, 91, and he, 185), hem and her. In the present tense of verbs, the ending of both the third person singular and the plural is ‐eþ. There are contracted forms such as he fint, ‘he finds’ (239), last, ‘lasts’ (335) and sitt, ‘sits’ (443).

Editions

Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose , ed. Kenneth Sisam (Oxford, 1921), pp. 13–31

Sir Orfeo , ed. A. J. Bliss, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1966)

Facsimile

The Auchinleck Manuscript , introduced by Derek Pearsall and I. C. Cunningham (London, 1979)

The National Library of Scotland website: www.nls.uk/auchinleck

Other Texts

Walter Map, De nugis curialium, ed. and trans. M. R. James, revised edn (Oxford, 1983)

The Lais of Marie de France , trans. Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby (Harmondsworth, 1986)

Shorter Scottish Medieval Romances , ed. Rhiannon Purdie, Scottish Text Society, 5th Ser. 11 (Woodbridge, 2013). (Includes King Orphius).

Studies

Dorena Allen, ‘Orpheus and Orfeo: The Dead and the Taken’, Medium Ævum, 33 (1964), 102–11

Neil Cartlidge, ‘Sir Orfeo in the Underworld: Courting Chaos?’ Studies in the Age of Chaucer 26 (2004), 195–226

John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1970)

D. M. Hill, ‘The Structure of “Sir Orfeo”’, Medieval Studies, 23 (1961), 136–53

E. Hoepffner, ‘The Breton Lais’, in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. R. S. Loomis (Oxford, 1959), pp. 112–21

Howard Rollin Patch, The Other World (Cambridge, Mass., 1950)

Derek Pearsall, ‘Madness in Sir Orfeo’, in Romance Reading on the Book, ed. J. Fellows et al. (Cardiff, 1996), pp. 51–63

A. C. Spearing, Readings in Medieval Poetry (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 56–82

We redeþ oft and findeþ ywrite,

And þis clerkes wele it wite,

Layes þat ben in harping

Ben yfounde of ferli þing.

Sum beþe of wer and sum of wo, ⁵

And sum of joie and mirþe also,

And sum of trecherie and of gile,

Of old aventours þat fel while,

And sum of bourdes and ribaudy,

And mani þer beþ of fairy. ¹⁰

Of al þinges þat men seþ,

Mest o love, for soþe, þai beþ.

In Breteyne þis layes were wrouʒt,

First yfounde and forþ ybrouʒt,

Of aventours þat fel bi dayes, ¹⁵

Wherof Bretouns made her layes.

When kinges miʒt our yhere

Of ani mervailes þat þer were,

Þai token an harp in gle and game

And maked a lay and ʒaf it name. ²⁰

Now of þis aventours þat weren yfalle

Y can tel sum, ac nouʒt alle.

Ac herkneþ, lordinges þat beþ trewe,

Ichil ʒou telle of Sir Orfewe.

 Orfeo mest of ani þing ²⁵

Loved þe gle of harping.

Siker was everi gode harpour

Of him to have miche honour.

Himself he lerned for to harp

And leyd þeron his wittes scharp; ³⁰

He lerned so þer noþing was

A better harpour in no plas.

In al þe warld was no man bore

Þat ones Orfeo sat bifore,

And he miʒt of his harping here, ³⁵

Bot he schuld þenche þat he were

In on of þe joies of Paradis,

Swiche melody in his harping is.

 Orfeo was a king

In Inglond, an heiʒe lording, ⁴⁰

A stalworþ man and hardi bo,

Large and curteys he was also;

His fader was comen of King Pluto

And his moder of King Juno,

Þat sumtime were as godes yhold ⁴⁵

For aventours þat þai dede and told.

Þis king sojournd in Traciens,

Þat was a cité of noble defens,

For Winchester was cleped þo

Traciens, wiþouten no. ⁵⁰

Þe king hadde a quen of priis

Þat was ycleped Dame Herodis,

Þe fairest levedi, for þe nones,

Þat miʒt gon on bodi and bones,

Ful of love and of godenisse; ⁵⁵

Ac no man may telle hir fairnise.

 Bifel so in þe comessing of May

When miri and hot is þe day,

And oway beþ winter schours,

And everi feld is ful of flours, ⁶⁰

And blosme breme on everi bouʒ

Over al wexeþ miri anouʒ,

Þis ich quen, Dame Heurodis,

Tok to maidens of priis,

And went in an undrentide ⁶⁵

To play bi an orchard side,

To se þe floures sprede and spring

And to here þe foules sing.

Þai sett hem doun al þre

Under a fair ympe‐tre, ⁷⁰

And wel sone þis fair quene

Fel on slepe opon þe grene.

Þe maidens durst hir nouʒt awake,

Bot lete hir ligge and rest take;

So sche slepe til after none, ⁷⁵

Þat undertide was al ydone.

Ac as sone as sche gan awake,

Sche crid and loþli bere gan make,

Sche froted hir honden and hir fet

And crached hir visage, it bled wete, ⁸⁰

Hir riche robe hye al torett,

And was reveyd out of hir witt.

Þe tuo maidens hir biside

No durst wiþ hir no leng abide,

Bot ourn to þe palays ful riʒt ⁸⁵

And told boþe squier and kniʒt

Þat her quen awede wold,

And bad hem go and hir at‐hold.

Kniʒtes urn, and levedis also,

Damisels sexti and mo, ⁹⁰

In þe orchard to þe quen hye come,

And her up in her armes nome

And brouʒt hir to bed atte last,

And held hir þere fine fast,

Ac ever sche held in o cri, ⁹⁵

And wold up and owy.

 When Orfeo herd þat tiding,

Never him nas wers for noþing;

He come wiþ kniʒtes tene

To chaumber riʒt bifor þe quene, ¹⁰⁰

And biheld and seyd wiþ grete pité:

‘O lef liif, what is te,

Þat ever ʒete hast ben so stille

And now gredest wonder schille?

Þi bodi þat was so white ycore ¹⁰⁵

Wiþ þine nailes is al totore;

Allas, þi rode þat was so red

Is al wan as þou were ded,

And also þine fingres smale

Beþ al blodi and al pale. ¹¹⁰

Allas, þi lovesom eyʒen to

Lokeþ so man doþ on his fo.

A, dame, ich biseche merci!

Lete ben al þis reweful cri,

And tel me what þe is and hou, ¹¹⁵

And what þing may þe help now.’

 Þo lay sche stille atte last

And gan to wepe swiþe fast,

And seyd þus þe king to:

‘Allas mi lord, Sir Orfeo, ¹²⁰

Seþþen we first togider were,

Ones wroþ never we nere,

Bot ever ich have yloved þe

As mi liif, and so þou me,

Ac now we mot delen ato; ¹²⁵

Do þi best, for y mot go.’

 ‘Allas,’ quaþ he, ‘forlorn ich am!

Whider wiltow go, and to wham?

Whider þou gost ichil wiþ þe,

And whider y go þou schalt wiþ me.’ ¹³⁰

 ‘Nay, nay, sir, þat nouʒt nis;

Ichil þe telle al hou it is.

As ich lay þis undertide

And slepe under our orchard side,

Þer come to me to fair kniʒtes ¹³⁵

Wele y‐armed al to riʒtes,

And bad me comen an heiʒing

And speke wiþ her lord þe king,

And ich answerd at wordes bold,

Y no durst nouʒt, no y nold. ¹⁴⁰

Þai priked oʒain as þai miʒt drive;

Þo com her king also blive

Wiþ an hundred kniʒtes and mo

And damisels an hundred also,

Al on snowe‐white stedes, ¹⁴⁵

As white as milke were her wedes.

Y no seiʒe never ʒete bifore

So fair creatours ycore;

Þe king hadde a croun on hed,

It nas of silver no of gold red, ¹⁵⁰

Ac it was of a precious ston,

As briʒt as þe sonne it schon.

And as son as he to me cam,

Wold ich, nold ich, he me nam,

And made me wiþ him ride ¹⁵⁵

Opon a palfray bi his side,

And brouʒt me to his palays

Wele atird in ich ways,

And schewed me castels and tours,

Rivers, forestes, friþ wiþ flours, ¹⁶⁰

And his riche stedes ichon,

And seþþen me brouʒt oʒain hom

Into our owhen orchard,

And said to me þus afterward:

“Loke, dame, tomorwe þatow be ¹⁶⁵

Riʒt here under þis ympe‐tre,

And þan þou schalt wiþ ous go

And live wiþ ous evermo;

And ʒif þou makest ous ylet,

Whar þou be, þou worst yfet, ¹⁷⁰

And totore þine limes al,

Þat noþing help þe no schal,

And þei þou best so totorn,

Ʒete þou worst wiþ ous yborn.” ’

 When King Orfeo herd þis cas, ¹⁷⁵

‘O we!’ quaþ he, ‘allas, allas!

Lever me were to lete mi liif

Þan þus to lese þe quen mi wiif.’

He asked conseyl at ich man,

Ac no man him help no can. ¹⁸⁰

Amorwe þe undertide is come

And Orfeo haþ his armes ynome

And wele ten hundred kniʒtes wiþ him,

Ich y‐armed, stout and grim,

And wiþ þe quen wenten he ¹⁸⁵

Riʒt unto þat ympe‐tre.

Þai made scheltrom in ich a side,

And sayd þai wold þere abide

And dye þer everichon

Er þe quen schuld fram hem gon; ¹⁹⁰

Ac ʒete amiddes hem ful riʒt

Þe quen was oway ytuiʒt,

Wiþ fairi forþ ynome;

Men wist never wher sche was bicome.

 Þo was þer criing, wepe and wo; ¹⁹⁵

Þe king into his chaumber is go

And oft swoned opon þe ston,

And made swiche diol and swiche mon

Þat neiʒe his liif was yspent;

Þer was non amendement. ²⁰⁰

He cleped togider his barouns,

Erls, lordes of renouns,

And when þai al ycomen were,

‘Lordinges,’ he said, ‘bifor ʒou here

Ich ordainy min heiʒe steward ²⁰⁵

To wite mi kingdom afterward.

In mi stede ben he schal,

To kepe mi londes over al;

For now ichave mi quen ylore,

Þe fairest levedi þat ever was bore, ²¹⁰

Never eft y nil no woman se.

Into wildernes ichil te

And live þer evermore

Wiþ wilde bestes in holtes hore,

And when ʒe understond þat y be spent, ²¹⁵

Make ʒou þan a parlement

And chese ʒou a newe king.

Now doþ ʒour best wiþ al mi þing.’

 Þo was þer wepeing in þe halle,

And grete cri among hem alle; ²²⁰

Unneþe miʒt old or ʒong

For wepeing speke a word wiþ tong.

Þai kneled adoun al yfere

And praid him, ʒif his wille were,

Þat he no schuld nouʒt fram hem go. ²²⁵

‘Do way!’ quaþ he, ‘It schal be so.’

Al his kingdom he forsoke,

Bot a sclavin on him he toke;

He no hadde kirtel no hode,

Schert no no noþer gode; ²³⁰

Bot his harp he tok algate

And dede him barfot out atte ʒate;

No man most wiþ him go.

O way! what þer was wepe and wo

When he þat hadde ben king wiþ croun ²³⁵

Went so poverlich out of toun.

Þurth wode and over heþ

Into þe wildernes he geþ;

Noþing he fint þat him is ays,

Bot ever he liveþ in gret malais. ²⁴⁰

He þat hadde ywerd þe fowe and griis,

And on bed þe purper biis,

Now on hard heþe he liþ,

Wiþ leves and gresse he him wriþ.

He þat hadde had castels and tours, ²⁴⁵

River, forest, friþ wiþ flours,

Now þei it comenci to snewe and frese,

Þis king mot make his bed in mese.

He þat had yhad kniʒtes of priis

Bifor him kneland, and levedis, ²⁵⁰

Now seþ he noþing þat him likeþ,

Bot wilde wormes bi him strikeþ.

He þat had yhad plenté

Of mete and drink, of ich deynté,

Now may he al day digge and wrote ²⁵⁵

Er he finde his fille of rote.

In somer he liveþ bi wild frut

And berien bot gode lite;

In winter may he noþing finde

Bot rote, grases and þe rinde; ²⁶⁰

Al his bodi was oway duine

For missays, and al tochine.

Lord, who may telle þe sore

Þis king sufferd ten ʒere and more?

His here of his berd, blac and rowe, ²⁶⁵

To his girdel‐stede was growe.

His harp whereon was al his gle

He hidde in an holwe tre,

And when þe weder was clere and briʒt,

He toke his harp to him wel riʒt ²⁷⁰

And harped at his owhen wille;

Into alle þe wode þe soun gan schille,

Þat alle þe wilde bestes þat þer beþ

For joie abouten him þai teþ,

And alle þe foules þat þer were ²⁷⁵

Come and sete on ich a brere

To here his harping afine,

So miche melody was þerin;

And when he his harping lete wold,

No best bi him abide nold. ²⁸⁰

 He miʒt se him bisides,

Oft in hot undertides,

Þe king o fairy wiþ his rout

Com to hunt him al about

Wiþ dim cri and bloweing, ²⁸⁵

And houndes also wiþ him berking;

Ac no best þai no nome,

No never he nist whider þai bicome.

And oþerwhile he miʒt him se

As a gret ost bi him te, ²⁹⁰

Wele atourned, ten hundred kniʒtes,

Ich y‐armed to his riʒtes,

Of cuntenaunce stout and fers,

Wiþ mani desplaid baners,

And ich his swerd ydrawe hold; ²⁹⁵

Ac never he nist whider þai wold.

And oþerwhile he seiʒe oþer þing:

Kniʒtes and levedis com daunceing

In queynt atire gisely,

Queynt pas and softly; ³⁰⁰

Tabours and trunpes ʒede hem bi,

And al maner menstraci.

And on a day he seiʒe him biside

Sexti levedis on hors ride,

Gentil and jolif as brid on ris; ³⁰⁵

Nouʒt o man amonges hem þer nis;

And ich a faucon on hond bere,

And riden on haukin bi o rivere.

Of game þai founde wel gode haunt,

Maulardes, hayroun and cormeraunt. ³¹⁰

Þe foules of þe water ariseþ,

Þe faucouns hem wele deviseþ;

Ich faucoun his pray slouʒ.

Þat seiʒe Orfeo and louʒ.

‘Parfay,’ quaþ he, ‘þer is fair game. ³¹⁵

Þider ichil, bi Godes name!

Ich was ywon swiche werk to se.’

He aros and þider gan te;

To a levedi he was ycome,

Biheld and haþ wele undernome ³²⁰

And seþ bi al þing þat it is

His owhen quen, Dam Heurodis.

Ʒern he biheld hir, and sche him eke,

Ac noiþer to oþer a word no speke;

For messais þat sche on him seiʒe, ³²⁵

Þat had ben so riche and so heiʒe,

Þe teres fel out of her eiʒe.

Þe oþer levedis þis yseiʒe

And maked hir oway to ride;

Sche most wiþ him no lenger abide. ³³⁰

‘Allas,’ quaþ he, ‘now me is wo.

Whi nil deþ now me slo?

Allas, wroche, þat y no miʒt

Dye now after þis siʒt.

Allas, to long last mi liif, ³³⁵

When y no dar nouʒt wiþ mi wiif,

No hye to me, o word speke.

Allas, whi nil min hert breke?

Parfay,’ quaþ he, ‘tide wat bitide,

Whider so þis levedis ride, ³⁴⁰

Þe selve way ichil streche.

Of liif no deþ me no reche.’

 His sclavain he dede on also spac

And henge his harp opon his bac,

And had wel gode wil to gon; ³⁴⁵

He no spard noiþer stub no ston.

In at a roche þe levedis rideþ

And he after and nouʒt abideþ.

When he was in þe roche ygo

Wele þre mile oþer mo, ³⁵⁰

He com into a fair cuntray

As briʒt so sonne on somers day,

Smoþe and plain and al grene,

Hille no dale nas þer non ysene.

Amidde þe lond a castel he siʒe, ³⁵⁵

Riche and real and wonder heiʒe.

Al þe utmast wal

Was clere and schine as cristal;

An hundred tours þer were about,

Degiselich and bataild stout; ³⁶⁰

Þe butras com out of þe diche

Of rede gold y‐arched riche;

Þe vousour was anowrned al

Of ich maner divers aumal.

Wiþin þer wer wide wones ³⁶⁵

Al of precious stones;

Þe werst piler on to biholde

Was al of burnist gold.

Al þat lond was ever liʒt,

For when it schuld be þerk and niʒt, ³⁷⁰

Þe riche stones liʒt gonne

As briʒt as doþ at none þe sonne.

No man may telle no þenche in þouʒt

Þe riche werk þat þer was wrouʒt;

Bi al þing him þink þat it is ³⁷⁵

Þe proude court of Paradis.

In þis castel þe levedis aliʒt;

He wold in after ʒif he miʒt.

 Orfeo knokkeþ atte gate;

Þe porter was redi þerate ³⁸⁰

And asked what he wold have ydo.

‘Parfay,’ quaþ he, ‘ich am a minstrel, lo!

To solas þi lord wiþ mi gle,

Ʒif his swete wille be.’

Þe porter undede þe ʒate anon ³⁸⁵

And lete him in to þe castel gon.

 Þan he gan bihold about al,

And seiʒe liggeand wiþin þe wal

Of folk þat were þider ybrouʒt

And þouʒt dede and nare nouʒt. ³⁹⁰

Sum stode wiþouten hade,

And sum non armes nade,

And sum þurth þe bodi hadde wounde,

And sum lay wode ybounde,

And sum armed on hors sete, ³⁹⁵

And sum astrangled as þai ete,

And sum were in water adreynt,

And sum wiþ fire al forschreynt;

Wives þer lay on child‐bedde,

Sum ded and sum awedde, ⁴⁰⁰

And wonder fele þer lay bisides

Riʒt as þai slepe her undertides;

Eche was þus in þis warld ynome,

Wiþ fairi þider ycome.

Þer he seiʒe his owhen wiif, ⁴⁰⁵

Dame Heurodis, his lef liif,

Slepe under an ympe‐tre;

Bi her cloþes he knewe þat it was he.

And when he hadde bihold þis mervails alle

He went in to þe kinges halle; ⁴¹⁰

Þan seiʒe he þer a semly siʒt,

A tabernacle blisseful and briʒt,

Þerin her maister king sete

And her quen fair and swete;

Her crounes, her cloþes schine so briʒt ⁴¹⁵

Þat unneþe bihold he hem miʒt.

When he hadde biholden al þat þing,

He kneled adoun bifor þe king.

‘O lord,’ he seyd, ‘ʒif it þi wille were,

Mi menstraci þou schust yhere.’ ⁴²⁰

Þe king answerd: ‘What man artow

Þat art hider ycomen now?

Ich, no non þat is wiþ me,

No sent never after þe.

Seþþen þat ich here regni gan, ⁴²⁵

Y no fond never so folehardi man

Þat hider to ous durst wende

Bot þat ichim wald ofsende.’

‘Lord,’ quaþ he, ‘trowe ful wel,

Y nam bot a pover menstrel, ⁴³⁰

And, sir, it is þe maner of ous

To seche mani a lordes hous;

Þei we nouʒt welcom no be,

Ʒete we mot proferi forþ our gle.’

 Bifor þe king he sat adoun ⁴³⁵

And tok his harp so miri of soun,

And tempreþ his harp as he wele can,

And blisseful notes he þer gan,

Þat al þat in þe palays were

Com to him for to here, ⁴⁴⁰

And liggeþ adoun to his fete,

Hem þenkeþ his melody so swete.

Þe king herkneþ and sitt ful stille,

To here his gle he haþ gode wille;

Gode bourde he hadde of his gle, ⁴⁴⁵

Þe riche quen also hadde he.

When he hadde stint his harping

Þan seyd to him þe king:

‘Menstrel, me likeþ wele þi gle.

Now aske of me what it be; ⁴⁵⁰

Largelich ichil þe pay.

Now speke and tow miʒt asay.’

‘Sir,’ he seyd, ‘ich biseche þe

Þatow woldest ʒive me

Þat ich levedi briʒt on ble ⁴⁵⁵

Þat slepeþ under þe ympe‐tre.’

‘Nay,’ quaþ þe king, ‘þat nouʒt nere!

A sori couple of ʒou it were,

For þou art lene, rowe and blac,

And sche is lovesum wiþouten lac. ⁴⁶⁰

A loþlich þing it were forþi

To sen hir in þi compayni.’

‘O sir,’ he seyd, ‘gentil king,

Ʒete were it a wele fouler þing

To here a lesing of þi mouþe. ⁴⁶⁵

So, sir, as ʒe seyd nouþe,

What ich wold aski, have y schold,

And nedes þou most þi word hold.’

Þe king seyd, ‘Seþþen it is so,

Take hir bi þe hond and go. ⁴⁷⁰

Of hir ichil þatow be bliþe.’

He kneled adoun and þonked him swiþe,

His wiif he tok bi þe hond

And dede him swiþe out of þat lond,

And went him out of þat þede; ⁴⁷⁵

Riʒt as he come, þe way he ʒede.

 So long he haþ þe way ynome,

To Winchester he is ycome,

Þat was his owhen cité,

Ac no man knewe þat it was he. ⁴⁸⁰

No forþer þan þe tounes ende

For knoweleche no durst he wende,

Bot wiþ a begger ybilt ful narwe,

Þer he tok his herbarwe

To him and to his owhen wiif ⁴⁸⁵

As a minstrel of pover liif,

And asked tidinges of þat lond

And who þe kingdom held in hond.

Þe pover begger in his cote

Told him everich a grot, ⁴⁹⁰

Hou her quen was stole owy

Ten ʒer gon wiþ fairy,

And hou her king en exile ʒede,

Bot no man nist in wiche þede,

And hou þe steward þe lond gan hold, ⁴⁹⁵

And oþer mani þinges him told.

 Amorwe oʒain none‐tide

He maked his wiif þer abide;

Þe beggers cloþes he borwed anon

And heng his harp his rigge opon, ⁵⁰⁰

And went him into þat cité

Þat men miʒt him bihold and se.

Erls and barouns bold,

Burjays and levedis him gun bihold.

‘Lo!’ þai seyd, ‘swiche a man! ⁵⁰⁵

Hou long þe here hongeþ him opan.

Lo, hou his berd hongeþ to his kne!

He is yclongen also a tre.’

And as he ʒede in þe strete,

Wiþ his steward he gan mete ⁵¹⁰

And loude he sett on him a crie:

‘Sir steward,’ he seyd, ‘merci!

Ich am an harpour of heþenisse;

Help me now in þis destresse.’

Þe steward seyd, ‘Com wiþ me, come! ⁵¹⁵

Of þat ichave þou schalt have some.

Everich gode harpour is welcom me to

For mi lordes love Sir Orfeo.’

 In þe castel þe steward sat atte mete,

And mani lording was bi him sete; ⁵²⁰

Þer were trompours and tabourers,

Harpours fele and crouders;

Miche melody þai maked alle,

And Orfeo sat stille in þe halle

And herkneþ when þai ben al stille. ⁵²⁵

He toke his harp and tempred schille;

Þe blifulest notes he harped þere

Þat ever ani man yherd wiþ ere;

Ich man liked wele his gle.

Þe steward biheld and gan yse, ⁵³⁰

And knewe þe harp als blive.

‘Menstrel,’ he seyd, ‘so mot þou þrive,

Where hadestow þis harp and hou?

Y pray þat þou me telle now.’

‘Lord,’ quaþ he, ‘in uncouþe þede ⁵³⁵

Þurth a wildernes as y ʒede,

Þer y founde in a dale

Wiþ lyouns a man totorn smale,

And wolves him frete wiþ teþ so scharp;

Bi him y fond þis ich harp, ⁵⁴⁰

Wele ten ʒere it is ygo.’

‘O,’ quaþ þe steward, ‘now me is wo!

Þat was mi lord Sir Orfeo.

Allas, wreche, what schal y do

Þat have swiche a lord ylore? ⁵⁴⁵

A, way, þat ich was ybore!

Þat him was so hard grace yʒarked

And so vile deþ ymarked!’

Adoun he fel aswon to grounde;

His barouns him tok up in þat stounde ⁵⁵⁰

And telleþ him hou it geþ:

It nis no bot of mannes deþ.

 King Orfeo knewe wele bi þan

His steward was a trewe man

And loved him as he auʒt to do, ⁵⁵⁵

And stont up and seyt þus, lo:

‘Steward, herkne now þis þing.

Ʒif ich were Orfeo þe king,

And hadde ysuffred ful ʒore

In wildernisse miche sore, ⁵⁶⁰

And hadde ywon mi quen owy

Out of þe lond of fairy,

And hadde ybrouʒt þe levedi hende

Riʒt here to þe tounes ende,

And wiþ a begger her in ynome, ⁵⁶⁵

And were miself hider ycome

Poverlich to þe þus stille

For to asay þi gode wille,

And ich founde þe þus trewe,

Þou no schust it never rewe. ⁵⁷⁰

Sikerlich, for love or ay,

Þou schust be king after mi day.

And ʒif þou of mi deþ hadest ben bliþe,

Þou schust have voided also swiþe.’

 þo al þo þat þerin sete ⁵⁷⁵

Þat it was King Orfeo underʒete,

And þe steward him wele knewe,

Over and over þe bord he þrewe

And fel adoun to his fet,

So dede everich lord þat þer sete, ⁵⁸⁰

And al þai seyd at o criing:

‘Ʒe beþ our lord, sir, and our king!’

Glad þai were of his live.

To chaumber þai ladde him als bilive,

And baþed him and schaved his berd ⁵⁸⁵

And tired him as a king apert,

And seþþen wiþ gret processioun

Þai brouʒt þe quen in to þe toun

Wiþ al maner menstraci.

Lord, þer was grete melody! ⁵⁹⁰

For joie þai wepe wiþ her eiʒe

Þat hem so sounde ycomen seiʒe.

 Now King Orfeo newe coround is,

And his quen Dame Heurodis,

And lived long afterward, ⁵⁹⁵

And seþþen was king þe steward.

Harpours in Bretaine after þan

Herd hou þis mervaile bigan

And made herof a lay of gode likeing

And nempned it after þe king; ⁶⁰⁰

Þat lay ‘Orfeo’ is yhote;

Gode is þe lay, swete is þe note.

Þus com Sir Orfeo out of his care;

God graunt ous alle wele to fare. Amen.

Notes

1–38 The opening lines have been lost from the Auchinleck manuscript. Bliss reconstructs them, taking lines 1–13 and 17–22 from another Breton lay in the manuscript, Lay le Freine, which evidently had the same prologue, and basing lines 14–16 and 23–38 on the text in the Harley manuscript. See Bliss’s edition, pp. xlvi–xlviii, for a full account of the procedure.

11 men seþ ‘one sees’; i.e. ‘are to be found’. See 5.4.3.

13 Breteyne ‘Brittany’.

14–16 These lines, omitted in the Auchinleck manuscript, are based on the Harley manuscript, with ybrouʒt from the Ashmole manuscript for the rhyme.

17 our ‘anywhere’ (a reduced form of owhere).

20 The title of the lai had great significance. See, for example, the ending of Marie de France’s Chaitivel, where, after mooting various titles, she concludes that ‘each name is appropriate and supported by the subject matter’.

25–38 These lines come after ll. 39–46 in the Harley text, but Bliss argues convincingly that they were part of the lost prologue in the Auchinleck manuscript.

29 ‘He himself learned to play the harp.’

34 ‘Who ever sat before Orfeo.’

35 And ‘if’.

36 Bot he refers back to no man in l. 33, so ‘every man … would think’.

37 on of þe joies There were reputedly fourteen joys of Paradise, seven each for the body and the soul.

42 Large ‘generous’.

43–4 Pluto is king of the underworld, and in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, Canterbury Tales IV 2227, he is kyng of Fayerye. Juno is goddess of marriage. For of King Juno, probably a scribal error, the Harley manuscript has more sensibly cam of Yno. There does not seem to be particular significance in the identity of Orfeo’s ancestors except that they are the nobility of a pre‐Christian past (l. 45).

49–50 The identification of Thrace (Traciens) with Winchester, the ancient royal city of Alfred and the kings of Wessex, is not in the other manuscripts. The poet, or more probably a reviser, made a consistent effort to set the story in England. Compare ll. 39–40, also only in the Auchinleck manuscript, and l. 478, Winchester again, where the other manuscripts refer to Thrace. See Turville‐Petre (1996), pp. 108–41 (Bibliography 9.3).

52 Herodis Eurydice.

54 ‘Who could ever live.’

57 The May setting with the blossom and the lovely lady is characteristic of romance. This is the comessing, ‘beginning’, of May; in folklore May Day is particularly dangerous.

64 to ‘two’, as in ll. 111 and 135.

65 in an undrentide ‘in mid‐morning’. The time meant by undren or under varies from ‘prime’ (9 a.m.) to midday. The significant point is that Heurodis is asleep at noon (l. 75) when meetings with the supernatural are most likely. So Orfeo sees the fairies in hot undertides (282).

70 ympe‐tre ‘grafted tree’. Apple trees, which are cultivated by grafting onto a root‐stock, were common in the Celtic Other World (see Patch (1950), pp. 52–3), and in romances and ballads fairies may visit those who lie under trees, as in the lay of Sir Launfal, 226–31.

95 ‘But she always kept up the same cry.’

96 wold up ‘wanted to get up’: 5.6.9.

98 ‘He was never more distressed about anything.’

102 what is te ‘what’s wrong?’ (te is a form of þe, dative, ‘with thee’). So also what þe is, 115.

122 ‘We were never once angry.’

126 Do þi best ‘make the best of it’.

131 þat nouʒt nis ‘that can’t be’.

137 an heiʒing ‘in haste’. This use of the verbal noun with an/on is found again in l. 308, on haukin, ‘hawking’, and survives in modern a‐ringing etc.

139 at wordes bold ‘boldly’.

140 ‘I didn’t dare to and I wouldn’t.’

141 ‘They rode back as fast as they could go.’

142–61 The elegance of the fairies and the richness of their land are characteristic features of descriptions of the Other World. See Patch (1950), pp. 55–9, and compare the account in ll. 349–76.

154 Wold ich, nold ich ‘whether I was willing or not’. Cf. 7b/153 below.

161 riche stedes ‘fine estates’.

169 makest ous ylet ‘offer us resistance’.

170 ‘Wherever you may be, you will be fetched’; worst is second person singular of worþen. See 5.6.10 for its future sense.

171 ‘And all your limbs (will be) torn apart.’

173–4 best ‘will be’. ‘Though you’ll be torn apart in this way, even so you’ll be carried off with us.’

177 ‘I’d rather give up my life.’

185 The plural ending of wenten confirms that he is ‘they’.

187 made scheltrom ‘drew up the soldiers’. The OE compound scield‐truma, ‘shield‐troop’, denotes the tight formation of warriors with interlocking shields. This massive physical presence is powerless to protect Heurodis.

196 is go ‘went’; see 5.6.3.

211 In Ovid’s Metamorphoses 10.79–81, Orpheus renounces all women after his final loss of Eurydice.

215–17 The poet envisages a very English arrangement, as in 1327 when Parliament deposed Edward II and adopted his son as king. ʒou (ll. 216, 217) is dative, ‘for yourselves’.

228 Bot a sclavin ‘only a pilgrim’s cloak’.

239 ays ‘ease’; ‘He finds nothing of comfort to him’.

241–56 This effective set of contrasts between wealth and poverty is reminiscent of homiletic tradition; see e.g. Carleton Brown, English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century (Oxford, 1932), No. 48, and the discussion by Felicity Riddy, Yearbook of English Studies, 6 (1976), 5–15.

241 fowe and griis ‘fine furs’; fowe is parti‐coloured fur, griis is grey fur.

252 ‘Except fierce serpents that slither past him.’

258 ‘And berries of only little value.’

261 oway duine ‘wasted away’.

277 afine ‘to the end’.

282 See 65n.

283–96 The fairy hunt and the fairy army are often mentioned in Celtic folklore, as in the story by the twelfth‐century writer Walter Map about King Herla who, after visiting fairyland, was condemned to ride unceasingly with his company (De nugis curialium i.11).

287–8 ‘But they caught no animal, and he never knew where they went to.’

290 As ‘as it were’, i.e. ‘what seemed to be’.

294 The displaying of banners would signify that the army is marching to war; compare Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, Canterbury Tales I 966.

296 ‘But he never knew where they were off to.’

297–302 Walter Map describes a fairy dance in De nugis curialium ii.12.

299–300 ‘Gracefully in elegant dress, quietly and with elegant steps.’

305 ‘Lovely and happy as bird on branch’ – a traditional comparison. A hunting party consisting only of ladies is remarkable.

308 on haukin ‘hawking’; see 137n.

313 The pointed contrast is with l. 287; these ladies are not fairies. The courtly sport reminds Orfeo of his former life, and for the first time he laughs with pleasure and moves towards the group.

316 ichil ‘I will (go)’; see 5.6.9.

324 They are prevented from communicating by the enchantment of the fairies. See Lewis J. Owen, Medium Ævum, 40 (1971), 249–53.

325 ‘Because of the wretched condition she saw he was in.’

337 ‘Speak a single word, nor she to me.’

339 tide wat bitide ‘come what may’.

342 ‘I don’t care about whether I live or die.’

345 ‘And went with great eagerness.’

346 spard ‘avoided’. He went by the most direct route.

347 Fairyland is always cut off from the world of mortals, over a river or, as here, through a rock. See Patch (1950), pp. 29–48.

351–76 Bliss, p. xxxix, cites Celtic parallels for this description of fairyland, with its brightness, its crystal and its precious metal.

356 real ‘royal, glorious’.

358 schine ‘brilliant’ (an adjective).

360 ‘Wonderful and with strong battlements.’

363–4 ‘The arching (of the buttresses) was all decorated with every kind of different enamel.’ The emendation anowrned was suggested by Sisam, though it is possible that the reading avowed is an otherwise unrecorded word meaning ‘coloured’, as Bliss suggests.

371 liʒt gonne ‘shone’. Trevisa, Properties, p. 839, says of the carbuncle that it ‘schyneþ as fuyre whos schynynge is not overcome by night’.

376 This recalls medieval descriptions of heaven, which were based on the Apocalypse (Revelation) 21, e.g. verse 11, ‘And the light thereof was like to a precious stone’. Cf. Pearl 985–1080.

378 wold ‘wished to go’ (5.6.9).

381 wold have ydo ‘wanted done’.

384 ‘If he wishes’ (be is subjunctive).

388–90 ‘And caught sight of people lying within the wall who were brought there and thought dead but were not.’ In Celtic folk‐belief many of those who apparently die suddenly are not actually dead but are ‘taken’ by the fairies. See Allen (1964), pp. 102–11.

394 Madness was a sign that the sufferer’s spirit had already been taken; see Allen (1964), 105. Mad people were restrained: ‘þe medicines of hem (manias) is þat he be ibounde …’ (Trevisa, Properties, p. 350).

396 astrangled ‘choked’.

400 ‘Some dead, and some mad.’ They are ‘dead’ by conventional wisdom; cf. l. 390.

402 ‘Just as they were when they took their daytime sleep.’ On the dangers of this, see 65n.

408 it was he ‘it was she’.

413 her ‘their’ (and in ll. 414–15).

415 schine ‘shone’ (past tense plural).

428 ‘Unless I had chosen to send for him.’

430 Y nam bot ‘I am only’.

433 ‘Even though we may not be welcome.’

446 he ‘she’.

450 what it be ‘whatever you want’. The ‘rash promise’ is a common folk‐tale motif. King Mark is similarly obliged to hand over to Sir Bleoberys ‘the fayreste lady in your courte that me lyste to chose’ (The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. E. Vinaver, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1967), p. 396). Compare also Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale, Canterbury Tales V 988–98, where Dorigen playfully promises Aurelius her love if he will remove the rocks from the coast.

452 and tow miʒt asay ‘and you can find out’.

457 See 131n.

458 ‘You would make a sorry couple.’

465 lesing ‘false word’. Orfeo reminds the king of his promise.

471 ‘I wish you joy of her!’

482 For knoweleche ‘for fear of being recognized’.

483 ybilt ful narwe ‘housed very meanly’.

485 To him ‘for himself’.

492 ‘By the fairies ten years ago.’

507 In l. 266 his beard had reached his waist.

508 ‘He’s as wizened as a tree‐trunk.’

512 merci ‘take pity’.

518 ‘For my lord Sir Orfeo’s love.’ See 5.3.2.

522 crouders players on the ‘crowd’, a Celtic stringed instrument.

525 when ‘for the time when’.

527 blifulest ‘most delightful’ (superlative of blitheful).

531 ‘And recognized the harp at once.’

532 so mot þou þrive ‘as you may prosper’; i.e. ‘on your life, tell me …’.

547 ‘That such a hard fate was ordained for him.’

551 hou it geþ ‘the way things are’ (geþ, ‘goes’).

552 ‘There is no remedy for a man’s death’; a proverb (Whiting, D78).

553 King Orfeo resumes the title last used in l. 175.

bi þan ‘by that’; þan is dative of þat, as again in l. 597. See 4.3.6.

565 ‘And had put her up with a beggar.’

568 asay The steward is tested as the fairy king was (l. 452).

571 for love or ay ‘without question’ (ay, ‘fear’).

574 ‘You would have quitted at once.’

575 þo al þo ‘when all those’.

578 The steward knocks a table over in his eagerness.

581 at o criing ‘with one cry’ – the general recognition of Orfeo as king.

592 ‘Because they saw them so safely returned.’

601–2 Compare the ending of Marie de France’s Guigemar: ‘From this tale which you have heard was the lai Guigemar composed, which is played on harp and rote. The melody is sweet to the ear.’

6
The Cloud of Unknowing

The Cloud of Unknowing is a mystical treatise composed in the later fourteenth century. Its unidentified author also wrote other works of a similar kind, including a translation of the Mystical Theology of Pseudo‐Dionysius (ed. Hodgson 1955 and 1982). That Greek treatise was composed about AD 500 and later translated into Latin (see text 12, 114n.); it became the chief authority for the so‐called via negativa or ‘way of negation’ in mystical contemplation. This way required that the mind should be cleared, as far as possible, of all images and categories derived from human experience. In The Cloud the author counsels a beginner (see 104n.) on the difficulties and rewards of following the way. He uses imagery of clouds (21n.) to convey the mental darkness in which the journey must be undertaken. His subject is the most advanced kind of mystical activity, excluding even pious meditations on such matters as the incarnate Christ; yet the author expresses his most taxing thoughts in natural idiomatic English, and shows a sympathetic awareness of the many pitfalls. The whole treatise consists of seventy‐four chapters, of which four are edited here.

The Cloud survives in some ten copies from the fifteenth century, and it continued to be copied in Catholic circles until the seventeenth. The present text is based, following Hodgson, on British Library MS Harley 674 (Har¹). The language of this manuscript belongs to the North‐East Midlands and is probably close to the author’s own. In verbs, the present plural normally ends in ‐en or ‐e; the verb ‘to be’ has either ben or aren. Third person plural pronouns are þei (always), þeire (here only once) and hem (þeim three times).

Editions

Phyllis Hodgson, The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling, EETS 218 (1944, revised edn 1958)

Phyllis Hodgson, The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Treatises (Analecta Cartusiana, Salzburg, 1982)

Phyllis Hodgson, Deonise Hid Divinite, EETS 231 (1955, revised edn 1958)

Studies

Phyllis Hodgson, Introductions to her editions

Alastair Minnis, ‘The Cloud of Unknowing and Walter Hilton’s Scale of Perfection’, in A. S. G. Edwards, ed., Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres (New Brunswick, 1984), pp. 61–81

Ad Putter, ‘Walter Hilton’s Scale of Perfection and The Cloud of Unknowing’, in A. S. G. Edwards, ed., A Companion to Middle English Prose (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 33–52 [with bibliography]

Wolfgang Riehle, The Middle English Mystics (London, 1981)

Þe þrid chapitre. How þe werk of þis book schal be wrou ʒ t, and of þe worþines of it bifore alle oþer werkes.

Lift up þin herte unto God wiþ a meek steryng of love, and mene himself and none of his goodes. And þerto loke þee loþe to þenk on ouʒt bot hymself, so þat nouʒt worche in þi witte ne in þi wille bot ⁵ only himself. And do þat in þee is to forʒete alle þe creatures þat ever God maad and þe werkes of hem, so þat þi þouʒt ne þi desire be not directe ne streche to any of hem, neiþer in general ne in special. Bot lat hem be and take no kepe to hem.

Þis is þe werk of þe soule þat moste plesiþ God. Alle seintes ¹⁰ and aungelles han joie of þis werk and hasten hem to helpe it in al here miʒt. Alle feendes ben wood whan þou þus doste, and proven for to felle it in alle þat þei kun. Alle men levyng in erþe ben wonderfuli holpen of þis werk, þou wost not how. Ʒe, þe soules in Purgatori ben esed of þeire peine by vertewe of þis werk. Þiself arte clensid ¹⁵ and maad vertewos by no werk so mochel. And ʒit it is þe liʒtest werk of alle when a soule is holpen wiþ grace in sensible liste, and sonnest done. Bot elles it is hard and wonderful to þee for to do.

Lette not þerfore, bot travayle þerin tyl þou fele lyst. For at þe first tyme when þou dost it, þou fyndest bot a derknes and as it ²⁰ were a cloude of unknowyng, þou wost never what, savyng þat þou felist in þi wille a nakid entent unto God. Þis derknes and þis cloude is, howsoever þou dost, bitwix þee and þi God, and letteþ þee þat þou maist neiþer see him cleerly by liʒt of understonding in þi reson ne fele him in swetnes of love in ²⁵ þin affeccion. And þerfore schap þee to bide in þis derknes as longe as þou maist, evermore criing after him þat þou lovest; for ʒif ever schalt þou fele him or see him, as it may be here, it behoveþ alweis be in þis cloude and in þis derknes. And ʒif þou wilte besily travayle as I bid þee, I triste in his mercy þat þou schalt come þerto. ³⁰

Þe feerþe chapitre. Of þe schortnes of þis werk, and how it may not be comen to by þe corioustee of witte ne by ymaginacion.

But forþi þat þou schuldest not erre in þis worching, and wene þat it be oþerwise þen it is, I schal telle þee a lityl more þerof, as me þinkeþ. þis werk askeþ no longe tyme er it be ones treulich done, as ³⁵ sum men wenen, for it is þe schortest werke of alle þat man may ymagyn. It is neiþer lenger ne schorter þen is an athomus; þe whiche athomus, by þe diffinicion of trewe philisophres in þe sciens of astronomye, is þe leest partie of tyme, and it is so litil þat for þe littilnes of it it is undepartable and neiʒhonde incomprehensible ⁴⁰. Þis is þat tyme of þe whiche it is wretyn: Alle tyme þat is ʒoven to þee, it schal be askid of þee how þou haste dispendid it.

And skilful þing it is þat þou ʒeve acompte of it; for it is neiþer lenger ne schorter bot even acording to one only steryng þat is wiþinne þe principal worching miʒt of þi soule þe whiche is ⁴⁵ þi wille. For even so many willinges or desiringes, and no mo ne no fewer, may be and aren in one oure in þi wille as aren athomus in one oure. And ʒif þou were reformid bi grace to þe first state of mans soule as it was bifore sinne, þan þou schuldest evermore bi help of þat grace be lorde of þat stering or of þoo sterynges, so þat ⁵⁰ none ʒede forby, bot alle þei schulde streche into þe soverein desirable and into þe heiʒest wilnable þing, þe whiche is God.

For he is even mete to oure soule by mesuring of his godheed, and oure soule even mete unto him bi worþines of oure creacion to his ymage and to his licnes. And he by him one wiþouten moo, and ⁵⁵ none bot he, is sufficient at þe fulle and mochel more to fulfille þe wille and þe desire of oure soule; and oure soule bi vertewe of þis reformyng grace is mad sufficient at þe fulle to comprehende al him by love, þe whiche is incomprehensible to alle create knowable miʒt, as is aungel and mans soule – I mene by þeire knowyng and ⁶⁰ not by þeire lovyng, and þerfore I clepe hem in þis caas ‘knowable’ miʒtes. Bot siþ alle resonable creatures, aungel and man, haþ in hem, ilchone by hymself, o principal worching miʒt þe whiche is clepid a knowable miʒt and anoþer principal worching miʒt þe whiche is clepid a lovyng miʒt; of þe whiche two miʒtes, to þe first ⁶⁵, þe whiche is a knowyng miʒt, God þat is maker of hem is evermore incomprehensible, and to þe secound, þe whiche is þe lovyng myʒt, in ilchone seerly he is al comprehensible at þe fulle – in so mochel þat o loving soule only in itself by vertewe of love schuld comprehende in it hym þat is sufficient at þe fulle, and ⁷⁰

mochel more wiþoute comparison, to fille alle þe soules and aungelles þat ever may be. And þis is þe eendles merveilous miracle of love, þe whiche schal never take eende; for ever schal he do it, and never schal he seese for to do it. See who bi grace see may, for þe felyng of þis is eendles blisse and þe contrary is eendles pyne. ⁷⁵

And þerfore whoso were refourmyd by grace þus to continow in keping of þe sterynges of hys wille schuld never be in þis liif – as he may not be wiþouten þees sterynges in kynde – wiþouten som taast of þe eendles swetnes, and in þe blisse of heven withouten þe fulle food. And þerfore have no wonder þof I stere þee to þis werk. For ⁸⁰ þis is þe werk, as þou schalt here after, in þe whiche man schuld have contynowed ʒif he never had synned, and to þe whiche worching man was maad, and alle þing for man to help him and forþer him þerto, and by þe whiche worching a man schal be reparailed aʒein. And for þe defaylyng in þis worching a man ⁸⁵ falleþ depper and depper in synne, and ferþer and ferþer fro God; and by kepyng and contynowel worching in þis werk only, wiþouten mo, a man evermore riseþ hier and hier fro synne, and nerer and nerer unto God.

And þerfore take good keep into tyme, how þat þou ⁹⁰ dispendist it; for noþing is more precious þan tyme. In oo litel tyme, as litel as it is, may heven be wonne and lost. A token it is þat time is precious: for God, þat is ʒever of tyme, ʒeveþ never two tymes togeder, bot ich one after oþer; and þis he doþ for he wil not reverse þe ordre or þe ordinel cours in þe cause of his ⁹⁵ creacion. For tyme is maad for man, and not man for tyme. And þerfore God, þat is þe rewler of kynde, wil not in þe ʒevyng of tyme go before þe steryng of kynde in a mans soule, þe whiche is even acordyng to o tyme only; so þat man schal have none excusacion aʒens God in þe dome and at þe ʒevyng of acompte of dispendyng of ¹⁰⁰ tyme, seiing: ‘þou ʒevest two tymes at ones, and I have bot o steryng at ones.’

Bot soroufuly þou seist now: ‘How schal I do? And siþ þis is soþ þat þou seist, how schal I ʒeve acompte of iche tyme seerly – I þat into þis day, now of foure and twenty ʒere age, never toke hede of tyme? Ʒif I wolde now amende it, þou wost wel, bi verrey reson ¹⁰⁵ of þi wordes wretyn before, it may not be after þe cours of kynde ne of comoun grace þat I schuld mowe kepe or elles make aseeþ to any mo tymes þan to þoo þat ben for to come. Ʒe, and moreover wel I wote bi verrey proef þat of þoo þat ben to come I schal on no wise, for habundaunce of freelté and slownes of sperite, mowe ¹¹⁰ kepe one of an hondred; so þat I am verrely conclude in þeese resons. Help me now, for þe love of Ihesu!’

Riʒt wel hast þou seide ‘for þe love of Ihesu’; for in þe love of Ihesu þere schal be þin help. Love is soche a miʒt þat it makiþ alle þing comoun: love þerfore Ihesu, and alle þing þat he haþ it is þin. ¹¹⁵ He by his godheed is maker and ʒever of tyme; he bi his manheed is þe verrey keper of tyme; and he bi his godheed and his manheed togeders is þe trewist domesman and þe asker of acompte of dispending of tyme. Knyt þee þerfore bi him by love and by beleve, and þan by vertewe of þat knot þou schalt be comoun ¹²⁰ parcener wiþ him and wiþ alle þat by love so ben knittyd unto him: þat is to sey, wiþ oure lady Seinte Mary þat ful was of alle grace in kepyng of tyme, wiþ alle þe aungelles of heven þat never may lese tyme, and with alle þe seintes in heven and in erþe þat by þe grace of Ihesu kepen tyme ful justly in vertewe of love. Loo! here liþ ¹²⁵ counforte; construe þou cleerly and pike þee sum profite. Bot of oo þing I warne þee amonges alle oþer. I cannot see who may trewliche chalenge comunité þus wiþ Ihesu and his just moder, his hiʒe aungelles, and also wiþ his seyntes, bot ʒif it be soche one þat doþ þat in hym is, wiþ helping of grace, in kepyng of tyme; so þat he be ¹³⁰ seen to be a profiter on his partye, so litil as is, unto þe comunité, as ich one of hem doþ on his.

And þerfore take kepe to þis werk and to þe merveylous maner of it wiþinne in þi soule. For ʒif it be trewlich conceyved, it is bot a sodeyn steryng, and as it were unavisid, speedly springing unto ¹³⁵ God as sparcle fro þe cole. And it is merveylous to noumbre þe sterynges þat may be in one oure wrouʒt in a soule þat is disposid to þis werk; and ʒit in o steryng of alle þeese he may have sodenly and parfitely forʒeten alle create þing. Bot fast after iche steryng, for corupcion of þe flesche, it falleþ doune aʒein to som þouʒt or to ¹⁴⁰ some done or undone dede. Bot what þerof? For fast after it riseþ aʒen as sodenly as it did bifore.

And here mowe men schortly conceyve þe maner of þis worching, and cleerly knowe þat it is fer fro any fantasie or any fals ymaginacion or queynte opinion, þe whiche ben brouʒt in, not by ¹⁴⁵ soche a devoute and a meek blynde stering of love, bot by a proude, coryous and an ymaginatiif witte. Soche a proude, corious witte behoveþ algates be born doun and stifly troden under fote, ʒif þis werke schal trewly be conceyvid in pureté of spirite. For whoso heriþ þis werke ouþer be red or spoken, and weneþ þat it may ¹⁵⁰ or schuld be comen to by travayle in þeire wittes – and þerfore þei sitte and sechin in þeire wittes how þat it may be, and in þis coriousté þei travayle þeire ymaginacion paraventure aʒens cours of kynde, and þei feyne a maner of worching þe whiche is neiþer bodily ne goostly – trewly þis man, whatsoever he be, is perilously ¹⁵⁵ disseyvid; in so mochel þat, bot ʒif God of his grete goodnes schewe his mercyful myracle and make hym sone to leve werk and meek hym to counsel of provid worchers, he schal falle ouþer into frenesies or elles into oþer grete mischeves of goostly sinnes and devels disseites, þorow þe whiche he may liʒtly be lorne, ¹⁶⁰ boþe liif and soule wiþouten any eende. And þerfore for Goddes love beware in þis werk, and travayle not in þi wittes ne in þin ymaginacion on no wise. For I telle þee trewly, it may not be comen to by travaile in þeim; and þerfore leve þeim and worche not wiþ þeim.

And wene not, for I clepe it a derknes or a cloude, þat ¹⁶⁵ it be any cloude congelid of þe humours þat fleen in þe ayre, ne ʒit any derknes soche as is in þin house on niʒtes when þi candel is oute. For soche a derknes and soche a cloude maist þou ymagin wiþ coriousté of witte, for to bere before þin iʒen in þe liʒtest day of somer; and also aʒenswarde in þe derkist niʒt of wynter þou mayst ¹⁷⁰ ymagin a clere schinyng liʒt. Lat be soche falsheed; I mene not þus. For when I sey derknes, I mene a lackyng of knowyng; as alle þat þing þat þou knowest not or elles þat þou hast forʒetyn, it is derk to þee, for þou seest it not wiþ þi goostly iʒe. And for þis skile it is not clepid a cloude of þe eire, bot a cloude of unknowyng þat is ¹⁷⁵ bitwix þee and þi God.

Þe fifþe chapitre. þat in þe tyme of þis werk alle þe cretures þat ever have ben, ben now, or ever schal be, and alle þe werkes of þoo same creatures, scholen be hid under þe clowde of forʒetyng.

And ʒif ever þou schalt come to þis cloude and wone and worche ¹⁸⁰ þerin as I bid þee, þee byhoveþ, as þis cloude of unknowyng is aboven þee bitwix þee and þi God, riʒt so put a cloude of forʒetyng bineþ þee bitwix þee and alle þe cretures þat ever ben maad. Þee þinkeþ paraventure þat þou arte ful fer fro God forþi þat þis cloude of unknowing is bitwix þee and þi God; bot sekirly, and it be wel ¹⁸⁵ conseyved, þou arte wel ferþer fro hym when þou hast no cloude of forʒetyng bitwix þee and alle þe creatures þat ever ben maad. As ofte as I sey ‘alle þe creatures þat ever ben maad’, as ofte I mene not only þe self creatures bot also alle þe werkes and þe condicions of þe same creatures. I outetake not o creature, wheþer þei ben ¹⁹⁰ bodily creatures or goostly, ne ʒit any condicion or werk of any creature, wheþer þei be good or ivel; bot schortly to sey, alle schuld be hid under þe cloude of forʒetyng in þis caas.

For þof al it be ful profitable sumtyme to þink of certeyne condicions and dedes of sum certein special creatures, neverþeles ¹⁹⁵ ʒit in þis werke it profiteþ lityl or nouʒt. Forwhy mynde or þinkyng of any creature þat ever God maad, or of any of þeire dedes ouþer, it is a maner of goostly liʒt, for þe iʒe of þi soule is openid on it and even ficchid þerapon, as þe iʒe of a schoter is apon þe prik þat he schoteþ to. And o þing I telle þee, þat alle þing þat þou þinkest ²⁰⁰ apon it is aboven þee for þe tyme and bitwix þee and þi God; and in so muchel þou arte þe ferþer fro God þat ouʒt is in þi mynde bot only God. Ʒe, and ʒif it be cortesye and semely to sey, in þis werk it profiteþ litil or nouʒt to þink of þe kyndenes or þe worþines of God, ne on oure Lady, ne on þe seintes or aungelles in heven, ne ²⁰⁵ ʒit on þe joies in heven – þat is to say, wiþ a special beholding to hem, as þou woldest bi þat beholding fede and encrees þi purpos. I trowe þat on no wise it schuld be so in þis caas and in þis werk. For þof al it be good to þink apon þe kindenes of God and to love hym and preise him for hem, ʒit it is fer betyr to þink apon þe nakid ²¹⁰ beyng of him and to love him and preise him for himself.

Þe six chapitre. A schort conceyte of þe werk of þis book, tretid by questyon.

But now þou askest me and seiest: ‘How schal I þink on himself, and what is hee?’ And to þis I cannot answere þee bot þus: ‘I wote never.’ For þou hast brouʒt me wiþ þi question into þat same ²¹⁵ derknes and into þat same cloude of unknowyng þat I wolde þou were in þiself. For of alle oþer creatures and þeire werkes – ʒe, and of þe werkes of God self – may a man þorou grace have fulheed of knowing and wel to kon þinke on hem; bot of God himself can no man þinke. And þerfore I wole leve al þat þing þat I can þink ²²⁰, and chese to my love þat þing þat I cannot þink. Forwhi he may wel be loved, bot not þouʒt. By love may he be getyn and holden, bot bi þouʒt neiþer. And þerfore, þof al it be good sumtyme to þink of þe kyndnes and þe worþines of God in special, and þof al it be a liʒt and a party of contemplacion, neverþeles ʒit in þis werk it schal be ²²⁵ casten down and keverid wiþ a cloude of forʒetyng. And þou schalt step aboven it stalworþly bot listely, wiþ a devoute and a plesing stering of love, and fonde for to peerse þat derknes aboven þee, and smyte apon þat þicke cloude of unknowyng wiþ a scharp darte of longing love, and go not þens for þing þat befalleþ. ²³⁰

Notes

1–2 The heading for this and succeeding chapters is carried over here from the ‘table of þe chapitres’, which, in Harl and some other manuscripts, follows the Prologue and precedes Chapter 1. At the head of each chapter, Harl has only ‘Here biginneþ þe þrid chapitre’ etc.

4 loke þee loþe ‘make sure that you find it hateful’. ‘That’ is omitted after loke: MED loken v. (2) 9 (b). Loþe is an impersonal use of ‘loathe’ (third person singular present subjunctive), with þee as its indirect object: literally, ‘it may be hateful to you’.

5 The terms witte (‘intellect’) and wille denote two of the three main faculties or miʒtes (cf. 45, 62–5 below) which the author distinguishes in angels and human beings (the third is memory). Compare the following distinctions between þouʒt and desire (7), reson and affeccion (25), knowyng and lovyng (60–1).

6 do þat in þee is ‘do whatever in you lies’. ‘Facere quod in se est’ (‘to do whatever in one lies’) was a common theologians’ phrase expressing the limit of human effort, beyond which only God’s grace could help towards salvation. See 129–30 below.

8 be not directe ne streche ‘may not be turned away nor reach out’. Directe is a past participle, streche a third person singular present subjunctive.

12–13 proven for to felle it ‘endeavour to frustrate it’.

17 sensible liste ‘felt longing’. That pleasurable feeling, when it comes as a special gift of grace, makes the work of the contemplative easy.

21 a cloude of unknowyng The author imagines two clouds: a cloud of unknowing above the contemplative, in which God is hidden from him, and a cloud of forgetting beneath, which should cut him off from all thoughts of created things (cf. 182–3). Pseudo‐Dionysius speaks of a ‘caligo ignorantiae’ (‘darkness of unknowing’); but the image of a cloud derives from Exodus, where Moses (interpreted as a type of the contemplative) communes with God at the top of Mount Sinai in a ‘very thick cloud’: Exodus 19.16 and 24.15–18.

22 a nakid entent ‘a pure act of will’. This initial act of will involves no knowledge of God, nor even at this first stage any felt longing for him.

23–4 letteþ þee ‘stands in your way’.

28 as it may be here ‘so far as that is possible here (on earth)’.

32 corioustee of witte ‘speculative mental activity’.

ymaginacion Later, in Chapter 65, the author defines ‘imagination’ as a mental faculty ‘þorow þe whiche we portray alle ymages of absent and present þinges’.

37 athomus the smallest measurable unit of time, as the author explains. It is undepartable or ‘indivisible’ (40) – the meaning of the word ‘atom’ in Greek. Medieval astronomers calculated it at 15/94 of a second: see OED atom 7.

41–2 Alle tyme … dispendid it The author recalls one of the Meditations of St Anselm: ‘What reply will you make on that day (of Judgement) when an account is required of you for all the time you have been granted, even to the twinkling of an eye (usque ad ictum oculi )? How have you spent it?’ (PL 158.723). Ictus oculi, the time taken to blink, is the Latin equivalent of the Greek atomos.

43 skilful ‘reasonable’. Since the impulses or ‘stirrings’ of the will, which are the proper objects of God’s judgements, occupy no more than a single ‘atom’ of time, it is reasonable that we should be held to account for every such moment.

44 even acording to ‘exactly commensurate with’, that is, ‘exactly the length of time taken by’.

45 principal worching miʒt Chapter 63 explains that the two ‘principal active faculties’ are reason and the will. Cf. 62–5 below.

51 none ʒede forby ‘no (impulses) passed by’, that is, none undirected towards God.

53 even mete to ‘exactly commensurate with’. God adapts or ‘measures’ himself to our limited capacities – perhaps a reference to the Incarnation.

55 by him one wiþouten moo ‘in himself alone without any other’.

62 siþ ‘since, because’. The series of subordinate clauses which this conjunction introduces has not given place to a main clause by the time the sentence (as punctuated here) ends, at l. 72. Hodgson (1982) adopts seþ from other manuscripts, taking it as the imperative plural of the verb ‘see’. This solves the syntactic problem, at the cost of some awkwardness (‘Only see [that] all reasonable creatures …’); but the same manuscripts have the form seþ at l. 102 below, where only the conjunction can be meant.

71 mochel more wiþoute comparison ‘incomparably more over and above that’.

73 ever schal he do it God, that is, will always make himself comprehensible by the power of love in men’s wills.

74 See who bi grace see may ‘let him see who has grace to see’.

77 keping of ‘watching over’, ‘controlling’.

77–8 as he may not … in kynde ‘seeing that he cannot, in the nature of things, be without such impulses’.

79–80 fulle food ‘complete satisfaction’ – as against ‘tastes’ on earth.

85 reparailed ‘restored to his original condition’, that is, as created by God before the Fall.

95 þe cause of his creacion The prime ‘purpose of God’s creation’ was to create man. So its ‘order’ requires that all created things, including time, should serve man and not vice versa.

97–8 go before þe steryng of kynde ‘outrun (fail to keep pace with) natural impulse’.

104 foure and twenty ʒere age The Cloud is addressed in the first place to a single ‘spiritual friend in God’, who is setting out at the age of twenty‐four to live the life of contemplation.

107–8 þat I schuld … mo tymes ‘that I should be able to control or else make amends for any more moments of time’.

109 verrey proef ‘experience itself ’, contrasted with verrey reson (105). The author’s reasoning has proved that, since moments come one after another, the past is irrevocably past; but the disciple’s own experience is enough to make him pessimistic about the future.

111 I am verrely conclude in þeese resons ‘I am utterly confounded by these considerations’.

119 Knyt þee þerfore bi him ‘so bind yourself to his side’.

128 chalenge comunité ‘lay claim to common possession’.

129–30 doþ þat in hym is See 6n. above.

131 a profiter … as is ‘making his own contribution, however little it may be’.

141 Bot what þerof? ‘but what does that matter?’

146–7 a proude, coryous and an ymaginatiif witte ‘an arrogant, ingenious and speculative mind’.

149–50 For whoso … spoken ‘for whoever hears readings or conversation concerning this activity’.

154–5 neiþer bodily ne goostly The author insists on the distinct integrity of both the spiritual and the physical realms. Laborious speculation may lead into a never‐never land of fancy, where the two realms are confused together ‘against the natural order of things’.

166 humours ‘vapours’. In the encyclopaedia of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, clouds are described as being made ‘of many vapoures gadred into one body in þe myddel regioun of þe eyr, iþickened togedres by cooldnesse of place’ (trans. Trevisa, Properties, p. 577, ll. 29–31).

181 þee byhoveþ ‘it will be necessary for you’, governing put (182). The present tense form has a future sense: see 5.6.1.

183–4 þee þinkeþ ‘it will seem to you’.

196 mynde ‘recollection’.

198 goostly liʒt The spiritual ‘cloud of forgetting’ is threatened by such a ‘spiritual light’.

199 prik ‘bull’s eye’, the spot at the centre of the target.

202 þat follows from in so muchel: ‘just so much … to the extent that’.

207 as ‘as if’. The author does not deny the value of pious meditations on God’s goodness, the Virgin, saints etc.; but these can only hinder that higher work of contemplation with which he is here concerned.

219 wel to kon þinke on hem ‘be able to think clearly about them’.

223 neiþer that is, neither be got nor held.

225 party ‘part’. A later chapter, Chapter 8, assigns such ‘goodly goostly meditacions’ to the ‘lower party of contemplative liif ’.

227 stalworþly bot listely ‘vigorously but also craftily’. Listely (MED listeli adv.) has its root in OE list, ‘craft, cunning’. Elsewhere, in Chapters 46 and following, the author recommends a variety of mental tricks and devices that will further the work of contemplation. He cites the ME proverb, ‘Better is list than lither (crude) strength’: Whiting L381. Cf. 2/172–3.

7
William Langland: Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman is the only known writing by William Langland, an elder contemporary (born probably in the 1330s) of Geoffrey Chaucer. It was by far the most widely read of Middle English alliterative poems, to judge by the survival of fifty‐two manuscripts. These copies represent the poem in at least three distinct forms: the ‘A Text’ probably composed about 1370, the ‘B Text’ at the end of the 1370s, and the ‘C Text’ by the late 1380s. Langland evidently worked on the poem, revising and adding to it, over a long period. The A Text is unfinished, breaking off after a Prologue and eleven ‘passus’ (the sections into which Piers is divided). The B Text revises and continues the poem, completing it in a Prologue and twenty passus. The C Text, from which both our extracts come, is a revision of B left uncompleted, probably at the poet’s death about 1390.

Like the Gawain‐poet’s Pearl and Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls, Piers Plowman is a dream poem; but unlike them it consists of a series of dreams. These range over many topics, but their chief concerns are, successively: the moral reform of contemporary society (C Passus I–IX); the quest by the dreamer, Long Will, for understanding of ‘Do‐Well’, the good life upon which salvation may depend (C X–XVII); and the history of mankind’s salvation, in which the triumph of Christ is followed by the decline of the Church into its present state of weakness (C XVIII–XXII). The first of these phases, from which the following extracts are taken, consists of two dreams: that of Holy Church and her adversary Lady Meed (C I–IV), and that of the Pilgrimage to Truth (C V–IX). The first extract (7a, C V 1–104) is a waking interlude between these dreams. Long Will is questioned by Reason and Conscience about his own way of life: what contribution does he himself make to the life of the Christian community? This episode (which evidently refers to Langland’s own circumstances) looks forward to the ensuing dream, from which the second extract (7b, C VIII) comes. Here, the people’s pilgrimage to Truth (that is, God) takes the form of work on a half acre of land presided over by Piers the Plowman, the hero after whom Langland named his poem. What Piers demands of the people is what Reason demanded of Will: a contribution to the life of society, as a necessary condition of salvation. In Langland’s poem, secular and religious issues are inseparable, because for him Society is, ideally, one and the same as the Church.

Although William Langland lived part of his life in London (see 7a/1–5 here), his origins lay in the West of England. He makes three, otherwise unmotivated, references to the Malvern Hills (C Prologue 6, V 110, IX 297), and he was probably brought up thereabouts, though an early note in one manuscript says that he was the son of an Oxfordshire gentleman, Stacy de Rokayle. He may have received his education as a ‘clerk’ at the Great Malvern Priory. The language of the particular C manuscript upon which the present texts are based, Huntington Library MS HM 143, has been identified as belonging to the Malvern area, in South‐West Worcestershire (Samuels, in Alford’s Companion). It may therefore be supposed to represent Langland’s own English quite closely. As is our usual practice, we keep close to the readings of this base manuscript. Russell and Kane now present a fully critical edition.

The following linguistic features are especially distinctive: the spelling oe for /o:/ and /ɔ:/, as in boek (7a/38) and hoem (7b/108); the forms ʒut for ‘yet’ (7a/94 etc.) and ar for ‘ere, before’ (7b/94, 108 etc.); and the form a for unstressed ‘he’ (7a/96, 7b/19 etc.). In verbs, the present plural ending varies between ‐en and ‐eth (e.g. 7b/27, 29). The Old English infinitive ending of weak verbs, ‐ian, is represented by ‐y, ‐ye(n), or ‐ie(n), as in wedy (7b/66), lovye (7b/218), gladyen (7b/126). The present plural of the verb ‘to be’ takes three forms: aren (7b/45), ben or beeþ (7a/59, 7b/52), and occasionally is (7b/87). The forms of the third person plural pronouns are regularly þey, her(e) and hem (e.g. 7b/225–6).

Editions

W. W. Skeat, The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts, 2 vols (London, 1886)

George Kane, Piers Plowman: The A Version (London, 1960)

George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson, Piers Plowman: The B Version (London, 1975)

George Russell and George Kane, Piers Plowman: The C Version (London, 1997)

J. A. W. Bennett, Piers Plowman: The Prologue and Passus I–VII of the B Text (Oxford, 1972)

A. V. C. Schmidt, The Vision of Piers Plowman: A Critical Edition of the B‐Text, new edn (London, 1995)

A. V. C. Schmidt, William Langland, Piers Plowman: A Parallel‐Text Edition of the A, B, C and Z Versions, 2nd edn (Kalamazoo, MI, 2011)

Derek Pearsall, Piers Plowman: An Edition of the C‐Text, new edn (Exeter, 2008)

Facsimiles

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, http://piers.chass.ncsu.edu/

Studies

David Aers, Community, Gender, and Individual Identity: English Writing 1360–1430 (London, 1988), pp. 20–72

John A. Alford, ed., A Companion to Piers Plowman (Berkeley, 1988)

Robert J. Blanch, ed., Style and Symbolism in Piers Plowman (Knoxville, 1969)

J. A. Burrow, Langland’s Fictions (Oxford, 1993)

Andrew Cole and Andrew Galloway, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Piers Plowman (Cambridge, 2014)

E. Talbot Donaldson, Piers Plowman: The C‐Text and its Poet (New Haven, 1949; rpt. Hamden, 1966)

Robert W. Frank, Piers Plowman and the Scheme of Salvation (New Haven, 1957; rpt. Hamden, 1969)

Ralph Hanna, William Langland, Authors of the Middle Ages 3 (Aldershot, 1993)

Ralph Hanna, The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman 2 (Philadelphia, PA, 2017)

George Kane, Piers Plowman: The Evidence for Authorship (London, 1965)

Elizabeth D. Kirk, The Dream Thought of Piers Plowman (New Haven, 1972)

Derek Pearsall, An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Langland (Ann Arbor, 1990)

James Simpson, Piers Plowman: An Introduction to the B‐Text, 2nd edn (Liverpool, 2007)

The Yearbook of Langland Studies, Vol. 1 (1987) – [continuing]

(7a)

Thus y awakede, woet God, whan y wonede in Cornehull,

Kytte and y in a cote, yclothed as a lollare

And lytel ylet by, leveth me for sothe,

Amonges lollares of Londone and lewede ermytes,

For y made of tho men as resoun me tauhte. ⁵

For as y cam by Consience with Resoun y mette,

In an hot hervest whenne y hadde myn hele

And lymes to labory with, and lovede wel fare

And no dede to do but to drynke and to slepe.

In hele and in inwitt oen me apposede; ¹⁰

Romynge in remembraunce, thus Resoun me aratede:

‘Can thow serven,’ he sayde, ‘or syngen in a churche,

Or koke for my cokeres or to þe cart piche,

Mowen or mywen or make bond to sheves,

Repe or been a rype‐reve and aryse erly, ¹⁵

Or have an horn and be hayward and lygge þeroute nyhtes

And kepe my corn in my croft fro pykares and theves,

Or shap shon or cloth, or shep and kyne kepe,

Heggen or harwen, or swyn or gees dryve,

Or eny other kynes craft þat to þe comune nedeth, ²⁰

That þou betere therby þat byleve the fynden?’

 ‘Sertes,’ y sayde, ‘and so me God helpe,

Y am to wayke to worche with sykel or with sythe,

And to long, lef me, lowe to stoupe,

To wurche as a werkeman eny while to duyren.’ ²⁵

 ‘Thenne hastow londes to lyve by,’ quod Resoun,

  ‘or lynage ryche

That fynde the thy fode? For an ydel man þow semest,

A spendour þat spene mot or a spille‐tyme,

Or beggest thy bylyve aboute at men hacches,

Or faytest uppon Frydayes or feste‐dayes in churches, ³⁰

The whiche is lollarne lyf, þat lytel is preysed

There ryhtfulnesse rewardeth ryht as men deserveth –

 Reddet unicuique iuxta opera sua –

Or thow art broke, so may be, in body or in membre

Or ymaymed thorw som myshap, whereby thow myhte be excused?’

 ‘When y ʒong was, many ʒer hennes, ³⁵

My fader and my frendes foende me to scole,

Tyl y wyste witterly what holy writ menede

And what is beste for the body, as the boek telleth,

And sykerost for þe soule, by so y wol contenue;

And foend y nere, in fayth, seth my frendes deyede, ⁴⁰

Lyf þat me lykede but in this longe clothes.

And yf y be labour sholde lyven and lyflode deserven,

That laboure þat y lerned beste þerwith lyven y sholde:

 In eadem vocacione qua vocati estis sitis.

And so y leve in London and opelond bothe;

The lomes þat y labore with and lyflode deserve ⁴⁵

Is pater‐noster and my prymer, placebo and dirige,

And my sauter som tyme, and my sevene phalmes.

This y segge for here soules of suche as me helpeth,

And tho þat fynden me my fode fouchen saf, y trowe,

To be welcome when y come, oþerwhile in a monthe; ⁵⁰

Now with hym, now with here, on this wyse y begge

Withoute bagge or botel but my wombe one.

And also moreover me thynketh, syre Resoun,

Me sholde constrayne no clerc to no knaves werkes;

For by þe lawe of Levytici þat oure lord ordeynede ⁵⁵

Clerkes ycrouned, of kynde understondynge,

Sholde nother swynke ne swete ne swerien at enquestes

Ne fyhte in no faumewarde ne his foe greve:

 Non reddas malum pro malo.

For hit ben eyres of hevene, alle þat ben ycrouned,

And in quoer and in kyrkes Cristes mynistres: ⁶⁰

 Dominus pars hereditatis mee, etc. Et alibi: Clemencia non constringit.

Hit bycometh for clerkes Crist for to serve,

And knaves uncrounede to carte and to worche.

For sholde no clerke be crouned but yf he come were

Of frankeleynes and fre men and of folke ywedded.

Bondemen and bastardus and beggares children, ⁶⁵

Thyse bylongeth to labory, and lordes kyn to serve

God and good men, as here degré asketh,

Somme to synge masses, or sitten and wryten,

Redon and resceyven þat resoun ouhte to spene.

Ac sythe bondemen barnes haen be mad bisshopes, ⁷⁰

And barnes bastardus haen be erchedekenes,

And soutares and here sones for sulver han be knyhtes,

And lordes sones here laboreres and leyde here rentes to wedde,

For the ryhte of this reume ryden aʒeyn oure enemyes

In confort of the comune and the kynges worschipe, ⁷⁵

And monkes and moniales, þat mendenantes sholde fynde,

Imade here kyn knyhtes and knyhtes fees ypurchased,

Popes and patrones pore gentel blood refused

And taken Symondes sones seyntwarie to kepe,

Lyf‐holynesse and love hath be longe hennes, ⁸⁰

And wol, til hit be wered out or oþerwyse ychaunged.

Forthy rebuke me ryhte nauhte, Resoun, y yow praye,

For in my consience y knowe what Crist wolde y wrouhte:

Preyeres of a parfit man and penaunce discret

Is the levest labour þat oure lord pleseth. ⁸⁵

Non de solo’, y sayde, ‘for sothe vivit homo,

Nec in pane et in pabulo; the pater‐noster wittenesseth,

Fiat voluntas dei þat fynt us alle thynges.’

 Quod Consience, ‘By Crist, y can nat se this lyeth;

Ac it semeth no sad parfitnesse in citees to bygge, ⁹⁰

But he be obediencer to prior or to mynistre.’

 ‘That is soth,’ y saide, ‘and so y beknowe

That y have ytynt tyme and tyme myspened;

Ac ʒut I hope, as he þat ofte hath ychaffared

And ay loste an loste, and at þe laste hym happed ⁹⁵

A boute suche a bargayn he was þe bet evere

And sette al his los at a leef at the laste ende,

Suche a wynnyng hym warth thorw wordes of grace –

 Simile est regnum celorum thesauro abscondito in agro;

  Mulier que invenit dragmam –

So hope y to have of hym þat is almyghty

A gobet of his grace, and bigynne a tyme ¹⁰⁰

That alle tymes of my tyme to profit shal turne.’

‘Y rede the,’ quod Resoun tho, ‘rape the to bigynne

The lyif þat is louable and leele to thy soule.’

‘Ye, and contynue,’ quod Consience; and to þe kyrke y wente.

(7b)

Quod Perkyn þe plouhman, ‘Be seynt Petur of Rome,

Ich have an half aker to erye by þe heye waye.

Haved ich y‐ered þis half aker and ysowed hit aftur,

Y wolde wende with ʒow and þe way teche.’

 ‘That were a long lettyng,’ quod a lady in a slayre; ⁵

‘What sholde we wommen worche þe whiles?’

 ‘Y preye ʒow, for ʒoure profit,’ quod Peres to þe ladyes,

‘That somme sowe þe sak for shedynge of the whete;

And ʒe worthily wymmen with ʒoure longe fyngres,

That ʒe on selk and on sendel to sowe whan tyme is ¹⁰

Chesibles for chapeleynes churches to honoure.

Wyves and wyddewes, wolle an flex spynneth.

Consience conseyleth ʒow cloth for to make

For profit of the pore and plesaunce of ʒowsulven;

For y shal lene hem lyflode, but þe lond faylle, ¹⁵

As longe as y leve, for the Lordes love of hevene;

And alle manere men þat by þe molde is susteyned

Helpeth hym worche wyʒtly þat wynneth ʒoure fode.’

 ‘By Crist,’ quod a knyhte tho, ‘a kenneth us þe beste,

Ac on þe teme treuely ytauhte was y nevere. ²⁰

Y wolde y couthe,’ quod the knyhte, ‘by Crist and his moder;

Y wolde assaie som tyme, for solace as hit were.’

 ‘Sikerliche, sire knyhte,’ sayde Peris thenne,

‘Y shal swynke and swete and sowe for us bothe

And labory for tho thow lovest al my lyf‐tyme, ²⁵

In covenant þat thow kepe holy kerke and mysulve

Fro wastores and fro wikked men þat þis world struyen,

And go hunte hardelyche to hares and to foxes,

To bores and to bokkes þat breketh adoun myn hegges,

And afayte thy faucones to culle þe wylde foules, ³⁰

For þey cometh to my croft my corn to diffoule.’

 Courteisliche the knyhte thenne comesed thise wordes:

‘By my power, Peres, y plyhte the my treuthe

To defende þe in fayth, fyhte thow y sholde.’

 ‘And ʒut a poynt,’ quod Peres, ‘y preye ʒow of more. ³⁵

Loke ʒe tene no tenaunt but treuthe wol assente,

And when ʒe mersyen eny man late Mercy be taxour

And Mekenesse thy mayster, maugré Mede chekes.

And thogh pore men profre ʒow presentes and ʒyftes,

Nym hit nat an auntur thow mowe hit nauht deserve, ⁴⁰

For thow shalt ʒelden hit, so may be, or sumdel abuggen hit.

Misbede nat thy bondeman, the bette may the spede;

Thogh he be here thyn underlynge, in hevene paraunter

He worth rather reseyved and reverentloker sitte:

 Amice, ascende superius.

At churche in the charnel cherles aren evele to knowe, ⁴⁵

Or a knyhte or a knave, or a quene fram a queene.

Hit bicometh to the, knyhte, to be corteys and hende,

Treuwe of thy tonge, and tales loth to here

Bute they be of bounté, of batayles or of treuthe.

Hoold nat with non harlotes ne here nat here tales, ⁵⁰

Ac nameliche at þe mete suche men eschewe,

For hit beeþ þe develes dysors to drawe men to synne;

Ne countreplede nat Consience ne holy kyrke ryhtes.’

 ‘Y assente, by seynt Gyle,’ sayde the knyht thenne,

‘For to worche by thy wit, and my wyf bothe.’ ⁵⁵

 ‘And y shal parayle me,’ quod Perkyn, ‘in pilgrimes wyse

And wende with alle tho þat wolden lyve in treuthe.’

And caste on hym his clothes of alle kyn craftes,

His cokeres and his coffes, as Kynde Wit hym tauhte,

And heng his hopur on his hales in stede of a scryppe. ⁶⁰

A buschel of breedcorn brouht was þerynne,

‘For y wol sowen hit mysulf, and sethe wol y wende

To pilgrimages, as palmeres doen, pardon to wynne.

My plouh‐pote shal be my pykstaff and pyche ato þe rotes

And helpe my coltur to kerve and clanse þe forwes. ⁶⁵

And alle þat helpen me erye or elles to wedy

Shal have leve by oure Lord to go and glene aftur me

And maken hym merye þermyde, maugrey ho bigruchen hit.

And alle kyne crafty men þat conne lyve in treuthe

Y shal fynde hem fode þat fayfulleche libbeth, ⁷⁰

Save Jacke þe jogelour and Jonet of þe stuyves

And Danyel þe dees‐playere and Denote þe baude

And Frere Faytour and folk of þat ordre,

That lollares and loseles lele men holdeth,

And Robyn þe rybauder for his rousty wordes. ⁷⁵

Treuthe telde me ones, and bad me telle hit forthere:

Deleantur de libro vivencium, y sholde nat dele with hem,

For holy chirche is hote of hem no tythe to aske,

 Quia cum justis non scribantur.

They ben ascaped good auntur; now God hem amende.’

 Dame ‘Worch when tyme is’ Peres wyf hehte; ⁸⁰

His douhter hihte ‘Do rihte so or thy dame shal þe bete’;

His sone hihte ‘Soffre thy sovereynes have her wille;

Deme hem nat, yf thow doest thow shalt hit dere abygge.

Consayle nat so þe comune þe kyng to desplese,

Ne hem þat han lawes to loke lacke hem nat, y hote þe. ⁸⁵

Lat God yworthe with al, as holy writ techeth.

 Super cathedram Moysi sedent, etc….

Maystres as þe mayres is, and grete menne, senatours,

What þei comaunde as by þe kyng countreplede hit nevere;

Al þat they hoten, y hote, heiliche thow soffre hem,

And aftur here warnynge and wordynge worche þou þeraftur: ⁹⁰

 … Omnia que dicunt facite et servate.

Ac aftur here doynge ne do thow nat, my dere sone,’ quod Peres.

‘For now y am olde and hoer and have of myn owene,

To penaunces and pilgrimages y wol passe with this oþere.

Forthy y wol, ar y wende, do wryte my biqueste.

In Dei nomine, amen. Y make hit mysulve. ⁹⁵

He shal have my soule þat alle soules made,

And defenden hit as fro þe fende, and so is my beleve,

Til y come til his acountes as my crede telleth;

To have a remissioun and a relees on þat rental y leve.

The kyrke shal have my caroyne and kepe my bones, ¹⁰⁰

For of my corn and my catel he craved my tythe.

Y payede hit prestly for perel of my soule;

He is holdyng, y hope, to have me in his masse

And menege me in his memorie amonges alle cristene.

My wyf shal have of þat y wan with treuthe and no more ¹⁰⁵

And delen hit amonges my douhteres and my dere childres;

For thouh y dey today my dette is yquited –

I bar hoem þat y borwed ar y to bedde ʒede.

And with þe resudue and þe remenant, by the rode of Lukes,

Y wol worschipe þerwith Treuthe al my lyve, ¹¹⁰

And ben a pilgrym at þe plouh for profit to pore and ryche.’

 Now is Perkyn and þis pilgrimes to þe plouh faren.

To erien this half aker holpen hym monye,

Dikares and delvares digged up þe balkes.

Therwith was Perkyn apayed, and payede wel hem here huyre. ¹¹⁵

Oþer werkemen þer were þat wrouhten fol ʒerne,

Uch man in his manere made hymsulve to done,

And somme to plese Perkyn afeelde pykede wedes.

At hey prime Peres leet þe plouh stande

 And oversey hem hymsulve; ho‐so beste wrouhte ¹²⁰

He sholde be huyred þeraftur when hervost tyme come.

And thenne seet somme and songen at the ale

And holpe erye this half aker with ‘hey trollilolly!’

Quod Peres þe plouhman, al in puyre tene:

‘But ʒe aryse þe rather and rape ʒow to worche ¹²⁵

Shal no grayn þat here groweth gladyen ʒow at nede,

And thow ʒe deye for deul, þe devel have þat reche!’

Tho were faytours aferd and fayned hem blynde

And leyde here legges alery, as suche lorelles conneth,

And maden here mone to Peres how þei may nat worche: ¹³⁰

‘And we praye for ʒow, Peres, and for ʒoure plouh bothe,

That God for his grace ʒoure grayn multiplye

And ʒelde ʒow of ʒoure almesse þat ʒe ʒeven us here.

We may nother swynke ne swete, suche sekenes us ayleth,

Ne have none lymes to labory with, lord God we thonketh.’ ¹³⁵

‘Ʒoure preyeres,’ quod Peres, ‘and ʒe parfyt weren,

Myhte helpe, as y hope; ac hey Treuthe wolde

That no faytrye were founde in folk þat goth a‐beggeth.

Ʒe been wastours, y woet wel, and waste and devouren

That lele land‐tilynge men leely byswynken. ¹⁴⁰

Ac Treuthe shal teche ʒow his teme to dryve

Or ʒe shal ete barly breed and of þe broke drynke,

But yf he be blynde or broke‐legged or bolted with yren –

Suche poore,’ quod Peres, ‘shal parte with my godes,

Bothe of my corn and of my cloth to kepe hem fram defaute. ¹⁴⁵

And ankerus and eremytes þat eten but at nones

And freres þat flateren nat and pore folke syke,

What! y and myn wolle fynde hem what hem nedeth.’

Thenne gan Wastor to wrath hym and wolde have yfouhte,

And to Peres þe plouhman profrede to fyhte ¹⁵⁰

And bad hym go pisse with his plogh, pyvische shrewe!

A Bretener cam braggyng, a bostede Peres also:

‘Wolle thow, nulle thow,’ quod he, ‘we wol have oure wille,

And thy flour and thy flesch feche whenne us liketh,

And maken us murye þermyde, maugreye ho begrucheth.’ ¹⁵⁵

Peres the plouhman tho pleynede hym to þe knyhte

To kepe hym and his catel as covenant was bitwene hem:

‘Awreke me of this wastors þat maketh this world dere;

They acounteth nat of corsynges, ne holy kyrke nat dredeth.

For ther worth no plenté,’ quod Perus, ‘and þe plouh lygge.’ ¹⁶⁰

Courteisliche the knyhte thenne, as his kynde wolde,

Warnede Wastour and wissede hym betere,

‘Or y shal bete the by the lawe and brynge þe in stokkes.’

‘I was nat woned to worche,’ quod Wastour, ‘and now wol y nat bygynne.’

And leet lyhte of þe lawe and lasse of the knyhte, ¹⁶⁵

And sette Peres at a pes, to playne hym whare he wolde.

 ‘Now by Crist,’ quod Peres the plouhman, ‘y shal apayre ʒow alle,’

And houped aftur Hunger, þat herde hym at the furste.

‘Y preye the,’ quod Perus tho, ‘pur charité, sire Hunger,

Awreke me of this wastors, for þe knyhte wil nat.’ ¹⁷⁰

Hunger in haste tho hente Wastour by þe mawe

And wronge hym so by þe wombe þat al watrede his yes;

A boffatede þe Bretoner aboute the chekes

Þat a lokede lyke a lenterne al his lyf aftur;

And beet hem so bothe he barste ner her gottes ¹⁷⁵

Ne hadde Peres with a pese‐loof preyede hym byleve.

‘Have mercy on hem, Hunger,’ quod Peres, ‘and lat me ʒeve hem benes,

And þat was bake for Bayard hit may be here bote.’

Tho were faytours afered and flowen into Peres bernes

And flapton on with flales fro morwen til even, ¹⁸⁰

That Hunger was nat hardy on hem for to loke.

For a potte ful of potage þat Peres wyf made

An heep of eremytes henten hem spades,

Sputeden and spradden donge in dispit of Hunger.

They corven here copes and courtepies hem made ¹⁸⁵

And wenten as werkemen to wedynge and to mowynge

Al for drede of here deth, such duntes ʒaf Hunger.

Blynde and broke‐legged he botened a thousend

And lame men he lechede with longes of bestes.

Prestes and oþer peple towarde Peres they drowe ¹⁹⁰

And freres of alle þe fyve ordres, alle for fere of Hunger;

For þat was bake for Bayard was bote for many hungry,

Drosenes and dregges drynke for many beggares.

There was no ladde þat lyvede þat ne lowede hym to Peres

To be his holde hewe, thow he hadde no more ¹⁹⁵

But lyflode for his labour and his love at nones.

 Tho was Peres proude and potte hem alle a‐werke

In daubynge and in delvynge, in donge afeld berynge,

In threschynge, in thekynge, in thwytinge of pynnes,

In alle kyne trewe craft þat man couthe devyse. ²⁰⁰

Was no beggare so bold, but yf a blynd were,

Þat durste withsitte þat Peres sayde for fere of syre Hunger;

And Peres was proud þerof and potte hem alle to swynke

And ʒaf hem mete and money as þei myhte deserve.

Tho hadde Peres pitee uppon alle pore peple ²⁰⁵

And bade Hunger in haste hye hym out of contraye

Hoem to his owene ʒerd and halde hym þere evere.

‘Y am wel awroke of wastours thorw thy myhte.

Ac y preye the,’ quod Peres, ‘Hunger, ar thow wende,

Of beggares and biddares what beste be to done? ²¹⁰

For y woet wel, be Hunger went, worche þei wol ful ille.

Meschef hit maketh they ben so meke nouthe,

And for defaute this folk folweth myn hestes;

Hit is nat for love, leve hit, thei labore thus faste

But for fere of famyen, in fayth,’ sayde Peres. ²¹⁵

‘Ther is no filial love with this folk, for al here fayre speche;

And hit are my blody bretherne, for God bouhte us alle.

Treuthe tauhte me ones to lovye hem uchone

And to helpe hem of alle thynges ay as hem nedeth.

Now wolde y wyte ar thow wendest what were þe beste, ²²⁰

How y myhte amayster hem to lovye and to labory

For here lyflode; lere me now, sire Hunger.’

 ‘Now herkene,’ quod Hunger, ‘and holde hit for a wysdom

Bolde beggares and bygge þat mowe here breed byswynke,

With houndes bred and hors breed hele hem when þei hungren, ²²⁵

And abave hem with benes for bollyng of here wombe;

And yf þe gromes gruche, bide hem go and swynke,

And he shal soupe swettere when he hit hath deserved.

Ac yf thow fynde eny folke þat fals men han apayred,

Conforte hem with thy catel, for so comaundeth Treuthe, ²³⁰

Love hem and lene hem, and so lawe of kynde wolde:

 Alter alterius onera portate.

And alle manere men þat thow myhte aspye

In meschief or in malese, and thow mowe hem helpe,

Loke by thy lyve lat hem nat forfare.

Yf thow hast wonne auht wikkedliche, wiseliche despene hit: ²³⁵

 Facite vobis amicos de mammona iniquitatis.’

‘Y wolde nat greve God,’ quod Peres, ‘for al þe good on erthe.

Myhte y synneles do as thow sayst?’ sayde Peres þe plouhman.

‘Ʒe, y bihote the,’ quod Hunger, ‘or elles þe Bible lyeth.

Go to oure bygynnynge tho God the world made,

As wyse men haen wryten and as witnesseth Genesis, ²⁴⁰

Þat sayth with swynke and with swoet and swetynge face

Bytulie and bytravayle trewely oure lyflode:

 In sudore and labore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo.

And Salomon þe sage with þe same acordeth:

The slowe caytif for colde a wolde no corn tylye;

In somer for his sleuthe he shal have defaute ²⁴⁵

And go a‐bribeth and a‐beggeth and no man beten his hunger:

 Piger propter frigus noluit arare; mendicabitur in yeme et non dabitur ei.

Mathew maketh mencioun of a man þat lente

His sulver to thre maner men and menyng they sholden

Chaffare and cheve þerwith in chele and in hete,

And þat best labored best was alloued ²⁵⁰

And ledares for here laboryng over al þe lordes godes.

Ac he þat was a wreche and wolde nat travaile

The lord for his lachesse and his luther sleuthe

Bynom hym al þat he hadde and ʒaf hit to his felawe

Þat leely hadde ylabored; and thenne the lord sayde: ²⁵⁵

“He þat hath shal have and helpe þer hym liketh,

And he þat nauht hath shal nauht have and no man ʒut helpen hym,

And þat he weneth wel to have y wol hit hym bireve.”

And lo what þe sauter sayth to swynkares with handes:

“Yblessed be al tho that here bylyve biswynketh ²⁶⁰

Thorw eny lele labour as thorw lymes and handes”:

 Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, etc.

This aren evidences,’ quod Hunger, ‘for hem þat wolle nat swynke

That here lyflode be lene and lyte worth here clothes.’

 ‘By Crist,’ quod Peres þe plouhman tho, ‘this proverbis y wol  shewe

To beggares and to boys þat loth ben to worche. ²⁶⁵

Ac ʒut y praye ʒow,’ quod Peres, ‘pur charité, syre Hunger,

Yf ʒe can or knowe eny kyne thynges of fisyk,

For somme of my servauntes and mysulf bothe

Of al a woke worche nat, so oure wombe greveth us.’

 ‘Y wot wel,’ quod Hunger, ‘what sekenesse ʒow ayleth: ²⁷⁰

Ʒe han manged over‐moche, þat maketh ʒow to be syke.

Ac ete nat, y hote, ar hunger the take

And sende the of his sauce to savery with thy lyppes;

And kepe som til soper tyme, and site nat to longe

At noon ne at no tyme and nameliche at þe sopere. ²⁷⁵

Lat nat sire Sorfeet sittien at thy borde,

And loke þou drynke no day ar thow dyne sumwhat.

And thenk þat Dives for his delicat lyf to þe devel wente

And Lazar þe lene beggare þat longede after croumes –

And ʒut hadde he hem nat, for y, Hunger, culde hym – ²⁸⁰

And sethen y say hym sitte as he a syre were

In al manere ese and in Abrahames lappe.

And ʒif thow þe pore, Peres y þe rede:

Alle þat grat in thy gate for Godes love aftur fode

Part with hem of thy payne, of potage or of sowl; ²⁸⁵

Lene hem som of thy loef thouh thow þe lasse chewe.

And thouh lyares and lach‐draweres and lollares knocke,

Lat hem abyde til the bord be drawe ac bere hem none croumes

Til alle thyne nedy neyhbores have noen ymaked.

And yf thow dyete the thus, y dar legge myn eres ²⁹⁰

That Fysik shal his forred hodes for his fode sulle

And his cloke of Callabre for his comune legge,

And be fayn, be my fayth, his fysik to leete

And lerne to labory with lond lest lyflode hem fayle.

Ther ar many luther leches, ac lele leches fewe; ²⁹⁵

They don men deye thorw here drynkes ar destyné hit wolde.’

 ‘By seynte Poul,’ quod Peres, ‘thow poyntest neyh þe treuthe

And leelyche sayst, as y leve, Lord hit þe forʒeld!

Wende nouthe when thow wold, and wel thow be evere

For thow hast wel awroke me and also wel ytauhte me.’ ³⁰⁰

 ‘Y behote the,’ quod Hunger, ‘þat hennes ne wol y wende

Ar y have ydyned be þis day and ydronke bothe.’

 ‘Y have no peny,’ quod Peres, ‘polettes for to begge,

Ne noþer goos ne gries, but two grene cheses

And a fewe croddes and craym and a cake of otes ³⁰⁵

And bred for my barnes of benes and of peses.

And ʒut y say, be my soule, y have no salt bacoun

Ne no cokeney, be Crist, colloppes to make.

Ac y have poret‐ployntes, parsilie and skalones,

Chibolles and chirvulles and cheries sam‐rede, ³¹⁰

And a cow with a calf and a cart‐mare

To drawe afeld my donge þe while þe drouthe lasteth.

And by this lyflode we mote lyve til Lamasse tyme,

And by that y hope to have hervost in my croftes;

Thenne may y dyhte þi dyner as me dere lyketh.’ ³¹⁵

 Alle þe pore peple tho pese‐coddes fette,

Benes and bake aples they brouhten in here lappe,

And profrede Pers this present to plese with Honger.

Hunger eet al in haste and askede aftur more.

Pore folk for fere tho fedde Honger ʒerne ³²⁰

With craym and with croddes, with cresses and oþere erbes.

By that hit nyhed neyh hervost and newe corn cam to chepyng,

And thenne were folk fayn and fedde Hunger dentiesliche,

And thenne Gloton with gode ale garte Hunger slepe.

And tho wolde Wastor nat worche bote wandren aboute, ³²⁵

Ne no beggare eten bred þat benes ynne were,

Bote of cler‐matyn and coket and of clene whete,

Ne noon halpenny ale in none wyse drynke

Bote of the beste and of þe brouneste þat brewestares sullen.

Laborers þat han no lond to lyve on but here handes ³³⁰

Deynede noʒt to dyne a‐day of nyhte‐olde wortes.

May no peny‐ale hem pay ne no pece of bacoun

But hit be fresh flesch or fisch yfried or ybake,

And þat chaut and pluchaut for chillyng of his mawe.

And but yf he be heyliche yhuyred, elles wol he chydde ³³⁵

And þat he was werkeman ywrouhte warien þe tyme.

Aʒenes Catones consayle comseth he to gruche:

Paupertatis onus pacienter ferre memento.

And thenne a corseth þe kyng and alle þe kynges justices,

Suche lawes to lerne laboreres to greve. ³⁴⁰

Ac whiles Hunger was here maister ther wolde non chyde

Ne stryve aʒeynes his statuyt, a lokede so sturne.

 Ac y warne ʒow, werkmen, wynneth whiles ʒe mowe,

For Hunger hiderwardes hasteth hym faste.

He shal awake thorw water wastors to chaste, ³⁴⁵

And ar fewe ʒeres be fulfeld famyne shal aryse,

And so sayth Saturne, and sente us to warne.

Thorw flodes and thorw foule wederes fruyttes shollen fayle;

Pruyde and pestilences shal moche peple feche.

Thre shypes and a schaef with an viii folwynge ³⁵⁰

Shal brynge bane and batayle on bothe half þe mone;

And thenne shal deth withdrawe and derthe be justice

And Dawe þe delvare dey for defaute,

But yf God of his goodnesse graunte us a trewe.

Notes

1 Will, the dreamer, awakes from his first dream to find himself at home in Cornhill, a busy London thoroughfare.

2 Kytte Kit (Katherine) is mentioned again as Will’s wife at C XX 472.

yclothed as a lollare A lollare, understood as ‘loller about, idler’, is in Piers especially one who uses religion as an excuse for not working. He is associated with ignorant hermits (line 4 here) and with begging in churches (ll. 30–2). Compare 7b/74 and 287. The clothes in question here are presumably the ‘long clothes’ to which Will later refers (l. 41) as evidence that he is exempt from manual labour.

5 made of ‘composed verses about’. Piers Plowman launches several attacks on ‘religious’ layabouts; but in what follows, its maker questions his own right to do so.

6 Conscience and Reason figured in Will’s previous dream, where they prevail over Lady Meed.

10 In hele and in inwitt ‘sound in body and in mind’.

11 ‘As I mused on the past, Reason reproached me thus.’

12 thow Reason consistently addresses Will with the familiar singular form. Will uses the respectful plural in reply at l. 82.

15–17 Both the reeve and the hayward were officials of the lord of the manor. The rype‐reve was a foreman with responsibility for work at reaping (rype) time. The hayward supervised enclosed land, here protecting the crop from thieves and animals.

16 nyhtes ‘of a night’, adverbial genitive. See 5.3.2.

21 ‘So that you may thereby benefit those who provide you with food.’ Betere is a verb, byleve a noun. Þat means ‘those who’: see 5.4.6.

22 and so me God helpe ‘and as God may help me’.

24 to long ‘too tall’. The dreamer elsewhere refers to himself as ‘Long Will’.

25 eny while to duyren ‘to last for any length of time’.

28 ‘A compulsive spender or a time‐waster.’

29 men hacches ‘men’s half‐doors’, here of the kitchen or buttery.

30 faytest Faytours are those who beg on false pretences, out of idleness not true need. Compare 7b/73, 128, 179.

Frydayes special days in the Church calendar, as weekly commemorations of the Crucifixion.

31 lollarne ‘of lollers’. Cf. 2n. above. The ‐ne genitive plural ending goes back to OE ‐ena in weak nouns.

32a ‘He will render to every man according to his works’ (Psalm 61.13 (AV 62.12), adapted).

36 ‘My father and my relatives provided for my schooling.’ Cf. 12/56 and Canterbury Tales I 299–302.

39 by so y wol contenue ‘provided that I am willing to persevere’. Cf. l. 104.

41 longe clothes as worn by clerics, in this case a cleric in minor orders.

43 þerwith referring back to laboure.

43a ‘Be in the same calling to which you are called’ (I Corinthians 7.20, adapted).

45–7 The ‘tools’ (lomes) with which Will earns his living are the Lord’s Prayer, his Primer or book of devotions, the Office for the Dead, the Psalter, and the Seven Penitential Psalms. Placebo and dirige are the opening words of two services for the dead, Vespers and Matins respectively.

48 This ‘these’ (as at l. 41). Will recites prayers, psalms and offices for his benefactors, living and dead. See Donaldson, C‐Text, Ch. VII.

50 To be welcome ‘that I will be welcome’.

52 Langland elsewhere argues that a beggar should be content with what he can eat and drink to satisfy his immediate needs.

53–81 Will’s tirade on the privileges of clerics, the deplorable elevation of churls and illegitimates to clerical office, and the general breakdown of social distinctions expresses legitimate complaints, but in a blustering tone that casts doubt on the purity of his motives.

54 Me ‘one’, indefinite pronoun. See 5.4.3.

55 God tells Aaron that priests of the tribe of Levi (‘Levytici’) are to possess nothing and live off tithes: Numbers 18.20–4. Psalm 15, quoted below at 60a, echoes Numbers 18.20.

56 of kynde understondynge ‘by common understanding’.

57 swerien at enquestes ‘testify on oath in lay courts of law’. Clerics had their own ecclesiastical courts.

58a ‘Do not repay evil with evil’ (I Pet 3.9).

59 hit ben ‘they are’. See 5.2.

60a ‘The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, etc. And elsewhere: Mercy does not constrain.’ The first quotation, Psalm 15.5 (AV 16.5), continues: ‘… and of my cup: it is thou that wilt restore my inheritance to me’. Quoted at the ceremony of tonsuring clerics, it was taken to support their right not to ‘swink or sweat’ for their livelihood. The second quotation (source unknown) is perhaps intended to justify their exemption from imposing legal or military sanctions on others.

64 frankeleynes gentlemen holding freehold lands. Cf. Chaucer’s Franklin in the Canterbury Tales.

65 Bondemen ‘villeins’. These were unfree tenants, subject, unlike free men, to the will of the lord of their manor in such matters as the services they owed him for the use of his land.

66 ‘It is for these to labour, and for the nobly born to serve …’

69 resceyven This perhaps refers to the duties of clerks in the secular world, serving ‘good men’ by keeping account of their receipts and expenses. On þat = ‘that which’, see 5.4.6.

70–81 This sentence reaches its main clause only at l. 80, after a long series of ‘since …’ clauses.

73–5 Lords’ sons, in order to fulfil their military obligations, have been forced to raise money by pledging their landed incomes (rentes) to rich upstarts such as knighted shoemakers, whose ‘labourers’ they therefore become.

76 þat mendenantes sholde fynde ‘who should be providing for beggars’.

77 Imade ‘have made’. Have is to be understood from ll. 70–2, as with the ensuing past participles, ypurchased, refused and taken.

79 Symondes sones Simon Magus (Acts 8) offered money in an attempt to buy the apostles’ gift of the laying on of hands. Hence those who buy clerical office are ‘Simon’s sons’, or simoniacs.

81 hit that is, the present state of affairs, which will either pass away in the nature of things or else be changed by some positive action.

83 what Crist wolde y wrouhte ‘what kind of work Christ would wish me to do’.

86–8 Two sayings support the claim that God will provide. The first (Matthew 4.4) reads in the Latin of the Vulgate Bible: ‘Non in solo pane vivit homo’, that is, ‘Not in bread alone (solo) doth man live (but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God)’. Langland quotes the words correctly in a similar context at C XV 245a; but in the version here Will adds in pabulo and punningly takes solo as a noun, ablative of Latin solum, ‘soil’: ‘Not from the soil doth man live, nor in bread and in food’. Cf. 7b/17. The second saying is adapted from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6.10): ‘Let the will of God, who provides us with everything, be done’.

90 ‘But it seems no kind of regular perfection to beg in cities.’ Conscience cannot see that Will’s claim to perfection (l. 84) applies to his particular way of life.

91 obediencer an officer under obedience to a prior or superior of a religious order (mynistre) – in this case, charged with collecting money on their behalf.

95 an unstressed form of and.

96 A boute ‘he bought’. A is an unstressed form of he.

97 leef a thing of no value, like the pea of 7b/166.

98 wordes of grace ‘fortunate chances’. Word is the OE wyrd, ‘fate’.

98a ‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13.44); The woman who found the groat (referring to Luke 15.8–9)’. The two parables concern, first, a man’s joy at winning heaven and, second, joy in heaven over a sinner’s repentance.

99 So hope y resuming the sentence begun at l. 94 with Ac ʒut I hope.

1 Perkyn ‘Peterkin’, a familiar form of ‘Peter’, like ‘Piers’. Piers Plowman has just described the road that the people have to follow on their pilgrimage to Truth, and here offers himself as their guide.

8 for ‘to prevent’.

10 The line combines two constructions: ‘I pray you that you sew …’ and ‘I pray you to sew …’.

16 Lordes love of hevene On the word‐order, see 5.3.2.

19 a kenneth ‘he teaches’.

25 thow lovest Piers uses the comradely singular thou to the knight, but not consistently (cf. 35ff.).

28–31 Hunting and hawking had practical functions in the Middle Ages, when men were on the defensive against wild nature (the reverse of the present situation).

31 corn In this context ‘wheat’.

34 thow ‘though’.

38 maugré Mede chekes ‘in spite of all Meed can do’. Idiomatic, like Chaucer’s ‘maugree his heed’ (Canterbury Tales I 1169). Lady Meed, the villainess of the previous dream, represents the corrupt principle of bribery and other undeserved payment (cf. l. 40 here).

41 Any excess beyond what has been duly earned must be paid back or otherwise compensated for.

44–44a ‘He shall be sooner received and more honourably seated: “Friend, go up higher”’ (Luke 14.10, from the Parable of the Marriage Feast).

45 charnel The charnel‐house was a vault where bones of those dug up to make room for new graves were dumped.

evele to knowe ‘hard to tell apart’.

46 quene ‘common woman’. The word’s similarity to the distinct but related queene supports the argument here.

52 hit beeþ ‘these are’.

54 seynt Gyle St Giles, patron saint of beggars.

55 ‘To act as you think right, and my wife will too.’

60 Piers takes a sower’s seed‐basket (hopur) in place of a pilgrim’s bag (scryppe): cf. the similar substitution in l. 64. In the event, work on the half acre turns out to be the ‘pilgrimage’ to Truth (despite ll. 62–3 here). Piers is Truth’s ‘pilgrim at the plough’ (l. 111).

63 pardon to wynne So in the next passus the ‘pilgrimage’ to Truth on the half acre wins Truth’s ‘pardon’.

64 plouh‐pote a long spade for clearing earth and weeds from the blade of the plough.

67–8 Piers anticipates the harvest. The right to glean was controlled by manorial customs.

68 maugrey ho bigruchen hit ‘in spite of whoever may begrudge it’.

72 Denote a pet form of ‘Denise’.

74 ‘Whom honest men consider idlers and wastrels.’

77, 78a ‘Let them be blotted out of the book of the living … for with the just let them not be written’: Psalm 68.29 (AV 69.28), adapted.

78 Since the Church does not accept tithes from the ill‐gotten gains of Jack and the rest, they have no right to share in the food Piers provides.

79 ‘They have been lucky to escape’, i.e. to have been spared God’s judgement so long.

81 thy dame ‘your mother’. The names take the form of exhortations addressed by Piers to his wife, daughter and son. Hence the son’s name can shade off into a speech of fatherly advice: ll. 82–91.

86 Lat God yworthe with al ‘let God do his will in all things’.

86a ‘(The scribes and the Pharisees) sit on the chair of Moses …’ (Matthew 23.2). The quotation, continued at l. 90a, concerns the proper attitude to authority: even evil‐living authorities are to be obeyed.

88 as by þe kyng ‘since it is by the king’s authority’.

90a ‘… All things they say unto you, do and observe (but according to their works do ye not. For they say, and do not)’ (Matthew 23.3, adapted).

92 have of myn owene ‘have possessions of my own’, referring either to the expenses of the proposed pilgrimage or (more likely) to his need to make a will.

93 this oþere ‘these other people’.

94 do wryte my biqueste ‘have my will written’. It was customary to make one’s Last Will and Testament before setting out on what might be a dangerous pilgrimage. Piers’s will follows common form, bequeathing first soul, then body, then possessions.

95 ‘In the name of God, amen’: the customary opening formula.

99 a remissioun and a relees a legal phrase, used when some obligation was remitted or set aside. Piers trusts that, at the Day of Judgement, his unexpiated sins will be forgiven, just as unpaid rent may be remitted.

103–4 Piers’s parish priest is to remember him at Mass in the Commemoration for the Dead, since he has paid his tithes promptly.

105–8 Piers claims that all his possessions were come by honestly (with treuthe) and that no debts remain outstanding; so there is no need to make restitution, as testators often did in wills, for unpaid debts or ill‐gotten gains.

108 bar hoem ‘returned’. Cf. Deuteronomy 24.10–15 on the prompt payment of debts.

109 Customarily a testator left two‐thirds of his goods to be divided between his wife and children, reserving a third (the resudue and remenant here) to be bequeathed for any purpose – a peculiar purpose in this case, since Piers does not expect to die on his ‘pilgrimage’.

Lukes Lucca, Italy, where there is an image of the crucified Christ.

110 Treuthe God, the personification of justice and fidelity.

117 made hymsulve to done ‘put himself to work’.

127 ‘And the devil take anyone who bothers with you, even though you die in misery.’

129 alery ‘awry’, perhaps with the leg strapped back on itself to simulate amputation.

135 Cf. 7a/8 above.

142 barly breed inferior to wheat bread.

143 bolted with yren probably referring to leg‐braces, rather than to prison fetters.

151 pyvische a general term of abuse in colloquial ME (Modern ‘peevish’).

152 Bretener Bretons were notorious boasters.

153 Wolle thow, nulle thow ‘whether you wish it or not’ (nulle represents ne wulle).

155 maugreye ho begrucheth see 68n. here.

158 maketh this world dere ‘cause high prices’, by consuming where they do not produce.

161 as his kynde wolde ‘as his nature was’. Courtesy is natural in knights. Cf. l. 47.

165 leet lyhte of ‘set little store by’.

174 Sunken and translucent cheeks are compared to the sides (made of animal horn) of a lantern.

176 Ne hadde ‘had not’, following on from barste (175), ‘would have burst’. pese‐loof a loaf made of peas, eaten by the poor.

178 Bayard a horse name. Horses were fed a ‘bread’ made of beans. So: ‘And what was baked for horses may save their lives’.

185 The ‘long clothes’ of clerics (cf. 7a/41) hampered physical work.

191 fyve ordres the four main orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Carmelites, together with the Crutched Friars.

192 Cf. l. 178 and n.

196 love ‘loaf’, provided, with cheese etc., for a fieldworker’s lunch.

201 a the unstressed form of he: ‘unless he were blind’.

211 be Hunger went ‘once Hunger has gone’.

212 ‘It is hardship that makes them be so submissive at present.’

216 filial love i.e. love such as sons should feel for their father (God). Cf.

l. 217. But the word is not otherwise recorded in English until the sixteenth century; and other manuscripts read final, ‘thoroughgoing’.

217 blody bretherne ‘blood‐brothers’, referring to the blood with which God ‘bought’ or redeemed us all.

226 ‘And give them an unpleasant diet of beans, for fear of their bellies swelling.’ The identity and meaning of the verb is uncertain: we adopt abave, ‘dismay, confound’. All B‐Text manuscripts read abate, ‘appease’. The second half‐line is probably ironical (no fear of them getting fat), but may refer to the swollen bellies of famine victims.

231a ‘Bear ye one another’s burdens (and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ)’ (Galatians 6.2). Christ’s law coincides with the promptings of nature itself – the lawe of kynde (231).

233 and ‘if’.

234 ‘Take care, upon your life, that you do not let them die.’

235a ‘Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity’ (Luke 16.9), i.e. use even wicked winnings (235) for good ends.

236–7 Piers is worried by the first, harsher, part of Hunger’s advice (ll. 224– 8).

242–242a ‘We should till and labour faithfully for our livelihood: “In sweat and labour of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread”’ (adapted from Genesis 3.19 and 3.17).

243 Salomon King Solomon, the traditional author of the Book of Proverbs.

246a ‘Because of the cold, the sluggard would not plough; there will be begging in the winter, and it shall not be given him.’ The text, Proverbs 20.4, is adapted to English conditions by substituting yeme, ‘winter’, for the Vulgate’s aestate, ‘summer’. The original reading has been represented, however, in Hunger’s own version, l. 245.

247–58 The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25.14–30.

248 thre maner men i.e. three men of different dispositions. and menyng ‘intending that’.

251 ‘And were given responsibility, because of their good work, for all the lord’s possessions.’

256 helpe þer hym liketh ‘give help where he pleases’. Cf. Matthew 25.29: ‘For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound’.

257 ʒut ‘yet, furthermore’. Whereas the good servant can help others out of his abundance, the bad can expect no help in his destitution.

258 ‘And I will deprive him of what he is confident of having.’

261a ‘For thou shalt eat the labours of thy hands (blessed art thou)’: Psalm 127.2 (AV 128.2).

265 boys a contemptuous word in ME: ‘fellows’.

269 Of al a woke ‘for a whole week’.

271 manged ‘eaten’: an unusual French loan‐word, used here in contempt of Frenchified luxury: cf. 334 below.

273 ‘And send you some of his sauce with which to add relish to your palate.’

278–82 The parable of the rich man (dives, ‘rich’) and Lazarus, in Luke 16.19–31, is adapted to the mouth of Hunger.

281 The main sentence resumes after the parenthesis as if there had been no þat in l. 279.

282 Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16.22) is the limbo where the faithful who died before the redemption, like Abraham, await the reward of heaven.

283 The text of the first half of this line is very uncertain. See Textual Notes, p. 358.

287 lach‐draweres These are evidently people who cause householders to let them in (draw their latches) and then take advantage of the privilege.

288 drawe ‘put away’. The bord or table stood on trestles in the hall.

289 noen ‘their noonday meal’.

292 cloke of Callabre a cloak trimmed with squirrel fur from Calabria. Physicians were commonly paid with articles of clothing.

299 wel thow be evere ‘may you always prosper’.

302 be þis day ‘before this day is out’.

303 begge ‘buy’.

306 These poor kinds of bread (cf. 176–8) form part of the subsistence diet of peasants in the lean time before harvest.

308 ‘Nor any little eggs, by Christ, with which to make bacon and eggs.’ A cokeney was a small ‘cock’s egg’ (hence a spoiled child or milksop, hence a townsman, a Cockney).

309–10 ‘But I have leeks, parsley and shallots, spring onions and chervil and half‐ripe cherries.’

312 Dung was spread before what Chaucer calls the ‘drought of March’ broke.

313 Lamasse the ‘loaf mass’, celebrating on 1 August the beginning of the harvest.

315 as me dere lyketh ‘as it pleases me best’.

322 The work on the half acre has now extended from seed‐time to harvest. So it is no longer possible to regard it as a mere short interruption to the pilgrimage to Truth. See 6on. above.

324 Gloton one of the Seven Deadly Sins, whose confessions were recorded in the previous passus.

327 cler‐matyn and coket kinds of fine white bread.

328 halpenny ale cheap beer, at a halfpenny a gallon. ‘Penny ale’ (l. 332) was also a cheap sort.

331 ‘Would not condescend to eat one day any vegetables picked the day before.’

334 ‘And that chaud and plus chaud (warm and warmer) for fear of a chill on the stomach.’ Cf. 271n.

335 heyliche yhuyred ‘employed for a high wage’. Shortage of labour after the Black Death of 1349 led to a general rise in wage demands.

336 ‘And curse the time that he was ever made a labourer.’

338 ‘Be sure to bear the burden of poverty with patience.’ From the Distichs of Cato (I 21), a collection of maxims set as an elementary Latin text in medieval schools.

342 his statuyt Hunger’s ‘statute’ is implicitly contrasted with the contemporary Statutes of Labourers, which attempted ineffectively to curb workers’ demands.

343–54 A prophecy of impending disasters, expressed, in part, in the customary riddling style.

347 Saturne the most maleficent of the god‐planets: cf. Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, Canterbury Tales I 2453–69.

349 moche peple feche ‘carry off many people’.

350 This line presumably conceals a prophetic date – the date at which the natural disasters of flood, tempest, famine and pestilence will be augmented by universal warfare among men. A schaef or sheaf contained 24 arrows, but the numerical value of a ship is obscure. So: x + 24 + 8 = ?

351 on bothe half þe mone ‘in all parts of the world’?

352 deth commonly referring to the plague at this time.

353 Dawe pet form of ‘David’ (cf. Modern ‘Dawson’).

8
Patience

The poems Pearl, Cleanness (or Purity), Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are preserved in only one manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A X. The four are generally ascribed to the same unnamed author, partly on the grounds of shared dialect and similarities of style, technique and theme, but finally on the argument that it is more likely that there was one writer of such exceptional literary powers in a small part of the country than that there were several. The date of composition can be judged only on such imprecise criteria as details of dress and architecture and on literary‐historical grounds, from which a date in the last quarter of the fourteenth century seems probable.

The rather humble manuscript, smaller than this book, is written in a small, ungainly script, dated about 1400, and includes twelve clumsy illustrations. The dialect of the poems is North‐West Midlands; the Linguistic Atlas places it in Cheshire, on the border with Staffordshire.

The poet shares with other alliterative writers of this region a distinctive vocabulary that includes ranges of synonyms for certain key concepts. The synonyms for ‘man, knight, being’ (referring also to God) are used so frequently that they are worth memorizing: burne, freke, gome, haþel, lede, renk, schalk, segge, tulk and wyʒe. Another characteristic feature to observe is the use of adjectives as nouns, such as busy (8/157), ‘busy activity’, and schene (8/440), ‘brightness, bright sun’.

In this dialect the spelling ‐tz is used for the third person singular of the verbs gotz, ‘goes’, hatz ‘has’, and watz, ‘was’. Otherwise verbs in the present tense end in ‐ez or ‐es in both the second and third persons singular: þou sparez (8/484), he nevenes (9/10). The present plural has a variety of endings, illustrated by pynez and put (8/79), begynes (8/76) and sytten (9/351). In the past tense, the second person singular of weak verbs (4.5.4) sometimes ends in ‐dez, as in þou travayledez (8/498). The plural of the imperative has the endings ‐ez or ‐es, e.g. berez (8/211), and the present participle ends in ‐and, e.g. fannand (9/181).

Personal pronouns are ho, ‘she’, þay, ‘they’, hem and sometimes confusingly hym, ‘them’, her and hor ‘their’, and hores, ‘theirs’.

Patience is a retelling of the Old Testament Book of Jonah, at times (e.g. ll. 305–36) following the biblical account very closely, at other times (e.g. ll. 73–96, 253–304) expanding quite considerably. The story of Jonah is used as an exemplum to illustrate the necessity of patience, so that the poem has a structure similar to the sermon delivered by Chaucer’s Pardoner. In a Prologue (ll. 1–60) the poet explains the nature and importance of patience: it is the suffraunce, ‘endurance’, that overcomes suffering, it is the reverse of anger, and it is the last of the Beatitudes, the blessing for those ‘that can control their heart’. If we try to escape what is demanded of us we will, like Jonah, only make difficulties for ourselves.

The interest of the poem centres on Jonah, whose character is strikingly developed from the biblical narrative. Although his preaching to the Ninevites has a powerful effect, the emphasis is not on his qualities as a preacher but on his failing as a man – petulant, quarrelsome, fearful and selfish. Traditionally Jonah was viewed as a type or foreshadowing of Christ; in this poem he becomes the antitype, steadily refusing to respond to God. The world about him – the winds, the sailors, the whale, the Ninevites and the ivy – shows obedience; only Jonah disobeys. His rebelliousness shows up in contrast to God’s patience: ‘Couþe I not þole bot as þou, þer þryved ful fewe’ (521). Jonah is a richly comic figure, defeated not by God’s wrath but by his mercy.

The poem is composed for the most part in syntactic groups or ‘sentences’ of four alliterative lines which are marked off by slashes in the manuscript.

Editions

J. J. Anderson, Patience (Manchester, 1969)

J. J. Anderson, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience (London, 1996)

Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron, The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript, 5th edn (Liverpool, 2007)

Ad Putter and Myra Stokes, The Works of the Gawain Poet: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience (London, 2014)

Facsimiles

Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, introduced by Sir Israel Gollancz, EETS 162 (1923)

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Nero_A_X/2

Studies

Malcolm Andrew, ‘Jonah and Christ in Patience’, Modern Philology, 70 (1972–3), 230–3

Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, eds, A Companion to the Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1997)

J. A. Burrow, The Gawain‐Poet (Tavistock, 2001)

Ad Putter, An Introduction to the Gawain‐Poet (London, 1996)

A. C. Spearing, The Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1970)

Pacience is a poynt, þaʒ hit displese ofte;

When hevy herttes ben hurt wyth heþyng oþer elles,

Suffraunce may aswagen hem and þe swelme leþe,

For ho quelles uche a qued and quenches malyce.

For quoso suffer cowþe syt, sele wolde folʒe, ⁵

And quo for þro may noʒt þole, þe þikker he sufferes.

Þen is better to abyde þe bur umbestoundes

Þen ay þrow forth my þro, þaʒ me þynk ylle.

I herde on a halyday at a hyʒe masse

 How Mathew melede þat his mayster his meyny con teche; ¹⁰

Aʒt happes he hem hyʒt and ucheon a mede

Sunderlupes for hit dissert upon a ser wyse:

Thay arn happen þat han in hert poverté,

For hores is þe hevenryche to holde for ever;

Þay ar happen also þat haunte mekenesse, ¹⁵

For þay schal welde þis worlde and alle her wylle have;

Thay ar happen also þat for her harme wepes,

For þay schal comfort encroche in kythes ful mony; ²⁰

Þay ar happen also þat hungeres after ryʒt,

For þay schal frely be refete ful of alle gode;

Thay ar happen also þat han in hert rauþe, ²⁵

For mercy in alle maneres her mede schal worþe;

Þay ar happen also þat arn of hert clene,

For þay her savyour in sete schal se with her yʒen;

Thay ar happen also þat halden her pese,

For þay þe gracious Godes sunes schal godly be called;

Þay ar happen also þat con her hert stere,

For hores is þe hevenryche, as I er sayde.

 These arn þe happes alle aʒt þat us bihyʒt weren

If we þyse ladyes wolde lof in lyknyng of þewes: ³⁰

Dame Povert, dame Pitee, dame Penaunce þe þrydde,

Dame Mekenesse, dame Mercy, and miry Clannesse,

And þenne dame Pes and Pacyence put in þerafter.

He were happen þat hade one; alle were þe better.

Bot syn I am put to a poynt þat poverté hatte, ³⁵

I schal me porvay pacyence and play me with boþe;

For in þe tyxte þere þyse two arn in teme layde,

Hit arn fettled in on forme, þe forme and þe laste,

And by quest of her quoyntyse enquylen on mede;

And als, in myn upynyoun, hit arn of on kynde, ⁴⁰

For þeras povert hir proferes, ho nyl be put utter,

Bot lenge wheresoever hir lyst, lyke oþer greme,

And þereas povert enpresses, þaʒ mon pyne þynk,

Much, maugré his mun, he mot nede suffer;

Thus poverté and pacyence arn nedes playferes. ⁴⁵

Syþen I am sette with hem samen, suffer me byhoves;

Þenne is me lyʒtloker hit lyke and her lotes prayse

Þenne wyþer wyth and be wroth and þe wers have.

Ʒif me be dyʒt a destyné due to have,

What dowes me þe dedayn oþer dispit make? ⁵⁰

Oþer ʒif my lege lorde lyst on lyve me to bidde

Oþer to ryde oþer to renne to Rome in his ernde,

What grayþed me þe grychchyng bot grame more seche?

Much ʒif he me ne made, maugref my chekes,

And þenne þrat moste I þole and unþonk to mede, ⁵⁵

Þe had bowed to his bode, bongré my hyure.

Did not Jonas in Judé suche jape sumwhyle?

To sette hym to sewrté, unsounde he hym feches.

Wyl ʒe tary a lyttel tyne and tent me a whyle,

I schal wysse yow þerwyth as holy wryt telles. ⁶⁰

Hit bitydde sumtyme in þe termes of Judé,

Jonas joyned watz þerinne Jentyle prophete;

Goddes glam to hym glod, þat hym unglad made,

With a roghlych rurd rowned in his ere:

‘Rys radly’, he says, ‘and rayke forth even. ⁶⁵

Nym þe way to Nynyvé wythouten oþer speche,

And in þat ceté my saʒes soghe alle aboute

Þat in þat place at þe poynt I put in þi hert.

For iwysse hit arn so wykke þat in þat won dowellez

And her malys is so much, I may not abide, ⁷⁰

Bot venge me on her vilanye and venym bilyve.

Now sweʒe me þider swyftly and say me þis arende.’

When þat steven watz stynt þat stowned his mynde,

Al he wrathed in his wyt and wyþerly he þoʒt:

‘If I bowe to his bode and bryng hem þis tale ⁷⁵

And I be nummen in Nunivé, my nyes begynes.

He telles me þose traytoures arn typped schrewes;

I com wyth þose tyþynges, þay ta me bylyve,

Pynez me in a prysoun, put me in stokkes,

Wryþe me in a warlok, wrast out myn yʒen. ⁸⁰

Þis is a mervayl message a man for to preche

Amonge enmyes so mony and mansed fendes,

Bot if my gaynlych God such gref to me wolde,

For desert of sum sake þat I slayn were.

At alle peryles,’ quoþ þe prophete, ‘I aproche hit no nerre. ⁸⁵

I wyl me sum oþer waye þat he ne wayte after.

I schal tee into Tarce and tary þere a whyle,

And lyʒtly when I am lest he letes me alone.’

 Þenne he ryses radly and raykes bilyve,

Jonas toward port Japh, ay janglande for tene ⁹⁰

Þat he nolde þole for noþyng non of þose pynes,

Þaʒ þe fader þat hym formed were fale of his hele.

‘Oure syre syttes’, he says, ‘on sege so hyʒe

In his glowande glorye, and gloumbes ful lyttel

Þaʒ I be nummen in Nunnivé and naked dispoyled, ⁹⁵

On rode rwly torent with rybaudes mony.’

Þus he passes to þat port his passage to seche,

Fyndes he a fayr schyp to þe fare redy,

Maches hym with þe maryneres, makes her paye

For to towe hym into Tarce as tyd as þay myʒt. ¹⁰⁰

Then he tron on þo tres and þay her tramme ruchen,

Cachen up þe crossayl, cables þay fasten,

Wiʒt at þe wyndas weʒen her ankres,

Spynde spak to þe sprete þe spare bawelyne,

Gederen to þe gyde‐ropes, þe grete cloþ falles. ¹⁰⁵

Þay layden in on ladde‐borde and þe lofe wynnes;

Þe blyþe breþe at her bak þe bosum he fyndes,

He swenges me þys swete schip swefte fro þe haven.

Watz never so joyful a Jue as Jonas watz þenne,

Þat þe daunger of dryʒten so derfly ascaped; ¹¹⁰

He wende wel þat þat wyʒ þat al þe world planted

Hade no maʒt in þat mere no man for to greve.

Lo, þe wytles wrechche! For he wolde noʒt suffer,

Now hatz he put hym in plyt of peril wel more.

Hit watz a wenyng unwar þat welt in his mynde, ¹¹⁵

Þaʒ he were soʒt fro Samarye, þat God seʒ no fyrre.

Ʒise, he blusched ful brode – þat burde hym by sure;

Þat ofte kyd hym þe carpe þat kyng sayde,

Dyngne David on des þat demed þis speche

In a psalme þat he set þe sauter withinne: ¹²⁰

‘O folez in folk, felez oþerwhyle,

And understondes umbestounde, þaʒ ʒe be stape fole.

Hope ʒe þat he heres not þat eres alle made?

Hit may not be þat he is blynde þat bigged uche yʒe.’

 Bot he dredes no dynt þat dotes for elde, ¹²⁵

For he watz fer in þe flod foundande to Tarce;

Bot I trow ful tyd overtan þat he were,

So þat schomely to schort he schote of his ame.

For þe welder of wyt þat wot alle þynges,

Þat ay wakes and waytes, at wylle hatz he slyʒtes; ¹³⁰

He calde on þat ilk crafte he carf with his hondes;

Þay wakened wel þe wroþeloker for wroþely he cleped:

‘Ewrus and Aquiloun þat on est sittes,

Blowes boþe at my bode upon blo watteres.’

Þenne watz no tom þer bytwene his tale and her dede, ¹³⁵

So bayn wer þay boþe two his bone for to wyrk.

Anon out of þe norþ‐est þe noys bigynes,

When boþe breþes con blowe upon blo watteres,

Roʒ rakkes þer ros with rudnyng anunder,

Þe see souʒed ful sore, gret selly to here; ¹⁴⁰

Þe wyndes on þe wonne water so wrastel togeder

Þat þe wawes ful wode waltered so hiʒe

And efte busched to þe abyme, þat breed fysches

Durst nowhere for roʒ arest at þe bothem.

When þe breth and þe brok and þe bote metten, ¹⁴⁵

Hit watz a joyles gyn þat Jonas watz inne,

For hit reled on roun upon þe roʒe yþes;

Þe bur ber to hit baft, þat braste alle her gere.

Þen hurled on a hepe þe helme and þe sterne,

Furst tomurte mony rop and þe mast after, ¹⁵⁰

Þe sayl sweyed on þe see, þenne suppe bihoved

Þe coge of þe colde water, and þenne þe cry ryses.

Ʒet corven þay þe cordes and kest al þeroute,

Mony ladde þer forth lep to lave and to kest,

Scopen out þe scaþel water þat fayn scape wolde; ¹⁵⁵

For be monnes lode never so luþer, þe lyf is ay swete.

 Þer watz busy overborde bale to kest,

Her bagges and her feþer‐beddes and her bryʒt wedes,

Her kysttes and her coferes, her caraldes alle,

And al to lyʒten þat lome, ʒif leþe wolde schape; ¹⁶⁰

Bot ever watz ilyche loud þe lot of þe wyndes,

And ever wroþer þe water and wodder þe stremes.

Þen þo wery forwroʒt wyst no bote,

Bot uchon glewed on his god þat gayned hym beste:

Summe to Vernagu þer vouched avowes solemne, ¹⁶⁵

Summe to Diana devout and derf Neptune,

To Mahoun and to Mergot, þe mone and þe sunne,

And uche lede as he loved and layde had his hert.

 Þenne bispeke þe spakest, dispayred wel nere:

‘I leve here be sum losynger, sum lawles wrech, ¹⁷⁰

Þat hatz greved his god and gotz here amonge us.

Lo, al synkes in his synne and for his sake marres.

I louve þat we lay lotes on ledes uchone,

And whoso lympes þe losse, lay hym þeroute,

And quen þe gulty is gon, what may gome trawe ¹⁷⁵

Bot he þat rules þe rak may rwe on þose oþer?’

Þis watz sette in asent, and sembled þay were,

Herʒed out of uche hyrne to hent þat falles.

A lodesmon lyʒtly lep under hachches

For to layte mo ledes and hem to lote bryng; ¹⁸⁰

Bot hym fayled no freke þat he fynde myʒt,

Saf Jonas þe Jwe þat jowked in derne;

He watz flowen for ferde of þe flode lotes

Into þe boþem of þe bot and on a brede lyggede,

Onhelde by þe hurrok for þe heven wrache, ¹⁸⁵

Slypped upon a sloumbe‐selepe, and sloberande he routes.

Þe freke hym frunt with his fot and bede hym ferk up;

Þer Ragnel in his rakentes hym rere of his dremes!

Bi þe haspede hater he hentes hym þenne,

And broʒt hym up by þe brest and upon borde sette, ¹⁹⁰

Arayned hym ful runyschly what raysoun he hade

In such slaʒtes of sorʒe to slepe so faste.

Sone haf þay her sortes sette and serelych deled,

And ay þe lote upon laste lymped on Jonas.

Þenne ascryed þay hym sckete and asked ful loude: ¹⁹⁵

‘What þe devel hatz þou don, doted wrech?

What seches þou on see, synful schrewe,

With þy lastes so luþer to lose us uchone?

Hatz þou, gome, no governour ne god on to calle,

Þat þou þus slydes on slepe when þou slayn worþes? ²⁰⁰

Of what londe art þou lent, what laytes þou here,

Whyder in worlde þat þou wylt and what is þyn arnde?

Lo, þy dom is þe dyʒt for þy dedes ille!

Do gyf glory to þy godde er þou glyde hens.’

 ‘I am an Ebru’, quoþ he, ‘of Israyl borne. ²⁰⁵

Þat wyʒe I worchyp, iwysse, þat wroʒt alle þynges,

Alle þe worlde with þe welkyn, þe wynde and þe sternes,

And alle þat wonez þer withinne, at a worde one.

Alle þis meschef for me is made at þys tyme

For I haf greved my God and gulty am founden. ²¹⁰

Forþy berez me to þe borde and baþes me þeroute;

Er gete ʒe no happe, I hope for soþe.’

He ossed hym by unnynges þat þay undernomen

Þat he watz flawen fro þe face of frelych dryʒtyn;

Þenne such a ferde on hem fel and flayed hem withinne ²¹⁵

Þat þay ruyt hym to rowwe and letten þe rynk one.

Haþeles hyʒed in haste with ores ful longe,

Syn her sayl watz hem aslypped, on sydez to rowe,

Hef and hale upon hyʒt to helpen hymselven,

Bot al watz nedles note, þat nolde not bityde; ²²⁰

In bluber of þe blo flod bursten her ores:

Þenne hade þay noʒt in her honde þat hem help myʒt.

Þenne nas no coumfort to kever ne counsel non oþer

Bot Jonas into his juis jugge bylyve.

Fyrst þay prayen to þe prynce þat prophetes serven ²²⁵

Þat he gef hem þe grace to greven hym never

Þat þay in balelez blod þer blenden her handez,

Þaʒ þat haþel wer his þat þay here quelled.

Tyd by top and bi to þay token hym synne;

Into þat lodlych loʒe þay luche hym sone. ²³⁰

He watz no tytter outtulde þat tempest ne sessed,

Þe se saʒtled þerwith as sone as ho moʒt.

Þenne þaʒ her takel were torne þat totered on yþes,

Styffe stremes and streʒt hem strayned a whyle,

Þat drof hem dryʒlych adoun þe depe to serve, ²³⁵

Tyl a swetter ful swyþe hem sweʒed to bonk.

Þer watz lovyng on lofte when þay þe londe wonnen

To oure mercyable God on Moyses wyse,

With sacrafyse up set and solempne vowes,

And graunted hym on to be God and graythly non oþer. ²⁴⁰

 Þaʒ þay be jolef for joye, Jonas ʒet dredes;

Þaʒ he nolde suffer no sore, his seele is on anter,

For whatso worþed of þat wyʒe fro he in water dipped,

Hit were a wonder to wene ʒif holy wryt nere.

Now is Jonas þe Jwe jugged to drowne; ²⁴⁵

Of þat schended schyp men schowved hym sone.

A wylde walterande whal, as wyrde þen schaped,

Þat watz beten fro þe abyme, bi þat bot flotte

And watz war of þat wyʒe þat þe water soʒte,

And swyftely swenged hym to swepe and his swolʒ opened. ²⁵⁰

Þe folk ʒet haldande his fete, þe fysch hym tyd hentes;

Withouten towche of any tothe he tult in his þrote.

Thenne he swengez and swayves to þe se‐boþem

Bi mony rokkez ful roʒe and rydelande strondes,

Wyth þe mon in his mawe malskred in drede, ²⁵⁵

As lyttel wonder hit watz ʒif he wo dreʒed;

For nade þe hyʒe heven‐kyng þurʒ his honde‐myʒt

Warded þis wrech man in warlowes guttez,

What lede moʒt lyve bi lawe of any kynde

Þat any lyf myʒt be lent so longe hym withinne? ²⁶⁰

Bot he watz sokored by þat syre þat syttes so hiʒe,

Þaʒ were wanlez of wele in wombe of þat fissche,

And also dryven þurʒ þe depe and in derk walterez.

Lorde, colde watz his cumfort, and his care huge,

For he knew uche a cace and kark þat hym lymped, ²⁶⁵

How fro þe bot into þe blober watz with a best lachched

And þrwe in at hit þrote withouten þret more

As mote in at a munster dor, so mukel wern his chawlez.

 He glydes in by þe giles þurʒ glaym ande glette,

Relande in by a rop, a rode þat hym þoʒt, ²⁷⁰

Ay hele over hed hourlande aboute,

Til he blunt in a blok as brod as a halle,

And þer he festnes þe fete and fathmez aboute,

And stod up in his stomak þat stank as þe devel.

Þer in saym and in sorʒe þat savoured as helle, ²⁷⁵

Þer watz bylded his bour þat wyl no bale suffer.

And þenne he lurkkes and laytes where watz le best

In uche a nok of his navel, bot nowhere he fyndez

No rest ne recoverer, bot ramel ande myre

In wych gut so ever he gotz; bot ever is God swete; ²⁸⁰

And þer he lenged at þe last and to þe lede called:

‘Now prynce, of þy prophete pité þou have!

Þaʒ I be fol and fykel and falce of my hert,

Dewoyde now þy vengaunce þurʒ vertu of rauthe;

Thaʒ I be gulty of gyle as gaule of prophetes, ²⁸⁵

Þou art God, and alle gowdez ar grayþely þyn owen;

Haf now mercy of þy man and his mysdedes,

And preve þe lyʒtly a lorde in londe and in water.’

With þat he hitte to a hyrne and helde hym þerinne

Þer no defoule of no fylþe watz fest hym abute; ²⁹⁰

Þer he sete also sounde, saf for merk one,

As in þe bulk of þe bote þer he byfore sleped.

 So in a bouel of þat best he bidez on lyve

Þre dayes and þre nyʒt, ay þenkande on dryʒtyn,

His myʒt and his merci, his mesure þenne; ²⁹⁵

Now he knawez hym in care þat couþe not in sele.

Ande ever walteres þis whal bi wyldren depe,

Þurʒ mony a regioun ful roʒe, þurʒ ronk of his wylle,

For þat mote in his mawe mad hym, I trowe,

Þaʒ hit lyttel were hym wyth, to wamel at his hert; ³⁰⁰

Ande as sayled þe segge, ay sykerly he herde

Þe bygge borne on his bak and bete on his sydes.

Þen a prayer ful prest þe prophete þer maked

On þis wyse, as I wene; his wordez were mony:

‘Lorde, to þe haf I cleped in carez ful stronge; ³⁰⁵

Out of þe hole þou me herde of hellen wombe.

I calde, and þou knew myn uncler steven.

Þou diptez me of þe depe se into þe dymme hert;

Þe grete flem of þy flod folded me umbe.

Alle þe gotez of þy guferes and groundelez powlez ³¹⁰

And þy stryvande stremez of stryndez so mony

In on daschande dam dryvez me over.

And ʒet I sayde as I seet in þe se‐boþem:

“Careful am I, kest out fro þy cler yʒen

And desevered fro þy syʒt, ʒet surely I hope ³¹⁵

Efte to trede on þy temple and teme to þyselven.”

I am wrapped in water to my wo stoundez,

Þe abyme byndes þe body þat I byde inne,

Þe pure poplande hourle playes on my heved;

To laste mere of uche a mount, man, am I fallen. ³²⁰

Þe barrez of uche a bonk ful bigly me haldes

Þat I may lachche no lont, and þou my lyf weldes;

Þou schal releve me, renk, whil þy ryʒt slepez,

Þurʒ myʒt of þy mercy þat mukel is to tryste.

For when þ’acces of anguych watz hid in my sawle, ³²⁵

Þenne I remembred me ryʒt of my rych lorde,

Prayande him for peté his prophete to here,

Þat into his holy hous myn orisoun moʒt entre.

I haf meled with þy maystrés mony longe day,

Bot now I wot wyterly þat þose unwyse ledes ³³⁰

Þat affyen hym in vanyté and in vayne þynges,

For þink þat mountes to noʒt her mercy forsaken.

Bot I dewoutly awowe, þat verray betz halden,

Soberly to do þe sacrafyse when I schal save worþe,

And offer þe for my hele a ful hol gyfte ³³⁵

And halde goud þat þou me hetes; haf here my trauthe!’

 Thenne oure Fader to þe fysch ferslych biddez

Þat he hym sput spakly upon spare drye.

Þe whal wendez at his wylle and a warþe fyndez,

And þer he brakez up þe buyrne as bede hym oure Lorde. ³⁴⁰

Þenne he swepe to þe sonde in sluchched cloþes;

Hit may wel be þat mester were his mantyle to wasche.

Þe bonk þat he blosched to and bode hym bisyde

Wern of þe regiounes ryʒt þat he renayed hade.

 Þenne a wynde of Goddez worde efte þe wyʒe bruxlez: ³⁴⁵

‘Nylt þou never to Nynivé bi no kynnez wayez?’

‘Ʒisse, Lorde,’ quoþ þe lede, ‘lene me þy grace

For to go at þi gre; me gaynez non oþer.’

‘Ris, aproche þen to prech! Lo, þe place here.

Lo, my lore is in þe loke. Lauce hit þerinne!’ ³⁵⁰

Þenne þe renk radly ros as he myʒt,

And to Ninivé þat naʒt he neʒed ful even.

Hit watz a ceté ful syde and selly of brede,

On to þrenge þerþurʒe watz þre dayes dede;

Þat on journay ful joynt Jonas hym ʒede ³⁵⁵

Er ever he warpped any worde to wyʒe þat he mette,

And þenne he cryed so cler þat kenne myʒt alle;

Þe trwe tenor of his teme he tolde on þis wyse:

‘Ʒet schal forty dayez fully fare to an ende,

And þenne schal Ninivé be nomen and to noʒt worþe. ³⁶⁰

Truly þis ilk toun schal tylte to grounde;

Up‐so‐doun schal ʒe dumpe depe to þe abyme

To be swolʒed swyftly wyth þe swart erþe,

And alle þat lyvyes hereinne lose þe swete.’

 Þis speche sprang in þat space and spradde alle aboute ³⁶⁵

To borges and to bacheleres þat in þat burʒ lenged;

Such a hidor hem hent and a hatel drede

Þat al chaunged her chere and chylled at þe hert.

Þe segge sesed not ʒet, bot sayde ever ilyche:

‘Þe verray vengaunce of God schal voyde þis place!’ ³⁷⁰

Þenne þe peple pitosly pleyned ful stylle

And for þe drede of dryʒtyn doured in hert.

Heter hayrez þay hent þat asperly bited,

And þose þay bounden to her bak and to her bare sydez,

Dropped dust on her hede and dymly bisoʒten ³⁷⁵

Þat þat penaunce plesed him þat playnez on her wronge.

And ay he cryes in þat kyth tyl þe kyng herde,

And he radly upros and ran fro his chayer,

His ryche robe he torof of his rigge naked,

And of a hep of askes he hitte in þe myddez; ³⁸⁰

He askez heterly a hayre and hasped hym umbe,

Sewed a sekke þerabof and syked ful colde;

Þer he dased in þat duste with droppande teres,

Wepande ful wonderly alle his wrange dedes.

Þenne sayde he to his serjauntes: ‘Samnes yow bilyve! ³⁸⁵

Do dryve out a decré, demed of myselven,

Þat alle þe bodyes þat ben withinne þis borʒ quyk,

Boþe burnes and bestes, burdez and childer,

Uch prynce, uche prest and prelates alle,

Alle faste frely for her falce werkes. ³⁹⁰

Sesez childer of her sok, soghe hem so never,

Ne best bite on no brom ne no bent nauþer,

Passe to no pasture, ne pike non erbes,

Ne non oxe to no hay, ne no horse to water.

Al schal crye, forclemmed, with alle oure clere strenþe; ³⁹⁵

Þe rurd schal ryse to hym þat rawþe schal have.

What wote oþer wyte may ʒif þe wyʒe lykes

Þat is hende in þe hyʒt of his gentryse?

I wot his myʒt is so much, þaʒ he be myssepayed,

Þat in his mylde amesyng he mercy may fynde; ⁴⁰⁰

And if we leven þe layk of oure layth synnes

And stylle steppen in þe styʒe he styʒtlez hymselven,

He wyl wende of his wodschip and his wrath leve

And forgif us þis gult ʒif we hym God leven.’

Þenne al leved on his lawe and laften her synnes, ⁴⁰⁵

Parformed alle þe penaunce þat þe prynce radde,

And God þurʒ his godnesse forgef as he sayde,

Þaʒ he oþer bihyʒt, withhelde his vengaunce.

Muche sorʒe þenne satteled upon segge Jonas;

He wex as wroth as þe wynde towarde oure Lorde. ⁴¹⁰

So hatz anger onhit his hert, he callez

A prayer to þe hyʒe prynce for pyne on þys wyse:

‘I biseche þe, syre, now þouself jugge.

Watz not þis ilk my worde þat worþen is nouþe

Þat I kest in my cuntré when þou þy carp sendez ⁴¹⁵

Þat I schulde tee to þys toun þi talent to preche?

Wel knew I þi cortaysye, þy quoynt soffraunce,

Þy bounté of debonerté and þy bene grace,

Þy longe abydyng wyth lur, þy late vengaunce;

And ay þy mercy is mete, be mysse never so huge. ⁴²⁰

I wyst wel when I hade worded quatsoever I cowþe

To manace alle þise mody men þat in þis mote dowellez,

Wyth a prayer and a pyne þay myʒt her pese gete,

And þerfore I wolde haf flowen fer into Tarce.

Now, Lorde, lach out my lyf, hit lastes to longe! ⁴²⁵

Bed me bilyve my bale‐stour and bryng me on ende;

For me were swetter to swelt as swyþe, as me þynk,

Þen lede lenger þi lore þat þus me les makez.’

Þe soun of oure soverayn þen swey in his ere,

Þat upbraydes þis burne upon a breme wyse: ⁴³⁰

‘Herk, renk, is þis ryʒt so ronkly to wrath

For any dede þat I haf don oþer demed þe ʒet?’

 Jonas al joyles and janglande upryses

And haldez out on est half of þe hyʒe place,

And farandely on a felde he fettelez hym to bide, ⁴³⁵

For to wayte on þat won what schulde worþe after.

Þer he busked hym a bour, þe best þat he myʒt,

Of hay and of ever‐ferne and erbez a fewe,

For hit watz playn in þat place for plyande grevez

For to schylde fro þe schene oþer any schade keste. ⁴⁴⁰

He bowed under his lyttel boþe, his bak to þe sunne,

And þer he swowed and slept sadly al nyʒt,

Þe whyle God of his grace ded growe of þat soyle

Þe fayrest bynde hym abof þat ever burne wyste.

 When þe dawande day dryʒtyn con sende, ⁴⁴⁵

Þenne wakened þe wyʒ under wodbynde,

Loked alofte on þe lef þat lylled grene.

Such a lefsel of lof never lede hade,

For hit watz brod at þe boþem, boʒted on lofte,

Happed upon ayþer half, a hous as hit were, ⁴⁵⁰

A nos on þe norþ syde and nowhere non ellez,

Bot al schet in a schaʒe þat schaded ful cole.

Þe gome glyʒt on þe grene graciouse leves,

Þat ever wayved a wynde so wyþe and so cole;

Þe schyre sunne hit umbeschon, þaʒ no schafte myʒt ⁴⁵⁵

Þe mountaunce of a lyttel mote upon þat man schyne.

Þenne watz þe gome so glad of his gay logge,

Lys loltrande þerinne, lokande to toune,

So blyþe of his wodbynde he balteres þerunder,

Þat of no diete þat day – þe devel haf! – he roʒt. ⁴⁶⁰

And ever he laʒed as he loked þe loge alle aboute,

And wysched hit were in his kyth þer he wony schulde,

On heʒe upon Effraym oþer Ermonnes hillez:

‘Iwysse, a worþloker won to welde I never keped.’

And quen hit neʒed to naʒt, nappe hym bihoved; ⁴⁶⁵

He slydez on a sloumbe‐slep sloghe under leves,

Whil God wayned a worme þat wrot upe þe rote,

And wyddered watz þe wodbynde bi þat þe wyʒe wakned.

And syþen he warnez þe west to waken ful softe,

And sayez unte Zeferus þat he syfle warme, ⁴⁷⁰

Þat þer quikken no cloude bifore þe cler sunne,

And ho schal busch up ful brode and brenne as a candel.

 Þen wakened þe wyʒe of his wyl dremes

And blusched to his wodbynde þat broþely watz marred,

Al welwed and wasted þo worþelych leves; ⁴⁷⁵

Þe schyre sunne hade hem schent er ever þe schalk wyst.

And þen hef up þe hete and heterly brenned,

Þe warm wynde of þe weste wertes he swyþez.

Þe man marred on þe molde þat moʒt hym not hyde;

His wodbynde watz away, he weped for sorʒe. ⁴⁸⁰

With hatel anger and hot heterly he callez:

‘A, þou maker of man, what maystery þe þynkez

Þus þy freke to forfare forbi alle oþer?

With alle meschef þat þou may, never þou me sparez.

I kevered me a cumfort þat now is caʒt fro me, ⁴⁸⁵

My wodbynde so wlonk þat wered my heved,

Bot now I se þou art sette my solace to reve.

Why ne dyʒttez þou me to diʒe? I dure to longe.’

 Ʒet oure Lorde to þe lede laused a speche:

‘Is þis ryʒtwys, þou renk, alle þy ronk noyse, ⁴⁹⁰

So wroth for a wodbynde to wax so sone?

Why art þou so waymot, wyʒe, for so lyttel?’

‘Hit is not lyttel,’ quoþ þe lede, ‘bot lykker to ryʒt.

I wolde I were of þis worlde wrapped in moldez.’

‘Þenne byþenk þe, mon, if þe forþynk sore, ⁴⁹⁵

If I wolde help my hondewerk, haf þou no wonder.

Þou art waxen so wroth for þy wodbynde,

And travayledez never to tent hit þe tyme of an howre,

Bot at a wap hit here wax and away at anoþer,

And ʒet lykez þe so luþer, þi lyf woldez þou tyne. ⁵⁰⁰

Þenne wyte not me for þe werk, þat I hit wolde help,

And rwe on þo redles þat remen for synne.

Fyrst I made hem myself of materes myn one,

And syþen I loked hem ful longe and hem on lode hade.

And if I my travayl schulde tyne of termes so longe, ⁵⁰⁵

And type doun ʒonder toun when hit turned were,

Þe sor of such a swete place burde synk to my hert,

So mony malicious mon as mournez þerinne.

And of þat soumme ʒet arn summe, such sottez formadde

As lyttel barnez on barme þat never bale wroʒt, ⁵¹⁰

And wymmen unwytté þat wale ne couþe

Þat on hande fro þat oþer, for alle þis hyʒe worlde,

Bitwene þe stele and þe stayre disserne noʒt cunen,

What rule renes in roun bitwene þe ryʒt hande

And his lyfte, þaʒ his lyf schulde lost be þerfor; ⁵¹⁵

And als þer ben doumbe bestez in þe burʒ mony

Þat may not synne in no syt hemselven to greve;

Why schulde I wrath wyth hem, syþen wyʒez wyl torne

And cum and cnawe me for kyng and my carpe leve?

Wer I as hastif as þou, heere, were harme lumpen; ⁵²⁰

Couþe I not þole bot as þou, þer þryved ful fewe.

I may not be so malicious and mylde be halden,

For malyse is noʒt to mayntyne boute mercy withinne.’

Be noʒt so gryndel, godman, bot go forth þy wayes,

Be preue and be pacient in payne and in joye, ⁵²⁵

For he þat is to rakel to renden his cloþez

Mot efte sitte with more unsounde to sewe hem togeder.

Forþy when poverté me enprecez and paynez innoʒe

Ful softly with suffraunce saʒttel me bihovez;

Forþy penaunce and payne topreve hit in syʒt ⁵³⁰

Þat pacience is a nobel poynt, þaʒ hit displese ofte. Amen.

Notes

1 poynt ‘good quality, virtue’.

3 Suffraunce ‘endurance’, defining patience. The concept is further explored through the play on the two meanings of suffer in ll. 5–6. In l. 4, ho, ‘she’, refers back to suffraunce; compare the personification of the Beatitudes in ll. 30–3.

5–8 ‘For if anyone could endure misfortune, happiness would follow, and if anyone as a result of impatience is unable to endure, he suffers the more severely. Then it is better to put up with the buffet sometimes, though I may dislike it, than always express my impatience.’

10–12 ‘How Matthew said his master taught his disciples; he promised them eight blessings and for each one individually a reward for its merit in a different way.’ There follows in ll. 13–28 a fairly close translation of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.3–10.

13 The Gospel has ‘blessed are the poor in spirit’.

17 The Gospel has ‘blessed are they that mourn’, which was generally interpreted as a reference to the penitent sorrowing for sin.

25 halden her pese ‘remain at peace’. The Vulgate pacifici was understood both as ‘peacemakers’ and ‘those who are peaceful at heart’. The poet emphasizes the latter interpretation.

27 This differs from the Vulgate, which has ‘Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake’. The poet’s interpretation of this as ‘those who can control their heart’ acts as a definition of patience directed towards the case of Jonah to follow.

28 The eighth Beatitude is granted the same reward as the first, as the poet says in ll. 37–40.

31 Pitee applying to the fourth Beatitude (l. 19), evidently has the sense of the Latin pietas, ‘piety, sense of right’. For some examples of the common personification of the virtues as ladies, see MED merci n. (1), 6.

35 Matthew refers to ‘the poor in spirit’ rather than the materially poor, but in Luke 6.20 they are simply ‘ye poor’. Those faced with poverty are, like the poet himself, obliged to learn patience.

36 play me ‘enjoy myself, have fun’ (with the ladyes).

37–9 ‘In the text where these two are linked, they are placed within one framework as the first and the last, and as a legacy of their excellence receive the same reward.’ (See 28n.) In teme layde, ‘coupled together’ (teme, ‘team’), perhaps with a play on the sense ‘spoken of ’ (teme, ‘theme’).

42 lyke oþer greme ‘whether you like it or not’. Both verbs are impersonal and subjunctive.

43 þaʒ mon pyne þynk ‘even though it may seem hard’ (5.6.8).

44 maugré his mun ‘despite anything he may say’; mun, ‘mouth’.

46–7 ‘Since I am stuck with them both together I have to endure it; then it is easier for me to like it and praise their behaviour.’

49–50 ‘If I am ordained to have an inevitable fate, what good does it do me to be indignant or resentful?’

53 As an example the poet supposes his lord were to order him to travel to Rome. ‘What would protesting do for me except invite more trouble?’ This leads into the story of Jonah who showed just such reluctance towards his Lord.

54 A difficult line. Perhaps ‘it would be too much (to expect) that he would not compel me, despite anything I could do’. Compare Cleanness 21–2.

55–6 ‘And then I should have to endure compulsion and displeasure as a reward, (I) who might have yielded to his bidding, with his good will as my reward.’ The French noun bongré, ‘good will, thanks’, is the opposite of unþonk in the two parallel phrases.

57 Judé Judaea, including Samaria (l. 116). Neither is named in the Book of Jonah.

58 ‘To bring himself to safety he lands himself trouble.’

62 Jentyle prophete ‘prophet of the Gentiles’, and perhaps also ‘gentle (noble) prophet’.

68 poynt ‘point in time’: ‘which I shall put into your heart in that place when the time comes.’

71 venge me ‘I shall avenge myself’. For this use of the present tense see 5.6.1, and compare the verbs in ll. 78–80.

72 me … me ‘for me, on my behalf’, in both cases.

73–96 In the biblical account Jonah ‘rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord: and he went down to Joppe and found a ship going to Tharsis’ (Jonah 1.3). The poet expands greatly to describe Jonah’s reaction.

75 The line recalls l. 56.

76 ‘And if I am captured in Nineveh, my troubles will begin.’

83 Bot if ‘unless’.

84 ‘That I should be killed by reason of some offence.’

85 At alle peryles ‘whatever the consequences’.

86 I wyl me The verb of motion is omitted after the auxiliary verb (5.6.9): ‘I will (betake) myself’.

87 Tarce Tarshish.

89 An ironic echo of l. 65.

90 Japh Joppa.

92 ‘Even though the Father who made him was indifferent to (?) his well‐being.’ The meaning of fale is uncertain.

96 ‘Cruelly torn apart on a cross by many ruffians.’ The New Testament describes Jonah as a type or foreshadowing of Christ (Luke 11.30; Matthew 12.40). See Spearing (1970), 86–7; Andrew (1972–3), 230–3.

99 ‘Agrees a price with the sailors and pays them.’

101 ‘Then he stepped on to those boards (i.e. that ship), and they prepare their tackle.’ The Book of Jonah has nothing corresponding to this lively and detailed description of the ship setting sail.

103–4 ‘They swiftly weigh their anchors at the windlass, quickly fastened to the bowsprit the bowline kept in reserve.’ The bawelyne is spare because it is used only in difficult sailing conditions to hold the sail steady.

105 grete cloþ ‘mainsail’.

106–8 ‘They set a course to port and gain the luff (turn into the wind). The favourable wind at their back finds the belly of the sail; it turns this fine ship swiftly from the harbour.’ On me in l. 108, see 5.3.3.

110 daunger ‘power’.

111 þat wyʒ there is a similar periphrasis for God in 9/256.

116 were soʒt fro Samarye ‘had gone from Samaria’.

117–18 ‘Indeed he (God) looked with wide‐open eyes, of that he (Jonah) should have been sure; the words which that king (David) said often taught him that.’

121–4 ‘O fools among the people, consider once in a while, and understand sometimes, even though you are quite mad. Do you think that he who made all ears does not hear? It is not possible that he who formed each eye is blind.’ A paraphrase of Psalm 93.8–9 (AV 94.8–9).

130 waytes ‘watches’.

131 crafte ‘creation’, i.e. the winds.

133 Classical writers give Eurus as an east wind and Aquilo as a north‐northeast wind. Hence they sit in the easterly quarter (l. 133), and their combined force is a northeasterly (l. 137). St Paul is shipwrecked after a ‘tempestuous wind called Euroaquilo’ (Acts 27.14).

137–62 This magnificent storm‐scene is not biblical, but is a topos found in several alliterative poems; see Turville‐Petre, Description and Narrative, pp. 167–92.

138 con blowe ‘blew’. For this construction with con, see 5.6.3.

151–2 þenne suppe … water ‘then the ship had to drink the cold water’.

155–6 ‘Those who were keen to escape scooped out the dangerous water; for however unpleasant one’s journey, life is always sweet.’ See 5.4.6.

157–68 Compare: ‘And the mariners were afraid and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them’ (Jonah 1.5).

160 ʒif leþe wolde schape ‘to see if relief would come about’.

163 ‘Then those worn out with labouring knew no remedy.’ Wery followed by a past participle with prefix for‐ is an idiom.

164–8 The gods are supplied by the poet: Vernagu is a giant Saracen in the Charlemagne romances; Mahoun is Mahomet, portrayed as a false god in the Middle Ages (see 11/20); Mergot is mentioned in the Charlemagne romances as a heathen god.

173 ‘I recommend we cast lots for each person.’

174 lympes þe losse ‘incurs the loss’, i.e. ‘loses’.

181–8 ‘Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship and fell into a deep sleep’ (Jonah 1.5).

181 ‘But no man escaped his search.’

185 ‘Huddled up near the rudder (?) to avoid (for) the vengeance of heaven.’ The hurrok is perhaps a band to keep the rudder in position.

186 sloumbe‐selepe ‘deep sleep’. Sleeping commonly symbolizes lack of moral vigilance, as in Luke 12.36–40.

188 ‘May Ragnel in his fetters wake him from his dreams.’ Þer introduces a wish (5.6.6). Ragnel is the name of a devil in the Chester Plays and elsewhere.

197 What seches þou ‘why are you trying’.

200 when þou slayn worþes ‘when you are about to be killed’. On the tense, see 5.6.10.

202 ‘Where in the world do you want to go to …?’

204 Do gyf imperative (5.6.7).

208 at a worde one ‘with a single word’.

212 Er ‘before that’. The sense of hope, ‘believe’, is usual in Northern texts; e.g. 9/140, 15/67.

213 hym plural, as in l. 216.

216 ruyt hym reflexive, ‘hasten’.

218 ‘Since their sail had got away from them …’

219 ‘Heave and pull energetically to help themselves.’

220 nedles note ‘pointless effort’. The Vulgate has ‘And the men rowed hard to return to land: but they were not able, because the sea tossed and swelled upon them’ (Jonah 1.13).

224 ‘Except to condemn Jonah to his punishment at once.’

225 ‘The prince that prophets serve’ is Jonah’s God.

227 ‘By immersing their hands in innocent blood.’

231 ‘No sooner was he thrown out than that storm ceased.’ The construction with ne, which is based on French usage, is discussed by Anderson (1969), 61.

235 ‘That drove them relentlessly down to serve (i.e. at the command of) the deep sea.’

236 a swetter ‘a pleasanter (current)’.

238 on Moyses wyse ‘according to the manner of Moses’; as described in the next lines.

240 on ‘alone’.

244 ‘It would be a strange thing to believe if it were not for Holy Writ.’ Actually the details of the next 58 lines are not biblical.

249 soʒte ‘was falling into’, past tense of seke.

251 In illustrations of this episode, as indeed in the picture in this manuscript, Jonah is shown going into the whale’s mouth as the sailors hold on to his feet.

254 rydelande strondes perhaps ‘flowing currents’, but the gloss ‘winnowing sands’ by Andrew and Waldron (2007) is also possible.

258 warlowes ‘the devil’s’; often applied specifically to the Devil, as well as more generally to a monster. On the association of the whale with the Devil, see 274–5n.

259–60 ‘What man might believe that by any law of nature any creature could have remained alive so long inside him?’

262 þaʒ were ‘though he was’; were is subjunctive after þaʒ (5.6.6), with the subject he unexpressed (5.4.2), as again in l. 266.

266–7 ‘How he was taken by a creature out of the boat into the seething water, and tumbled into its throat without any more struggle.’

268 This remarkable simile of the mote in the minster door has been much commented on; see Burrow (1971), 134–5.

270 rop ‘intestine’ (OE ropp).

274–5 The hellish associations of the whale go back to Matthew 12.40: ‘For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights; so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.’

291 saf for merk one ‘except only for the darkness’.

300 hym wyth ‘in comparison with him (the whale)’.

301–2 ‘And as the man travelled along, certainly he always heard the mighty water on its (the whale’s) back and beating on its sides.’

305–36 The prayer is closely translated from Jonah 2.3–10, which in turn is based on Psalm 68 (AV 69).

308 ‘You plunged me into the murky heart of the deep sea.’ Compare ‘And thou hast cast me forth into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood hath compassed me: all thy billows and thy waves have passed over me’ (Jonah 2.4).

312 on daschande dam ‘one rushing flood’.

316 ‘To walk again in your temple and belong to you.’

317 to my wo stoundez ‘to my agonies of distress’. The Vulgate has ‘even to the soul’ (Jonah 2.6).

319 þe pure poplande hourle ‘the billowing surge itself’; pure is used as an intensive.

320 ‘To the farthest limit of each mountain, Lord, have I fallen.’ It translates ‘I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains’ (Jonah 2.7).

321 The Vulgate has ‘The bars of the earth have shut me up for ever’.

329 ‘I have meddled with (or struggled against) your mysterious ways for many a long day.’ So Jonah resolves to question God’s plan no longer.

332 ‘Give up their (share of) mercy for something (þink) that amounts to nothing.’ The Vulgate has ‘forsake their own mercy’ (Jonah 2.9).

333 þat … halden ‘what will faithfully be kept’.

336 ‘And keep to what you command me – have here my word on it!’

338 spare drye ‘bare dry land’.

342 ‘It may well be that it was necessary to wash his mantle.’ Dirty clothes traditionally symbolize the filth of sin.

343 ‘The shore that he was looking at and the habitation right by him.’

346 ‘Will you never go to Nineveh on any account?’, and, with a play on another sense of waye, ‘by no route of any kind’. The expression no kynnez has its origin in an OE genitive phrase meaning ‘of no kind’.

348 me gaynez non oþer ‘nothing else profits me’.

350 loke past participle, ‘locked, enclosed’. Following this, lauce has both its primary sense ‘set free’ and its secondary sense ‘utter’.

353–5 ‘It was a city very extensive and astonishing in its breadth, one that it was three days’ effort to travel through. Jonah walked one whole day’s journey altogether.’ The sense of journay here is ‘distance travelled in one day’. These lines translate Jonah 3.3–4: ‘Now Ninive was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey.’

364 swete ‘sweat, life‐blood’.

368 ‘That their mood quite changed and they grew cold in their heart.’

371–6 The Vulgate says only that they ‘put on sackcloth’ (Jonah 3.5).

376 plesed is past tense subjunctive, ‘might please’.

380 ‘He jumped into the middle of a heap of ashes.’

387 ‘That all the people that are alive in this city.’

388–94 The Vulgate has ‘let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed nor drink water’ (Jonah 3.7).

391 soghe hem so never ‘however much it may trouble them’; the verb is impersonal (5.6.8) and subjunctive. With so never, ‘however’, cf. never so, ll, 156, 420.

397–8 ‘Who knows or can know whether the Lord, who is generous in the great extent of his kindness, will be pleased?’

401–5 There is play on leven, ‘give up’, past tense laften (401, 403, 405), and leven, ‘believe’ (404, 405).

402 ‘And walk quietly in the path that God himself ordains.’

407 as he sayde i.e. as þe prynce said he would.

408 ‘Withheld his vengeance even though he (God) had vowed otherwise.’

410 A common alliterative simile, but yet a reminder of the obedient winds as an instrument of God’s wrath.

413 þouself ‘you yourself’ (5.4.4).

414–15 ‘Wasn’t this very thing that has now happened the word that I spoke (i.e. what I said) in my country, when you sent your message?’ This translates ‘Is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country?’ (Jonah 4.2).

426–8 ‘Give me my death blow quickly and put an end to me, for it would be pleasanter for me to die at once, it seems to me, than to go on spreading your teaching that makes me untruthful in this way.’

434 ‘And goes out on the east side of the great city.’

436 wayte ‘look’: ‘in order to see what would happen afterwards in that town’.

439 playn … for ‘bare of ’.

442 sadly ‘heavily’.

446 wodbynde a general term for a clinging plant. The Vulgate has hedera, ‘ivy’.

450 ‘Covered on every side like a house.’ The poet has invented the description of the bower.

451 The nos refers to some kind of projection such as a porch.

454–6 ‘Which a wind so mild and so cool stirred all the time. The bright sun shone around it, though no shaft of light, even to the extent of a little speck (i.e. in the smallest degree), could shine on that man.’

457–64 These lines are an expansion of ‘Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy’ (Jonah 4.6).

460 ‘So that he didn’t bother about any food that day – the Devil have it!’

463 Mount Ephraim and Mount Hermon are both mentioned frequently in the Old Testament.

464 keped ‘wanted’.

469 þe west ‘the west wind’ (Zephyr).

479 ‘The man who could not shelter himself suffered on the bare earth.’

482 what … þynkez ‘what accomplishment does it seem to you’.

493 lykker to ryʒt ‘more like what is right’, that is, ‘rather a matter of justice’.

494 of ‘out of ’.

495–6 ‘Then reflect, sir, if this greatly upsets you, don’t be surprised if I wanted to help the work of my hands.’

501 ‘Then do not blame me for wanting to help my handiwork.’

503 materes presumably the four elements of earth, air, fire and water.

myn one ‘by myself alone’.

505 of termes so longe ‘of such long duration’, that is, ‘that took so long’.

506 turned ‘converted’. So also wyl torne, ‘will be converted’, l. 518.

509–15 ‘And of that number there are furthermore some, such people without reason as small children in the lap, who never did wrong, and madwomen that for all this great world could not tell one hand from the other, (people who) cannot recognize the difference between the rung and the upright of a ladder (or recognize) what mysterious rule exists between (i.e. how to distinguish between) the right hand and one’s left, even though one’s life should be lost for it.’ The Vulgate ends: ‘persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts’. Lines 513–15 do not conform to the usual four‐line grouping (see Headnote), and it may be that one line has been lost before l. 513.

517 synne in no syt ‘do any evil’.

520 ‘If I were as hasty as you, sir, wrong would be done.’

522–3 ‘I could not be so severe and yet be regarded as merciful, for severity is not to be exercised unless there is mercy in it.’

523–4 Modern punctuation is forced to make a sharp distinction between God’s speech and the poet’s final comments. The manuscript has no punctuation and makes no such distinction: see ch. 7. However, godman is the preacher’s form of address; compare the Pardoner’s ‘“Goode men”, I seye’, Canterbury Tales VI 352 and 377.

529 ‘I am obliged quietly to reconcile myself to patience.’

530 topreve hit in syʒt ‘make it obvious’.

531 As in Pearl and Gawain, the end of the poem echoes the beginning.

9
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows Patience as the last item in British Library MS Cotton Nero A X. Unlike the other three poems in the manuscript, all of which are on religious themes, Gawain is a romance set in the court of King Arthur. The first episode from the poem, given here, recounts the New Year visit of the Green Knight to the court and the strange beheading‐game that he offers them.

Several other versions of the beheading‐game are known, the earliest in the Irish story Bricriu’s Feast, and others in French. The closest parallel is Le Livre de Carados of the thirteenth century, in which a knight arriving at Arthur’s court challenges the king’s nephew Carados to a beheading‐game, returning to the court a year after his beheading to give the return blow. Translations of these and other analogues are given by E. Brewer, From Cuchulainn to Gawain (Cambridge, 1973).

Gawain falls into four sections marked by large flourished capitals in the manuscript. In the second section, Sir Gawain sets off northwards to find the Green Knight as he had promised, arriving on Christmas Eve at a castle where he is lavishly entertained over the Christmas season, and is persuaded into an agreement with his host whereby each will exchange whatever he wins. In the third section, while the host goes hunting, his wife on three occasions visits Sir Gawain in his bedroom. On two evenings Gawain and the lord of the castle exchange kisses for hunting spoils, but Gawain fails to hand over the lady’s gift of the third day, a magic, lifesaving girdle. In the last section, Gawain rides to meet the Green Knight to receive his return blow at the Green Chapel nearby. After two feigned strokes, the Green Knight cuts Sir Gawain slightly, revealing that he was his host at the castle, and reproving him for his failure to keep his agreement. Sir Gawain returns home to Arthur’s court, bitterly ashamed at his failure in trawþe.

The emphasis on the knightly virtue of trawþe, loyalty to a pledged word, runs throughout the poem (see note to ll. 394–403). It is Gawain’s failure, as he sees it, in trawþe that leads to his humiliation, though both the Green Knight and Arthur take a more generous view of Gawain’s conduct.

The unrhymed alliterative lines of Patience and Erkenwald are in Gawain divided into verse‐paragraphs of irregular length by the addition of a rhyming section of five lines, rhyming: a (the one‐stress ‘bob’) baba (the ‘wheel’ of three stresses). The ‘bob and wheel’ is sometimes used to remarkable effect, as in ll. 146–50 and 296–300.

For comments on style and vocabulary, the date, authorship and the manuscript, see the Headnote to Patience above.

Editions

J. J. Anderson, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience (London, 1996)

Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron, The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript, 5th edn (Liverpool, 2007)

Ad Putter and Myra Stokes, The Works of the Gawain Poet (London, 2014)

J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, revised N. Davis, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Oxford, 1967)

Studies

David Aers, Community, Gender, and Individual Identity (London, 1988), pp. 153–78

Marie Borroff, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Stylistic and Metrical Study (New Haven, 1962)

Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, eds, A Companion to the Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1997)

J. A. Burrow, The Gawain‐Poet (Tavistock, 2001)

J. A. Burrow, A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (London, 1965)

Ad Putter, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance (Oxford, 1995)

Ad Putter, An Introduction to the Gawain‐Poet (London, 1996)

A. C. Spearing, The Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1970)

Thorlac Turville‐Petre, Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry (Liverpool, 2018), pp. 37–55

Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,

Þe borʒ brittened and brent to brondez and askez,

Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroʒt

Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe,

Hit watz Ennias þe athel and his highe kynde ⁵

Þat siþen depreced provinces and patrounes bicome

Welneʒe of al þe wele in þe west iles.

Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swyþe,

With gret bobbaunce þat burʒe he biges upon fyrst

And nevenes hit his aune nome as hit now hat; ¹⁰

Ticius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,

Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes up homes,

And fer over þe French flod Felix Brutus

On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez

  Wyth wynne; ¹⁵

 Where werre and wrake and wonder

 Bi syþez hatz wont þerinne,

 And oft boþe blysse and blunder

 Ful skete hatz skyfted synne.

Ande quen þis Bretayn watz bigged bi þis burn rych, ²⁰

Bolde bredden þerinne baret þat lofden,

In mony turned tyme tene þat wroʒten.

Mo ferlyes on þis folde han fallen here oft

Þen in any oþer þat I wot syn þat ilk tyme.

Bot of alle þat here bult of Bretaygne kynges, ²⁵

Ay watz Arthur þe hendest as I haf herde telle;

Forþi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe,

Þat a selly in siʒt summe men hit holden

And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez.

If ʒe wyl lysten þis laye bot on littel quile, ³⁰

I schal telle hit as tit, as I in toun herde

  With tonge;

 As hit is stad and stoken

 In stori stif and stronge,

 With lel letteres loken ³⁵

 In londe so hatz ben longe.

Þis kyng lay at Camylot upon Krystmasse

With mony luflych lorde, ledez of þe best,

Rekenly of þe Rounde Table alle þo rich breþer,

With rych revel oryʒt and rechles merþes. ⁴⁰

Þer tournayed tulkes by tymez ful mony,

Justed ful jolilé þise gentyle kniʒtes,

Syþen kayred to þe court caroles to make,

For þer þe fest watz ilyche ful fiften dayes,

With alle þe mete and þe mirþe þat men couþe avyse; ⁴⁵

Such glaum ande gle glorious to here,

Dere dyn upon day, daunsyng on nyʒtes,

Al watz hap upon heʒe in hallez and chambrez

With lordez and ladies as levest him þoʒt.

With all þe wele of þe worlde þay woned þer samen, ⁵⁰

Þe most kyd knyʒtez under Krystes selven

And þe lovelokkest ladies þat ever lif haden,

And he þe comlokest kyng þat þe court haldes;

For al watz þis fayre folk in her first age

  On sille; ⁵⁵

 Þe hapnest under heven,

 Kyng hyʒest mon of wylle;

 Hit were now gret nye to neven

 So hardy a here on hille.

Wyle Nw Ʒer watz so ʒep þat hit watz nwe cummen, ⁶⁰

Þat day doubble on þe dece watz þe douth served.

Fro þe kyng watz cummen with knyʒtes into þe halle,

Þe chauntré of þe chapel cheved to an ende,

Loude crye watz þer kest of clerkez and oþer,

‘Nowel!’ nayted onewe, nevened ful ofte; ⁶⁵

And syþen riche forth runnen to reche hondeselle,

Ʒeʒed ʒeres ʒiftes on hiʒ, ʒelde hem bi hond,

Debated busyly aboute þo giftes.

Ladies laʒed ful loude, þoʒ þay lost haden,

And he þat wan watz not wrothe – þat may ʒe wel trawe. ⁷⁰

Alle þis mirþe þay maden to þe mete tyme;

When þay had waschen worþyly þay wenten to sete,

Þe best burne ay abof, as hit best semed,

Whene Guenore ful gay grayþed in þe myddes,

Dressed on þe dere des, dubbed al aboute, ⁷⁵

Smal sendal bisides, a selure hir over

Of tryed tolouse, of tars tapites innoghe,

Þat were enbrawded and beten wyth þe best gemmes

Þat myʒt be preved of prys wyth penyes to bye

  In daye. ⁸⁰

 Þe comlokest to discrye

 Þer glent with yʒen gray,

 A semloker þat ever he syʒe

 Soth moʒt no mon say.

Bot Arthure wolde not ete til al were served, ⁸⁵

He watz so joly of his joyfnes and sumquat childgered;

His lif liked hym lyʒt, he lovied þe lasse

Auþer to longe lye or to longe sitte,

So bisied him his ʒonge blod and his brayn wylde.

And also anoþer maner meved him eke, ⁹⁰

Þat he þurʒ nobelay had nomen: he wolde never ete

Upon such a dere day er hym devised were

Of sum aventurus þyng an uncouþe tale,

Of sum mayn mervayle þat he myʒt trawe,

Of alderes, of armes, of oþer aventurus; ⁹⁵

Oþer sum segg hym bisoʒt of sum siker knyʒt

To joyne wyth hym in justyng, in jopardé to lay,

Lede, lif for lyf, leve uchon oþer,

As fortune wolde fulsun hom, þe fayrer to have.

Þis watz kynges countenaunce where he in court were ¹⁰⁰

At uch farand fest among his fre meny

  In halle.

 Þerfore of face so fere

 He stiʒtlez stif in stalle;

 Ful ʒep in þat Nw Ʒere ¹⁰⁵

 Much mirthe he mas with alle.

Thus þer stondes in stale þe stif kyng hisselven,

Talkkande bifore þe hyʒe table of trifles ful hende;

There gode Gawan watz grayþed Gwenore bisyde,

And Agravayn a la Dure Mayn on þat oþer syde sittes – ¹¹⁰

Boþe þe kynges sister‐sunes and ful siker kniʒtes.

Bischop Bawdewyn abof biginez þe table,

And Ywan, Uryn son, ette with hymselven.

Þise were diʒt on þe des and derworþly served,

And siþen mony siker segge at þe sidbordez. ¹¹⁵

Þen þe first cors come with crakkyng of trumpes,

Wyth mony baner ful bryʒt þat þerbi henged,

Nwe nakryn noyse with þe noble pipes,

Wylde werbles and wyʒt wakned lote,

Þat mony hert ful hiʒe hef at her towches, ¹²⁰

Dayntés dryven þerwyth of ful dere metes,

Foysoun of þe fresche, and on so fele disches

Þat pine to fynde þe place þe peple biforne

For to sette þe sylveren þat sere sewes halden

  On clothe. ¹²⁵

 Iche lede as he loved hymselve

 Þer laght withouten loþe;

 Ay two had disches twelve,

 Good ber and bryʒt wyn boþe.

Now wyl I of hor servise say yow no more, ¹³⁰

For uch wyʒe may wel wit no wont þat þer were;

Anoþer noyse ful newe neʒed bilive,

Þat þe lude myʒt haf leve liflode to cach,

For uneþe watz þe noyce not a whyle sesed,

And þe fyrst cource in þe court kyndely served, ¹³⁵

Þer hales in at þe halle dor an aghlich mayster,

On þe most on þe molde on mesure hyghe;

Fro þe swyre to þe swange so sware and so þik,

And his lyndes and his lymes so longe and so grete,

Half etayn in erde I hope þat he were, ¹⁴⁰

Bot mon most I algate mynn hym to bene,

And þat þe myriest in his muckel þat myʒt ride;

For of bak and of brest al were his bodi sturne,

Both his wombe and his wast were worthily smale,

And alle his fetures folʒande in forme þat he hade ¹⁴⁵

  Ful clene.

 For wonder of his hwe men hade,

 Set in his semblaunt sene;

 He ferde as freke were fade,

 And overal enker grene. ¹⁵⁰

Ande al grayþed in grene þis gome and his wedes,

A strayt cote ful streʒt þat stek on his sides,

A meré mantile abof, mensked withinne

With pelure pured apert, þe pane ful clene

With blyþe blaunner ful bryʒt, and his hod boþe ¹⁵⁵

Þat watz laʒt fro his lokkez and layde on his schulderes;

Heme wel‐haled hose of þat same grene,

Þat spenet on his sparlyr, and clene spures under

Of bryʒt golde upon silk bordes barred ful ryche;

And scholes under schankes þere þe schalk rides. ¹⁶⁰

And alle his vesture verayly watz clene verdure,

Boþe þe barres of his belt and oþer blyþe stones

Þat were richely rayled in his aray clene

Aboutte hymself and his sadel upon silk werkez,

Þat were to tor for to telle of tryfles þe halve ¹⁶⁵

Þat were enbrauded abof wyth bryddes and flyʒes,

With gay gaudi of grene, þe golde ay inmyddes.

Þe pendauntes of his payttrure, þe proude cropure,

His molaynes and alle þe metail anamayld was þenne,

Þe steropes þat he stod on stayned of þe same, ¹⁷⁰

And his arsounz al after and his aþel scurtes,

Þat ever glemered and glent al of grene stones.

Þe fole þat he ferkkes on fyn of þat ilke,

  Sertayn;

 A grene hors gret and þikke, ¹⁷⁵

 A sted ful stif to strayne,

 In brawden brydel quik;

 To þe gome he watz ful gayn.

Wel gay watz þis gome gered in grene,

And þe here of his hed of his hors swete. ¹⁸⁰

Fayre fannand fax umbefoldes his schulderes,

A much berd as a busk over his brest henges,

Þat wyth his hiʒlich here þat of his hed reches

Watz evesed al umbetorne abof his elbowes,

Þat half his armes þerunder were halched in þe wyse ¹⁸⁵

Of a kyngez capados þat closes his swyre;

Þe mane of þat mayn hors much to hit lyke,

Wel cresped and cemmed wyth knottes ful mony,

Folden in wyth fildore aboute þe fayre grene,

Ay a herle of þe here, anoþer of golde. ¹⁹⁰

Þe tayl and his toppyng twynnen of a sute,

And bounden boþe wyth a bande of a bryʒt grene,

Dubbed wyth ful dere stonez as þe dok lasted,

Syþen þrawen wyth a þwong, a þwarle knot alofte,

Þer mony bellez ful bryʒt of brende golde rungen. ¹⁹⁵

Such a fole upon folde ne freke þat hym rydes

Watz never sene in þat sale wyth syʒt er þat tyme

  With yʒe.

 He loked as layt so lyʒt,

 So sayd al þat hym syʒe; ²⁰⁰

 Hit semed as no mon myʒt

 Under his dynttez dryʒe.

Wheþer hade he no helme ne hawbergh nauþer,

Ne no pysan ne no plate þat pented to armes,

Ne no schafte ne no schelde to schwve ne to smyte, ²⁰⁵

Bot in his on honde he hade a holyn bobbe

Þat is grattest in grene when grevez ar bare,

And an ax in his oþer, a hoge and unmete,

A spetos sparþe to expoun in spelle quoso myʒt.

Þe lenkþe of an elnʒerde þe large hede hade, ²¹⁰

Þe grayn al of grene stele and of golde hewen,

Þe bit burnyst bryʒt with a brod egge,

As wel schapen to schere as scharp rasores.

Þe stele of a stif staf þe sturne hit bi grypte,

Þat watz wounden wyth yrn to þe wandez ende ²¹⁵

And al bigraven with grene in gracios werkes,

A lace lapped aboute þat louked at þe hede

And so after þe halme halched ful ofte,

Wyth tryed tasselez þerto tacched innoghe

On botounz of þe bryʒt grene brayden ful ryche. ²²⁰

Þis haþel heldez hym in and þe halle entres,

Drivande to þe heʒe dece, dut he no woþe,

Haylsed he never one, bot heʒe he overloked.

Þe fyrst word þat he warp, ‘Wher is’, he sayd,

‘Þe governour of þis gyng? Gladly I wolde ²²⁵

Se þat segg in syʒt and with hymself speke

  Raysoun.’

 To knyʒtez he kest his yʒe,

 And reled hym up and doun,

 He stemmed and con studie ²³⁰

 Quo walt þer most renoun.

Ther watz lokyng on lenþe þe lude to beholde,

For uch mon had mervayle quat hit mene myʒt

Þat a haþel and a horse myʒt such a hwe lach

As growe grene as þe gres and grener hit semed ²³⁵

Þen grene aumayl on golde glowande bryʒter.

Al studied þat þer stod and stalked hym nerre

Wyth al þe wonder of þe worlde what he worch schulde,

For fele sellyez had þay sen, bot such never are;

Forþi for fantoum and fayryʒe þe folk þere hit demed. ²⁴⁰

Þerfore to answare watz arʒe mony aþel freke,

And al stouned at his steven and ston‐stil seten

In a swoghe sylence þurʒ þe sale riche,

As al were slypped upon slepe so slaked hor lotez

  In hyʒe. ²⁴⁵

 I deme hit not al for doute,

 Bot sum for cortaysye;

 Bot let hym þat al schulde loute

 Cast unto þat wyʒe.

Þenn Arþour bifore þe hiʒ dece þat aventure byholdez ²⁵⁰

And rekenly hym reverenced, for rad was he never,

And sayde ‘Wyʒe, welcum iwys to þis place!

Þe hede of þis ostel, Arthour I hat.

Liʒt luflych adoun and lenge, I þe praye,

And quatso þy wylle is we schal wyt after.’ ²⁵⁵

‘Nay, as help me’, quoþ þe haþel, ‘he þat on hyʒe syttes,

To wone any quyle in þis won hit watz not myn ernde;

Bot for þe los of þe, lede, is lyft up so hyʒe,

And þy burʒ and þy burnes best ar holden,

Stifest under stel‐gere on stedes to ryde, ²⁶⁰

Þe wyʒtest and þe worþyest of þe worldes kynde,

Preue for to play wyth in oþer pure laykez,

And here is kydde cortaysye as I haf herd carp –

And þat hatz wayned me hider iwyis at þis tyme.

Ʒe may be seker bi þis braunch þat I bere here ²⁶⁵

Þat I passe as in pes and no plyʒt seche;

For had I founded in fere in feʒtyng wyse,

I have a hauberghe at home and a helme boþe,

A schelde and a scharp spere schinande bryʒt,

Ande oþer weppenes to welde, I wene wel als; ²⁷⁰

Bot for I wolde no were, my wedez ar softer.

Bot if þou be so bold as alle burnez tellen,

Þou wyl grant me godly þe gomen þat I ask

  Bi ryʒt.’

 Arthour con onsware ²⁷⁵

 And sayd, ‘Sir cortays knyʒt,

 If þou crave batayl bare,

 Here faylez þou not to fyʒt.’

‘Nay, frayst I no fyʒt, in fayth I þe telle!

Hit arn aboute on þis bench bot berdlez chylder. ²⁸⁰

If I were hasped in armes on a heʒe stede,

Here is no mon me to mach for myʒtez so wayke.

Forþy I crave in þis court a Crystemas gomen,

For hit is Ʒol and Nwe Ʒer and here ar ʒep mony.

If any so hardy in þis hous holdez hymselven, ²⁸⁵

Be so bolde in his blod, brayn in hys hede,

Þat dar stifly strike a strok for anoþer,

I schal gif hym of my gyft þys giserne ryche,

Þis ax þat is hevé innogh to hondele as hym lykes;

And I schal bide þe fyrst bur as bare as I sitte. ²⁹⁰

If any freke be so felle to fonde þat I telle,

Lepe lyʒtly me to and lach þis weppen;

I quit‐clayme hit for ever, kepe hit as his auen;

And I schal stonde hym a strok stif on þis flet,

Ellez þou wyl diʒt me þe dom to dele hym anoþer, ²⁹⁵

  Barlay;

 And ʒet gif hym respite

 A twelmonyth and a day.

 Now hyʒe and let se tite

 Dar any herinne oʒt say.’ ³⁰⁰

If he hem stowned upon fyrst, stiller were þanne

Alle þe heredmen in halle, þe hyʒ and þe loʒe.

Þe renk on his rouncé hym ruched in his sadel

And runischly his rede yʒen he reled aboute,

Bende his bresed broʒez blycande grene, ³⁰⁵

Wayved his berde for to wayte quoso wolde ryse.

When non wolde kepe hym with carp, he coʒed ful hyʒe

Ande rimed hym ful richly and ryʒt hym to speke.

‘What, is þis Arþures hous’, quoþ þe haþel þenne,

‘Þat al þe rous rennes of þurʒ ryalmes so mony? ³¹⁰

Where is now your sourquydrye and your conquestes,

Your gryndellayk and your greme and your grete wordes?

Now is þe revel and þe renoun of þe Rounde Table

Overwalt wyth a worde of on wyʒes speche,

For al dares for drede withoute dynt schewed!’ ³¹⁵

Wyth þis he laʒes so loude þat þe lorde greved,

Þe blod schot for scham into his schyre face

  And lere;

 He wex as wroth as wynde,

 So did alle þat þer were; ³²⁰

 Þe kynge, as kene bi kynde,

 Þen stod þat stif mon nere,

Ande sayde, ‘Haþel, by heven þyn askyng is nys,

And as þou foly hatz frayst, fynde þe behoves.

I know no gome þat is gast of þy grete wordes. ³²⁵

Gif me now þy geserne, upon Godez halve,

And I schal bayþen þy bone þat þou boden habbes.’

Lyʒtly lepez he hym to and laʒt at his honde.

Þen feersly þat oþer freke upon fote lyʒtis.

Now hatz Arthure his axe and þe halme grypez ³³⁰

And sturnely sturez hit aboute, þat stryke wyth hit þoʒt.

Þe stif mon hym bifore stod upon hyʒt,

Herre þen ani in þe hous by þe hede and more;

Wyth sturne schere þer he stod he stroked his berde,

And wyth a countenaunce dryʒe he droʒ doun his cote, ³³⁵

No more mate ne dismayd for hys mayn dintez

Þen any burne upon bench hade broʒt hym to drynk

  Of wyne.

 Gawan þat sate bi þe quene,

 To þe kyng he can enclyne: ³⁴⁰

 ‘I beseche yow with saʒez sene

 Þis melly mot be myne.

‘Wolde ʒe, worþilych lorde,’ quoþ Wawan to þe kyng,

‘Bid me boʒe fro þis benche and stonde by yow þere,

Þat I wythoute vylanye myʒt voyde þis table, ³⁴⁵

And þat my legge lady lyked not ille,

I wolde com to your counseyl bifore your cort ryche;

For me þink hit not semly, as hit is soþ knawen,

Þer such an askyng is hevened so hyʒe in your sale,

Þaʒ ʒe ʒourself be talenttyf, to take hit to yourselven, ³⁵⁰

Whil mony so bolde yow aboute upon bench sytten,

Þat under heven I hope non haʒerer of wylle

Ne better bodyes on bent þer baret is rered.

I am þe wakkest, I wot, and of wyt feblest,

And lest lur of my lyf, quo laytes þe soþe. ³⁵⁵

Bot for as much as ʒe ar myn em I am only to prayse,

No bounté bot your blod I in my bodé knowe;

And syþen þis note is so nys þat noʒt hit yow falles,

And I have frayned hit at yow fyrst, foldez hit to me;

And if I carp not comlyly, let alle þis cort rych ³⁶⁰

  Bout blame.’

 Ryche togeder con roun,

 And syþen þay redden alle same

 To ryd þe kyng wyth croun,

 And gif Gawan þe game. ³⁶⁵

Þen comaunded þe kyng þe knyʒt for to ryse,

And he ful radly upros and ruchched hym fayre,

Kneled doun bifore þe kyng and cachez þat weppen;

And he luflyly hit hym laft and lyfte up his honde

And gef hym Goddez blessyng and gladly hym biddes ³⁷⁰

Þat his hert and his honde schulde hardi be boþe.

‘Kepe þe, cosyn,’ quoþ þe kyng, ‘þat þou on kyrf sette,

And if þou redez hym ryʒt, redly I trowe

Þat þou schal byden þe bur þat he schal bede after.’

Gawan gotz to þe gome with giserne in honde, ³⁷⁵

And he baldly hym bydez, he bayst never þe helder.

Þen carppez to Sir Gawan þe knyʒt in þe grene:

‘Refourme we oure forwardes er we fyrre passe.

Fyrst I eþe þe, haþel, how þat þou hattes

Þat þou me telle truly, as I tryst may.’ ³⁸⁰

‘In god fayth,’ quoþ þe goode knyʒt, ‘Gawan I hatte

Þat bede þe þis buffet, quatso bifallez after,

And at þis tyme twelmonyth take at þe anoþer

Wyth what weppen so þou wylt, and wyth no wyʒ ellez

  On lyve.’ ³⁸⁵

 Þat oþer onswarez agayn:

‘Sir Gawan, so mot I þryve

 As I am ferly fayn

 Þis dint þat þou schal dryve.

‘Bigog,’ quoþ þe grene knyʒt, ‘Sir Gawan, me lykes ³⁹⁰

Þat I schal fange at þy fust þat I haf frayst here;

And þou hatz redily rehersed bi resoun ful trwe

Clanly al þe covenaunt þat I þe kynge asked,

Saf þat þou schal siker me, segge, bi þi trawþe,

Þat þou schal seche me þiself whereso þou hopes ³⁹⁵

I may be funde upon folde, and foch þe such wages

As þou deles me today bifore þis douþe ryche.’

‘Where schulde I wale þe?’ quoþ Gauan, ‘Where is þy place?

I wot never where þou wonyes, bi hym þat me wroʒt,

Ne I know not þe, knyʒt, þy cort ne þi name. ⁴⁰⁰

Bot teche me truly þerto and telle me howe þou hattes,

And I schal ware alle my wyt to wynne me þeder;

And þat I swere þe for soþe and by my seker traweþ.’

‘Þat is innogh in Nwe Ʒer; hit nedes no more’,

Quoþ þe gome in þe grene to Gawan þe hende. ⁴⁰⁵

‘Ʒif I þe telle trwly quen I þe tape have

And þou me smoþely hatz smyten, smartly I þe teche

Of my hous and my home and myn owen nome,

Þen may þou frayst my fare and forwardez holde.

And if I spende no speche, þenne spedez þou þe better, ⁴¹⁰

For þou may leng in þy londe and layt no fyrre.

  Bot slokes!

 Ta now þy grymme tole to þe

 And let se how þou cnokez.’

‘Gladly, sir, for soþe’, ⁴¹⁵

 Quoþ Gawan; his ax he strokes.

The grene knyʒt upon grounde grayþely hym dresses,

A littel lut with þe hede, þe lere he discoverez,

His longe lovelych lokkez he layd over his croun,

Let þe naked nec to þe note schewe. ⁴²⁰

Gauan gripped to his ax and gederes hit on hyʒt,

Þe kay fot on þe folde he before sette,

Let hit doun lyʒtly lyʒt on þe naked,

Þat þe scharp of þe schalk schyndered þe bones

And schrank þurʒ þe schyire grece and schade hit in twynne, ⁴²⁵

Þat þe bit of þe broun stel bot on þe grounde.

Þe fayre hede fro þe halce hit to þe erþe,

Þat fele hit foyned wyth her fete þere hit forth roled;

Þe blod brayd fro þe body, þat blykked on þe grene,

And nawþer faltered ne fel þe freke never þe helder, ⁴³⁰

Bot styþly he start forth upon styf schonkes

And runyschly he raʒt out þereas renkkez stoden,

Laʒt to his lufly hed and lyft hit up sone,

And syþen boʒez to his blonk, þe brydel he cachchez,

Steppez into stel‐bawe and strydez alofte, ⁴³⁵

And his hede by þe here in his honde haldez;

And as sadly þe segge hym in his sadel sette

As non unhap had hym ayled, þaʒ hedlez he were

  In stedde.

 He brayde his bluk aboute, ⁴⁴⁰

 þat ugly bodi þat bledde;

 Moni on of hym had doute

 Bi þat his resounz were redde.

For þe hede in his honde he haldez up even,

Toward þe derrest on þe dece he dressez þe face, ⁴⁴⁵

And hit lyfte up þe yʒe‐lyddez and loked ful brode

And meled þus much with his muthe as ʒe may now here:

‘Loke, Gawan, þou be grayþe to go as þou hettez,

And layte as lelly til þou me, lude, fynde,

As þou hatz hette in þis halle, herande þise knyʒtes. ⁴⁵⁰

To þe Grene Chapel þou chose, I charge þe, to fotte

Such a dunt as þou hatz dalt; disserved þou habbez

To be ʒederly ʒolden on Nw Ʒeres morn.

Þe Knyʒt of þe Grene Chapel men knowen me mony;

Forþi me for to fynde, if þou fraystez, faylez þou never. ⁴⁵⁵

Þerfore com, oþer recreaunt be calde þe behoves.’

With a runisch rout þe raynez he tornez,

Halled out at þe hal dor, his hed in his hande,

Þat þe fyr of þe flynt flaʒe fro fole hoves.

To quat kyth he becom knwe non þere, ⁴⁶⁰

Never more þen þay wyste from queþen he watz wonnen.

  What þenne?

 Þe kyng and Gawen þare

 At þat grene þay laʒe and grenne;

 Ʒet breved watz hit ful bare ⁴⁶⁵

 A mervayl among þo menne.

Þaʒ Arþer þe hende kyng at hert hade wonder,

He let no semblaunt be sene, bot sayde ful hyʒe

To þe comlych quene wyth cortays speche:

‘Dere dame, today demay yow never. ⁴⁷⁰

Wel bycommes such craft upon Cristmasse,

Laykyng of enterludez, to laʒe and to syng,

Among þise kynde caroles of knyʒtes and ladyez.

Neverþelece to my mete I may me wel dres,

For I haf sen a selly, I may not forsake.’ ⁴⁷⁵

He glent upon Sir Gawen and gaynly he sayde:

‘Now, sir, heng up þyn ax; þat hatz innogh hewen.’

And hit watz don abof þe dece on doser to henge,

Þer alle men for mervayl myʒt on hit loke

And bi trwe tytel þerof to telle þe wonder. ⁴⁸⁰

Þenne þay boʒed to a borde, þise burnes togeder,

Þe kyng and þe gode knyʒt, and kene men hem served

Of alle dayntyez double as derrest myʒt falle.

Wyth alle maner of mete and mynstralcie boþe,

Wyth wele walt þay þat day til worþed an ende ⁴⁸⁵

  In londe.

 Now þenk wel, Sir Gawan,

 For woþe þat þou ne wonde

 Þis aventure for to frayn

 Þat þou hatz tan on honde. ⁴⁹⁰

Notes

1–19 This account of the foundation of Britain by Brutus, great‐grandson of Aeneas who had fled from the ruins of Troy, goes back to Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain 1.3 and 16.

3 Þe tulk either Aeneas (Ennias, l. 5) or Antenor. For discussion of the interpretation and punctuation of ll. 1–7, see ch. 7.

5 highe kynde ‘noble kindred’. Geoffrey describes the victorious colonization of Europe by the Trojans.

7 west iles ‘western lands’, i.e. Europe.

8 Fro ‘when’, as also in l. 62.

ricchis hym ‘goes’. On the use of the historic present, see 5.6.1.

11 ‘Ticius goes to Tuscany and establishes settlements.’ The legendary founder of Tuscany is elsewhere named Tuscus. On the omission of the verb of motion, see 5.6.9.

12 Langaberde the legendary ancestor of the Langobardi or Lombards. lyftes up ‘sets up, builds’.

13 þe French flod the English Channel.

Felix Brutus The Latin epithet felix, ‘fortunate, faithful’, was used as a title for founders of cities.

17 Bi syþez ‘from time to time’.

19 ‘Have very rapidly alternated since.’

21 Bolde ‘bold men’. This use of an adjective as a noun is especially characteristic of alliterative verse; so also riche, ‘noble people, courtiers’, l. 66 etc. See 5.5.3.

22 ‘Who caused trouble in many a turbulent time.’

25 of Bretaygne qualifies kynges: ‘But of all the kings of Britain who lived here.’

26 Arthur was a descendant of Brutus, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth.

27 in erde here means no more than ‘truly’.

30–4 The narrator announces that he will recite his story to his audience as he himself heard it related in toun, ‘among a group of people’. It is not, however, a tale orally handed down, but a text of considerable antiquity, stad and stoken, ‘set down and fixed (in writing)’.

35–6 ‘Embodied in an authentic text as it has long been here.’ The sense of letteres is probably ‘written account, narrative’, as in The Destruction of Troy 26, ‘By lokyng of letturs þat lefte were of olde’; see MED lettre 3 (a). Some editors would interpret the lines as a reference to the antiquity of the alliterative tradition, taking lel to mean ‘correct’ rather than ‘truthful’, and letteres to mean ‘(alliterating) letters’.

39 Rekenly qualifies lay at Camylot: ‘All those noble brothers of the Round Table (lodged at Camelot) in splendour.’

43 caroles are dances accompanied by song. The term is fully discussed in R. L. Greene, The Early English Carols (2nd edn, Oxford, 1977), esp. pp. xxviii–xxix.

44 ilyche ful ‘equally lavish’.

49 as levest him þoʒt ‘as seemed best to them’; see 5.6.8.

51 under Krystes selven that is, ‘on earth’.

54 first age ‘the early part of youth, after childhood and before full maturity’ (Mary Dove, The Perfect Age of Man’s Life (Cambridge, 1986), 136). Cf. ll. 86–9, where the suggestion of youthfulness becomes more prominent.

55 On sille literally ‘on the floor’, hence ‘in the hall’.

56–9 ‘The most fortunate people on earth, their king a man pre‐eminent in courage; it would today be very difficult to name so bold a company on a castle‐mound.’

60 ‘While New Year was so fresh it had only just arrived’; that is, on New Year’s Day.

65 ‘“Noel!” was proclaimed anew, often called out.’

67–8 ‘Announced New Year’s presents loudly, handed them over, eagerly argued about those gifts.’ It is no longer clear what custom is here referred to; evidently some game in which the losers do not feel too distressed (l. 69).

71 ‘… until dinner time.’

73 ‘In each case (ay) the best man in the more honoured position (abof) …’ What is described is a medieval banquet with a high table at which the guests are ranked according to precedence, rather than a Round Table where all are equal.

74 Whene Guenore ‘Queen Guenevere’.

75–7 ‘Arrayed on the high dais, adorned all around, with fine fabric at her side, a canopy of excellent cloth of Toulouse over her, and many wall‐hangings of Tharsian fabric.’

79–80 ‘That could be proved of value to buy with money’, i.e. ‘that money might buy’. The ‘bob’ line (80) is a tag meaning ‘ever’.

81 comlokest ‘most lovely person’ (4.4.3), referring to Guenevere.

83–4 ‘Truly no one could say that he had ever seen a more attractive lady.’ Semloker is a comparative adjective used as a noun.

86 ‘He was so vigorous in his youthfulness and somewhat boyish’ (ch alliterates with j). Childgered is literally ‘with the behaviour of a child’. Taken together with the lines that follow, this is a remarkable description of a boyish king, developing the description of the court in her first age (l. 54). The Green Knight is to refer insultingly to the court’s youthfulness, l. 280.

87 ‘An energetic life pleased him …’

91 ff. Arthur’s refusal to eat until he has seen a marvel is a standard feature in romance, and appears in the closest analogue, the Carados story.

92–3 er … tale ‘until there was related to him an unknown tale of some daring action’. Arthur will not eat until he has heard a story previously unknown but credible (ll. 92–5), or received a challenge (ll. 96–9).

96–9 ‘Or someone requested him for a trusty knight to fight with him in a joust, a knight (lede) to put at risk (his) life for (the other’s) life, each one allow the other to have the advantage, as fortune might reward them.’

104 stiʒtlez … in stalle ‘stands’.

109–13 The seating is in this arrangement:

Guenevere is in the middle of the high table (l. 74), on the left of the place where Arthur will sit. To the left of the Queen is Gawain, and on his other side is his brother Agravain a la Dure Mayn, ‘of the Hard Hand’. They are sons of Arthur’s sister and King Lot of Orkney.

112 biginez þe table ‘sits at the place of honour’, on Arthur’s right hand.

113 with hymselven ‘with him’ (Bishop Baldwin). The diners, as was customary, are seated in pairs. Ywain, son of King Urien, is the hero of a famous romance by Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1177).

114–15 Those at the high table (des) are served first, and then (siþen) those at the side tables.

123 ‘That (it was) difficult …’

126 loved hymselve ‘liked for himself’.

128 ‘In each case two people had twelve dishes.’

131 no wont þat þer were ‘that there was no shortage’.

132 A noþer noyse in addition to the noise of drums and pipes.

133 ‘So that the man (Arthur) might have leave to take food’; cf. 91ff.

134 On the double negative uneþe … not, see 5.7.

137 ‘The largest on earth in height.’ For On þe most, ‘the very greatest’, see 5.5.2.

140–1 ‘I suppose he was really half a giant, but at any rate I declare him to be the largest man.’ For in erde, see 27n., and for this sense of hope, see 8/212n.

143 al ‘although’: ‘for although his body was forbidding in back and chest’.

145 folʒande in forme ‘in proportion to (literally ‘following’) the shape’. The visitor, though huge, has the flat stomach and slender waist and the proportionate features of an elegant knight.

146 clene ‘elegant’ (or adverb, ‘elegantly’).

148 ‘Set plain to see in his appearance.’

149 ‘He behaved as a knight who was hostile (?).’ According to MED, the meanings of fade range from ‘acting as an intruder’ to ‘bold’.

151–9 The knight wears clothes of green: a tight‐fitting tunic (cote), over that an elegant furred mantle or gown and a hood thrown back over his shoulders. His tight hose is also green, and his gold spurs are fastened with silk bands.

154 Fur that is pured has been trimmed so as to show only one colour.

155 boþe ‘as well’; that is, his hood was also green.

158 ‘That fastened on his calf.’ Hose was made separately for each leg and tied at the top; the Wife of Bath’s ‘hosen weren of fyn scarlet reed / Ful streite yteyd’ (Canterbury Tales I 456–7).

160 scholes ‘shoeless’. Soled hose was worn without shoes, here an indication that the knight has not come equipped for combat (see ll. 267–71).

165–6 ‘It would be too difficult to tell of half the little things that were embroidered on it …’

168–72 The equipment of the horse is similarly green and gold. The payttrure or peytrel is a breast‐strap; the cropure or crupper goes round the hindquarters; molaynes are perhaps studs on the bridle; arsounz are the bows at the front and back of the saddle.

171 after ‘in the same fashion’.

173 ‘The horse that he rides on bright with the same (colour).’ As in the previous stanza, the poet keeps to the last the information about the green skin, in this case of the horse.

180 of his hors swete ‘a match for his horse’.

183–6 The great beard and the fine hair from his head are clipped level above his elbows, thus covering his arms in the fashion of a short cape. A capados is apparently a hood with a cape attached.

187–90 The horse’s green mane is curled and combed, and interwoven with a strand of gold thread for every strand of hair.

191 ‘The tail and his forelock match up’ (OED twin v.²). Sute is the same noun as swete, l. 180.

193 as þe dok lasted ‘as far as the dock (fleshy part of the tail) lasted’.

199 ‘He looked at them as swiftly (lyʒt) as lightning (layt)’.

201–2 ‘It appeared that no‐one could survive under his blows.’

203 Wheþer ‘yet, even so’. Despite his threatening appearance, the knight has not come armed for combat.

206–7 The branch of holly is a symbol of peace (see ll. 265–6), and like the knight it is green,

209 ‘A cruel blade to describe in words, if anyone might.’

211 This massive axe‐head has a spike (grayn) at the back, made of green steel and gold.

214 ‘The grim fellow gripped it by the handle of a strong shaft.’ Stele is OE stela, stalk’ (not OE stēle, ‘steel’ as in l. 211). The axe‐shaft is bound with iron, with elegant green engraving; around it is looped a lace with tassles attached by bright green studs.

221–7 The Green Knight, acting according to the custom of hostile challengers in romances, rides straight up to the high table, greeting none of the courtiers, and unceremoniously demands to know where the king is. Arthur is not seated in his place (ll. 107–8).

225 Þe governour of þis gyng ‘the master of this company’. The words are abrupt and perhaps a little disrespectful.

229 reled hym ‘rolled them’ (his eyes).

230 ‘He paused and looked to see.’ Con forms a past tense; see 5.6.3.

237 ‘All those who were standing there looked intently and approached closer to him.’ The reference is to the servants, rather than the knights who remained seated ston‐stil (l. 242).

239 such never are ‘never anything like it before’.

246–9 ‘I suppose it was not entirely because of fear, but partly out of courtesy; at any rate they let him to whom all had to defer (i.e. Arthur) deal with that man.’ The subject pronoun ‘they’ is not expressed; see 5.4.2.

253 A direct answer to the Green Knight’s question of 224–5.

256 An emphatic form of ‘So help me God!’

258 for ‘(I have come here) because’. The knight gives three reasons: (a) Arthur’s personal fame, (b) the repute of the knights as warriors, (c) the court’s reputation for courtesy. Towards the end of the poem (2457ff.) he explains more specifically that the purpose was to test ‘þe grete renoun of þe Rounde Table’.

262 oþer pure laykez noble sports other than the jousting of l. 260.

267 in fere probably ‘in a group’, that is, ‘with a band of knights’; MED fere n. (2).

in feʒtyng wyse ‘equipped for combat’.

271 for I wolde no were ‘because I didn’t want a battle’.

273 gomen ‘game’; a word used eighteen times in the poem, with varying degrees of irony.

275 con onsware ‘answered’.

277 bare that is, ‘without armour’, as again in l. 290. Arthur, anxious to retrieve the honour of the court, misunderstands the request and asserts that the knight will find a combatant if he wants one.

285 ‘If anyone in this castle thinks himself so brave.’

287 for ‘in exchange for’. A very general reference to the beheading game.

291 to fonde þat I telle ‘to attempt what I suggest’.

294 stonde hym ‘take from him’.

295–6 Ellez as a conjunction means ‘provided that’: ‘on condition that you will grant me the right to strike him another (blow) in return’. The meaning of barlay is uncertain, though it has been identified with the cry ‘barley’ used as a truce‐term by children in the North‐West Midlands; see I. and P. Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Oxford, 1959), 135, 146–9.

298 ‘A year and a day’; ‘a period constituting a term for certain purposes, in order to ensure the completion of a full year’ (OED year, 7b). This phrase, together with quit‐clayme, dom and respite, reinforces the legal formality of the contract, in contrast to the knight’s description of it as a Crystemas gomen.

299 hyʒe imperative, ‘hurry up’.

306 wayte ‘observe’: ‘turned his beard from side to side to see who would get up’.

307 kepe hym with carp ‘engage him in conversation’, that is, ‘reply to him’.

308 ‘And drew himself up very proudly and prepared to speak.’

310 Þat … of ‘about which’.

315 dares ‘are cowering’ (plural).

319 as wroth as wynde a rather common alliterative simile, as in 8/410.

321 ‘The King, as a bold man by nature.’

324 fynde þe behoves ‘it is right that you find it’.

328–9 Arthur goes up to the knight and takes the axe from him. The knight then dismounts.

331 þat stryke wyth hit þoʒt ‘intending to strike with it’.

336 hys mayn dintez ‘Arthur’s powerful practice blows’.

337 Þen ‘than if’.

341 saʒez sene ‘plain words’. For adjectival sene, see also l. 148.

343 Wolde ʒe a conditional clause, ‘if you would’; see 5.9.1 (iii).Wawan this is a regular form of Gawain’s name necessary for the alliteration.

343–61 Gawain addresses Arthur with the polite ʒe, in contrast to the Green Knight’s more abrupt þou (see 5.4.1). His whole speech is characterized by elaborate courtesy: he asks Arthur to command him to leave the table and he hopes Guenevere at his side will not be offended; he argues that the king himself should not have to deal with such an arrogant proposal, but that he, the least of the knights, whose only virtue is kinship with Arthur, has a right to it, having asked first to take on this foolish business.

345 vylanye ‘discourtesy’. It is what characterizes a villein, a person of low birth.

346 ‘And provided that my liege lady were not displeased.’ Guenevere will be left with an empty place on either side.

347 com to your counseyl ‘come to consult with you’.

348–50 The construction is ‘It would seem to me improper … (for you) to take it on yourself’. The clause is interrupted by the subordinate clauses: Þer … ‘in a situation where’, and Þaʒ … ‘even though’.

352 ‘(So bold) that I believe there are none on earth firmer in courage.’

355 ‘And my life would be the least loss, if anyone wants to know the truth.’

356 Bot for as much as ‘only in as much as’.

359 foldez hit ‘it belongs to’.

360 rych is probably a verb, ‘make arrangements’. Gawain hopes that if his offer is not acceptable the court will come to some other arrangement bout blame, that is, without rebuking him for his intervention.

362 Ryche an adjective used as a noun; see 21n.

363 same ‘together, with one accord’.

369 he Arthur. ‘He courteously gave it up to him.’

372–4 ‘“Make sure, nephew,” said the King, “that you place one blow, and if you manage him properly I fully believe that you’ll survive the blow that he’ll offer you afterwards.”’ Arthur seems to imply, rather too optimistically, that Gawain can dispatch the knight with one blow.

376 he bayst never þe helder ‘he was not at all disconcerted’.

381–5 Gawain formally states his name and the terms of the agreement he is accepting.

383 take at þe anoþer ‘I’ll take a return blow from you’.

384–5 and … lyve ‘and from no other man alive’; i.e. not from the Green Knight’s deputy after his death.

387–8 ‘Upon my life (literally, ‘so may I prosper as’) I am very glad.’

394–403 The knight asks Gawain to confirm bi þi trawþe that he himself will make the journey to receive the return blow. Gawain points out that he needs directions on where to find the knight, and assures him he will do all he can to get to the appointed place, by my seker traweþ. The word trawþe may here be translated ‘pledge of honour’. After the return blow Gawain admits his failure in trawþe (l. 2383).

399 bi … wroʒt i.e. ‘by God’.

402 ware alle my wyt ‘use all my intelligence’, that is, ‘do everything in my power’.

407 teche is parallel to telle: ‘if I tell you … and inform you promptly … then you may …’

409 frayst my fare an idiom, meaning perhaps ‘find out what I shall do’, or ‘come and see how I am’. Frayst may mean ‘test’ or ‘seek’; fare may mean ‘behaviour’ or ‘condition’.

412 slokes imperative plural, ‘let’s stop!’ or ‘that’s enough!’

424–5 ‘So that the sharp weapon severed the bones of the man, and slipped through the white fat and split it in two.’ The two lines alliterate on the fricative sch, strongly contrasting with the plosive b and t of l. 426.

426 broun as in OE the meaning is ‘shining’ when the reference is to metal.

429 The þat‐clause qualifies blod: ‘The blood that shone on the green (skin) poured from the body’. See 5.9.4.

437–9 ‘The knight seated himself in his saddle as firmly as if no misadventure had troubled him, even though he was without his head there.’

441 ugly ‘gruesome’.

442–3 ‘Many a person was afraid of him by the time that his words were uttered.’

445 þe derrest either plural, ‘the noblest knights’, or singular, referring to Guenevere, whose horrified reaction is implied by l. 470. At the end of the poem (ll. 2460–2) the Green Knight says that one purpose of his visit was to frighten Guenevere to death.

447 his ‘its’ (4.3.3).

450 herande ‘in the hearing of ’.

451 þou chose imperative, ‘go’.

454 The knight fulfils the promise of l. 408, but with a troubling imprecision.

455 ‘Therefore if you ask you won’t fail to find me.’

456 recreaunt ‘one who admits defeat’.

459 fole hoves ‘the hooves of the horse’ (4.2.4).

460–1 None of the courtiers have any more idea of where he went than they have of where he came from. Cf. the fairy hunt in 5/288, ‘never he nist whider þai bicome’.

464 grene ‘green man’.

465–6 ‘Yet it was very openly accounted among those men as a marvel.’ So Arthur may begin eating.

471–3 Arthur speciously places the adventure in the category of standard Christmas entertainment: performing of interludes, singing and caroles. The ‘interlude’ at this date was an entertainment, not necessarily dramatic, during a feast. On the meaning of caroles, see 43n.

474–5 ‘Nevertheless I may indeed begin my meal, for I can’t deny I’ve seen an extraordinary sight.’ Arthur concedes that this is not entirely the expected Christmas fare.

476 gaynly perhaps here ‘aptly’, though the adverb is often used rather imprecisely. The expression ‘hang up your axe’, here used literally, had the proverbial sense, also appropriate here, of ‘rest after your work’. See Whiting A251, and compare The Owl and the Nightingale 658, ‘Hong up þin ax!’, where it means ‘Give up!’.

480 ‘And by the authentic evidence of it (the axe) they might describe the wonderful event.’ The axe hanging above the table was proof of the story. (To telle is, like loke, dependent on myʒt; 5.6.5.)

483 as derrest myʒt falle ‘as might suit the noblest knights’.

487–90 The poet addresses Gawain with a note of warning: ‘Now think carefully, Sir Gawain, that you do not hesitate because of the danger to attempt this adventure that you have undertaken.’

10
Pearl

Pearl is the first text in British Library MS Cotton Nero A X. It tells of a narrator who, grieving the loss of his Pearl, his baby daughter, meets her in a vision of Paradise. The father–daughter relationship has, however, changed utterly, to the dreamer’s bewilderment and humiliation, as his daughter, now a queen in heaven, rebukes him for his earth‐bound attitudes and his fixation upon his own misery, rather than upon her beatific transformation and her joyous life in eternity. Sometimes sternly, she explains to him why the innocent have the highest place in heaven as Brides of Christ. In the later part of the poem, she grants him a vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of herself among the 144,000 virgins following the Lamb (the source is Apocalypse/Revelation, chapters 21 and 14.1–4). The dreamer is so enraptured by this vision that he madly tries to swim the river to reach his daughter, and wakes from his dream full of regret.

The structure of Pearl is extraordinarily intricate. The total of 1212 lines in twelve‐line stanzas mirrors the twelve‐fold dimensions of the Heavenly City. The tightly rhyming stanzas are linked in groups of five, with a refrain line running throughout the group, and a link‐word binding the last line of each stanza to the first line of the next, as well as to the first line of the following group, which is marked by a flourished capital in the manuscript. The lines are essentially iambic tetrameter with heavy alliteration (see H. N. Duggan in Brewer and Gibson, Companion (1997), pp. 232–8). The poet uses the rich verbal resources of alliterative poetry, and stretches and explores the meanings of the link‐words, which carry the development of the argument. The last line of the poem recalls the first, so that the poem is itself a pearl in shape, ‘wemlez, clene and clere / And endelez rounde’ (ll. 737–8).

The poet’s chief source is the Bible, particularly the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation. Some passages show that the poet knew the Roman de la Rose. There are intriguing parallels with the work of Italian writers, especially with Dante’s Divine Comedy (see Kean (1967), pp. 120–32), and a striking thematic similarity with Boccaccio’s Latin poem Olympia, which is also an elegy for a little daughter. Chaucer used a similar range of authors for his dream‐vision, The Parliament of Fowls (see Headnote to text 16), and it is likely that Pearl would have impressed contemporaries as equally in tune with the most fashionable continental works.

Editions

J. J. Anderson, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience (London, 1996)

Malcolm Andrew and Ronald Waldron, The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript, 3rd edn (Exeter, 2002)

E. V. Gordon, Pearl (Oxford, 1953)

Ad Putter and Myra Stokes, The Works of the Gawain Poet (London, 2014)

Studies

Ian Bishop, Pearl in its Setting (Oxford, 1968)

Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, eds, A Companion to the Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1997)

J. A. Burrow, The Gawain‐Poet (Tavistock, 2001)

P. M. Kean, The Pearl: An Interpretation (London, 1967)

Ad Putter, An Introduction to the Gawain‐Poet (London, 1996)

A. C. Spearing, The Gawain‐Poet (Cambridge, 1970)

I

Perle plesaunte to prynces paye

To clanly clos in golde so clere,

Oute of Oryent, I hardyly saye,

Ne proved I never her precios pere,

So rounde so reken in uche araye, ⁵

So smal, so smoþe her sydez were;

Quere‐so‐ever I jugged gemmez gaye,

I sette hyr sengeley in synglure.

Allas, I leste hyr in on erbere;

Þurʒ gresse to grounde hit fro me yot. ¹⁰

I dewyne, fordolked of luf‐daungere

Of þat pryvy perle wythouten spot.

Syþen in þat spote hit fro me sprange,

Ofte haf I wayted, wyschande þat wele

Þat wont watz whyle devoyde my wrange ¹⁵

And heven my happe and al my hele.

Þat dotz bot þrych my hert þrange,

My breste in bale bot bolne and bele;

Ʒet þoʒt me never so swete a sange

As stylle stounde let to me stele; ²⁰

For soþe þer fleten to me fele

To þenke hir color so clad in clot;

O moul þou marrez a myry juele,

My privy perle wythouten spotte.

Þat spot of spysez mot nedez sprede ²⁵

Þer such rychez to rot is runne;

Blomez blayke and blwe and rede

Þer schynez ful schyr agayn þe sunne;

Flor and fryte may not be fede

Þer hit doun drof in moldez dunne, ³⁰

For uch gresse mot grow of graynez dede –

No whete were ellez to wonez wonne.

Of goud uche goude is ay bygonne,

So semly a sede moʒt fayly not

Þat spryngande spycez up ne sponne ³⁵

Of þat precios perle wythouten spotte.

To þat spot þat I in speche expoun

I entred in þat erber grene

In Augoste in a hyʒ seysoun

Quen corne is corven wyth crokez kene. ⁴⁰

On huyle þer perle hit trendeled doun

Schadowed þis wortez ful schyre and schene:

Gilofre, gyngure and gromylyoun

And pyonys powdered ay bytwene;

Ʒif hit watz semly on to sene, ⁴⁵

A fayr reflayr ʒet fro hit flot.

Þer wonys þat worþyly, I wot and wene,

My precious perle wythouten spot.

Bifore þat spot my honde I spennd,

For care ful colde þat to me caʒt; ⁵⁰

A devely dele in my hert denned,

Þaʒ resoun sette myselven saʒt.

I playned my perle þat þer watz penned

Wyth fyrce skyllez þat faste faʒt;

Þaʒ kynde of Kryst me comfort kenned, ⁵⁵

My wreched wylle in wo ay wraʒte.

I felle upon þat floury flaʒt,

Suche odour to my hernez schot,

I slode upon a slepyng‐slaʒte

On þat precios perle wythouten spot. ⁶⁰

II

Fro spot my spyryt þer sprang in space;

My body on balke þer bod in sweven.

My goste is gon in Godez grace

In aventure þer mervaylez meven.

I ne wyste in þis worlde quere þat hit wace, ⁶⁵

Bot I knew me keste þer klyfez cleven;

Towarde a foreste I bere þe face

Where rych rokkez wer to dyscreven.

Þe lyʒt of hem myʒt no mon leven,

Þe glemande glory þat of hem glent, ⁷⁰

For wern never webbez þat wyʒez weven

Of half so dere adubbemente.

Dubbed wern alle þo downez sydez

Wyth crystal klyffez so cler of kynde;

Holtewodez bryʒt aboute hem bydez, ⁷⁵

Of bollez as blwe as ble of ynde.

As bornyst sylver þe lef on slydez,

Þat þike con trylle on uch a tynde;

Quen glem of glodez agaynz hem glydez,

Wyth schymeryng schene ful schrylle þay schynde. ⁸⁰

Þe gravayl þat on grounde con grynde

Wern precious perlez of oryente;

Þe sunne‐bemez bot blo and blynde

In respecte of þat adubbement.

The adubbemente of þo downez dere ⁸⁵

Garten my goste al greffe forʒete;

So frech flavorez of frytez were

As fode hit con me fayre refete.

Fowlez þer flowen in fryth in fere

Of flaumbande hwez boþe smale and grete; ⁹⁰

Bot sytole‐stryng and gyternere

Her reken myrþe moʒt not retrete,

For quen þose bryddez her wyngez bete,

Þay songen wyth a swete asent;

So gracios gle couþe no mon gete ⁹⁵

As here and se her adubbement.

So al watz dubbet on dere asyse

Þat fryth þer fortwne forth me ferez;

Þe derþe þerof for to devyse

Nis no wyʒ worþé þat tonge berez. ¹⁰⁰

I welke ay forth in wely wyse,

No bonk so byg þat did me derez;

Þe fyrre in þe fryth, þe feirer con ryse

Þe playn, þe plonttez, þe spyse, þe perez,

And rawez and randez and rych reverez, ¹⁰⁵

As fyldor fyn her bonkes brent.

I wan to a water by schore þat scherez,

Lorde, dere watz hit adubbement!

The dubbemente of þo derworth depe

Wern bonkez bene of beryl bryʒt; ¹¹⁰

Swangeande swete þe water con swepe

Wyth a rownande rourde raykande aryʒt.

In þe founce þer stonden stonez stepe

As glente þurʒ glas þat glowed and glyʒt,

As stremande sternez quen stroþe‐men slepe ¹¹⁵

Staren in welkyn in wynter nyʒt;

For uche a pobbel in pole þer pyʒt

Watz emerad, saffer, oþer gemme gente,

Þat alle þe loʒe lemed of lyʒt,

So dere watz hit adubbement. ¹²⁰

III

The dubbement dere of doun and dalez,

Of wod and water and wlonk playnez,

Bylde in me blys, abated my balez,

Fordidden my stresse, dystryed my paynez.

Doun after a strem þat dryʒly halez ¹²⁵

I bowed in blys, bredful my braynez;

Þe fyrre I folʒed þose floty valez,

Þe more strenghþe of joye myn herte straynez.

As Fortune fares þer as ho fraynez,

Wheþer solace ho sende, oþer ellez sore, ¹³⁰

Þe wyʒ to wham her wylle ho waynez

Hyttez to have ay more and more.

More of wele watz in þat wyse

Þen I cowþe telle þaʒ I tom hade,

For urþely herte myʒt not suffyse ¹³⁵

To þe tenþe dole of þo gladnez glade;

Forþy I þoʒt þat Paradyse

Watz þerover gayn þo bonkez brade.

I hoped þe water were a devyse

Bytwene myrþez by merez made; ¹⁴⁰

Byʒonde þe broke, by slente oþer slade,

I hoped þat mote merked wore,

Bot þe water watz depe, I dorst not wade,

And ever me longed ay more and more. ¹⁴⁵

More and more, and ʒet wel mare,

Me lyste to se þe broke byʒonde,

For if hit watz fayr þer I con fare,

Wel loveloker watz þe fyrre londe.

Abowte me con I stote and stare,

To fynde a forþe faste con I fonde; ¹⁵⁰

Bot woþez mo iwysse þer ware,

Þe fyrre I stalked by þe stronde,

And ever me þoʒt I schulde not wonde

For wo þer welez so wynne wore.

Þenne nwe note me com on honde ¹⁵⁵

Þat meved my mynde ay more and more.

More mervayle con my dom adaunt:

I seʒ byʒonde þat myry mere

A crystal clyffe ful relusaunt;

Mony ryal ray con fro hit rere. ¹⁶⁰

At þe fote þerof þer sete a faunt,

A mayden of menske ful debonere,

Blysnande whyt watz hyr bleaunt;

I knew hyr wel I hade sen hyr ere.

As glysnande golde þat man con schere ¹⁶⁵

So schon þat schene anunder schore;

On lenghe I loked to hyr þere,

Þe lenger I knew hyr more and more.

The more I frayste hyr fayre face,

Her fygure fyn quen I had fonte, ¹⁷⁰

Suche gladande glory con to me glace

As lyttel byfore þerto watz wonte.

To calle hyr, lyste con me enchace,

Bot baysment gef myn hert a brunt;

I seʒ hyr in so strange a place, ¹⁷⁵

Such a burre myʒt make myn herte blunt.

Þenne verez ho up her fayre frount,

Hyr vysayge whyt as playn yvore,

Þat stonge myn hert, ful stray astount,

And ever þe lenger, þe more and more. ¹⁸⁰

IV

More þen me lyste my drede aros;

I stod ful stylle and dorste not calle.

Wyth yʒen open and mouth ful clos,

I stod as hende as hawk in halle.

I hoped þat gostly watz þat porpose; ¹⁸⁵

I dred onende quat schulde byfalle

Lest ho me eschaped þat I þer chos,

Er I at steven hir moʒt stalle.

Þat gracios gay wythouten galle,

So smoþe, so smal, so seme slyʒt, ¹⁹⁰

Rysez up in hir araye ryalle,

A precios pyece in perlez pyʒt.

Perlez pyʒte of ryal prys

Þere moʒt mon by grace haf sene,

Quen þat frech as flor‐de‐lys ¹⁹⁵

Doun þe bonke con boʒe bydene.

Al blysnande whyt watz hir beau biys

Upon at sydez and bounden bene

Wyth þe myryeste margarys at my devyse

Þat ever I seʒ ʒet with myn yʒen, ²⁰⁰

Wyth lappez large, I wot and I wene,

Dubbed with double perle and dyʒte;

Her cortel of self sute schene,

Wyth precios perlez al umbepyʒte.

A pyʒt coroune ʒet wer þat gyrle ²⁰⁵

Of marjorys and non oþer ston,

Hiʒe pynakled of cler quyt perle,

Wyth flurted flowrez perfet upon;

To hed hade ho non oþer werle;

Her lere‐leke al hyr umbegon, ²¹⁰

Her semblaunt sade for doc oþer erle,

Her ble more blaʒt þen whallez bon.

As schorne golde schyr her fax þenne schon,

On schylderez þat leghe unlapped lyʒte;

Her depe coler ʒet wonted non ²¹⁵

Of precios perle in porfyl pyʒte.

Pyʒt watz poyned and uche a hemme

At honde, at sydez, at overture,

Wyth whyte perle and non oþer gemme,

And bornyste quyte watz hyr vesture. ²²⁰

Bot a wonder perle wythouten wemme

Inmyddez hyr breste watz sette so sure,

A mannez dom moʒt dryʒly demme

Er mynde moʒt malte in hit mesure.

I hope no tong moʒt endure ²²⁵

No saverly saghe say of þat syʒt,

So watz hit clene and cler and pure

Þat precios perle þer hit watz pyʒt.

Pyʒt in perle, þat precios pyse

On wyþer half water com doun þe schore; ²³⁰

No gladder gome heþen into Grece

Þen I, quen ho on brymme wore.

Ho watz me nerre þen aunte or nece,

My joy forþy watz much þe more.

Ho profered me speche, þat special spyce, ²³⁵

Enclynande lowe in wommon lore,

Caʒte of her coroun of grete tresore

And haylsed me wyth a lote lyʒte.

Wel watz me þat ever I watz bore

To sware þat swete in perlez pyʒte! ²⁴⁰

V

‘O Perle’, quod I, ‘in perlez pyʒt,

Art þou my perle þat I haf playned,

Regretted by myn one on nyʒte?

Much longeyng haf I for þe layned

Syþen into gresse þou me aglyʒte. ²⁴⁵

Pensyf, payred, I am forpayned,

And þou in a lyf of lykyng lyʒte,

In Paradys erde of stryf unstrayned!

What wyrde hatz hyder my juel vayned

And don me in þys del and gret daunger? ²⁵⁰

Fro we in twynne wern towen and twayned,

I haf ben a joylez juelere.’

That juel, þenne, in gemmez gente

Vered up her vyse wyth yʒen graye,

Set on hyr coroun of perle orient, ²⁵⁵

And soberly after þenne con ho say:

‘Sir, ʒe haf your tale mysetente

To say your perle is al awaye,

Þat is in cofer so comly clente,

As in þis gardyn gracios gaye, ²⁶⁰

Hereinne to lenge for ever and play

Þer mys ne mornyng com never here.

Her were a forser for þe, in faye,

If þou were a gentyl jueler.

‘Bot, jueler gente, if þou schal lose ²⁶⁵

Þy joy for a gemme þat þe watz lef,

Me þynk þe put in a mad porpose

And busyez þe aboute a raysoun bref.

For þat þou lestez watz bot a rose

Þat flowred and fayled as kynde hyt gef; ²⁷⁰

Now þurʒ kynde of þe kyste þat hyt con close,

To a perle of prys hit is put in pref.

And þou hatz called þy wyrde a þef,

Þat oʒt of noʒt hatz mad þe cler!

Þou blamez þe bote of þy meschef; ²⁷⁵

Þou art no kynde jueler.’

A juel to me þen watz þys geste,

And juelez wern hyr gentyl sawez.

‘Iwyse,’ quod I, ‘my blysfol beste,

My grete dystresse þou al todrawez. ²⁸⁰

To be excused I make requeste;

I trawed my perle don out of dawez.

Now haf I fonde hyt I schal ma feste,

And wony wyth hyt in schyr wod‐schawez,

And love my Lorde and al his lawez ²⁸⁵

Þat hatz me broʒt þys blys ner.

Now were I at yow byʒonde þise wawez,

I were a joyful jueler.’

‘Jueler,’ sayde þat gemme clene,

‘Wy borde ʒe men? So madde ʒe be! ²⁹⁰

Þre wordez hatz þou spoken at ene;

Unavysed, for soþe, wern alle þre.

Þou ne woste in worlde quat on dotz mene;

Þy worde byfore þy wytte con fle.

Þou says þou trawez me in þis dene ²⁹⁵

Bycawse þou may wyth yʒen me se;

Anoþer, þou says in þys countré

Þyself schal won wyth me ryʒt here;

Þe þrydde, to passe þys water fre –

Þat may no joyfol jueler. ³⁰⁰

VI

‘I halde þat jueler lyttel to prayse

Þat levez wel þat he seʒ wyth yʒe,

And much to blame and uncortoyse

Þat levez oure Lorde wolde make a lyʒe,

Þat lelly hyʒte your lyf to rayse, ³⁰⁵

Þaʒ fortune dyd your flesch to dyʒe.

Ʒe setten hys wordez ful westernays

Þat levez noþynk bot ʒe hit syʒe;

And þat is a poynt o sorquydryʒe

Þat uche god mon may evel byseme, ³¹⁰

To leve no tale be true to tryʒe

Bot þat hys one skyl may dem.

‘Deme now þyself if þou con dayly

As man to God wordez schulde heve.

Þou saytz þou schal won in þis bayly; ³¹⁵

Me þynk þe burde fyrst aske leve,

And ʒet of graunt þou myʒtez fayle.

Þou wylnez over þys water to weve;

Er moste þou cever to oþer counsayl,

Þy corse in clot mot calder keve, ³²⁰

For hit watz forgarte at Paradys greve;

Oure ʒore fader hit con mysseʒeme.

Þurʒ drwry deth boz uch man dreve,

Er over þys dam hym Dryʒtyn deme.’

‘Demez þou me’, quod I, ‘my swete, ³²⁵

To dol agayn, þenne I dowyne.

Now haf I fonte þat I forlete,

Schal I efte forgo hit er ever I fyne?

Why schal I hit boþe mysse and mete?

My precios perle dotz me gret pyne. ³³⁰

What seruez tresor bot garez men grete,

When he hit schal efte wyth tenez tyne?

Now rech I never for to declyne,

Ne how fer of folde þat man me fleme;

When I am partlez of perlez myne, ³³⁵

Bot durande doel what may men deme?’

‘Thow demez noʒt bot doel‐dystresse’

Þenne sayde þat wyʒt. ‘Why dotz þou so?

For dyne of doel of lurez lesse

Ofte mony mon forgos þe mo. ³⁴⁰

Þe oʒte better þyseluen blesse

And love ay God in wele and wo,

For anger gaynez þe not a cresse;

Who nedez schal þole, be not so þro.

For þoʒ þou daunce as any do, ³⁴⁵

Braundysch and bray þy braþez breme,

When þou no fyrre may to ne fro,

Þou moste abyde þat he schal deme.

‘Deme Dryʒtyn, ever hym adyte,

Of þe way a fote ne wyl he wryþe; ³⁵⁰

Þy mendez mountez not a myte,

Þaʒ þou for sorʒe be never blyþe.

Stynt of þy strot and fyne to flyte,

And sech hys blyþe ful swefte and swyþe;

Þy prayer may hys pyté byte, ³⁵⁵

Þat Mercy schal hyr craftez kyþe;

Hys comforte may þy langour lyþe,

And þy lurez of lyʒtly leme,

For marre oþer madde, morne and myþe,

Al lys in hym to dyʒt and deme.’ ³⁶⁰

VII

Thenne demed I to þat damyselle:

‘Ne worþe no wrathþe unto my Lorde

If rapely I rave, spornande in spelle.

My herte watz al wyth mysse remorde,

As wallande water gotz out of welle. ³⁶⁵

I do me ay in hys myserecorde;

Rebuke me never wyth wordez felle,

Þaʒ I forloyne, my dere endorde,

Bot kyþez me kyndely your coumforde,

Pytosly þenkande upon þysse: ³⁷⁰

Of care and me ʒe made acorde,

Þat er watz grounde of alle my blysse.

‘My blysse, my bale, ʒe han ben boþe,

Bot much þe bygger ʒet watz my mon;

Fro þou watz wroken fro uch a woþe, ³⁷⁵

I wyste never quere my perle watz gon;

Now I hit se now leþez my loþe.

And quen we departed we wern at on;

God forbede we be now wroþe,

We meten so selden by stok oþer ston. ³⁸⁰

Þaʒ cortaysly ʒe carp con,

I am bot mol and manerez mysse,

Bot Crystes mersy, and Mary and Jon,

Þise arn þe grounde of alle my blisse.

‘In blysse I se þe blyþely blent, ³⁸⁵

And I a man al mornyf mate.

Ʒe take þeron ful lyttel tente,

Þaʒ I hente ofte harmez hate.

Bot now I am here in your presente,

I wolde bysech, wythouten debate, ³⁹⁰

Ʒe wolde me say in sobre asente

What lyf ʒe lede, erly and late,

For I am ful fayn þat your astate

Is worþen to worschyp and wele, iwysse.

Of alle my joy þe hyʒe gate ³⁹⁵

Hit is, in grounde of alle my blysse.’

‘Now blysse, burne, mot þe bytyde,’

Þen sayde þat lufsoum of lyth and lere,

‘And welcum here to walk and byde,

For now þy speche is to me dere. ⁴⁰⁰

Maysterful mod and hyʒe pryde,

I hete þe, arn heterly hated here.

My Lorde ne lovez not for to chyde,

For meke arn alle þat wonez hym nere;

And when in hys place þou schal apere, ⁴⁰⁵

Be dep devote in hol mekenesse.

My Lorde þe lamb lovez ay such chere,

Þat is þe grounde of alle my blysse.

‘A blysful lyf þou says I lede;

Þou woldez knaw þerof þe stage. ⁴¹⁰

Þow wost wel when þy perle con schede,

I watz ful ʒong and tender of age,

Bot my Lorde þe lombe þurʒ hys godhede,

He toke myself to hys maryage,

Corounde me quene in blysse to brede ⁴¹⁵

In lenghe of dayez þat ever schal wage;

And sesed in alle hys herytage

Hys lef is; I am holy hysse;

Hys prese, hys prys, and hys parage

Is rote and grounde of alle my blysse.’ ⁴²⁰

VIII

‘Blysful,’ quod I, ‘may þys be trwe?

Dysplesez not if I speke errour.

Art þou þe quene of hevenez blwe

Þat al þys worlde schal do honour?

We leven on Marye, þat grace of grewe, ⁴²⁵

Þat ber a barne of vyrgyn flour.

Þe croune fro hyr quo moʒt remwe,

Bot ho hir passed in sum favour?

Now for synglerty o hyr dousour,

We calle hyr Fenyx of Arraby ⁴³⁰

Þat fereles fleʒe of hyr fasor,

Lyk to þe quen of cortaysye.’

‘Cortayse quen,’ þenne sayde þat gaye,

Knelande to grounde, folde up hyr face,

‘Makelez moder and myryest may, ⁴³⁵

Blessed bygynner of uch a grace!’

Þenne ros ho up and con restay,

And speke me towarde in þat space:

‘Sir, fele here porchasez and fongez pray,

Bot supplantorez none wythinne þys place. ⁴⁴⁰

Þat emperise al hevenz hatz

And urþe and helle in her bayly.

Of erytage ʒet non wyl ho chace,

For ho is quen of cortaysye.

‘The court of þe kyndom of God alyve ⁴⁴⁵

Hatz a property in hytself beyng:

Alle þat may þerinne aryve

Of alle þe reme is quen oþer kyng,

And never oþer ʒet schal depryve,

Bot uchon fayn of oþerez hafyng, ⁴⁵⁰

And wolde her corounez wern worþe þo fyve,

If possyble were her mendyng.

Bot my Lady of quom Jesu con spryng,

Ho haldez þe empyre over us ful hyʒe,

And þat dysplesez non of oure gyng, ⁴⁵⁵

For ho is quene of cortaysye.

‘Of courtaysye, as saytz Saynt Poule,

Al arn we membrez of Jesu Kryst:

As heved and arme and legg and naule

Temen to hys body ful trwe and tryste, ⁴⁶⁰

Ryʒt so is uch a krysten sawle

A longande lym to þe mayster of myste.

Þenne loke what hate oþer any gawle

Is tached oþer tyʒed þy lymmez bytwyste:

Þy heved hatz nauþer greme ne gryste ⁴⁶⁵

On arme oþer fynger þaʒ þou ber byʒe.

So fare we alle, wyth luf and lyste,

To kyng and quene by cortaysye.’

‘Cortaysé’, quod I, ‘I leve,

And charyté grete be yow among, ⁴⁷⁰

Bot, my speche þat yow ne greve,

. . . . . . .

Þyself in heven overhyʒ þou heve,

To make þe quen þat watz so ʒonge.

What more honour moʒte he acheve ⁴⁷⁵

Þat hade endured in worlde stronge,

And lyved in penaunce hys lyvez longe,

Wyth bodyly bale hym blysse to byye;

What more worschyp moʒt he fonge

Þen corounde be kyng by cortaysé?’ ⁴⁸⁰

Notes

1 paye ‘delight’.

2 To clanly clos ‘to enclose elegantly’.

3 Oryent Pearls from the Orient were especially prized.

6 The pearl is described in terms of feminine beauty (so her). Cf. l. 190, The Owl and the Nightingale 204n., and especially Chaucer, Troilus 3.1247–8: ‘Hire armes smale … / Hire sydes longe, flesshly, smothe and white.’

11 ‘I pine away, terribly wounded by the power of love.’ Daungere is the domination of a lord (or Fortune etc.) over a subject, and of an imperious mistress over a frustrated lover.

12–13 The play on two senses of the link‐word spot runs throughout this section. See Putter (1996), p. 148.

17–18 ‘That (keeping watch there) just stabs my heart painfully, causes my breast just to swell and fester in misery.’ Two senses of dotz are involved: ‘does’ (l. 17), and ‘causes to’ (understood in l. 18).

19–20 ‘Yet never did there seem to me as sweet a song as an occasion of stillness allowed to steal up on me.’ Perhaps a comment on the bitter‐sweetness of self‐indulgent grief.

21 fele ‘many (such occasions, or such songs)’.

29 ‘Flower and fruit cannot be faded.’

31–2 ‘Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit’ (John 12.24–5). Langland’s version of this is similar: ‘Sholde nevere whete wexe but whete furste deyede’ (Piers Plowman C.XII.180).

33 ‘Everything good always comes from that which is good.’

35 ‘Without flourishing spice‐plants shooting up.’

39 hyʒ seysoun probably just ‘height of the season’, though critics have attempted to identify a particular harvest festival, e.g. Lammas (‘loaf‐mass’) on 1 August. Dream‐visions are conventionally set in spring or summer (e.g. The Owl and the Nightingale l. 1), but autumn is here appropriate as the time when ‘al rypez and rotez þat ros upon fyrst’ (Gawain 528).

41 huyle ‘mound’, a sense evidenced in place‐names (not the same word as hill). Perhaps from OE *hygel.

42 ‘These bright and beautiful plants cast their shadow.’

46 ‘A lovely scent also wafted from it.’

51 ‘A dismal sorrow took refuge in my heart’; devely is probably related to Old Icelandic daufligr, ‘lonely’, and the verb denned is from the noun den, ‘shelter’.

52 sette myselven saʒt ‘brought me peace’. The conflict between reason and unreasoning emotions is described further in 55–6 below, and forms the basis of the discussion between the Dreamer and the Pearl. Kean (1967, p. 40) quotes from St Bernard on the reason offering consolation to the will.

55–6 ‘Though Christ’s nature offered me comfort, my wretched will continually suffered in sorrow’; wraʒte is from OE wærcan, ‘to suffer’, to be distinguished from OE wyrcan, ‘to work’. As both man and God, Christ shares in human suffering and offers the promise of eternity.

59 ‘I slipped into a deep slumber.’ For slaʒte, ‘sudden blow’, see Patience 192, and cf. Patience 186 for the deep sleep.

61 in space ‘after a while’.

65 quere þat hit wace ‘where it was’.

66 ‘But I knew myself (i.e. that I was) set down where cliffs are split apart.’ MED records cleven under cleven v.(1) from OE cleofian, and glosses ‘remain’. The association with cliff suggests instead MED cleven v.(2), from OE clēofan, ‘split’. Cf. Cleanness 965, ‘cloven alle in lyttel cloutes þe clyffez’.

68 to dyscreven passive sense, ‘to be seen’; see 5.6.5.

71–2 ‘For fabrics that people weave were never of half such wonderful splendour.’ The fabrics, jewels and silver (77) have associations with courtly life, as do the words adubbemente and dubbed, the primary sense of which still survives in ‘dubbing a knight’.

77–8 ‘The leaves that quiver in profusion on every branch slip over (each other) like burnished silver.’ On the separation of the þat‐clause from the antecedent lef, see 5.9.4.

80 ‘With lovely shimmering they shone piercingly.’ The adverb schrylle creates a remarkable synaesthetic effect, since it elsewhere refers to sounds.

81 con grynde see 5.6.3; and cf. l. 88 etc.

84 In respecte of ‘by comparison with’.

87 flavorez ‘scents’. The word did not acquire its modern association with taste until the seventeenth century.

106 ‘Like fine gold thread were their steep banks.’

107 ‘I reached a river that winds by a bank.’ (For the sense of scherez, ‘diverges’, cf. the modern verb ‘sheer away’.) The water is later (ll. 1055–6) identified as the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God.

108 hit genitive ‘its’ (4.3.3).

111–12 ‘Plashing sweetly, the water rushed by, flowing along with a murmuring sound.’

114 ‘that glowed and glinted like a shaft of light through glass’. Lines 113–20 are closely paralleled in an Italian description of the Heavenly Jerusalem; see Putter (1996), p. 157. Less close is Dante’s description of the river of light towards the end of the Paradiso (xxx. 61–9); see Kean (1967), pp. 105–11.

115–16 The second comparison is to brilliant stars shining in the winter sky while humans sleep. Though stroþe‐men presumably refers generally to people, in place‐names the first element has the very specific sense ‘marshy land overgrown with brushwood’.

129–32 ‘As it happens when Fortune makes trial, whether she sends comfort or sorrow, the person to whom she sends whatever she wants always comes to have more and more’ (of either comfort or sorrow). The dreamer thinks he is having a run of good luck.

136 gladnez glade ‘happy joys’.

139–40 Difficult. Perhaps: ‘I thought the river must be a feature established as a boundary between delightful places.’ Merez is here taken as MED mere n.(3) ‘boundary’, though the plural is a problem; it might instead be MED mere n.(2) ‘pool, water’, as at l. 158; thus ‘a feature between delightful places set out beside pools’. In any case, the dreamer supposes that the river cuts him off from other pleasant spots. Putter (1996), p. 154, compares the description of the Garden of Pleasure in the Roman de la Rose 1387–90.

142 ‘I supposed that castle was situated’. The ordered beauty of his surroundings leads the poet to believe that there is some grand habitation over the river; mote is literally ‘moat’, hence ‘building with a moat, walled city, etc.’.

144 me longed impersonal (5.6.8).

146 þe broke byʒonde ‘across the river’.

153–4 ‘And all the time I thought that where the joys were so delightful I ought not to hold back because of fear.’

157 ff. The dreamer’s vision of Pearl may be compared to Dante’s meeting with his beloved Beatrice in Purgatorio, canto xxx. See Kean (1967), pp. 120–32.

165 ‘Like glistening cut gold’. Gold may be cut into thin strips; see note to 9/189.

168 þe lenger ‘the longer (I looked)’.

171–2 ‘Such a consoling sense of bliss, as hitherto I had rarely experienced, swept over me.’

179 ful stray astount ‘stunned into utter bewilderment’. stray is adv. ‘astray, off course’.

183–4 The same image of the meek (hende) hawk sitting quietly indoors is used in one of the Harley Lyrics.

185 ‘I supposed the signification of that (vision) was a spiritual one.’

187 This extended sense of chos, ‘perceived’, is found in Gawain 798.

195 þat frech as ‘that one as lovely as’.

197 biys ‘precious linen garment’. The maiden is dressed as a Bride of the Lamb: ‘The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself. And it is granted to her that she should clothe herself with fine linen (byssinum), glittering and white; for the fine linen are the justifications of saints’ (Apocalypse (Revelation) 19.7–8). The illustration in the manuscript shows the maiden in a white dress with wide hanging sleeves in the fashion of the time.

198–9 ‘Open at the sides and beautifully adorned with the loveliest pearls, in my estimation.’ These details of the maiden’s mantle are not depicted in the illustration, so that the tight‐fitting cortel (l. 203) is not visible there.

208 ‘With flowers figured exquisitely upon it.’

209–10 ‘On her head she had no other circlet (than her crown); her wimple was wrapped all about her (face).’ Lere‐leke is literally ‘face‐linen’.

211 ‘Her expression dignified enough for a duke or an earl.’

213 See note to l. 165.

214 ‘(Hair) that lay unbound lightly on the shoulders’. She has her hair loose, as an unmarried girl would. See 5.9.4 for the word‐order.

215–16 ‘And further, her high collar was not lacking in precious pearls set in the embroidery.’

223–4 ‘A man’s judgement might be completely dammed up (i.e. struck immobile) before the mind could melt into the measure of it (i.e. comprehend its significance).’ The movement of the mind is imagined as water unfreezing. See Kean (1967), pp. 125–6, comparing Dante’s Purgatorio, xxx. 85–99.

231 ‘(There was) no happier man from here to Greece.’ A conventional hyperbole.

233 nerre i.e. ‘more closely related’. The line suggests that the child is the dreamer’s daughter. We learn later that she died when she was only a year old (l. 483).

235 profered me speche ‘invited me to converse’ rather than ‘addressed me’. The maiden’s deep bow and greeting acknowledge the dreamer as her father and encourage him to speak. See Burrow, Gestures, p. 30 (Bibliography, 9.3).

236 wommon is genitive sg. See 4.2.4.

237 caʒte of ‘took off ’.

246 Throughout this stanza the dreamer speaks in terms associated with romantic love. Compare ll. 6 and 11 and notes.

251 ‘Ever since we were pulled apart and separated.’

255 ff. The maiden had bowed and doffed her crown as a mark of respect for her father, but now replaces it before speaking as a queen of heaven. She begins by addressing her father as a respectful child should, ‘Sir, ʒe…’ (see 5.4.1), but then switches to the familiar þou, which her father uses to her except when she rebukes him especially severely, e.g. ll. 369ff.

260 Both adjectives modify gardyn. See 5.5.1.

263 ‘This place would indeed be a strong‐box for you.’ See l. 271 below.

267–8 ‘It seems to me you are set on a mad course and trouble yourself with a short‐lived matter.’

270 as kynde hyt gef ‘as its nature decreed’. Notice the repetition of kynde in this stanza.

271 kyste, ‘chest’, continues the image of heaven as the cofer (l. 259) and the forser (l. 263). All denote a jewel‐chest, but also suggest a coffin. Now that she is in heaven, the maiden has proved to be a pearl of great value. Later (ll. 730–5) the maiden explicitly refers to the parable likening heaven to the jeweller finding his pearl of great price (Matt. 13.45–6).

274–5 ‘That has manifestly made you something from nothing. You are blaming your misfortune on its remedy.’

279 blysfol beste ‘blessed peerless one’. She is blysfol because she is in heavenly bliss.

282 don out of dawez ‘deprived of days’, that is, ‘dead’.

285 love ‘praise’ (see Glossary, lovyd).

287–8 were I at yow… I were ‘if I were with you… I would be’. On subjunctive were in subordinate and main clause, see 5.6.6; on the word‐order of the subordinate clause, see 5.9.1 (iii).

293–4 ‘You haven’t the slightest idea what one of them (on) means. Your words run ahead of your understanding.’

295–6 The reprimand is that the dreamer believes only because he has seen, and has expressed surprise (in ll. 282–3) at finding his resurrected Pearl. The biblical parallel is the story of doubting Thomas: ‘Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and have believed’ (John 20.29).

297–9 Anoþer refers to the dreamer’s argument in ll. 283–4; þe þrydde to ll. 287–8.

301 to prayse passive sense; see 5.6.5.

302 þat i.e. ‘only what’.

307 ‘You distort his words entirely’. Westernays apparently means ‘out of shape’ (from Old French bestorneis, ‘astray’, influenced by OE westerne).

309 poynt o sorquydryʒe ‘instance of pride’.

311 be true to tryʒe ‘be established as true’.

312 hys one skyl ‘his reason alone’.

313 con dayly ‘spoke courteously’.

316 Me þynk þe burde See 5.6.8 for this double impersonal construction.

319 ‘Before that you must arrive at another view of things.’ The dreamer cannot cross the river until he has been transfigured through death. Cever is the same verb as kever in Patience 223.

322 ‘Our forefather (Adam) mistreated it.’

324 deme in this instance ‘ordain, give permission (to pass)’. Cf. Patience 386.

Note the extended meanings of the link‐word in the next three stanzas.

325 Demez þou ‘If you condemn’; see 5.9.1 (iii).

328 er ever I fyne ‘before I reach my end’.

329 The dreamer asks why he should lose what he has found as soon as he has come across it.

331 men indefinite ‘one’; see 5.4.3.

333 for to declyne ‘whether I go downhill’.

335 perlez is usually emended to perle, but the dreamer is perhaps thinking of his tresor more generally.

336 ‘What may it be regarded as except everlasting grief?’

339–40 ‘In the clatter of sorrowing over lesser losses, many people often miss out on the greater (good).’

342 love ‘praise’.

344 ‘Since you are obliged to suffer, don’t be so impatient.’ Close to Patience 6.

345–6 The image is of a doe pulled down by hunting dogs.

351–2 ‘Even if you are never happy because of your sorrow, your relief will not increase at all’; i.e. mourning will not bring relief from sorrow.

356 ‘So that Mercy will reveal her powers.’ Cf. Patience 32.

358 of lyʒtly leme ‘easily drive off’. Some editors unnecessarily emend leme (OE lemian) to fleme, ‘banish’.

359–60 ‘For whether you lament or rave, mourn and hide your feelings, it all lies in Him to decree and judge.’

362 ‘May my Lord not become angry.’

365 ‘Just like gushing water that pours from a spring.’ Here it is tears that ‘well up’, but the verb wallen is associated with other emotions also: cf. Gawain 1762, ‘wallande joye’.

368 endorde probably ‘adored one’, though the word is not elsewhere recorded. Andrew and Waldron instead derive it from Old French endorer, interpreting it as ‘gold‐adorned one’.

371–2 The maiden, once the source of the dreamer’s happiness, introduced him to sorrow.

375 ‘From the moment when you were delivered from every danger.’ To keep the peace, the dreamer tries to see life on earth from the maiden’s point of view.

380 by stok oþer ston i.e. ‘anywhere’ (stok ‘tree‐trunk’).

383 At his death, Christ entrusted his mother to St John (John 19.26).

386 mornyf mate ‘miserably dejected’.

392 erly and late ‘from morning to night’.

394 ‘Has indeed become one of honour and prosperity.’

396 in grounde of ‘at the foundation of’.

408 The antecedent of Þat is Lorde; see 5.9.4.

410 þe stage ‘my position in it’.

412 See note to l. 233.

413–14 For the Bride of the Lamb see l. 197n.

417–18 ‘And his beloved is in possession of all his inheritance.’ The maiden uses legal language to emphasize her right to her position in heaven, granted to her as the Bride of Christ. The common notion of the ‘heritage of heaven’ (see Piers Plowman, text 7a, l. 60a) looks back to Romans 8.16–17.

418 hysse ‘his’.

425 þat grace of grewe ‘from whom grace sprang’ (5.4.6). See Luke 1.28.

426 MED flour n.(1), 2 (d), illustrates the use of ‘flower’ to refer to virginity.

428 ‘Unless she outdid her in some quality.’

430 In The Book of the Duchess 982, Chaucer similarly describes the dead duchess as the Phoenix of Arabia. Alexander the Great visited the phoenix as one of the wonders of the east.

431 ‘Which flew unique from its creator.’ For the emendation of freles, ‘faultless’, cf. Wars of Alexander 5120: ‘a fereles foule a Fenix’.

432 cortaysye On the exploration throughout this section of the concept and implications of heavenly courtesy, see Spearing (1970), pp. 11–12.

434 folde up is past participle: ‘with her face raised’.

438 ‘And addressed me at that time.’

439 ‘Sir, many here pursue and catch their quarry’, i.e. ‘strive for their heavenly reward and gain it’. The image is that of the hunt; see MED purchasen v.5.

441–2 In the N‐Town play of the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel salutes Mary as ‘Qwen of Hefne, Lady of Erth, and Empres of Helle’ (EETS SS 11, 11.335).

445 God alyve ‘the living God’.

446 hytself beyng The pronoun is genitive: ‘its own nature’.

449–52 ‘And yet none shall ever deprive another, but each one is glad of what others have, and would wish that their crowns were worth five times as much if improvement to them were possible.’

457 Of courtaysye Having established that all in the heavenly court are in complete harmony in their devotion to the Virgin, the poet can use the phrase to mean ‘by our attachment to this court’. The reference to St Paul is I Corinthians 12.11–27, beginning: ‘One and the same spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body; so also is Christ.’

464 þy lymmez bytwyste ‘between your limbs’.

466 þaʒ þou ber byʒe ‘even though you wear a ring’.

471 ‘But, provided that my talk doesn’t offend you…’ The next line is lost. We might conjecture: ‘Þyself to tene with lewed tonge’, i.e. ‘to vex you with ignorant words’.

473–4 The dreamer objects that the maiden who died so young should not be honoured as highly as one who had struggled through a long life. This is to be the subject of the next stage of their debate, in which the maiden answers him by retelling the parable of the workers in the vineyard who each receive the same reward.

11
St Erkenwald

The alliterative poem St Erkenwald survives in just one manuscript, British Library MS Harley 2250. This copy was made in 1477, but the poem was most likely composed in the 1390s or early 1400s. The dialect of the copy is assigned by the Linguistic Atlas to Cheshire; and the opening reference to London in Englond points to the same county (see 1n.). Nothing is known of the author’s identity. So far as linguistic evidence goes, the poem might have been written by the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (text 9 here) – to whom, indeed, it has sometimes been ascribed. Yet its style tells against this identification: it is less exuberant, sparer and more concise. See also Benson (1965).

Like Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale (text 18b here), the poem would have been described in the Middle Ages as a miraculum or ‘miracle’. Its subject is a miracle brought about through the agency of Erkenwald, an Anglo‐Saxon saint of the seventh century. Erkenwald was Bishop of London, and his cult was celebrated there at St Paul’s Cathedral – an episcopal church with which the poet may well have had connections. The miracle in question does not figure elsewhere in the saint’s dossier. It appears to have been a pious invention of the poet himself, suggested by similar stories concerning St Gregory’s part in the posthumous salvation of a pagan Roman emperor, Trajan. Like these, the Erkenwald story addresses a large theological question which medieval Christians found trouble‐some: could those who lived virtuously according to their lights, but without knowledge of the Christian faith, be saved? And if so, how? In the B Text of Piers Plowman (XI 141–69, XII 281–92) Langland gives a liberal version of the Trajan story: the emperor was so outstandingly just and merciful that it required only the longings and tears of Gregory to bring him out of hell. But a different version, found in an early commentary on Dante’s Commedia, makes Trajan’s salvation depend on his being resuscitated and baptized by Gregory; and this is closer, in its theological conservatism, to the Erkenwald story. See Whatley (1986). In the Middle English poem it is indeed the pagan judge’s outstanding virtues which induce God to preserve his body and clothes undecayed (ll. 267–70); but his soul is not admitted to heaven until the saint has administered the sacrament of baptism – the climax of the poem (316n.). So here, as not in Langland, the Church and its sacraments have an essential part to play.

The vivid and sharply focused narrative matches the clarity of the theology it serves. The poem is divided exactly into two equal halves (177n.). The first half is devoted to the discovery of the corpse and the bishop’s solemn preparations for his encounter with it; the second half describes that encounter in dialogue which, with deceptive naturalness, answers precisely all the questions raised by the strange contents of the tomb (questions put by the bishop, ll. 185–8). The baptismal climax is a tour de force of the theological imagination. A single tear, falling on the exposed flesh of the judge’s face, has completed the conditions of baptism, and þe freke syked – ‘the man sighed’ (l. 323). The consequences, both spiritual and physical, then follow with the speed and inevitability of a chemical reaction; and the poem ends in a clamour of bells.

The following points may be noted in the language of this North‐West Midland text. The spelling qu‐ corresponds to modern wh‐ (which is never used) in words like quen, ‘when’, quile, ‘while’ and quo, ‘who’, as well as to modern qu‐, as in l. 133. In verbs, the second person singular of the present tense has the ending ‐(e)s (þou says, 159). The plural also often has ‐es, though ‐en and ‐e are also used. The present participle always ends in ‐and(e), and is to be distinguished from the verbal noun in ‐ing (blysnande 87, as against moulyng 86). Among the third person pronouns, note ho, ‘she’, and the plural set þai, ‘they’, hor, ‘their’ and hom, ‘them’.

Editions

H. L. Savage, St Erkenwald (New Haven and London, 1926)

C. Peterson, St Erkenwald (Philadelphia, 1977)

Studies

L. D. Benson, ‘The Authorship of St Erkenwald’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 64 (1965), 393–405

Thorlac Turville‐Petre, Description and Narrative in Middle English Alliterative Poetry (Liverpool, 2018), pp. 97–114

G. Whatley, ‘Heathens and Saints: St Erkenwald and its Legendary Context’, Speculum, 61 (1986), 330–63

At London in Englond noʒt full long sythen

Sythen Crist suffrid on crosse and Cristendome stablyd,

Ther was a byschop in þat burgh, blessyd and sacryd;

Saynt Erkenwolde as I hope þat holy mon hatte.

In his tyme in þat toun þe temple alder‐grattyst ⁵

Was drawen doun, þat one dole, to dedifie new,

For hit hethen had bene in Hengyst dawes

Þat þe Saxones unsaʒt haden sende hyder.

Þai bete oute þe Bretons and broʒt hom into Wales

And pervertyd all þe pepul þat in þat place dwellid. ¹⁰

Þen wos this reame renaide mony ronke ʒeres,

Til Saynt Austyn into Sandewich was send fro þe pope.

Þen prechyd he here þe pure faythe and plantyd þe trouthe,

And convertyd all þe communnatés to Cristendame newe.

He turnyd temples þat tyme þat temyd to þe devell, ¹⁵

And clansyd hom in Cristes nome and kyrkes hom callid;

He hurlyd owt hor ydols and hade hym in sayntes,

And chaungit chevely hor nomes and chargit hom better;

Þat ere was of Appolyn is now of Saynt Petre,

Mahoun to Saynt Margrete oþir to Maudelayne, ²⁰

Þe Synagoge of þe Sonne was sett to oure Lady,

Jubiter and Jono to Jesu oþir to James.

So he hom dedifiet and dyght all to dere halowes

Þat ere wos sett of Sathanas in Saxones tyme.

 Now þat London is nevenyd hatte þe New Troie, ²⁵

Þe metropol and þe mayster‐toun hit evermore has bene.

Þe mecul mynster þerinne a maghty devel aght,

And þe title of þe temple bitan was his name,

For he was dryghtyn derrest of ydols praysid

And þe solempnest of his sacrifices in Saxon londes. ³⁰

Þe thrid temple hit wos tolde of Triapolitanes:

By all Bretaynes bonkes were bot othire twayne.

Now of þis Augustynes art is Erkenwolde bischop

At love London toun and the lagh teches,

Syttes semely in þe sege of Saynt Paule mynster ³⁵

Þat was þe temple Triapolitan as I tolde are.

Þen was hit abatyd and beten doun and buggyd efte new,

A noble note for þe nones and New Werke hit hatte.

Mony a mery mason was made þer to wyrke,

Harde stones for to hewe with eggit toles, ⁴⁰

Mony grubber in grete þe grounde for to seche

Þat þe fundement on fyrst shuld þe fote halde;

And as þai makkyd and mynyd a mervayle þai founden

As ʒet in crafty cronecles is kydde þe memorie,

For as þai dyʒt and dalfe so depe into þe erthe ⁴⁵

Þai founden fourmyt on a flore a ferly faire toumbe;

Hit was a throgh of thykke ston thryvandly hewen,

With gargeles garnysht aboute alle of gray marbre.

The sperl of þe spelunke þat spradde hit olofte

Was metely made of þe marbre and menskefully planed ⁵⁰

And þe bordure enbelicit with bryʒt golde lettres;

Bot roynyshe were þe resones þat þer on row stoden.

Full verray were þe vigures, þer avisyd hom mony,

Bot all muset hit to mouth and quat hit mene shuld;

Mony clerke in þat clos with crownes ful brode ⁵⁵

Þer besiet hom aboute noʒt to bryng hom in wordes.

Quen tithynges token to þe toun of þe toumbe‐wonder

Mony hundrid hende men highid þider sone;

Burgeys boghit þerto, bedels and othire,

And mony a mesters mon of maners dyverse; ⁶⁰

Laddes laften hor werke and lepen þiderwardes,

Ronnen radly in route with ryngand noyce;

Þer comen þider of all kynnes so kenely mony

Þat as all þe worlde were þider walon within a honde‐quile.

Quen þe maire with his meynye þat mervaile aspied, ⁶⁵

By assent of þe sextene þe sayntuaré þai kepten,

Bede unlouke þe lidde and lay hit byside;

Þai wold loke on þat lome quat lengyd withinne.

Wyʒt werkemen with þat wenten þertill,

Putten prises þerto, pinchid one‐under, ⁷⁰

Kaghten by þe corners with crowes of yrne,

And were þe lydde never so large þai laide hit by sone.

Bot þen wos wonder to wale on wehes þat stoden

That myʒt not come to to knowe a quontyse strange,

So was þe glode within gay, al with golde payntyd, ⁷⁵

And a blisfull body opon þe bothum lyggid,

Araide on a riche wise in riall wedes.

Al with glisnande golde his gowne wos hemmyd,

With mony a precious perle picchit þeron,

And a gurdill of golde bigripid his mydell; ⁸⁰

A meche mantel on lofte with menyver furrit,

Þe clothe of camelyn ful clene with cumly bordures;

And on his coyfe wos kest a coron ful riche

And a semely septure sett in his honde.

Als wemles were his wedes withouten any tecche ⁸⁵

Oþir of moulyng oþir of motes oþir moght‐freten,

And als bryʒt of hor blee in blysnande hewes

As þai hade ʒepely in þat ʒorde bene ʒisturday shapen;

And als freshe hym þe face and the flesh nakyd

Bi his eres and bi his hondes þat openly shewid ⁹⁰

With ronke rode as þe rose and two rede lippes,

As he in sounde sodanly were slippid opon slepe.

Þer was spedeles space to spyr uschon oþir

Quat body hit myʒt be þat buried wos ther,

How long had he þer layne, his lere so unchaungit, ⁹⁵

And al his wede unwemmyd? Þus ylka weghe askyd.

‘Hit myʒt not be bot such a mon in mynde stode long.

He has ben kyng of þis kith, as couthely hit semes,

He lyes dolven þus depe; hit is a derfe wonder

Bot summe segge couthe say þat he hym sene hade.’ ¹⁰⁰

Bot þat ilke note wos noght, for nourne none couthe,

Noþir by title ne token ne by tale noþir,

Þat ever wos brevyt in burgh ne in boke notyd

Þat ever mynnyd such a mon, more ne lasse.

 Þe bodeword to þe byschop was broght on a quile ¹⁰⁵

Of þat buried body al þe bolde wonder.

Þe primate with his prelacie was partyd fro home,

In Esex was Sir Erkenwolde an abbay to visite.

Tulkes tolden hym þe tale with troubull in þe pepul

And suche a cry aboute a cors crakit evermore; ¹¹⁰

The bischop sende hit to blynne by bedels and lettres

And buskyd þiderwarde bytyme on his blonke after.

By þat he come to þe kyrke kydde of Saynt Paule,

Mony hym metten on þat meere þe mervayle to tell;

He passyd into his palais and pes he comaundit ¹¹⁵

And devoydit fro þe dede and ditte þe durre after.

Þe derke nyʒt overdrofe and day‐belle ronge,

And Sir Erkenwolde was up in þe ughten ere þen,

Þat welnegh al þe nyʒt hade naityd his houres

To biseche his soverayn of his swete grace ¹²⁰

To vouchesafe to revele hym hit by a visoun or elles.

‘Þagh I be unworthi,’ al wepand he sayde,

‘Thurgh his deere debonerté digne hit my Lorde:

In confirmyng þi Cristen faith, fulsen me to kenne

Þe mysterie of þis mervaile þat men opon wondres.’ ¹²⁵

And so long he grette after grace þat he graunte hade,

An ansuare of þe Holy Goste, and afterwarde hit dawid.

Mynster‐dores were makyd opon quen matens were songen

Þe byschop hym shope solemply to synge þe hegh masse.

Þe prelate in pontificals was prestly atyrid, ¹³⁰

Manerly with his ministres þe masse he begynnes

Of Spiritus Domini for his spede on sutile wise,

With queme questis of þe quere with ful quaynt notes.

Mony a gay grete lorde was gedrid to herken hit,

As þe rekenest of þe reame repairen þider ofte, ¹³⁵

Till cessyd was þe service and sayde þe later ende;

Þen heldyt fro þe autere all þe hegh gynge.

 Þe prelate passid on þe playn, þer plied to hym lordes,

As riche revestid as he was he rayked to þe toumbe;

Men unclosid hym þe cloyster with clustred keies, ¹⁴⁰

Bot pyne wos with þe grete prece þat passyd hym after.

The byschop come to þe burynes, him barones besyde,

Þe maire with mony maʒti men and macers before hym.

Þe dene of þe dere place devysit al on fyrst,

Þe fyndynge of þat ferly with fynger he mynte. ¹⁴⁵

‘Lo, lordes,’ quod þat lede, ‘suche a lyche here is

Has layn loken here on logh, how long is unknawen;

And ʒet his colour and his clothe has caʒt no defaute,

Ne his lire ne þe lome þat he is layde inne.

Þer is no lede opon lyfe of so long age ¹⁵⁰

Þat may mene in his mynde þat suche a mon regnyd,

Ne noþir his nome ne his note nourne of one speche;

Queþer mony porer in þis place is putte into grave

Þat merkid is in oure martilage his mynde for ever;

And we have oure librarie laitid þes long seven dayes, ¹⁵⁵

Bot one cronicle of þis kyng con we never fynde.

He has non layne here so long, to loke hit by kynde,

To malte so out of memorie bot mervayle hit were.’

‘Þou says soþe,’ quod þe segge þat sacrid was byschop,

‘Hit is mervaile to men, þat mountes to litell ¹⁶⁰

Toward þe providens of þe prince þat paradis weldes,

Quen hym luste to unlouke þe leste of his myʒtes.

Bot quen matyd is monnes myʒt and his mynde passyd,

And al his resons are torent and redeles he stondes,

Þen lettes hit hym ful litell to louse wyt a fynger ¹⁶⁵

Þat all þe hondes under heven halde myʒt never.

Þereas creatures crafte of counsell oute swarves,

Þe comforth of þe creatore byhoves þe cure take.

And so do we now oure dede, devyne we no fyrre;

To seche þe soth at oureselfe ʒee se þer no bote; ¹⁷⁰

Bot glow we all opon Godde and his grace aske,

Þat careles is of counsell and comforthe to sende,

And þat in fastynge of ʒour faith and of fyne bileve.

I shal avay ʒow so verrayly of vertues his

Þat ʒe may leve upon long þat he is lord myʒty ¹⁷⁵

And fayne ʒour talent to fulfille if ʒe hym frende leves.’

Then he turnes to þe toumbe and talkes to þe corce,

Lyftand up his egh‐lyddes he loused such wordes:

‘Now, lykhame þat þou lies, layne þou no leng!

Sythen Jesus has juggit today his joy to be schewyd, ¹⁸⁰

Be þou bone to his bode, I bydde in his behalve;

As he was bende on a beme quen he his blode schadde,

As þou hit wost wyterly and we hit wele leven,

Ansuare here to my sawe, councele no trouthe!

Sithen we wot not qwo þou art, witere us þiselwen ¹⁸⁵

In worlde quat weghe þou was and quy þow þus ligges,

How long þou has layne here and quat lagh þou usyt,

Queþer art þou joyned to joy oþir juggid to pyne.’

Quen þe segge hade þus sayde and syked þerafter,

Þe bryʒt body in þe burynes brayed a litell, ¹⁹⁰

And with a drery dreme he dryves owte wordes

Þurgh sum lant goste‐lyfe of hym þat al redes.

‘Bisshop,’ quod þis ilke body, ‘þi boode is me dere;

I may not bot bogh to þi bone for bothe myn eghen.

To þe name þat þou nevenyd has and nournet me after ¹⁹⁵

Al heven and helle heldes to and erthe bitwene.

Fyrst to say the þe sothe quo myselfe were:

One þe unhapnest hathel þat ever on erth ʒode,

Never kyng ne cayser ne ʒet no knyʒt nothyre,

Bot a lede of þe lagh þat þen þis londe usit. ²⁰⁰

I was committid and made a mayster‐mon here

To sytte upon sayd causes; þis cité I ʒemyd

Under a prince of parage of paynymes lagh,

And uche segge þat him sewid þe same fayth trowid.

Þe lengthe of my lying here þat is a lewid date, ²⁰⁵

Hit is to meche to any mon to make of a nombre.

After þat Brutus þis burgh had buggid on fyrste,

Noʒt bot fife hundred ʒere þer aghtene wontyd

Before þat kynned ʒour Criste by Cristen acounte:

A þousand ʒere and þritty mo and ʒet threnen aght. ²¹⁰

I was an heire of anoye in þe New Troie

In þe regne of þe riche kyng þat rewlit us þen,

The bolde Breton Sir Belyn – Sir Berynge was his brothire;

Mony one was þe busmare boden hom bitwene

For hor wrakeful werre quil hor wrath lastyd. ²¹⁵

Þen was I juge here enjoynyd in gentil lawe.’

 Quil he in spelunke þus spake, þer sprange in þe pepull

In al þis worlde no worde ne wakenyd no noice,

Bot al as stille as þe ston stoden and listonde

With meche wonder forwrast, and wepid ful mony. ²²⁰

The bisshop biddes þat body: ‘Biknowe þe cause,

Sithen þou was kidde for no kynge, quy þou þe croun weres.

Quy haldes þou so hegh in honde þe septre

And hades no londe of lege men ne life ne lym aghtes?’

‘Dere sir,’ quod þe dede body, ‘devyse þe I thenke, ²²⁵

Al was hit never my wille þat wroght þus hit were.

I wos deputate and domesmon under a duke noble,

And in my power þis place was putte altogeder.

I justifiet þis joly toun on gentil wise

And ever in fourme of gode faithe, more þen fourty wynter. ²³⁰

Þe folke was felonse and fals and frowarde to reule –

I hent harmes ful ofte to holde hom to riʒt;

Bot for wothe ne wele, ne wrathe ne drede,

Ne for maystrie ne for mede, ne for no monnes aghe,

I remewit never fro þe riʒt by reson myn awen ²³⁵

For to dresse a wrang dome, no day of my lyve,

Declynet never my consciens for covetise on erthe

In no gynful jugement no japes to make,

Were a renke never so riche, for reverens sake;

Ne for no monnes manas, ne meschefe ne routhe, ²⁴⁰

Non gete me fro þe hegh gate to glent out of ryʒt

Als ferforthe as my faith confourmyd my hert.

Þagh had bene my fader bone, I bede hym no wranges,

Ne fals favour to my fader, þagh fell hym be hongyt.

And for I was ryʒtwis and reken and redy of þe laghe, ²⁴⁵

Quen I deghed for dul denyed all Troye;

Alle menyd my dethe, þe more and the lasse,

And þus to bounty my body þai buriet in golde,

Cladden me for þe curtest þat courte couthe þen holde,

In mantel for þe mekest and monlokest on benche, ²⁵⁰

Gurden me for þe governour and graythist of Troie,

Furrid me for þe fynest of faith me withinne.

For þe honour of myn honesté of heghest enprise

Þai coronyd me þe kidde kynge of kene justises

Þer ever wos tronyd in Troye oþir trowid ever shulde, ²⁵⁵

And for I rewardid ever riʒt þai raght me the septre.’

 Þe bisshop baythes hym ʒet with bale at his hert,

Þagh men menskid him so, how hit myʒt worthe

Þat his clothes were so clene. ‘In cloutes, me thynkes,

Hom burde have rotid and bene rent in rattes long sythen. ²⁶⁰

Þi body may be enbawmyd, hit bashis me noght

Þat hit thar ryne no rote ne no ronke wormes;

Bot þi coloure ne þi clothe – I know in no wise

How hit myʒt lye by monnes lore and last so longe.’

‘Nay, bisshop,’ quod þat body, ‘enbawmyd wos I never, ²⁶⁵

Ne no monnes counsell my cloth has kepyd unwemmyd,

Bot þe riche kyng of reson, þat riʒt ever alowes

And loves al þe lawes lely þat longen to trouthe;

And moste he menskes men for mynnyng of riʒtes

Þen for al þe meritorie medes þat men on molde usen; ²⁷⁰

And if renkes for riʒt þus me arayed has,

He has lant me to last þat loves ryʒt best.’

 ‘Ʒea, bot sayes þou of þi saule,’ þen sayd þe bisshop;

He þat rewardes uche a renke as he has riʒt servyd ²⁷⁵

Myʒt evel forgo the to gyfe of his grace summe brawnche.

For as he says in his sothe psalmyde writtes:

“Þe skilfulle and þe unskathely skelton ay to me.”

Forþi say me of þi soule, in sele quere ho wonnes,

And of þe riche restorment þat raʒt hyr oure Lorde.’ ²⁸⁰

Þen hummyd he þat þer lay and his hedde waggyd,

And gefe a gronyng ful grete and to Godde sayde:

‘Maʒty maker of men, thi myghtes are grete;

How myʒt þi mercy to me amounte any tyme?

Nas I a paynym unpreste þat never thi plite knewe, ²⁸⁵

Ne þe mesure of þi mercy ne þi mecul vertue,

Bot ay a freke faitheles þat faylid þi laghes

Þat ever þou, Lord, wos lovyd in? Allas þe harde stoundes!

I was non of þe nombre þat þou with noy boghtes

With þe blode of thi body upon þe blo rode. ²⁹⁰

Quen þou herghdes helle‐hole and hentes hom þeroute,

Þi loffynge oute of limbo, þou laftes me þer,

And þer sittes my soule þat se may no fyrre,

Dwynande in þe derke deth þat dyʒt us oure fader,

Adam oure alder, þat ete of þat appull ²⁹⁵

Þat mony a plyʒtles pepul has poysned for ever.

Ʒe were entouchid with his tethe and take in þe glotte,

Bot mendyd with a medecyn ʒe are made for to lyvye –

Þat is fulloght in fonte with faitheful bileve,

And þat han we myste alle merciles, myselfe and my soule. ³⁰⁰

Quat wan we with oure wele‐dede þat wroghtyn ay riʒt,

Quen we are dampnyd dulfully into þe depe lake,

And exilid fro þat soper so, þat solempne fest,

Þer richely hit arne refetyd þat after right hungride?

My soule may sitte þer in sorow and sike ful colde, ³⁰⁵

Dymly in þat derke dethe þer dawes never morowen,

Hungrie inwith helle‐hole, and herken after meeles

Longe er ho þat soper se oþir segge hyr to lathe.’

 Þus dulfully þis dede body devisyt hit sorowe

Þat alle wepyd for woo þe wordes þat herden, ³¹⁰

And þe bysshop balefully bere doun his eghen,

Þat hade no space to speke, so spakly he ʒoskyd,

Til he toke hym a tome and to þe toumbe lokyd,

To þe liche þer hit lay, with lavande teres.

‘Oure Lord lene’, quod þat lede, ‘þat þou lyfe hades, ³¹⁵

By Goddes leve, as longe as I myʒt lacche water,

And cast upon þi faire cors and carpe þes wordes,

“I folwe þe in þe Fader nome and his fre Childes

And of þe gracious Holy Goste”, and not one grue lenger.

Þen þof þou droppyd doun dede, hit daungerde me lasse.’ ³²⁰

With þat worde þat he warpyd, þe wete of his eghen

And teres trillyd adoun and on þe toumbe lighten,

And one felle on his face, and þe freke syked.

Þen sayd he with a sadde soun: ‘Oure Savyoure be lovyd!

Now herid be þou, hegh God, and þi hende Moder, ³²⁵

And blissid be þat blisful houre þat ho the bere in!

And also be þou, bysshop, þe bote of my sorowe

And þe relefe of þe lodely lures þat my soule has levyd in!

For þe wordes þat þou werpe and þe water þat þou sheddes,

Þe bryʒt bourne of þin eghen, my bapteme is worthyn. ³³⁰

Þe fyrst slent þat on me slode slekkyd al my tene;

Ryʒt now to soper my soule is sette at þe table.

For with þe wordes and þe water þat wesche us of payne,

Liʒtly lasshit þer a leme loghe in þe abyme

Þat spakly sprent my spyrit with unsparid murthe ³³⁵

Into þe cenacle solemply þer soupen all trewe;

And þer a marciall hyr mette with menske alder‐grattest,

And with reverence a rowme he raʒt hyr for ever.

I heere þerof my hegh God and also þe, bysshop,

Fro bale has broʒt us to blis, blessid þou worth!’ ³⁴⁰

 Wyt this cessyd his sowne, sayd he no more,

Bot sodenly his swete chere swyndid and faylid

And all the blee of his body wos blakke as þe moldes,

As roten as þe rottok þat rises in powdere.

For as sone as þe soule was sesyd in blisse, ³⁴⁵

Corrupt was þat oþir crafte þat covert þe bones,

For þe ay‐lastande life þat lethe shall never

Devoydes uche a vayneglorie þat vayles so litelle.

Þen wos lovyng oure Lord with loves uphalden,

Meche mournyng and myrthe was mellyd togeder. ³⁵⁰

Þai passyd forthe in procession and alle þe pepull folowid,

And all þe belles in þe burgh beryd at ones.

Notes

1 in Englond Cheshire, the poet’s native country, regarded itself as somewhat separate from the rest of England. Its earls enjoyed special, semi‐royal privileges.

1–2 sythen/Sythen ‘after the time that’ (‘afterwards after’). The poet’s chronology is foreshortened. Erkenwald became bishop of London in ad 675.

6 þat one dole ‘one part of it’.

7 Hengyst Hengest, with Horsa, led the pagan Saxons, who in the fifth century conquered Christian Britain (Bretons 9) and caused its relapse into paganism. Cf. 3/168 above.

12 Austyn St Augustine of Canterbury began the reconversion of England in 597. He was sent by Pope Gregory.

Sandewich A major Channel port in the Middle Ages, one of the Cinque Ports.

15–24 Gregory instructed Augustine that pagan shrines ‘should be changed from the worship of devils to the service of the true God’ (Bede’s History 1.30). Erkenwald, a century later, was continuing this cleansing process.

17 hade hym in ‘brought in’.

19 ‘That which previously had belonged to Apollo …’ See 5.4.6.

20 Mahoun Mahomet, often cited as a pagan god. Maudelayne St Mary Magdalene.

21 Synagoge of þe Sonne The poet lumps together all kinds of non‐Christians with their ‘synagogues’ (pagan temples): nature‐worshippers (the sun), Muslims (Mahomet), and worshippers of Classical gods (Apollo, Jupiter, Juno). All were followers of Satan (24). Cf. 8/165–7 above.

25 ‘What is now known as London was called “the New Troy”.’ The Trojan Brutus, legendary founder of Britain (cf. 9/13 above), named his principal city ‘Troia Nova’. The poet later refers to pagan London simply as ‘Troy’ (251, 255).

28 The legal rights (title) in the temple – its endowments etc. – were ‘assigned to his name’, that is, to the devil in whose name it was dedicated and who therefore ‘owned’ it (l. 27).

31 ‘It was reckoned the third temple of the Triapolitans’, i.e. of the three metropolitan cities. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain 4.19, pagan Britain had three chief religious centres, of which London was one.

32 ‘In all parts of Britain there were only two others’, at York and Caerusk.

33 art ‘province’. Archbishops of Canterbury, as successors of St Augustine, ruled the southern province, including London.

38 New Werke Part of the fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral constructed in the thirteenth century was in fact later known as the New Work. Perhaps the poet thought it much older.

41 grounde ‘solid ground’, upon which the new foundations (fundement 42) could rest securely.

49 ‘The lid of the tomb which shut it on top.’

53–4 ‘The shapes (of the letters) were perfectly distinct, as many could see; but everyone was at a loss to pronounce it (the text) or understand what it might mean.’

56 ‘Laboured there in vain to make words out of them (the letters).’

64 Þat as ‘that it was as if …’

66 The mayor seeks permission of the sacristan (the ecclesiastical officer responsible for care of the building) before taking charge of a holy place.

68 quat ‘to see what’.

72 ‘And however large the lid was …’, i.e. although it was very large.

74 come to to knowe ‘manage to understand’. For come to, ‘succeed’, see MED comen v. 4a (d).

81 It was a peculiar privilege of judges to wear a mantle furred with miniver.

83–4 The coif or cap, like the miniver mantle, identifies the body as a lawyer’s; but the crown and sceptre present puzzles, which the judge solves later (221–4, 253–6).

89 hym þe face ‘his face’. See 5.3.3.

93 ‘There was time spent in vain as people asked each other.’

97 ‘A man such as that must have been long remembered.’ The onlookers are surprised not to be able to identify a man of such evident importance, apparently so recently buried.

99–100 ‘… it would be very strange if someone were not able to claim to have seen him.’

108 Bede, History 4.6, records that Erkenwald founded an abbey at Barking in Essex, some ten miles east of St Paul’s.

Sir a title for priests as well as knights.

109–10 ‘Men told him what had happened, including the disturbance among the people and such a continual uproar raised around a dead body.’

113 kydde of Saynt Paule ‘well known as St Paul’s’.

123–4 ‘May my Lord in his precious mercy grant it: in confirmation of thy Christian faith, help me to explain.’ The shift from his to thy marks the beginning of Erkenwald’s prayer to God.

132 Spiritus Domini the Mass of the Holy Spirit (cf. 127), which begins ‘The spirit of the Lord fills the whole earth’.

138 ‘The prelate crossed the floor, with lords bowing to him.’ After celebrating Mass at the high altar, the bishop processes down the church to the tomb.

140 cloyster ‘enclosed area’, in the crypt?

141 ‘But there was a crush among the big crowd which followed him.’

144 Þe dene In a cathedral’s hierarchy, the dean ranked next to the bishop.

148 his colour i.e. of his clothes. See 263n.

152 ‘Or reveal a single thing about his name or his occupation.’

153–4 ‘Yet there is many a poorer man buried here whose memory is set down in our burial‐register for ever.’

154 Þat … his ‘whose’: see 5.4.6.

157 to loke hit by kynde ‘to judge by the natural signs’.

158 bot mervayle hit were ‘unless something extraordinary has occurred’.

161 Toward ‘in face of, in comparison with’.

165 ‘Then it causes him (God) very little trouble to set free with a finger.’

167–8 ‘Where the power of created beings fails to reach a solution, the benevolence of the Creator must undertake the remedy.’

172 careles ‘free, generous’.

173 þat ‘(does) that’.

177 The extra‐large capital letter with which this line begins in the manuscript (used elsewhere only for the poem’s first line) marks the precise half‐way point in the 352‐line poem. The bishop’s exchanges with the body, which begin here, occupy its second half.

179 lykhame þat þou lies ‘corpse that you are, lying there’. Editors emend þou to þus or þer, perhaps rightly.

183 The dead know (wost) what the living can only believe (leven).

192 ‘By virtue of some spirit‐life granted by Him who rules all.’ We take goste‐lyfe to be a compound improvised in order to denote the peculiar kind of life here enjoyed by the dead man. But the word‐order is awkward (lant … of ‘granted by’), and the line has been much emended. Emending al to lyfe would restore alliteration to the second half‐line.

194 for bothe myn eghen an emphasizing phrase (cf. 2/381), originally, ‘even if I were to lose both eyes as a result’. So: ‘I cannot for the life of me do other than submit to your command.’

198 ‘Quite the most unfortunate man …’ See 5.5.2.

202 sayd causes ‘cases which come to court’: Latin causam dicere.

205 lewid date ‘uncalculable period’? Lewid, usually ‘ignorant, unlettered’, here perhaps indicates that the period in question is beyond the calculations of the learned. Our difficulties with ll. 207–10 bear this out.

207–10 The reference to the founding of London by Brutus (25n.) evidently does no more than cast the ensuing calculations back into the remote past. The next two lines then seem to state that the judge died 482 years before Christ’s birth (‘five hundred years with eighteen lacking’). This is the important point: that he lived as a pagan, before Christ. Line 210 may then be taken as an answer to the third of the bishop’s five questions: ‘How long þou has layne here?’ (187): 1054 years (‘a thousand and thirty and thrice eight’). This puts Erkenwald in the wrong century, since 1054–482 = AD 572; but the error matters little.

211 ‘I was an inheritor of affliction …’, i.e. by Adam’s fall. St Paul calls unbelievers ‘by nature children of wrath’ (Ephesians 2.1–3, cf. Colossians 3.6 and Romans 4.13–16). Contrast 7a/59 above.

213–15 Belinus, king of Britain, quarrelled with his brother Brennius, but the two were eventually reconciled. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who tells the story (History of the Kings of Britain 3.1–1o), emphasizes Belinus’ concern for justice in the kingdom.

224 ‘And possessed no land held by vassals, nor had (royal) power over life and limb.’

229 gentil ‘gentile’, i.e. pagan, as in l. 216; but gentil can also mean ‘noble’: the judge is a noble pagan. See 8/62n.

234 no monnes aghe ‘fear of no man’.

235 by reson myn awen ‘according to my own judgement’.

237 Declynet I is probably to be understood, from l. 235: ‘I never diverted my conscience (from the straight path) for any kind of avarice.’

239 for reverens sake ‘out of deference to him’.

242 ‘In so far as my faith regulated my conscience.’

243–4 ‘Though it had been my father’s murderer, I gave him no wrong decisions, nor false favour for my father, even though it fell to him to be hanged.’ See 5.4.2 on omission of subject pronouns.

248 to bounty ‘in my honour’.

251 He wears a ‘gurdill of golde’ (80).

255 oþir trowid ever shulde ‘or was believed ever likely to be’.

262 ‘That no rot need touch it, nor any foul worms.’ See ch. 7.

263 coloure The reference must be to cloth, not complexion (cf. 148). The corpse mentions only cloth in reply.

267 þat riʒt ever alowes ‘who always gives credit for justice’.

273 ‘Yes, but speak about your soul …’

275 Cf. Psalm 7.9: ‘Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice.’

276 ‘Could hardly fail to give you some share of his grace.’

278 Rendering Psalm 14 (AV 15) 1–2: ‘Lord … who shall rest in thy holy hill? He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice.’ The skilfulle ‘worketh justice’, the unskathely is ‘without blemish’.

287–8 ‘… but always was a man without faith who did not know those laws in which you, Lord, have always been glorified?’

291–2 The Harrowing of Hell is narrated in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. Between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Christ descended into a region of Hell known as the ‘limbo of the fathers’ and rescued the souls of such as Abraham.

292 Þi loffynge ‘thy remnant’ (so MED; perhaps to be emended to leffynge, ‘leaving’?). The biblical ‘remnant’, Latin reliquiae, are those ‘saved according to the election of grace’ (Romans 11.5, cf. Romans 9.27).

297 ‘You were poisoned by his teeth and involved in the corruption.’ The reference is to Adam’s teeth, which became poisonous after biting into the forbidden apple. But other editors emend tethe to teche, ‘fault, sin’.

299 Baptism (fulloght) and true belief are the medicine required to counteract the poison of original sin.

302 lake ‘pit (of Hell)’. So Latin lacus in the Vulgate Bible.

304 Alluding to the Beatitude: ‘Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill’ (Matthew 5.6). But they are excluded from the heavenly banquet if, like the judge, they lack faith and baptism.

308 ‘For a long time before she (the soul) see that supper or find anyone to invite her to it.’

316 ‘With God’s leave, just long enough for me to fetch some water.’ In what follows, the conditions for a valid baptism are met, as it were, by accident. The Trinity is invoked hypothetically (ll. 318–19 represent what Erkenwald hopes to be able to say), and the necessary water falls by chance from the bishop’s eye on to the judge’s flesh.

319 not one grue lenger ‘not a moment longer’.

320 ‘Then, even though you dropped down dead, it would distress me little.’

324 Oure Savyoure The judge now counts himself among the saved. Contrast ‘ʒour Criste’ (209).

333 us cf. l. 300.

335 ‘Which made my spirit quickly spring …’ Sprent is from OE sprengan, ‘to cause to spring’.

336 cenacle ‘dining‐room’: Latin cenaculum, used in the Vulgate for the room of the Last Supper and hence, here, of the heavenly banquet.

337–8 The marshal assigned each guest his place (rowme) at a feast.

340 Omission of relative pronoun who before has: see 5.4.6.

345 sesyd in ‘possessed of ’, a legal term implying rightful possession.

346 The crafte, or device, covering the bones is the flesh.

352 In saints’ lives, a miraculous ringing of bells ‘withouten hond’ (Troilus 3.188) commonly marks solemn or joyful moments. Cf. Boccaccio’s Decameron 2.1: ‘When [Arrigo] died, all the bells of the cathedral in Treviso began to ring of their own accord. This was taken as a miracle, and everyone said that Arrigo must be a saint.’ The present line is probably to be understood accordingly.

12
John Trevisa: Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk

John Trevisa was born about 1342, studied at Oxford University, became a Fellow there, and was ordained priest in 1370. He enjoyed the patronage of Thomas IV, Lord Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, and became his chaplain and also vicar of the town of Berkeley. He died in 1402. His chief writings are translations of three major Latin works of the period: the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, a world history; the De Proprietatibus Rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, an encyclopaedia; and a book of advice for rulers, the De Regimine Principum of Aegidius Romanus.

Trevisa’s Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk accompanies his English Polychronicon, along with a letter (not printed here) dedicating the translation to ‘my worþy and worschypfol lord Sire Thomas, lord of Berkeleye’. The Latin Polychronicon is a vast history of the world, written by Ranulph Higden, a monk in the Benedictine abbey of Chester, in the 1320s and subsequently worked on by him up to his death in the 1360s. The book soon became a bestseller, and survives in more than 100 manuscripts. See Taylor (1966). Trevisa’s English version was under way in 1385, and he completed it in April 1387. Although the prefatory Dialogue is set at Berkeley (see 126n.), it is to be read as an expository fiction modelled on other such dialogues in Latin. Its subject is translation. Trevisa compliments his patron by attributing to ‘Dominus’ all the good arguments for his own translating activity, reserving for himself, in the person of ‘Clericus’, only the reactionary objections against it. It was a common form of apology for medieval writers to claim that they undertook some great task only because they were urged or commanded to do so.

The Dialogue survives in five of the fourteen manuscripts of the English Polychronicon. See Waldron (1988). The present text is based, closely following Waldron, on British Library MS Cotton Tiberius D VII. Its Western dialect, according to the Linguistic Atlas, is exactly that of the Berkeley area of Gloucestershire. Voicing of /f/ to /v/ at the beginning of native words appears in vor, ‘for’, vaste, ‘fast’, etc. In verbs, the present plural indicative ending is always ‐eþ (the form for the verb ‘to be’ is buþ). Past participles commonly have the prefix y‐. Among the personal pronouns, note that ‘Dominus’ uses þou to ‘Clericus’ (48), while ‘Clericus’ uses the respectful ʒe, ʒ0w (44, 145): see 5.4.1. The unstressed and reduced form a is used for both he (11) and hy, ‘they’ (37). Other forms of the third person plural pronoun are here, ‘their’ and ham or hem, ‘them’. The form for ‘these’ is þeus(e). Monosyllabic adjectives in the definite declension (see 4.4.1) have ‐e, e.g. þe vurste makyng (27).

Edition

Ronald Waldron, ‘Trevisa’s Original Prefaces on Translation: A Critical Edition’, in E. D. Kennedy, R. Waldron and J. S. Wittig, eds, Medieval English Studies Presented to George Kane (Woodbridge, 1988), pp. 285–99 [with full MS variants]

Studies

A. S. G. Edwards, ‘John Trevisa’, in A. S. G. Edwards, ed., Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres (New Brunswick, 1984), pp. 133–46 [with bibliography]

David C. Fowler, John Trevisa, Authors of the Middle Ages (Aldershot, 1993)

John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford, 1966)

Ronald Waldron, ‘John Trevisa and the Use of English’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 74 (1988), 171–202

Dominus

Seþthe þet Babyl was ybuld men spekeþ dyvers tonges, so þat dyvers men buþ straunge to oþer and knoweþ noʒt of here speche. Speche ys noʒt yknowe bote ʒif hyt be lurned. Commyn lurnyng of speche ys by huyryng; and so alwey deef ys alwey dombe, vor he may noʒt hure speche vor to lurne. So men of ser contrayes ⁵ and londes þat habbeþ dyvers speches, ʒef noþer of ham haþ lurned oþeres speche, neyþer of ham wot what oþer meneþ, þey hy meete and have greet neode of informacion and of loore, of talkyng and of speche. Be þeo neode never so gret, neyþer of ham understondeþ oþeres speche no moore þan ganglyng of gees. For jangle þe on ¹⁰ nevere so vaste þet oþer ys nevere þe wyser, þey a schrewe hym in stude of good morowe. Þis ys a gret meschef þat volweþ now mankuynde; bote God of hys mercy and grace haþ ordeynd doubel remedy. On ys þat som man lurneþ and knoweþ meny dyvers speches; and so bytwene strange men of þe whoche ¹⁵ noþer understondeþ oþeres speche such a man may be mene and telle eyþer what þoþer wol mene. Þe oþer remedy ys þat on langage ys ylurned, yused and yknowe in meny nacyons and londes; and so Latyn ys ylurned, yknowe and yused specialych a þys half Grees in al þe nacions and londes of Europa. Þarfore clerkes of here godnes and ²⁰ cortesy makeþ and wryteþ here bokes in Latyn vor here wrytyng and bokes scholde be understonde in dyvers nacyons and londes. And so Ranulph monk of Chester wrot yn Latyn hys bookes of cronykes þat discreveþ þe world aboute yn lengthe and yn brede, and makeþ mencyon and muynde of doyngs and of ²⁵ dedes, of mervayls and of wondres, and rekneþ þe ʒeres to hys laste dayes fram þe vurste makyng of hevene and of erþe. And so þarynne ys noble and gret informacion and lore to hem þat can þarynne rede and understonde. Þarvore ich wolde have þeus bokes of cronyks translated out of Latyn ynto Englysch, for þe mo men ³⁰ scholde hem understonde and have þereof konnyng, informacion and lore.

Clericus

Þeus bokes of cronyks buþ ywryte yn Latyn, and Latyn ys yused and understonde a þys half Grees yn al þe nacions and londes of Europa; and comynlych Englysch ys noʒt so wyde understonde, yused and yknowe, and þe Englysch translacion ³⁵ scholde no man understonde bote Englyschmen alone. Þanne how scholde þe mo men understonde þe cronyks þey a were translated out of Latyn, þat ys so wyde yused and yknowe, into Englysch, þat ys noʒt yused and yknowe bote of Englyschmen alone?

Dominus

Þes question and doute ys esy to assoyle; vor ʒef ⁴⁰ þeus cronyks were translated out of Latyn into Englysch, þanne by so meny þe mo men scholde understonde ham as understondeþ Englysch and no Latyn.

Clericus

Ʒe cunneþ speke and rede and understonde Latyn. Þanne hyt nedeþ noʒt to have such an Englysch translacion. ⁴⁵

Dominus

Y denye þys argument; for þey I cunne speke and rede and understonde Latyn, þer ys moche Latyn in þeus bokes of cronyks þat y can noʒt understonde, noþer þou wiþoute studyinge and avysement and lokyng of oþer bokes. Also, þey hyt were noʒt neodful vor me, hyt is neodfol vor oþere men þat ⁵⁰ understondeþ no Latyn.

Clericus

Men þat understondeþ no Latyn may lerne and understonde.

Dominus

Noʒt alle: for som may noʒt vor oþer maner bysynes, som vor elde, som vor defaute of wyt, som vor defaute of katel ⁵⁵ oþer of frendes to vynde ham to scole, and som vor oþere dyvers defautes and lettes.

Clericus

Hyt neodeþ noʒt þat al soche knowe þe cronykes.

Dominus

Spek noʒt to streytlych of þyng þat neodeþ; for streytlych to speke of þyng þat neodeþ, onlych þyng þat ys and ⁶⁰ may noʒt fayle nedeþ to be, and so hyt neodeþ þat God be, for God ys and may noʒt faile. And so vor to speke, no man nedeþ to knowe þe cronykes, vor hyt myʒte and may be þat no man ham knoweþ. Oþerwyse to speke of þyng þat neodeþ, somwhat neodeþ vor to susteyne oþer to have oþer þinges þarby, and so mete ⁶⁵ and dryngke nedeþ vor kepyng and sustenaunce of lyf. And so vor to speke, no man neodeþ to knowe þe cronyks. Bote in þe þridde manere to speke of þing þat neodeþ, al þat ys profytable nedeþ; and so vor to speke, al men neodeþ to knawe þe cronykes.

Clericus

Þanne hy þat understondeþ no Latyn mowe ⁷⁰ axe and be informed and ytauʒt of ham þat understondeþ Latyn.

Dominus

Þou spekst wonderlych, vor þe lewed man wot noʒt what a scholde axe, and namelych of lore of dedes þat come nevere in hys muynde, noþer wot comynlych of whom a scholde axe. Also noʒt al men þat understondeþ Latyn habbeþ such ⁷⁵ bokes to informe lewed men. Also som konneþ noʒt, and som wol noʒt, and som mowe noʒt a whyle; and so hyt neodeþ to han an Englysch translacion.

Clericus

Þe Latyn ys boþe good and fayr. Þarvore hyt neodeþ noʒt to han an Englysch translacion. ⁸⁰

Dominus

Þis reson ys worþy to be plonged yn a plod and leyd in pouþer of lewednes and of schame. Hyt myʒte wel be þat þou makest þys reson onlych in murthe and in game.

Clericus

Þe reson mot stonde bot hyt be assoyled.

Dominus

A blere‐yʒed man, bote he were al blynd of ⁸⁵ wyt, myʒte yseo þe solucion of þis reson; and þey a were blynd a myʒte grope þe solucion, bote ʒef hys velyng hym faylede. Vor ʒef þis reson were oʒt worþ, by such manere argement me myʒt preove þat þe þre score and ten, and Aquila, Symachus, Theodocion, and he þat made þe vyfte translacion, and Origenes were lewedlych ⁹⁰ ocupyed whanne hy translated holy wryt out of Hebrew into Grw; and also þat Seint Jerom was lewedlych ocupyed whanne he translatede holy writ out of Hebreu ynto Latyn; vor þe Hebreu ys boþe good and feyre and ywryte by inspiracion of þe Holy Gost. And al þeuse vor here translacions buþ hyʒlych ypreysed of al holy ⁹⁵ cherche. Þanne þe vorseyde lewed reson ys worþy to be pouþred, yleyd a water and ysouced. Also holy wryt in Latyn ys boþe good and fayr, and ʒet for to make a sermon of holy wryt al yn Latyn to men þat konneþ Englysch and no Latyn hyt were a lewed dede; vor hy buþ nevere þe wyser vor þe Latyn bote hyt be told hem an ¹⁰⁰ Englysch what hyt ys to mene, and hyt may noʒt be told an Englysch what þe Latyn ys to mene withoute translacion out of Latyn in Englysch. Þanne hyt nedeþ to have an Englysch translacion. And for to kepe hyt in muynde þat hyt be noʒt vorʒut, hyt ys betre þat such a translacion be ymad and ywryte þan yseyd and noʒt ywryte ¹⁰⁵ . And so þis vorseyde lewed reson scholde meeve no man þat haþ eny wyt to leve þe makyng of Englysch translacion.

Clericus

A gret del of þeuse bokes stondeþ moche by holy wryt, by holy doctors and by philosofy. Þanne þeuse bokes scholde noʒt be translated ynto Englysch. ¹¹⁰

Dominus

Hyt ys wonder þat þou makest so feble argementys and hast ygo so long to scole. Aristoteles bokes and oþere bokes also of logyk and of philosofy were translated out of Gru into Latyn. Also, atte prayng of Kyng Charles, John Scot translatede Seint Denys hys bokes out of Gru ynto Latyn. Also holy wryt was ¹¹⁵ translated out of Hebrew ynto Gru and out of Gru into Latyn, and þanne out of Latyn ynto Frensch. Þanne what haþ Englysch trespased þat hyt myʒt noʒt be translated into Englysch? Also Kyng Alvred, þat foundede þe unyversité of Oxenford, translatede þe beste lawes into Englysch tonge and a gret del of þe Sauter out of ¹²⁰ Latyn into Englysch, and made Wyrefryth byschop of Wyrcetre translate Seint Gregore hys bokes Dialoges out of Latyn ynto Saxon. Also Cedmon of Whyteby was inspired of þe Holy Gost and made wonder poesyes an Englysch nyʒ of al þe storyes of holy wryt. Also þe holy man Beda translatede Seint John hys gospel out of Latyn ynto Englysch. ¹²⁵

Also þou wost where þe Apocalips ys ywryte in þe walles and roof of a chapel boþe in Latyn and yn Freynsch. Also þe gospel and prophecy and þe ryʒt fey of holy churche mot be tauʒt and ypreched to Englyschmen þat conneþ no Latyn. Þanne þe gospel and prophecy and þe ryʒt fey of holy cherche mot be told ham ¹³⁰ an Englysch, and þat ys noʒt ydo bote by Englysch translacion. Vor such Englysch prechyng ys verrey Englysch translacion, and such Englysch prechyng ys good and neodful; þanne Englysch translacion ys good and neodfol.

Clericus

Ʒef a translacion were ymad þat myʒte be amended yn ¹³⁵ eny poynt, som men hyt wolde blame.

Dominus

Ʒef men blameþ þat ys noʒt worþy to be blamed, þanne hy buþ to blame. Clerkes knoweþ wel ynow þat no synfol man doþ so wel þat he ne myʒte do betre, noþer makeþ so good a translacyon þat he ne myʒte make a betre. Þarvore Orygenes ¹⁴⁰ made twey translacions and Jerom translatede þryes þe Sauter. Y desire no translacion of þeus bokes þe beste þat myʒte be, for þat were an ydel desyre vor eny man þat ys now here alyve; bote ich wolde have a skylfol translacion þat myʒt be knowe and understonde.

Clericus

Wheþer ys ʒow levere have a translacion of þeuse ¹⁴⁵ cronyks in ryme oþer yn prose?

Dominus

Yn prose, vor comynlych prose ys more cleer þan ryme, more esy and more pleyn to knowe and understonde.

Clericus

Þanne God graunte grace greiþlyche to gynne, wyt and wysdom wysly to wyrche, myʒt and muynde of ryʒt menyng, ¹⁵⁰ to make translacion trysty and truwe, plesyng to þe Trynyté, þre persones and o god in majesté, þat ever was and evere schal be, and made hevene and erþe and lyʒt vor to schyne, and departede lyʒt and derknes, and clepede lyʒt Day and derknesse Nyʒt, and so was maad evetyde and morowe tyde on day þat had no morow ¹⁵⁵ tyde. Þe secunde day he made þe firmament betwene watres, and departede þe watres þat were under þe firmament vram watres þat were above þe firmament and clepede þe firmament Hevone. Þe þridde day he gadrede þe watres þat buþ under hevene ynto on place and made þe erþe unheled and clepede þe gadryngs of watres ¹⁶⁰ Sees and drye erþe Lond, and made tren and gras. Þe verþe day he made sonne and moone and sterres and sette hem yn þe fermament of hevene, þar vor to schyne and to be toknes and sygnes to departe tymes and ʒeres and nyʒt and day. Þe vyfte day he made voules and bryddes yn aer and fysches yn þe water. Þe sixte day he made bestes ¹⁶⁵ of þe lond and man of erþe and put hym yn paradys for he scholde worche and wone þarynne. Bote man brak God hys heste. He vyl ynto synne and was pot out of paradys ynto wo and sorowe, worþy to be dampned to þe peyne of helle wiþoute eny ende. Bot þe Holy Trynyté hadde mersy of man, and þe Vader sende þe ¹⁷⁰ Sone, and þe Holy Gost alyʒte on a mayde, and þe Sone tok vlesch and blod of þat blysfol mayde, and deyde on þe rode to save mankynde, and aros þe þridde day gloryous and blysfol, and tauʒte hys disciples, and styʒ into hevene whanne hit was tyme, and schal come atte day of dome and deme quyk and ded. Þanne al men þat buþ ywryte yn ¹⁷⁵ þe bok of lyf schal wende wiþ hym ynto þe blysse of hevene, and be þere in body and in soul, and se and knowe hys godhede and manhede in joye wiþout eny ende. Explicit Dialogus.

Notes

1 Babyl Until the building of the Tower of Babel ‘the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech’; but God’s revenge upon the builders was to ‘confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another’s speech’ (Genesis 11.1–9). Hence the diversity of human language, for which various remedies were sought – including translation, the subject of the present dialogue.

4 alwey deef ‘someone deaf from birth’.

10 ganglyng ‘cackling’, a variant of the following jangle.

10–12 ‘For however vigorously one of them cackles, the other is none the wiser, even though he may be cursing him rather than wishing him good day.’ The a (11) is unstressed ‘he’.

16 mene ‘an intermediary’, with wordplay on mene, ‘mean’ (17).

19 a þys half Grees ‘on this side of Greece’, i.e. not Byzantium.

23 Ranulph Ranulph Higden. See Headnote. His Polychronicon is divided into seven bookes, the first of which describes the geography of the world. The remaining six are devoted to the history of the world from the beginning to the present.

26 hys ‘its’, the world’s. See 4.3.3.

37 þey a ‘even though they’: þey is ‘though’; a is unstressed ‘they’.

56 to vynde ham to scole ‘to provide for their schooling’. Cf. 7a/36. In both passages, frendes probably has its Old Norse sense, ‘relatives’.

59–60 streytlych ‘strictly, narrowly’. In what follows (59–69), the lord distinguishes three kinds of necessity: some things must in strict necessity exist (God); others are necessary for the support of other things (food and drink); and others are necessary in that they are beneficial (chronicles). The distinction is a scholastic one, going back to Aristotle’s Metaphysics 5.5.

64 somwhat ‘some thing’.

77 mowe noʒt a whyle ‘cannot for the time being’, ironically echoing a Latinist’s excuse.

81–2 The idea here and at 96–7 appears to be that the argument is so contemptibly stupid that it is good for nothing but to be pulverized and dissolved away in water (plod, ‘pool, puddle’).

84 ‘The objection must stand unless it can be countered.’

85–7 ‘A short‐sighted man, provided he was not entirely without intelligence, could see the answer to this objection; and even if he were completely blind, he could still feel the answer, provided his sense of touch did not fail.’

88 me ‘one’: the unstressed form of man, not a form of the pronoun I.

88–91 Early translations of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek were gathered together in parallel columns by Origen (ad c.185–c.254) in his Hexapla. The ‘three score and ten’ are the translators said to have produced the Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint (Latin septuaginta, ‘seventy’); Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion all produced further versions in the second century. Origen included these four in his Hexapla, along with an anonymous ‘fifth translation’ (the ‘Quinta’).

92 Seint Jerom St Jerome (c.342–420) translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin as part of his standard, or ‘Vulgate’, version of the whole Bible.

95 vor here translacions ‘on account of their translations’.

96–7 a water ‘in water’. See 81–2n.

108 stondeþ moche by ‘draw largely upon’.

112 Aristoteles bokes Aristotle’s works in Latin translations were prime authorities for medieval scholars in the West.

114 John Scot John Scotus Erigena (c.810–c.877), under the patronage of the Carolingian Charles the Bald, translated from Greek into Latin certain theological writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite (Acts 17.34). This Dionysius was also wrongly identified with St Denys, the patron saint of France.

117 Frensch Translations of the Bible into French were already current in the thirteenth century, giving rise in the fourteenth to a great two‐volume vernacular Bible.

Englysch The ‘Wycliffite’ translation of the Bible, with which Trevisa’s name has been associated, was begun before Wycliffe’s death in 1384; but Trevisa shows no awareness of it here. See David C. Fowler, ‘John Trevisa and the English Bible’, Modern Philology, 58 (1960), 81–98.

118 Kyng Alvred Alfred the Great of Wessex (849–99), fancifully supposed founder of Oxford University, produced a set of vernacular laws, in which passages are translated from the Latin Bible. He is also said to have left an Anglo‐Saxon translation of the Psalms unfinished at the time of his death. In Alfred’s Preface to his translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care (No. 5 in A Guide to Old English), he advocates translation and, like Dominus here, cites renderings of the Hebrew Old Testament as precedents.

121 Wyrefryth Werferth, Bishop of Worcester (Wyrcetre), made his translation of Gregory’s Dialogues at the request of King Alfred. Trevisa’s parish of Berkeley belonged to the Worcester diocese.

122 Cedmon According to Bede, History 4.24, Cædmon was the first to retell biblical stories in Anglo‐Saxon verse. He was a farmhand attached to the monastery of Whitby in the later seventh century. See No. 9 in A Guide to Old English.

125 Beda Bede (c.673–735) is said to have been engaged on a translation of St John’s Gospel at the time of his death.

126 þe Apocalips Passages from an Anglo‐Norman translation of the Book of Revelation are still to be seen inscribed on the roof beams in the morning room, formerly the chapel, of Berkeley Castle. Clericus would be expected to know this (þou wost), since Trevisa was Berkeley’s chaplain.

131–4 The argument is summed up in the form of a scholastic syllogism: major premiss English preaching is English translation; minor premiss English preaching is good and necessary; conclusion English translation is good and necessary.

137 þat ‘that which’.

140 Orygenes The reference is evidently to Origen’s own contributions to his Hexapla (88–91n.), revising the text of the Greek Septuagint.

141 Jerom Before making his Latin version of the Psalms from the Hebrew original (92n.), St Jerome had made two earlier versions from the Greek.

145 ‘Would you rather have … ?’ An impersonal construction: 5.6.8.

149–78 The argument being now over, Clericus breaks into a heavily alliterated prayer for God’s help in his translation, following it with a summary of biblical events from Creation to Last Judgement – an abbreviated example of the very ‘holy writ in English’ for which Dominus has argued.

155 on day þat had no morow tyde Genesis 1.5: ‘And there was evening and morning one day’; but this one day, the first, itself had no morning.

169–75 Following the Apostles’ Creed.

13
John Gower: Confessio Amantis

John Gower was an old man when he died in 1408. His formative years were apparently spent in Kent and Suffolk; and in later life he took up residence in St Mary’s Priory, Southwark, on the south side of London Bridge. He was a gentleman landowner, who also played a part in the legal and official business of London. Chaucer, when setting out for Italy in 1378, gave power of attorney to Gower; and he submitted Troilus and Criseyde to him for correction (Troilus 5.1856). Gower in his turn refers to Chaucer in his Confessio Amantis (8.2941*–57*). Gower’s three principal works show his facility in all the three literary languages of late fourteenth‐century England. They are: Mirour de l’Omme, a long didactic poem in French, completed in the late 1370s; Vox Clamantis, a Latin poem concerned with the social evils of the reign of Richard II, among them the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; and the English Confessio Amantis. Confessio Amantis survives in more than fifty manuscripts (with excerpts in several more), representing the poem in three successive forms, the latest of which was completed in 1392–3. The poem was printed in 1483 (by Caxton) and 1532, and continued throughout the Tudor period to be recognized as a vernacular classic. Puttenham, in 1589, cites Gower and Chaucer as the first true masters of the ‘art of English poesy’.

Confessio Amantis (‘A Lover’s Confession’) represents Genius, a priest of Venus, hearing the confession of Amans. He interrogates him about each of the Seven Deadly Sins in turn (see Ancrene Wisse, text 4 here), illustrating them and their various sub‐species with stories drawn mainly from ancient history and legend. As a dependant of the goddess Venus, Genius represents the power and interests of human love, and he advises Amans accordingly, guiding him in the conduct of his love‐affair. Yet Genius is also a priest, and as such he represents another, higher, power, and is concerned with sin as the Church understood it. These two interests conflict on occasion, but less often than might be expected. The civilized, and ineffectual, love of Amans is hardly such as to incur the wrath of the Church – indeed, it even serves to foster certain Christian virtues such as humility. Furthermore, when Amans at last gives it up, in the beautiful closing pages of the poem, he does so not merely because the priest there reminds him of higher truths – the law of reason and the love of God – but also because, as we then learn, he is an old man and no longer fit to serve Venus. Thus, in his case, the law of nature points to the same conclusion as does the law of God.

The following extract consists of Book 1, lines 2399–2661 of Confessio Amantis. The manuscript upon which the text is based, Bodleian Fairfax 3, so exactly represents what Gower wrote that it is thought to have been copied under his personal supervision. It faithfully preserves the delicate art of his octosyllabic couplets. As in the best texts of Chaucer’s verse, final ‐e is to be pronounced as a syllable, except where it is lost by elision before words beginning with a vowel or an h. Thus: ‘I rede͡ how þat þis proudė vicė’ (11), where the ‐e elides before how, while proude has two syllables (on inflexional ‐e in the definite form of adjectives, see 4.4.1). Or again: ‘Above͡ alle͡ oþre͡ aʒein þis vicė’ (54). The Fairfax scribe carefully observes the distinction between hire, ‘her’ and here, ‘their’, as in 94–5 here. Gower’s English reflects in some details his early connections with Kent and Suffolk: e.g. the present participle inflexion ende (thenkende, ‘thinking’, 167), the form oghne, ‘own’ (adj.), and the shortened forms of the third person singular of verbs (þenkþ 256). One idiosyncrasy is his habit of shifting words which belong after conjunctions to a position before them (cf. 56, 135, 190–1 here). However, his usage is in general much like that of his London contemporary Chaucer.

Editions

G. C. Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower, 4 vols (Oxford, 1899–1902)

G. C. Macaulay, The English Works of John Gower, EETS e.s. 81–2 (1900–1901)

J. A. W. Bennett, Selections from John Gower, Clarendon Medieval and Tudor Series (Oxford, 1968)

Studies

Siân Echard, ed., A Companion to Gower (Cambridge, 2005)

Siân Echard, John Gower: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/gower.htm

John H. Fisher, John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer (New York, 1964)

W. P. Ker, ‘Gower’, in Essays on Medieval Literature (London, 1905), pp. 101–34

C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (Oxford, 1936), Chapter V

A. J. Minnis, ed., Gower’s Confessio Amantis: Responses and Reassessments (Cambridge, 1983)

Derek A. Pearsall, ‘Gower’s Narrative Art’, PMLA, 81 (1966), 475–84

M. L. Samuels and J. J. Smith, The English of Chaucer and his Contemporaries (Aberdeen, 1988), Chapters 3 and 9

Robert F. Yeager, John Gower’s Poetic: The Search for a New Arion (Cambridge, 1990)

[picture]

A page from Confessio Amantis (MS Fairfax 3, folio 21v).

Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library.

| Magniloque propriam minuit iactancia lingue
| Famam, quam stabilem firmat honore cilens.
| Ipse sui laudem meriti non percipit, unde
| Se sua per verba iactat in orbe palam.
| Estque viri culpa iactancia, que rubefactas
| In muliere reas causat habere genas.
Confessor | The vice cleped Avantance
| Wiþ Pride haþ take his aqueintance,
| So þat his oghne pris he lasseþ
| When he such mesure overpasseþ
| That he his oghne herald is. ⁵
| That ferst was wel is þanne mis,
| That was þankworþ is þanne blame,
| And þus þe worschipe of his name
| Thurgh pride of his avantarie
| He torneþ into vilenie. ¹⁰
| I rede how þat þis proude vice
| Haþ þilke wynd in his office
| Which þurgh þe blastes þat he bloweþ
| The mannes fame he overþroweþ
| Of vertu, which scholde elles springe ¹⁵
| Into þe worldes knowlechinge;
| Bot he fordoþ it alto sore.
| And riht of such a maner lore
| Ther ben lovers; forþi if þow
| Art on of hem, tell and sei how. ²⁰
| Whan þou hast taken eny þing
| Of loves ʒifte, or nouche or ring,
| Or tok upon þee for þe cold
| Som goodly word þat þee was told,
| Or frendly chiere or tokne or lettre, ²⁵
| Wherof þin herte was þe bettre,
| Or þat sche sende þe grietinge,
| Hast þou for pride of þi likinge
| Mad þin avant wher as þe liste?
Amans | I wolde, fader, þat ʒe wiste ³⁰
| Mi conscience liþ noght hiere.
| Ʒit hadde I nevere such matiere
| Wherof myn herte myhte amende –
| Noght of so mochel þat sche sende
| Be mowþe and seide ‘Griet him wel’. ³⁵
| And þus, for þat þer is no diel
| Wherof to make myn avant,
| It is to reson acordant
| That I mai nevere, bot I lye,
| Of love make avanterie. ⁴⁰
| I wot noght what I scholde have do
| If þat I hadde encheson so
| As ʒe have seid hier manyon,
| Bot I fond cause nevere non.
| Bot Daunger, which welnyh me slowh, ⁴⁵
| Therof I cowþe telle ynowh,
| And of non oþer avantance.
| Thus nedeþ me no repentance:
| Now axeþ furþere of my lif,
| For hierof am I noght gultif. ⁵⁰
Confessor | Mi sone, I am wel paid wiþal;
| For wite it wel in special

That love of his verrai justice

Above alle oþre aʒein þis vice

At alle times most debateþ, ⁵⁵

Wiþ al his herte and most it hateþ.

And ek in alle maner wise

Avantarie is to despise,

As be ensample þou myhte wite

Which I finde in þe bokes write. ⁶⁰

 Of hem þat we Lombars now calle

Albinus was þe ferst of alle

Which bar corone of Lombardie,

And was of gret chivalerie

In werre aʒein diverse kinges. ⁶⁵

So fell amonges oþre þinges

That he þat time a werre hadde

Wiþ Gurmond, which þe Geptes ladde

And was a myhti kyng also;

Bot natheles it fell him so ⁷⁰

Albinus slowh him in þe feld.

Ther halp him nowþer swerd ne scheld

That he ne smot his hed of þanne,

Wherof he tok awey þe panne,

Of which he seide he wolde make ⁷⁵

A cuppe for Gurmoundes sake,

To kepe and drawe into memoire

Of his bataille þe victoire.

And þus whan he þe feld haþ wonne

The lond anon was overronne ⁸⁰

And sesed in his oghne hond,

Wher he Gurmondes dowhter fond,

Which Maide Rosemounde hihte,

And was in every mannes sihte

A fair, a freissh, a lusti on. ⁸⁵

His herte fell to hire anon,

And such a love on hire he caste

That he hire weddeþ ate laste;

And after þat long time in reste

Wiþ hire he duelte, and to þe beste ⁹⁰

Thei love ech oþer wonder wel.

Bot sche which kepþ þe blinde whel,

Venus, whan þei be most above

In al þe hoteste of here love,

Hire whiel sche torneþ, and þei felle ⁹⁵

In þe manere as I schal telle.

 This king, which stod in al his welþe

Of pes, of worschipe and of helþe,

And felte him on no side grieved

As he þat haþ his world achieved, ¹⁰⁰

Tho þoghte he wolde a feste make;

And þat was for his wyves sake,

That sche þe lordes ate feste

That were obeissant to his heste

Mai knowe. And so forþ þerupon ¹⁰⁵

He let ordeine and sende anon

Be lettres and be messagiers,

And warnede alle hise officiers

That every þing be wel arraied.

The grete stiedes were assaied ¹¹⁰

For joustinge and for tornement,

And many a perled garnement

Embroudred was aʒein þe dai.

The lordes in here beste arrai

Be comen ate time set. ¹¹⁵

On jousteþ wel, anoþer bet,

And oþerwhile þei torneie;

And þus þei casten care aweie

And token lustes upon honde;

And after, þou schalt understonde, ¹²⁰

To mete into þe kinges halle

Thei come, as þei be beden alle.

And whan þei were set and served,

Thanne after, as it was deserved,

To hem þat worþi knyhtes were, ¹²⁵

So as þei seten hiere and þere,

The pris was ʒove and spoken oute

Among þe heraldz al aboute;

And þus beneþe and ek above

Al was of armes and of love, ¹³⁰

Wherof abouten ate bordes

Men hadde manye sondri wordes,

That of þe merþe which þei made

The king himself began to glade,

Wiþinne his herte and tok a pride, ¹³⁵

And sih þe cuppe stonde aside

Which mad was of Gurmoundes hed,

As ʒe have herd, whan he was ded,

And was wiþ gold and riche stones

Beset and bounde for þe nones, ¹⁴⁰

And stod upon a fot on heihte

Of burned gold, and wiþ gret sleihte

Of werkmanschipe it was begrave

Of such werk as it scholde have,

And was policed ek so clene ¹⁴⁵

That no signe of þe skulle is sene,

Bot as it were a gripes ey.

The king bad bere his cuppe awey

Which stod tofore him on þe bord

And fette þilke. Upon his word ¹⁵⁰

This skulle is fet and wyn þerinne,

Wherof he bad his wif beginne:

‘Drink wiþ þi fader, dame’, he seide.

And sche to his biddinge obeide,

And tok þe skulle, and what hire liste ¹⁵⁵

Sche drank, as sche which noþing wiste

What cuppe it was; and þanne al oute

The kyng in audience aboute

Haþ told it was hire fader skulle,

So þat þe lordes knowe schulle ¹⁶⁰

Of his bataille a soþ witnesse,

And made avant þurgh what prouesse

He haþ his wyves love wonne,

Which of þe skulle haþ so begonne.

Tho was þer mochel pride alofte. ¹⁶⁵

Thei speken alle, and sche was softe,

Thenkende on þilke unkynde pride

Of þat hire lord so nyh hire side

Avanteþ him þat he haþ slain

And piked out hire fader brain ¹⁷⁰

And of þe skulle had mad a cuppe.

 Sche soffreþ al til þei were uppe,

And þo sche haþ seknesse feigned

And goþ to chambre and haþ compleigned

Unto a maide which sche triste, ¹⁷⁵

So þat non oþer wyht it wiste.

This mayde Glodeside is hote,

To whom þis lady haþ behote

Of ladischipe al þat sche can,

To vengen hire upon þis man ¹⁸⁰

Which dede hire drinke in such a plit

Among hem alle for despit

Of hire and of hire fader boþe;

Wherof hire þoghtes ben so wroþe,

Sche seiþ þat sche schal noght be glad ¹⁸⁵

Til þat sche se him so bestad

That he nomore make avant.

And þus þei felle in covenant

That þei acorden ate laste

Wiþ suche wiles as þei caste ¹⁹⁰

That þei wol gete of here acord

Som orped knyht to sle þis lord;

And wiþ þis sleihte þei beginne

How þei Helmege myhten winne,

Which was þe kinges boteler, ¹⁹⁵

A proud, a lusti bacheler,

And Glodeside he loveþ hote.

And sche, to make him more assote,

Hire love granteþ, and be nyhte

Thei schape how þei togedre myhte ²⁰⁰

Abedde meete; and don it was

This same nyht. And in þis cas

The qwene hirself þe nyht secounde

Wente in hire stede, and þere haþ founde

A chambre derk wiþoute liht, ²⁰⁵

And goþ to bedde to þis knyht.

And he, to kepe his observance,

To love doþ his obeissance,

And weneþ it be Glodeside;

And sche þanne after lay aside ²¹⁰

And axeþ him what he haþ do,

And who sche was sche tolde him þo,

And seide: ‘Helmege, I am þi qwene.

Now schal þi love wel be sene

Of þat þou hast þi wille wroght: ²¹⁵

Or it schal sore ben aboght,

Or þou schalt worche as I þee seie.

And if þou wolt be such a weie

Do my plesance and holde it stille,

For evere I schal ben at þi wille, ²²⁰

Boþe I and al myn heritage.’

Anon þe wylde loves rage

In which no man him can governe

Haþ mad him þat he can noght werne,

Bot fell al hol to hire assent. ²²⁵

And þus þe whiel is al miswent

The which Fortune haþ upon honde;

For how þat evere it after stonde,

Thei schope among hem such a wyle

The king was ded wiþinne a whyle. ²³⁰

So slihly cam it noght aboute

That þei ne ben descoevered oute,

So þat it þoghte hem for þe beste

To fle, for þere was no reste;

And þus þe tresor of þe king ²³⁵

Thei trusse and mochel oþer þing,

And wiþ a certein felaschipe

Thei fledde and wente awey be schipe,

And hielde here rihte cours fro þenne

Til þat þei come to Ravenne, ²⁴⁰

Wher þei þe dukes helpe soghte.

And he, so as þei him besoghte,

A place granteþ forto duelle;

Bot after, whan he herde telle

Of þe manere how þei have do, ²⁴⁵

This duk let schape for hem so

That of a puison which þei drunke

Thei hadden þat þei have beswunke.

 And al þis made avant of pride.

Good is þerfore a man to hide ²⁵⁰

His oghne pris, for if he speke

He mai lihtliche his þonk tobreke.

In armes liþ non avantance

To him which þenkþ his name avance

And be renomed of his dede; ²⁵⁵

And also who þat þenkþ to spede

Of love he mai him noght avaunte;

For what man þilke vice haunte

His pourpos schal ful ofte faile.

In armes he þat wol travaile, ²⁶⁰

Or elles loves grace atteigne,

His lose tunge he mot restreigne,

Which berþ of his honour þe keie.

Notes

Latin Verses The Prologue and the eight books of Confessio Amantis are divided into sections introduced by headnotes in Latin elegiac couplets. Like the Latin prose side‐notes (not printed here, but see plate on p. 257), these have no precedent in English poetry. The new format marks the new ambitiousness of Gower’s project. The subject of Book 1 is the sin of pride; and the present verses introduce the fourth of its five ‘species’, boastfulness (iactancia): ‘The boastfulness of a bragging tongue lessens a man’s own proper reputation, whereas by silence he confirms his true distinction. Not hearing from others the praise that he deserves, he glorifies himself in his own words before the world. In the male, moreover, boasting is a fault, since in the woman it causes guilty cheeks to blush.’

4 mesure ‘proper moderation’, i.e. in speaking of one’s own merits.

5 herald One function of the herald was the public proclamation of a knight’s victory and renown: cf. 127–8 here.

6 ‘What was originally good then becomes bad.’

11–17 The Confessor’s source is not known. For the association of vainglory with wind and trumpets, compare Ancrene Wisse on pride, No. 4 here, ll. 1–11. In Chaucer’s House of Fame, the god of winds, Aeolus, acts as trumpeter to the goddess Fame, bringing honour to some and shame to others.

14–15 fame … Of vertu ‘reputation for virtue’.

18–19 ‘And there are lovers who belong to just such a school of thought.’ The Confessor here turns from boasting in general to boasting in love. Male lovers were supposed to be secretive. Boasting of favours received put the lady’s honour at risk: cf. the last couplet of the Latin headnote above, and Chaucer’s Troilus 3.281–322.

19 þow The Confessor uses the familiar singular pronoun, the Lover the more formal plural ʒe (30). See 5.4.1.

23–4 A lover might comfort himself, as if with clothing on a cold day, with the report of some friendly remark about him made by his lady.

27 þat ‘when’, continuing the series of subordinate clauses begun at l. 21.

31 ‘I have no guilty conscience on that point.’

34 ‘Not even as much as her sending a message.’

43 ‘As you have just said many men have.’

45 Daunger the disdain or standoffishness of the lady towards her lover, personified here as in the Romance of the Rose: cf. the Chaucerian Romaunt of the Rose 313off., and text 17 here, ll. 384, 399.

56 Sometimes, strangely, Gower puts words that belong after an and before it. So here, wiþ al his herte belongs with hateþ. See 5.9.5 and cf. l. 135.

59 ensample The ensuing illustrative story, or exemplum, exemplifies boasting in general (in alle maner wise, 57). As the Latin side‐note (omitted here) observes, it is directed ‘against those who boast either of their prowess in arms or of their success in love’: cf. ll. 160–3 and 253–7. Gower’s source was a well‐known twelfth‐century historical work, the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo: ed. G. Waitz, in G. H. Pertz, ed., Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Vol. 22 (Hanover, 1872), pp. 214–16; also PL 198.936–8.

61 Lombars ‘Lombards’. The story is first related in the eighth century by Paul the Deacon in his History of the Lombards (PL 95.475–6, 498–500).

68 Geptes the Gepidi, a barbarian people who fought with the Lombards in the mid‐sixth century.

72–3 ‘Neither sword nor shield could help him in preventing him [Albinus] from then cutting his head off.’

81 sesed ‘seised’, a legal term: ‘taken into possession’.

85 a lusti on ‘a vivacious creature’ (on, ‘one’).

92–6 The wheel of the blind goddess Fortune (cf. 226–7) is here attributed to the goddess of love: cf. the Chaucerian Romaunt of the Rose 4353–66.

93 most above ‘at the highest point’ (in their fortunes as lovers).

103–5 ‘So that at the feast she may get to know the lords who were subject to him.’

106 ‘He caused orders to be given and messages to be sent at once.’ See 5.6.5.

111 Jousts were for single combat, tournaments for mass encounters. Cf. 116– 17 below.

113 aʒein ‘in preparation for’.

119 ‘And engaged in pleasures.’

121 mete a noun, ‘food’.

127–8 Compare l. 5 above, and note there. These knights are not ‘their own heralds’.

129 i.e. among those sitting on both the low and the high tables.

135 See 56n.

136 aside ‘on a side table’.

140 for þe nones ‘for the purpose’.

144 ‘With the most suitable kind of decoration.’

147 gripes ey ‘griffin’s egg’, the name of a kind of drinking‐vessel, referred to in late medieval wills. It was made from a large eggshell, perhaps an ostrich’s, set in a surround and on a base of precious metals: OED Gripe’s egg and MED grip(e n. (3) (d). Such bejewelled eggshells were attributed to griffins, perhaps because those fabulous creatures ‘kepen þe mounteyns in þe whiche ben gemmes and precious stones’ (Trevisa, Properties, p. 1207; cf. Paradise Lost 2.943). In the source, Godfrey’s Pantheon, the skull is simply ‘bound in gold’; but Gower vividly imagines an ornate contemporary cup, in which the skull, like the eggshell in a ‘griffin’s egg’, would be heavily overlaid. Hence Gower’s Rosemounde, more plausibly than Godfrey’s, can drink from it in ignorance of its origin and significance.

150 fette an infinitive depending, like bere (148), on bad (148): ‘The king ordered his cup to be carried away … and that same (the skull‐cup) to be fetched.’ See 5.6.5.

151 wyn þerinne ‘wine (is put) in it’.

153 The emphatic reversal of stress in the first foot (Drink wiþ þi fader), rare in Gower’s verse, marks the saying which forms the core of the story: ‘Bibe cum patre tuo’ in Godfrey’s Pantheon.

162 avant ‘boast’. This word, with avanteþ (169) and avant (187), marks the point at which the story touches its announced theme.

164 His wife had begun the feast at his command (l. 152) by drinking from the skull.

168 ‘In that her husband, sitting so near at her side.’

171 had a past participle, depending on haþ (169). Albinus boasts that he ‘has had’ the cup made. The past tense would be hadde, with two syllables.

172 uppe ‘risen from the table’.

176 ‘On the understanding that no one else should know it.’ The queen takes her waiting‐woman into her confidence.

179 ladischipe ‘favour, patronage’. The queen promises to use all her influence to advance the damsel’s career at court.

181 dede hire drinke ‘caused her to drink’.

191 of here acord ‘to join in their agreement’.

193–4 beginne / How ‘begin to consider how’.

195 boteler ‘butler’. The butler was a court officer charged with responsibility for the royal wine.

196 bacheler ‘young knight’. The butlership was a knightly office; cf. Sir Lucan the Butler in Malory.

207–8 The sexual act is here described in courtly euphemisms: Love is a god whose rituals demand observance, and a lord whose commands require obedience.

215 ‘For the one upon whom you have worked your will.’

216 Or ‘either’.

219 holde it stille ‘keep it secret’.

225 ‘But consented to her wishes completely.’ In Godfrey’s Pantheon it is the queen’s threats, not Helmege’s sudden infatuation with her, that wins his consent.

226–7 See 92–6n.

228 stonde subjunctive: ‘should turn out’.

231–2 ‘It was not so secretly done that they escaped discovery.’

240 Gower treats the events at Ravenna, described by Godfrey, in summary fashion. The deaths of Rosemounde and Helmege are not relevant to the Confessor’s theme.

246 let schape ‘caused it to be brought about’.

249 ‘And proud boasting caused all this.’

252 ‘He may easily shatter the goodwill of others.’

14
Lyrics

a–f rawlinson lyrics

A single strip of parchment bound into a Bodleian Library manuscript, MS Rawlinson D 913, preserves a number of short poems in English and French. They were written down in the early fourteenth century in the south of England. The English poems are of a more popular character than the Harley and Grimestone lyrics which follow here (14g–k, l–r). The large amount of repetition and redundancy, especially noticeable in 14a, c and f, suggests song – in some cases most probably also accompanied by dance. In particular, 14b has the form of a dance‐song or ‘carol’: the burden or refrain (‘Icham of Irlaunde’ etc.) to be sung by dancers dancing in a ring, and the stanza (‘Gode sire’ etc.) to be sung by a soloist. Similarly, 14c (‘Maiden in the mor lay’), which happens to be referred to in a fourteenth‐century sermon, is there described as ‘a certain song, namely a karole’. The least song‐like of the poems is 14d, an extremely enigmatic piece of love‐narrative.

Editions

Thomas G. Duncan, Medieval English Lyrics 1200‐1400 (Harmondsworth, 1995)

Richard Leighton Greene, The Early English Carols, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1977)

Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (Oxford, 1952)

Studies

J. A. Burrow, Essays on Medieval Literature (Oxford, 1984), pp. 1– 26

Thomas G. Duncan, ‘The Maid in the Moor and the Rawlinson Text’, Review of English Studies 47 (1996), 151–162

Siegfried Wenzel, ‘The Moor Maiden – A Contemporary View’, Speculum, 49 (1974), 69–74

(a)

Of everykune tre,

Of everykune tre,

Þe haweþorn blowet swotes,

Of everykune tre.

My lemmon sse ssal boe, ⁵

My lemmon sse ssal boe,

Þe fairest of every kinne

My lemmon sse ssal boe.

(b)

  Icham of Irlaunde

  Ant of the holy londe

  Of Irlande.

Gode sire, pray ich þe

For of saynte charité ⁵

Come ant daunce wyt me

In Irlaunde.

(c)

Maiden in the mor lay,

In the mor lay,

 Sevenyst fulle ant a –

 Sevenist fulle ant a –

Maiden in the mor lay, ⁵

In the mor lay,

 Sevenistes fulle ant a day.

Welle was hire mete,

Wat was hire mete?

 Þe primerole ant the – ¹⁰

 Þe primerole ant the –

Welle was hire mete,

Wat was hire mete?

 Þe primerole ant the violet.

Welle was hire dryng, ¹⁵

Wat was hire dryng?

 Þe chelde water of the –

 Þe chelde water of the –

Welle was hire dryng,

Wat was hire dryng? ²⁰

 Þe chelde water of the welle‐spring.

Welle was hire bour,

Wat was hire bour?

 Þe rede rose an te –

 Þe rede rose an te – ²⁵

Welle was hire bour,

Wat was hire bour?

 Þe rede rose an te lilie flour.

(d)

Wer þer ouþer in þis toun

 Ale or wyn,

Isch hit wolde bugge

 To lemmon myn.

Welle wo was so hardy ⁵

Forte make my lef al blody.

Þaut he were þe kynges sone

 Of Normaundy,

Ʒet icholde awreke boe

 For lemman myn. ¹⁰

Welle wo was me tho,

 Wo was me tho;

Þe man that leset þat he lovet

 Hym is al so.

So sse me lerde – ¹⁵

 Ne no more I ne can,

But Crist ich hire biteche

 Þat was my lemman.

(e)

Alnist by þe rose rose,

 Alnist bi the rose I lay.

Darst ich noust þe rose stele,

 Ant ʒet I bar þe flour awey.

(f)

Al gold Jonet is þin her,

Al gold Jonet is þin her.

Save þin Jankyn, lemman dere,

Save Jankyn, lemman dere,

Save þin onlie dere. ⁵

g–k harley lyrics

In about 1340 a scribe accustomed to copying documents in Ludlow (on the border of Shropshire and Herefordshire) compiled a wide‐ranging anthology of texts in Latin, French and English, now in the British Library, MS Harley 2253. It includes a remarkable series of English lyrics, both religious and secular, many of them highly sophisticated in their use of language and their stanza‐structures. Four poems of secular love are chosen here. They show the influence of French and troubadour traditions: 14g is in carol form with a burden (see Headnote to 14a–f above), 14h is a fine example of a reverdie or spring‐song, while 14j is a variety of the pastourelle in which the lover pleads with his lady at her window. Characteristic is the juxtaposition of rhetorical figures with down‐to‐earth colloquialisms, seen at its most striking in 14j.

Many of the lyrics were composed in other parts of the country, and show traces of dialects other than that of the Harley scribe. ‘She’ is often he, ‘they’ is þey in 14j/38, ‘them’ is hem and ‘their’ is huere. The present third person singular verb ending is ‐eþ; the plural ending is usually the expected ‐eþ of the South‐West Midlands, but sometimes the Midland ‐e(n) (lete 14j/38, waxen 14h/15), or the Northern ‐es (wowes 14h/19).

Editions

G. L. Brook, The Harley Lyrics, 4th edn (Manchester, 1968)

Susanna Fein with David Raybin and Jan Ziolkowski, eds., The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, 3 vols, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series (Kalamazoo, MI, 2014–15)

Facsimiles

Facsimile of British Museum MS. Harley 2253, introduction by N. R. Ker, EETS 255 (1965)http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_2253

StudiesSusanna Fein, ed., Studies in the Harley Manuscript (Kalamazoo, MI, 2000)

Derek Pearsall, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London, 1977), pp. 120–32

Thorlac Turville‐Petre, England the Nation: Language, Literature and National Identity, 1290–1340 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 192– 221

Rosemary Woolf, in The Middle Ages (Sphere History of Literature, Vol. I), ed. W. F. Bolton, 2nd edn (London, 1986), pp. 287–92

(g)

Bytwene Mersh ant Averil

 When spray biginneþ to springe,

Þe lutel foul haþ hire wyl

 On hyre lud to synge.

 Ich libbe in love‐longinge ⁵

 For semlokest of alle þynge,

 He may me blisse bringe:

  Icham in hire baundoun.

An hendy hap ichabbe yhent,

Ichot from hevene it is me sent, ¹⁰

From alle wymmen mi love is lent,

  Ant lyht on Alysoun.

On heu hire her is fayr ynoh,

 Hire browe broune, hire eʒe blake,

Wiþ lossum chere he on me loh, ¹⁵

 Wiþ middel smal ant wel ymake.

 Bote he me wolle to hire take

 Forte buen hire owen make,

 Longe to lyven ichulle forsake

  Ant feye fallen adoun. ²⁰

 An hendy hap etc.

Nihtes when y wende ant wake

 (Forþi myn wonges waxeþ won),

Levedi, al for þine sake

 Longinge is ylent me on. ²⁵

 In world nis non so wyter mon

 Þat al hire bounté telle con,

 Hire swyre is whittore þen þe swon,

  Ant feyrest may in toune.

 An hendy hap etc. ³⁰

Icham for wowyng al forwake,

 Wery so water in wore,

Lest eny reve me my make

 Ychabbe yʒyrned ʒore.

 Betere is þolien whyle sore ³⁵

 Þen mournen evermore.

 Geynest under gore,

  Herkne to my roun.

 An hendi etc.

(h)

Lenten ys come wiþ love to toune,

Wiþ blosmen ant wiþ briddes roune,

 Þat al þis blisse bryngeþ.

Dayeseʒes in þis dales,

Notes swete of nyhtegales, ⁵

 Uch foul song singeþ.

Þe þrestelcoc him þreteþ oo,

Away is huere wynter wo

 When woderove springeþ.

Þis foules singeþ ferly fele ¹⁰

Ant wlyteþ on huere wynne wele,

 Þat al þe wode ryngeþ.

Þe rose rayleþ hire rode,

Þe leves on þe lyhte wode

 Waxen al wiþ wille. ¹⁵

Þe mone mandeþ hire bleo,

Þe lilie is lossom to seo,

 Þe fenyl ant þe fille.

Wowes þis wilde drakes,

Miles murgeþ huere makes, ²⁰

 Ase strem þat strikeþ stille.

Mody meneþ, so doþ mo;

Ichot ycham on of þo

 For love þat likes ille.

Þe mone mandeþ hire lyht, ²⁵

So doþ þe semly sonne bryht,

 When briddes singeþ breme.

Deawes donkeþ þe dounes,

Deores wiþ huere derne rounes

 Domes forte deme. ³⁰

Wormes woweþ under cloude,

Wymmen waxeþ wounder proude,

 So wel hit wol hem seme.

Ʒef me shal wonte wille of on,

Þis wunne weole y wole forgon ³⁵

 Ant wyht in wode be fleme.

(j)

My deþ y love, my lyf ich hate

 For a levedy shene;

Heo is brith so daies liht,

 Þat is on me wel sene;

Al y falewe so doþ þe lef ⁵

 In somer when hit is grene;

Ʒef mi þoht helpeþ me noht,

 To wham shal y me mene?

Sorewe ant syke ant drery mod

 Byndeþ me so faste ¹⁰

Þat y wene to walke wod

 Ʒef hit me lengore laste;

My serewe, my care, al wiþ a word

 He myhte awey caste.

‘Whet helpeþ þe, my swete lemmon, ¹⁵

 My lyf þus forte gaste?’

‘Do wey, þou clerc, þou art a fol!

 Wiþ þe bydde y noht chyde.

Shalt þou never lyve þat day

 Mi love þat þou shalt byde. ²⁰

Ʒef þou in my boure art take,

 Shame þe may bityde;

Þe is bettere on fote gon

 Þen wycked hors to ryde.’

‘Weylawei! Whi seist þou so? ²⁵

 Þou rewe on me, þy man!

Þou art ever in my þoht

 In londe wher ich am.

Ʒef y deʒe for þi love

 Hit is þe mykel sham. ³⁰

Þou lete me lyve ant be þi luef,

 Ant þou my swete lemman.’

‘Be stille, þou fol! Y calle þe riþt.

 Cost þou never blynne?

Þou art wayted day ant nyht ³⁵

 Wiþ fader ant al my kynne.

Be þou in mi bour ytake,

 Lete þey for no synne

Me to holde ant þe to slon;

 Þe deþ so þou maht wynne.’ ⁴⁰

‘Swete ledy, þou wend þi mod;

 Sorewe þou wolt me kyþe.

Ich am al so sory mon

 So ich was whylen blyþe.

In a wyndou þer we stod ⁴⁵

 We custe us fyfty syþe.

Feir biheste makeþ mony mon

 Al is serewes mythe.’

‘Weylawey! Whi seist þou so?

 Mi serewe þou makest newe. ⁵⁰

Y lovede a clerke al par amours;

 Of love he wes ful trewe.

He nes nout blyþe never a day

 Bote he me sone seʒe.

Ich lovede him betere þen my lyf; ⁵⁵

 Whet bote is hit to leʒe?’

‘Whil y wes a clerc in scole;

 Wel muchel y couþe of lore.

Ych have þoled for þy love

 Woundes fele sore, ⁶⁰

Fer from þe ant eke from men

 Under þe wode‐gore.

Swete ledy, þou rewe of me.

 Nou may y no more!’

‘Þou semest wel to ben a clerc, ⁶⁵

 For þou spekest so shille.

Shalt þou never for mi love

 Woundes þole grylle.

Fader, moder ant al my kun

 Ne shal me holde so stille ⁷⁰

Þat y nam þyn ant þou art myn

 To don al þi wille.’

(k)

When þe nyhtegale singes

 Þe wodes waxen grene,

Lef ant gras ant blosme springes

 In Averyl, y wene,

Ant love is to myn herte gon ⁵

 Wiþ one spere so kene,

Nyht ant day my blod hit drynkes;

 Myn herte deþ me tene.

Ich have loved al þis ʒer

 Þat y may love namore, ¹⁰

Ich have siked moni syk,

 Lemmon, for þin ore;

Me nis love never þe ner

 Ant þat me reweþ sore.

Swete lemmon, þench on me; ¹⁵

 Ich have loved þe ʒore.

Swete lemmon, y preye þe

 Of love one speche.

Whil y lyve in world so wyde

 Oþer nulle y seche. ²⁰

Wiþ þy love, my swete leof,

 Mi blis þou mihtes eche.

A swete cos of þy mouþ

 Mihte be my leche.

Swete lemmon, y preʒe þe ²⁵

 Of a love‐bene:

Ʒef þou me lovest ase men says,

 Lemmon, as y wene,

Ant ʒef hit þi wille be,

 Þou loke þat hit be sene. ³⁰

So muchel y þenke upon þe

 Þat al y waxe grene.

Bitwene Lyncolne ant Lyndeseye,

 Norhamptoun ant Lounde,

Ne wot y non so fayr a may ³⁵

 As y go fore ybounde.

Swete lemmon, y preʒe þe

 Þou lovie me a stounde.

  Y wole mone my song

  On wham þat hit ys on ylong. ⁴⁰

l–r grimestone lyrics

In 1372 a Franciscan friar, John of Grimestone, compiled an anthology of pieces (National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 18.7.21) suitable to be quoted in sermons. The quotations are arranged alphabetically under topics (Abstinencia, etc.) for ease of reference. Many are Latin; but there are also 239 English poems, generally short enough to be readily used by a preacher. The seven poems selected here all occur in the section headed Passio Christi and were primarily intended for use in Good Friday sermons. Six of them take the form of imagined addresses: by the crucified Christ to man (m, n, q); by man to the crucified Christ (p); by man to the infant Christ, anticipating the Crucifixion (l); and by both Christ and man (r).

Grimestone was a Norfolk man, and certain features of his Norfolk English deserve notice. Sh‐ and wh‐ words have s‐ and w‐ respectively (salt, ‘shalt’, l/10; seld, ‘shield’, n/2; wan, ‘when’, l/8; wy, ‘why’, r/2). Final ‐th appears as ‐t (det, ‘death’, n/3; endet, ‘endeth’, l/30). Words with final ‐ght in Modern English have ‐th (fith, ‘fight’, n/1; þouth, ‘thought’, n/7). A more general feature of South‐Eastern English is the e from Old English y, where Modern English commonly has i: senne, ‘sin’, r/8 (OE synn); mende, ‘mind’, r/20 (OE mynd).

Editions and Studies

Carleton Brown, Religious Lyrics of the XIVth Century, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1952)

Douglas Gray, Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric (London, 1972)

Siegfried Wenzel, Preachers, Poets, and the Early English Lyric (Princeton, 1986)

Edward Wilson, A Descriptive Index of the English Lyrics in John of Grimestone’s Preaching Book, Medium Ævum Monographs, n.s. 2 (Oxford, 1973)

Rosemary Woolf, The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1968)

(l)

Lullay, lullay litel child, child, reste þe a þrowe.

Fro heyʒe hider art þu sent with us to wone lowe;

Pore an litel art þu mad, unkut an unknowe,

Pine an wo to suffren her for þing þat was þin owe.

 Lullay, lullay litel child, sorwe mauth þu make, ⁵

 Þu art sent into þis werd as tu were forsake.

Lullay, lullay litel grom, king of alle þingge.

Wan I þenke of þi methchef, me listet wol litel singge;

But caren I may for sorwe, ʒef love wer in myn herte,

For swiche peines as þu salt driʒen were nevere non so smerte. ¹⁰

 Lullay, lullay litel child, wel mauth þu criʒe,

 For þan þi bodi is bleyk an blak, sone after sal ben driʒe.

Child, it is a weping dale þat þu art comen inne.

Þi pore clutes it proven wel, þi bed mad in þe binne;

Cold an hunger þu must þolen as þu were geten in senne, ¹⁵

An after deyʒen on þe tre for love of al mankenne.

 Lullay, lullay litel child, no wonder þou þu care,

 Þu art comen amonges hem þat þi detʒ sulen ʒare.

Lullay, lullay litel child, for sorwe mauth þu grete.

Þe anguis þat þu suffren salth sal don þe blod to swete; ²⁰

Naked, bunden saltu ben an seiþen sore bete,

No þing fre upon þi bodi of pine sal be lete.

 Lullai, lullay litel child, it is al for þi fo,

 Þe harde bond of love‐longging þat þe hat bunden so.

Lullay, lullay litel child, litel child, þin ore! ²⁵

It is al for oure owen gilt þat þu art peined sore;

But wolde we ʒet kinde be an liven after þi lore

An leten senne for þi love, ne keptest þu no more.

 Lullay, lullay litel child, softe slep an faste;

 In sorwe endet everi love but þin at þe laste.Amen. ³⁰

(m)

Ʒe þat pasen be þe weyʒe,

 Abidet a litel stounde.

Beholdet, al mi felawes,

 Ʒef ani me lik is founde.

To þe tre with nailes þre ⁵

 Wol fast I hange bounde.

With a spere al þoru mi side

 To min herte is mad a wounde.

(n)

I am Jesu þat cum to fith

 Withouten seld an spere;

Elles were þi det idith

 Ʒif mi fithting ne were.

Siþen I am comen an have þe broth ⁵

 A blisful bote of bale,

Undo þin herte, tel me þi þouth,

 Þi sennes grete an smale.

(o)

Gold an al þis werdis wyn

 Is nouth but Cristis rode.

I wolde ben clad in Cristis skyn

 Þat ran so longe on blode,

An gon t’is herte an taken myn in: ⁵

 Þer is a fulsum fode.

Þan ʒef I litel of kith or kyn,

 For þer is alle gode. Amen.

(p)

 Luveli ter of loveli eyʒe,

 Qui dostu me so wo?

 Sorful ter of sorful eyʒe,

 Þu brekst myn herte ato.

Þu sikest sore; ⁵

Þi sorwe is more

 Þan mannis muth may telle.

Þu singest of sorwe,

Manken to borwe

 Out of þe pit of helle.  Luveli etc. ¹⁰

I prud an kene,

Þu meke an clene

 Withouten wo or wile.

Þu art ded for me

An I live þoru þe, ¹⁵

 So blissed be þat wile.  Luveli etc.

Þi moder seet

Hou wo þe beet,

 An þerfore ʒerne sche ʒerte.

To hire þu speke ²⁰

Hire sorwe to sleke:

 Swet suet wan þin herte.  Luveli etc.

Þin herte is rent,

Þi bodi is bent

 Upon þe rode tre. ²⁵

Þe weder is went,

Þe devel is schent,

 Crist, þoru þe mith of þe.  Luveli etc.

(q)

Love me brouthte

An love me wrouthte,

 Man, to be þi fere.

Love me fedde

An love me ledde ⁵

 An love me lettet here

Love me slou

An love me drou

 An love me leyde on bere.

Love is my pes; ¹⁰

For love I ches

 Man to byʒen dere.

Ne dred þe nouth,

I have þe south

 Boþen day an nith. ¹⁵

To haven þe

Wel is me:

 I have þe wonnen in fith.

(r)

Undo þi dore, my spuse dere;

Allas! wy stond I loken out here?

 Fre am I, þi make.

Loke mi lokkes an ek myn heved

An al my bodi with blod beweved ⁵

 For þi sake.

Responsio peccatoris:

Allas! allas! hevel have I sped;

For senne Jesu is fro me fled,

 My trewe fere.

Withouten my gate he stant alone, ¹⁰

Sorfuliche he maket his mone

 On his manere.

Ideo, þerfore:

Lord, for senne I sike sore;

Forʒef, an I ne wil no more.

With al my mith senne I forsake ¹⁵

An opne myn herte þe inne to take,

For þin herte is cloven oure love to kecchen,

Þi love is chosen us alle to fecchen.

Min herte it þerlede, ʒef I wer kende,

Þi swete love to haven in mende. ²⁰

Perce myn herte with þi lovengge,

Þat in þe I have my dwellingge. Amen.

Notes

a/3 blowet swotes ‘blossoms most sweetly’. See 4.4.4.

a/5 ‘My mistress she must be.’

b/1 ‘I am from Ireland.’ W. B. Yeats adapted this carol burden (see Headnote) for his own poem, ‘I am of Ireland’.

b/4–7 This stanza may have been meant for repetition by a female soloist, inviting individual male dancers to join her in the centre of the dance‐ring.

b/5 An entreaty: ‘For the sake of holy charity’.

c/1 The mysterious ‘maiden’ sleeps out on the moor for seven nights in a shelter of roses and lilies, eating primroses and violets and drinking spring water. Scholars have identified her, variously, with the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, a dead child, a water‐sprite etc.; but it is doubtful whether the singers would have known or cared who she was.

c/3 Sevenyst ‘seven nights’, an uninflected plural (contrast l. 7). Here s represents the ‘yogh’ sound (2.3). Compare alnist (e/1, 2) and noust (e/3) here, and 2/78 (mist) above.

c/15–28 These stanzas are much abbreviated in the manuscript (see Textual Notes). They have been expanded on the model of the second stanza.

d/5–6 ‘It was a very unhappy thing that anyone should be so bold as to make my beloved all bloody.’ The circumstances of this assault are quite obscure. It apparently involved the loss, but not the death, of the mistress.

d/9 icholde ‘I would’ (ich wolde).

d/11 ‘It was a very unhappy thing for me then.’

d/13–14 ‘That is how it is for the man who loses what he loves.’

e/1 Alnist ‘all night’. Cf. c/3n. above.

e/4 flour If the rose‐bush represents the beloved, then the ‘flower’ is her maidenhood.

f/3 Jankyn a familiar form of ‘John’: like ‘Janet’, a common name (cf. Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Canterbury Tales III 303, 548).

g/1–8 Here, as even more strikingly in 14k below, there is an abrupt transition from the traditional spring‐opening to the love‐lament. Contrast the next poem, 14h, where the connection between the two is more explicitly made.

g/3 haþ hire wyl ‘delights’.

g/7 He ‘she’.

g/8 baundoun ‘power’. The image of the lover in thrall to or imprisoned by his mistress is a common one in courtly poetry.

g/9–12 The burden of the carol, repeated after each stanza.

g/9 ‘I have had wonderful good fortune.’

g/13 her ‘hair’.

g/17 Bote he ‘unless she’.

g/22 Nihtes ‘at night’ (genitive singular); see 5.3.2.

g/29 in toune ‘anywhere’. Cf. 14h/1.

g/32 Perhaps ‘weary as agitated water’. The meaning of wore may be ‘disturbance, motion’, related to OE wōrian, ‘to move round’.

g/37 ‘Most gracious of women.’ Under gore, ‘in a gown’, is a conventional phrase in this sort of epithet.

h/1 to toune ‘into the world’. The opening six lines are very similar to those of a debate poem, The Thrush and the Nightingale, in Carleton Brown, English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century, No. 52.

h/11 wynne wele ‘blissful joy’, as in l. 35.

h/20 Miles probably ‘animals’; a rare Welsh loan.

h/23–4 ‘I know I am one of those unhappy for love.’

h/29–30 Perhaps ‘Animals whisper to their secret loves in order to speak their minds’. In this reading derne, ‘secret (ones)’, is an adjective used as a noun; see 5.5.3.

h/31 cloude ‘earth’.

h/32–3 ‘Women become very splendid, so well does it (i.e. spring, love, etc.) suit them.’ Proude may connote haughtiness and also elegance in dress.

h/34 ‘If I shall fail to have my joy of one.’

j/11 ‘That I think I shall go mad.’

j/14 He ‘she’.

j/15 Whet helpeþ þe ‘in what way does it help you’.

j/17 clerc is deliberately vague. It commonly means a student, often, but not necessarily, one preparing for the priesthood. Compare, for example, the clerks in Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale (text 18a below). This lover, however, reveals (l. 57) that he is no longer a student, and so is perhaps now in minor orders, like Will in No. 7a above.

j/18 ‘I don’t want to get into an argument with you.’

j/21 take ‘captured, seized’.

j/23–4 Apparently proverbial: ‘it is better for you to travel on foot than on a horse that will throw you’.

j/28 ‘Wherever I go.’

j/30 þe ‘to you’.

j/34 Cost a form of ‘canst’ (4.5.7).

j/35–6 wayted … Wiþ ‘spied on by’.

j/37 Be þou ‘if you are’.

j/38–9 ‘However wicked it may be, they will not hesitate (Lete) to imprison me and slay you.’

j/48 is ‘his’.

j/51 par amours ‘passionately’.

k/5–7 The traditional image of the wounding dart of love is here presented with unusual vigour.

k/8 deþ ‘causes’.

k/18 ‘For one expression of love.’

k/23–4 These lines continue the image of love’s wound that only one surgeon can heal.

k/32 i.e. green with sickness. Cf. l. 2 above.

k/33–4 Lincoln, Lindsey, Northampton and Lound are all in the East Midlands, at no very great distance apart.

k/36 ‘As (the one) I am in chains for.’

k/40 ‘About the one whom it concerns.’

l/1 This lullaby addressed to the Christ child is adapted from an earlier secular lullaby (Carleton Brown (1952), No. 28). Where the earlier poem laments the general miseries of human life, as in l. 15 here, Grimestone’s version concentrates on sorrows specific to Christ: the contrast between his present earthly and his past heavenly existence (2–6), and especially his future passion and death on the cross.

l/4 The ‘thing that was your own’ is humanity, which God himself created.

l/6 ‘You are sent into this world as if you have been abandoned.’ Cf. Matthew 27.46. Werd is a Norfolk form, as in o/1 below.

l/8 me listet wol litel singge ‘I have very little desire to sing’.

l/12 bleyk an blak ‘pale and wan’ (not ‘black’).

driʒe ‘dry, withered’, in death.

l/13 weping dale ‘vale of tears’.

l/14 binne that is, the manger.

l/15 as ‘as if’.

l/17 þou ‘though’.

l/18 ‘You have come among those who will prepare your death.’

l/20 Referring to Christ’s agony in the garden: ‘His sweat became as drops of blood’ (Luke 22.44).

l/22 ‘No part of your body will be left free of pain.’

l/25 þin ore ‘(I beg for) your mercy’.

l/27–8 ‘But yet, if we would only be loving and live by your teaching and abandon sin for love of you, you would no more be troubled.’

m/1–4 The biblical source (reproduced in part by Grimestone along with his poem) is Lamentations 1.12: ‘O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.’ These words, originally a lament by the city of Jerusalem, were customarily transferred to Christ on the cross, e.g. in Good Friday services (and in Handel’s Messiah). Cf. text 15 below, ll. 253–8.

m/4 me lik ‘like me’, in sorrow.

m/5 nailes þre one for each hand and one through both feet. Cf. text 15 below, ll. 102, 120, 141.

n/1 Here the crucified Christ appeals to man, speaking as a warrior who has fought the powers of evil on his behalf – a common conception, as in Piers Plowman B XVIII.

n/3–4 ‘Otherwise your death would be ordained, if it were not for my fighting.’

o/2 ‘Is as nothing without Christ’s cross.’

o/5 ‘And go to his heart and find my dwelling place.’

o/6 fulsum fode ‘plentiful supply of food’. So Christ can provide all the essentials of life: clothing, lodging and food.

o/7 ‘Then I would care little about kith or kin.’

p/1–4 This is the burden of the ‘carol’ (see 14b above and its Headnote), to be repeated after each stanza. It is addressed to the suffering Christ, who is imagined as weeping.

p/2 ‘Why do you cause me such sorrow?’

p/13 wo ‘evil’ (OE wōh), to be distinguished from wo, ‘woe’ (OE wā) in ll. 2 and 18.

p/18 ‘How great is your grief’ (beet, ‘is’).

p/20 Christ addresses Mary from the cross in John 19.25–7.

p/22 ‘Her loving appeal won your heart.’ In devotional amplifications of the crucifixion scene, Mary is represented as appealing to Christ to spare her the suffering his pain causes her.

p/26 ‘The storm has passed.’ Another fourteenth‐century poem incorporates this same stanza (Carleton Brown (1952), No. 90, ll. 15–18) and reads wrong for þe weder here.

q/1–3 The speaker is the crucified Christ. His love for mankind brought him to earth and caused him to become man’s companion and equal.

q/6 me lettet ‘causes me to remain, detains me’.

q/16–17 ‘I am happy to possess you.’ Taken with the following line, this suggests the idea, common at the time, of Christ winning mankind like a knight winning his lady by force of arms.

r/1–6 The language of Christ’s appeal to sinful man derives from the Song of Songs (5.2), where the woman’s beloved was customarily identified as Christ and the woman as humanity: ‘The voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights.’ Cf. also the Apocalypse (Revelation) 3.20: ‘Behold, I stand at the gate and knock.’ Grimestone gives the Latin of both passages at the head of his poem.

r/7–12 The ‘sinner’s response’. Lines 1–12 appear in a thirteenth‐century manuscript as a separate poem, but with the order of the two stanzas reversed (Woolf (1968), 51). Grimestone evidently adapted and reordered this earlier piece, and added the couplet conclusion (13–22).

r/7 hevel have I sped ‘things have gone badly with me’.

r/13–22 The penitent conclusion (ideo, ‘therefore’), added by Grimestone.

r/18 ‘Your love has been chosen to rescue us all.’

r/19 ‘It would pierce my heart, if I had natural feelings.’

r/22 Compare o/5 above.

15
The York Play of the Crucifixion

There are references to the performance of a cycle of mystery plays at York from the late fourteenth century. A list of plays with the craft guilds responsible for producing them was drawn up in 1415, and subsequently revised in line with developments in the cycle. Considerably later, at some time between 1463 and 1477, the texts of forty‐five plays were written down as the official register of the cycle for the city corporation. This is now MS Additional 35290 in the British Library. The plays continued to be performed in York until at least 1569, and the register was used as a check on the arrangements for these performances. The York cycle of plays encompasses the whole of the history of salvation, from the Fall of the Angels to the Last Judgement, with particular emphasis given to the life of Christ.

The organizations responsible for staging and financing the individual plays were the city’s craft guilds. The plays were staged on pageant wagons which followed a prescribed route through the city, each stopping in turn at some twelve stations to perform its play. The performance took place annually on the feast of Corpus Christi in late May or June, beginning at daybreak and ending after midnight.

The play of the Crucifixion was staged, appropriately enough, by the Pinners, whose craft was to make pins, nails and hooks. Its principal source is, of course, the account of the Crucifixion in the Gospels, and it draws also on Latin and vernacular meditations that envisage Christ nailed to the cross as it lies on the ground, a cross with the holes for the nails too far apart for the body that has shrunk in pain. Like all the York Plays it is written in rhyming stanzas, in this case a twelve‐line stanza of eight four‐stress lines followed by four three‐stress lines, rhyming abababab cdcd, and with much alliteration.

The following features are characteristic of the Northern dialect of the text: the third person plural pronouns are þai and þei, þame, þare and þer; the present plural of verbs ends in ‐s when not preceded by a pronoun subject: has (5), walkis (253), but þei wirke (261); the imperative plural often ends in ‐s: commes (32), gose (78), but take (1); the present participle ends in ‐and: doand (267); the past participle of strong verbs ends in ‐en: geven (5), comen (7).

Edition

Richard Beadle, ed. The York Plays, 2 vols, EETS s.s. 23, 24 (2009, 2013)

Facsimile

The York Play , introduced by Richard Beadle and Peter Meredith (Leeds, 1983)

Studies

Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2008)

Alexandra F. Johnston and Margaret Rogerson, Records of Early English Drama: York (Toronto, 1979)

Pamela M. King, The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of the City (Cambridge, 2006)

V. A. Kolve, The Play Called Corpus Christi (Stanford, 1966)

Rosemary Woolf, The English Mystery Plays (London, 1972)

1 Soldier | Sir knyghtis, take heede hydir in hye,
| This dede on dergh we may noght drawe.
| Ʒee wootte youreselffe als wele as I
| Howe lordis and leders of owre lawe
| Has geven dome þat þis doote schall dye. ⁵
2 Sold. | Sir, alle þare counsaile wele we knawe.
| Sen we are comen to Calvarie
| Latte ilke man helpe nowe as hym awe.
3 Sold. | We are alle redy, loo,
| Þat forward to fullfille. ¹⁰
4 Sold. | Late here howe we schall doo
| And go we tyte þertille.
1 Sold. | It may noʒt helpe her for to hone
| If we schall any worshippe wynne.
2 Sold. | He muste be dede nedelyngis by none. ¹⁵
3 Sold. | Þanne is goode tyme þat we begynne.
4 Sold. | Late dynge hym doune, þan is he done.
| He schall nought dere us with his dynne.
1 Sold. | He schall be sette and lerned sone
| With care to hym and all his kynne. ²⁰
2 Sold. | Þe foulest dede of all
| Shalle he dye for his dedis.
3 Sold. | That menes crosse hym we schall.
4 Sold. | Behalde, so right he redis!
1 Sold. | Thanne to þis werke us muste take heede ²⁵
| So þat oure wirkyng be noght wrange.
2 Sold. | None othir noote to neven is nede,
| But latte us haste hym for to hange.
3 Sold. | And I have gone for gere goode speede,
| Bothe hammeres and nayles large and lange. ³⁰
4 Sold. | Þanne may we boldely do þis dede;
| Commes on, late kille þis traitoure strange!
1 Sold. | Faire myght ʒe falle in feere
| Þat has wrought on þis wise.
2 Sold. | Us nedis nought for to lere ³⁵
| Suche faitoures to chastise.
3 Sold. | Sen ilke a thyng es right arrayed,
| The wiselier nowe wirke may we.
4 Sold. | Þe crosse on grounde is goodely graied
| And boorede even as it awith to be. ⁴⁰
1 Sold. | Lokis þat þe ladde on lenghe be layde
| And made me þane unto þis tree.
2 Sold. | For alle his fare he schalle be flaied;
| That one assaie sone schalle ye see.
3 Sold. | Come forthe, þou cursed knave; ⁴⁵
| Thy comforte sone schall kele.
4 Sold. | Thyne hyre here schall þou have.
1 Sold. | Walkes oon! Now wirke we wele.
Jesus | Almyghty God, my fadir free,
| Late þis materes be made in mynde. ⁵⁰
| Þou badde þat I schulde buxsome be
| For Adam plyght for to be pyned.
| Here to dede I obblisshe me
| Fro þat synne for to save mankynde,
| And soveraynely beseke I þe ⁵⁵
| That þai for me may favoure fynde
| And fro þe fende þame fende,
| So þat þer saules be saffe
| In welthe withouten ende;
| I kepe nought ellis to crave. ⁶⁰
1 Sold. | We, herke, sir knyghtis, for Mahoundis bloode!
| Of Adam kynde is all his þoght.
2 Sold. | Þe warlowe waxis werre þan woode,
| Þis doulfull dede ne dredith he noght.
3 Sold. | Þou schulde have mynde, with mayne and mood ⁶⁵
| Of wikkid werkis þat þou haste wrought.
4 Sold. | I hope þat he hadde bene as goode
| Have sesed of sawes þat he uppe‐sought.
1 Sold. | Thoo sawes schall rewe hym sare,
| For all his saunteryng sone. ⁷⁰
2 Sold. | Ille spede þame þat hym spare
| Tille he to dede be done.
3 Sold. | Have done belyve, boy, and make þe boune
| And bende þi bakke unto þis tree.
4 Sold. | Byhalde, hymselffe has laide hym doune ⁷⁵
| In lenghe and breede as he schulde bee.
1 Sold. | This traitoure here teynted of treasoune,
| Gose faste and fette hym þan ʒe thre,
| And sen he claymeth kyngdome with croune,
| Even as a kyng here have schall hee. ⁸⁰
2 Sold. | Now certis I schall noʒt fyne
| Or his right hande be feste.
3 Sold. | Þe lefte hande þanne is myne.
| Late see who beres hym beste.
4 Sold. | Hys lymmys on lenghe þan schalle I lede ⁸⁵
| And even unto þe bore þame bringe.
1 Sold. | Unto his heede I schall take hede
| And with myne hande helpe hym to hyng.
2 Sold. | Nowe sen we foure schall do þis dede
| And medill with þis unthrifty thyng, ⁹⁰
| Late no man spare for speciall speede
| Tille that we have made endyng.
3 Sold. | Þis forward may not faile;
| Nowe are we right arraiede.
4 Sold. | This boy here in oure baile ⁹⁵
| Shall bide full bittir brayde.
1 Sold. | Sir knyghtis, saie, nowe wirke we oght?
2 Sold. | Ʒis certis, I hope I holde þis hande,
| And to þe boore I have it brought
| Full boxumly withouten bande. ¹⁰⁰
1 Sold. | Strike on þan harde, for hym þe boght.
2 Sold. | Ʒis, here is a stubbe will stiffely stande,
| Thurgh bones and senous it schall be soght.
| This werke is wele, I will warande.
1 Sold. | Saie sir, howe do we þore? ¹⁰⁵
| Þis bargayne may not blynne.
3 Sold. | It failis a foote and more,
| Þe senous are so gone ynne.
4 Sold. | I hope þat marke amisse be bored.
2 Sold. | Þan muste he bide in bittir bale. ¹¹⁰
3 Sold. | In faith, it was overe‐skantely scored;
| Þat makes it fouly for to faile.
1 Sold. | Why carpe ʒe so? Faste on a corde
| And tugge hym to, by toppe and taile.
3 Sold. | Ʒa, þou comaundis lightly as a lorde; ¹¹⁵
| Come helpe to haale, with ille haile!
1 Sold. | Nowe certis þat schall I doo
| Full snelly as a snayle.
3 Sold. | And I schall tacche hym too,
| Full nemely with a nayle. ¹²⁰
| Þis werke will holde, þat dar I heete,
| For nowe are feste faste both his hende.
4 Sold. | Go we all foure þanne to his feete,
| So schall oure space be spedely spende.
2 Sold. | Latte see what bourde his bale myght beete; ¹²⁵
| Tharto my bakke nowe wolde I bende.
4 Sold. | Owe! þis werke is all unmeete;
| This boring muste all be amende.
1 Sold. | A, pees man, for Mahounde!
| Latte no man wotte þat wondir. ¹³⁰
| A roope schall rugge hym doune,
| Yf all his synnous go asoundre.
2 Sold. | Þat corde full kyndely can I knytte
| Þe comforte of þis karle to kele.
1 Sold. | Feste on þanne faste þat all be fytte; ¹³⁵
| It is no force howe felle he feele.
2 Sold. | Lugge on ʒe both a litill ʒitt.
3 Sold. | I schalle nought sese, as I have seele!
4 Sold. | And I schall fonde hym for to hitte.
2 Sold. | Owe, haylle!
4 Sold. | Hoo nowe, I halde it wele. ¹⁴⁰
1 Sold. | Have done. Dryve in þat nayle
| So þat no faute be foune.
4 Sold. | Þis wirkyng wolde noʒt faile
| Yf foure bullis here were boune.
1 Sold. | Ther cordis have evill encressed his paynes ¹⁴⁵
| Or he wer tille þe booryngis brought.
2 Sold. | Ʒaa, assoundir are bothe synnous and veynis
| On ilke a side, so have we soughte.
3 Sold. | Nowe all his gaudis nothyng hym gaynes;
| His sauntering schall with bale be bought. ¹⁵⁰
4 Sold. | I wille goo saie to oure soveraynes
| Of all þis werkis howe we have wrought.
1 Sold. | Nay sirs, anothir thyng
| Fallis firste to youe and me;
| Þei badde we schulde hym hyng ¹⁵⁵
| On heghte þat men myght see.
2 Sold. | We woote wele so ther wordes wore,
| But sir, þat dede will do us dere.
1 Sold. | It may not mende for to moote more;
| Þis harlotte muste be hanged here. ¹⁶⁰
2 Sold. | The mortaise is made fitte þerfore.
3 Sold. | Feste on youre fyngeres þan in feere.
4 Sold. | I wene it wolle nevere come þore;
| We foure rayse it noʒt right to‐yere.
1 Sold. | Say, man, whi carpis þou soo? ¹⁶⁵
| Thy liftyng was but light.
2 Sold. | He menes þer muste be moo
| To heve hym uppe on hight.
3 Sold. | Now certis I hope it schall noght nede
| To calle to us more companye. ¹⁷⁰
| Me thynke we foure schulde do þis dede
| And bere hym to ʒone hille on high.
1 Sold. | It muste be done, withouten drede.
| No more, but loke ʒe be redy,
| And þis parte schalle I lifte and leede; ¹⁷⁵
| On lenghe he schalle no lenger lie.
| Therfore nowe makis you boune,
| Late bere hym to ʒone hill.
4 Sold. | Thanne will I bere here doune
| And tente his tase untill. ¹⁸⁰
2 Sold. | We twoo schall see tille aythir side,
| For ellis þis werke wille wrie all wrang.
3 Sold. | We are redy.
4 Sold. | Gode sirs, abide,
| And late me first his fete up fang.
2 Sold. | Why tente ʒe so to tales þis tyde? ¹⁸⁵
1 Sold. | Lifte uppe!
4 Sold. | Latte see!
2 Sold. | Owe, lifte alang!
3 Sold. | Fro all þis harme he schulde hym hyde
| And he war God.
4 Sold. | Þe devill hym hang.
1 Sold. | For grete harme have I hente!
| My schuldir is in soundre. ¹⁹⁰
2 Sold. | And sertis I am nere schente,
| So lange have I borne undir.
3 Sold. | This crosse and I in twoo muste twynne,
| Ellis brekis my bakke in sondre sone.
4 Sold. | Laye downe agayne and leve youre dynne; ¹⁹⁵
| Þis dede for us will nevere be done.
1 Sold. | Assaie, sirs, latte se yf any gynne
| May helpe hym uppe withouten hone,
| For here schulde wight men worschippe wynne
| And noght with gaudis al day to gone. ²⁰⁰
2 Sold. | More wighter men þan we
| Full fewe I hope ʒe fynde.
3 Sold. | Þis bargayne will noght bee,
| For certis me wantis wynde.
4 Sold. | So wille of werke nevere we wore. ²⁰⁵
| I hope þis carle some cautellis caste.
2 Sold. | My bourdeyne satte me wondir soore;
| Unto þe hill I myght noght laste.
1 Sold. | Lifte uppe and sone he schall be þore.
| Therfore feste on youre fyngeres faste. ²¹⁰
3 Sold. | Owe lifte!
1 Sold. | We loo!
4 Sold. | A litill more.
2 Sold. | Holde þanne!
1 Sold. | Howe nowe?
2 Sold. | Þe werste is paste.
3 Sold. | He weyes a wikkid weght.
2 Sold. | So may we all foure saie
| Or he was heved on heght ²¹⁵
| And raysed in þis array.
4 Sold. | He made us stande as any stones,
| So boustous was he for to bere.
1 Sold. | Nowe raise hym nemely for þe nonys
| And sette hym be þis mortas heere, ²²⁰
| And latte hym falle in alle at ones,
| For certis þat payne schall have no pere.
3 Sold. | Heve uppe!
4 Sold. | Latte doune, so all his bones
| Are asoundre nowe on sides seere.
1 Sold. | Þis fallyng was more felle ²²⁵
| Þan all the harmes he hadde.
| Nowe may a man wele telle
| Þe leste lith of þis ladde.
3 Sold. | Me thynkith þis crosse will noght abide
| Ne stande stille in þis morteyse ʒitt. ²³⁰
4 Sold. | Att þe firste tyme was it made overe‐wyde;
| Þat makis it wave, þou may wele witte.
1 Sold. | Itt schall be sette on ilke a side
| So þat it schall no forther flitte.
| Goode wegges schall we take þis tyde ²³⁵
| And feste þe foote, þanne is all fitte.
2 Sold. | Here are wegges arraied
| For þat, both grete and smale.
3 Sold. | Where are oure hameres laide
| Þat we schulde wirke withall? ²⁴⁰
4 Sold. | We have þem here even atte oure hande.
2 Sold. | Gyffe me þis wegge, I schall it in dryve.
4 Sold. | Here is anodir ʒitt ordande.
3 Sold. | Do take it me hidir belyve.
1 Sold. | Laye on þanne faste.
3 Sold. | Ʒis, I warrande. ²⁴⁵
| I thryng þame same, so motte I thryve.
| Nowe will þis crosse full stabely stande;
| All yf he rave, þei will noght ryve.
1 Sold. | Say, sir, howe likis you nowe
| Þis werke þat we have wrought? ²⁵⁰
4 Sold. | We praye youe, sais us howe
| Ʒe fele, or faynte ʒe ought?
Jesus | Al men þat walkis by waye or strete,
| Takes tente ʒe schalle no travayle tyne.
| Byholdes myn heede, myn handis and my feete, ²⁵⁵
| And fully feele nowe or ʒe fyne
| Yf any mournyng may be meete
| Or myscheve mesured unto myne.
| My fadir, þat alle bales may bete,
| Forgiffis þes men þat dois me pyne: ²⁶⁰
| What þei wirke wotte þai noght;
| Therfore, my fadir, I crave
| Latte never þer synnys be sought,
| But see þer saules to save.
1 Sold. | We, harke! He jangelis like a jay. ²⁶⁵
2 Sold. | Me thynke he patris like a py.
3 Sold. | He has ben doand all þis day
| And made grete menyng of mercy.
4 Sold. | Es þis þe same þat gune us say
| That he was Goddis sone almyghty? ²⁷⁰
1 Sold. | Therfore he felis full felle affraye,
| And demyd þis day for to dye.
2 Sold. | Vath qui destruit templum!
3 Sold. | His sawes wer so, certayne.
4 Sold. | And sirs, he saide to some ²⁷⁵
| He myght rayse it agayne.
1 Sold. | To mustir þat he hadde no myght,
| For all the kautelles þat he couthe keste.
| All yf he wer in worde so wight,
| For all his force nowe is he feste. ²⁸⁰
| Als Pilate demed is done and dight,
| Therfore I rede þat we go reste.
2 Sold. | Þis race mon be rehersed right
| Thurgh þe worlde both este and weste.
3 Sold. | Ʒaa, late hym hynge here stille ²⁸⁵
| And make mowes on þe mone!
4 Sold. | Þanne may we wende at wille.
1 Sold. | Nay, goode sirs, noght so sone.
| For certis us nedis anodir note:
| Þis kirtill wolde I of you crave. ²⁹⁰
2 Sold. | Nay, nay sir, we will loke be lotte
| Whilke of us foure fallis it to have.
3 Sold. | I rede we drawe cutte for þis coote –
| Loo, se howe sone! – alle sidis to save.
4 Sold. | The schorte cutte schall wynne, þat wele ʒe woote, ²⁹⁵
| Whedir itt falle to knyght or knave.
1 Sold. | Felowes, ʒe thar noght flyte,
| For þis mantell is myne.
2 Sold. | Goo we þanne hense tyte;
| Þis travayle here we tyne. ³⁰⁰

Notes

2 on dergh … drawe ‘draw out in length’, so ‘delay’. The first soldier is evidently the leader of the group.

11 Late here ‘make heard’, that is ‘tell us’. On the construction of let followed by an infinitive with passive sense, see 5.6.5, and cf. below Late dynge hym doune, ‘strike him down’ (17), and Late bere (178).

19 sette and lerned contemptuous: ‘put to school and taught a lesson’.

21–2 There is a play on dede, ‘death’, and dedis, ‘deeds’.

27 ‘There is no need to talk about any other business.’

32 strange the Northern form of ‘strong’.

33–4 ‘May things turn out well for all of you who have acted in this way.’

40 The holes have already been bored to take the nails.

42 made me ‘fastened’; see 5.3.3. The tree is the wood of the cross.

43 ‘Despite all his boasting, he’ll be terrified.’

44 one assaie ‘in the event’.

48 Walkes oon ‘carry on’; the imperative plural, addressed to the soldiers.

52 Adam plyght ‘Adam’s sin’. Adam is genitive; see 4.2.4.

53 ‘Here I submit myself to death.’

60 kepe ‘care, wish’, a common early sense.

61 Mahoundis bloode The Roman soldiers have their version of the oath by Cristes blod. Mahound is a form of the name Mahomet; see 8/164–8n.

63 werre ‘worse’; a Northern form (ON verre).

65 with mayne and moode ‘wholeheartedly’.

67–8 ‘I reckon he’d have done as well to have left off the stories he made up.’ Note here and elsewhere the common Northern sense of hope, ‘think’.

70 For ‘despite’.

73 boy a contemptuous term in ME.

80 ‘He will be treated just like a king here.’

82 Or ‘until’.

84 beres hym ‘conducts himself’, so ‘gets on’.

91 ‘Let everyone work with exceptional effort.’

93 may is used as a future auxiliary, ‘shall’, as again in l. 106. In l. 208 myght is used in the same sense.

97–108 The manuscript confuses the speakers in this stanza. The individual tasks have been apportioned in ll. 81–8. In the arrangement adopted here, the first soldier is in charge at the head, while the second drives the nail into the right hand. Then (l. 105) the first soldier asks how the third soldier is coping with the left hand. He replies that the hand falls far short of the nail‐hole.

101 for hym þe boght ‘for the sake of him who redeemed you’; the oath is a pointed anachronism. On the lack of a relative pronoun see 5.4.6.

108 gone ynne ‘shrunk’.

111 overe‐skantely scored ‘negligently marked’, since the holes to take the nails were made too far apart.

113 Faste imperative verb, ‘fasten’.

114 by toppe and taile that is, ‘lengthwise’.

116 with ille haile ‘bad luck to you’, so ‘damn you’.

122 hende the Northern plural of ‘hand’ is required for the rhyme.

125 ‘Let’s see what bit of fun can relieve his pain.’

132 Yf ‘even though’.

136 ‘It doesn’t matter how painfully he may feel it.’

138 as I have seele ‘my word on it’; literally ‘so may I have bliss’.

139 hitte i.e. the nail through the hand.

140 I halde it wele ‘I think that’s fine.’

144 That is, even if a team of oxen were attached (boune, ‘bound’) to the cross.

145 Ther ‘these’.

146 Or ‘before’, followed by the subjunctive; see 5.6.6.

150 ‘His babbling will be paid for in suffering.’

158 do us dere ‘cause us trouble’, as well as more generally ‘do us harm’. The soldiers vigorously complain of their great sufferings; e.g. ll. 189–94.

161 mortaise the slot or pit that has been prepared in advance for the cross.

164 rayse present tense for the future. See 5.6.1.

180 ‘And take care of his toes.’ The fourth soldier takes responsibility for the foot of the cross (see l. 85).

185 ‘Why do you spend so much time talking?’

188 And he war God cf. Luke 23.35: ‘Let him save himself if he be Christ.’

196 for ‘by’.

200 ‘And not go around all day amusing themselves.’ Schulde (199) is followed by two infinitives, wynne and to gone, on which see 5.6.5.

206 The source for this accusation of witchcraft is the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus (in M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1924), 96).

211 We loo! an exclamation, ‘Phew!’.

223–8 Compare Psalm 21.15 and 18 (AV 22.14 and 17).

246 ‘I’m packing them in tight together, I promise you.’

248 All yf ‘even though’.

253–64 Christ’s dignified speech is based on two biblical texts: from the Old Testament, ‘O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow’ (Lamentations 1.12), and from the Gospels the words from the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23.34). Both were used in the liturgy for Holy Week, and the former is the basis of several lyrics on the Passion; see text 14m above, and Rosemary Woolf, The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1968), 42–4.

260 Forgiffis imperative, the formal plural, addressed to my fadir.

267 ben doand ‘been at it’, that is, chattering.

268 menyng of ‘lamentation for’. Or the reading may be mevyng, ‘agitation’.

269 gune us say ‘said to us’; see 5.6.3.

271–2 ‘For that reason he is suffering very dreadful pain and is condemned to die today.’

273 ‘O he who destroys the temple!’ The scornful words from Matthew 27.40 and Mark 15.29, alluding to Christ’s prophecy of his Resurrection (John 2.19).

283 ‘This course of events must be accurately reported.’

286 mowes ‘grimaces, faces’. The expression make mowes on þe mone is elsewhere used as a euphemism for ‘be left on the gallows’.

289 ‘Because in fact another matter demands our attention.’

291 loke be lotte ‘draw lots to see’.

294 alle sidis to save ‘to protect everyone’s interests’.

300 ‘We’re wasting our efforts here.’

16
Geoffrey Chaucer: The Parliament of Fowls

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the early 1340s and died in 1400. His first datable work was the dream‐vision poem, The Book of the Duchess, written to commemorate Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, who died in 1368. In the 1380s he was writing Troilus and Criseyde, and he left The Canterbury Tales unfinished at his death.

For much of his life he was associated with the court circle. The earliest record of him is as a page in the service of the Countess of Ulster who was married to one of Edward III’s sons; later records show regular payments of royal annuities, as well as payments for travelling abroad on the king’s business and for services in royal administration. He spent most of his life in London, living for a time at Aldgate (1374–86) when he was controller of customs in the port of London. In the 1390s he retired to Kent. During his lifetime he was recognized as a poet not only in England, honoured by his friend Gower at the end of the Confessio Amantis, but also in France, where the poet Deschamps wrote a poem in his praise.

Chaucer’s language is well represented by the Fairfax manuscript of The Parliament of Fowls and the Hengwrt manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, both copied by London scribes. The following points may be noted. The plural forms of the third‐person pronoun are they, hem, ‘them’, and hir, ‘their’. The third‐person singular verb‐ending in the present tense is ‐eth, which is sometimes assimilated into a stem ending in d or t (e.g. slyd for slydeth, 16/3; stant, ‘stands’, 18b/62). The plural of the present tense ends in ‐e or ‐en. In the Reeve’s Tale, however, Chaucer uses the dialect forms in ‐s, for both singular and plural, to represent the speech of his Northern students (see note to 18a/169).

In his early poems Chaucer wrote in the four‐stress line used in the Owl and the Nightingale, Sir Orfeo and by Gower in the Confessio Amantis. In the works here, though, he writes a five‐stress line (ten or eleven syllables), which is rarely found in English before his time. The Reeve’s Tale is written in rhyming couplets, whereas The Parliament of Fowls, the Prioress’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde are in ‘rhyme‐royal’ stanzas of seven lines. The principles to be observed in the pronunciation of final ‐e are explained in the Headnote to text 13. The feature is well preserved in the Hengwrt text of the Canterbury Tales, but less so in the Fairfax manuscript of The Parliament of Fowls and the Corpus text of Troilus.

Editions

Walter W. Skeat, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 6 vols (Oxford, 1894)

Larry D. Benson, The Riverside Chaucer (Boston, 1987; Oxford, 1988)

General Studies

Piero Boitani and Jill Mann, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2003)

Derek Brewer, ed., Writers and Their Background: Geoffrey Chaucer (London, 1974)

Peter Brown, ed., A Companion to Chaucer (Oxford, 2000)

E. Talbot Donaldson, Speaking of Chaucer (New York, 1970)

Steve Ellis, Chaucer: An Oxford Guide (Oxford, 2005)

Douglas Gray, ed., The Oxford Companion to Chaucer (Oxford, 2003)

Charles Muscatine, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley, 1957)

Derek Pearsall, The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (Oxford, 1992)

Paul Strohm, Social Chaucer (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)

Marion Turner, Chaucer: A European Life (Princeton, 2019)

The Parliament of Fowls is a dream‐vision poem in which the narrator, having read a classic work on the place of man in the universe, dreams of a garden of love in which the birds are assembled under the watchful eye of Nature to choose their mates on St Valentine’s Day. The poem was probably written in the early 1380s, and the discussion of the birds may allude to the negotiations for the hand of Anne of Bohemia, who became Richard II’s wife in 1382.

Chaucer used the dream‐vision form for several poems. In the Parliament it allows him to bring together a wide variety of discordant attitudes towards love and sexuality, as represented by Venus, Nature, and a group of noisy birds anxious to select partners and fly away. In his preface to the dream the narrator explains his dependence on books for his understanding of the nature of the good life, and he ends the poem, still unsatisfied, avowing his determination to read further books for enlightenment.

Chaucer names three Latin sources: Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (line 31); Macrobius, who provided a commentary to that work (line 111); and de Planctu Naturae by Alanus de Insulis (line 316). The description of the temple of Venus closely follows an Italian work of c.1340, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Teseida (the major source for the Knight’s Tale); and Chaucer is also indebted to the Roman de la Rose (see notes to lines 176–82 and 216) and to Dante’s Divine Comedy (see note to lines 127–40).

The poem is preserved in fourteen manuscripts and a print by Caxton, which present a wide range of variant readings. The text here is based on Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 16, a mid‐fifteenth‐century collection of ‘courtly’ poems, including many by Chaucer, and also by Lydgate, Hoccleve and others. The first poem in the manuscript, Chaucer’s Complaint of Mars, is illustrated by a magnificent frontispiece with the arms of John Stanley, an official in the royal household.

Editions

D. S. Brewer, The Parlement of Foulys, 2nd edn (Manchester, 1972)

Benson, The Riverside Chaucer (see above)

Facsimile

Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 16 , introduced by John Norton‐Smith (London, 1979)

Studies

J. A. W. Bennett, The Parlement of Foules: An Interpretation (Oxford, 1957)

P. M. Kean, Chaucer and the Making of English Poetry, vol. i: Love Vision and Debate (London, 1972), pp. 67–85

A. J. Minnis, The Shorter Poems, Oxford Guides to Chaucer (Oxford, 1995), pp. 252–321.

A. C. Spearing, Medieval Dream‐Poetry (Cambridge, 1976)

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,

Th’assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge,

The dredeful joy, that alwey slyd so yerne,

Al this meene I be love, that my felynge

Astonyeth with his wonderful worchyng ⁵

So soore ywys, that whan I on hym thynke,

Nat wote I wel wher that I wake or wynke.

For al be that I knowe not love in dede,

Ne wote how he quyteth folke her hire,

Yet hapeth me in bookes ofte to rede ¹⁰

Of hys miracles and of hys cruelle yre.

There rede I wel he wol be lorde and sire;

Dar I not seyn – hys strokes ben so sore –

But God save suche a lorde! I kan no more.

Of usage, what for luste, what for lore, ¹⁵

On bookes rede I ofte, as I yow tolde.

But why that I speke al this: not yore

Agon hit happed me for to beholde

Upon a booke, was write wyth lettres olde;

And therupon, a certeyn thing to lerne, ²⁰

The longe day ful fast I rad and yerne.

For out of olde feldys, as men seyth,

Cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere;

And oute of olde bokes, in good feythe,

Cometh al thys new science that men lere. ²⁵

But now to purpose of my firste matere:

To rede forth hit gan me so delyte,

That al the day thought me but a lyte.

This booke of which I make mension

Entitled was al there, I shal yow telle, ³⁰

‘Tullius of the Dreme of Scipion’;

Chapitres hyt had seven, of hevene and helle

And erthe, and soules that theryn duelle;

Of which, as shortly as I kan hyt trete,

Of his sentence I wol you tel the grete. ³⁵

First telleth hyt, whan Scipion was come

Into Aufryke, how he mette Massynysse,

That hym for joy in armes hath ynome.

Than telleth he hir speche and al the blysse

That was betwixt hem, til the day gan mysse, ⁴⁰

And how his auncestre, Aufrikan so dere,

Gan on his slepe that nyght to hym appere.

Than tolde he hym that fro a sterry place,

How Aufrikan hath hym Cartage yshewed,

And warned hym before of al hys grace, ⁴⁵

And seyde hym what man, lered other lewede,

That loveth comune profyt, wel ythewede,

He shal unto a blysful place wende,

There joy is that lasteth without ende.

Than asked he yf the folke that here be dede ⁵⁰

Have lyfe and dwellynge in another place;

And Aufrikan seyde, ye, withoute drede,

And oure present worldes lyves space

Meneth but a maner dethe, what wey we trace,

And ryghtfull folke shul goo, whan they dye, ⁵⁵

To hevene; and shewed hym the Galoxye.

Than shewede he hym the lytel erthe that here is

At regarde of hevenes quantyté;

And aftir shewed he hym the nyne speris,

And aftir that the melodye herd he ⁶⁰

That cometh of thilke speres thries thre,

That welle ys of musyke and melodye

In this worlde here, and cause of armonye.

Than bad he hym, syn the erthe was so lite,

And was somedel fulle of harde grace, ⁶⁵

That he ne shuld hym in the worlde delyte.

Than tolde he hym, in certeyne yeres space,

That every sterre shulde come into his place

There hit was first; and al shal oute of mynde

That in this worlde was doon of al mankynde. ⁷⁰

Than prayed hym Scipion to tel hym alle

The wey to come to that hevene blysse,

And he seyde, ‘Know thyselfe first immortalle,

And loke ay besely thou werke and wysse

To comune profyte, and thou shalt never mysse ⁷⁵

To come swiftely unto that place dere

That ful of blysse ys and soules clere.

‘But brekers of the lawe, soth to seyne,

And lecherous folke, after that they be dede,

Shul alwey whirle aboute th’erthe in peyne ⁸⁰

Til many a worlde be passed, out of drede,

And than, foryeven al hir wikked dede,

Than shul they come unto that blysful place,

To which to come God sende ech lover grace!’

The day gan faile and the derke nyght, ⁸⁵

That reveth bestes from her besynesse,

Berefte me my boke for lake of lyght,

And to my bed I gan me for to dresse,

Fulfilled of thought and besy hevenesse;

For bothe I had thinge which that I nolde, ⁹⁰

And eke I ne had thynge that I wolde.

But fynally my spiryte, at the laste,

Forwery of my labour al the day,

Tooke reste, that made me to slepe faste,

And in my slepe I mette, as I lay, ⁹⁵

How Aufrikan, ryght in that selfe aray

That Scipion hym sawe before that tyde,

Was comen, and stoode ryght at my beddys side.

The wery hunter slepynge in hys bed

To woode ayeine hys mynde gooth anoon, ¹⁰⁰

The juge dremeth how hys plees ben sped,

The cartar dremeth how his cartes goone,

The ryche of golde, the knyght fyght with his fone,

The seke meteth he drynketh of the tonne,

The lover meteth he hath hys lady wonne. ¹⁰⁵

Can not I seyne yf that the cause were

For I redde had of Aufrikan beforne

That made me to mete that he stood there;

But thus seyde he, ‘Thou hast the so wel borne

In lokynge of myn olde booke al totorne, ¹¹⁰

Of which Macrobye roght noght a lyte,

That somedel of thy labour wolde I the quyte.’

Cytherea, thou blysful lady swete,

That with thy firebronde dauntest whom the lest,

And madest me thys sweivene for to mete, ¹¹⁵

Be thou my helpe in this, for thou maist best;

As wisly as I sawe the northe‐northe‐west

When I beganne my swevene for to write,

So yeve me myght to ryme and to endyte!

This forseyde Aufrikan me hent anoon, ¹²⁰

And forth with hym unto a gate broght

Ryght of a parke, walled with grene stoon;

And over the gate, with letres large ywroght,

There were vers writen, as me thoght,

On eyther halfe, of ful gret difference, ¹²⁵

Of which I shal yow sey the pleyn sentence:

‘Thorgh me men goon into that blysful place

Of hertes hele and dedely woundes cure;

Thorgh me men goon unto the welle of grace,

There grene and lusty May shal ever endure. ¹³⁰

This is the wey to al good aventure;

Be glad, thou reder, and thy sorwe of caste!

Al open am I; passe in, and hye the faste.’

‘Thorgh me men goon,’ than spake that other side,

‘Unto the mortale strokes of the spere, ¹³⁵

Of which Disdayne and Daunger is the gyde,

There tree shal never frute ne leves bere.

This streme yow ledeth unto the sorwful were

Thereas the fyssh in prison is al drye;

Th’eschewynge ys only the remedye.’ ¹⁴⁰

These vers of golde and blak ywriten were,

Of which I gan a stounde to beholde,

For with that oon encresed ay my fere,

And with that other gan myn hert to bolde.

That oon me hette, that other did me colde; ¹⁴⁵

No wytte had I, for errour, for to chese

To entre or flee, or me to save or lese.

Ryght as betwix adamauntes twoo

Of evene myght a pece of iren ysette

That hath no myght to meve to nor froo – ¹⁵⁰

For what that on may hale, that other lette –

Ferde I, that nyste wher that me was bette

To entre or leve, til Affrikan my gyde

Me hente, and shoofe in at the gates wyde,

And seyde, ‘Hyt stondeth writen in thy face, ¹⁵⁵

Thyn errour, though thou tel hyt not to me;

But drede the not to come in to this place,

For this writynge ys nothing ment be the,

Ne be noon but he loves servant be;

For thou of love hast lost thy taste, y gesse, ¹⁶⁰

As seke man hath of swete and bitternesse.

‘But natheles, although thou be dulle,

That thou canst not do, yet thou maist hyt se;

For many a man that may not stonde a pulle,

Yet lyketh hym at the wrastelynge to be, ¹⁶⁵

And demeth yit whethir he do bet or he;

And yf thou haddest kunnynge for to endite,

I shal the shewen mater of to wryte.’

With that my honde in hys he toke anoon,

Of which I comfort kaught and went in faste; ¹⁷⁰

But Lorde, so I was glad and wel begoon!

For over al, where I myn eyen caste,

Weren trees claad with levys that ay shal laste,

Eche in his kynde, with coloure fressh and grene

As emerawde, that joy was to sene: ¹⁷⁵

The bylder oke, and eke the hardy asshe,

The peler elme, the cofre unto careyne,

The boxtre piper, holme to whippes lasshe,

The saylynge firre, the cipresse deth to pleyn,

The sheter ewe, the aspe for shaftes pleyne, ¹⁸⁰

The olyve of pes, and eke the drunken vyne,

The victor palme, the laurere to devyne.

A gardyn sawh I, ful of blossomed bowis

Upon a ryver in a grene mede,

Theras swetnes evermor ynowh is, ¹⁸⁵

With floures white, blew, yelow and rede,

And colde well‐stremes nothinge dede,

And swymmynge ful of smale fisshes lyght

With fynnes rede and scales sylver‐bryght.

On every bowgh the briddes herde I synge ¹⁹⁰

With voys of aungel in her armony,

That besyed hem her briddes forthe to brynge.

The lytel conyes to her pley gunnen hye;

And further al aboute y gan espye

The dredful roo, the buk, the hert and hynde, ¹⁹⁵

Squerel, and bestis smale of gentil kynde.

On instrumentes of strynges in acorde

Herde I pley, and ravysshinge swetnesse,

That God, that maker ys of al and lorde,

Ne herde never bettir, as I gesse; ²⁰⁰

Therewith a wynde, unnethe hyt myght be lesse,

Made in the leves grene a noyse softe

Accordant to the foulys songe on lofte.

The aire of that place so attempre was

That never was grevance ther of hoot ne colde; ²⁰⁵

Ther growen eke every holsome spice and gras;

No man may there wexe seke ne olde.

Yet was there more joy a thousande folde

Than man kan telle: never wolde hyt nyght,

But ay clere day to any mannys syght. ²¹⁰

Under a tree, besyde a welle, I say

Cupide our lorde hys arwes forge and fyle,

And at hys fete hys bowe al redy lay;

And Wille hys doghtre tempred al the while

The hedes in the welle, and with hir file ²¹⁵

She couched hem after as they shul serve,

Somme to slee, and somme to wounde and kerve.

Thoo was I war of Plesaunce anon‐ryght,

And of Array and Lust and Curtesye,

And of the Crafte that kan and hath the myght ²²⁰

To do by force a wyght to do folye.

Dysfigured was she, I shal not lye;

And by hymselfe, under an oke, I gesse,

Sawgh I Delyte, that stoode with Gentilesse.

I sawgh Beauté, withoute any atire, ²²⁵

And Yowthe ful of game, and Jolyté,

Foolhardynesse, Flatery, and Desire,

Messagery, Mede, and other thre –

Her names shul noght be tolde for me –

And upon pelers grete of jasper longe ²³⁰

I sawgh a temple of bras founded stronge.

Aboute the temple daunceden alway

Wommen ynow, of which somme were

Faire of hemself, and somme of hem gay;

In kirtels al disshevelé went they there, ²³⁵

That was hir office alwey, fro yere to yere;

And on the temple, of dowves white and faire

Saugh I sittynge many a hundred paire.

Before the temple‐dore ful soberly

Dame Pes sate, a curtyne in hir honde; ²⁴⁰

And hir beside, wonder discretly,

Dame Pacience sittynge ther I fonde

With face pale, upon an hille of sonde;

And alder‐next, within and ek withoute,

Behest and Arte, and of her folke a rowte. ²⁴⁵

Withyn the temple, of syghes hoote as fire

I herde a swogh that gan aboute renne,

Which syghes were engendred with desire,

That maden every auter for to brenne

Of newe flawme; and aspyed I thenne ²⁵⁰

That al the cause of sorwes that they drye

Come of the bitter goddys Jalousye.

The god Priapus sawgh I as I wente

Withyn the temple in soverayne place stonde,

In suche array as whan the asse hym shente ²⁵⁵

With crie be nyght, and with his ceptre in honde;

Ful besely men gunne assay and fonde

Upon his hede to sette, of sondry hewe,

Garlondes ful of fressh floures newe.

And in a prevy corner in disporte ²⁶⁰

Fond I Venus and hir porter Rychesse,

That was ful noble and hawteyn of hir porte;

Derke was that place, but afterward lyghtnesse

I saugh a lyte, unnethe hyt myght be lesse,

And on a bed of golde she lay to reste ²⁶⁵

Til that the hoote sonne gan to weste.

Hir gilte heeres with a golde threde

Ybounden were untressed, as she lay,

And naked fro the brest unto the hede

Men myght hir see, and, sothely for to say, ²⁷⁰

The remenant kevered wel to my pay

Ryght with a subtil keverchefe of Valence;

There was no thikker clothe of no defence.

The place yafe a thousande savours swoote,

And Bacus, god of wyne, sate hir beside, ²⁷⁵

And Ceres next, that dooth of hunger boote;

And, as I seide, amyddes lay Cipride,

To whom on knes two yonge folkes criede

To ben hir helpe; but thus I lete hir lye,

And ferther in the temple I gan espye ²⁸⁰

That, in dyspite of Diane the chaste,

Ful many a bowe ybroke henge on the walle

Of maydens suche as gonne hyr tymes waste

In hir servise; and peynted over alle

Of many a storye, of which I touche shalle ²⁸⁵

A fewe, as of Calixte and Athalante,

And many a mayde of which the name I wante.

Semyramus, Candace and Ercules,

Biblys, Dido, Tesbe and Piramus,

Tristram, Isoude, Paris and Achilles, ²⁹⁰

Eleyne, Cleopatre and Troylus,

Silla, and eke the moder of Romulus:

Alle these were peynted on that other syde,

And al her love, and in what plite they dide.

Whan I was comen ayen into the place ²⁹⁵

That I of spake, that was so swoote and grene,

Forth welke I thoo, myselven to solace.

Tho was I war where ther sate a quene,

That as of lyght the somer sonne shene

Passeth the sterre, ryght so over mesure ³⁰⁰

She fairer was than any creature.

And in a launde, upon an hille of floures,

Was sette this noble goddesse of Nature;

Of braunches were hir halles and hir boures,

Ywrought aftir hir crafte and hir mesure; ³⁰⁵

Ne ther nas foule that cometh of engendrure

That there ne were prest in hir presence

To take hir dome and yeve hir audience.

For this was on seynt Valentynes day,

Whan every foule cometh there to chese his make ³¹⁰

Of every kynde that men thynke may;

And that so huge a noyse gan they make,

That erthe and aire and tree and every lake

So ful was, that unnethe was ther space

For me to stonde, so ful was al the place. ³¹⁵

And ryght as Alayne, in the Pleynt of Kynde,

Devyseth Nature of suche array and face,

In suche array men myght hir there fynde.

This noble emperesse, ful of grace,

Bad everey foule to take her oune place, ³²⁰

As they were wont alwey fro yere to yere,

Seynt Valentynes day, to stonden there.

That ys to sey, the fowles of ravyne

Were hyest sette, and than the foules smale

That eten as that nature wolde enclyne, ³²⁵

As worme, or thynge of whiche I tel no tale;

But watir‐foule sate lowest in the dale,

And foule that lyveth by seede sate on the grene,

And that so fele that wonder was to sene.

There myght men the royal egle fynde, ³³⁰

That with his sharpe looke perceth the sonne,

And other egles of a lower kynde,

Of which that clerkes wel devysen konne.

There was the tiraunte with his fethres donne

And grey, I mene the goshauke, that doth pyne ³³⁵

To briddes for his outrageouse ravyne.

The gentil faucoune, that with his fete distreyneth

The kynges honde; the hardy sperhauke eke,

The quayles foo; the merlyon that peyneth

Hymself ful ofte the larke for to seke; ³⁴⁰

There was the dowve with hir eyen meke;

The jalouse swanne, ayens hys deth that syngeth;

The owle eke that of dethe the bode bryngeth;

The crane the geaunte, with his trompes soune;

The thefe, the choghe, and eke the janglynge pye; ³⁴⁵

The scornynge jay; the eles foo, heroune;

The fals lapwynge, ful of trecherye;

The stare, that the counseylle kan bewrye;

The tame ruddok and the cowarde kyte;

The cok, that orlogge ys of thropes lyte; ³⁵⁰

The sparow, Venus sone; the nyghtyngale

That clepeth forth the fressh leves newe;

The swalow, mordrer of the foules smale

That maken hony of floures fressh of hewe;

The wedded turtel with hys hert trewe; ³⁵⁵

The pecok with his aungels fethers bryght;

The fesaunt, scorner of the cok be nyght;

The waker goos; the cukkow ever unkynde;

The papenjay ful of delycacye;

The drake, stroyer of hys oune kynde; ³⁶⁰

The storke, wreker of avowtrie;

The hoote cormeraunte of glotonye;

The raven wys, the crow with voys of care;

The throstel olde; the frosty feldefare.

What shulde I seyn? Of foules every kynde ³⁶⁵

That in this worlde han fetheres and stature

Men myghte in that place assembled fynde

Before that noble goddesse of nature.

And eche of hem did hys besy cure

Benygnely to chese or for to take, ³⁷⁰

By hir accorde, hys formel or hys make.

But to the poynte: Nature helde on hir honde

A formel egle, of shappe the gentileste

That ever she amonge hir werkes fonde,

The moste benigne and the goodlyeste; ³⁷⁵

In hir was every vertu at his rest,

So ferforthe, that Nature hirselfe had blysse

To looke on hir, and ofte hir beke to kysse.

Nature, the vyker of th’almyghty lorde,

That hoot, colde, hevy, lyght, moiste and drye ³⁸⁰

Hath knyt be evene noumbre of accorde,

In esy vois began to speke and seye:

‘Foules, take hede of my sentence, I prey,

And, for youre ease, in furtherynge of youre nede,

As faste as I may speke, I wol me spede. ³⁸⁵

‘Ye knowe wel how seynt Valentynes day,

Be my statute and thorgh my governaunce,

Ye come for to chese – and flee youre way –

Youre makes, as I prik yow with plesaunce.

But natheles, my ryghtful ordenaunce ³⁹⁰

May I not let for al this worlde to wynne,

That he that most ys worthy shal begynne.

‘The tercel egel, as that ye knowen wele

The foule royal aboven yow in degree,

The wyse and worthy, secré, trewe as stele, ³⁹⁵

The whiche I have formed, as ye may see,

In every parte as hit best lyketh mee –

Hyt nedeth noght hys shappe yow to devyse –

He shal first chese and speken in his gyse.

‘And aftir hym, by order shul ye chese, ⁴⁰⁰

Aftir youre kynde, everyche as yow lyketh,

And as youre happe ys, shul ye wynne or lese;

But which of yow that love moste entriketh,

God sende hym hyr that sorest for hym syketh.’

And therwythalle the tercel gan she calle ⁴⁰⁵

And seyde, ‘My sone, the choys is to the falle.

‘But natheles, in thys condicioun

Mote be the choys of everych that ys here,

That she agree to hys eleccioun,

Whoso he be that shulde ben hir fere. ⁴¹⁰

This is oure usage alwey, fro yere to yere,

And whoso may at this tyme have hys grace,

In blisful tyme he come into this place.’

With hed enclyned and with ful humble chere

This real tercel spake and taried noght: ⁴¹⁵

‘Unto my sovereyne lady, and noght my fere,

I chese, and chesse with wille and hert and thought,

The formel on youre honde so wel ywrought,

Whos I am alle and ever wol hir serve,

Doo what hir lyste, to doo me lyve or sterve; ⁴²⁰

‘Besechynge hir of mercy and of grace,

As she that ys my lady sovereyne;

Or let me dye present in thys place.

For, certes, longe may I not lyve in peyne,

For in myn herte ys korven every veyne. ⁴²⁵

Havynge rewarde oonly to my trouthe,

My dere herte, have on my woo somme routhe.

‘And yf I be founde to hir untrewe,

Dysobeysaunt, or wilful negligent,

Avauntour, or in processe love a newe, ⁴³⁰

I pray to yow thys be my jugement,

That with these foules y be al torent,

That ylke day that ever she me fynde

To hir untrewe or in my gylte unkynde.

‘And syn that noon loveth hir so wel as I, ⁴³⁵

Althogh she never of love me behette,

Than oght she be myn thourgh hir mercy,

For other bonde kan I noon on hir knette.

For never for no woo ne shal I lette

To serven hir, how ferre so that she wende; ⁴⁴⁰

Sey what yow lyste, my tale ys at an ende.’

Ryght as the fressh rede rose newe

Ayene the somer sonne coloured ys,

Ryght so for shame al wexen gan the hewe

Of thys formel whan she herde al thys. ⁴⁴⁵

Neyther she answerde wel, ne seyde amys,

So sore abasshed was she, til that Nature

Seyde, ‘Doghter, drede yow noght, I yow assure.’

Another tercel egle spake anoon

Of lower kynde, and seyde, ‘That shulde not be! ⁴⁵⁰

I love hir bet than ye do, by seynt John,

Or atte lest I love hyr as wel as ye,

And lenger have served hir, in my degré;

And yf she shulde have loved for long lovyng,

To me allone had ben the guerdonynge. ⁴⁵⁵

‘I dar eke seye, yf she me fynde fals,

Unkynde, jangler, or rebel any wyse,

Or jalouse, do me hongen by the hals!

And but I bere me in hir servise

As wel as my wytte kan me suffise, ⁴⁶⁰

Fro poynt to poynt, hir honour for to save,

Take she my lyfe, and al the good I have.’

The thirdde tercel egle answerde thoo,

‘Now, sirs, ye seen the lytel leyser here,

For every foule cryeth out to ben agoo ⁴⁶⁵

Forth with hys make or with hys lady dere;

And eke Nature hirselfe ne wol nought here,

For taryinge here, noght half that I wolde sey;

And but I speke, I mote for sorwe dey.

‘Of longe servise avaunte I me nothinge, ⁴⁷⁰

But as possible ys me to dye today

For woo, as he that hath ben langwysshynge

Thise twenty wynter, and wel happen may

A man may serven bette, and more to pay,

In halfe a yere, although hyt were no more, ⁴⁷⁵

Than somme man dooth that hath served ful yore.

‘I ne say not thys by me, for I ne kan

Do no servise that may my lady plese;

But I dar sey I am hir trewest man

As to my dome, and faynest wolde hir ese; ⁴⁸⁰

At short wordes, til that deth me sese,

I wol ben hirs, whethir I wake or wynke,

And trew in al that herte may bethynke.’

Of al my lyfe, syn that day I was borne,

So gentil plee in love or other thinge ⁴⁸⁵

Ne herde never no man me beforne,

Who that had leyser and kunnynge

For to rehersen hir chere and her spekynge;

And from the morwe gan this speche last

Til dounwarde went the sonne wonder fast. ⁴⁹⁰

The noyse of foules for to ben delyvered

So lowde ronge, ‘Have doon and let us wende!’

That wel wende I the woode had al toshyvered.

‘Come of!’ they cride, ‘Allas! ye wol us shende!

Whan shal youre cursed pledynge have an ende? ⁴⁹⁵

How shulde a juge eyther party leve,

For yee or nay, withouten any preve?’

The goos, the cokkowe, and the duk also

So criden ‘Kek, kek!’ ‘Kukkowe!’ ‘Quek, quek!’ hye,

That thorgh myn eres the noyse went tho. ⁵⁰⁰

The goos seyde tho, ‘Al thys nys worthe a flye!

But I kan shape hereof a remedye,

And wol sey my veyrdit faire and swythe

For watir‐foule, whoso be wrothe or blythe.’

‘And I for worme‐foule,’ seyde the foole cukkowe, ⁵⁰⁵

‘For I wol, of myn oune auctorité,

For comune spede take on me the charge nowe,

Fore for to delyveren us ys grete charité.’

‘Ye may abyde a while yet, pardé,’

Quod the turtel, ‘yf hyt be youre wille; ⁵¹⁰

A wyght may speke, hym were as good be stille.

‘I am a sede‐foule, oon the unworthieste,

That wot I wel, and lytel of kunnynge,

But better ys that a wightys tonge reste

Than entremete hym of suche doynge ⁵¹⁵

Of which he neyther rede kan nor synge.

And whoso hyt dothe, ful foule hymself acloyeth,

For office uncommytted ofte anoyeth.’

Nature, which that alway had an ere

To murmour of the lewdenesse behynde, ⁵²⁰

With facound voys seyde, ‘Holde your tonges there!

And I shal soone, I hope, a counseylle fynde

Yow to delyveren, and from this noyse unbynde;

I jugge of every folke men shal one calle

To seyne the veirdit for yow foules alle.’ ⁵²⁵

Assented were to thys conclusyon

The briddes alle; and the foules of ravyne

Han chosen first, by pleyn eleccion,

The tercelet of the faucon, to dyffyne

Al her sentence, and as hym lyst, to termyne; ⁵³⁰

And to Nature hym gonnen to presente,

And she accepteth hym wyth glad entente.

The tercelet seyde thanne in this manere:

‘Ful harde were hyt to preven hyt by reson

Who loveth best this gentil formel here, ⁵³⁵

For everych hath suche replicacion

That by skylles may non be broght adon.

I kan not seen that argumentys avaylle;

Than semeth hit ther moste be bataylle.’

‘Al redy!’ quod these egles tercels thoo. ⁵⁴⁰

‘Nay, sirs,’ quod he, ‘yf that I dorst hyt sey,

Ye doon me wrong, my tale ys not ydoo.

For sirs, taketh noght agrefe, I pray,

Hyt may nought as ye wolde, in thys wey.

Oures ys the voys that han the charge in honde, ⁵⁴⁵

And to the juges doome ye moten stonde.

‘And therfore pes! I seye, as to my witte,

Me wolde think how that the worthieste

Of knyghthode, and lengest had used hitte,

Moste of estaate, of blode the gentyleste, ⁵⁵⁰

Were syttynge for hir, yf that hir leste;

And of these three she woote hirselfe, I trowe,

Which that he be, for hyt is lyght to knowe.’ ⁵⁵⁵

The watir‐foules han her hedes leyde

Togedir, and of shorte avysement,

Whan everych had hys large golé seyde,

They seyden sothely, al by on assent,

How that the goos, ‘with hir faucond gent,

That soo desireth to pronounce oure nede,

Shal telle oure tale,’ and preyde to God hir spede. ⁵⁶⁰

And for these watir‐foules tho began

The goos to speke, and in hir cakelynge

She seyde, ‘Pes! Now take kepe every man,

And herkeneth which a reson I shal forth brynge;

My wytte ys sharpe, I love no taryinge. ⁵⁶⁵

I sey, y rede hym, though he were my brother,

But she wol love hym, lat hym love another!’

‘Loo here, a parfyte reson of a goos!’

Quod the sperhauke; ‘never mote she thee!

Loo, suche hyt ys to have a tonge loos! ⁵⁷⁰

Now pardé, foole, yet were hit bet for the

Have holde thy pes, than shewede thy nyceté!

Hyt lyth not in hys wytte nor in hys wille,

But sooth ys seyde: “A foole kan noght be stille”.’

The laughtre aroose of gentil foules alle, ⁵⁷⁵

And ryght anoone the sede‐foules chosen hadde

The turtel trewe, and gan hir to hem calle,

And prayden hir to sey the sothe sadde

Of thys matere and asked what she radde;

And she ansuerde that pleynly hyr entente ⁵⁸⁰

She wolde shewe, and sothely what she mente.

‘Nay, God forbede a lover shulde chaunge!’

The turtel seyde, and wexe for shame al rede;

‘Thoogh that hys lady evermore be straunge,

Yet let hym serve hir ever tyl he be dede. ⁵⁸⁵

Forsoth, I preyse noght the gooses rede;

For thoygh she deyed, I wolde noon other make;

I wol ben hirs, til that the deth me take.’

‘Wel bourded,’ quod the duk, ‘by my hatte!

That men shulden alwey loven causeles, ⁵⁹⁰

Who kan a reson fynde or wytte in that?

Daunceth he murye that ys murtheles?

Who shulde rechche of that ys rechcheles?’

‘Ye quek,’ quod the goos, ‘ful wel and faire,

There ben moo sterres, God woot, than a paire!’ ⁵⁹⁵

‘Now fye, cherle!’ quod the gentil tercelet,

‘Out of the dunghille come that word ful ryght.

Thou kanst noght see which thing is wel beset;

Thou farest be love as owles doon by lyght:

The day hem blent, ful wel they see by nyght. ⁶⁰⁰

Thy kynd ys of so lowe a wrechednesse,

That what love is, thou kanst neyther see ne gesse.’

Thoo gan the cukkow put hym forth in pres

For foule that eteth worme, and seyde blyve,

‘So I,’ quod he, ‘may have my make in pes, ⁶⁰⁵

I reche not how longe that ye stryve;

Lat eche of hem be soleyne al her lyve!

This ys my rede, syn they may not acorde;

This shorte lesson nedeth noght recorde.’

‘Yee, have the gloton filde ynogh hys paunche, ⁶¹⁰

Than ar we wel!’ seyde the emerlyon;

‘Thou mordrere of the haysogge on the braunche

That broght the forth, thou rewful gloton!

Lyve thou soleyn, wormes corrupcion!

For no fors ys of lakke of thy nature. ⁶¹⁵

Goo, lewde be thou, while the worlde may dure!’

‘Now pes,’ quod Nature, ‘I commaunde here;

For I have herde al youre opynyon,

And in effecte yet be we never the nere;

But fynally, this ys my conclusyon,

That she hirselfe shal have hir eleccion

Of whom hir lyste, whoso be wrooth or blythe;

Hym that she cheest, he shal han hir as swithe.

‘For syth hyt may not here discussed be

Who loveth hir best, as seyde the tercelet, ⁶²⁵

Than wol I doon thys favour to hir, that she

Shal have ryght hym on whom hir hert is sette,

And he hir that hys hert hath on hir knette.

This juge I, Nature, for I may not lye;

To noon estaat I have noon other eye. ⁶³⁰

‘But as for counseylle for to chese a make,

Yf I were Reson, than wolde y

Counseylle yow the royal tercel take,

As seyde the tercelet ful skilfully,

As for the gentilest and moste worthy ⁶³⁵

Whiche I have wroght so wel to my plesaunce,

That to yow ought to ben a suffisaunce.’

With dredeful vois the formel hir answerde:

‘My ryghtful lady, goddesse of nature,

Sooth ys that I am ever under youre yerde, ⁶⁴⁰

As ys everych other creature,

And moste be youres while my lyf may dure;

And therfore graunte me my firste boone,

And myn entent yow wol I sey ryght soone.’

‘I graunte hyt yow,’ quod she; and ryght anoon ⁶⁴⁵

This formel egle spake in thys degré:

‘Almyghty quene, unto this yere be doon

I aske respite for to avysen me,

And after that to have my choyse al fre.

Thys al and somme that I wolde speke and seye; ⁶⁵⁰

Ye gete no more although ye do me deye.

‘I wolle noght serven Venus ne Cupide

Forsoth as yet, by no maner wey.’

‘Now syn hyt may noon other weyes betide,’

Quod Nature, ‘here ys no more to sey. ⁶⁵⁵

Than wolde I that these foules were awey,

Eche with hys make, for taryinge lenger here.’

And seyde hem thus, as ye shal after here:

‘To yow speke I, yee terceletys,’ quod Nature.

‘Beth of good hert and serveth, al thre. ⁶⁶⁰

A yere ys not so longe to endure,

And eche of yow peyne hym, in hys degré,

For to do wel, for, God wote, quyte ys she

Fro yow thys yere. What after so befalle,

This entremesse ys dressed for yow alle.’ ⁶⁶⁵

And whan thys werke al wroght was to an ende,

To every foule Nature yafe hys make

By evene acorde, and on her wey they wende.

A, Lorde! the blysse and joy that they make!

For eche of hem gan other in wynges take, ⁶⁷⁰

And with her nekkes eche gan other wynde,

Thonkyng alwey the noble goddesse of kynde.

But firste were chosen foules for to synge,

As yere by yere was alwey hir usaunce

To synge a roundel at her departynge, ⁶⁷⁵

To do Nature honour and plesaunce.

The note, I trowe, maked was in Fraunce;

The wordes were suche as ye may here fynde,

The next vers, as I now have in mynde.

   Que bien ayme a tarde oublie.

‘Nowe welcome somor, with thy sonne softe, ⁶⁸⁰

That hast thes wintres wedres ovireshake,

And drevyne away the longe nyghtes blake!’

Saynt Valentyne, that ert ful hye olofte,

Thus syngen smal foules for thy sake:

‘Nowe welcome somor, with thy sonne softe, ⁶⁸⁵

That hast thes wintres wedres ovireshake.’

Wele han they cause for to gladen ofte,

Sethe ech of hem recoverede hathe hys make;

Ful blisseful mowe they synge when they wake:

‘Nowe welcome somor, with thy sonne softe, ⁶⁹⁰

That hast thes wintres wedres ovireshake,

And drevyne away the longe nyghtes blake!’

And with the showtynge, whan hir song was do

That foules made at her flyght away,

I wooke, and other bookes toke me to ⁶⁹⁵

To rede upon, and yet I rede alway;

I hope, ywyse, to rede so sommday

That I shal mete somme thyng for to fare

The bet; and thus to rede I wol not spare.

Notes

1 The opening account of love includes a number of rhetorical devices, beginning with a well‐known maxim ‘ars longa, vita brevis’.

4–5 ‘I say all this about love, that bewilders my understanding.’

7 wher that ‘whether’.

8 al be that ‘although’.

13–14 Dar I not seyn … / But ‘I dare not say anything … except’.

15 what for ‘partly for’.

22 men seyth ‘is said’ (5.4.3).

27 gan See 5.6.3.

28 ‘That the whole day seemed as nothing to me.’

30 ‘Was given the full title …’.

31 The Dream of Scipio was written in 51 BC as the final part of the Republic by Marcus Tullius Cicero. Chaucer would have known it as a separate work with a commentary by Macrobius (about AD 400), both translated by W. H. Stahl, Macrobius: Commentary on the Dream of Scipio (New York, 1952).

35 his ‘its’.

36–42 The Roman general Scipio relates how he visited Massinissa, the king of Numidia, who talked of Scipio’s ancestor Africanus. That night Africanus appeared to Scipio in a dream, telling him that he would destroy Carthage and Numantia.

39 he Scipio, who narrates his dream to his friend Laelius (hence hym in line 43).

45 hys grace his destiny to defeat Carthage.

46 what ‘whatever’.

47 comune profyt ‘the public good’. In the Dream Africanus says that there is a place in the afterlife for all of those who work for the common good. The phrase is fully discussed by Bennett, pp. 33–5. wel ythewede ‘endowed with good qualities’ (referring to what man).

54 what wey we trace ‘whichever way we turn’.

56 In The House of Fame Chaucer writes of ‘the Galaxie, / Which men clepeth the Milky Wey’ (936–7). Africanus describes it as the home of the virtuous dead.

58 ‘By comparison with the size of the heavens.’

59–63 Africanus explains that there are nine circles or spheres; the outermost is the celestial sphere containing the stars, then come the seven spheres of the planets (including sun and moon), and finally the innermost sphere of earth. The movement of the spheres produces harmonious music, which, though inaudible on earth, is imitated by gifted musicians.

62 welle ‘spring’, i.e. ‘source’; as again in l. 129.

67–9 In the Dream Scipio is told that all the heavenly bodies will return to their original positions at the end of the ‘Great Year’, reckoned by Macrobius to be 15,000 of our years.

69 For non‐expression of the verb of motion after shal, see 5.6.9.

71–7 Africanus tells Scipio in the Dream that the body alone is mortal, and continues: ‘The noblest efforts are in behalf of your native country; a soul thus stimulated and engaged will speed hither to its destination and abode without delay.’

74 wysse ‘guide (others)’.

78–84 Souls of those enslaved by passion, says Africanus, ‘hover close to the earth, and return to this region only after long ages of torment’.

82–3 ‘And, with all their wretched deeds forgiven, then …’ (dede is a plural form).

85–6 These lines are based on Dante’s Inferno, ii. 1–3.

90–1 If Chaucer were looking for light on human love in the Dream, he would not have found it.

99–105 Discussing the classification of dreams, Macrobius comments: ‘Nightmares may be caused by mental or physical distress, or anxiety about the future: the patient experiences in dreams vexations similar to those that disturb him during the day.’ Chaucer’s examples here are taken from De Sexto Consulatu Honorii, 3–10, by the poet Claudian, a contemporary of Macrobius.

101 plees ben sped ‘cases are progressing’.

111 Macrobius’ opinion of the Dream was that ‘there is nothing more complete than this work, which embraces the entire body of philosophy’.

113 The proem, beginning with an account of the god of love, ends with an invocation to Cytherea, a name for Venus (Aphrodite) born from the sea‐foam off the island of Cythera. With her firebrand she enflames lovers with the fire of love. Her planetary position in the unpropitious north‐north‐west (l. 117) may suggest the narrator’s lack of success in love; cf. l. 8. It may also be a reference to the date of composition; the planet was in its most northerly position in May 1382.

114 the lest ‘pleases you’, i.e. ‘you want’ (5.6.8).

125 of ful gret difference ‘very sharply contrasting’.

127–40 The inscriptions over the gate recall that over the gate of Dante’s Hell, Per me si va … : ‘Through me one goes into the city of mourning; through me one goes to eternal sorrow; through me one goes among the lost people … Abandon all hope, you who enter’ (Inferno iii. 1–9).

135 Compare 14k/6 for the fatal spear of love, in this case directed by the lady’s disdain.

136 Disdayne and Daunger Personifications from the world of courtly love; see note to 13/45.

138 were a fish‐trap made in the river (see OED weir 2). Here the trapped fish gasps for lack of water.

140 ‘Avoidance is the only remedy.’

141 The verses of gold are lines 127–33; those of black are 134–40.

146 errour here and in l. 156 means ‘perplexity’ (OF irrour), not ‘error’ (OF errour).

151 on ‘one’.

152 ‘So it was with me, knowing not whether it was better for me …’

163 That ‘that which, what’.

164 stonde a pulle ‘withstand a wrestling‐hold’. Compare 9/294.

166 ‘And still judges whether that one does better than the other.’

168 ‘I shall show you subjects to write about.’

169–70 Similarly Dante’s guide, Virgil, comforts him by taking his hand and leading him through the gate of Hell (Inferno iii. 19–20). See Bennett, pp. 68–9.

171 wel begoon ‘well content’.

176–82 The catalogue of noble trees and their uses draws on classical tradition and in particular on the examples of the Roman de la Rose and Boccaccio’s Teseida, xi. 22–4. See the Middle English Romaunt of the Rose, 1349–90, in The Riverside Chaucer, and Bennett, pp. 72–3.

177 peler ‘pillar’, here ‘vine‐prop’. Elm was used to support vines and to make coffins.

178 Boxwood can be used for whistles. Perhaps the holm‐oak was used for whip‐handles.

179 Ships’ masts are made of fir; the cypress is traditionally used at funerals to symbolize mourning.

180 sheter ‘shooter, for shooting’. The yew was for bows, the aspen tree for spear‐shafts and arrows.

182 Palms symbolize victory; eating laurel leaves was supposed to give powers of divination.

183–98 The description of the paradisaical garden draws in part on Boccaccio’s account of the blossom, bird‐song, little animals and music in the garden of Venus in Teseida, vii. 51–3. A translation of the passage is given by Brewer, p. 138, and Chaucer’s handling of the topos is discussed by Bennett, pp. 70–7.

187 nothinge dede i.e. ‘full of life’.

192 forthe to brynge ‘to rear, bring up’.

201 ‘In addition a breeze that could scarcely be less strong …’ Cf. l. 264.

211–17 In the Teseida, vii. 54, Cupid is forging his arrows, while his daughter tempers them in the water of the spring. The daughter is named Voluttà, ‘Sensual Desire’, though a variant reading has Voluntade, which perhaps accounts for Chaucer’s ‘Wille’. Assisting her are Ease and Memory who tip the arrows with the metal heads (Brewer, p. 138). For Chaucer’s modifications see Bennett, pp. 78–87.

211 say ‘saw’.

216 ‘She made a notch in them to suit the use to which they would be put.’ See John Scattergood, ‘Making Arrows: The Parliament of Fowls, 211–17’, Notes and Queries, 247 (2002), 444–7. In the Romaunt of the Rose, 937–70, Love’s knight, ‘Swete‐Lokyng’, has ten arrows, five of which are of gold, that cause injuries of varying degrees.

218–24 Closely modelled on Boccaccio, who names Leggiadria, ‘Gracefulness’, Adornezza, ‘Adornment’, Affabilitate, Cortesia and l’Arti, and Van Diletto, ‘Vain Delight’ standing together with Gentilezza (Teseida, vii. 55). See Bennett, pp. 87–9.

220–1 Boccaccio refers to ‘the arts that can force others to commit folly’.

226 Jolyté ‘Cheerfulness, Pleasantness’; for which Boccaccio has Piacevolezza.

227–9 Boccaccio names Foolhardiness, Flattery and Pimping (Ruffiania). The last of these presumably prompted Chaucer’s Messagery, ‘sending messages between lovers’, and Mede, ‘reward, payment’, as well as his coy reference to the other thre.

230–1 In the Italian the temple is on columns of copper, which, like brass, is a metal of Venus.

234 That is, some were naturally beautiful and others attractively dressed.

240 Peace is ‘the tranquillity that love requires for its enjoyment’ (Bennett, p. 91). Her curtain is presumably to ensure the lovers’ privacy.

243 upon an hille of sonde Chaucer’s addition, perhaps implying that the patience of a lover is not firmly based.

245 ‘Promise and Artfulness, and a crowd of their (her) people.’

253–9 Chaucer and Boccaccio draw on the story in Ovid, Fasti, i. 415–40. The god Priapus was about to ravish the nymph Lotis, when the ass brayed and woke her. Priapus, ‘his private parts only too well prepared’, was mocked by all. Hence in suche array, ‘in such condition’.

261 hir porter Rychesse ‘her doorkeeper Wealth’, guarding access to Venus.

264 See 201n.

272 keverchefe of Valence a scarf of cloth woven in Valence (France).

273 of no defence i.e. to protect her from sight.

276 Ceres, goddess of food, ‘brings relief from hunger’.

277 Cipride Another name for Venus, from her cult in Cyprus.

281–7 Diana is the virgin huntress. Both Callisto and Atalanta were virgins who resisted love in vain. Their stories are told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, ii. 409–507 and x. 560– 707.

288–94 On the opposite wall are painted tragic lovers, most of them well known. Boccaccio lists Semiramis (who committed incest), Hercules, Biblis (who went mad for love of her brother), and Pyramus and Thisbe. Candace seduced Alexander the Great. Isoude is Isolde, Eleyne is Helen of Troy. Scylla betrayed her city out of love for Minos; Rhea Silvia died as a punishment for giving birth to Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.

294 dide ‘died’.

303 Nature represents the glory and perfection of God’s creation, the beauty of the ordered world, and human love working within the framework of the divine plan. See Bennett, pp. 194–212.

308 ‘To take judgement from Nature and give her a hearing.’

309 This is one of the earliest references to the tradition that birds choose their mates on St Valentine’s Day, 14 February.

316 ‘The Complaint of Nature’, de Planctu Naturae, by Alanus de Insulis (c.1128–1202), gave a celebrated description of the goddess lamenting the sinfulness of mankind. It describes the birds as decorations on Nature’s robe.

320 her is plural, ‘their’.

325 ‘That eat according to their natural appetites.’

331 The eagle was supposed to have such good sight that it could look at the sun without being blinded.

337 gentil is the standard epithet for the nobler birds of prey.

342 ‘The fierce swan that sings at the approach of his death’; hence the expression ‘swan‐song’.

343 Alanus calls the owl ‘the prophet of misery’.

345 Choughs (jackdaws etc.) pick up bright objects, and so have a reputation for stealing gold and silver.

346 The heron is ‘the enemy of eels’.

347 The lapwing pretends its wing is broken to draw predators away from its nest.

348 The allusion is to the chattering of starlings.

351 Venus sone The sparrow has a reputation for lechery; e.g. ‘lecherous as a sparwe’ (Canterbury Tales I 626).

352 The nightingale is the harbinger of summer.

353–4 Some authorities classified the bee as a kind of bird; e.g. Trevisa, Properties, 609.

355 For the turtle‐dove’s faithfulness see ll. 582–8.

357 From Alanus, who says that the wild cock (rather than the pheasant) mocks the domestic fowl for its laziness.

358 waker ‘watchful’, because the cackling of geese roused the Romans when the Capitol was attacked at night. unkynde ‘unnatural’, because cuckoos lay eggs in other birds’ nests.

359 delycacye ‘lasciviousness’. Parrots are traditionally lecherous.

360–2 The drake was reputed sometimes to kill the duck in the heat of passion. A stork, discovering that his mate has been unfaithful, ‘betiþ hire and stikeþ hire wiþ his bille and sleþ hire’ (Trevisa, Properties, 619). The cormorant’s practice of swallowing large fish whole gives it a reputation for gluttony.

363 ‘Now þe crowe clepiþ rayne wiþ unworþy voys’ (Trevisa, Properties, 620, citing Virgil’s Georgics).

379 vyker ‘deputy, representative’, as she is called in Alanus. Chaucer elsewhere applies the word to the Virgin.

380–1 Nature, as God’s viceregent, binds together the basic elements of creation in due proportion. Boethius describes how God ‘byndest the elementis by nombres proporcionables, that the coolde thinges mowen accorde with the hote thinges, and the drye thinges with the moyste’ (Chaucer’s Boece, 3, metre 9. 18– 21). See Bennett, p. 133; Kean, i. 75–7.

384 furtherynge of youre nede ‘advancing your necessary business’. The formal expression introduces a speech containing such legal terms as statute, governaunce and ordenaunce.

391 ‘I cannot diverge from (my decree), even to gain the whole world.’

395 secré Discretion is a necessary virtue in a lover, without which he is an avauntour (430) and a jangler (457).

401 Aftir youre kynde meaning both ‘according to your species’ and ‘in line with your natural inclination’.

407–8 ‘But nevertheless the choice of everyone here must meet this condition.’

426 rewarde ‘regard’; hence ‘considering only my fidelity’.

454 for ‘in return for’. The second eagle denies the prior claim advanced by the first in l. 437.

458 For do + infinitive see 5.6.5.

467 here verb, ‘hear’.

468 For taryinge here ‘to avoid delay here’.

474 more to pay ‘more satisfactorily’.

477 by me ‘about myself ’.

480 As to my dome ‘in my own estimation’.

481 At short wordes ‘in short’.

495 pledynge See note to 2/5.

507 For comune spede ‘for the general good’. Ironically it is the selfish cuckoo who echoes the phrase from the Dream of Scipio; see 47n.

511 ‘A person may speak, (though) it would have been as well for him to have remained silent.’

512 oon the unworthieste ‘the least worthy’; see 5.5.2.

516 i.e. which he knows nothing about.

518 uncommytted ‘not commissioned’; so ‘Because taking on a job you haven’t been asked to do often causes annoyance’.

524 folke in this case a group of birds. The parallel is with the election of local representatives to the national parliament.

530 termyne ‘adjudicate’, a legal word, only here in Chaucer, reinforcing the parliamentary terminology of this passage.

544 Hyt may nought ‘It may not proceed’. The verb is not expressed; see 5.6.9.

547 as to my witte ‘as I understand it’.

549 ‘… and he who had longest practised it’ (with ‘zero’ relative pronoun; see 5.4.6).

555 of shorte avysement ‘following a brief consultation’.

573 ‘It isn’t within his intelligence or willpower’, viz. to keep quiet.

574 A common proverb in various forms.

587 ‘For even if she died I’d not wish for another mate.’

593 that ‘anyone who’ (5.4.6). ‘Why care about one who doesn’t care about himself?’

595 i.e. there are many more fish in the sea.

599 ‘You react towards love as owls do towards light.’ For owls, see 2/240–3 and 363–70.

603 put hym forth in pres ‘thrust himself forward’.

609 recorde has passive sense, ‘to be repeated’. See 5.6.5.

612 haysogge the tiny hedge‐sparrow which is overwhelmed by the huge fledgling in its nest.

613 broght the forth cf. 192n.

615 ‘For the loss of your species is of no consequence.’

630 ‘I have no special regard for any worldly status.’

632 For Reason personified see text 7a.

647 unto ‘until’.

653 by no maner wey ‘in any way at all’.

657 for see 468n.

665 ‘This intermission applies to all of you.’

668 evene acorde ‘mutual agreement’, echoing l. 381.

675 roundel a French lyric form used by writers such as Machaut. It usually consists of three stanzas on two rhymes, with the opening lines used as a refrain. The text of the roundel is here printed in italics, since its authenticity is dubious and it is not preserved complete in any manuscript. See Textual Notes.

679a A saying found quite widely in French: ‘He who loves well forgets slowly.’ The line perhaps indicates the setting (the note) to which the roundel might be sung.

680 somor ‘spring’, as often when contrasted with winter.

17
Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde

Chaucer probably completed Troilus and Criseyde not long before he embarked on his Canterbury Tales in about 1387, having worked on it since about 1382. His main source was an Italian poem of the 1330s, Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato, which tells the story of the love of the Trojan prince Troiolo for Criseida, her betrayal of him, and his death: Italian text in Windeatt 1990, translation in N. Havely, Chaucer’s Boccaccio (Cambridge, 1980). Chaucer expands the Filostrato, already much amplified from its French and Latin sources, from 5704 to 8239 lines. While taking much from the Italian direct, he makes changes to the story (in Boccaccio, Pandaro is Criseida’s cousin, not her uncle as in Chaucer), adds whole episodes, and draws on a variety of other sources, French, Italian and Latin (see Windeatt 1992, pp. 37–137). He divides the poem into five Books, marking the course of the story as the hero rises and then falls on the wheel of Fortune: his falling in love (Book I), approaches to Criseyde (Book II), consummation of their love (Book III), preparations for Criseyde’s departure from Troy (Book IV), her betrayal of Troilus, and his death (Book V). Chaucer describes the poem as a tragedye, ending it with reflections on the vanity of all sublunary attachments, ‘thise wrecched worldes appetites’ (5.1786, 1851); but his treatment of the three main characters is subtle and understanding. The leisurely narrative pace of the poem – unparalleled in medieval English – allows a full display of complexities in thought and motive, as in the present extract, which describes Pandarus’ first approach to his niece on behalf of his friend (Book II, lines 1–497).

The poem is preserved in sixteen manuscripts (see Windeatt 1992, pp. 12–36). The text here is based on Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 61, an early fifteenth‐century copy thought to have belonged to a granddaughter of Chaucer’s patron, John of Gaunt. The Corpus MS has as a frontispiece a well‐known painting of the poet reciting to a group of elegant listeners, while in the background Criseyde is escorted out of Troy: discussion and plates in Elizabeth Salter, English and International: Studies in the Literature, Art and Patronage of Medieval England (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 267–71, and in the facsimile (below).

Editions

B. A. Windeatt, Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde, 2nd edn (London, 1990)

Benson edition: see Headnote to text 16 above.

Facsimile

Troilus and Criseyde: A Facsimile of Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 61 , introduced by M. B. Parkes and Elizabeth Salter (Cambridge, 1978)

Studies

E. T. Donaldson, Speaking of Chaucer (London, 1970)

C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (Oxford, 1936)

Jill Mann, Geoffrey Chaucer (London, 1991)

D. W. Robertson Jnr, A Preface to Chaucer (Princeton, 1962)

Mary Salu, ed., Essays on Troilus and Criseyde (Cambridge, 1979)

Barry Windeatt, Troilus and Criseyde, Oxford Guides to Chaucer (Oxford, 1992)

Incipit Prohemium Secundi Libri

Owt of thise blake wawes for to saylle,

O wynde, O wynde, the weder gynneth clere,

For in this see the bote hath swych travaylle

Of my konnyng that unneth I it steere.

This see clepe I the tempestous matere ⁵

Of disespeir that Troilus was inne;

But now of hope the kalendes bygynne.

O lady myn that called art Cleo,

Thow be my speed fro this forth and my muse,

To ryme wel this book til I have do; ¹⁰

Me nedeth here noon othere art to use.

Forwhi to every lovere I me excuse

That of no sentement I this endite,

But out of Latyn in my tonge it write.

Wherfore I nyl have neither thank ne blame ¹⁵

Of al this werk, but prey ʒow mekely,

Disblameth me if any word be lame,

For as myn auctour seyde, so sey I.

Ek though I speeke of love unfelyngly

No wondre is, for it nothyng of newe is: ²⁰

A blynde man kan nat juggen wel in hewis.

Ʒe knowe ek that in fourme of speche is chaunge

Withinne a thousand ʒeer, and wordes tho

That hadden pris now wonder nyce and straunge

Us thenketh hem, and ʒet thei spake hem so ²⁵

And spedde as wel in love as men now do.

Ek for to wynnen love in sondry ages

In sondry londes sondry ben usages.

And forthi if it happe in any wyse

That here be any lovere in this place ³⁰

That herkneth, as the storie wol devise,

How Troilus com to his lady grace,

And thenketh, ‘So nold I nat love purchace,’

Or wondreth on his speche or his doynge,

I noot, but it is me no wonderynge. ³⁵

For every wight which that to Rome wente

Halt nat o path or alwey o manere;

Ek in som lond were al the game shente

If that they ferde in love as men don here,

As thus in opyn doyng – or in chere, ⁴⁰

In visityng in forme, or seyde hire sawes;

Forthi men seyn ecche contree hath hise lawes.

Ek scarsly ben ther in this place thre

That have in love seide like an don in al,

For to thi purpos this may liken the, ⁴⁵

And the right nought, ʒet al is seide or schal;

Ek som men grave in tree, som in stone wal,

As it bitit. But syn I have bigonne,

Myn auctour shal I folwen if I konne.

Explicit Prohemium Secundi Libri. Incipit Liber Secundus

In May, that moder is of monthes glade, ⁵⁰

That fresshe floures blew and white and rede

Ben quike agayn, that wynter dede made,

And ful of bawme is fletyng every mede,

Whan Phebus doth his bryght bemes sprede

Right in the white Bole, it so bitidde, ⁵⁵

As I shal synge, on Mayes day the thrydde,

That Pandarus, for al his wise speche,

Felt ek his parte of loves shotes keene,

That koude he nevere so wel of lovyng preche,

It made his hewe aday ful ofte greene. ⁶⁰

So shope it that hym fil that day a teene

In love, for which in wo to bedde he wente

And made er it was day ful many a wente.

The swalowe Proigne with a sorowful lay,

Whan morwen com, gan make hire waymentyng ⁶⁵

Whi she forshapen was, and evere lay

Pandare abedde half in a slombryng,

Til she so neigh hym made hire cheteryng

How Tereus gan forth hire suster take

That with the noyse of hire he gan awake, ⁷⁰

And gan to calle and dresse hym up to ryse,

Remembryng hym his erand was to doone

From Troilus, and ek his grete emprise;

And caste and knewe in good plit was the moone

To doon viage, and took his way ful soone ⁷⁵

Unto his neces palays ther biside.

Now Janus, god of entree, thow hym gyde.

Whan he was come unto his neces place,

‘Wher is my lady?’ to hire folk quod he;

And they hym tolde, and he forth in gan pace, ⁸⁰

And fonde two othere ladys sete and she

Withinne a paved parlour, and they thre

Herden a mayden reden hem the geeste

Of the siege of Thebes while hem leste.

Quod Pandarus, ‘Madame, God ʒow see, ⁸⁵

With al ʒoure book and al the compaignie.’

‘Ey, uncle myn, welcome iwis,’ quod she;

And up she roos, and by the hond in hye

She took hym faste, and seyde, ‘This nyght thrie,

To good mot it turne, of ʒow I mette.’ ⁹⁰

And with that word she doun on benche hym sette.

‘Ʒe, nece, ʒee shal faren wel the bette,

If God wol, al this ʒeere,’ quod Pandarus;

‘But I am sory that I have ʒow lette

To herken of ʒoure book ʒe preysen thus. ⁹⁵

For Goddes love, what seith it? Telle it us.

Is it of love? O, som good ʒe me leere!’

‘Uncle,’ quod she, ‘ʒoure maistresse is nat here.’

With that thei gonnen laughe, and tho she seyde,

‘This romaunce is of Thebes that we rede; ¹⁰⁰

And we han herde how that kynge Layus deyde

Thorugh Edippus his sone, and al that dede;

And here we stynten atte this lettres rede,

How the bisshop, as the book kan telle,

Amphiorax fil thorugh the grounde to helle.’ ¹⁰⁵

Quod Pandarus, ‘Al this knowe I myselve,

And alle th’assege of Thebes and the care,

For herof ben ther maked bookes twelve.

But lat be this and telle me how ʒe fare.

Do wey ʒoure barbe and shew ʒoure face bare; ¹¹⁰

Do wey ʒoure book, rys up and lat us daunce,

And lat us don to May som observaunce.’

‘I, God forbede!’ quod she, ‘be ʒe madde?

Is that a widewes lif, so God ʒow save?

By God, ʒe maken me ryght soore adradde, ¹¹⁵

Ʒe ben so wylde, it semeth as ʒe rave.

It satte me wel bette ay in a cave

To bidde and rede on holy seyntes lyves;

Lat maydens gon to daunce and ʒonge wyves.’

‘As evere thrive I,’ quod this Pandarus, ¹²⁰

‘Ʒet koude I telle a thyng to doon ʒow pleye.’

‘Now, uncle deere,’ quod she, ‘telle it us

For Goddes love. Is than th’assege aweye?

I am of Grekes so fered that I deye.’

‘Nay, nay,’ quod he, ‘as evere mote I thryve, ¹²⁵

It is a thing wel bet thanne swyche fyve.’

‘Ʒe, holy God,’ quod she, ‘what thyng is that?

What, bet than swych fyve? I, nay, ywys!

For al this world ne kan I reden what

It sholde ben. Som jape I trowe is this, ¹³⁰

And but ʒoureselven telle us what it is,

My wit is for t’arede it al to leene.

As help me God, I not nat what ʒe meene.’

‘And I ʒoure borugh, ne nevere shal for me

This thynge be tolde to ʒow, as mote I thryve.’ ¹³⁵

‘And whi so, uncle myn, whi so?’ quod she.

‘By God,’ quod he, ‘that wol I telle as blyve;

For proudder womman is ther noon on lyve,

And ʒe it wist, in al the town of Troye.

I jape nought, as evere have I joye.’ ¹⁴⁰

Tho gan she wondren moore than biforne

A thousand fold, and down hire eyghen caste,

For nevere sith the tyme that she was borne

To knowe thyng desired she so faste;

And with a syke she seyde hym atte laste, ¹⁴⁵

‘Now, uncle myn, I nyl ʒow nought displese,

Nor axen more that may do ʒow disese.’

So after this, with many wordes glade

And frendly tales and with merie chiere,

Of this and that they pleide, and gonnen wade ¹⁵⁰

In many an unkouthe, gladde, and depe matere,

As frendes doon whan thei ben mette yfere,

Tyl she gan axen hym how Ector ferde,

That was the townes wal and Grekes ʒerde.

‘Ful wel, I thonk it God,’ quod Pandarus, ¹⁵⁵

‘Save in his arme he hath a litel wownde,

And ek his fresshe brother Troilus,

The wise, worthi Ector the secounde,

In whom that alle vertue list habounde,

As alle trouthe and alle gentilesse, ¹⁶⁰

Wisdom, honour, fredom, and worthinesse.’

‘In good feith, em,’ quod she, ‘that liketh me

They faren wel, God save hem bothe two!

For trewelich I holde it grete deynté

A kynges sone in armes wel to do ¹⁶⁵

And ben of goode condiciouns therto;

For grete power and morale vertue here

Is selde yseyn in o persone yfeere.’

‘In good faith, that is soth,’ quod Pandarus,

‘But, by my trouthe, the kyng hath sones tweye – ¹⁷⁰

That is to mene, Ector and Troilus –

That certeynly, though that I sholde deye,

Thei ben as voide of vices, dar I seye,

As any men that lyven undre the sonne.

Hire myght is wyde iknowe, and what they konne. ¹⁷⁵

‘Of Ector nedeth it namore for to telle:

In al this world ther nys a bettre knyght

Than he that is of worthynesse welle,

And he wel moore vertue hathe than myght –

This knoweth many a wise and worthi wight. ¹⁸⁰

The same pris of Troilus I seye;

God help me so, I knowe nat swiche tweye.’

‘By God,’ quod she, ‘of Ector that is sooth.

Of Troilus the same thyng trowe I;

For, dredeles, men tellen that he doth ¹⁸⁵

In armes day by day so worthily,

And bereth hym here at home so gentily

To everi wight, that alle pris hathe he

Of hem that me were levest preysed be.’

‘Ʒe sey right sooth, ywys,’ quod Pandarus, ¹⁹⁰

‘For ʒesterday whoso hadde with hym ben

He myghte han wondred upon Troilus;

For nevere ʒet so thikke a swarm of been

Ne fleigh as Grekes for hym gonne fleen,

And thorugh the feld in every wightes eere ¹⁹⁵

Ther nas no cry but “Troilus is there!”

‘Now here, now ther, he hunted hem so faste

Ther nas but Grekes blood and Troilus;

Now hem he hurte and hem alle down he caste.

Ay wher he wente it was arayed thus: ²⁰⁰

He was hire deth, and sheld and lif for us,

That as that day ther dorste non withstonde

Whil that he held his blody swerd in honde.

‘Therto he is the frendliest man

Of grete estat that evere I saugh my lyve, ²⁰⁵

And wher hym lest, best felawship kan

To swich as hym thynketh able for to thryve.’

And with that word tho Pandarus as blyve

He took his leve and seyde, ‘I wol gon henne.’

‘Now blame have I, myn uncle,’ quod she thenne. ²¹⁰

‘What aileth ʒow to be thus wery soone,

And namelich of wommen? Wol ʒe so?

Nay, sitteth down. By God, I have to doone

With ʒow to speke of wisdom er ʒe go.’

And every wight that was aboute hem tho ²¹⁵

That herde that gan fer awey to stonde,

Whil they two hadde al that hem liste in honde.

Whan that hire tale alle brought was to an ende

Of hire estat and of hire governaunce,

Quod Pandarus, ‘Now is tyme I wende. ²²⁰

But ʒet I say, ariseth, lat us daunce,

And caste ʒoure widewes habit to mischaunce.

What list ʒow thus ʒoure self to disfigure,

Sith ʒow is tid thus faire an aventure?’

‘A, wel bithought, for love of God,’ quod she, ²²⁵

‘Shal I nat witen what ʒe meene of this?’

‘No, this thing axeth leyser,’ tho quod he,

‘And eke me wolde muche greve, iwis,

If I it tolde and ʒe it toke amys.

Ʒet were it bet my tonge for to stille ²³⁰

Then seye a soth that were aʒeyns ʒoure wille.

‘For, nece, by the goddesse Mynerve,

And Jupiter, that maketh the thondre rynge,

And by the blisful Venus that I serve,

Ʒe ben the womman in the world lyvyng – ²³⁵

Withouten paramour, to my wyttyng –

That I best love and lothest am to greve,

And that ʒe weten wel ʒoureself, I leve.’

‘Iwis, myn uncle,’ quod she, ‘grant mercy.

Ʒoure frendshipe have I founden evere ʒit. ²⁴⁰

I am to no man holden, trewely,

So muche as ʒow, and have so litel quyt;

And with the grace of God, emforth my wit,

As in my gylte I shall ʒow nevere offende,

And if I have er this, I wol amende. ²⁴⁵

‘But for the love of God I ʒow biseche,

As ʒe ben he that I love moost and triste,

Let be to me ʒoure fremde manere speche,

And sey to me, ʒoure nece, what ʒow liste.’

And with that word hire uncle anoon hire kiste ²⁵⁰

And seyde, ‘Gladly, leve nece dere;

Tak it for good that I shal sey ʒow here.’

With that she gan hire eighen down to caste,

And Pandarus to coghe gan a lite

And seyde, ‘Nece, alwey lo to the laste. ²⁵⁵

How so it be that som men hem delite

With subtyl art hire tales for to endite,

Ʒet for al that, in hire entencioun

Hire tale is al for som conclusioun.

‘And sithe th’ende is every tales strengthe, ²⁶⁰

And this matere is so behovely,

What sholde I poynte or drawen it on lengthe

To ʒow that ben my frend so feythfully?’

And with that word he gan right inwardly

Byholden hire and loken on hire face, ²⁶⁵

And seyde, ‘On swich a mirour goode grace!’

Than thought he thus, ‘If I my tale endite

Aught harde, or make a proces any whyle,

She shal no savour have therin but lite

And trowe I wolde hire in my wille bigyle, ²⁷⁰

For tendre wittes wenen al be wyle

Theras thei kan nought pleynly understonde;

Forthi hire wit to serven wol I fonde.’

And loked on hire in a bysi wyse,

And she was ware that he byhelde hire so, ²⁷⁵

And seyde, ‘Lord, so fast ʒe m’avise!

Sey ʒe me nevere er now? What sey ʒe, no?’

‘Ʒis, ʒys,’ quod he, ‘and bet wol er I go.

But be my trouthe, I thought now if ʒe

Be fortunat, for now men shal it se. ²⁸⁰

‘For to every wight som goodly aventure

Somtyme is shape, if he it kan receyven;

But if he wol take of it no cure

Whan that it commeth, but wilfully it weyven,

Lo, neyther cas ne fortune hym deceyven, ²⁸⁵

But ryght his verray slouthe and wrecchednesse;

And swiche a wight is for to blame, I gesse.

‘Good aventure, O beele nece, have ʒe

Ful lightly founden, and ʒe konne it take;

And for the love of God and ek of me, ²⁹⁰

Cache it anon, lest aventure slake.

What sholde I lenger proces of it make?

Ʒif me ʒoure honde, for in this world is noon,

If that ʒow list, a wight so wel bygon.

‘And sith I speke of good entencioun, ²⁹⁵

As I to ʒow have told wel here byforn,

And love as wel ʒoure honour and renoun

As creature in al this world yborn,

By alle tho othes that I have ʒow sworn,

And ʒe be wrooth therfore or wene I lye, ³⁰⁰

Ne shal I nevere sen ʒow eft with eye.

‘Beth naught agast ne quaketh naught. Wherto?

Ne chaungeth naught for feere so ʒoure hewe,

For hardely, the werst of this is do;

And though my tale as now be to ʒow newe, ³⁰⁵

Ʒet trist alwey ʒe shal me fynde trewe;

And were it thyng that me thoughte unsittyng

To ʒow wolde I no swiche tales brynge.’

‘Now, good em, for Goddes love I preye,’

Quod she, ‘come of, and telle me what it is; ³¹⁰

For both I am agast what ʒe wol seye

And ek me longeth it to wite, ywis;

For whethir it be wel or be amys,

Say on, lat me nat in this feere dwelle.’

‘So wol I doon. Now herkeneth, I shall telle. ³¹⁵

‘Now, nece myn, the kynges deere sone,

The good, wis, worthi, fresshe and free,

Which alwey for to don wel is his wone,

The noble Troilus, so loveth the,

That but ʒe helpe, it wol his bane be. ³²⁰

Lo, here is alle. What sholde I moore sey?

Doth what ʒow lest to make hym lyve or dey.

‘But if ʒe late hym deye, I wol sterve –

Have here my trouthe, nece, I nyl nat lyen –

Al sholde I with this knyf my throte kerve.’ ³²⁵

With that the teris breste oute of his eighen,

And seide, ‘If that ʒe don us bothe deyen

Thus giltles, than have ʒe fisshed fayre.

What mende ʒe though that we booth appaire?

‘Allas, he which that is my lord so deere, ³³⁰

That trewe man, that noble, gentil knyght,

That naught desireth but ʒoure frendly cheere,

I se hym dyen ther he goth upryght,

And hasteth hym with al his ful myght

For to be slayn, if his fortune assente. ³³⁵

Allas, that God ʒow swich a beauté sente!

‘If it be so that ʒe so cruel be

That of his deth ʒow list nought to recche,

That is so trewe and worthi as ʒe se,

Namoore than of a japer or a wrecche, ³⁴⁰

If ʒe be swich, ʒoure beauté may nat strecche

To make amendes of so cruel a dede.

Avysement is good byfore the nede.

‘Wo worth the faire gemme vertuelees!

Wo worth that herbe also that dooth no boote! ³⁴⁵

Wo worth that beauté that is routheles!

Wo worth that wight that tret ech undir foote!

And ʒe that ben of beauté crop and roote,

If therwithal in ʒow ther be no routhe,

Than is it harme ʒe lyven, by my trouthe. ³⁵⁰

‘And also think wel that this is no gaude;

For me were levere thow and I and he

Were hanged, than I sholde ben his baude,

As heigh as men myghte on us alle ysee.

I am thyn em; the shame were to me ³⁵⁵

As wel as the, if that I sholde assente

Thorugh myn abet that he thyn honour shente.

‘Now understond, for I ʒow nought requere

To bynde ʒow to hym thorugh no byheste,

But only that ʒe make hym bettre chiere ³⁶⁰

Than ʒe han doon er this, and moore feste,

So that his lif be saved atte leeste.

This al and somme, and pleynly oure entente;

God help me so, I nevere other mente.

‘Lo, this requeste is naught but skylle, ywys, ³⁶⁵

Ne doute of resoun, pardee, is ther noon.

I sette the worste, that ʒe dredden this:

Men wolde wondren sen hym com or goon.

There‐aʒeins answere I thus anoon:

That every wight, but he be fool of kynde, ³⁷⁰

Wol deme it love of frendshipe in his mynde.

‘What, who wol demen, though he se a man

To temple go, that he th’ymages eteth?

Thenk ek how wel and wisely that he kan

Governe hymself that he nothyng forʒeteth, ³⁷⁵

That where he cometh he pris and thank hym geteth;

And ek therto he shal come here so selde,

What fors were it though al the town byhelde?

‘Swych love of frendes regneth al this towne,

And wre ʒow in that mantel evere moo; ³⁸⁰

And God so wys be my savacioun,

As I have seyde, ʒoure beste is to do soo.

But alwey, good nece, to stynte his woo

So lat ʒoure daunger sucred ben a lite,

That of his deth ʒe be naught for to wite.’ ³⁸⁵

Criseyde, which that herde hym in this wise,

Thought, ‘I shal felen what he meneth, ywis.’

‘Now em,’ quod she, ‘what wolde ʒe devise?

What is ʒoure rede I sholde don of this?’

‘That is wele seyde,’ quod he. ‘Certein, best is ³⁹⁰

That ʒe hym love aʒeyn for his lovynge,

As love for love is skilful guerdonynge.

‘Thenk ek how elde wasteth every houre

In eche of ʒow a partie of beautee;

And therfore, er that age the devoure, ³⁹⁵

Go love, for old, ther wol no wight of the.

Lat this proverbe a loore unto ʒow be:

“To late ywar,” quod Beauté whan it paste;

And elde daunteth daunger at the laste.

‘The kynges fool is wont to crien loude, ⁴⁰⁰

Whan that hym thinketh a womman berth hire heighe,

“So longe mote ʒe lyve, and alle proude,

Tyl crowes feet be growe under ʒoure eighe,

And sende ʒow than a myrour in to prye

In which that ʒe may se ʒoure face amorwe.” ⁴⁰⁵

Nece, I bidde wisshe ʒow namore sorwe.’

With this he stynte and caste adown the hede,

And she began to breste awepe anoon,

And seyde, ‘Allas, for wo why nere I deede?

For of this world the feyth is al agoon. ⁴¹⁰

Allas, what sholden straunge to me doon,

Whan he that for my beste frende I wende

Ret me to love, and sholde it me defende?

‘Allas, I wolde han trusted, douteles,

That if that I thorugh my dysaventure ⁴¹⁵

Hadde loved outher hym or Achilles,

Ector, or any mannes creature,

Ʒe nolde han hadde no mercy ne mesure

On me, but alwey had me in repreve.

This false worlde, allas, who may it leve? ⁴²⁰

‘What, is this al the joye and alle the feste?

Is this ʒoure reed? Is this my blisful cas?

Is this the verray mede of ʒoure byheeste?

Is al this paynted proces seyd, allas,

Right for this fyn? O lady myn, Pallas, ⁴²⁵

Thow in this dredeful cas for me purveye,

For so astoned am I that I deye.’

Wyth that she gan ful sorwfully to syke.

‘A, may it be no bet?’ quod Pandarus.

‘By God, I shal namore com here this wyke, ⁴³⁰

And God toforn, that am mystrusted thus.

I se ful wel that ʒe sette lite of us

Or of oure deth. Allas, I woful wrecche!

Might he ʒet lyve, of me is nought to recche.

‘O cruel god, O dispitous Marte, ⁴³⁵

O furies thre of helle, on ʒow I crye!

So lat me nevere out of this hous departe

If that I mente harm or vilenye.

But sith I se my lord mot nedes dye,

And I with hym, here I me shryve and seye ⁴⁴⁰

That wikkedly ʒe don us both deye.

‘But sith it liketh ʒow that I be dede,

By Neptunus, that god is of the see,

Fro this forth shal I nevere eten brede

Til I myn owen herte blood may see; ⁴⁴⁵

For certeyn I wol deye as soone as he.’

And up he sterte and on his wey he raughte,

Tyl she agayn hym by the lappe kaughte.

Criseyde, which that welneigh starf for feere,

So as she was the ferfulleste wighte ⁴⁵⁰

That myghte be, and herde ek with hire ere

And saugh the sorwful ernest of the knyght,

And in his preier ek saugh noon unryght,

And for the harm that myghte ek fallen moore,

She gan to rewe and dredde hire wonder soore, ⁴⁵⁵

And thoughte thus: ‘Unhappes fallen thikke

Alday for love and in swyche manere cas,

As men ben cruel in hemself and wikke;

And if this man sle here hymself, allas,

In my presence, it wol be no solace. ⁴⁶⁰

What men wolde of it deme I kan nat seye;

It nedeth me ful sleighly for to pleie.’

And with a sorowful sike she sayde thrie,

‘A, lord! what me is tid a sory chaunce!

For myn estat lith now in a jupartie ⁴⁶⁵

And ek myn emes lif is in balaunce.

But natheles, with Goddes governaunce,

I shal so doon, myn honour shal I kepe

And ek his lif’ – and stynte for to wepe.

‘Of harmes two the lesse is for to chese. ⁴⁷⁰

Ʒet have I levere maken hym good chere

In honour, than myn emes lyf to lese.

Ʒe seyn ʒe nothyng elles me requere?’

‘No, wis,’ quod he, ‘myn owen nece dere.’

‘Now wel,’ quod she, ‘and I wol doon my peyne; ⁴⁷⁵

I shal myn herte aʒeins my luste constreyne,

‘But that I nyl nat holden hym in honde,

Ne love a man ne kan I naught ne may

Aʒeins my wyl; but elles wol I fonde,

Myn honour sauf, plesen hym fro day to day. ⁴⁸⁰

Therto nolde I nat ones han seyde nay,

But that I dredde, as in my fantasye.

But cesse cause, ay cesseth maladie.

‘And here I make a protestacioun,

That in this proces if ʒe depper go, ⁴⁸⁵

That certeynly, for no salvacioun

Of ʒow, though that ʒe sterven both two,

Though al the world on o day be my fo,

Ne shal I nevere of hym han other routhe.’

‘I graunte wel,’ quod Pandare, ‘by my trowthe. ⁴⁹⁰

‘But may I truste wel therto,’ quod he,

‘That of this thyng that ʒe han highte me here

Ʒe wole it holden trewely unto me?’

‘Ʒe, doutelees,’ quod she, ‘myn uncle deere.’

‘Ne that I shal han cause in this matere,’ ⁴⁹⁵

Quod he, ‘to pleyn or ofter ʒow to preche?’

‘Why no, perdé; what nedeth moore speche?’

Notes

1–7 The opening of the prohemium or proem to Book II marks the transition from the black despair of the hero’s unrequited love in Book I to the beginnings of his hope here.

3–4 the bote … Of my konnyng ‘the boat of my skill’. Dante speaks of ‘la navicella del mio ingegno’ as he turns from Hell to Purgatory (Purgatorio 1.2).

7 kalendes ‘beginning’, the first day of the Roman month.

8 Cleo the muse of history.

13 of no sentement ‘out of no personal experience’, cf. unfelyngly 19.

14 Latyn Chaucer pretends to be following a Latin author, his auctour (18, 49), named ‘Lollius’ at 1.394.

20 nothyng of newe ‘no novelty’.

21 Proverbial: Whiting M50.

28 Proverbial: Whiting T63.

32 lady a genitive form. See 4.2.4.

35 I noot ‘I do not know’ (ne woot), that is, ‘I leave that to them’.

36 wente ‘goes’, present tense, short for wendeth. See 4.5.2. Halt 37 is also a present tense, short for haldeth, ‘holds’.

40–1 The syntax of these lines is unclear. As punctuated here, or in 40 means ‘either’. It introduces the first of three instances of the neglect of discretion and secrecy by present‐day lovers: in their expressive behaviour (chere), their visits in forme (‘formally’), and their utterances (sawes). Such modern ‘open doing’ would not have been acceptable in ancient Troy.

44 an unstressed form of and.

45, 46 the … And the ‘thee’, addressed to individual members of an imagined audience, as at 29–35 above.

46 is seide or schal ‘has been said or will be’.

47 grave in tree ‘carve in wood’.

53 bawme ‘balmy fragrance’.

54–5 The sun entered Taurus on 12 April. The Bull of the zodiac was identified with the snow‐white bull in the form of which Jupiter ravished Europa: Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.852.

56 The third of May appears in medieval lists of unlucky days. As such, it would be an appropriate day for Pandarus’ ‘teene in love’, as also for the capture of Chauntecleer by the fox in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Canterbury Tales VII 3187–90.

61 shope it ‘it came about’.

63 wente ‘turning’. Sleepless lovers rotate in bed.

64–9 Procne was metamorphosed (forshapen) into a swallow after she and her sister Philomela had avenged the rape of the latter by Tereus: Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.424–674. Chaucer recalls a passage in Dante: ‘At that hour near morning when the swallow begins her sad lays (tristi lai), perhaps in memory of her former woes’ (Purgatorio 9.13–15).

71 dresse hym ‘get ready’.

74 caste ‘calculated’. In certain of its phases, the moon was in a favourable position (good plit) for travellers. Cf. Man of Law’s Tale, Canterbury Tales II 306–15.

76 palays ‘mansion’.

77 Janus Roman god of entrances (doorways and beginnings).

81 sete ‘(who) were sitting’, past plural.

84 siege of Thebes See 100–8n below.

85 God ʒow see ‘God watch over you’.

89 faste ‘firmly’.

This nyght thrie ‘three times last night’.

100–8 Chaucer knew the story of the Seven Against Thebes from the Thebaid of Statius and the twelfth‐century French Roman de Thèbes. The term romaunce points to the latter, but it is the epic of Statius that has bookes twelve. The story of Oedipus killing his father Laius is told more fully in the French than in the Latin, as is the story of how Amphiaraus, a soothsayer (vates in Statius, bishop in the Roman) who accompanied the besiegers, was swallowed up in the earth.

103 lettres rede Headings in the book would be in red ink. Such rubrics often took the form ‘How the bishop … etc.’.

104 kan telle ‘described’. See 5.6.3.

110 barbe ‘a piece of pleated cloth, forming part of the headdress of widows or nuns, and worn over or under the chin so as to cover the neck and bosom’ (MED).

112 Dancing and walking out in the fields were among customary Maytime observances.

113 I is an exclamation of surprise as at 128, like Ey 87 above.

117 It satte me wel bette ‘It would be much more appropriate for me.’ Criseyde invokes an image of widowhood as a pious way of life, held to be second only to the celibacy of the cloister. Cf. I Timothy 5.5–6.

121 doon ʒow pleye ‘give you pleasure’.

126 swyche fyve ‘five such things’.132to leene ‘too lean’, that is, too weak.

133 not nat An emphatic double negative: not ‘don’t know’ and nat ‘not’.

134 I ʒoure borugh ‘I promise you’. for me ‘if I have any say in the matter’.

139 And ‘if’.

147 do ʒow disese ‘cause you discomfort’.

150 pleide ‘amused themselves’.

151 unkouthe ‘unknown, unfamiliar’, perhaps here suggesting current gossip of a kind known only to intimates.

154 Hector, Troilus’ brother, is both a wall to protect Troy and a rod (ʒerde) to scourge the Greeks.

160–1 The Knight in the General Prologue loves ‘trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie’ (Canterbury Tales I 46).

164 grete deynté ‘a very honourable thing’.

167–8 A maxim derived, through the Roman de la Rose, from Lucan’s Pharsalia

8.494–5: ‘virtus et summa potestas non coeunt’ (‘virtue and supreme power do not go together’).

175 konne ‘are capable of’.

189 ‘From those whose praise I would most value.’

198 nas but ‘was nothing but’.

200 it was arayed thus i.e. ‘this is how things were’.

202 as that day ‘for that day’ (yesterday, 191).

205 my lyve ‘in all my life’.

206–7 ‘And, where he chooses, shows the greatest friendliness towards those who seem to him worthy to flourish.’

214 wisdom ‘serious matters’, cf. 219 below.

217 ‘While the two of them were busy with whatever they pleased.’

222 ‘To the devil with those widow’s clothes of yours.’

223 What ‘why’.

225 wel bithought ‘well recollected’.

232 Mynerve Pallas Athene, patron goddess of Troy, represented there by her image, the Palladion (Troilus 1.152–4).

236 Withouten paramour ‘leaving sexual affairs out of account’.

239 grant mercy ‘many thanks’, a switch to French.

243 emforth my wit ‘so far as I can tell’.

244 As in my gylte ‘through any fault of mine’.

248 fremde manere speche ‘distant way of speaking’, inappropriate for an uncle to his niece.

255 alwey lo to the laste Editors commonly take this with what follows, with a comma after laste. As punctuated here, it means ‘always look to what comes last’. The interjection lo became confused in Middle English with imperative forms of look: MED lo interj. 3. There are many English instances of this proverbial advice (Whiting E84), corresponding to the Latin ‘Prospice finem’.

260 Proverbial, as in ‘The last word binds the tale’, Whiting W598.

262 poynte ‘go into detail’, as at 3.497. Other manuscripts have paynte, as at 424 here.

264–5 Up to this point in the scene, Chaucer has borrowed only one detail (lines 148–52, loosely from Filostrato 2.35.1–4) from Boccaccio’s much shorter account in Filostrato 2.34–67; but he derives Pandarus’ intent look from Fil. 2.35– 6. His treatment is in general very free.

266 Pandarus, gazing into Criseyde’s face as if into a mirror, plays on another sense of ME mirour, ‘a model of excellence’ (MED mirour n. 3(b)).

271 wenen al be wyle ‘think everything is a trick’.

273 ‘So I will do my best to adapt myself to her level of understanding.’

277 Sey … sey ‘Saw … say’.

279–91 Boccaccio’s Pandaro also sees good fortune in the face of Criseida and warns her not to let it slip: Fil. 2.37 and 44.

283 take of it no cure ‘not concern himself with it’.

286 wrecchednesse ‘baseness’.

289 and ‘if only’.

291 lest aventure slake ‘lest good fortune slacken off’.

300 And ‘if’.

304 do ‘done, over’.

310 come of ‘get on with it’.

318 Which … his ‘whose’. See 5.4.6.

325 Al sholde I ‘even if I had to’.

328 fisshed fayre ‘made a fine catch’.

329 ‘How are you the better off if we both suffer harm?’

332 frendly cheere ‘favour as a friend’.

341 strecche ‘extend’, that is, suffice.

343 Proverbial: Whiting A62.

344–7 Wo worth ‘woe betide’, repeated as part of a rhetorical anaphora.

344 vertuelees Gems were held to have natural powers or ‘virtues’, to heal, protect, and the like.

347 that tret ech undir foote ‘who treads everyone under foot’.

357 ‘That he ruined your honour with any support from me.’

361 moore feste ‘more welcoming behaviour’.

363 This al and somme ‘that is all there is to it’.

365 naught but skylle ‘only reasonable’.

366 doute of resoun ‘reasonable cause for fear’.

367 sette the worste ‘put the worst possibility’.

370 fool of kynde ‘born fool’.

371 love of frendshipe Latin amor amicitiae, friendly affection. See 379f.

378 What fors were it ‘what would it matter’.

380 ‘And always conceal yourself under that cloak’, as a pretext.

381 wys ‘surely’.

384 daunger ‘standoffishness’. Like any honourable lady, Criseyde will receive advances coolly, but Pandarus asks her at least to ‘sugar’ the bitter pill a little.

385 for to wite ‘to blame’.

393–4 So also Boccaccio’s Pandaro: ‘Do not lose time; consider that old age or death will take away your beauty’ (Fil. 2.54.7–8).

396 ‘Go on and love; for no one will want you when you are old.’

398 The phrase ‘too late aware’ was proverbial: Whiting B155, L90.

399 elde daunteth daunger ‘age conquers reserve’, that is, old women can no longer afford to be standoffish.

400 A wise fool, like that in King Lear, will tell lords and ladies unpalatable truths. On the medieval court fool, see E. Welsford, The Fool (London, 1935), ch. 5.

401 berth hire heighe ‘carries herself high’, that is, behaves haughtily.

403 crowes feet ‘crow’s feet’, wrinkles at the outer corners of the eye, an expression first recorded here.

406 ‘Niece, I would not wish any greater distress upon you.’ The use of bidde is idiomatic.

408 breste awepe ‘burst into tears’.

411–13 Boccaccio’s Criseida protests similarly: ‘What will others do, when you yourself take such pains to make me follow the rule of love?’ (Fil. 2.48.7–8).

413 Ret ‘advises’ (short for redeth).

416 Achilles Criseyde includes a Greek among possible objects of unfortunate love.

417 mannes creature ‘male person’.

420 who may it leve ‘who can trust it?’ (leve ‘believe in’).

423 ‘Is this in truth the reward that you promised?’

424 paynted proces ‘specious talk’.

425 Pallas Pallas Athene, a virgin goddess invoked here by Criseyde as favouring chaste widows. Cf. Troilus 5.977.

431 And God toforn ‘before God (I swear it)’.

432 sette lite of us ‘care little for us’.

435 Marte Mars, god and planet of war and sudden death: see Knight’s Tale, Canterbury Tales I 1995–2038. Chaucer imitates a line in Boccaccio’s Teseida, a poem from which he draws some touches of high style: ‘O fiero Marte, o dispettoso iddio’ (Teseida 1.58.1).

436 The three Furies are coupled with Mars again in Troilus 4.22–5, as in Teseida 3.1.

443 Pandarus invokes Neptune as a god hostile to Troy and Trojans, as explained in Troilus 4.120–6.

448 lappe ‘sleeve’, the long hanging sleeve of the time.

464 what … chaunce ‘what a misfortune has befallen me’.

465 Criseyde’s standing in society (estat) is at risk if she sacrifices her honour (468).

470 for to chese ‘the one to choose’. Proverbial: Whiting E193.

475 doon my peyne ‘do the best I can’.

477 ‘Except that I will not encourage him in false hopes.’

480 Myn honour sauf ‘saving always my honour’, an absolute construction like Latin salve fide.

483 cesse cause ‘once the cause ceases to act’. A medical maxim: Whiting C121.

488 on o day ‘in one single day’.

18
Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

Chaucer is thought to have begun The Canterbury Tales in about 1387, after completing Troilus and Criseyde and leaving The Legend of Good Women unfinished. He evidently worked on it until his death in 1400, at which time the project was still very far from complete. In the General Prologue, the Host of the Tabard Inn – who presides over the company of ‘nyne and twenty’ pilgrims – proposes a plan: each pilgrim is to tell two tales on the road to Canterbury and two more on the way back (I 788–809). In the event, Chaucer left just twenty‐four tales, two of them fragments; and the work as we have it ends, not with the projected dinner back at the Tabard, but with the Parson’s Tale, a sombre exposition of the sacrament of penance. Yet, thanks to those who put the pieces together for publication shortly after Chaucer’s death, the Tales enjoyed immediate success. No fewer than fifty‐five manuscripts, complete or nearly so, survive from the fifteenth century. Chaucer had done enough to realize his prime intention: to match a variety of occupations among his ‘sundry folk’ with a matching variety of literary types among the stories they tell: romance, fabliau, moral ‘example’, saint’s life, miracle story, ‘tragedy’, beast fable …

The two short tales presented here, a comic fabliau and a grave Miracle of the Virgin, illustrate the range of literary types. They also show something of the various principles governing Chaucer’s assignment of tales to tellers. The Miracle of the Virgin is assigned to a prioress because such stories were supposed to appeal particularly to religious women – a matter of the sociology of literary taste; but the fabliau is assigned to a reeve (an estate foreman), not because such men particularly liked tales of that comic kind, but because, being ‘cherles’, they might themselves figure in such tales as characters – a matter of the literary decorum of low comedy. The Reeve’s Tale also has another, dramatic, motivation, as an anti‐miller story rooted in an occupational hostility between reeves and millers (see 18a/7–8n). For yet another interest in the rich Canterbury project was to represent the friendly or hostile relations existing between members of different occupations – lawyers and country gentlemen, friars and summoners, cooks and manciples – in Chaucer’s England.

The present texts are based on the Hengwrt Manuscript, National Library of Wales MS Hengwrt 154 (Peniarth 392D), the earliest and in many ways the best of the surviving copies, made very few years after the poet’s death.

Editions

N. F. Blake, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Edited from the Hengwrt Manuscript (London, 1980)

Jill Mann, Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (London, 2005)

Benson and Skeat editions: see Headnote to text 16 above.

Studies

W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, Sources and Analogues of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Chicago, 1941)

Helen Cooper, The Canterbury Tales, Oxford Guides to Chaucer (Oxford, 1996)

Donald R. Howard, The Idea of the Canterbury Tales (Berkeley, 1976)

V. A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (Stanford, 1984)

Derek Pearsall, The Canterbury Tales (London, 1985)

18a Chaucer: The Reeve’s Tale

The Reeve’s is the third tale told on the journey to Canterbury, following those of the Knight and the Miller. Like the latter, it belongs to a literary genre which had flourished in thirteenth‐century France, the ‘fabliau’. Fabliaux are short comic tales in verse, dealing mainly with sexual or other advantages won by tricks and stratagems: see Per Nykrog, Les Fabliaux (Copenhagen, 1957) and C. Muscatine, The Old French Fabliaux (New Haven, 1986). The story told by the Reeve has analogues among French fabliaux (especially Le Meunier et les ii Clers, ‘The Miller and the Two Clerks’), and also in Boccaccio’s Decameron (Ninth Day, Tale 6): see Bryan and Dempster and especially Benson and Andersson (the latter with translations). Since the Reeve is angry with the Miller (see 7–8n), his tale of an outwitted and humiliated miller acquires extra point in its Canterbury context. Here, as elsewhere, Chaucer seizes the opportunities, offered by fabliau, of representing contemporary realities: see Bennett on the world of Cambridge and its environs, and Tolkien on the Northern speech of the two Cambridge students.

Studies

J. A. W. Bennett, Chaucer at Oxford and at Cambridge (Oxford, 1974)

L. D. Benson and T. M. Andersson, The Literary Context of Chaucer’s Fabliaux (Indianapolis and New York, 1971), pp. 79–201

Bryan and Dempster (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 124–47

T. W. Craik, The Comic Tales of Chaucer (London, 1964), pp. 30– 47

J. Hines, The Fabliau in English (Harlow, 1993)

Kolve (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 217–56

Pearsall (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 183–92

J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve’s Tale’, Transactions of the Philological Society (1934), 1–70

The Prologe of the Reves Tale.

Whan folk hadde laughen at this nyce cas

Of Absolon and hende Nicholas,

Diverse folk diversely they seyde,

But for the moore part they lowe and pleyde; ⁵

Ne at his tale I seigh no man hym greve

But it were oonly Osewold the reve:

By cause he was of carpenters craft

A litel ire is in his herte ylaft.

He gan to grucche and blamed it a lite.

‘So the ik,’ quod he, ‘ful wel koude I thee quyte ¹⁰

With bleryng of a proud millerys iye

If þat me liste speke of rybaudye;

But ik am oold, me list no pley for age;

Gras tyme is doon, my fodder is now forage.

This white top writeth myne olde yerys, ¹⁵

Myn herte is also mowled as myne herys;

But if ik fare as dooth an open‐ers –

That ilke fruyt is ever lenger the wers

Til it be roten in mollok or in stree –

We olde men, I drede, so fare we: ²⁰

Til we be roten kan we noght be rype.

We hoppe alwey whil þat the world wol pipe,

For in oure wil ther stiketh evere a nayl

To have an hoor heed and a grene tayl

As hath a leek; for thogh oure myght be goon ²⁵

Oure wil desireth folie evere in oon,

For whan we may noght doon than wol we speke.

Yet in oure asshen olde is fyr yreke.

Foure gleedes have we, whiche I shal devyse –

Avauntyng, lyyng, anger, coveitise; ³⁰

Thise foure sparkles longen unto eelde.

Oure olde lemes mowe wel been unweelde,

But wil ne shal noght faillen, that is sooth.

And yet ik have alwey a coltes tooth,

As many a yeer as it is passed henne ³⁵

Syn þat my tappe of lyf bigan to renne.

For sikerlik, whan ik was bore, anon

Deeth drogh the tappe of lyf and leet it goon,

And evere sith hath so the tappe yronne

Til þat almoost al empty is the tonne.

The streem of lyf now droppeth on the chymbe.

The sely tonge may wel rynge and chymbe ⁴⁰

Of wrecchednesse þat passed is ful yoore;

With olde folk save dotage is namoore.’

 Whan þat oure Hoost hadde herd this sermonyng, ⁴⁵

He gan to speke as lordly as a kyng.

He seyde, ‘What amounteth al this wit?

What shal we speke al day of holy writ?

The devel made a reve for to preche,

Or of a souter a shipman or a leche. ⁵⁰

Sey forth thy tale and tarie noght the tyme:

Lo, Depeford, and it is half‐wey pryme;

Lo, Grenewych, ther many a sherewe is inne;

It were al tyme thy tale to bigynne.’

 ‘Now, sires,’ quod this Osewold the reve, ⁵⁵

‘I pray yow alle þat ye noght yow greve

Thogh I answere and somdel sette his howve,

For leveful is with force force of showve.

This dronken miller hath ytoold us heer

How þat bigiled was a carpenter, ⁶⁰

Paraventure in scorn for I am oon;

And by youre leve I shal hym quyte anon;

Right in his cherles termes wol I speke.

I pray to God his nekke mote tobreke.

He kan wel in myn eye seen a stalke, ⁶⁵

But in his owene he kan noght seen a balke.’

 At Trompyngtoun, nat fer fro Cantebrygge,

Ther gooth a brook and over that a brygge,

Upon the which brook ther stant a melle;

And this is verray sooth þat I yow telle. ⁷⁰

A miller was ther dwellyng many a day,

As any pecok he was proud and gay.

Pipen he koude and fisshe, and nettes beete,

And torne coppes, and wel wrastle and sheete;

And by his belt he baar a long panade, ⁷⁵

And of a swerd ful trenchaunt was the blade;

A joly popper baar he in his pouche –

Ther was no man for peril dorste hym touche;

A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.

Round was his face and camuse was his nose; ⁸⁰

As piled as an ape was his skulle.

He was a market‐beter atte fulle:

Ther dorste no wight hand upon hym legge

That he ne swoor he sholde anon abegge.

A theef he was for sothe of corn and mele, ⁸⁵

And þat a sleigh and usant for to stele.

His name was hoten deynous Symkyn.

A wif he hadde, comen of noble kyn,

The person of the toun hir fader was.

With hir he yaf ful many a panne of bras ⁹⁰

For þat Symkyn sholde in his blood allye.

She was yfostred in a nonnerye,

For Symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde,

But she were wel ynorissed and a mayde,

To saven his estaat of yemanrye; ⁹⁵

And she was proud and peert as is a pye.

A ful fair sighte was it upon hem two:

On halidayes biforn hir wolde he go

With his tipet wounden aboute his heed,

And she cam after in a gyte of reed, ¹⁰⁰

And Symkyn hadde hosen of the same.

Ther dorste no wight clepen hire but dame.

Was noon so hardy þat wente by the weye

That with hire dorste rage or ones pleye,

But if he wolde be slayn of Symkyn ¹⁰⁵

With panade or with knyf or boydekyn;

For jalous folk been perilouse everemo –

Algate they wolde hir wyves wenden so.

And eek, for she was somdel smoterlich,

She was as digne as water in a dich ¹¹⁰

And ful of hoker and of bismare.

Hir thoghte þat a lady sholde hir spare,

What for hir kynrede and hir nortelrye

That she hadde lerned in the nonnerye.

 A doghter hadde they bitwix hem two ¹¹⁵

Of twenty yeer, withouten any mo,

Savyng a child þat was of half‐yeer age;

In cradel it lay and was a propre page.

This wenche thikke and wel ygrowen was,

With camuse nose and eyen greye as glas, ¹²⁰

With buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye;

But right fair was hir heer, I wol nat lye.

The person of the toun, for she was so feir,

In purpos was to maken hir his heir

Bothe of his catel and his mesuage, ¹²⁵

And straunge he made it of hir mariage.

His purpos was for to bistowe hir hye

Into som worthy blood of auncetrye;

For holi cherches good moot been despended

On holi cherches blood þat is descended; ¹³⁰

Therfore he wolde his holy blood honoure,

Thogh þat he holy chirche sholde devoure.

 Greet sokne hath this miller out of doute

With whete and malt of al the land aboute,

And nameliche ther was a greet college ¹³⁵

Men clepeth the Soler Halle at Cantebregge:

Ther was hir whete and eek hir malt ygrounde.

And on a day it happed in a stounde

Syk was the maunciple on a maladie;

Men wenden wisly þat he sholde dye, ¹⁴⁰

For which this millere stal bothe mele and corn

An hondred tyme moore than biforn;

For therbiforn he stal but curteisly,

But now he was a theef outrageously,

For which the wardeyn chidde and made fare; ¹⁴⁵

But therof sette the millere noght a tare,

He craked boost and swoor it was noght so.

 Thanne were ther yonge poure scolers two

That dwelten in the halle of which I seye.

Testyf they were and lusty for to pleye, ¹⁵⁰

And oonly for hir myrthe and reverye

Upon the wardeyn bisily they crye

To yeve hem leve but a litel stounde

To go to mille and seen hir corn ygrounde;

And hardily they dorste leye hir nekke ¹⁵⁵

The millere sholde noght stelen hem half a pekke

Of corn by sleighte, ne by force hem reve;

And atte laste the wardeyn yaf hem leve.

John highte that oon and Aleyn highte that oother;

Of oon town were they born þat highte Strother, ¹⁶⁰

Fer in the north, I kan noght telle where.

This Aleyn maketh redy al his gere

And on an hors the sak he caste anon.

Forth gooth Aleyn the clerk and also John

With good swerd and with bokeler by hir syde. ¹⁶⁵

John knew the wey, hym neded no gyde,

And at the mille the sak adoun he layth.

Aleyn spak first: ‘Al hayl, Symond, yfayth.

How fares thy faire doghter and thy wyf?’

‘Aleyn welcome,’ quod Symkyn, ‘by my lyf, ¹⁷⁰

And John also. How now, what do ye here?’

‘By God,’ quod John, ‘Symond, nede has na peere;

Hym boes serve hymself þat has na swayn,

Or ellis he is a fool, as clerkes sayn.

Oure maunciple, I hope he wol be deed, ¹⁷⁵

Swa werkes ay the wanges in his heed;

And therfore is I come and eek Alayn

To grynde oure corn and carie it heem agayn.

I pray yow speed us heythen what ye may.’

‘It shal be doon,’ quod Symkyn, ‘by my fay. ¹⁸⁰

What wol ye doon whil þat it is in hande?’

‘By God, right by the hoper wol I stande,’

Quod John, ‘and se howgates the corn gas in.

Yet saw I nevere, by my fader kyn,

How þat the hoper wagges til and fra.’ ¹⁸⁵

Aleyn answerde, ‘John, wiltow swa?

Thanne wol I be byneth, by my crown,

And se howgates the mele falles down

Into the trogh; that sal be my desport,

For, John, yfaith, I may been of youre sort, ¹⁹⁰

I is as ille a millere as ar ye.’

 This millere smyled of hir nycetee

And thoghte, ‘Al this nys doon but for a wyle.

They wene þat no man may hem bigile,

But by my thrift, yet shal I blere hir iye ¹⁹⁵

For al the sleighte in hir phislophye.

The moore queynte crekys þat they make,

The moore wol I stele whan I take;

In stede of flour yet wol I yeve hem bren.

The grettest clerkes been noght the wisest men, ²⁰⁰

As whilom to the wolf thus spak the mare.

Of al hir art counte I noght a tare.’

Out of the dore he gooth ful pryvely

Whan þat he saugh his tyme softely.

He looketh up and doun til he hath founde ²⁰⁵

The clerkes hors theras it stood ybounde

Bihynde the mille under a leefsel,

And to the hors he gooth hym faire and wel;

He strepeth of the bridel right anon.

And whan the hors was laus he gynneth gon ²¹⁰

Toward the fen ther wilde mares renne

And forth with ‘wehe’ thurgh thikke and thenne.

This millere gooth ayein; no word he seyde,

But dooth his note and with the clerkes pleyde

Til þat hir corn was faire and wel ygrounde. ²¹⁵

 And whan the mele was sakked and ybounde,

This John gooth out and fynt his hors away,

And gan to crye ‘Harrow and weilaway!

Oure hors is lost. Alayn, for Goddes banes,

Step on thy feet. Com of, man, al atanes. ²²⁰

Allas, oure wardeyn has his palfrey lorn.’

This Alayn al forgat bothe mele and corn;

Al was out of his mynde his housbondrye.

‘What, whilk wey is he gane?’ he gan to crye.

The wyf cam lepyng inward with a ren; ²²⁵

She seyde, ‘Allas, youre hors gooth to the fen

With wilde mares as faste as he may go.

Unthank come on his hand þat boond hym so

And he þat bettre sholde have knyt the reyne.’

‘Allas,’ quod John, ‘Aleyn, for Cristes peyne, ²³⁰

Lay doun thy swerd and I wol myn alswa.

I is ful wight, God waat, as is a ra;

By God hert, he sal nat scape us bathe.

Why ne had thow pit the capil in the lathe?

Il‐hail! by God, Alayn, thow is a fonne.’ ²³⁵

This sely clerkes haan ful faste yronne

Toward the fen, bothe Alayn and eek John;

And whan the millere seigh þat they were gon,

He half a busshel of hir flour hath take

And bad his wyf go knede it in a cake. ²⁴⁰

He seyde, ‘I trowe the clerkes were aferd;

Yet kan a millere maken a clerkes berd

For at his art. Ye, lat hem goon hir weye.

Lo wher he gooth. Ye, lat the children pleye;

They gete hym noght so lightly by my croun.’ ²⁴⁵

Thise sely clerkes rennen up and doun

With ‘Keep, keep! Stand, stand! Jossa, warderere!

Ga whistle thow, and I sal kepe hym heere.’

But shortly, til þat it was verray nyght

They koude noght, thogh they dide al hir myght, ²⁵⁰

Hir capyl cacche, he ran alwey so faste,

Til in a dych they caughte hym at the laste.

 Wery and weet as beest is in the reyn

Comth sely John and with hym comth Aleyn.

‘Allas,’ quod John, ‘the day þat I was born, ²⁵⁵

Now ar we dryven til hethyng and til scorn.

Oure corn is stoln; men wil us foolis calle,

Bathe the wardeyn and oure felawes alle,

And namely the millere, weilawey.’

Thus pleyneth John as he gooth by the wey ²⁶⁰

Toward the mille, and Bayard in his hond.

The millere sittyng by the fyr he fond,

For it was nyght, and ferther myghte they noght;

But for the love of God they hym bisoght

Of herberwe and of ese as for hir peny. ²⁶⁵

The millere seide agayn, ‘If ther be eny,

Swich as it is yet shal ye have youre part.

Myn hous is streyt, but ye han lerned art;

Ye kan by argumentz make a place

A myle brood of twenty foot of space. ²⁷⁰

Lat se now if this place may suffise,

Or make it rowm with speche as is your gyse.’

‘Now, Symond,’ seyde this John, ‘by seint Cutberd,

Ay is thou myrie, and that is faire answerd.

I have herd seye men sal taa of twa thynges, ²⁷⁵

Swilk as he fyndes or taa swilk as he brynges.

But specialy I pray thee, hoost deere,

Get us som mete and drynke and make us cheere,

And we wol payen trewely atte fulle.

With empty hand men may none haukes tulle. ²⁸⁰

Lo heere oure silver, redy for to spende.’

 This millere into town his doghter sende

For ale and breed, and rosted hem a goos,

And boond hir hors, it sholde namoore go loos,

And in his owene chambre hem made a bed, ²⁸⁵

With shetes and with chalons faire yspred,

Noght from his owene bed ten foot or twelve.

His doghter hadde a bed al by hirselve

Right in the same chambre by and by.

It myghte be no bet; and cause why? ²⁹⁰

Ther was no rowmer herberwe in the place.

They soupen and they speken hem to solace

And drynken evere stroong ale at the beste.

Aboute mydnyght wente they to reste.

Wel hath this millere vernysshed his heed, ²⁹⁵

Ful pale he was fordronke and noght reed;

He yexeth and he speketh thurgh the nose

As he were on the quakke or on the pose.

To bedde he goth, and with hym goth his wyf;

As any jay she light was and jolyf, ³⁰⁰

So was hir joly whistle wel ywet.

The cradel at hir beddes feet is set

To rokken and to yeve the child to sowke.

And whan þat dronken al was in the crowke,

To bedde wente the doghter right anon, ³⁰⁵

To bedde gooth Aleyn and also John;

Ther nas namoore, hem neded no dwale.

This millere hath so wisly bibbed ale

That as an hors he fnorteth in his sleep,

Ne of his tayl bihynde he took no keep; ³¹⁰

His wyf bar hym a burdon, a ful strong,

Men myghten hir routyng heren a furlong;

The wenche routeth eek par compaignye.

 Aleyn the clerc, that herde this melodye,

He poked John and seyde, ‘Slepestow? ³¹⁵

Herd thow evere slyk a sang er now?

Lo, swilk a complyng is ymel hem alle;

A wilde fyr on thair bodyes falle.

Wha herkned evere swilk a ferly thyng?

Ye, they sal have the flour of il endyng. ³²⁰

This lang nyght ther tydes me na reste,

But yet na force, al sal be for the beste;

For, John,’ seyde he, ‘als evere moot I thryve,

If þat I may, yon wenche wol I swyve.

Som esement has lawe shapen us, ³²⁵

For, John, ther is a lawe þat says thus,

That gif a man in a point be agreved,

That in another he sal be releved.

Oure corn is stoln, soothly it is na nay,

And we han had an ille fit today; ³³⁰

And syn I sal have naan amendement

Agayn my los, I wil have esement.

By Goddes saule, it sal naan other be.’

This John answerde, ‘Aleyn, avyse thee.

The millere is a perilous man,’ he sayde, ³³⁵

‘And gif þat he out of his sleep abrayde

He myghte doon us bathe a vileynye.’

Aleyn answerde, ‘I counte hym noght a flye,’

And up he rist and by the wenche he crepte.

This wenche lay uprighte and faste slepte ³⁴⁰

Til he so neigh was er she myghte espie

That it hadde been to late for to crie,

And shortly for to seyn, they were at oon.

 Now pley Aleyn, for I wol speke of John.

This John lith stille a furlang wey or two ³⁴⁵

And to hymself he maketh routhe and wo.

‘Allas’, quod he, ‘this is a wikked jape;

Now may I seyn þat I is but an ape.

Yet has my felawe somwhat for his harm,

He has the milleris doghter in his arm. ³⁵⁰

He auntred hym and has his nedes sped

And I lye as a draf‐sak in my bed;

And whan this jape is tald another day

I sal ben halden a daf, a cokenay.

I wil arise and auntre it by my fayth; ³⁵⁵

Unhardy is unsely, thus men sayth.’

And up he roos, and softely he wente

Unto the cradel and in his hand it hente

And baar it softe unto his beddes feet.

Soone after this the wyf hir rowtyng leet ³⁶⁰

And gan awake and wente hir out to pisse,

And cam agayn and gan hir cradel mysse

And groped heer and ther, but she foond noon.

‘Allas,’ quod she, ‘I hadde almoost mysgoon;

I hadde almoost goon to the clerkes bed. ³⁶⁵

Ey, benedicite, thanne had I foule ysped.’

And forth she gooth til she the cradel fond;

She gropeth alwey forther with hir hond

And foond the bed and thoghte noght but good

By cause þat the cradel by it stood, ³⁷⁰

And nyste wher she was for it was derk,

But faire and wel she creep in to the clerk

And lyth ful stille and wolde have caught a sleep.

Withinne a while this John the clerk up leep

And on this goodewyf he leyth on soore. ³⁷⁵

So murie a fyt ne hadde she nat ful yoore;

He priketh harde and depe as he were mad.

This joly lyf han thise two clerkes lad

Til þat the thridde cok bigan to synge.

 Aleyn wax wery in the dawenynge ³⁸⁰

For he hadde swonken al the longe nyght,

And seyde, ‘Farewel, Malyn, swete wight.

The day is come, I may no lenger byde,

But everemo wherso I go or ryde

I is thyn awen clerk, swa have I sel.’ ³⁸⁵

‘Now, deere lemman,’ quod she, ‘go, farewel.

But er thow go, o thyng I wol thee telle:

Whan that thow wendest homward by the melle,

Right at the entree of the dore bihynde

Thow shalt a cake of half a busshel fynde ³⁹⁰

That was ymaked of thyn owene mele

Which þat I heelp my sire for to stele.

And, good lemman, God thee save and kepe.’

And with that word almoost she gan to wepe.

Aleyn up rist and thoghte, ‘Er þat it dawe ³⁹⁵

I wol go crepen in by my felawe,’

And fond the cradel with his hond anon.

‘By God,’ thoghte he, ‘al wrang I have mysgon.

Myn heed is toty of my swynk tonyght;

That maketh me þat I go noght aright. ⁴⁰⁰

I woot wel by the cradel I have mysgo –

Here lyth the millere and his wyf also.’

And forth he gooth on twenty devele way

Unto the bed theras the millere lay.

He wende have cropen by his felawe John ⁴⁰⁵

And by the millere in he creep anoon,

And caughte hym by the nekke and softe he spak.

He seyde, ‘Thou, John, thow swynes‐hed, awak,

For Cristes saule, and here a noble game;

For by that lord þat called is seint Jame, ⁴¹⁰

As I have thries in this shorte nyght

Swyved the milleris doghter bolt upright,

Whil thow hast as a coward been agast.’

‘Ye, false harlot,’ quod the millere, ‘hast?

A, false traytour, false clerk,’ quod he, ⁴¹⁵

‘Thou shalt be deed, by Goddes dignytee.

Who dorste be so bold to disparage

My doghter, that is come of swich lynage?’

And by the throte‐bolle he caughte Alayn,

And he hente hym despitously agayn ⁴²⁰

And on the nose he smoot hym with his fest;

Doun ran the blody streem upon his brest.

And in the floor with nose and mouth tobroke

They walwen as doon two pigges in a poke;

And up they goon and doun agayn anoon ⁴²⁵

Til þat the millere sporned on a stoon,

And doun he fil bakward upon his wyf,

That wiste nothyng of this nyce stryf,

For she was falle aslepe a litel wight

With John the clerk that waked hadde al nyght, ⁴³⁰

And with the fal out of hir sleep she brayde.

‘Help, holy cros of Bromholm,’ she sayde.

‘In manus tuas, Lord, to thee I calle.

Awake, Symond, the feend is on us falle.

Myn herte is broken. Help, I nam but ded. ⁴³⁵

Ther lyth oon upon my wombe and up myn hed.

Help, Symkyn, for the false clerkes fighte.’

 This John sterte up as faste as evere he myghte,

And graspeth by the walles to and fro

To fynde a staf; and she sterte up also, ⁴⁴⁰

And knew the estres bet than dide this John,

And by the wal a staf she foond anon,

And saugh a litel shymeryng of a light

For at an hole in shoon the moone bright,

And by that light she saugh hem bothe two, ⁴⁴⁵

But sikerly she nyste who was who

But as she saugh a whit thyng in hir iye;

And whan she gan this white thyng espye

She wende the clerk hadde wered a voluper,

And with the staf she drow ay ner and ner ⁴⁵⁰

And wende han hit this Aleyn atte fulle,

And smoot the millere on the piled skulle

That doun he gooth and cryde, ‘Harrow, I dye.’

Thise clerkes bette hym wel and lete hym lye,

And greithen hem and tooke hir hors anon ⁴⁵⁵

And eek hir mele and on hir wey they gon,

And at the mille yet they toke hir cake

Of half a busshel flour ful wel ybake.

 Thus is the proude millere wel ybete,

And hath ylost the gryndyng of the whete, ⁴⁶⁰

And payed for the souper every del

Of Aleyn and of John, that bette hym wel.

His wyf is swyved, and his doghter als.

Lo, swich it is a millere to be fals!

And therfore this proverbe is seyd ful sooth: ⁴⁶⁵

Hym thar nat wene wel þat yvele dooth;

A gilour shal hymself bigiled be.

And God, that sitteth heighe in magestee,

Save al this compaignie grete and smale.

Thus have I quyt the Millere in my tale. ⁴⁷⁰

   Here endeth the Reves Tale.

18b Chaucer: The Prioress’s Tale

Like St Erkenwald (text 11), the Prioress’s Tale is a miraculum, in this case a Miracle of the Virgin. Such stories were popular in England, especially among devout women readers. Other Middle English examples are collected in Beverly Boyd, The Middle English Miracles of the Virgin (San Marino, 1964). The story told by the Prioress has many analogues (Bryan and Dempster, below), though Chaucer’s exact source is not known. Since it concerns the death of a small boy, this particular miraculum suits its teller, who is described in the General Prologue as so ‘pitous’ that she wept to see a mouse in a trap (I 143–5). In the preface to his modernization of the Tale, William Wordsworth remarked that the Prioress’s ‘fierce bigotry … forms a fine background for her tender‐hearted sympathies with the Mother and Child’; but the torment and shameful deth meted out to the murderer and also to the Jews that of this mordre wiste (176–82) have understandably provoked many readers since. In judging Chaucer’s own attitude to such ‘fierce bigotry’, it should be recalled that, since Edward I banished them in 1290, there had been no Jews in England. Hence the story is set in a remote and unspecified Asye, unlike the similar story of Jewish child‐murder told in the Peterborough Chronicle (1/74–82 here). There is also a theological consideration. The Bible represents the Jewish people as responsible, in the person of Herod, for the Massacre of the Innocents, and also, corporately, for the death of Christ (Matthew 27.25). Accordingly, in the Prioress’s version of the murdered innocent and his grieving mother, there is a strong sense of history repeating itself, as part of a long‐running confrontation between God and his adversaries (see notes to 1–7, 122, 128–33, 175, and compare 1/76–8).

Editions

Beverly Boyd, The Prioress’s Tale, The Variorum Chaucer vol. II (Norman, 1987)

Benson and Skeat editions: see Headnote to text 16 above

Studies

Bryan and Dempster (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 447– ⁸⁵

Cooper (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 287– ⁹⁸

Jill Mann, Life in Words: Essays on Chaucer, the Gawain‐Poet, and Malory (Toronto, 2014), pp. 117–37

Pearsall (Canterbury Tales Headnote), pp. 246– ⁵²

Florence Ridley, The Prioress and the Critics (Berkeley, 1965)

The Proheme of the Prioresse Tale.

Domine dominus noster .

O Lord, oure Lord, thy name how merveilous

Is in this large world ysprad – quod she –

For nat oonly thy laude precious

Parfourned is by men of dignytee,

But by the mouth of children thy bountee ⁵

Parfourned is, for on the brest soukynge

Somtyme shewen they thyn heryynge.

Wherfore in laude, as I best kan or may,

Of thee and of the white lilye flour

Which þat the bar and is a mayde alway, ¹⁰

To telle a storie I wol do my labour;

Nat that I may encressen hir honour,

For she hirself is honour and the roote

Of bountee next hir sone, and soules boote.

O moder mayde, O mayde moder free,

O bussh unbrent brennyng in Moyses sighte, ¹⁵

That ravysedest doun fro the deitee

Thurgh thyn humblesse the goost þat in th’alighte,

Of whos vertu whan he thyn herte lighte

Conceyved was the fadres sapience, ²⁰

Help me to telle it in thy reverence.

Lady, thy bountee, thy magnificence,

Thy vertu, and thy grete humylitee,

Ther may no tonge expresse in no science;

For somtyme, lady, er men praye to thee, ²⁵

Thow goost biforn of thy benygnytee

And getest us the light of thy prayere

To gyden us unto thy sone so deere.

My konnyng is so wayk, O blisful queene,

For to declare thy grete worthynesse ³⁰

That I ne may the weighte nat sustene,

But as a child of twelve month old or lesse

That kan unnethe any word expresse

Right so fare I; and therfore I yow preye,

Gideth my song that I shal of yow seye. ³⁵

   Explicit prohemium.

Here bigynneth the Prioresse tale of Alma redemptoris mater .

Ther was in Asye in a greet citee

Amonges Cristen folk a Jewerye,

Sustened by a lord of that contree

For foul usure and lucre of vileynye,

Hateful to Crist and to his compaignye, ⁴⁰

And thurgh this strete men myghte ryde and wende

For it was free and open at eyther ende.

A litel scole of Cristen folk ther stood

Doun at the ferther ende, in which ther weere

Children an heep ycomen of Cristen blood ⁴⁵

That lerned in that scole yeer by yere

Swich manere doctrine as men used there –

This is to seyn, to syngen and to rede

As smale children doon in hir childhede.

Among thise children was a wydwes sone, ⁵⁰

A litel clergeon seven yeer of age,

That day by day to scole was his wone,

And eek also, wher as he say th’ymage

Of Cristes moder, hadde he in usage,

As hym was taught, to knele adoun and seye ⁵⁵

His Ave Marie as he goth by the weye.

Thus hath this wydwe hir litel sone ytaught

Oure blisful lady, Cristes moder deere,

To worshipe ay, and he forgat it naught,

For sely child wol alwey soone lere. ⁶⁰

But ay whan I remembre on this matere,

Seint Nicholas stant evere in my presence

For he so yong to Crist dide reverence.

This litel child his litel book lernynge

As he sat in the scole at his prymer, ⁶⁵

He Alma redemptoris herde synge

As children lerned hir antiphoner,

And as he dorste, he drow hym ner and ner

And herkned ay the wordes and the note

Til he the firste vers koude al by rote. ⁷⁰

Nat wiste he what this Latyn was to seye

For he so yong and tendre was of age;

But on a day his felawe gan he preye

T’expounden hym this song in his langage

Or telle hym why this song was in usage: ⁷⁵

This prayde he hym to construe and declare

Ful often tyme upon hise knowes bare.

His felawe, which þat elder was than he,

Answerde hym thus: ‘This song, I have herd seye,

Was maked of oure blisful lady free ⁸⁰

Hir to salue and eek hir for to preye

To been oure help and socour whan we deye.

I kan namoore expounde in this matere;

I lerne song, I kan but smal gramere.’

‘And is this song maked in reverence ⁸⁵

Of Cristes moder?’ seyde this innocent.

‘Now certes I wol do my diligence

To konne it al er Cristemasse is went.

Thogh þat I for my prymer shal be shent

And shal be beten thries in an houre, ⁹⁰

I wol it konne oure lady for to honoure.’

His felawe taughte hym homward prively

Fro day to day til he koude it by rote,

And thanne he soong it wel and boldely

Fro word to word acordyng with the note. ⁹⁵

Twyes a day it passed thurgh his throte,

To scoleward and homward whan he wente;

On Cristes moder set was his entente.

As I have seyd, thurghout the Juerye

This litel child as he cam to and fro ¹⁰⁰

Ful murily wolde he synge and crye

O Alma redemptoris everemo.

The swetnesse his herte perced so

Of Cristes moder, that to hir to preye

He kan nat stynte of syngyng by the weye. ¹⁰⁵

Oure firste foo, the serpent Sathanas,

That hath in Jewes herte his waspes nest,

Up swal and seyde, ‘O Hebrayk peple, allas,

Is this to yow a thyng that is honest,

That swich a boy shal walken as hym lest ¹¹⁰

In youre despit and synge of swich sentence

Which is agayns oure lawes reverence?’

Fro thennes forth the Jewes han conspired

This innocent out of this world to chace.

An homycide therto han they hired ¹¹⁵

That in an aleye hadde a privee place;

And as the child gan forby for to pace,

This cursed Jew hym hente and heeld hym faste

And kitte his throte and in a pit hym caste.

I seye that in a wordrobe they hym threwe ¹²⁰

Wheras thise Jewes purgen hir entraille.

O cursed folk of Herodes al newe,

What may youre yvel entente yow availle?

Mordre wol out, certeyn it wol nat faille,

And namely theras th’onour of God shal sprede; ¹²⁵

The blood out cryeth on youre cursed dede.

O martir souded to virginitee,

Now maystow syngen, folwyng evere in oon

The white lamb celestial – quod she –

Of which the grete evangelist, seint John, ¹³⁰

In Pathmos wroot, which seith þat they þat gon

Biforn this lamb and synge a song al newe

That nevere flesshly womman they ne knewe.

This poure wydwe awaiteth al that nyght

After hir litel child, but he cam noght; ¹³⁵

For which, as soone as it was dayes lyght,

With face pale of drede and bisy thoght

She hath at scole and elliswhere hym soght,

Til fynally she gan so fer espie

That he last seyn was in the Jewerie. ¹⁴⁰

With modres pitee in hir brest enclosed

She goth as she were half out of hir mynde

To every place wheras she hath supposed

By liklyhede hir litel child to fynde,

And evere on Cristes moder meke and kynde ¹⁴⁵

She cryde, and at the laste thus she wroghte:

Among the cursed Jues she hym soghte.

She frayneth and she prayeth pitously

To every Jew that dwelte in thilke place

To telle hir if hir child wente oght forby. ¹⁵⁰

They seyde nay; but Jesu of his grace

Yaf in hir thought inwith a litel space

That in that place after hir sone she cryde

Wher he was casten in a pit bisyde.

O grete God, that parfournest thy laude ¹⁵⁵

By mouth of innocentz, lo here thy myght!

This gemme of chastitee, this emeraude,

And eek of martirdom the ruby bright,

Ther he with throte ycorven lay upright

He Alma redemptoris gan to synge ¹⁶⁰

So loude that al the place gan to rynge.

The Cristen folk that thurgh the strete wente

In coomen for to wondre upon this thyng,

And hastily they for the provost sente.

He cam anon withouten tariyng ¹⁶⁵

And herieth Crist that is of hevene kyng

And eek his moder, honour of mankynde;

And after that the Jewes leet he bynde.

This child with pitous lamentacioun

Up taken was, syngynge his song alway; ¹⁷⁰

And with honour of greet processioun

They carien hym unto the nexte abbay.

His moder swownyng by his beere lay;

Unnethe myghte the peple that was there

This newe Rachel bryngen fro his beere. ¹⁷⁵

With torment and with shameful deth echon

This provost dooth thise Jewes for to sterve

That of this mordre wiste, and that anon.

He nolde no swich cursednesse observe.

Yvel shal have that yvel wol disserve; ¹⁸⁰

Therfore with wilde hors he dide hem drawe,

And after that he heng hem by the lawe.

Upon his beere ay lyth this innocent

Biforn the chief auter whil the masse laste;

And after that the abbot with his covent ¹⁸⁵

Han sped hem for to buryen hym ful faste;

And whan they holy water on hym caste,

Yet spak this child whan spreynd was holy water

And song O alma redemptoris mater.

This abbot, which þat was an holy man, ¹⁹⁰

As monkes ben, or ellis oghten be,

This yonge child to conjure he bigan,

And seyde, ‘O deere child, I halsen thee

In vertu of the Holy Trinitee,

Tel me what is thy cause for to synge, ¹⁹⁵

Sith þat thy throte is kit to my semynge.’

‘My throte is kit unto my nekke‐boon,’

Seyde this child, ‘and as by wey of kynde

I sholde have dyed, ye, longe tyme agoon;

But Jesu Crist, as ye in bokes fynde, ²⁰⁰

Wol þat his glorie laste and be in mynde;

And for the worship of his moder deere

Yet may I synge O alma loude and clere.

‘This welle of mercy, Cristes moder swete,

I loved alwey as after my konnynge; ²⁰⁵

And whan þat I my lyf sholde forlete

To me she cam and bad me for to synge

This antheme verraily in my deiynge,

As ye han herd; and whan þat I had songe

Me thoughte she leyde a greyn upon my tonge. ²¹⁰

‘Wherfore I synge and synge moot, certeyn,

In honour of that blisful mayden free

Til fro my tonge of taken is the greyn;

And after that thus seyde she to me:

“My litel child, now wol I fecche thee ²¹⁵

Whan þat the greyn is fro thy tonge ytake.

Be nat agast, I wol thee nat forsake.”’

This holy monk, this abbot hym mene I,

His tonge out caughte and took awey the greyn,

And he yaf up the goost ful softely. ²²⁰

And whan this abbot hadde this wonder seyn

His salte teerys trikled doun as reyn,

And gruf he fil al plat upon the grounde

And stille he lay as he hadde leyn ybounde.

The covent eek lay on the pavement ²²⁵

Wepynge, and heryen Cristes moder deere;

And after that they ryse and forth been went

And toke awey this martir from his beere,

And in a toumbe of marbilstones cleere

Enclosen they this litel body swete. ²³⁰

Ther he is now, God leve us for to meete!

O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also

With cursed Jewes, as it is notable,

For it is but a litel while ygo,

Preye eek for us, we synful folk unstable, ²³⁵

That of his mercy God so merciable

On us his grete mercy multiplie,

For reverence of his moder Marie. Amen.

   Here endeth the Prioresse Tale.

Notes

1 nyce cas ‘silly business’, referring to the comic tale just told by the Miller.

7–8 Oswald, a ‘sclendre colerik man’ (General Prologue I 587), is angry because the Miller represented a carpenter as a cuckolded husband. He himself was trained as a carpenter (General Prologue I 613–14). As a reeve, or foreman on a manorial estate, he would in any case be ill‐disposed towards millers, whose cheating habits he goes on to illustrate in his tale.

10 So the ik ‘as I may prosper’. The form ik ‘I’, unique in Chaucer’s works, is an East Midland and Northern form appropriate to the Reeve, who comes from north Norfolk (General Prologue I 619–20). Since it was evidently obsolescent there by Chaucer’s time, it is appropriate also to an older speaker. See also 32n, 69n, and 84n.

11 ‘With the outwitting of a proud miller’ (literally ‘blearing his eye’), as in the ensuing story.

13 me list no pley for age ‘because I am old no silly game (pley) gives me pleasure’. Cf. 2/213.

15 writeth ‘indicates’.

17 open‐ers ‘open‐arse, medlar’, so called from its appearance and because, when ripe, its contents dribble out of its open end.

18 ‘That same fruit becomes worse and worse the older it gets.’

32 lemes ‘limbs’, a Norfolk form (see 10n).

34 a coltes tooth i.e. the appetites of a young horse.

35 ‘Despite the many years that have passed by now’ (henne ‘hence’, i.e. counting back from now).

41 Instead of jetting out as they once did, the contents of the almost empty barrel now drop weakly down onto its projecting rim (chymbe).

42–4 The point seems to be that old people enjoy recalling hard times in the past, having no other pleasure in their senility.

45–6 The Host, landlord of the Tabard Inn in Southwark, acts as a temporary festive kyng, ruling over the pilgrims on their Canterbury journey.

48 What ‘why’.

49–50 ‘It is the devil’s doing for a reeve to become a preacher, or a shoemaker to be a sailor or physician.’

52–3 By 7.30 a.m. (half‐wey pryme) on the first day, the pilgrims have reached Deptford, some four miles from Southwark and within sight of Greenwich, where Chaucer was probably living at the time of writing, in the late 1380s.

57 somdel sette his howve ‘get the better of him somewhat’, literally, ‘adjust his headgear’.

58 ‘For it is permissible to repel force with force.’ A legal maxim. Whiting F491.

65–6 Matthew 7.3: ‘And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye?’ Stalke corresponds to the Vulgate Bible’s festuca ‘piece of straw’, where the English version has mote.

67 The village of Trumpington, about three miles from Cambridge. See Bennett for the local details.

69 melle ‘mill’, a Norfolk form (see 10n).

73 Pipen ‘play the bagpipes’, like the pilgrim Miller (General Prologue I 565– 6).

74 torne coppes ‘up‐end drinking cups’ (cf. 295–6 below)? or ‘make wooden cups’?

wel wrastle Compare the pilgrim Miller, at whom the Reeve is aiming: ‘At wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram’ (General Prologue I 548).

79 His thwitel, or knife, was made of fine Sheffield steel.

82 market‐beter apparently, someone who made trouble at markets.

84 abegge ‘pay for it’, a Norfolk form (see 10n).

87 Symkyn a diminutive of Simon(d). The students never use this familiar form in addressing him.

90 The village parson provides for his illegitimate daughter a dowry of brass pans (items sometimes specified in medieval wills).

91 in his blood allye ‘marry into his family’.

95 ‘To preserve his standing as prosperous freeholder.’

97 ‘It was a very fine sight to see the two of them.’

108 ‘Or at any rate they like their wives to think so.’

109–10 ‘And also, because she was of somewhat dubious origin (smoterlich ‘besmirched’), she was as stand‐offish as ditchwater.’ The proverbial comparison (Whiting D268) here implies that the wife was ‘stinking with pride’ (OED) and hence unpleasant to deal with.

112 hir spare ‘keep herself aloof’.

118 propre page ‘fine little boy’.

126 straunge ‘difficult’; i.e. the parson was reserving her for some suitably well‐born husband. The Reeve stresses the social pretensions of the family in gleeful anticipation of their subsequent dishonouring.

133 sokne ‘the exclusive right claimed by a mill‐owner to grind and take toll of all the grain of a manor or town’ (Bennett, p. 91).

134 Wheat for bread, malt for beer.

136 Men clepeth ‘one calls’, literally. The singular verb shows that men is the unstressed indefinite pronoun: see 5.4.3.

Soler Halle King’s Hall (later merged with Trinity College, Cambridge), so called because of its solers or sunny rooms: see Bennett, pp. 93–7.

139 maunciple the college officer concerned with its food supplies.

140 wenden wisly ‘thought for certain’. See 308n.

143 curteisly ‘courteously’, that is, with some regard for decency and discretion.

145 wardeyn the head of the college.

146 ‘But the miller cared nothing for that.’ Cf. 7a/97. Tares are worthless weeds.

147 craked boost ‘blustered’.

150 lusty for to pleye ‘eager to have fun’.

159 Aleyn a name particularly common in the North. See next note.

160 Strother an unidentified village (town) ‘far in the North’. The word (‘a place overgrown with brushwood’) occurs in a number of Northumberland and Durham place‐names. A well‐known Border family, the de Strothers, held lands around Kirknewton in Glendale, north Northumberland. Aleyn de Strother was constable of Roxburgh Castle in 1366. Chaucer may have inferred the place from the name of this family.

169 fares The form with ‐(e)s ending for the third person plural of the present tense establishes the students as Northern speakers (cf. werkes 176). The ‐(e)s ending for the third person singular (e.g. has 172, boes 173) is also Northern, and abnormal in Chaucer: see 4.5.2. On the students’ dialect, see 1.2.1. The main Northernisms are noted here (‘Nth’). For a full discussion, see Tolkien’s article.

172 nede has na peere ‘necessity has no equal’, i.e., there is no alternative. Proverbial: Whiting N51, N52. Long a for long o, as in na here, is a Northernism prominent in the students’ speech: e.g. gas 183, fra 185, banes 219, atanes 220, twa 275.

173 ‘One who has no servant must look after himself.’ Boes is Nth for Chaucerian bihoveth ‘it is necessary’.

175 hope ‘expect’, comically Nth.

176 ‘The back teeth are giving him such a pain in his head.’ Werkes ‘ache’, word and ending Nth; wanges Nth.

177 is Nth for first person singular (cf. 191, 232, 348, 385); also for second person singular (274).

178 heem ‘home’. This form, where we would expect Nth haam (172n), is paralleled in the Ellesmere MS by geen for gane ‘gone’ (224) and neen for naan (331, 333). These are hard to account for, unless they reflect a Nth sound change of /a:/ to /ε:/.

179 ‘Please do your best to help us get away quickly.’ Heythen ‘hence’, Nth.

183 howgates ‘how’, Nth, like gas ‘goes’.

185 til and fra ‘to and fro’, Nth.

186 swa ‘so’, Nth.

187 by my crown an oath, lit. ‘by the top of my head’.

189 sal ‘shall’, Nth (cf. 233, 248, etc.).

191 ille ‘bad’, Nth (Scandinavian, see 3.2).

195 ‘But, as I may thrive, I shall still outwit them.’

196 phislophye the miller’s version of philosophye.

197 ‘The more clever tricks they play.’ Creke (the modern ‘creek’) suggests a winding or devious course here: ‘a crooked device’, OED creek 7.

200–1 In the fable, a wolf wants to buy a foal. The mare tells him that, if he can read and is a scholar, he may find the price written on her hind foot, and then she kicks him. Hence the proverbial conclusion in l. 200 (Whiting C291).

202 ‘I care nothing for all their learning.’ Cf. 146 and n.

207 leefsel ‘lean‐to of poles thatched with reeds’ (Bennett, p. 113).

213 gooth ayein ‘returns’.

219 banes ‘bones’, Nth.

220 Com of ‘hurry up’. atanes ‘at once’, Nth.

224 whilk ‘which’, Nth.

226 fen the low‐lying wetland in which Cambridge stands, then little cultivated, but with some drainage ditches (252).

228 Unthank come on ‘curses upon’.

231 alswa ‘also’, Nth.

232 ‘I am very quick, God knows, like a roe‐deer.’ Nth long a for long o (waat, ra), and Nth is, as again at 235 (177n).

233 More Northernisms: God uninflected genitive (4.2.4); sal ‘shall’; bathe ‘both’ as at 258 and 337.

234 pit ‘put’, Nth.

lathe ‘barn’, Nth.

235 Il‐hail ‘bad luck to you’, Nth.

fonne ‘fool’, Nth.

236 sely ‘wretched’, commonly applied in Chaucer to victims of others, as at 246 and 254 here.

240 cake ‘flat loaf’.

241 aferd ‘suspicious’.

242 To make (trim?) someone’s beard is to outwit him.

244 he the horse, still in view across the flat fenland.

245 by my croun See 187n.

247 ‘Watch him! … stay where you are! … down this way … look out behind!’

248 kepe ‘watch’. Ga and sal are Northern forms.

256 til hethyng ‘to contempt’, both Nth.

261 Bayard a common horse name.

265 as for ‘in return for’.

266 agayn ‘in reply’.

268 ‘My house is small, but you have taken a university course.’ The miller sarcastically suggests that education in such subjects as logic and rhetoric might actually have some practical use.

273 Cuthbert, a Northumberland saint whose remains were venerated in Durham Cathedral, is appropriately invoked by John. See 160n.

275–6 ‘I have heard it said that a man must take one of two things, either such as he finds or else such as he brings.’ The clerks, in the end, take both. ‘Take as one finds’ is proverbial (Whiting T15). Northernisms: sal, taa, twa, swilk, fyndes, brynges.

278 make us cheere ‘entertain us’.

280 tulle ‘lure’. Proverbial: Whiting H89.

289 by and by ‘nearby’.

292 hem to solace ‘to pass the time pleasantly’. Hem is reflexive (5.4.5).

295 To ‘varnish one’s head’ is to get very drunk (‘well oiled’).

296 fordronke ‘very drunk’, as his pallor indicates – recalling the pilgrim Miller ‘that fordronken was al pale’ (I 3120).

298 ‘As if he was hoarse or had a cold.’

301 i.e. she had had a good drink (as in Modern ‘wet one’s whistle’).

307 ‘That was the end of it, no sleeping potion was necessary for them.’

308 wisly ‘surely, thoroughly’ (not ‘wisely’; the vowel is short).

310 ‘Nor did he bother to restrain his backside.’

312 a furlong i.e. a long way off.

313 par compaignye ‘to keep them company’.

316 slyk a sang ‘such a song’, Nth.

317 ‘See what an evening service they are having among themselves.’ Swilk ‘such’ and ymel ‘among’ are both Northernisms; and so, we suppose, is complyng. The majority of manuscripts, including Hengwrt and Ellesmere, read couplyng; but a minority has some form of ‘compline’ (the last church service of the day, sung before retiring), which gives much better sense. Words with ‐yng for ‐yn are recorded in the North, including complyng for ‘compline’ in Gavin Douglas; and three Canterbury Tales manuscripts read complyng here. If that is what Chaucer wrote, the unusual form would explain an early ‘correction’ to couplyng.

318 wilde fyr ‘erysipelas’, an acute inflammation of the skin. thair Nth. See 3.2. The form occurs only here in Chaucer’s works.

319 Wha ‘who’, Nth (also swilk).

320 the flour of il endyng ‘the best kind of bad end’ (il Nth). Flour is the normal Chaucerian spelling of flower: but Aleyn also punningly alludes to the miller’s occupation.

321–2 Northernisms: lang, tydes (‐s ending), na ‘no’, sal ‘shall’.

324 yon ‘yonder’ (‘that girl over there’), Nth.

327 gif ‘if’, Nth.

a point ‘one point’ (long a, ‘one’, Nth). Some manuscripts note the legal maxim ‘Qui in uno gravatur, in alio debet relevari’. Aleyn is evidently studying law. Cf. 331–2n.

329 it is na nay ‘there’s no denying it’.

330 ille fit ‘bad time’ (ille Nth).

331–2 Amendement here represents full compensation for the stolen corn, as against partial redress or esement.

333 saule ‘soul’, Nth.

334 avyse thee ‘be careful’.

336 gif þat ‘if’.

339 rist ‘rises’, present tense, as at 395.

340 uprighte ‘on her back’.

345 furlang wey strictly two‐and‐a‐half minutes, one eighth of the time customarily taken to walk a mile (20 minutes). A Northern form, ‐lang, spills over into the narrative here.

346 maketh routhe and wo ‘expresses his self‐pity and misery’.

349 has Nth (also 350, 351).

351 ‘He took a risk and has got what he wanted.’

353 tald Nth (like halden 354).

354 cokenay ‘milksop, weakling’. The word, originally ‘cock’s egg’, came to be applied to pampered children (and later to pampered Londoners, whence ‘cockney’).

356 Unhardy is unsely literally ‘unbold is unsuccessful’, i.e. Fortune favours the brave. On men, see 136n above.

366 ‘Hey, bless us, then I would have ended up badly.’ Benedicite has only three syllables (bendisté), as usual.

372 creep ‘crept’, past tense (an OE strong verb, weak in Modern English; cf. leep ‘leapt’ 374, heelp ‘helped’ 392, and see 4.5.1).

375 goodewyf ‘mistress of the house’.

379 Cocks were thought to crow three times a night, the third at one hour before dawn.

382 Malyn a pet form of ‘Maud’, associated by Chaucer elsewhere with a country girl (Canterbury Tales VII 3384).

385 Northernisms: I is, awen ‘own’, swa ‘so’, sel ‘happiness’. The dawn parting of lovers is an episode that calls romance to mind: cf. Troilus 3.1415–1533.

386 lemman ‘sweetheart’ (also 393), a word not used by Chaucer in elevated contexts.

398 wrang ‘wrong’, Nth.

399 toty of my swynk ‘befuddled with my labours’.

403 on twenty devele way an often jocular curse (‘Tel on, a devel wey!’ says the Host to the drunk Miller), here addressed to the consequences of Aleyn’s mistake: ‘to his utter ruin’.

405 ‘He intended to have crept in beside his mate John.’

409 saule ‘soul’, the last of the Northernisms.

410 St James was known especially from his pilgrimage centre at Compostela, Spain.

414 hast? ‘have you?’

417 disparage The relevant sense is OED 1: ‘to degrade or dishonour by marrying to one of inferior rank’.

420 ‘And he (i.e. Aleyn) grappled with him violently in return.’

426 sporned on a stoon ‘tripped over a stone’.

429 wight ‘bit, while’.

432 Bromholm in the Reeve’s own county of Norfolk. Its priory possessed a relic of Christ’s cross, an object of reverence and pilgrimage.

433 In manus tuas ‘Into thy hands [I commend my spirit]’, Luke 23.46, words used at the point of death.

435 I nam but ded ‘I am as good as dead’. She refers, not to heartbreak, but to some injury to her chest.

441 estres i.e. the ins and outs of the house.

447 ‘Except that with her eye she saw something white.’

450 drow ay ner and ner ‘drew ever nearer and nearer’. Cf. 18b/68.

452 piled ‘bald’, cf. 81 above.

457 yet ‘furthermore’.

458 half a busshel flour After words expressing measure, like ‘bushel’, the thing measured is often put in apposition (see 5.3.2).

466 ‘He who does evil need expect no good.’ Proverbial: Whiting E185. Hym thar ‘he need’, an impersonal expression (5.6.8).

467 Another proverb: Whiting G491. Medieval literary theory advises ending with proverbs – in this case, with a personal edge to them.

Notes

1–7 The opening of the Prioress’s ‘proheme’, or prologue, is based on Psalm 8.2–3 (AV 1–2): ‘O Lord our Lord [Domine dominus noster]: how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens. Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies: that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.’ The passage was familiar from liturgical uses, in the Little Office of the Virgin and the Mass of the Holy Innocents. The reference to the destruction of God’s enemies, not represented in these lines, anticipates the conclusion of the Tale.

9 lilye flour a common symbol of the Virgin, from Song of Songs 2.2.

16 Alluding to the burning bush seen by Moses (Exodus 3.2), another common type or symbol of Mary. The bush remained unburnt (unbrent), just as Mary remained a virgin.

18 the goost þat in th’alighte ‘the Holy Spirit who alighted in thee’.

20 sapience ‘wisdom’. Christ, whose incarnation is here described, is commonly referred to as the Wisdom of God the Father. Compare Piers Plowman B XVI 36–7.

22 magnificence ‘glory’ (magnificentia in Psalm 8.2, quoted above 1–7n).

24 in no science i.e. in the language of any learned discipline.

26–8 ‘In your graciousness, you go in advance and procure for us by your intercession the light to guide us on our way to your beloved son.’ Close to Dante, Paradiso 33.16–18 (St Bernard’s praise of Mary): ‘Thy graciousness [benignità] not only succours whoever asks, but often freely runs ahead of [ precorre] the asking.’

37 Jewerye ‘Jewish quarter’, here a street occupied by Jews (this strete 41). There is still a Jewry Street in London.

39 The Jews are here associated with usury, lending money at interest (forbidden to Christians), and with ‘filthy lucre’, excessive profits from sales. Some manuscripts, including Hengwrt, give the biblical original of the latter phrase as a gloss: ‘turpe lucrum’ (I Timothy 3.8).

51 The age of seven marked the end of infancy, the age of innocence (see ll. 86, 114, 156, 183), and the customary beginning of school‐days. The boy is in his first term (cf. 88n) at his elementary song school, on which see N. Orme, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London, 1973).

52 ‘Who was accustomed to go every day to school’: see 5.6.9.

53 wher as he say ‘wherever he saw’.

54 hadde he in usage ‘it was his custom’.

56 Ave Marie ‘Hail Mary’.

60 ‘For a good child will always be quick to learn.’ Proverbial: Whiting C219.

62 St Nicholas, patron saint of schoolboys, is said to have observed fast‐days even as a baby at the breast (cf. ll. 6–7 above), and as a boy he was an exceptionally quick learner.

65 prymer a Latin book of devotions, here used as a Latin reader.

66 Alma redemptoris ‘Gracious [mother] of the Redeemer’, an anthem in praise of Mary as Virgin Mother and help of sinners.

67 antiphoner ‘anthem book’, from which older children (l. 78) are learning to chant in another part of the schoolroom.

68 ‘And, as far as he dared, he drew nearer and nearer.’

71 ‘He did not know what this Latin meant.’

84 ‘I am learning singing, I know only a little Latin.’

88 ‘To learn it all before the Christmas holiday is over.’ The boy is in his first, Michaelmas, term.

89 ‘Even though I will be punished for (neglecting) my primer.’

92 homward ‘on the way home’.

93 Fro day to day i.e. a little each day.

95 ‘With every word correctly fitted to the tune.’

106 Sathanas a Vulgate Latin form of ‘Satan’.

110 boy usually a contemptuous term in Middle English, as here. as hym lest ‘just as he pleases’. See 5.6.8 on such impersonal verbs.

111 In youre despit ‘in defiance of you’.

112 oure lawes Satan identifies himself with the Jewish people, against God and his Christians. Many manuscripts, however, read youre not oure.

117 ‘And as the child was going past.’ On gan, see 5.6.3.

120 wordrobe ‘privy’, the pit in which the Jews purgen hir entraille, ‘empty their bowels’.

122 The reference to Herod the Great, King of the Jews, recalls his Massacre of the Innocents (‘all the men children that were in Bethlehem and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under’, Matthew 2.16). The modern Jews re‐enact (al newe) what ‘Herod’s folk’ did at the time of Christ’s birth.

124 A proverb: Whiting M806.

126 God says to Cain, after he has murdered Abel, ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth’ (Genesis 4.10).

128–33 In his vision on the island of Patmos, St John saw the Lamb of God ‘and with him an hundred forty‐four thousand … And they sung as it were a new canticle … These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth’: Apocalypse (Revelation) 14.1–4. The passage was read at the Mass of the Holy Innocents, associating the 144,000 with the children massacred by Herod. See 122n above.

128 evere in oon ‘continually’.

133 flesshly The gloss carnaliter in the Hengwrt MS identifies this as an adverb: ‘in a carnal way’.

139 ‘Till at last she got so far as to discover.’

150 wente oght forby ‘had by any chance passed by’.

152 ‘Within a short time put it into her mind.’

155–6 Recalling Psalm 8, here as at ll. 5–6, but now using the term ‘innocents’.

157–8 The emerald is a ‘clean stone’ which ‘voideth lechery’: English Mediaeval Lapidaries, EETS o.s. 190 (1933), 20–1, 40, 121. The red ruby symbolizes the blood of martyrdom.

159 upright ‘flat on his back’.

164 provost a term for chief magistrate used only of foreign towns, in this case, Asiatic.

168 leet he bynde ‘he caused to be bound’ (5.6.5).

170 Up taken was ‘was lifted up’ (out of the pit).

175 newe Rachel In his account of the Massacre of the Innocents, Matthew cites from an Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah: ‘A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children and would not be comforted, because they are not’ (Matthew 2.18, from Jeremiah 31.15). So the boy’s mother is another ‘new Rachel’, like the grieving mothers of the Innocents. This use of newe, as at l. 122, expresses the typological idea that modern events are foreshadowed in the Bible, just as Old Testament events there foreshadow those in the New.

177 ‘This magistrate causes these Jews to be put to death.’

179 ‘He had no wish to countenance such wickedness.’

180 Proverbial: Whiting E178.

181 he dide hem drawe ‘he caused them to be drawn’, that is, dragged through the streets to their hanging.

186 Han sped hem ‘hastened’ (5.4.5).

187 Following the Requiem Mass, the corpse is sprinkled with holy water, according to custom.

196 to my semynge ‘as it seems to me’.

198 as by wey of kynde ‘in the natural way of things’.

205 ‘I always praised so far as I knew how.’ Love is ‘praise’ (OE lofian), not ‘love’ (OE lufian). See MED loven v.(2).

208 in my deiynge ‘as I lay dying’.

210 greyn This ‘grain’ (which takes the part played in other versions of the story by a lily, a gem, or a pebble) has prompted much scholarly speculation: see the notes in the Riverside and Variorum editions. The word may simply denote a small bit of something which Chaucer chooses not to specify; but MED grain n. cites this occurrence under sense 3(b): ‘precious stone; small bits of gold or gems’.

227 ryse probably past tense plural, ‘rose’.

forth been went ‘went out’ (from the abbey church?).

231 ‘May God grant us to meet again where he now is’ (i.e. in Paradise).

232 ‘Little St Hugh’ of Lincoln was a boy supposedly martyred by Jews in 1255. His relics were venerated in Lincoln Cathedral. Compare the Peterborough Chronicle story of St William of Norwich, 1/74– 82 here.

19
Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love

In May 1373, at the age of thirty, Julian lay close to death, attended by her mother, her friends, and a priest who held up a crucifix to look upon as she died. As she gazed on it, her pain ended, and over the next two days she experienced a series of sixteen visions, centring on Christ suffering on the cross. In her youth she had prayed for a serious illness so that she could better appreciate Christ’s passion. Her account of these visions and her reflections on them survive in a short version perhaps written not long after her experiences, and a greatly expanded version written at least twenty years later. Records dating from the late fourteenth century to 1416 refer to Julian as an anchoress at the church of St Julian in Norwich. On the life of an anchoress see Ancrene Wisse (text 4).

For the author of the Cloud of Unknowing (text 6), meditation on the Passion of Christ belongs to the lower part of contemplative life, whereas in the higher part the mind must clear itself of all such images and travel in the darkness of the cloud. For Julian, however, such meditations enable her to share in Christ’s suffering and bring her to a fuller understanding of God’s goodness and love. In her Long Text, composed after many years of reflection, Julian explores much more profoundly the spiritual significance and interpretation of her visions.

In the extract here, from the Short Text, Julian recounts her last two revelations, in the first of which God counsels patience in the face of her renewed suffering. In the last she describes how, visited in sleep by the devil, she is beset by doubts about the validity of her visions, but is finally reassured by a vision of Christ in the middle of a city in the kingdom of her soul.

The Short Text survives in just one manuscript, British Library Additional MS 37790, copied in about 1450, an anthology of mystical works probably written for the Carthusians. This contemplative order became popular in the fourteenth century when a number of Charterhouses were founded, beginning with Beauvale Priory in Nottinghamshire in 1343. The Long Text survives in full only in seventeenth‐century copies.

The language is from Lincolnshire, so well to the north of Norwich. Its northern features include: the present participle ending in ‐ande, e.g. forgettande (see 4.5.2); OE /a:/ preserved in words where more southern texts have ‘open o’, e.g. þa ‘those’, waa ‘woe’, mare ‘more’, knawe ‘know’ (see 1.2.1); the plural pronouns thay, tham (see 4.3.5).

Edition

Barry Windeatt, Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love: The Short Text and the Long Text (Oxford, 2016)

Facsimile

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_37790

Studies

Liz Herbert McAvoy, ed., A Companion to Julian of Norwich (Woodbridge, 2008)

Nicholas Watson, ‘The Composition of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Love’, Speculum 68 (1993), 637–83

Before this tyme I hadde ofte grete langynge, and desyred of Goddys gyfte to be delyvered of this warlde and of this lyfe, for I schulde be with my God in blysse whare I hope sikerlye thurgh his mercye to be withowten ende. For ofte tymes I behelde the waa that is here, and the weele and the blyssede beynge thare; and ʒyf thare hadde bene na ⁵ payn in erthe bot the absence of oure Lorde God, me thouʒt sumtyme it ware mare than I myght bere, and this made me to mourne and beselye lange. Than God sayde to me, for pacience and for sufferaunce, thus: ‘Sudanly thowe schalle be takene fra alle thy payne, fra alle thy dissese, and fra alle thy waa; and þowe schalle comen up aboven, and ¹⁰ thowe schalle hafe me to thy mede, and þowe schalle be fulfyllede of joye and blysse, and þowe schalle never hafe na maner of payne, na maner of sekenes, na maner of myslykynge, na wantynge of wille, botte ever joye and blysse withouten ende. Whate schulde it than greve the to suffyr a while, sen it is my wille and my wirschippe?’ Also ¹⁵ in this reson – ‘sudanly þou schalle be taken’ – I sawe how God rewardys man of the pacience that he has in abydynge of Goddes wille in his tyme, and þat man lengthes his pacyence owere the tyme of his lyffynge for unknawynge of his tyme of passynge. This is a grete profytte, for ʒif a man knewe his tyme, he schulde noght hafe pacience ²⁰ owere þat tyme. Also God wille that whiles the saule es in the bodye, that it seme to itselfe that it es ever atte the poynte to be taken. For alle þis lyfe in this langoure that we hafe here is bot a poynte, and when we ere takene sodaynly oute of payne into blysse, it schalle be nouʒt. And þerfore sayde oure Lorde ‘Whate schulde it than greve the to suffere ²⁵ a while sen it is my wille and my wyrschippe?’ It is Goddys wille that we take his behestys and his confortynges als largelye and als myghtelye as we maye take thame, and also he wille þat we take oure abydynge and oure desese als lyghtelye as we may take tham, and sette tham atte nought. For the lyghtlyere we take tham, the lesse price we sette be ³⁰ tham for luff, the lesse payne sall we hafe in the felynge of tham, and the mare thanke we schall hafe for tham.

In this blyssed revelacion I was trewly taught that whate man or woman wilfully cheses God in his lyfe, he may be sekere that he is chosene. Kepe this treulye, for sothly it is Godys wille that we be als ³⁵ sekere in tryste of the blys in heven whiles we ere here as we schulde be in sekernesse when we ere thare. And ever the mare likynge and the joye that we take in this sekernesse, with reverence and mekenes, the bettere likes hym, for I am sekyr ʒif thare hadde nane ben bot I that schulde be safe, God wolde hafe done alle that he hase done for me. ⁴⁰ And so schulde ilke saule thynke in knawynge of his lovere, forgettande, ʒif he myght, alle creatures, and thynkkande that God hase done for hym alle that he hase done. And thys thynke me schulde styrre a saule for to luff and lyke hym, and nought drede bot hym, for it is his wille that we witte that alle the myght of oure enmye is loken ⁴⁵ in oure frendes hande. And þerfore a saule that wate sekerly this schalle nought drede botte hym that he loves, and alle othere dredes sette tham emange passyons and bodelye sekenesse and ymagynacions. And þerfore ʒif a man be in so mekylle payne, in so mekylle waa, and in so mekylle deseses, that hym thynke that he can thynke ryght ⁵⁰ nought bot that þat he es in or that he feles, als sone as he maye, passe lyghtlye owere and sette it atte nouʒt. And why? For God wille be knawen. For ʒyff we knewe hym and luffed hym, we schulde hafe pacience and be in grete reste, and it schulde be lykynge to us alle that he does. And this schewed oure Lorde me in thies wordes þat he sayde: ⁵⁵ ‘Whate schulde it than greve the to suffyr a while sen it is my wille and my wirschippe?’ And here was ane ende of alle þat oure Lorde schewed me that daye.

And efter this sone I felle to myselfe and into my bodelye seknes, understandande that I schulde life, and as a wrech that hevyed and ⁶⁰ mourned for the bodely paynes that I feled, and thouʒt grete irksumnes that I schulde langere lyffe. And I was als barane and drye as ʒif I hadde never had comforth before bot litill, for fallynge to my paynes and faylynge of gastelye felynge. Than com a religiouse person to me and asked me howe I farde, and I sayde that I hadde raved þat ⁶⁵ daye, and he lugh lowde and enterlye, and I sayde, ‘The crosse that stode atte my bedde feete, it bled faste’. And with this worde the person that I spake to wex alle sadde and mervelande, and onane I was sare aschamed for my reklessenes, and I thouʒt thus: ‘This man takys it sadlye the leste worde that I myght saye, that says na mare þerto’. ⁷⁰ And when I sawe that he toke it so sadelye and with so grete reverence, I wex ryght gretly aschamed and walde haffe bene schryfen. Bot I couth telle it na preste, for I thought, ‘Howe schulde a preste leve me? I leved nought oure Lorde God’. This I leved sothfastlye for the tyme that I sawe hym, and so was than my wille and my menynge ever for to ⁷⁵ do withowten ende. Bot as a fule I lette it passe fro my mynde. Loo, I, wrich! This was a grete synne and a grete unkyndnes that I, for folye of felynge of a litill bodelye payne, so unwyselye lefte for the tyme the comforth of alle this blissede schewynge of oure Lorde God.

Here maye ʒe see whate I am of myselfe! Botte herein walde nought ⁸⁰ oure curtayse Lorde leve me. And I laye stille tille nyght, tristande in his mercye, and than I beganne to slepe. And in my slepe, atte the begynnynge, me thought the fende sette hym in my throte and walde hafe strangelede me, botte he myght nought. Than I woke oute of my slepe, and unnethes hadde I my lyfe. The persones that ware with me behelde ⁸⁵ me and wette my temples, and my herte began to comforth, and onane a lytell smoke come in atte the dore with a grete hete and a fowle stynke. I sayde, ‘Benedicite domine! Is alle on fyre that is here?’ And I wened it hadde bene a bodely fyre that schulde hafe brenned us to dede. I asked tham that ware with me ʒyf thaye felyd any stynke. Thay sayde ⁹⁰ naye, thay felyd nane. I sayde ‘Blissede be God’, for than wiste I wele it was the fende was comen to tempest me. And onane I tuke þa that oure Lorde hadde schewed me on the same daye with alle the fayth of Hali Kyrke, for I holde it as bathe ane, and fled þerto as to my comforth. And al‐sone alle vanysched awaye, and I was brought to gret reste and ⁹⁵ pees withoutene seknes of bodye or drede of conscyence.

Bot than lefte I stylle wakande, and than owre Lorde openedde my gastely eyen and schewyd me my saule in myddys of my herte. I sawe my saule swa large as it ware a kyngdome, and be the condicions that I sawe þerin, me thought it was a wirschipfulle cité. In myddys of this ¹⁰⁰ cité sittes oure Lorde Ihesu, verraye God and verray man, a fayre persone and of large stature, wyrschipfulle, hiest Lorde. And I sawe hym cledde solemplye in wyrschippes. He sittes in the saule even‐ryght in pees and reste, and he rewles and ʒemez heven and erth and alle that is. The manhede with the godhede sittis in reste, and the godhede ¹⁰⁵ rewles and ʒemes withowtyn any instrumente or besynes; and my saule is blisfullye occupyed with the godhede that is sufferayn myght, sufferayne wisdome, sufferayne goodnesse. The place that Ihesu takes in oure saule he schalle never remove it withowtyn ende, for in us is his haymelyeste hame and maste lykynge to hym to dwelle in. This was ¹¹⁰ a delectabill syght and a restefulle, for it is so in trowth withowten ende, and the behaldynge of this whiles we ere here es fulle plesande to God, and fulle grete spede to us. And the saule that thus behaldys it makys it lyke to hym that is behaldene, and anes in reste and in pees. And this was a singulere joye and a blis to me that I sawe hym sitte, for ¹¹⁵ the behaldynge of this sittynge schewed to me sikernes of his endelesse dwellynge. And I knewe sothfastly that it was he that schewed me alle before. And when I hadde behalden this with fulle avisement, than schewed oure Lorde me wordys fulle mekelye, withowtyn voyce and withowten openynge of lyppes, as he hadde done before, and sayde ¹²⁰ fulle soberlye, ‘Witte it well, it was na ravynge that thowe sawe today. Botte take it, and leve it, and kepe þe therto, and þou schalle nought be overcomen’. This laste wordes ware sayde to me for lernynge of fulle trewe sikernes that it is our Lorde Ihesu that schewed me alle. For ryght as in the fyrste worde that oure Lorde schewed me, menande ¹²⁵ his blissyd passion – ‘herewith is the fende overcomen’ – ryght so he sayde in the laste worde with fulle trewe sikernesse, ‘thow schalle nought be overcomen’. ¹³⁰ And this lernynge and this trewe comforthe, it es generalle to alle myne even‐cristen as I haffe before sayde, and so is Goddys wille. And this worde, ‘thowe schalle nought be overcomen’, was sayde fulle scharpely and fulle myghtely for sekernes and comforth agayne alle tribulacions that maye com. He sayde nought ‘þou salle not be tempestyd, thowe schalle not be travayled, þou schalle not be desesed’, bot he sayde ‘þou schalle nouʒt be overcomen’. God wille that we take hede of his worde and that we be ever myghtty in sekernesse, ¹³⁵ in wele and in waa. For he luffes us and likes us and so wille he that we luff hym and lyke hym and myghtely triste in hym, and alle schalle be wele. And sone eftyr alle was close and I sawe na mare.

Notes

At the beginning of her book Julian describes her prayer that she should suffer a bodily sickness, and her desire ‘sone to be with my God’. 1 of Goddys gyfte ‘as a gift from God’.

8 for pacience and for sufferaunce ‘to encourage patience and endurance’.

11 to thy mede ‘as your reward’.

fulfyllede of ‘filled with’.

15 my wirschippe ‘to my glory’.

17–21 Julian’s argument is that not knowing the time of one’s death encourages extended patience.

18 in his tyme ‘during his life’.

22–3 Compare Rolle’s Form of Living: ‘Sothely oure lyfe es les þan a poynt, if we liken it to þe lyfe þat lastes ay’ (English Writings of Richard Rolle, ed. Hope Emily Allen (Oxford 1931), p. 95, ll. 20–1).

33–4 whate man or woman i.e. ‘whoever’.

35 chosene Cf. ‘For many are called but few are chosen’ (Matthew 22.14). In the Long Text this is altered to ‘lovid without end’.

39 likes ‘it pleases’ (impersonal); see 5.6.8.

41 his lovere God. Julian stresses that we should concentrate on our one‐to‐one relationship with God, ignoring for the moment his general love for all his creation.

43 thynke me ‘it seems to me’; another impersonal construction.

44 lyke hym ‘be pleasing to him’.

nought drede bot hym ‘fear nothing except God’. At the end of the Short Text Julian discusses different kinds of fear, including ‘reverente drede’ which is closely related to love (Windeatt, p. 23).

45–6 alle … hande ‘all the power of our enemy (the devil) is locked up in our friend’s (God’s) hand’. Earlier Julian had argued that everything that God permits the devil to do ‘turnes us to joye and hym to payne and to schame’ (Windeatt, p. 9).

47–8 alle … passyons ‘put all other fears in the same category as sufferings’.

51 bot … feles ‘except the condition that he’s in or what he’s feeling’.

passe ‘let him pass’ (subjunctive). See 5.6.6.

52 wille be ‘wishes to be’.

57–8 In the Long Text at this point Julian says that the first of her revelations began at 4 a.m. and they continued one by one, until this, the fifteenth, after midday.

59 sone I felle to myselfe ‘at once I returned to myself’. During her revelations she had been free of pain, but now awareness of her physical condition returned and she begins to distrust her visions.

60 life ‘live’.

62 barane and drye ‘sterile and arid’. Earlier Julian had admitted that even after prayer one might feel spiritually barren and dry (Windeatt, p. 17).

63–4 Note the play on fallynge / faylynge / felynge.

64 a religiouse person a member of a religious order, i.e. a monk or friar; perhaps Julian’s spiritual counsellor.

65 hadde raved ‘had been delirious’. Naturally he treats it comfortingly and light‐heartedly. For discusion see Felicity Riddy, ‘Women talking about the things of God’, in Women and Literature in Britain 1150–1500, ed. by Carol M. Meale, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 114–15.

70 that says na mare þerto ‘and says nothing in reply’.

72 walde haffe bene schryfen ‘wanted to make my confession’. Julian is ashamed of referring to her revelations as a delusion.

74–6 Julian says that she believed in her visions while they took place, but had then begun to doubt them.

80 ‘This shows you what sort of person I am in myself.’

83 In the Long Text Julian gives a detailed picture of the gruesome devil. He has a face as red as newly baked tiles, with black spots, and red hair hanging over his temples. See Windeatt, p. 137.

85 Her mother and a group of friends tend Julian on what appears to be her deathbed.

88 Benedicite domine ‘Bless the Lord’.

92 tuke þa ‘accepted those things’. Julian now believed in her revelations, accepting them with all her faith in the Church, ‘for I regard them as one and the same’, and she took refuge in both.

96 drede of conscyence ‘troubled conscience’.

97 Unlike the nightmare of the devil, this is a waking vision that Julian experiences with her ‘spiritual eyes’.

99 In a previous chapter of the Long Text Julian writes that God ‘made mans soule to ben his owen cyte and his dwellyng place, which is most plesyng to him of al his werks’ (Windeatt, p. 108). The image draws on the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, with the Lamb ‘in the midst of the throne’ (Revelation 5.6).

105 In Piers Plowman, following the Resurrection, Mary Magdalen meets Jesus ‘Goynge toward Galilee in godhede and manhede’ (B.19.158), i.e. both fully man and fully God.

114 The observing soul ‘makes itself like the one who is observed’.

117 This vision was the assurance Julian needed that the previous visions were genuine.

122 take … therto ‘accept it, and believe it, and hold to it’.

123–4 for lernynge of fulle trewe sikernes ‘to teach me with absolute assurance’.

125 She recalls her fifth vision when God first speaks to her ‘withowtyn voyce and withoute openynge of lyppes, “Herewith ys the feende overcomyn”’, referring to Christ’s suffering on the cross (Windeatt, p. 8).

128–9 it es generalle ‘it applies generally’. Julian stresses that her revelations are intended for everyone, ‘that thaye myght alle see and knawe the same that I sawe’ (Windeatt, p. 8).

136 likes us ‘takes pleasure in us’.

137–8 Compare Julian’s most celebrated statement in the Long Text: ‘al shal be wel, and al shal be wel, and al manner of thyng shal be wel’ (Windeatt, p. 72), quoted by T. S. Eliot in ‘Little Gidding’.

Textual Notes

These notes record all significant departures from the manuscripts used in this volume as the basis of a text. The reading of the text is followed, after the square bracket, by the rejected manuscript reading and also (e.g. in No. 7) by the readings of other manuscripts consulted.

1. The Peterborough ChronicleSole manuscript: Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 636.

55 þoleden] þolenden.81 þurh] þur.

2. The Owl and the NightingaleBase manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Caligula A IX (C). Also cited: Jesus College, Oxford, MS 29 (J). Not noted: d/ð variants.

7 aiþer] asþer C; eyþer J.11 oþeres] oþere C; oþres J. 17 vaste] J; waste C. 21 Bet] J; Het C. 47 Wenst] West C; Wenest J. 51 vote] J; note C. 59 ʒif] ʒis C; If J. 62 þe] J; se C. 86 Line from J; C omits. 89 fliʒst] fliʒt C; flyhst J. 104 fule] J; fole C. 115 loþe custe] J; loþ wiste C. 116 Segget] Seggeþ J; Segge C. 118 0ʒe] oʒer C; owe J. 120 he] J; hi C. 144 noþerward] noþerwad C; neþerward J. 149 ʒaf ] yaf J; ʒas C. 151 hwaþer] hweþer J; ware C. 164 among] J; amon C. 174 ek] J; eck C. 178 unwreste] J; unwerste C. 184 foʒe] soʒe C; soþe J. 185 ur] J; hure C. 187 Wo] Hwo J; þu C. 211 nu] J; him C. 223 schrichest] schirchest C; scrichest J. 225 þincheþ] J; þinchest C. 242 bow ne rind] altered from bos ne strind C; bouh of lynd J. 249 þustre] J; þurste C. 255 hattest] J; attest C. 267 þarevore] warevore C; hwer vore J. 272 wunne] wune C; ynne J. 274 me] J; C omits. 284 þeʒ] þeyh J; Yif C. 317 bold] J; blod C. 325 a] J; ad C. 347 ure] ouer C, J. 359 of þan] J; oþþan C. 370 lesse] J; lasse C. 376 gencheþ] J; gengþ wel C. aweyward] J; awaiwart C.

3. Laʒamon, BrutBase manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Caligula A IX (C). Also cited: British Library MS Cotton Otho C XIII (O). Not noted: d/ð variants.1 tydinge] O; tidende C. 26 heo] he C; hii O. 43 biginnen] bigunnen C; bigynne O. 49 riche] richen C; rich O. 75 fordo] O; fordon C. 77 swyn] O; C omits. 83 þat] O; þa C. 84 water] O; wate C. 104 cleopede] cheopede C. 123 swiðe] O; swi C (also at 142). 125 Wihtere] Whitere C. 128 Grim] grum C (crossed out and corrected in margin in later hand to Colgrim); Colgrim O. 131 him] him him C. 135 Go we mid isunde and] O; Gumen mine gode C. 144 fæiesið] fæiesih C. 159 aðele] alðele C. 161 to] O; C omits. 163 eower] eorwer C. 169 Octa and Ossa] O; and Ossa Octa C.

4. Ancrene WisseBase manuscript: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 402 (A). Also cited: British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra C VI (C).

50 esken] C; ahte esken A.65 feondes fode] C; feode A.

5. Sir OrfeoBase manuscript: National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1 (A). Also cited: British Library MS Harley 3810 (H); British Library MS Ashmole 61 (Ash).

13 In Breteyne þis layes were wrouʒt] In Breteyne bi hold time / þis layes were wrouʒt so seiþ þis rime A; In Brytayn þis layes arne ywrytt H; That in þe leys ben iwrouʒht Ash.14–16 text based on H, A omits.14 ybrouʒt] brouʒht Ash; ygete H. 23–38 þat beþ trewe … harping is] lost in A; text based on H with alterations to language of A. (Lines 25–38 follow 39–46 in H). 29 lerned] lernyd Ash; loved H. 33 al] Ash; H omits. 36 Bot] Ash; H omits. 38 melody] Ash; joy and melody H. 39 A resumes. 41 A stalworþ] T stalworþ A. 57 Bifel] Uifel A; Hit byfel H, Ash. 140 Y no] Y n A. 219 þo] Lo A. 230 no (1)] ne Ash; A omits. 345 wel] last two letters smudged in A. 363 anowrned] avowed or anowed A. 388 seiʒe] seiʒe ful A. 406 lef ] liif A. 450 aske] alke A. 482 he] A omits. 521 trompours] trompour A.

6. The Cloud of UnknowingBase manuscript: British Library MS Harley 674 (Har¹). Also cited: Cambridge University Library MS Kk vi 26 (Kk).

24 neiper] Kk; not Har¹.33 schuldest] Kk; schalt Har¹.55 him one] Kk; himself Har¹. 63 hymself ] Kk; hemself Har¹. 68 seerly] Kk; diversly Har¹. 77 hys] Kk; þe Har¹. 84 worching] Kk; Har¹ omits. 103 tyme seerly] Kk; þing diversly Har¹. 148 troden] Kk; troden doun Har¹. 209 apon] onpon Har¹. 220 þing þat] þing þat þat Har¹. 225 ʒit] Kk; Har¹ omits.

7a and 7b. Langland, Piers PlowmanBase manuscript: Huntington Library MS HM 143 (X). Also cited, the other manuscripts of the ‘i’‐group: Bodleian Library MS Douce 104 (D); Bodleian Library MS Digby 102 (Y); British Library MS Addit. 34779 (P²); British Library MS Addit. 35157 (U); London University Library MS S.L.V. 88 (I).

(7a)

21 therby] the by X, D, Y, P², U, I.30 feste‐dayes] Y, D, P², U, I; feste day X.35 ʒong] ʒong ʒong X. 43a qua] D, Y, U, I; quia X; P ² omits. 62 knaves] P², D, U, I; knave X, Y. 76 mendenantes] P ², D, U, I; mendenant X, Y. 81 or] X omits. 84 discret] U, D, Y, P², I; desirede X. 98a que] Y, U; qui X, D, P², I.

(7b)

2 waye] X omits.4 wolde] U, D, P²; wol X, Y, I.5 a lady] D, Y, P², U, I; þat lady X. 18 wyʒtly] Skeat; wittiliche X, Y, U, I; witterly D, P². 20 on þe teme] A and B Texts; on teme U; on tyme (?) P²; in tyme X, Y; on þat tyme D; one tyme I. 22 assaie] X omits. 77 Deleantur] Deliantur X. 90 wordynge] worchynge X, D, Y, P², I; U omits. 93 pilgrimages] I, D, Y, U; pilgrimage P²; pilgrimes X. 135 have] D; X, Y, P², U, I omit. 166 pes] U, D, P²; mase X; ase Y, I. 176 byleve] Y, D, P², U, I; blyne X. 180 flales] fuales X. 196 labour] lalour X. 226 abave] Y, U (or abane); abane I; bane (or bave) X, D; abaite P². 228 he hit] hit X. 242 Bytulie] U, Y; Bytuyle X; By tyling D; Bi toille P²; torn I. 242a sudore] sudure X. 246a arare] Y, U, I; arrare X, D, P². 278 Dives] .on. X. 283 And ʒif thow þe pore] And if þou þe pore I; And ʒif þe pore D; And ʒeve þou pore P² (be of added in different ink after þou); And ʒif thow pouer X; And yf þow have power U; And ʒit thou pouer Y. 287 lach‐draweres] lechdraweres X. 307 say] D; saide X, Y, U, I; P² omits. 313 Lamasse] I, D; lowe masse X, Y, P², U. 315 þi] D, U; my X, Y, P², I. 333 fresh] U, D; X, Y, P², I omit.

8. PatienceSole manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A X.

3 aswagen] aswage&c.macr;d.35 syn] fyn.73 stowned] stownod. 84 For] Fof. 94 glowande] g . . wande (letters lost). 122 ʒe] he. 152 colde] clolde. 166 Neptune] Nepturne. 189 hater] MS omits. 194 þe] þe þe. 211 baþes] baþeþes. 240 on] un. 245 to] to to. 294 þre nyʒt] þe nyʒt. 313 sayde] say. 348 non] mon. 411 he] ye. 459 þerunder] þer unde. 512 for] fol. 520 as þou] a þou. 522 malicious] malcious. 523 noʒt] noʒ.

9. Sir Gawain and the Green KnightSole manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A X.

46 glaum ande] glaumande.58 were] werere.88 longe lye] lenge lye. 95 Of alderes] Of of alderes. 113 with] wit. 124 sylveren] sylvener. 144 Both] bot. 168 þe proude] pe proude. 182 as] as as. 203 hawbergh] hawbrgh. 210 lenkþe] hede. hede] lenkþe. 236 glowande] lowande. 282 so] fo. 312 gryndellayk] n lost. 343 Wawan] Gawan. 384 so] fo. 425 schade] scade. 432 runyschly] ruyschly. 438 he were] ho we.

10. PearlSole manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A X.

26 runne] runnen.35 spryngande] sprygande.53 penned] spenned. 54 fyrce] fyrte. 60 precios] precos. 72 adubbemente] adubmente. 95 gracios] gracos. 103 feirer] feier. 115 As] A. 138 þerover] þer oþer. 142 hoped] hope. 144 ay] a. 179 astount] atount. 185 hoped] hope. 192 precios] precos. 197 biys] viys. 215 coler] colour. 286 broʒt] broʒ. 302, 308 levez] lovez. 323 man] ma. 342 in] &. 353 Stynt] Stynst. 363 I rave] rave. 369 kyþez] lyþez. 382 manerez] marerez. 431 fereles] freles. 433 sayde] syde. 436 bygynner] byngyner. 460 tryste] tyste. 461 sawle] sawhe. 472 line lost.

11. St ErkenwaldSole manuscript: British Library MS Harley 2250.

49 The] Thre.97 mynde] myde.103 boke] boko. 104 mon] more. 119 naityd] nattyd. 206 is] MS omits. 262 no (1)] ne. 286 þe] þi. 292 me] ne. 306 Dymly] Dynly. 321 of his] of followed by space.

12. Trevisa, Dialogue between a Lord and a ClerkBase manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Tiberius D VII (C). Also cited: British Library MS Harley 1900 (H); British Library MS Stowe 65 (S).

1 Dominus] S; C, H omit.23 bookes] S, H; book C.63 ham] S, H; C omits. 76 som (2)] S; C omits. 155 on day…tyde] H; C omits. 178 in joye…ende] H; C omits.

13. Gower, Confessio AmantisBase manuscript: Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 3.

No variants.

14a–14f. LyricsFrom Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson D 913.

(14a) 7 every kinne] y and k illegible.
(14b) 4 þe] ʒe.
(14c) 3, 4 ant a] MS omits.8 was] wat. 15–21 Expanded from Welle wat was hire dryng þe chelde water of þe welle spring. 24–8 Expanded from þe rede rose ante lilie flour.
(14d) 13 lovet] levet. 16 I ne] in.

14g–14k. Lyrics From British Library MS Harley 2253.

(14g) 30 hendy hap] hend.
(14h) 11 wynne] wynter. 22 doþ] doh.
(14j) 61 þe] MS omits. 66 shille] stille.
bp>(14k) 23 mouþ] imouerþ.

14l–14r. Lyrics From National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 18.7.21.

(14l) 5 etc Lullay lullay] Lullay l. 10 smerte] snerte.
(14p) 19 ʒerte] ʒepte.

15. The York PlaySole manuscript: British Library MS Addit. 35290.

1 1 Soldier] Primus Miles and so throughout.26 wrange] wronge.69 sare] sore. 81 fyne] feyne. 97 nowe] howe. oght] nowe. 99–100 marked for iii Miles. 101 marked for ii Miles. 118 snelly] snerly. 122 hende] handis. 154 and] MS omits. 155 þei] I. 183 4 Sold.] marked for iii Miles. 230 morteyse] moteyse. 278 keste] kaste.

16. Chaucer, The Parliament of FowlsBase manuscript: Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 16 (F). Also cited from the same ‘b’‐group: Bodleian Library MS Bodley 638 (B). Readings from the ‘a’‐group generally cited from Cambridge University Library MS Gg 4.27 (Gg). Other ‘a’‐group manuscripts cited: St John’s College, Oxford, MS LVII (J), Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R.3.19 (R), Bodleian Library MS Digby 181 (D).

3 dredeful] Gg; slyder F.5 with his wonderful] Gg; soo with a dredeful F.31 Scipion] R; the Cipion F. 34 hyt] Gg; F omits. 46 other] Gg; or F. 64 syn] Gg; see F. was] Gg; that is F. 71 hym] Gg; he F. to] Gg; F omits. 72 that] Gg; F omits. 73 immortalle] Gg; mortalle F. 78 to] Gg; for to F. 82 foryeven] Gg; foryeven hem F. 108 made] Gg; F omits. 114 firebronde] Gg; firy bronde F. 135 strokes] Gg; stroke F. 140 Th’eschewynge] B; Th’escwynge F. 152 nyste] Gg; I ne wiste F. 156 to] Gg; F omits. 169 With] Gg; And with F. 172 eyen] Gg; eyn F. 178 boxtre piper] Gg; box pipe tre F. 194 al] Gg; F omits. 197 strynges] Gg; strynge F. 201 be] B, Gg; F omits. 209 Than] Gg; No F. 215 hir] Gg; harde F. 221 do by force] R; goo before F. 231 bras] B, Gg; glas F. 232 daunceden] Gg; daunced F. 237 of dowves] Gg; saugh I F. 238 Saugh I sittynge] Gg; of dowves white F. 240 honde] Gg; hande F. 244 ek] Gg; F omits. 273 of no] Gg; of F. 278 two] Gg; the F. 284 peynted] B, Gg; peyted F. 311 Of ] B, Gg; On F. 313 aire] Gg; see F. 319 grace] B, Gg; gace F. 338 hardy] Gg; F omits. 346 eles] Gg; egles F. 358 the cukkow] B, Gg; cukkow F. 359 papenjay] B, Gg; papjay F. 363 raven…with] Gg; ravenes and the crowes with her F. 370 Benygnely] Gg; Benyngly F. 375 and the] Gg; and F. 381 Hath] B, Gg; Halfe F. 383 hede] Gg; F omits. 386 how] Gg; how that F. 389 Youre] Gg; With youre F. 390 ordenaunce] Gg; governaunce F. 402 lese] B, Gg; lesse F. 420 or] B, Gg; of F. 436 Althogh] B; As thogh F. 467 Nature] Gg; F omits. 476 ful] B, Gg; F omits. 480 ese] Gg; plese F. 482 hirs] B; hirse F. 498 cokkowe] Gg; duk F. duk] Gg; cokkowe F. 523 to] Gg; for to F. 556 gole] Gg; goler F. 594 goos] R; duk F, Gg. 612 of the] Gg; of F. 637 ought] Gg; hyt ought F. 652 Cupide] B, Gg; Cipride F. 665 for] Gg; fro F. 680–4 and 687–9 are copied in a much later hand in Gg. Otherwise the roundel is in D (680–3, 687–9) and J (683–4, 687–9) only. 685–6 and 690–2 are conjectural reconstructions. 680 thy] D; Gg omits. 682 longe] D, J; large Gg. 683 Valentyne] Volantyne Gg. 689 synge] D, J; ben Gg.

17. Chaucer, Troilus and CriseydeBase manuscript: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 61 (Cp). Further details of the variants in Windeatt 1990.

4 konnyng] commyng Cp etc.35 no] Cp omits.61 that¹] Cp etc. omit. 86 book] fayre book Cp etc. compaignie] faire compaignie Cp. 109 how] how that Cp. 224 ʒow] thow Cp. 239 myn] Cp etc. omit. 248 fremde] frende Cp etc. 294 ʒow] thow Cp. 309 Now] And Cp. 425 fyn] fy Cp. 426 for me] Cp omits. 431 toforn] aforn Cp. 438 vilenye] any vilenye Cp etc. 487 ʒow though] ʒoure thought Cp. 496 ofter] after Cp etc.

18a and 18b. Chaucer, Canterbury TalesBase manuscript: National Library of Wales MS Hengwrt 154 (Peniarth 392D) (Hg). Also cited: Huntington Library MS Ellesmere 26 C 9 (El).

18a The Reeve’s Tale

13 pley] El; pleye Hg.24 heed] El; heer Hg.32 olde lemes] El; lymes Hg. 34 ik] El; I Hg. 90 of ] El; a Hg. 117 half ] El; hal Hg. 139 the] El; this Hg. 165 hir] El; his Hg. 168 Symond yfayth] El; Symkyn in fayth Hg. 173 boes] El; bihoves Hg. 183 howgates] other MSS; how Hg; how that El. 188 howgates] other MSS; how Hg. 190 yfaith] El; in faith Hg. 257 stoln] El; stole Hg. 258 Bathe] El; Bothe Hg. 275 taa] El; tak Hg. 276 taa] El; tak Hg. 287 ten] El; but ten Hg. 317 complyng] other MSS; couplyng Hg, El (see footnote). 336 gif ] El; if Hg. 353 tald] El; told Hg. 360 rowtyng] El; routynt Hg. 385 swa] El; so Hg. 394 she] El; he Hg. 423 in] El; on Hg. 434 us] El; me Hg. 464 swich] El; which Hg.

18b The Prioress’s Tale

41 myghte] El; Hg damaged.wende] El; Hg damaged.42 open at eyther ende] El; Hg damaged. 76 to construe] El; Hg damaged. 77 Ful often tyme upon hise knowes bare] El; Hg damaged. 111 of swich] El; Hg damaged. 112 lawes reverence] El; Hg damaged. 116 hadde] El; at Hg. 146 laste thus she] El; Hg damaged. 147 Among the cursed Jues she hym soghte] El; Hg damaged. 181 hors he dide] El; Hg damaged. 182 heng hem by the lawe] El; Hg damaged. 216 fro thy tonge] El; Hg damaged. 217 Be nat agast I wol thee nat forsake] El; Hg damaged. 223 plat] El; flat Hg.

19. Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine LoveSole manuscript: British Library Additional MS 37790.

20 seme] semen.63 hadde] hafe. 85 domine] dominus. 103 is] MS omits.

Glossary

This glossary aims to include all words that might cause difficulty to the reader, but explanations given in the notes are not repeated here. The following abbreviations are used:

acc. | accusative
adj. | adjective
adv. | adverb
art. | article
comp. | comparative
conj. | conjunction
dat. | dative
def. | definite
demons. | demonstrative
fem. | feminine
fut. | future
gen. | genitive
imp. | imperative
impers. | impersonal
indef. | indefinite
interj. | interjection
interrog. | interrogative
masc. | masculine
n. | noun
neut. | neuter
nom. | nominative
num. | numeral
pa. | past tense
pl. | plural
poss. | possessive
pp. | past participle
ppl. adj. | participial adjective
pr. | present tense
prep. | preposition
pron. | pronoun
pr. p. | present participle
refl. | reflexive
rel. | relative
sg. | singular
subj. | subjunctive
superl. | superlative
v. | verb
vbl. n. | verbal noun

Variation between ʒ and gh, þ, ð and th, i and y is not noted, nor are other variant spellings in straightforward cases, e.g. with or without final ‐e, with variation in the inflexion ‐es, ‐is, ‐ez, etc. Regular ‐(e)s plurals of nouns are not generally listed, nor are the inflexional cases of nouns and adjectives ending in ‐e generally defined, since the grammatical significance of this ending is often uncertain; see 4.4.1–2 and the individual Headnotes. Inflexional forms are, however, recorded where they might cause difficulty, especially for strong verbs. Verbs are listed under the infinitive form where it occurs, and in the more complex entries the inflexional forms are given first within parentheses, followed by the meanings. A definition is not repeated if it is the same as that of the immediately preceding form of the word.

So that the user is spared a certain amount of hunting around the glossary, different spellings of the same word are sometimes glossed separately.

In the alphabetical arrangement, ʒ follows g, æ is treated as ae (so between ad and af), þ and ð are treated as th (so between te and ti), y as a vowel is treated as i, but as a consonant it follows w.

Occurrences of words are cited by text number and line: 3/25 refers to text 3 (Laʒamon’s Brut), line 25, though not all occurrences are cited, and line references are not given for words frequently occurring in common senses. In the etymologies the following abbreviations are used for languages:

AN | Anglo‐Norman
Dan | Danish
Du | Dutch
Icel | Icelandic
Lat | Latin
MDu | Middle Dutch
ME | Middle English
MLG | Middle Low German
Norw | Norwegian
ODan | Old Danish
OE | Old English
OF | Old French
OI | Old Icelandic
ON | Old Norse
Sw | Swedish

A star indicates a form unrecorded and reconstructed. Note also ‘cf.’ (‘compare’), ‘prec.’ (‘preceding entry’), and ‘prob.’ (‘probably’).

a, on(e)

indef. art. a(n) 10/9; on masc. nom. 3/11; ænne, enne acc. 3/54, 138 [OE ān]

a

pron. he 7b/152 (2), 173, 174 (1), 12/73, 86 [OE hē]

a

see a(n)

abatyd

pp. demolished 11/37 [OF abatre]

abbotrice

n. abbacy 1/56, 64 [OE abbodrice]

a‐beggeth

prep. + vbl. n. a‐begging 7b/138, 246 [OE on + ? bedecian or OF begart]

abide

v. delay 8/70, stay fixed 15/229; abideþ pr. 3 sg. tarries 5/348; abidet imp. pl. stay 14m/2; abod pa. 3 sg. waited 2/41 [OE ābīdan]

abydyng

n. bearing 8/419, 19/17, endurance 19/28 [from prec.]

abygge

see abuggen

abyme

n. depths, deep sea 8/143, 248, 318, abyss 11/334 [OF abi(s)me]

abiten

v. bite 2/77; abiteð pr. 3 sg. savages 3/101 [OE ābītan]

ablendeð

pr. pl. blind 4/50 [OE āblendan]

abod

see abide

aboght

see abuggen

abolʒen

pp. enraged 3/61, 76 [ME abelgen, OE ābelgan]

aboute, abute(n)

adv. round about 2/16, around 4/33, all round 12/24; abuton prep. around 1/23 [OE onbūtan]

abreiden

v. awaken 4/41; abrayde pr. 3 sg. subj. 18a/336 [OE ābregdan]

a‐bribeth

prep. + vbl. n. cadging 7b/246 [OE on + OF briber]

abuggen, abygge

v. compensate for 7b/41, pay for 7b/83; aboght pp. 13/216 [OE ābycgan]

abute(n), abuton

see aboute

ac, ah, oc

conj. but; and 4/57, furthermore 2/83 [OE ac]

acces

n. attack 8/325 [OF acces]

ac(c)ordant

adj. in ~ to in accordance with 13/ 38, in harmony with 16/203 [OF accordant]

ac(c)orde

n. harmony 16/197, agreement 16/ 371, 381, 668 [OF accord]

acloyeth

pr. 3 sg. overburdens 16/517 [AN acloyer]

acompte

n. account 6/43, 100, 103; acountes pl. reckoning 7b/98 [OF acompte]

acorden

pr. pl. agree 13/189 [OF acorder]

acountes

see acompte

acounteth

pr. pl. in ~ nat of care nothing for 7b/159 [OF aconter]

adai

adv. in the daytime 2/89, 219, 227 [OE on + dæg]

adamauntes

n. pl. magnets 16/148 [OF adamaunt]

adaunt

v. disconcert 10/157 [OF adaunter]

adel

adj. addled 2/133 [OE adela ‘filth’]

adiʒte

pr. 1 sg. order, arrange 2/326 [OE ādihtan]

adyte

pr. 2 sg. subj. accuse 10/349 [OF aditer]

adradde

pp. afraid 17/115 [cf. OE ofdræd]

adreynt

pp. drowned 5/397 [ME adrenchen, OE ādrencan]

adun, ado(u)n

adv. below 2/208, down 4/19, 14g/20, downwards 3/154; broght ~ defeated 16/537 [OE of dūne ‘from the hill’]

adunest

pr. 2 sg. assault with din 2/337 [cf. OE dynian]

æc

see ek(e)

æfne

see efne

ælc

adj. every 1/70 [OE œ&c.macr;lc]

ælmes

see almesse

ænne

see a indef. art., on pron.

ær

adv. previously 1/72 [OE œ&c.macr;r]

æuwer

see ʒe

æv(e)re

see ever

ævric

see everich

afayte

imp. train 7b/30 [OF afaitier]

afe(e)lde

adv. in the field 7b/118, 198, 312 [OE on + feld ]

afere

v. frighten 2/221; aferd pp. 7b/128 [OE āfœ&c.macr;ran]

affeccion

n. emotions 6/25 [OF affection]

affyen

pr. pl. refl. in ~ hym trust 8/331 [OF afier]

affraye

n. attack 15/271 [AN affrai]

after, aftur

prep. according to 6/106, 7b/ 90, 91, along 9/218, 10/125 [OE æfter]

agayn

adv. in reply 9/386, back 18a/362; prep. in return for 18a/332 [OE ongēan]

agayns, agænes

prep. against 1/13, 18b/112 [cf. OE ongēan]

ageasten

v. terrify 4/23; agast ppl. adj. frightened 17/302, 18a/413, 18b/217 [cf. OE gœ&c.macr;stan]

aghlich

adj. terrifying 9/136 [ON agi + OE ‐lic]

aght

see awith

aghtene

num. eighteen 11/208 [OE eahtatēne]

aglyʒte

pa. slipped away from 10/245 [uncertain]

agon

v. pass away 2/355; agoo(n) pp. gone 16/465, 17/410; agon adv. ago 16/18 [OE āgān]

agon

pa. 3 sg. began to 3/47, 132, 160 [OE āginnan]

agrefe

adv. amiss 16/543 [OF a grief ]

agreved

pp. injured 18a/327 [OF agrever]

aʒaf

pa. 3 sg. uttered 2/139 [OE āgifan]

aʒe(i)n

adv. again 6/140, 142, ayeine back 16/100, in return 17/391 [OE ongēan]

aʒe(i)n, aʒens, aʒe(y)nes

prep. against; in return for 4/69 (1), in preparation for 13/ 113, ayene facing 16/443 [as prec.]

aʒenswarde

adv. conversely 6/170 [OE ongēan + ‐weard ]

aʒt

num. eight 8/29 [OE eahta]

aʒte

adj. valiant 2/385, 389 [OE āwiht, āht ‘aught’]

ah

see ac

ahʒere, ahne

see oghne

ahof

pa. 3 sg. raised 3/154 [OE āhebban]

ahte

n. possession 4/50 [OE œ&c.macr;ht]

ay

adv. always [ON ei ]

ay‐lastande

pr. p. everlasting 11/347 [prec. + OE lœ&c.macr;stan]

aiþer, aythir

see eiþer

aiware

adv. everywhere 2/216 [OE œ&c.macr;g‐hwœ&c.macr;r]

akende

pa. gave birth to 3/65 [OE ācennan]

al

n. everything 1/46, 58; ~ and somme the whole thing 16/650 [OE eall ]

al, all

adj. all; alre gen. pl. of all 3/33, 72, 95 [OE eall ]

al, alle

adv. entirely 1/51, 53, 16/419 [as prec.]

al, all

conj. although 11/226; ~ yf even though 15/248, 279 [OE eall ]

alang

adv. along 15/186 [OE andlang]

alder

n. ancestor 11/295; alderen pl. forefathers 3/32, alderes lords 9/95 [OE ealdor]

alder‐grattyst

superl. adj. greatest of all 11/ 5, 337 [OE ealra + grēat + ‐ost]

alder‐next

adv. closest of all 16/244 [OE ealra + nēhsta]

algate(s)

adv. at any rate 5/231, by all means 6/148 [ON alla götu + ‐s]

alihte, aliʒt(e)

pa. dismounted 3/6, 5/377, alighted 12/171 [OE ālīhtan]

all

see al

alloued

pp. commended 7b/250 [OF alouer]

almesse, ælmes

n. sg. alms 7b/133, on ~ begging 1/42 [OE ælmesse]

alofte

adv. at the top 9/194, on horseback 9/435, in the air 13/165 [ON á lopti ]

als(e), also

demons. adv. too, also 8/40, 9/ 270, the same 1/66, just as 8/291, accordingly 2/298, just so, likewise 2/129, 237 [OE ealswā]

als(e), also, as

rel. adv. & conj. as 1/3, 20, as if 2/146, 7b/281, 9/244, 11/88, 92, just as 19/27 [OE ealswā]

al‐sone

adv. immediately 19/95 [OE eall + sōna]

alswa

rel. adv. as 3/41, 123 OE [ealswā]

alswic

adj. just such 1/2 [OE eall + swilc]

alto

adv. all too 13/17 [OE eall + tō]

alwey

adv. always [OE ealne weg]

amayster

v. compel 7b/221 [OF amaistrer]

amende

v. recover 13/33 [OF amender]

amendement

n. remedy 5/200, full compensation 18a/331 [OF amendement]

amesyng

n. gentleness 8/400 [OF amesir]

amidde

adv. from amongst them 2/124, in the middle 3/155; prep. in the middle of 5/355 [OE on middan]

amyddes

adv. in the middle 16/277; prep. from amongst 5/191 [OE on middan]

amys

adv. wrongly, anything wrong 16/446 [? ON á mis]

among

adv. at times 2/6 [OE on + gemang]

amonges

prep. among 13/66 [from prec.]

amorwe

adv. on the next day 5/181, 497, in the morning 17/405 [OE on + morgen]

amounte

v. be sufficient 11/284 [OF amounter]

an

conj. and 2/7, 192, 278, 7a/95, 7b/12, 14c/24, 14l/3 [OE and]

a(n)

prep. in 2/54, 134, 323 (1), 3/24, 58, 12/100, 124, 130, into 3/8, on 3/20, 68, at 2/323 (2), 325 (OE on]

an

see on, one

anamayld

pp. enamelled 9/169 [AN enamailler]

anan

adv. then 3/63, ano(o)n straight away, immediately 16/100, 120, 18a/406, 18b/ 178; ryght ~ straight away 16/576 [OE on āne]

and

conj. if 6/185 (2), 7b/136, 160, 233 [OE and]

ane

see one

anes

pr. sg. is united 19/114 [OE geānian]

angoise, anguych

n. anguish 4/25, 8/325 [OF anguisse]

aniʒt

adv. in the night‐time 2/89, 219, 227 [OE on niht]

ankerus

n. pl. anchorites 7b/146 [OE ancer]

anon‐ryght

adv. at once 16/218 [OE on āne + riht]

anoon

see anan

anouʒ

adv. very 5/62 [OE genōg]

ant

conj. and [OE and]

anter

see a(u)nter

anunder

prep. beneath 10/166 [OE on + under]

anunder

adv. underneath 8/139 [OE on + under]

apayed

pp. pleased 7b/115 [OF apayer]

apayre

v. punish 7b/167; apayred pp. ruined 7b/229 [OF empeirier]

apert

adv. for all to see 5/586, 9/154 [OF apert]

apposede

pa. questioned 7a/10 [OF aposer]

aray

see ar(r)ay

arayned

pa. questioned 8/191 [AN arainer]

ar(e)

see er(e)

arede

v. guess 17/132 [OE ārœ&c.macr;dan]

are(n), arn

see be(n)

ar(e)nde

n. message 8/72, business 8/202 [OE œ&c.macr;rende]

arest

v. lie still 8/144 [OF arester]

arʒe

adj. afraid 9/241 [OE earh]

armes

n. pl. deeds of arms [OF armes]

armonye

n. harmony 16/63, 191 [OF harmonie]

arnde

see ar(e)nde, irnen

ar(r)ay

n. fashion 15/216, adornment 16/ 219, dress 16/96, 317, setting (of jewels) 10/5 [AN arai]

arrayed

pp. prepared 13/109, organized 15/ 37, 94, provided 15/237 [AN araier]

art

n. learning 18a/202, 243 [OF art]

arte, artow

see be(n)

as

see als(e)

asay

see assaie

ascaped

pa. escaped 8/110 [AN ascaper]

ascryed

pa. shouted at 8/195 [AN *ascrier]

asent(e)

n. harmony 10/94, reconciliation 10/391 [OF asente]

asyse

n. fashion 10/97 [OF asise]

askeþ

see axe

askez

n. pl. ashes 9/2 [ON aska]

askyng

n. request 9/323, 349 [OE acsung]

asneasen

v. pierce 4/34 [OE āsnœ&c.macr;san]

asperly

adv. sharply 8/373 [from OF aspre]

aspille

v. spoil 2/348 [OE āspillan]

assay

n. attempt 16/2 [OF assai]

assaie, asay

v. try, test; assaied pp. tried out 13/110 [OF assaier]

assaut

n. assault 9/1 [OF assaut]

assege

n. siege 17/107, 123 [from OF asegier]

asshen

n. pl. ashes 18a/28 [OE æsce]

assoyle

v. resolve 12/40 [OF assoiler]

assote

v. dote 13/198 [OF assoter]

astate

see esta(a)te

astoned

ppl. adj. bewildered 17/427 [OF estoner]

aswagen

v. comfort 8/3 [OF assuager]

aswon

adj. swooning 5/549 [cf. OE pp. geswōgen]

at

prep. of, from 5/179, beside 10/287; at(t)e prep. + def. art. at the [OE æt]

atfliþ

pr. 3 sg. fails 2/37 [OE ætflēon]

athel

adj. noble [OE æþele]

athes

n. pl. oaths of allegiance 1/11 [OE āþ]

at‐hold

v. restrain 5/88 [OE æthēaldan]

atird

pp. equipped 5/158 [OF atirer]

atywede

pa. showed 1/79 [OE ātēowian]

ato, atwa

adv. in two 3/140, 7b/64, 14p/4 [OE on twā]

atourned

pp. equipped 5/291 [OF atourner]

atprenche

v. get the better of 2/248 [cf. ME atwrenchen?]

atschet

pa. 3 sg. failed 2/44 [cf. ME sheten]

atstonden

v. make a stand 3/89; atstod pa. 3 sg. stopped 3/137, 156 [OE ætstondan]

at(t)e

see at

atteigne

v. attain 13/261 [OF ateigner]

attempre

adj. temperate 16/204 [OF atempré]

attle

pr. 1 sg. intend 9/27 [ON ætla]

atwa

see ato

auctorité

n. authority 16/506 [OF autorité]

audience

n. a hearing 16/308 [OF audience]

auen

see oghne

aught

see ought

auʒt

see awith

auht

see o(u)ʒt

aumayl

n. enamel 9/236 [AN *aumail]

auncetrye

n. ancestry, lineage 18a/128 [cf. OF ancesserie]

aune

see oghne

a(u)nter, auntur, awenture, aventure

n. adventure 9/27, 29, fortune 16/131, 17/ 224; aventurus pl. 9/95; an ~ for fear that 7b/40, on ~ in the balance 8/242, in ~ on a journey into the unknown 10/64, good ~ by good luck 7b/79 [OF aventure]

auntre

v. risk 18a/355 [OF aventurer]

auter

n. altar 16/249, 18b/184 [OE alter, OF auter]

auþer

see other

avay

v. inform 11/174 [OF aveier]

avance

v. advance 13/254 [OF avancer]

avant

n. boast 13/29, 37, 162 [cf. OF avanter]

avantance

n. boasting 13/1, 47, 253 [from prec.]

avantarie

n. boasting 13/9, 58; avanterie 13/40 [as prec.]

avaunte

v. refl. in ~ him boast 13/257; avanteþ pr. 3 sg. 13/169 [OF avanter, avaunter]

avauntyng

n. boasting 18a/30 [as prec.]

avauntour

n. boaster 16/430 [as prec.]

aventure, aventurus

see a(u)nter

Averil

n. April 14g/1, 14k/4 [OF avril]

avyse

v. devise 9/45, gaze at 17/276; ~ me consider 16/648 [OF aviser]

avysement

n. consultation 12/49, deliberation 17/343, consideration 19/118 [OF avisement]

avowtrie

n. adultery 16/361 [OF avoutrie]

awæmmen

v. destroy 3/90 [cf. OE gewemman]

awede

v. go mad 5/87 [OE āwēdan]

awenture

see a(u)nter

a‐werke

prep. + n. to work 7b/197 [OE on + OE weorc]

awith

pr. 3 sg. ought 15/40; awe pr. impers. subj. in him ~ he ought 15/8; auʒt, ouhte, aght pa. was bound 5/555, ought 7a/69, possessed 11/27 [OE āgan]

awowe

pr. 1 sg. swear 8/333 [OF avouer]

awreke

imp. avenge 7b/158, 170; awreke, awroke pp. 2/262, 7b/208, 300, 14d/9 [OE āwrecan]

axe

v. ask; askeþ pr. 3 sg. demands 6/35, requires 7a/67, 17/227 [OE ācsian, āscian]

aye(i)ne

see aʒe(i)n

baar

see bere v.

bacheleres

n. pl. young men 8/366 [OF bacheler]

bad(de)

see bid(e)

baft

adv. from the stern 8/148 [OE be‐æftan]

baile

n. custody 15/95 [OF bail]

bayly

n. domain 10/315, 442 [OF baillie]

bayn

adj. willing 8/136 [ON beinn ‘direct’]

baysment

n. confusion, embarrassment 10/ 174 [OF abaissement]

bayþen

v. grant 9/327; baythes pr. 3 sg. asks 11/257 [ON beiða]

balde

adj. bold 3/94, 118, 133;

baldest

superl. 3/105 [OE bald]

baldly

adv. boldly 9/376 [OE baldlīce]

bale

n.¹ harm 8/276, evil 14n/6, sorrow 10/ 373, suffering 10/478, anguish 11/257, torment 15/110; pl. sorrows 10/123, 15/ 259 [OE balu] bale n.² packages 8/157 [? OF bale]

balefully

adv. in distress 11/311 [OE balu + full + ‐līce]

balke

n. mound 10/62, beam 18a/66; balkes n. pl. unploughed places 7b/114 [OE balca]

balteres

pr. 3 sg. rolls about 8/459 [ON, cf. Dan baltre]

ban

n. pl. bones 3/173 [OE bān]

bande

n. rope 15/100 [ON band]

bane

n. death 17/320, slaughter 7b/351 [OE bana ‘killer’]

banne

n. troop 2/390 [OE gebann, OF ban]

bar

n. boar 3/76 [OE bār]

bar

see bere

bare

adj. without armour 9/290; as n. open 2/56, 150 [OE bær]

baret

n. fighting 9/21, 353 [OF barat]

bargayne

n. business, job 15/106, 203 [OF bargaine]

barnes

see bearnes

barred

pp. striped 9/159 [cf. OF barre]

barste

see bersteð

bashis

pr. 3 sg. surprises 11/261 [OF baissier]

baþes

imp. pl. plunge 8/211 [OE baþian]

baude

n. pimp 17/353, procuress 7b/72 [? cf. OF baudetrot]

be

prep. by 1/17, 7b/1, 302, 13/35 [OE be]

be

see be(n)

bearm

n. bosom 4/36 [OE bearm]

bearnes

n. gen. child’s 4/40; barnes pl. children 7a/70, 7b/306; gen. 7a/71 [OE bearn]

beau

adj. beautiful 10/197 [OF beau]

bebyried

see biburien

becom

see bicometh

bede

pr. 1 sg. offer 9/382; bede pa. ordered 8/187, 340, 11/67; boden pp. asked 9/ 327, exchanged 11/214 [OE bēodan, cf. OE biddan]

bedels

n. pl. town officials 11/59, 111 [OF bedel]

beden

see bid(e)

beele

adj. fair 17/288 [OF belle]

been

n. pl. bees 17/193 [OE bēo]

beere

see bere n.¹

beet

see be(n)

beete

see bete(n)

before

adv. in front 9/422 [OE beforan]

beforen

prep. before 1/76 [as prec.]

begæt

pa. obtained 1/64; ~ in recovered 1/66 [ME bigeten, OE begetan]

begrave

see bigraven

beh

see buʒen

behalve

n. in in his ~ in his name 11/181 [OE bī + half ]

behestys

n. pl. promises 19/27 [OE behœ&c.macr;s]

behote, bihote

pr. 1 sg. promise 7b/238, 301; behette pa. 16/436; behote pp. 13/178, bihyʒt promised to 8/29 [OE behātan]

behovely

adj. beneficial 17/261 [OE behōflic]

behoveþ, ‐es

pr. 3 sg. is necessary, must 6/ 28, 148; impers. it is necessary for 9/456; behoved, bihoved pa. 1/58, 8/465 [OE behōfian]

beynge

n. existence 19/5 [from be(n)]

beknowe

pr. 1 sg. acknowledge 7a/92; biknowe imp. explain 11/221 [OE becnāwan]

belamp

pa. happened 1/74 [OE belimpan]

beleve

n. belief, faith 6/120, 7b/97 [cf. OE gelēafa]

belyve

adv. quickly [OE bī + līf ]

beme

n. tree 11/182 [OE bēam]

bemen

n. pl. trumpets 4/4 [OE bēme]

bemere

n. trumpeter 4/7; pl. 4/1 [from prec.]

bemin

v. trumpet 4/8 [as prec.]

be(n)

v. be; illustration of forms: ben infinitive 1/2, beon 4/6, bon 2/262, by 8/117, boe 14d/9, buen 14g/18; icham pr. 1 sg. + pron. I am 14g/8, 31; arte 2 sg. 6/15, ert 16/683, artow 2 sg. + pron. are you 5/ 421; beoð 3 sg. 3/111, betz will be 8/333; beet 14p/18; boþ pl. 2/75, 178, beoð 3/33, will be 3/39, buþ 12/2, ben 5/4, 6/ 13, 8/2, beþe 5/5, be 13/115, aren 6/47, arn 9/280, is 7b/87; bo 2 sg. subj. 2/171, 295; bo 3 sg. subj. 2/137, 166, 233, beo 4/87, beon 3/99; bo pl. subj. 2/97, 181; beth imp. pl. 16/660; wæs pa. sg. 3/76, watz 9/1, wes 1/3, 14j/52; wæron pa. pl. 1/12, waren 1/15, wern 8/268, 344, wore 15/157, 205, weoren 3/72; weoren pa. sg. subj. 3/80, wore 10/232; be pp. 7a/ 70, bene 11/7 [OE bēon]

bende

pa. bent 9/305; pp. stretched 11/182 [OE bendan]

bene

adj. lovely 8/418, 10/110 [? OF bien]

benigne

adj. gracious 16/375; benygnely adv. with good will 16/370 [OF benigne]

bent

n. field 8/392, battlefield 9/353 [OE beonet]

beom

n. beam 1/30 [OE bēam]

beo(n), beoð

see be(n)

beorkeð

pr. pl. bark 3/115 [OE beorcan]

beornes

n. pl. men 3/133 [OE beorn]

berdlez

adj. without beards 9/280 [OE beardleas]

bere

n.¹ bier 14q/9, beere 18b/173, 175, 228 [OE bēr]

bere

n.² noise 5/78 [OE gebēru]

bere

v. (bar, baar pa., ber(e) 8/148, 10/67, 426, 11/326; bore, ybore, born pp.) bear, carry; take 7b/288, push 6/148, turn 10/ 67; ~ doun lower 11/311, ~ to hit 8/148, the/me ~ conduct yourself/myself, behave 16/109, 459 [OE beran]

berefte

pa. deprived (of) 16/87 [OE berēafian]

beryd

pa. rang out 11/352 [OE gebœ&c.macr;ran ‘behave’]

bernes

n. pl. barns 7b/179 [OE bern]

bersteð

pr. 3 sg. bursts 4/48; barste, braste pa. sg. 7b/175, smashed 8/148; breste, bursten pl. shattered 8/221, burst 17/326 [OE berstan]

beset

pp. set 13/140; wel ~ proper 16/598 [OE besettan]

besy, bisy

adj. anxious 16/89, 18b/137, intent 17/274 [OE bisig]

besyed

see bisied

besily

adv. energetically 6/29, besely diligently 16/74, eagerly 16/257, earnestly 19/8 [OE bisig + ‐līce]

besynes(se)

n. activity 16/86, effort 19/106 [from OE bisig]

best

n. beast [OF beste]

bestad

pp. in so ~ in such circumstances 13/ 186 [ME be‐ + ON staddr]

beswunke

see byswynke

bet

comp. adj. in þe ~ the better off 7a/96; bet(te) comp. adv. rather 2/21, 23, better 2/172, 182, 13/116; the ~ the better 7b/ 42, 17/92 [OE bet]

bete

v. beat; bette pa. 18a/454, 462; ybete, beten pp. set 9/78, beaten 18a/459 [OE bēatan]

bete(n)

v. relieve 7b/246, cure 15/259, beete repair 18a/73 [OE bētan]

beth

see be(n)

bethynke

v. think of 16/483 [OE beþencan]

beweved

pp. covered 14r/5 [OE bewœ&c.macr;fan]

bewrye

v. betray 16/348 [OE be‐ + wrēgan]

by

adv. to one side 11/72 [OE bī]

bi

prep. concerning 2/46; ~ þat by the time that 8/468, when 11/113 [OE bī]

by

see be(n)

bibbed

pp. drunk 18a/308 [? Lat bibere]

biburien

v. bury 4/80; bebyried pa. 1/80 [OE bebyrgan]

bichermet

pr. pl. scream at 2/279 [OE be‐+ cierman]

bicometh, bicumeþ, bycommes

pr. 3 sg. is fitting 7a/61, 9/471; ~ to is fitting for 2/271, 7b/47; bicome, becom pa. became 9/6, went 9/460; bicome pl. went to 5/288; bicume, bicome pp. gone away, separated 2/137, was ~ had got to 5/194 [OE becuman]

biddares

n. pl. beggars 7b/210 [OE biddere]

bidde, bid(e)

v. (bad(de) pa.; beden pp.) bid, command 3/170, 5/88, 7b/76, 227, pray 17/118, invite 13/122 [OE biddan]

bide

v. await 9/290, wait for 9/376, dwell 8/318, remain 8/293, 18a/383, endure 15/ 96, get 14j/20; ~ in endure 15/110; bod pa. remained 10/62 [OE bīdan]

bydene

adv. at once 10/196 [uncertain]

bidon

v. befoul 4/81; bidoð pr. pl. 4/81 [OE be‐ + dōn]

bifore

prep. in preference to 6/2 [OE beforan]

bifuleð

pr. 3 sg. befouls 4/74 [OE befy&c.macr;lan]

bigeorede

pp. pl. equipped 3/108 [OE be‐ + gerwan]

biges

pr. 3 sg. builds 9/9; buggyd, bigged pp. 11/37, 207, established 9/20 [ON byggva]

bygge

adj. strong 7b/224 [unknown]

bygge

v. beg 7a/90 [OE bedecian or OF begart]

bygynner

n. source 10/436 [from OE beginnan]

bigly

adv. strongly 8/321 [unknown]

bigog

interj. by God 9/390 [OE bī + gog for God]

bygon

pp. wel ~ fortunate 17/294 [OE begān]

bigraven, begrave

pp. engraved 9/216, 13/143 [OE begrafan]

bigredet

pr. pl. cry out at 2/67, bigredeþ 2/279; bigrede subj. pl. 2/304 [OE be‐+ grœ&c.macr;dan]

bigripid

pa. enclosed tightly 11/80 [OE begrīpan]

bigrowe

pp. overgrown 2/27 [OE be‐ + grōwan]

biʒæten

pp. as n. possessions 3/119 [cf. OE v. begitan]

byʒen, byye, bugge

v. purchase 10/478, 14q/12, ~ to buy for 14d/3; boute pa. bought 7a/96; bohton pa. pl. 1/75 [OE bycgan]

bihalt, bihaldeð

see biholde

bihalves

prep. near 3/5, 116; adv. nearby 3/ 26 [OE bī + half ]

bihedde

pa. 3 sg. guarded 2/102 [OE behēdan]

biheste

n. promise 14j/47, 17/359 [OE behœ&c.macr;s]

bihyʒt

see behote

biholde

v. in ~ on look at 5/367; bihalt pr. 3 sg. looks at 4/48; bihaldeð pl. look 4/17; bihold pa. sg. gazed at 2/30, 108;

bihold(en)

pp. beheld 5/409, 417 [OE behaldan]

bihote

see behote

bihoved

see behoveþ

biis

n. fine cloth 5/242 [OF bysse]

biknowe

see beknowe

bylded

pp. built 8/276, bylde 10/123, ybuld 12/1 [OE *byldan]

bylder

n. as adj. used for building 16/176 [from prec.]

bile

n. bill 2/79, 269 [OE bile]

biledet

pr. pl. in narewe ~ pursue closely 2/ 68 [OE belœ&c.macr;dan]

bileve

v. keep silent 2/42, desist 7b/176;

bilæfde

pa. left 3/3; bilæfved pp. abandoned 3/116 [OE belœ&c.macr;fan]

byleve, bylyve

n. livelihood 7a/21, 29, 7b/ 260 [OE bīlēofa]

b(i)lyve

adv. quickly, at once; as, als, also ~ at once, quickly [OE bī + līf ]

bynde

n. clinging plant 8/444 [OE binde]

bineþ

prep. beneath 6/183 [OE beneoþan]

bynom

pa. deprived of 7b/254 [OE beniman]

biqueste

n. will 7b/94 [cf. OE ‐cwiss]

bireved

pp. deprived 2/120 [OE berēafian]

byrieden

pa. pl. buried 1/78 [OE byrgan]

bischricheþ

pr. pl. screech at 2/67 [imitative]

bysech

v. implore 10/390 [OE besēcan]

byseme

v. befit 10/310 [from semen]

bisy

see besy

byside

adv. aside 11/67, nearby 17/76, 18b/ 154 [OE be sīdan]

bisied

pa. stirred 9/89; besyed pa. refl. in ~ hem busied themselves 16/192 [OE bysigian]

bisiliche

adv. busily 4/44 [OE bisig + ‐līce]

bismare

n. superciliousness 18a/111 [OE bismer]

bismuddet

pp. beslobbered 4/60 [? imitative]

bismulret

pp. besmeared 4/60 [? imitative]

bisne

adj. poor‐sighted 2/97, 243 [OE bīsene]

bisoʒten

pa. implored 8/375 [OE be‐ + sēcan]

bispeke

pa. spoke 8/169 [OE besprecan]

bispel

n. parable 2/127 [OE bīspell]

biswike

v. deceive 2/158 [OE beswīcan]

byswynke

v. work for, deserve 7b/224;

byswynken

pr. pl. 7b/140, biswynketh 7b/260; beswunke pp. 13/248 [OE beswincan]

bit

n. sharp edge 9/212, 426; biten pl. blows 3/127 [ON bit]

bitan

pp. assigned to 11/28 [OE be‐ + ON taka]

byte

v. spur on 10/355 [OE bītan]

biteche

pr. 1 sg. commit (to) 14d/17 [OE betœ&c.macr;can]

bitelle

v. in me ~ justify myself 2/263 [OE betellan]

bityde

v. happen 8/220, come to 10/397, 14j/22; pr. 3 sg. subj. in so hit ~ may it so happen 2/52; bitit pr. 3 sg. happens 17/ 48; bitydde pa. 8/61, 17/55 [OE be‐ + tīdan]

bytyme

adv. in good time 11/112 [OE bī + tīma]

bivore(n)

prep. at the head of 3/57, before 3/134, 4/5, in the presence of 4/28, 59 [OE beforan]

bivoren

adv. in advance 4/22; bivorenhond 4/26 [OE beforan]

blac

adj. dirty 5/265, 459 [OE blæc]

blaʒt

adj. white 10/212 [from OE blœ&c.macr;can ‘bleach’]

blayke

adj. pale 10/27 [ON bleikr]

blaunner

n. ermine 9/155 [AN *blaunc‐ner]

blawen

v. blow 4/5 [OE blāwan]

bleaunt

n. mantle 10/163 [AN bliaunt]

ble(e), bl(e)o

n. colour 10/76, 11/87, 343, bright colour 14h/16, appearance 2/152, complexion 5/455, 10/212 [OE blēo]

blenche

v. dodge, escape 2/170 [OE blencan]

blent

pr. 3 sg. blinds 4/46, 16/600 [OE blendan]

blent

pp. immersed 10/385 [from OE blendan]

blessyd

pp. ordained 11/3 [OE blētsian]

blete

n. (the) open 2/57 [OE blēat]

blycande

pr. p. shining 9/305; blykked pa. shone 9/429 [OE blīcan]

blynde

adj. dim 10/83 [OE blind]

blynne

v. stop 11/111, 14j/34, be delayed 15/106 [OE blinnan]

blysnande

pr. p. shining 10/163, 197, 11/ 87 [? OE blysian]

blisse

n. joy 4/48 [OE bliss]

blis(se)ful, blysfol

adj. beautiful 5/412, 438, 11/76, blessed 12/172, 173; as n. blessed one 10/421 [from prec.]

blyþe

n. mercy 10/354 [ON blīða]

blyþe

adj. happy, lovely [OE blīþe]

blive

see b(i)lyve

blo

adj. dark [ON blár]

blo

see ble(e)

blok, bluk

n. torso 9/440, compartment of the body 8/272 [? OF bloc]

blomez

n. pl. flowers 10/27 [ON blóm]

blonke

n. horse 9/434, 11/112 [OE blanca]

blosme

n. blossom 5/61, 14k/3; blosme(n) pl. 2/16, 14h/2 [OE blosma]

blossomed

pp. covered with blossom 16/ 183 [from prec.]

bluber

n. seething 8/221 [? imitative]

bluk

see blok

blunder

n. trouble 9/18 [? ON blunda ‘doze’]

blunt

adj. foolish 10/176 [uncertain]

blunt

pa. stopped 8/272 [uncertain]

blusched

pa. in ~ to looked at 8/474 [OE blyscan]

bo

adv. as well 5/41 [OE bā]

bobbaunce

n. display 9/9 [OF bobaunce]

bobbe

n. branch 9/206 [unknown]

bod

see bide

bode, boode

n. bidding, command, message [OE bod]

bodely(e)

adj.physical 19/78, real 19/89 [from OE bodig]

boden

see bede

bodeð

pr. 3 sg. portends 4/32; bodieð pr. pl. 4/22 [OE bodian]

bodeword

n. message 11/105 [OE bod + word]

boe

see be(n)

boek

n. book, Bible 7a/38 [OE bōc]

boghit, boʒe

see buʒen

boʒe, bowe

n. bough 2/15, 125 [OE bōg]

boʒted

pp. vaulted 8/449 [cf. OE byht]

bohton

see byʒen

boy

n. wretch 15/73, 95 [cf. AN *abuié]

boydekyn

n. dagger 18a/106 [? Celtic]

bokeler

n. buckler, small shield 18a/165 [OF boucler]

bokkes

n. pl. bucks, male deer 7b/29 [OE buc]

bolde

adj. great 11/106 [OE bald]

bolde

v. become bold 16/144 [OE *baldian]

bollez

n. pl. tree‐trunks 10/76 [ON bolr]

bon

see be(n)

bond

n. binding 7a/14 [ON band]

bondeman

n. villein 7b/42; bondemen gen. pl. 7a/70 [ON bóndi + OE man]

bone

n. request 9/327, boone 16/643 [ON bón]

bone

adj. obedient 11/181 [ON búinn]

bonk

n. shore 8/236, hill 10/102; pl. hills 9/ 14 [ON *banki]

boode

see bode

boond

pa. tied 18a/228, 284 [OE bindan]

bo(o)re

n. nail‐hole 15/86, 99 [cf. OE borian]

booryngis

n. pl. nail‐holes 15/146 [from OE borian]

boote

see bote

borde

n. table 5/578, 9/481, ship’s side 8/211; upon ~ on deck 8/190; pl. tables 13/131 [OE bord]

borde

pr. pl. jest 10/290 [OF bourder]

bordes

n. pl. bands 9/159 [OE borda]

bore

see bere

bores

n. pl. boars 7b/29 [OE bār]

borges

n. pl. citizens 8/366 [OF burgeis]

borʒ

n. town, city [OE burg]

born

see bere

bornyste

pp. shining 10/220 [OF burnir]

borwe

v. redeem 14p/9; borwed pa. borrowed 5/499 [OE borgian]

bostede

pa. threatened 7b/152 [? AN *boster]

bot

pa. in ~ on cut into 9/426 [ME biten, OE bītan]

bot, but(e)

conj. but; but that 8/176, nothing but 4/52, except 4/12, 7a/41, 8/521, unless 7a/91, 7b/15, 49, 13/39, 14j/54; ~ 3if unless; adv. only 6/20, 101, 7b/146 [OE būte]

bote, boote

n. help, use 11/170, 14j/56, remedy 11/327, 14n/6, 17/345, cure, salvation 7b/178, 192 [OE bōt]

botened

pa. cured 7b/188 [OE bōtian]

boþ

see be(n)

boþe

n. booth, shelter 8/441 [ODan *bóð]

bothe

adv. too 7b/131, 9/268, 484 [ON báðir]

bothem, bothum

n. bottom [OE botm]

botounz

n. pl. buttons 9/220 [OF botoun]

bouel

n. bowel 8/293 [OF bouel ]

bounde, bunden

pp. plated 13/140, bound 14l/21, 24 [OE bindan]

boune

adj. ready [ON búinn]

bounté, bountee

n. moral virtue 7b/49, generosity 8/418, goodness 9/357, excellence 14g/27 [OF bounté]

bour

n. bower 8/276, 437, chamber, shelter 14c/22, 23, 26, bedroom 14j/21, 37 [OE būr]

bourde

n. entertainment 5/445; pl. frivolity 5/9 [OF bourde]

bourded

pp. joked 16/589 [OF bourder]

bourne

n. stream 11/330 [OE burna]

boustous

adj. massive 15/218 [uncertain]

bout

prep. without 9/361 [OE būtan]

boute

see byʒen

bowe

see boʒe

bowe(d)

see buʒen

boxumly

adv. without resistance 15/100 [from OE *būhsum]

boz

pr. 3 sg. impers. it is necessary for 10/323 [OE behōfian]

brade, bradne

see brod(e) adj.

brayd, brayed, bræid

pa. lifted 3/61, 121, spurted 9/429, twisted 9/440, stirred 11/ 190, started 18a/431; brawden, brayden, ibroide pp. embroidered 9/177, 220, woven 3/10 [OE bregdan]

brayde

n. affliction 15/96 [cf. OE brægd]

brayn

adj. mad 9/286 [shortening of ME braynwod?]

brak

pa. sg. broke 12/167 [OE brecan]

brakez

pr. 3 sg. vomits 8/340 [? OE *bracian]

braste

see bersteð

braþez

n. pl. rages 10/346 [ON bráðr]

braundysch

pr. subj. struggle 10/346 [OF braundir]

brawden

see brayd

breað

n. smell 4/76, 88 [OE brœ&c.macr;þ]

breche

n. clearing 2/14 [OE brœ&c.macr;c]

brede

n. plank 8/184 [OE bred]

brede

v. prosper 10/415; bredde(n) pa. had offspring 2/101, multiplied 9/21 [OE brēdan]

bredful

adj. brimful 10/126 [ON *breddfullr]

breed

ppl. adj. terrified 8/143 [OE brēgan]

breedcorn

n. grain for making bread 7b/61 [OE brēad + corn]

bre(e)de

n. breadth 2/174, 12/24, 15/76 [OE brœ&c.macr;du]

breme

adj. glorious 5/61, wild 2/202, 10/ 346, stern 8/430; adv. loudly 14h/27 [OE brēme]

bren

n. bran 18a/199 [? OF bran]

brenne

v. burn 8/472; brenned pa. 8/477; brendon, brenden pa. pl. 1/38, 46; brent pp. 9/2; brende ppl. adj. refined 9/195 [ON brenna]

breosten

n. acc. sg. breast 3/62; dat. 3/61 [OE brēost]

brere

n. briar, thorn‐branch 5/276 [OE brœ&c.macr;r]

bres

n. brass 4/68 [OE bræs]

bresed

adj. bristling 9/305 [unknown]

breste

see bersteð

breth

n. wind 8/145; pl. 8/138 [OE bræþ]

brevyt

pp. reported 11/103 [OE gebrēfan]

brewestares

n. pl. female brewers, alewives 7b/329 [OE brēowan + ‐estre]

brid

n. small bird, young bird 2/124; bridde pl. 2/111, 123, briddes 2/107, 12/164; gen. of birds 14h/2 [OE brid]

brymme

n. water’s edge 10/232 [OE brymme]

bryniges

n. pl. coats of mail 1/22 [ON brynja]

brith

adj. bright 14j/3 [OE beorht]

brittened

pp. destroyed 9/2 [OE brytnian]

brode

n. brood 2/93, 130 [OE brōd]

brod(e)

adj. large 8/472, brood broad 18a/ 270; brade 10/138; bradne masc. acc. sg. 3/115 [OE brād]

brode

adv. open‐eyed 9/446 [OE brāde]

broʒez

see browe

brohte, brouthte, broʒt

pa. brought 1/60, 14q/1, drove 11/9; broth, ybrouʒt, brouht pp. brought 14n/5, 5/389, put 7b/ 61 [ME bringen, OE bringan]

brok(e)

n. brook 7b/142, river 10/141, sea 8/145 [OE brōc]

broke

pp. injured 7a/33 [OE brecan]

brom

n. broom 8/392 [OE brōm]

brondez

n. pl. bits of charred wood 9/2 [OE brond]

brood

see brod(e)

broth

see brohte

broþely

adv. suddenly 8/474 [ON bráðliga]

brouht, brouthte

see brohte

browe

n. eyebrow 14g/14; broʒez pl. 9/305 [OE brū]

brunt

n. blow 10/174 [uncertain]

bruxlez

pr. 3 sg. reproves 8/345 [ON brigzla]

buen

see be(n)

bugge

see byʒen

buggyd

see biges

buʒen, boʒe, bowe

v. go; pr. 1 sg. submit 8/ 75; buhʒeð imp. pl. advance 3/94; beh, bowed, boghit pa. came 3/5, went 3/48, 8/441, 10/126, 11/59; refl. ~ him made his way 3/79, 88 [OE būgan]

bulk

n. hold 8/292 [ON búlki]

bunden

see bounde

bur

n. blow 9/290, gale 8/148 [ON byrr]

burde

pa. ought to 8/507; impers. in þe ~ you ought to 10/316, hom ~ they ought to 11/260 [OE byrian]

burdez

n. pl. women 8/388 [OE *byrde]

burdon

n. musical accompaniment 18a/311 [OF burdon]

burgeys, burjays

n. pl. citizens 5/504, 11/ 59 [OF burgeis]

burʒe, burgh

n. town, city [OE burg]

burʒen

v. save 3/79 [OE beorgan]

burynes

n. burial‐place 11/142, 190 [OE byrignes]

burne

n. corselet, coat of mail 3/10, 156; burnen pl. 3/7 [OE byrne]

burn(e)

n. man, knight; buyrne 8/340 [OE beorn]

burned

pp. burnished, polished 13/142 [OF burnir]

burnist

pp. polished 5/368, 9/212 [OF burnir, burniss‐]

burre

n. shock 10/176 [ON byrr]

bursten

see bersteð

busch

v. in ~ up rise 8/472; busched pa. plunged 8/143 [OF buschier]

busy

adj. as n. bustle 8/157 [OE bisig]

busk

n. bush 9/182 [ON buski]

busked, ‐yd

pa. made 8/437, hurried 11/ 112 [ON búask]

busmare

n. insult 11/214 [OE bīsmer]

but(e)

see bot

bute(n)

prep. without; except 2/357; world ~ ende eternally 4/65 [OE būtan]

buþ

see be(n)

buve

adv. above 2/208 [OE bufan]

buxsome

adj. obedient 15/51 [OE *būhsum]

cace

see cas

cach(ch)e, kecchen

v. obtain 14r/17; cach(ch)ez pr. 3 sg. takes 9/368, seizes 9/ 434; cachen pr. pl. in ~ up hoist 8/102; caʒt pa. in ~ to seized 10/50; kaught took 16/170; kaghten pa. pl. took hold 11/71; caʒt pp. taken 8/485, received 11/ 148 [AN cacher]

cæse

n. cheese 1/40 [OE cēse]

cayser

n. emperor 11/199 [Lat Caesar, OE cāsere]

caytif

n. wretch 7b/244 [OF caitif ]

calder

comp. adj. colder 10/320 [OE cald]

camelyn

n. fine material 11/82 [AN camelin]

camuse

adj. (of a nose) pug 18a/80, 120 [OF camus]

can, con

auxiliary v. forming past tense did

can

see con

canceler

n. chancellor 1/8 [AN canceler]

canges

n. gen. fool’s 4/47 [? ON]

capil

n. horse 18a/234, 251 [ON kapall]

caraldes

n. pl. casks 8/159 [ON kerald]

care

n. unhappiness, sorrow [OE caru]

careful

adj. sorrowful 8/314 [OE carful]

careyne

see caroyne

caren

v. grieve 14l/9; pr. 2 sg. subj. 14l/17 [OE carian]

carf

see kerve

carited

n. feasting on saints’ days 1/58 [AN caritet]

carle

n. fellow 15/206 [ON karl]

carlmen

n. pl. men 1/18 [prec. + OE man]

caroyne

n. body 7b/100, careyne 16/177 [AN caroine]

carpe

n. teaching 8/519 [ON karp]

carpe

v. talk, speak, say [ON karpa]

cartar

n. charioteer 16/102 [from next]

cartes

n. pl. chariots 16/102 [? ON kartr]

cas, cace

n. case 17/457, chance 17/285, 422, misfortune, sad event 5/175, 8/265 [OF cas]

castel‐weorces

n. pl. building of castles 1/ 15 [AN castel + OE weorc]

casten

see kest(e)

catel

n. property 7b/101, 157, 230 [AN catel]

cautellis, kautelles

n. pl. spells 15/206, 278 [OF cautele]

cemmed

pp. combed 9/188 [OE cemban]

ceptre

n. sceptre 16/256 [OF ceptre]

certis, certes

adv. indeed 15/81, 16/424, 18b/87 [OF certes]

cessyd

pp. ended 11/136 [OF cesser]

ceste

n. chest 1/26 [OE cest]

chace

v. drive 10/443, 18b/114 [OF chacier]

chaffare

v. trade 7b/249; ychaffared pp. 7a/94 [OE cēap ‘bargain’ + faru ‘journey’]

chalons

n. pl. blankets 18a/286 [OF Chalons‐(sur‐Marne)]

charge

n. responsibility 16/507, 545 [OF charge]

chargit

pa. dedicated 11/18 [OF charger]

charren

v. refl. in him ~ turn back 3/78 [OE *cearran]

chaste

v. punish 7b/345 [OF chastier]

chauling

n. scolding 2/284 [cf. OE ceafl]

chaumber

n. private room 5/584 [OF chambre]

chauntré

n. singing 9/63 [OF chaunterie]

chawlez

n. pl. jaws 8/268 [OE ceafl]

chearre

n. time, occasion 4/90 [OE cerr]

chelde

adj. cold 14c/17, 18, 21 [OE cēald]

chele

n. cold 7b/249 [OE ciele]

chepyng

n. market 7b/322 [OE cīeping]

chere, chiere

n. face, expression, look 4/27, 11/342, 13/25, 14g/15, behaviour 10/407, 16/414, 488; pl. 4/13 [OF ch(i)ere]

cherle

n. wretch, peasant, churl 16/596, 18a/ 63; pl. 7b/45 [OE ceorl]

chese

v. choose 6/221, 16/146, 388; chesse pr. 1 sg. 16/417; cheest 3 sg. 16/623; chese imp. 5/217; ches pa. 14q/11 [OE cēosan]

chesibles

n. pl. chasubles, church vestments 7b/11 [OF chesible]

cheste

n. strife 2/177, 183 [OE cēast]

cheteryng

n. twittering 17/68 [imitative]

cheve

v. prosper 7b/249; cheved pp. come 9/63 [OF chevir]

chevely

adv. promptly 11/18 [from OF chef ]

chyd(d)e

v. quarrel 2/287, complain angrily 7b/335, 341; pa. 2/112, 18a/145 [OE cīdan]

chiere

see chere

chymbe

v. chime, ring out (like a bell) 18a/ 42 [? OF chimbe]

chirme

n. clamour 2/305 [OE cierm]

cild

n. child 1/75; childer pl. children [OE cild, pl. cildru]

circe

n. church 1/45, 59 [OE cirice]

cyrceiærd

n. churchyard 1/45 [OE cirice + geard]

clackes

pr. 2 sg. make clacking sounds 2/81 [ON klaka]

clæf

pa. 3 sg. cut 3/140; cloven pp. split 14r/17 [ME cleven, OE clēofan]

clanly

adv. entirely 9/393 [OE clœ&c.macr;nlīce]

clannesse

n. purity 8/32 [OE clœ&c.macr;nnes]

clanse

v. clear 7b/65; pa. purified 11/16 [OE clœ&c.macr;nsian]

cledde

pp. dressed 19/103 [OE clœ&c.macr;ðan]

cle(e)re

adj. pure 16/77, bright 18b/229, brilliant 10/74 [OF cler]

clene

adj. elegant [OE clœ&c.macr;ne]

clente

pp. enclosed 10/259 [cf. OE beclencan]

cleopien, clepe

v. (cleopede, clupede, cleped pa.; clepid, ycleped pp.) call, call out [OE cleopian]

clerc, clerke

n. priest, cleric 7a/54, 11/55, student 18a/164; cler(e)kes pl. clergymen 1/48, learned men 5/2, chaplains 9/64, scholars 16/333 [late OE clerc, OF clerc]

clergeon

n. schoolboy 18b/51 [OF clerjon]

clivre

n. claw 2/78; pl. 2/84, 155, 270 [OE clifer]

clos

n. cathedral precinct 11/55 [OF clos]

close

v. enclose 10/271; closes pr. 3 sg. 9/ 186; close pp. concluded 19/138 [cf. OF clos]

clot

n. earth 10/22, 320 [OE clott]

cloude

n. ground 14h/31 [OE clūd]

cl(o)utes

n. pl. rags 11/259, swaddling clothes 14l/14 [OE clūt]

cloven

see clæf

clumbe

pa. 2 sg. climbed 3/165; iclumben pp. 3/161, 4/91 [OE climban]

clupede

see cleopien

cnawe

v. recognize 8/519; knwe pa. knew 9/460; knawen, knowe pp. acknowledged (to be) 9/348, known 12/144 [OE cnāwan]

cnif‐warpere

n. knife‐thrower 4/28–9 [OE cnīf + weorpan]

cnihten

n. gen. pl. of knights 3/84, 105, 168 [OE cniht]

cnokez

pr. 2 sg. strike 9/414 [OE cnocian]

coffes

n. pl. mittens 7b/59 [unknown]

cofre

n. chest 10/259, coffin 16/177 [OF coffre]

cogge

n. cog‐wheel 2/86 [? from ON]

coghe

v. clear the throat 17/254; coʒed pa. 9/307 [OE cohhetan]

coyfe

n. lawyer’s cap 11/83 [OF coife] cokeres n. pl.¹ haymakers 7a/13 [? from ON] cokeres n. pl.² leggings 7b/59 [OE cocer]

colblake

adj. coal‐black 2/75 [OE col + blæc]

colde

v. grow cold 16/145 [OE *caldian]

colde

adv. sadly 8/382 [OE calde]

cole

adv. coolly 8/452 [from OE cōl]

coltur

n. coulter, front cutting‐blade of plough 7b/65 [OE culter]

comen

v. (kimeð pr. 3 sg. 4/59; com, come pa.; coman, coomen, come pa. pl.; icume, ycome, cummen, comen, come pp.) come, arrive; ~ to achieve 6/32, 163 [OE cuman]

comenci

pr. 3 sg. subj. begins 5/247 [OF comencier]

comforth

v. be comforted 19/86 [OF conforter]

comynlych

adv. in general, usually 12/34, 74, 147 [from OF comun]

comly

adv. attractively 10/259 [OE cymlice]

comlych

adj. lovely 9/469; comlokest superl. most handsome 9/53 [OE cymlic]

comlyly

adv. graciously 9/360 [from prec.]

committid

pp. appointed 11/201 [Lat committere]

comseth

pr. 3 sg. begins 7b/337; comesed pa. uttered 7b/32 [from OF comencier]

comune

n. community 7a/20, 75, common people 7b/84, allowance of food 7b/292 [OF comune]

comunité

n. common good 6/131; communnatés pl. communities 11/14 [OF comunité]

con, can

v. (kan pr. 1 sg. 16/14; can pr. 3 sg. 2/249; cunnen pl. 1/55, 4/12, kun 6/ 13, con 8/27, conne 7b/69, konne 16/ 333, can 7b/267, cunneþ 12/44, conneth 7b/129, konneþ 12/76; cunne 1 sg. subj. 2/47; kunne 3 sg. subj. 2/188; couþe, cowþe, koude pa.) can; know 2/249, 14j/ 58, know how 7b/129, understand 7b/267, learn 18b/91; ~ of know about 2/48 [OE cunnan]

con

see can auxiliary

conceyte

n. summary 6/212 [from OF concevoir]

conclusyon

n. decision 16/526, 620 [OF conclusion]

condiciouns

n. pl. qualities 17/ 166, 19/99 [OF condicion]

conyes

n. pl. rabbits 16/193 [AN conil, pl. conys]

conjure

v. appeal solemnly to 18b/192 [OF conjurer]

consayle

imp. advise 7b/84 [OF conseiller]

consayle

see counsaile n.

construen

v. translate 18b/76; construe imp. understand 6/126 [Lat construere]

coote

n. coat 15/293 [OF cote]

copes

n. pl. cloaks 7b/185 [OE cāp]

corce

see corse

coryous

adj. ingenious 6/147 [OF curios]

coriousté

n. ingenious speculation 6/153, 169 [OF curioseté]

coron, coroune

see croun

coround

see crouned

corse

n. body 10/320; corce 11/177 [OF cors]

corsynges

n. pl. cursings, anathemas 7b/159 [from OE cursian]

corteys

adj. courteous 7b/47 [OF corteis]

cortel

n. gown 10/203 [OE cyrtel]

corven

see kerve

cos

n. kiss 14k/23 [OE coss]

cote

n. cottage 5/489, 7a/2 [OE cote]

councele

imp. conceal 11/184 [OF conceler]

counsaile, counseylle, counsell, consayle

n. wisdom, skill 11/266, decision 15/6, advice 7b/337, 16/631, plan 16/522, secret 16/348 [OF counseil]

countenaunce

n. custom 9/100 [OF countenaunce]

countreplede

imp. argue against 7b/53, 88 [AN contrepleder]

cours

n. process 6/106, 153 [OF cours]

courtepies

n. pl. short coats 7b/185 [? MDu korte pîe]

couþe

see con

couthely

adv. plainly 11/98 [OE cūþlīce]

cove

adv. swiftly 2/379 [OE cāfe]

coveitise

n. covetousness 18a/30 [OF coveitise]

covena(u)nt

n. agreement 9/393, 13/188; in ~ þat on condition that 7b/26 [OF covenant]

covent

n. company of monks 18b/185, 225 [AN covent]

covert

pa. enveloped 11/346 [OF covrir]

cowþe

see con

crached

pa. scratched 5/80 [uncertain]

craft

n. doings 9/471, skill 16/1, art 16/220, 305 [OE cræft]

crafty

adj. learned 11/44; ~ men skilled labourers 7b/69 [OE cræftig]

craym

n. cream 7b/305, 321 [OF craime]

crakkyng

n. sounding 9/116 [OE cracian]

crave

pr. 1 sg. request 9/283; 2 sg. subj. 9/277; craved pa. demanded as of right 7b/101 [OE crafian]

create

pp. created 6/59 [Lat creatus]

creep

pa. crept 18a/372, 406 [OE crēopan]

cresped

pp. curled 9/188 [OE cirpsian]

cresse

n. cress, in not a ~ not at all 10/343 [OE cresse]

croddes

n. pl. curds 7b/305, 321 [unknown]

croft

n. field 7a/17, 7b/31; pl. 7b/314 [OE croft]

crohhe

n. jug 4/59 [OE crōh]

crokez

n. pl. scythes 10/40 [ON krókr]

cronykes

n. pl. chronicles 12/24, 29, 32 [OF cronique]

crop

n. top 17/348 [OE crop]

crossayl

n. mainsail 8/102 [OE cros + segl]

crosse

v. crucify 15/23 [from ON kross, OE cros]

croumes

n. pl. crumbs 7b/279, 288 [OE cruma]

croun, coron, coroune

n. top of head 9/419, crown 10/205, 11/83, 13/63; crownes pl. tonsures 11/55 [OF coro(u)ne]

crouned, ycrouned, coround

pp. tonsured 7a/56, 59, 63, crowned 5/593 [OF coroner]

crowes

n. pl. crowbars 11/71 [OE crāwe]

crowke

n. jug 18a/304 [OE crūce]

cuchene

n. kitchen 4/58 [OE cycene]

culle

v. kill 7b/30; culde pa. 7b/280 [unknown; cf. OE cwellan]

cumly

adj. lovely 11/82 [cf. OE cy&c.macr;mlic]

cummen

see comen

cunde

n. nature 2/273, 276 [OE cynd]

cun(ne)

n. family 2/271, race, kin 3/35, 167, 169; cunnes gen. 3/29 [OE cynn]

cunne(n)

see con

cure

n. in did hys besy ~ was busily occupied 16/369 [OF cure]

curt

n. court 4/14, 71; curz pl. 4/72 [AN curt]

curtayse

adj. gracious 19/81 [OF corteis]

curtest

superl. adj. most excellent 11/249 [OF curteis + ‐est]

custe

n. character 2/9 [OE cyst]

custe

pa. pl. in ~ us kissed one another 14j/ 46 [OE cyssan]

cuþ(est)

see kyþe

cutte

n. cut stick, lot 15/293, 295 [from ME cutten, OE *cyttan]

cuvertur

n. bedspread 4/54 [OF coverture]

dæ‐

see de‐

daf

n. fool 18a/354 [cf. OE gedæfte, ‘meek’]

dayes, dawes

n. pl. days 11/7; bi ~ once upon a time 5/15 [OE dæg]

dayeseʒes

n. pl. daisies 14h/4 [OE dæges ēage]

dairim

n. daybreak 2/328 [OE dæg‐rima]

daisterre

n. day‐star 2/328 [OE dæg‐steorra]

dale

see dole

dales

n. pl. valleys 3/164, 14h/4 [OE dæl]

dalfe

pa. dug 11/45; dolven pp. buried 11/ 99 [ME delven, OE delfan]

dalt

see delen

dam

n. water 10/324 [cf. OI damm]

damyselle

n. damsel 10/361 [OF damisele]

dar

pr. 1 sg. dare 7b/290; durst(e) pa. 5/73, 427, 7b/202, darst 14e/3, dorst 16/541, dorste 18a/78, 83 [OE durran]

dare

pr. 1 sg. stay hidden 2/384 [OE darian]

dased

pa. lay distraught 8/383 [ON dasask]

daubynge

n. plastering 7b/198 [from OF dauber]

daunger

n. reserve, standoffishness 17/384, 399, longing 10/250 [OF dangier]

dauntest

pr. 2 sg. subjugate 16/114 [AN daunter]

dawes

pr. 3 sg. dawns 11/306; dawe pr. 3 sg. subj. 18a/395; dawande pr. p. 8/445; dawid pa. 11/127 [OE dagian]

dawes

see dayes

debate

n. argument 10/390 [OF debat]

debateþ

pr. 3 sg. fights 13/55 [OF debattre]

debonere

adj. gracious 10/162 [OF debonaire]

debonerté

n. kindness 8/418 [OF debonereté]

dece, des

n. dais, high table [OF deis]

declare

v. explain 18b/76 [OF declarer]

dede

n.¹ deed 15/2; in ~ from experience 16/8; dædes pl. 1/53, dede 16/82 [OE dœ&c.macr;d]

dede

n.² death 15/64, 72, 19/89 [cf. OE dēaþ]

dede

adj. dead 17/52 [OE dēad]

ded(e)

see do(n)

dedifie

v. dedicate 11/6, 23 [OF dediier and edifiier]

de(e)d

adj. dead 16/50, 18a/175, 416; dede as n. dead body 11/116 [OE dēad]

dees‐playere

n. dicer 7b/72 [OF dé, pl. dés + OE plegian]

defaylyng

n. failing 6/85 [OF defaillir]

defaute

n. damage 11/148, want 7b/145, 213, 245, lack 12/55; pl. 12/56 [OF defaute]

defende

v. forbid 17/413 [OF defendre]

defens

n. fortification 5/48 [OF defens]

defoule

n. defilement 8/290 [from ME defoulen, OF defoler]

degre(e)

n. status 7a/67, rank 16/394, manner 16/646; in my/hys ~ as well as I/he can 16/453, 662 [OF degré]

dey(e), deyʒen, diʒe

v. die 7b/296, 353, 8/ 488, 14l/16; deʒe pr. 1 sg. 14j/29; deyede, deghed pa. 7a/40, 11/246 [prob. ON deyja]

deynous

adj. haughty, ‘stuck up’ 18a/87 [from OF desdeignous]

del

n. part 12/108, 120, bit 18a/461; dæle pl. 3/8 [OE dœ&c.macr;l]

del

see dol

delen

v. (dælde pa.; dalt pp.) share 7b/106, divide 3/8, deliver 9/397, 452; ~ ato part from one another 5/125 [OE dœ&c.macr;lan]

delicat

adj. luxurious 7b/278 [OF delicat]

delite

pr. pl. in hem ~ take pleasure 17/256 [OF delitier]

delyvere(n)

v. release 16/508, 523; pp. 16/ 491, 19/2 [OF delivrer]

delvare

n. digger 7b/353; pl. 7b/114 [from OE delfan]

delvynge

n. digging 7b/198 [as prec.]

demay

imp. refl. be dismayed 9/470 [OF demaier]

deme

v. judge, decree; demez pr. 2 sg. consider 10/337; deme imp. blame 10/349; demed pa. spoke 8/119, decreed 15/281; demed, idemet pp. judged 4/6, decreed 8/432; ~ of ordained by 8/386 [OE dēman]

dene

n. valley 10/295 [OE denu]

denyed

see dunede

dentiesliche

adv. on dainties 7b/323 [from OF deintie]

deor(e)

n. pl. animals 3/112, 117 [OE dēor]

deore

see dere adj.

deorling

n. darling 4/36 [OE dēorling]

deovel

n. devil 4/37; deofles gen. 4/8; deovles, deoflen pl. 1/16, 4/23, 32 [OE dēofol]

dep

adv. deeply 10/406; depper comp. more deeply 17/485 [OE dēope]

departe

v. separate 12/163; departede pa. 12/153, 156 [OF departir]

depe

n. pl. depths 10/109 [OE dēop]

depreced

pa. subjugated 9/6 [OF depresser]

deputate

n. deputy 11/227 [Lat deputatus]

dere

v. frighten 15/18 [OE derian]

dere, deore, dære

adj. dear, precious, splendid, expensive; derrest superl. most honoured 11/29 [OE dēore]

dere

adv. at a high price 7b/83, 14q/12 [from prec.]

derez

n. pl. in did me ~ caused me difficulties 10/102 [from OE derian]

derf(e)

adj. mighty 8/166, great 11/99 [ON djarfr]

derfly

adv. boldly 8/110 [from prec.]

derne

n. hiding place 8/182 [OE derne]

derthe

n. famine 7b/352, rarity, excellence 10/99 [OE dēore + ‐th]

derworth

adj. lovely 10/109 [OE dēorwurþ]

derworþly

adv. honourably 9/114 [OE dēorwurþlīce]

des

see dece

deserve(n)

v. earn 7a/42; pr. 1 sg. 7a/45 [OF deservir]

desese

see dissese

desesed

pp. distressed 19/134 [OF desaisier]

desevered

pp. separated 8/315 [OF desevrer]

despende

v. spend 18a/129; despene imp. make use of 7b/235 [OF despendre]

despit

see dispit

desport

n. amusement 18a/189 [AN desport]

dest, deð

see do(n)

devyne

pr. pl. subj. speculate 11/169, prophesy 16/182 [OF deviner]

devyse

v. inform 11/225, describe 10/99, 16/333, 398, advise 17/388, specify 18a/ 29; devyseth pr. 3 sg. describes 16/317; deviseþ pr. pl. see 5/312; devysit pa. described 11/144 [OF deviser]

devoyde

v. banish 10/15; devoydes pr. 3 sg. eliminates 11/348; dewoyde imp. remove 8/284; devoydit pa. stayed away 11/116 [OF devoidier]

devout

adj. holy 8/166; devote devout 10/ 406 [OF devot]

dewoutly

adv. devoutly 8/333 [from prec.]

diche

n. moat 5/361 [OE dīc]

dide

see do(n)

diel

n. in no ~ nothing 13/36 [OE dœ&c.ovline;l]

dyffyne

v. pronounce 16/529 [OF definer]

diffoule

v. trample down 7b/31 [OF defoler]

diʒe

see dey(e)

diʒele

adj. secluded 2/2 [OE dīegel]

dyhte

v. prepare 7b/315; dyʒttez pr. 2 sg. appoint 8/488; dyght, dyʒt pa. 11/23, worked 11/45, prepared 11/294; pp. appointed 8/203, set 9/114, 10/202, arranged 15/281 [OE dihtan]

dikares

n. pl. ditchers 7b/114 [ON dík + ‐er]

dim

adj. gloomy 2/369, faint 5/285 [OE dim]

dymly

adv. abjectly 8/375; dimluker comp. more quietly 4/8 [from prec.]

dyn

n. sound 9/47 [OE dyne]

dynge

v. strike 15/17 [? OE *dingan]

dyngne

adj. noble 8/119 [OF digne]

dynt, dunt

n. stroke, blow [OE dynt]

diol

see dol

dipped

pa. plunged 8/243 [OE dippan]

dysaventure

n. misfortune 17/415 [OF desaventure]

disblameth

imp. pl. free from blame 17/17 [OF desblasmer]

discoverez

pr. 3 sg. uncovers 9/418 [OF descovrir]

discret

adj. judicious 7a/84 [OF discret]

discretly

adv. modestly 16/241 [from prec.]

discreveþ

pr. pl. describe 12/24 [OF descrivre]

disespeir

n. despair 17/6 [OF desespeir]

dysobeysaunt

adj. disobedient 16/429 [OF desobeissant]

dysors

n. pl. minstrels 7b/52 [OF disor]

dispendist

pr. 2 sg. spend 6/90; dispendid pp. 6/42 [OF despendre]

dispit, despit

n. defiance 7b/184, 16/281; for ~ of in contempt of 13/182 [OF despit]

dispitous

adj. malicious 17/435 [from prec.]

dysplesez

imp. pl. be displeased 10/422 [OF desplaisir]

dispoyled

pp. stripped 8/95 [OF despoiller]

dissese, desese

n. distress 19/10, 29, pl. 19/50 [OF desaise]

disshevelé

adj. with hair loose 16/235 [OF deschevelé]

distreyneth

pr. 3 sg. grasps 16/337 [from OF destreindre]

dystryed

pa. put an end to 10/124 [OF destruire]

ditte

pa. shut 11/116 [OE dyttan]

dyvers

adj. various 12/1, 2, 6 [OF divers]

doctrine

n. teachings 18b/47 [OF doctrine]

doel‐dystresse

n. misery of grief 10/338 [OF doel + destresse]

dol, doel, del, dul

n. sorrow 10/250, 326, 11/246; diol lamentation 5/198 [OF dol, doel, del, doul]

dole, dale

n. part 4/83, 10/136 [OE dāl]

dolven

see dalfe

dom(e), doome

n. judgement; doom 8/203, Last Judgement 4/5, 6/100 [OE dōm]

domesman, ‐mon

n. judge 6/118, 11/227 [from prec.]

do(n)

v. (dest pr. 2 sg. 2/49, dostu 2 sg. + pron. 2/218; deð 3 sg. 4/15, dooth 18b/ 177; doð pl. 4/3, don 7b/296, doen 7b/ 63, dois 15/260; doþ imp. pl. 5/218; dide pa. 1/8, dude 3/10, dede 5/580; ydo(o) pp. 5/381, 16/542, ydone 5/76, do(o)n 9/478, 16/70) do; cause 2/49, 10/306, 14l/ 20, 15/260, cause to 7b/296, 8/443, 16/ 458, put 1/8, 18, 22, carry out 1/10, finish 16/542, 17/10; ~ on put on 3/10, 5/343, refl. in ~ him go 5/232, 474, ~ me put myself 10/366; imp. ~ way/wey enough! 5/226, 14j/17, put away 17/110, 111; pp. finished 5/76, achieved 12/131, placed 9/478 [OE dōn]

donkeþ

pr. pl. moisten 14h/28 [ON, cf. Icel dökk ‘pool’]

donne

adj. dun coloured 16/334 [OE dun]

doon

see do(n)

doote

n. fool 15/5 [cf. MDu doten]

dorst(e)

see dar

doser

n. wall‐hanging 9/478 [OF dosser]

dostu

see do(n)

doted

ppl. adj. foolish 8/196 [from ME doten, ? OE *dotian]

dotes

pr. 3 sg. is foolish 8/125 [as prec.]

doulfull

adj. miserable 15/64 [OF dol + ‐full]

doun

n. hill 10/121; dunes, downez pl. 3/ 164, 10/85; gen. pl. 10/73 [OE dūn]

doured

pa. grieved 8/372 [? from OF dur]

dousour

n. sweetness 10/429 [OF dousur]

doute

n. uncertainty 12/40 [OF doute]

douth

n. company [OE duguþ]

dowellez

pr. pl. dwell 8/69, 422; duelte pa. 13/90 [OE dwellan]

dowyne

pr. 1 sg. pine away 10/326; dwynande pr. p. languishing 11/294 [OE dwīnan]

draf‐sak

n. sack of chaff, rubbish‐sack 18a/ 352 [OE *dræf + sacc]

draheð

pr. pl. draw 4/1; drogh, droʒ, drou, drowe pa. drew, came 7b/190, 9/335, drew on 14q/8, opened 18a/38; ydrawe, drawen pp. drawn 5/295, pulled 11/6 [OE dragan]

drapen

pa. pl. killed 1/25, 33 [OE drepan]

drede

n. in withouten ~ undoubtedly 15/ 173, 16/52, out of ~ undoubtedly 16/81 [from next]

drede

imp. in ~ the/yow not do not fear 16/ 157, 448; dred pa. was afraid 10/186 [OE ondrœ&c.ovline;dan]

dredeles

adv. undoubtedly 17/185 [from prec.]

dredfule, dredeful

adj. terrifying 4/41, full of fear 16/3, timid 16/195, 638 [as prec.]

dreʒed

see driʒen

dreme, dream

n. sound 2/314, 4/3, voice 11/191 [OE drēam]

drery, drwry

adj. sad 10/323, 11/191, 14j/ 9 [OE drēorig]

dresse

v. deliver 11/236, get ready 16/88; dressez pr. 3 sg. turns 9/445; hym ~ prepares himself 9/417 [OF drecier]

dreve

v. pass 10/323 [OE drœ&c.ovline;fan]

drevyne

see dryve

dryʒe

adj. impassive 9/335 [ON drjúgr]

driʒen

v. suffer 14l/10; drye pr. pl. 16/251; dreʒed pa. 8/256 [OE drēogan]

dryʒly

adv. strongly 10/125 [from dry ʒ e]

dryʒtyn, dryghtyn, drihte(n)

n. lord, God [OE dryhten]

drihtliche

adj. noble 3/164 [OE dryhtlic]

dryng

n. drink 14c/15, 16, 19 [OE drinc]

dryve

v. strike 9/389; ~ out issue 8/386; drivande pr. p. coming 9/222; drof pa. in doun ~ sank 10/30; dryven, drevyne pp. brought 9/121, driven 16/682 [OE drīfan]

droʒ, drogh, drou, drowe

see draheð

drosenes

n. pl. dregs 7b/193 [from OE drōs]

drouthe

n. drought 7b/312 [OE drūgað]

druncwile

n. the drunkard 4/70 [OE druncenwille]

drwry

see drery

dubbed

pp. adorned 9/193, 10/73, 202 [OF aduber]

dubbemente

n. embellishment 10/109 [OF adubement]

dude

see do(n)

duelte

see dowellez

dul

see dol

dulfully

adv. miserably 11/302, 309 [from dul]

dulle

adj. lacking in feeling 16/162 [MDu dul]

dumpe

v. plunge 8/362 [ON, cf. Dan dumpe]

dun

adv. down 4/37 [from OE of dūne ‘from the hill’]

dunede, denyed

pa. resounded 3/60, 11/ 246 [OE dynian]

dunes

see doun

dunne

adj. brown 10/30 [OE dunn]

dunt

see dynt

dure

pr. 1 sg. last 8/488 [OF durer]

durre

n. door 11/116 [OE duru]

durst

see dar

dusten

v. fling 4/33 [? OE *dystan]

dut

pa. feared 9/222 [OF duter]

dwellynge

n. permanence 19/117 [from OE dwellan]

dwynande

see dowyne

eani

adj. any 4/77 [OE œ&c.ovline;nig]

eardingstowe

n. dwelling‐place 2/28 [OE eardung‐stow]

earen

n. pl. ears 4/19 [OE ēar]

earmite

n. hermit 4/79; eremytes pl. 7b/ 146 [OF ermite]

eateliche

adj. horrible 4/23, 35 [OE atelic]

eaver

see ever

eawles

n. pl. flesh‐hooks 4/33 [OE āwol]

eawt

n. anything 4/17 [OE āwiht]

eche

v. increase 14k/22 [OE ēcan]

echeliche

adv. eternally 4/42 [OE ēcelīce]

echon

pron. every one 18b/176 [OE œ&c.ovline;lc ān]

edwiten

v. criticize 4/17 [OE edwītan]

eek

see ek(e)

eelde

see elde

eet

see eten

efne

adv. indeed 2/313 [OE efne]

efne

prep. immediately upon 3/120, æfne 3/153 [OE efne]

efte

adv. then 4/2, 8/143, again 5/211, 8/ 345, 11/37, 17/301 [OE eft]

efter

prep. to obtain 1/19 [OE æfter]

egge

n. edge 9/212 [OE ecg]

eggit

pp. sharp‐edged 11/40 [from prec.]

ehe, e(i)ʒe, iʒe

n. eye 4/16, 5/327, 6/174, 14g/14; eʒene, (e)yʒen pl. 2/75, 5/111, 6/169, 9/82, 17/142, eyen 19/98, ehnen 4/13, eʒe 2/ 144, yes 7b/172 [OE ēage]

ey

n. egg 2/104; eye dat. 2/133 [OE œ&c.ovline;g]

ei

adj. any 4/52; pron. anyone 4/15 [OE œ&c.ovline;nig]

eyres

n. pl. heirs 7a/59 [OF eir]

eiþer, eyther, aiþer, aythir

adj. each 15/ 181, 16/125; pron. each one 2/7, 9, 12/16, both 4/18 [OE œ&c.ovline;gþer]

ek(e), æc, eek

adv. also, too [OE ēac]

elde

n. old age 8/125, 12/55, 17/393, eelde 18a/31 [OE eldo]

eleccio(u)n

n. choice 16/409, 621 [AN eleccioun]

elles, ellis

adv. else, otherwise; in another way 11/121 [OE elles]

elnʒerde

n. ell‐rod (45 inches) 9/210 [OE eln + gerd]

em

see eom

emerawde, emerad

n. emerald 10/118, 16/ 175 [OF emeraude]

emerlyon

n. merlin 16/611 [OF esmerillon]

emperise

n. empress 10/441 [OF emperice]

emprise, enprise

n. undertaking 17/73, renown 11/253 [OF enprise]

en

prep. in 5/493 [OF en]

enbawmyd

pp. embalmed 11/261, 265 [OF embaumer]

enbelicit

pp. decorated 11/51 [OF embellir]

enbrawded

pp. embroidered 9/78 [AN enbrouder]

enchace

v. prompt 10/173 [OF enchacier]

encheson

n. occasion 13/42 [OF enchaison]

enclyne

v. bow 9/340; pr. p. 10/236 [OF encliner]

encrees, encressen

v. increase 6/207, 18b/ 12; encressed pp. 15/145 [OF encreistre]

encroche

v. obtain 8/18 [OF encrocher]

ende

n. outskirts 5/481, 564 [OE ende]

endyte

v. relate, compose 16/119, 167, 17/ 257 [AN enditer]

endure

v. manage 10/225 [OF endurer]

ene

adv. in at ~ together 10/291 [OE œ&c.ovline;ne]

engendrure

n. procreation 16/306 [OF engendreure]

englene

n. gen. pl. of angels 4/4, 41 [OE engel ]

enjoynyd

pp. appointed 11/216 [OF enjoindre]

enker grene

adj. bright green 9/150 [ON einkar + OE grēne]

enne

see a indef. art.

enpresses, enprecez

pr. 3 sg. oppresses 8/ 43, 528 [OF enpresser]

enprise

see emprise

entente

n. opinion 16/580, wish 16/644, mind 18b/98, 123; wyth glad ~ gladly 16/ 532 [OF entente]

enterlye

adv. heartily 19/66 [from OF entier, adj.]

entremete

v. in ~ hym of involve himself in 16/515 [OF entremetre]

entriketh

pr. 3 sg. ensnares 16/403 [OF entriquer]

eom, em

n. uncle 1/3, 9/356, 17/162, 309 [OE ēam]

eorðlich

adj. earthly 4/49 [OE eorþlic]

eower

see ʒe

erbere

n. garden 10/9, 38 [OF herber]

erbes

n. pl. plants, vegetables 7b/321, grasses 8/393, 438 [OF erbe]

erchedekenes

n. pl. archdeacons 7a/71 [OE ercediacon, Lat archidiaconus]

erde

n. land 10/248 [OE ēard]

er(e), ar(e)

conj. before, previously [OE œ&c.ovline;r]

eremytes

see earmite

erye, erien

v. plough 7b/2, 66, 113; y‐ered pp. 7b/3 [OE erian]

erytage

see heritage

ernde

n. business 8/52, mission 9/257 [OE œ&c.ovline;rende]

ert

see be(n)

ese

n. rest 18a/256 [AN ese]

ese

v. please 16/480 [from prec.]

esement

n. redress 18a/325, 332 [OF aisement]

esy

adj. pleasant 16/382 [AN aisé]

esken

n. pl. ashes 4/44, 50 [OE æsce]

espye

v. see 16/280 [OF espier]

esta(a)te, astate

n. rank, position, standing 10/393, 16/550, 630, 17/219, 465 [OF estat]

este

n. pleasure 2/353 [OE ēst]

Estren

n. Easter 1/76 [OE ēastre]

eten

v. eat 7b/326; ete, eet pa. 5/396, 7b/ 319 [OE etan]

ethalt

pr. 3 sg. retains 4/52 [OE oþhealdan]

eþe

pr. 1 sg. beg 9/379 [OE ge‐œ&c.ovline;þan]

euch

adj. each 4/49; pron. 4/33 [OE æghwilic]

evel

see evill

even

adv. exactly; directly 8/65, 352, straight 9/444 [OE efen]

even‐cristen

n. fellow Christians 19/129 [OE]

evene

adj. equal 16/149, proportionate 16/ 381 [OE efen]

even‐ryght

adv. exactly 19/103 [OE efen + rihte]

ever, æv(e)re, eaver

adv. always; continually 1/51, repeatedly 3/146; ~ in oon all the time 18a/26 [OE œ&c.ovline;fre]

everemo

adv. always 18a/107, 384, 18b/102 [OE œ&c.ovline;fre mā]

ever‐ferne

n. species of fern 8/438 [OE eforfearn]

everich, ævric

adj. every; ~ a every 5/490 [OE œ&c.ovline;fre œ&c.ovline;lc]

everichon

pron. every one 5/189 [prec. + OE ān]

everykune

adj. every kind of 14a/1, 2, 4 [OE œ&c.ovline;fre œ&c.ovline;lc + cynn]

evesed

pp. clipped 9/184 [OE efsian]

evetyde

n. evening time 12/155 [OE efen + tīd]

evidences

n. pl. authoritative proofs 7b/262 [OF evidence]

evill, evel

adv. ill 10/310, terribly 15/145 [OE yfel ]

excusacion

n. defence 6/99 [OF excusation]

expoun

pr. 1 sg. describe 10/37 [OF expoundre]

facound

adj. eloquent 16/521 [OF facond]

fader

n. gen. father’s 13/159, 170, 18a/184 [OE fæder]

fæht, faʒt

see fith v.

fæie, feye

adj. doomed to death, dead 3/64, 81, 103, 14g/20 [OE fœ&c.ovline;ge]

fæiescipe

n. slaughter 3/74 [from prec.]

fæstliche

adv. resolutely 3/46 [OE fæstlīce]

faʒerest

see feir

fay

see fey

fayfulleche

adv. faithfully 7b/70 [from AN fei]

faile, fayly

v. fail, ~ of fail to get 10/317,

wither 10/34, not exist 12/61, 62; faylid

pa. disappeared 11/342 [OF faillir]

faylynge

n. disappearance 19/64 [from prec.]

fayn(e)

adj. happy 7b/293, 323, eager 11/176; faynest adv. superl. most gladly 16/480 [OE fægen]

fayned

pa. feigned 7b/128 [OF feindre]

fayre

adv. well 9/367, 10/88 [OE fægre]

fairy, fayryʒe

n. enchantment 5/10, 9/240 [OF faierie]

faith

n. in in ~ truly 15/111 [OF feid]

faytour

n. false beggar 7b/73; pl. 7b/128, 179, impostors 15/36 [OF faitour]

faytrye

n. malingering 7b/138 [from prec.]

falewe

pr. 1 sg. lose colour 14j/5 [OE fealwian]

falles

pr. 3 sg. befalls 8/178, is fitting 9/358, gets 15/292; vyl, fel(l), fil pa. sg. fell 12/ 167, 18a/427, (it) befell 13/66, 70, 17/61; fel, feollen, vullen pa. pl. fell 3/70, 144, 146, occurred 5/8, 15; yfalle, fallen pp. 5/21, 9/23 [OE feallan]

fallynge

n. lapsing 19/63 [from prec.]

falt

pr. 3 sg. folds, grows weak 2/37; folden pp. plaited 9/189 [OE faldan]

famyen

n. famine 7b/215 [OF famine]

fand

see fynde

fange, fonge

v. receive 9/391, 10/479, take 15/184 [ON fanga]

fannand

pr. p. spreading out (like a fan) 9/ 181 [from OE fann]

fantasye

n. imagination 17/482 [OF fantasie]

fantoum

n. illusion 9/240 [OF fantome]

farand

adj. splendid 9/101 [ON farandi]

farandely

adv. pleasantly 8/435 [from prec.]

fare

n. journey 1/39, 8/98; made ~ made a fuss 18a/145 [OE faru]

fare(n)

v. (farþ pr. 3 sg.; fareþ pl.; faren subj. pl. 3/46; ferde, farde pa., for 1/63; faren pp.) travel 1/39, 2/386, go 1/63, 3/56, 7b/112, come 8/359, behave 10/467, 17/ 39, fare 17/153; wele ~ prosper 5/604, 7a/ 8, ~ bi be in the case of 2/245 [OE faran]

faste

adv. firmly 14j/10, 15/210, vigorously 7b/214, 10/54, immediately 6/139, much, copiously 5/118, 19/67, soundly 16/94 [OE fæste]

fastynge

n. confirmation 11/173 [from OE fæstan]

fastrede

adj. secure in judgement 2/211 [OE fæst‐rœ&c.ovline;d]

fathmez

pr. 3 sg. gropes 8/273 [OE fæþmian]

faucond

n. eloquence 16/558 [OF faconde]

faukun, faucun, faucoune

n. falcon 2/101, 111, 123, 16/337 [OF faucon]

faumewarde

n. vanguard 7a/58 [from OF avangarde]

faunt

n. child 10/161 [OF enfaunt]

faute

n. fault 15/142 [OF faute]

fax

n. hair 9/181, 10/213 [OE feax]

feareð

pr. 3 sg. in ~ abuten busies himself with 4/44 [OE faran]

feche

v. take 7b/154 [OE feccean]

feere

n. in in ~ together 15/33, 162 [OE gefēre]

feersly

see ferslych

feerþe

adj. fourth 6/31 [OE fēorþa]

fees

n. pl. in knyhtes ~ landed estates held by a knight 7a/77 [AN fee]

fehteð

see fith v.

fey

n. faith 12/128, 130, fay 18a/180 [AN fei]

feye

see fæie

feyne

pr. pl. invent 6/154 [OF feindre]

feir

adj. attractive 14j/47; faʒerest superl. fairest 3/168 [OE fæger]

fel

see falles

felaschipe

n. company of people 13/237 [OE fēolaga from ON félagi + OE ‐scipe]

feldefare

n. fieldfare (winter thrush) 16/364 [OE feldefare]

fele

adj. & adj. as n. many [OE fela]

felyd

pa. smelt 19/90 [OE fēlan]

felynge

n. experiencing 19/31 [from prec.]

fell

see falles

felle

adj. fierce 9/291, 10/367, painful 15/ 225, 271 [OF fel]

felonse

adj. wicked 11/231 [OF felons]

fende, feond

n. devil 4/28, 39, 7b/97, 19/83; pl. fiends 8/82 [OE fēond]

fende

v. in þame ~ save themselves 15/57 [from OF defendre]

fenyl

n. fennel (herb) 14h/18 [OE fenol, OF fenoil]

feolahes

n. pl. companions 4/75 [OE fēolaga from ON félagi ]

feolde

pa. felled 3/128 [OE gefællan]

feollen

see falles

fer, feor

adj. far; far away 14j/61; adv. far, ferre 16/440; fyrre comp. farther 8/116, 9/378, 411, 10/103, 11/169 [OE feorr]

ferde

n.¹ army 3/8, 50, 57 [OE ferd, fyrd]

ferde

n.² fear 8/183, 215 [from ME pp. forferd, OE *forferan]

ferde

see fare(n)

fere

n.¹ companion 2/223, 14q/3, 14r/9 [OE gefēra]

fere

n.² company, in in ~ together 10/89 [OE gefēre]

fere

adj. proud 9/103 [OF fier]

fered

pp. frightened 17/124 [OE fœ&c.ovline;ran]

ferez

pr. 3 sg. leads 10/98 [OE ferian]

ferforthe

adv. in so ~ so much so 16/377 [OE feorr + forþ]

ferk

v. jump 8/187 [OE fercian]

ferly

n. marvel 11/145; pl. strange events 9/23 [from next]

ferli

adj. wonderful 5/4, 18a/319; adv. wonderfully 11/46, amazingly 14h/10 [ON ferligr]

ferre

see fer

fers

adj. fierce 5/293 [AN fers]

ferslych, feersly

adv. sternly 8/337, proudly 9/329 [from prec.]

fest

n. fist 18a/421 [OE fy&c.macr;st]

feste

n. feast, delight 17/421 [OF feste]

feste

imp. fasten 15/135, 162; pp. placed 8/290, fixed 15/82, 122, made fast 15/280 [OE fæstan]

festnes

pr. 3 sg. in ~ þe fete gains a foothold 8/273 [OE fæstnian]

fette

imper. lay hold of 15/78; pa. fetched 7b/316; fet pp. 13/151 [OE fetian]

fettelez

pr. 3 sg. refl. prepares 8/435 [?cf. OE fetel ‘belt’]

fetures

n. pl. parts of the body 9/145 [OF feture]

ficchid

pp. fixed 6/199 [OF ficher]

fil

see falles

fylden

pa. pl. filled 1/14 [OE fyllan]

fildore

n. gold thread 9/189 [OF fil d’or]

fille

n. chervil (aromatic herb) 14h/18 [OE fille]

fyn

n. end 17/425 [OF fin]

fynde

v. (fynt pr. 3 sg., fynden pl.; fand, fond, foend, foond pa.; yfounde, fonte, foune, funde pp.) find 5/426, 7a/40, 13/ 44, 15/142, compose 5/4, 14, provide for 7a/76, provide with 1/57, 7a/27, 7b/70, perceive 10/170 [OE findan]

fyne

v. stop 15/81; imp. 10/353; pr. pl. 15/ 256 [OF finer]

fyne

adj. pure 11/173 [OF fin]

fine

adv. very 5/94 [from prec.]

fyrre

see fer

fyrst, furste

n. in on ~ from the start, at first 11/42, 144, 207, at the ~, upon ~ right away 7b/168, 9/9 [OE fyrst]

fisyk

n. medicine 7b/267, 291, 293 [OF fisique]

fyt

n. time 18a/330, 376 [OE fitt]

fith

n. fight 14q/18 [OE feoht]

fith, viʒte

v. fight 14n/1; fehteð pr. 3 sg. 3/ 97; faʒt, fæht pa. 3 sg. 3/149, 10/54 [OE fihtan, feohtan]

fytte

adj. right 15/135 [uncertain]

flæh, flaʒe

see flon

flaʒt

n. turf 10/57 [OE *flæht]

flayed

pa. terrified 8/215 [OE *flēgan, cf. ON fleyja]

flales

n. pl. flails 7b/180 [? OF flaiel]

flapton

pa. pl. lashed 7b/180 [cf. Du flappen]

flaumbande

pp. glowing 10/90 [OF flaumber]

flawen

see flon

flawme

n. flame 16/250 [AN flaume]

flec, flesch

n. meat 1/40, 7b/154 [OE flœ&c.ovline;sc]

flee(n)

see flon

flem

n. flow 8/309 [OE flēam]

fleme

n. fugitive 14h/36 [OE flēma]

fleme

v. drive into exile 10/334 [OE flēman]

fleoteð

pr. pl. float 3/110; fletyng pr. p. floating 17/53; fleten pa. pl. floated 10/21 [OE flēotan]

flet

n. hall‐floor 9/294 [OE flett]

flex

n. flax 7b/12 [OE flæx]

flicð

see flon

flyʒes

n. pl. butterflies 9/166 [OE flēge]

flyte

v. quarrel 10/353, 15/297 [OE flītan]

flitte

v. move 15/234 [ON flytja]

flod

n. sea [OE flōd]

flon

v. (flo pr. 1 sg.; fliʒst 2 sg.; fliʒt, flicð, flihð, fliʒeð 3 sg.; floþ, flee(n) pl.; flo imp.; flæh, flaʒe, fleigh pa.; flowen, flugen, flugæn pa. pl.; flowen, flawen pp.) flee 1/43, 3/84, 115, 7b/179, 8/183, fly 2/33, 89, 150, 3/123, 6/166 [OE flēon]

flor‐de‐lys

n. iris or lily 10/195 [OF flourde‐lis]

floty

adj. watery 10/127 [from OE flot]

flotte

pa. floated 8/248 [OE flotian]

fnast

n. breath 2/44 [OE fnœ&c.ovline;st]

fnorteth

pr. 3 sg. snores 18a/309 [cf. OE fnora, ‘sneezing’]

fo

see fo(o)

fo

pr. pl. subj. ~ on proceed 2/179 [OE fōn]

foch

v. receive 9/396 [OE feccean]

foend

see fynde

foʒe

n. decency 2/184 [OE gefōg]

foʒle

see fuʒel

foyned

pa. kicked 9/428 [from OF foine]

foysoun

n. abundance 9/122 [OF foisoun]

fol

adj. foolish 8/283 [OF fol]

fol

adv. very 7b/116 [OE ful]

folde

n. earth, land, country [OE folde]

folden

see falt

fole

n. horse 9/196 [OE fola]

folʒi

pr. 1 sg. follow 2/389; folʒeþ 3 sg. 2/ 307, volweþ afflicts 12/12; fulieð pr. pl. follow 3/114; fuleden pa. pl. 3/124 [OE folgian]

folwe

pr. 1 sg. baptize 11/318 [OE fulwian]

fond

see fynde

fonde

v. try 6/228, 10/150, 15/139, 16/257 [OE fondian]

fonge

see fange

fonte

see fynde

fo(o)

n. enemy 5/112, 16/339, 18b/106; fone pl. 16/103 [OE gefā]

foole

adj. lecherous 16/505 [OF fol]

for, vor

conj. for 2/43, 202, 12/5(1), 40, because 8/113, in order that 12/21, 30, 166 [OE for]

for, vor

prep. because of 1/49, 2/19, despite 15/280; ~ þat because 2/365, ~ to (with infinitive) to, in order to [as prec.]

for

see fare(n)

forage

n. winter feed 18a/14 [OF fourrage]

forbaren

pa. pl. spared 1/45, 47 [OE forberan]

forbi

prep. more than 8/483 [OE fora(n) + bī]

force

n. in na ~ no matter 18a/322 [OF force]

forclemmed

ppl. adj. starving 8/395 [OE for‐ + clemman]

forcursæd

pp. excommunicated 1/51 [OE for‐ + cursian]

fordemen

v. destroy 3/102; fordemed pp. 3/39 [OE fordēman]

fordoþ

pr. 3 sg. destroys 13/17; fordidden pa. pl. dispelled 10/124; fordo(n) pp. 1/ 53, 3/75 [OE fordōn]

fordrunke

pp. very drunk 4/61 [OE fordruncen]

forfare

v. destroy 8/483 [OE forfaran]

forgarte

pp. forfeited 10/321 [ON ?]

forgef

pa. forgave 8/407 [cf. ON fyrirgefa]

forgon

v. give up 10/328, 14h/35 [OE forgān]

forʒef

imp. forgive 14r/14 [OE forgiefan]

forʒeld

pr. 3 sg. subj. repay 7b/298 [OE forgieldan]

forʒete

v. forget 6/6; forʒeten pp. 6/139, vorʒut 12/104 [OE forgietan]

forholen

pp. concealed 1/78 [OE forhelan]

forlete

v. lose 18b/206; pr. 1 sg. abandon 2/ 36; pa. lost 10/327 [OE forlētan]

forloyne

pr. 1 sg. go astray 10/368 [OF forloignier]

forlore(ne)

pp. broken 1/13, damned 1/52, 3/38, lost 4/72 [OE forlēosan]

formel

n. female (bird) 16/371, 373 [from OF formel]

formeste, vormeste

superl. adj. first 3/129, as n. leader 3/64 [OE fyrmest]

forn

adv. in ~ to in front of 3/121 [OE foran]

forpayned

pp. tormented 10/246 [OE for‐ + OF pener]

forre

adv. far 2/386 [OE feorr]

forred

see furrid

forsake

v. refuse 14g/19 [OE forsacan]

forschreynt

pp. scorched to death 5/398 [OE forscrencan]

forseyde

adj. previously mentioned 16/120 [OE foresægd]

forsworen(e)

pp. perjured 1/12, 52, 3/38 [OE forswerian]

fort

conj. until 2/41, 332 [OE for + to]

forte

prep. (with infin.) to, in order to 4/6, 14g/18, 14j/16 [OE for + to]

forþ, vorþ

adv. in ~ go go on your way 2/ 297, ~ mid together with 3/158, fro this ~ henceforth 17/9, ~ þerupon immediately after 13/105 [OE forþ]

forþe

n. ford 10/150 [cf. OE ford]

forþer

v. assist 6/84 [OE fyrþrian]

forther(e)

adv. further 18a/368, more widely 7b/76 [OE furþor]

forthy, forþe, vorþi

adv. therefore; for that reason 2/65, 277, 14g/23 [OE forþī]

forþi

conj. in ~ þat in order that 6/33, because 1/2, 6/184 [as prec.]

forðward

adv. onward 3/40 [OE forþweard]

forwake

pp. deprived of sleep 14g/31 [OE for‐ + wacan]

forward

n. contract, agreed business 15/10, 93; pl. agreements 9/378, 409 [OE foreweard]

forwery

adj. in ~ of exhausted by 16/93 [OE for‐ + wērig]

forwes

n. pl. furrows 7b/65 [OE furh]

forwhy

conj. for 6/196, 221; adv. wherefore 17/12 [OE forhwī]

forwrast

pp. seized 11/220 [OE for‐ + wrœ&c.ovline;stan]

fot(e)

n. footing 11/42, base 13/141 [OE fōt]

fotte

v. receive 9/451 [cf. OE fettan]

fouchen

pr. pl. in ~ saf vouchsafe, grant 7a/ 49 [OF voucher]

foules

see fuʒel

fouly

adv. terribly 15/112 [OE fūlīce]

founce

n. bottom 10/113 [OF founz]

foundande

pr. p. travelling 8/126; founded pp. set out 9/267 [OE fundian]

founded

pp. built 16/231 [OF fonder]

foune

see fynde

fourme

n. in in ~ of in accord with 11/230 [OF fourme]

fra

see fro

frayneth

pr. 3 sg. asks 18b/148; pp. 9/359 [OE frægnian]

frayst

pr. 1 sg. ask for 9/279; frayste pa. examined 10/169; pp. 9/324, 391 [ON freista]

fram, fron, vram, vrom

prep. from [OE fram]

fredom

n. generosity 17/161 [OE frēodōm]

fre(e)

adj. noble 9/101, 14r/3, 15/49, gracious 11/318, free 7a/64 [OE frēo]

freelté

n. frailty 6/110 [OF fraileté]

freke

n. man, knight [OE freca]

frelych

adj. gracious 8/214; frely adv. abundantly 8/20, willingly 8/390 [OE frēolic, frēolīce]

frendes

n. pl. relatives 7a/36, 40, 12/56 [ON frændi]

frenesies

n. pl. frenzies, fits 6/159 [OF frenesie]

frere

n. friar 7b/73 [OF frere]

fresche

adj. as n. fresh food 9/122 [OF fresche]

frete

pa. devoured 5/539 [OE fretan]

frytez

n. pl. fruits 10/87 [OF fruit]

friþ

n. woodland 5/160, 246, 10/89, 98 [OE fyrþ]

fro

adj. well‐born 2/134 [OE frēo]

fro, fra

prep. from; conj. after 8/243, when 9/62 [ON frá]

fron

see fram

froted

pa. rubbed together 5/79 [OF froter]

frount

n. forehead 10/177 [OF frount]

frowarde

adj. recalcitrant 11/231 [ON frá + OE ‐weard]

frunt

pa. kicked 8/187 [OF fronter]

fuelkunne

n. dat. pl. kinds of birds 2/65 [OE fugol + cynn]

fuʒel

n. bird 3/123; foules pl. 5/68; foʒle dat. pl. 2/277 [OE fugol ]

ful

adv. very [OE full]

ful(e), vul(e)

adj. foul 1/21, 2/32, 35, 4/88, foul (with excrement) 2/236; fuleste superl. 4/80 [OE fūl]

fuleden

see folʒi

fuleþ

pr. 3 sg. befouls 2/100; pr. pl 2/96; ifuled pp. 2/110 [cf. OE fūlian]

fulfeld

pp. completed 7b/346, fulfilled full 16/89 [OE fullfyllan]

fulheed

n. fullness 6/218 [OE full + *‐hœ&c.ovline;du]

fulieð

see folʒi

fulle

adj. as n. in at þe ~ completely 6/56, 58, 68, thoroughly 18a/82, 451 [OE full]

fulliche

adv. filthily 4/75 [OE fūlīce]

fulste

n. help 3/39 [OE fylst]

fulsten

pr. 3 sg. subj. help 3/46, 64 [OE fylstan]

fulðe

n. filth 4/75 [OE fylþ]

funde

see fynde

furrid

pa. put fur on 11/252; forred pp. 7b/291 [OF furrer]

furste

see fyrst

fuse(n)

pr. pl. subj. let (us) hasten 3/34, 40 [OE fy&c.macr;san]

fust

n. fist, hand 9/391 [OE fyst]

gadering

n. council 1/6; gadryngs pl. gatherings 12/160 [from OE gadrian]

gadrede

see gedereð

gæde

see ʒede

gæildes

n. pl. taxes 1/36 [OE gield]

gær(e)

n. year 1/1, 57, 70 [OE gēar]

gæt

adv. previously 1/43 [OE gēt]

gay

adj. lovely, finely dressed 10/7, 16/234, 18a/72; as n. lovely person 10/189, 433 [OF gai]

gayn

adj. obedient 9/178 [ON gegn]

gayn

prep. opposite 10/138 [as prec.]

gaynez

pr. 3 sg. profits 10/343; gayned pa. suited 8/164 [ON gegna]

gaynlych

adj. gracious 8/83 [from ON gegn]

galle

see gaule

game

n. entertainment 5/19 [OE gamen]

gan

see gynne

garez

pr. 3 sg. makes 10/331; garte(n) pa. 7b/324, 10/86 [ON gøra]

gargeles

n. pl. gargoyles, grotesque heads 11/48 [OF gargouille]

garnement

n. garment 13/112 [OF garnement]

garnysht

pp. decorated 11/48 [OF garnir, garniss‐]

gast

ppl. adj. afraid 9/325 [OE gæstan]

gaste

v. ruin 14j/16 [? OF gaster]

gastely(e)

adj. spiritual 19/64, 98 [OE gāstlīc]

gat

n. goat 3/96; gaten pl. 3/100 [OE gāt]

gate

n. in hegh ~ high road (of justice) 11/ 241, main source 10/395 [ON gata]

gaude

n. trick 17/351; pl. 15/149, 200 [cf. AN gaudir]

gaudi

n. ornaments 9/167 [OF gaudie]

gaule, galle

n. scum 8/285, stain 10/189, bitterness 10/463 [OE galla]

geaunte

n. giant 16/344 [OF jaiant]

gedereð, ‐es

pr. 3 sg. gathers 4/52, lifts up 9/421; gederen pr. pl. in ~ to pull at 8/105; gadrede pa. gathered 12/159; gadered, gedrid pp. accumulated 1/4, assembled 11/134 [OE gadrian]

geeste

n. story 17/83 [OF geste]

gef(e)

see gif v.

genge

see gynge

gent

adj. fine 10/118, 253, 16/558 [OF gent]

gentil(e), gentel

adj. noble, well‐born 7a/ 78, 16/196, 337, gentile, pagan 11/216, 229; gentileste superl. noblest, most exquisite 16/373, 550 [OF gentil]

gentilesse

n. nobility, good breeding 16/224, 17/160 [OF gentillesse]

gentily

adv. courteously 17/187 [from OF gentil]

gere

n. tools 15/29 [ON gervi]

gered

pp. dressed 9/179 [from prec.]

geserne

see giserne

geste

n. newcomer 10/277; pl. guests 1/58 [ON gestr]

gete

pa. got, diverted 11/241; getyn, geten pp. got 6/222, begotten 14l/15 [ON geta]

geþ

see go(n)

gyde‐ropes

n. pl. guy‐ropes 8/105 [OF guide + OE rāp]

gif

v. give 9/288; gef pr. 3 sg. subj. 8/226; gyf imp. 8/204; gef(e) pa. 9/370, 11/282 [OE giefan or ON gefa]

gif

conj. if 1/48 [OE gif ]

gile

n. trickery 5/7, deceit 8/285 [OF guile]

giles

n. pl. gills 8/269 [? ON, cf. Sw gäl]

gilofre

n. clove or gillyflower 10/43 [OF gilofre]

gilour

n. trickster, deceiver 18a/467 [OF guileor]

gylte

n. in in my ~ by my fault 16/434 [OE gylt]

gilte

adj. golden 16/267 [from OE gegyld]

gynful

adj. dishonest 11/238 [from gyn, OF engin]

gynge

n. company 10/455, 11/137, genge 3/56 [ON gengi]

gyngure

n. ginger 10/43 [OF gingivre]

gyn(ne)

n. vessel 8/146, contraption 15/197 [from OF engin]

gynne

v. begin 12/149; gynneth pr. 3 sg. begins to 17/2; gon, gan pa. 3/78, 5/425, 7b/149, (forming past tense with infinitive) 3/4, 5/78; gun(ne), gonne(n) pa. pl. 5/504, 15/269, 16/193, 331, did 16/283 [from OE onginnan]

girdel‐stede

n. waist 5/266 [OE gyrdel + stede]

gyse

n. style 16/399, custom, way 18a/272 [OF guise]

giserne, geserne

n. axe 9/288, 326, 375 [OF guiserne]

gyte

n. dress 18a/100 [OF guite]

gyternere

n. player on the gittern (kind of guitar) 10/91 [OF guiternier]

gladyen, glade

v. make glad 7b/126, rejoice 13/134, 16/687 [OE gladian]

gladur

comp. adj. more glad 2/19 [OE glæd]

glaym

n. slime 8/269 [uncertain]

gla(u)m

n. voice 8/63, noise 9/46 [ON glaumr]

gle, gleo

n. music; entertainment 4/12, pleasure 5/267, rejoicing 9/46 [OE glēo]

gleedes

n. pl. burning coals 18a/29 [OE glēd]

glemande

pr. p. gleaming 10/70 [from OE glœ&c.ovline;m]

glemered

pa. gleamed 9/172 [? ON, cf. Du glimmeren]

glent

v. deviate 11/241; pa. glanced 9/82, 476, shone 9/172, 10/70 [ON *glenta]

glette

n. filth 8/269 [OF glette]

glew

adj. prudent 2/193 [OE glēaw]

glewed

see glow

gliden

v. travel silently 3/44; glyde pr. 2 sg. subj. pass 8/204; glod pa. came 8/63 [OE glīdan]

glyʒt

pa. looked 8/453 [uncertain]

glisnande

pr. p. glistening 11/78 [OE glisnian]

glod

see gliden

glode

n. open space 11/75; pl. 10/79 [uncertain]

gloumbes

pr. 3 sg. worries 8/94 [unknown]

glow

pr. pl. subj. call 11/171; glewed pa. called 8/164 [OE gleowian]

glowande

adj. shining 8/94 [OE glōwan]

gobet

n. portion 7a/100 [OF gobet]

god(e), good

n. good 2/329, wealth 1/17, 45, possession(s) 5/230, 7b/236; goodes, gowdez pl. creations 6/4, good things 8/ 286 [OE gōd]

goded

pa. endowed 1/60 [OE gōdian]

godhede

n.¹ divine nature 10/413, 19/105 [OE god + *‐hœ&c.ovline;du]

godhede

n.² goodness 2/351 [OE gōd + *‐hœ&c.ovline;du]

godly

adv. properly 8/26, honourably 9/273 [from OE gōd]

goldfaʒe

adj. pl. adorned with gold 3/109 [OE gold‐fāh]

golé

n. mouthful 16/556 [OF golee]

gome

n. man, knight; anyone 8/175 [OE guma]

gomen

n. game 4/48, 9/283 [OE gomen]

go(n)

v. go; geþ pr. 3 sg. 5/238, gotz 8/171, 280, 9/375; goon pr. pl. 16/127, 129, 134; gose imp. pl. 15/78; ygo, goon pp. gone 5/349, 12/112, ago 5/541 [OE gān]

gon, gonnen

see gynne

good

see god(e)

goodely

adv. well 15/39 [from OE gōd]

goostly

adj. spiritual 6/155 [OE gāstlic]

gose

see go(n)

goste

n. spirit 10/63, 86 [OE gāst]

gotez

n. pl. currents 8/310 [OE gota]

gottes

n. pl. guts 7b/175 [OE pl. guttas]

governaunce

n. rule 16/387, conduct of affairs 17/219 [OF governance]

governe

v. in him ~ control himself 13/223 [OF governer]

gowdez

see god(e)

grace

n. fortune 16/45, 65, good fortune 10/ 194, 16/412, favour 16/421 [OF grace]

graciouse, gracios

adj. lovely 8/453, elegant 9/216 [OF gracious]

grayþe

adj. ready 9/448; graythist superl. most powerful 11/251 [ON greiðr]

grayþed, graied

see greithen

graythly, greiþlyche

adv. truly 8/240, 286, promptly 9/417, 12/149 [ON greiðliga]

grame

n. harm 2/49 [OE grama]

granti

pr. 1 sg. grant 2/201 [AN granter]

grat

pr. pl. cry out 7b/284 [ME greden, OE grēdan]

grattest

superl. adj. in ~ in grene greenest 9/207 [OE grēat]

graunte

n. in ~ hade received assent 11/126 [OF grant]

gre

n. in at þi ~ as you wish 8/348 [OF gré]

grede

v. shout 2/308; gredest pr. 2 sg. cry out 5/104 [OE grēdan]

gref

n. harm 8/83 [OF gref ]

greithen

pr. pl. refl. in ~ hem get ready 18a/ 455; grayþed, graied pp. set 9/74, 109, arrayed 9/151, prepared 15/39 [ON greiða]

greiþlyche

see graythly

greme

n. martial spirit 9/312 [ON gremi]

grene

n. grass 5/72 [OE grēne]

grene

adj. green, unripe 7b/304 [OE grēne]

grennin

v. gnash the teeth 4/24; grenne pr. pl. grin 9/464 [OE grennian]

grennunge

n. gnashing 4/23 [from prec.]

gres(se)

n. grass 5/244, 9/235 [OE græs]

gret

adj. full 2/43, grete as n. important part, essence 16/35 [OE grēat]

grete

n. earth 11/41 [OE grēot]

grete

v. weep 14l/19; grette pa. in ~ after wept for 11/126 [OE grētan]

grevance

n. discomfort 16/205 [OF grevance]

greve

n. grove 10/321; pl. 8/439, 9/207 [OE grœ&c.ovline;fa]

greve

v. injure 7a/58, harm, bring harm to 8/112, 517, offend 8/226; refl. become angry 18a/5, 56; impers. grieve 17/228; greveth pr. 3 sg. hurts 7b/269; greved pa. became angry 9/316 [OF grever]

gries

n. pig 7b/304 [ON gríss]

grylle

adj. painful 14j/68 [cf. OE gryllan]

grim

adj. hideous 4/27 [OE grim]

grimliche

adv. cruelly 4/40 [from prec.]

gryndel

adj. angry 8/524 [? from next]

gryndellayk

n. fierceness 9/312 [ON grindill ‘storm’ + leikr]

grislich

adj. dreadful 2/224, 315; grisliche adv. horribly 4/5 [OE grislic, grislīce]

gryste

n. anger 10/465 [OE grist]

grom

n. lad 14l/7; pl. men 7b/227 [cf. MDu grom ‘offspring’]

gromylyoun

n. gromwell 10/43 [OF grumillon]

grot

n. small thing, detail 5/490 [OE grot]

groundelez

adj. bottomless 8/310 [OE grundlēas]

Gru

see Grw

grubber

n. digger 11/41 [cf. OE *grybban]

gruc(c)he

v. grumble 7b/337, 18a/9; pr. pl. 7b/227 [OF gruchier]

gruf

adv. face down 18b/223 [ON á grúfu]

grulde

pa. 3 sg. subj. twanged 2/142 [unknown]

grunde

n. in bi ~ near the ground 2/278 [OE grund]

grurefule

adj. terrible 4/5 [from OE gryre]

Grw, Gru

n. Greek 12/91, 113, 115 [OF Greu]

guerdonynge

n. reward 16/455, 17/392 [from OF gueredon]

guferes

n. pl. depths 8/310 [OF goufre]

gultif

adj. guilty 13/50 [OE gyltig]

gume

n. man 3/103 [OE guma]

gun(ne)

see gynne

gurden

pa. pl. girdled 11/251 [OE gyrdan]

ʒaf

see ʒive

ʒal

see ʒollest

ʒare

adj. ready 2/215, ʒaru 3/50; ʒærewe pl. 3/55 [OE gearu]

ʒate

n. gate 5/232, 385 [OE gæt]

ʒe

pron. pl. you; ʒow acc. & dat.; ou, ow dat. 2/115, 4/92; ʒowsulven emphatic yourselves 7b/14; (e)ower, æuwer poss. adj. your 3/163, 173, 4/90 [OE gē, ēow, etc.]

ʒe

adv. yes, indeed 6/14, 108 [OE gē]

ʒeddien

v. speak 3/160 [OE gieddian]

ʒede

pa. went, walked; gæde 1/23; ʒode 11/198; yot 10/10; ieden pl. 1/42 [OE ēode]

ʒederly

adv. promptly 9/453 [from OE ēdre]

ʒef

conj. if [OE gif ]

ʒef

see ʒive

ʒelde(n)

v. repay 7b/41, 133; ʒolden pp. 9/ 453 [OE geldan]

ʒelp

n. boasting 4/2 [OE gielp]

ʒemeles

adj. heedless 4/40 [OE gīemelēas]

ʒemez

pr.3 sg. governs 19/104; ʒemyd pa. 11/202 [OE gēman]

ʒeomerest

superl. adj. most wretched 3/73 [from OE geōmor]

ʒeorne

see ʒerne

ʒeot

imp. pour 4/68 [OE gēotan]

ʒeove

see ʒive

ʒep

adj. vigorous 9/105; as n. pl. 9/284 [OE gēap]

ʒepely

adv. freshly 11/88 [from prec.]

ʒerd

n. place 7b/207 [OE geard]

ʒer(e)

n. year; þat oþer ~ a year or two ago 2/ 101; ʒer(e) pl. years 5/264, 6/104, 7a/35 [OE gēr]

ʒerne, ʒeorne

adv. eagerly 4/39, 5/323, 7b/ 116, loudly 14p/19 [OE georne]

ʒerstendæi

n. yesterday 3/95 [OE gestrandæg]

ʒerte

pa. cried out 14p/19 [? OE *gierran]

ʒet(e), ʒut, ʒit(t)

adv. yet; further 2/309, 363, 3/104, up to now 5/103, 17/240, as yet 13/32, still 7a/94, longer 15/137, 230, furthermore 10/205 [OE gēt]

ʒeve

see ʒive

ʒever

n. giver 6/93 [from OE gefan]

ʒevyng

n. giving 6/97, 100 [as prec.]

ʒif

conj. if [OE gif ]

ʒif

see ʒive

ʒifte

n. gift 13/22; pl. 7b/39 [from ME ʒ iven]

ʒimston

n. precious stone 3/17 [OF gemme + OE stān]

ʒiscere

n. miser 4/44 [OE gītsere]

ʒis(s)e

interj. yes (answering negative question) 8/117, 347 [OE gīse]

ʒit(t)

see ʒet(e)

ʒive, ʒeve, yeve

v. (ʒeven pr. pl. 7b/133; ʒeove pr. 3 sg. subj. 4/92; ʒef, ʒif, yeve imp. 4/67, 69, 7b/283; ʒaf, yaf(e) pa. 2/ 55, 149, 7b/187, 204; iafen, ʒefven pl. 1/ 9, 3/69; ʒove(n) pp. 6/42, 13/127) give, give to [OE giefan, gefan]

ʒivere

n. the glutton 4/70 [from next]

ʒivere

adj. greedy 4/57 [OE gīfre]

ʒode

see ʒede

ʒoʒelinge

n. yowling 2/40 [imitative]

ʒol

n. Christmas 9/284 [OE gēol]

ʒolden

see ʒelde(n)

ʒollest

pr. 2 sg. yell 2/223; ʒal pa. 3 sg. screamed 2/112 [imitative]

ʒond

pron. in þe ~ that one over there 2/119 [OE geond]

ʒone

adj. yonder 15/178 [OE geon]

ʒorde

n. precinct 11/88 [OE geard]

ʒore

adv. for a long time 14g/34, 14k/16; ful ~ for a very long time 5/559 [OE geāra]

ʒoskyd

pa. sobbed 11/312 [OE geocsian]

ʒove(n)

see ʒive

ʒow, ʒowsulven

see ʒe

ʒurstendæi

n. yesterday 3/105, 113 [OE gystrandæg]

ʒut

see ʒet(e)

ha

see hi

ha(a)le

v. pull 15/116, 16/151; hales pr. 3 sg. comes 9/136, flows 10/125; haylle imp. pull 15/140; halled pa. went 9/458 [OF haler]

habbe, han, haan

v. (habbe pr. 1 sg. 2/ 368; ichave pron. + pr. 1 sg. I have 5/209, ychabbe 14g/34; habbez pr. 2 sg. 9/452; hastow pr. 2 sg. + pron. have you 7a/26; havet 3 sg. 2/113, haveþ 2/119, haþ 6/ 115, hatz 9/17, hat 14l/24; habbeð pl. 4/47, 71, haþ 6/62, han 6/11, 8/13, haen 7b/240, hatz 9/19; hafde pa. 3/9; hadest pa. 2 sg. 5/573; hadestow pa. 2 sg. + pron. 5/533; had(d)en pa. pl. 1/11, 9/52, 69, hefden 1/17, 67) have; acquire 1/67, 5/533 [OE habban]

habit

n. clothing 17/222 [OF abit]

habounde

v. abound 17/159 [OF abundir]

habundaunce

n. abundance 6/110 [OF abundance]

hade, hæfd, hæfved

see hefed

hæʒe, hæh, hæhʒere

see high(e)

hæhliche

see hiʒlich

hælden

v. come 3/54; heldez pr. 3 sg. refl. 9/221; heldes pl. bow 11/196; heldyt pa. moved away 11/137; hælden, halden pa. pl. turned 3/126, fell 3/139, 145 [OE heldan]

hælle

n. hell 3/166 [OE helle]

haen

see habbe

hærdliche

adv. violently 3/154 [from OE heard]

hærnes

n. pl. brains 1/24 [ON hjarni]

hafde

see habbe, hefed

haggen

n. pl. hags 4/86 [? cf. OE hægtesse]

haʒe

see high(e)

haylle

see ha(a)le

haylsed

pa. greeted 9/223, 10/238 [ON heilsa]

haymelyeste

adj. homeliest, most intimate 19/110 [from OE hām]

hayre

n. hair‐shirt 8/381; pl. 8/373 [OE hœ&c.ovline;r]

hayroun

n. heron 5/310 [OF hairon]

halce

see hals

halched

pp. enclosed 9/185, fastened 9/218 [OE halsian]

halde(n)

see hold

hale

n. nook 2/2 [OE halh]

halechen

adj. as n. pl. saints 1/54 [OE hālga]

hales

see ha(a)le, hals

halfe

see halve

hali

adj. holy 1/79, 4/79 [OE hālig]

halyday

n. feast day 8/9; pl. 18a/98 [OE hāligdæg]

halled

see ha(a)le

halm

n. helm 3/16 [OE helm or ON hjálmr]

halme

n. shaft 9/218, 330 [OE halm]

halowes

n. pl. saints 11/23 [OE hālga]

halp

see healp

hals, hales, halce

n. neck 1/31, 7b/60, 9/427 [OE hals]

halsen

pr. 1 sg. implore 18b/193 [OE halsian]

halve, halfe

n. side 2/109, 16/125, side of 10/230; upon Godez ~ in God’s name 9/326 [OE half ]

ham, hamseolf, hamseolven

see hi

hame

n. home 19/110 [OE hām]

han

see habbe

hapeth

pr. impers. in ~ me it happens to me 16/10; happed pa. 7a/95, 16/18 [from next]

hap(pe)

n. good fortune 8/212, happiness 9/48, 10/16, fortune 16/402 [ON happ]

happen

adj. blessed 8/13 [ON heppinn]

hardelyche

adv. boldly 7b/28, hardily confidently 18a/155, assuredly 10/3, 17/304 [from next]

hardi

adj. bold, courageous 5/41, 7b/181, 9/371, 18a/103, tough 16/176 [OF hardi]

hare

see hi

harke

see herke

harlot(te)

n. scoundrel 15/160, 18a/414; pl. 7b/50 [OF harlot]

harme

n. wrongdoing 8/17; pl. injuries 10/388, 11/232 [OE hearm]

harping

n. in in ~ composed to the harp 5/3 [from OE hearpian]

harrow

interj. alas, help 18a/218, 453 [OF haro]

harwen

v. harrow 7a/19 [from ON hervi]

hasped

pa. wrapped 8/381; pp. buckled 9/281; haspede ppl. adj. with a buckle 8/189 [OE hæpsian]

hastow

see habbe

hate

adj. hot 10/388 [OE hāt]

hatel

adj. cruel 8/367, bitter 8/481 [OE hatol]

hater

n. clothing 8/189 [OE hæteru pl.]

haþel

n. man, knight, (in address) sir [OE hæleþ]

hat(te)

see hoten

hatz

see habbe

haunt

n. in gode ~ great plenty 5/309 [OF hant]

haunte

pr. pl. practise 8/15; pr. 3 sg. subj. 13/258 [OF hanter]

havec(k)

n. hawk 2/303, 307; havekes gen. 2/271 [OE hafoc]

havet

see habbe

hawbergh, hauberghe

n. coat of mail 9/ 203, 268 [OF hauberc]

hawteyn

adj. proud 16/262 [OF hautain]

he

see ho

healp, halp, heelp

pa. helped 4/79, 13/72; holpe(n) pa. pl. 7b/113, 123; pp. 6/14 [OE helpan]

heatien

v. hate 4/86 [OE hatian]

Hebrayk

adj. Hebrew 18b/108 [Lat Hebraicus]

heep

see hepe

heere

pr. 1 sg. praise 11/339; herieth 3 sg. 18b/166; heryen pl. 18b/226; herid pp. 11/325 [OE herian]

heete

see hoten

hef

see heve

hefden

see habbe

hefed, heved

n. head 1/22, hæved 1/23, hafde 3/16, hæfd 3/139, hæfved 3/158, hade 5/391 [OE hēafod]

hegge

n. hedge 2/59 [OE hegg]

heggen

v. hedge 7a/19 [from prec.]

hegh, heʒe, hehe, hey(ʒe)

see high(e)

heglice, heiliche

see hiʒlich

hehte

see hoten

heihte

see hyʒt

helde

see hold

helder

adv. in never þe ~ not at all 9/430 [ON heldr]

heldez

see hælden

hele

n. health 7a/7, 10, 10/16, 16/128, safety 8/335 [OE hœ&c.ovline;lu]

hele

imp. restore 7b/225 [OE hœ&c.ovline;lan]

helede

pa. covered 3/13 [OE helan]

helle

n. gen. of Hell 4/41 [OE hell]

hellen

adj. of Hell 8/306 [from prec.]

hem

see hi

heme

adj. attractive 9/157 [OE gehœ&c.ovline;me]

hende

n. pl. hands 15/122 [ON pl. hendr]

hende

adj. gracious, worthy, noble, courteous [OE gehende]

henge, hyng, hongen

v. hang; hongeþ pr. 3 sg. 5/506; heng(e) pa. 3/20, 5/344, 7b/60; hengen pl. 1/77 (see 1/20 note) [ON hengja, OE hengian, OE hōn]

hen(ne)s

adv. ago 7a/35, away from here 7a/80, hence 7b/301, 8/204 [from OE heonane]

hent

v. (hent(e) pa. & pp.) receive 8/178, 10/388, 11/232, 15/189, seize 7b/171, 8/189, 251, 367, take 7b/183, 8/373, 11/ 291, engage 3/128 [OE hentan]

heold

see hold

heo(m), heore

see hi

heorte

see hert

hepe, heep

n. heap, large number 18b/45; bi ~ to overflowing 2/360 [OE hēap]

her

adv. here 3/173 [OE hēr]

herbarwe

n. lodging 5/484, herberwe 18a/ 265 [OE herebeorg]

herdes

n. pl. herdsmen 2/286 [OE hirde]

her(e)

n. hair 9/180, 14f/1, 2; herys pl. 18a/ 16 [OE hēr]

heredmen

n. pl. courtiers 9/302 [OE hīredmann]

herein

adv. in this state 19/80 [OE]

hereword

n. praise 4/2 [OE herian + word]

herghdes

pa. 2 sg. harrowed 11/291; herʒed pp. dragged 8/178 [OE hergian]

herid

see heere

heryen, herieth

see heere

heryynge

vbl. n. praise 18b/7 [from OE herian]

heritage, erytage

n. inheritance 10/443, 13/ 221 [OF heritage]

herke, harke

imp. listen 8/431, 15/61, 265 [OE *hercian]

herken

v. listen; ~ after long for 11/307 [OE hercnian]

herle

n. strand 9/190 [cf. MLG herle]

hernez

n. pl. brains 10/58 [ON hjarni]

herre

see high(e)

hert, h(e)orte

n. heart; herttes pl. 8/2 [OE heorte]

hervest

n. autumn 7a/7 [OE hærfest]

heste

n. command 12/167, 13/104; pl. 7b/ 213 [OE hœ&c.ovline;s]

hete

n. hatred 2/167 [OE hete]

hete

see hoten

heter

adj. rough 8/373 [? cf. MLG hetter]

heterly

adv. fiercely 8/381, 477, 481, 10/ 402 [from prec.]

heþenisse

n. heathen lands 5/513 [OE hœ&c.ovline;þennes]

heþyng

n. abuse 8/2 [ON hæðing]

hette

pa. warmed up 16/145 [OE hœ&c.ovline;tan]

hette(z)

see hoten

heu

n. colour 14g/13, hewe 16/258, 17/60, 303; pl. 17/21 [OE hēow]

heve

v. raise up 10/314, 473; hef pa. 9/120; ~ up increased 8/477 [OE hebban]

heved

n. see hefed

heven

v. raise 10/16; hevened pp. 9/349 [OE hafenian]

hevenesse

n. sorrow 16/89 [OE hefignes]

hevenryche

n. kingdom of Heaven 8/14, 28 [OE heofonrīce]

hevyed

pa. was afflicted 19/60 [OE hefigian]

hewe

n. labourer 7b/195 [OE pl. hīwan]

hewen

pp. shaped 9/211, cut 9/477 [OE hēawan]

hi

pron. pl. nom. they 1/2, 2/12, 95, 12/7, hye 5/91, ho 2/66, 76, 97, ha 4/3, a 12/ 37, heo 3/69; hi acc. them 2/108, 308; hom dat. 2/62; he(o)m acc. & dat. them 1/18, 3/67, 4/73, hom 11/16, ham 4/23, 87, 12/6; her(e) poss. adj. their 1/9, 5/87, 7b/260, 12/2, heore 3/109, hare 4/3, 84, hor 9/130, 11/17, huere 14h/8, hir 16/39, 18a/137; hores disjunctive theirs 8/14; hamseolf, hamseolven pron. refl. and emphatic themselves 4/24, 81 [OE hīe, hēo etc.]

hi

see also ho

hyder, hidir

adv. hither [OE hider]

hidor

n. terror 8/367 [OF hidor]

hye

v. refl. in ~ hym/the hurry 7b/206, 16/133; hyʒed, highid pa. hurried 8/217, 11/58 [OE hīgian]

hye

see hy(ʒ)e

hielde

see hold

high(e), hyʒe, hæh, hæhʒe, heiʒe, hey(e), hegh

adj. high 3/16, 5/356, 7b/2; noble 3/132, 9/5, 11/137, exalted 11/325, 339; hæhʒere fem. dat. high, mighty 3/126; herre comp. taller 9/333; heiʒest superl. highest 6/52, hiest 19/102; he(y)ʒe as n. a high place 14l/2, on ~ on high 8/463, upon ~ to the highest degree 9/48; highe, hyʒe, hæʒe, haʒe, hehe adv. high 3/121, 161, 4/91, 9/120, loudly 9/307, 468, arrogantly 9/349 [OE hēh]

highid, hyʒed

see hye

highte

see hoten

hy(ʒ)e

n. in in ~ suddenly 9/245, quickly 15/1, 17/88 [from OE v. hīgian]

hiʒenliche

adv. hastily 3/4 [from OE hīgian]

hiʒlich

adj. splendid 9/183; heglice, hæhliche, heiliche, hyʒlych adv. honourably 1/80, nobly 3/89, scrupulously 7b/ 89, highly 12/95 [OE hēalic, hēalīce]

hyʒt, heihte

n. in upon ~ to his full height 9/332, on ~ on high 9/421, up high 13/ 141 [OE hēhþo]

hyʒte, hihte

see hoten

himward

adv. in to ~ towards him 2/375 [OE him + OE ‐weard ]

hine

masc. pron. acc. him 3/3; hisselven emphatic himself 9/107 [OE hine, his + self ]

hyng

see henge

hir

see hi

hyre

n. wages 15/47 [OE hy&c.macr;r]

hyrne

n. corner 8/178, 289 [OE hyrne]

hit

gen. pron. its 8/12, 11/309 [OE hit]

hit(te)

pa. in ~ to reached 8/289, fell to 9/427 [ON hitta]

ho

fem. pron. nom. she 2/19, 8/4, hi 2/10; he 2/141, 3/12; hi acc. her 2/29, 30 [OE hēo, hīe]

ho

see also hi

hoem

adv. home 7b/108, 207 [OE hām]

hoer

see hore

hoge

adj. huge 9/208 [OF ahoge]

hoker

n. scornfulness 18a/111 [OE hōcor]

hol

adj. perfect 8/335, 10/406 [OE hāl]

hold, halde

v. (hold, heold, helde, hielde pa.; holde(n), heolden, halden pa. pl.; yhold, holde(n), halden pp.) hold; rule 9/53, contain 9/124, keep 1/12, 5/468, observe 1/58, consider 5/45, 9/28, 259, 10/301; ~ hym stay 7b/207, keep himself 8/289, ~ with have dealings with 7b/50; holdyng pr. p. obliged 7b/103; holden pp. obliged 17/241 [OE haldan]

holde

adj. faithful 7b/195 [OE hold]

holyn

n. holly 9/206 [OE holen]

holpe(n)

see healp

holtes

n. pl. woods 5/214; holtewodez 10/ 75 [OE holt]

hom

see hi

homycide

n. murderer 18b/115 [OF homicide]

honde

n. hand; haþ upon ~ has control of 13/227; com on ~ occurred 10/155; hondemyʒt power 8/257, honde‐quile short time 11/64; honde(n) pl. 5/79, 10/49 [OE hond, miht, hwīl ]

hondele

v. use 9/289 [OE hondlian]

hondeselle

n. presents 9/66 [OE hondselen]

hone

n. delay 15/198 [uncertain]

hone

v. delay 15/13 [uncertain]

honest

adj. honourable 18b/109 [OF honeste]

hongen, hongeþ

see henge

honne

adv. away 2/66 [OE heonane]

hoo

interj. stop 15/140 [ON hō]

hoot

adj. as n. hot 16/205 [OE hāt]

hope

v. think, believe [OE hopian]

hoper

n. hopper 18a/182, 185 [from OE hoppian, ‘hop’]

hor, hores

see hi

hore, hoer, hoor

adj. hoar, ancient 5/214, white‐haired 7b/92, 18a/24 [OE hār]

horte

see hert

hose

n. stocking 18a/79; pl. 3/13, 18a/101 [OE hosa]

ho‐so

pron. whoever 7b/120 [OE hwā + swā]

hote

adv. passionately 13/197 [OE hāte]

hoten, heete

v. (hote, hat(te), hete pr. 1 sg.; hattes(t) 2 sg.; hat(te) 3 sg.; hoten pl.; hehte, hihte, highte, hyʒte, hatte pa.; hettez pa. 2 sg.; hote(n), yhote, ihaten, hette, hyʒte pp.) call, be called; command 7b/78, 85, 89, 272, promise 9/ 448, 10/305, 402, 15/121 (see 5.6.10) [OE hātan]

houped

pa. whooped 7b/168 [imitative]

houres

n. pl. canonical hours 11/119 [AN ure]

hourlande

pr. p. tumbling 8/271; hurled pa. crashed down 8/149 [uncertain]

housbondrye

n. concern with household matters 18a/223 [from OE hūsbonda, ON húsbóndi]

howe, hwe

n. hue 2/152, 9/147, 234; pl. 10/90 [OE hēow]

howsoever

adv. in whatever way 6/23 [OE hū + swā + œ&c.ovline;fre]

hu

adv. how 2/46, 263, 4/22, 77 [OE hū]

hude

pr. 1 sg. hide 2/265; hud imp. 2/164 [OE hy&c.macr;dan]

huere

see hi

huyre

n. wages 7b/115 [OE hy&c.macr;r]

huyred

pp. employed 7b/121 [OE hy&c.macr;rian]

huyryng

n. hearing 12/4 [from OE hy&c.macr;ran]

hul

n. hill 3/96; hulle dat. 3/87, 89; hulles pl. 3/94 [OE hyll]

hule, ule

n. owl 2/4, 26; hule gen. 2/28 [OE ūle]

humblesse

n. humility 18b/18 [OF humblesse]

hundes

n. hounds 2/375 [OE hund]

hunte

n. huntsman 3/114 [OE hunta]

hupþ

pr. 3 sg. leaps 2/379 [OE *hyppan]

hure

v. hear 12/5 [OE hy&c.macr;ran]

hure

adv. in ~ and ~ especially 2/11 [OE huru]

hurled

see hourlande

hurne

n. corner 2/14 [OE hyrne]

hus

n. house, monastery 1/59 [OE hūs]

hw‐

see also wh‐

hwe

see howe

hwitel

n. blanket 4/55 [OE hwītel]

hwucche

adj. which 4/84 [OE hwylc]

i

prep. in 3/3, 77, 107, 4/57 [from OE in]

iafen

see ʒive

ibalded

pp. emboldened 3/141 [OE bealdian]

ibeot

n. boast 3/118 [OE gebēot]

ibere

n. outcry 2/222 [OE gebœ&c.ovline;ru]

ybete

see bete

ibolwe

pp. puffed up 2/145 [OE belgan, pp. gebolgen]

ybore

see bere

iborhen

pp. saved 4/7 [OE beorgan, pp. geborgen]

ybounden

pp. bound 16/268 [OE bindan]

ibroide

see brayd

ybroke

pp. broken 16/282 [OE brecan]

ybrouʒt

see brohte

ibrugged

pp. bridged 3/83 [OE brycgian]

ybuld

see bylded

ich

adj. same 5/63, 455 [OE ilca]

ich

pron. I; isch 14d/3; min(e) poss. adj. my 4/83, 5/205; pron. my people 7b/148 [OE ic]

ychabbe

see habbe

ychaffared

see chaffare

icham

see be(n)

ichave

see habbe

ich(e)

adj. each 5/292, 6/94, 103 [OE ylc]

ichil, ichulle

see wille

ichot

see wit(e)

iclumben

see clumbe

ycome

see comen

ycore

adj. & adv. (originally pp. of chese ) excellent 5/148, beautifully 5/105 [OE cēosan, pp. gecoren]

ycorven

see kerve

ycrouned

see crouned

icume

see comen

idel

adj. vain 4/2, futile 12/143 [OE īdel]

ydo(ne)

see do(n)

ydrawe

see draheð

ieden

see ʒede

yes

see ehe

yfalle

see falles

ifan

n. pl. foes 3/134 [OE gefā]

yfe(e)re

adv. together 5/223, 17/152, 168 [from OE gefēra, ‘comrade’]

yfostred

pp. brought up 18a/92 [OE fōstrian]

yfounde

see fynde

ifuled

see fuleþ

ygo

see go(n)

igrap

pa. 3 sg. gripped 3/122, 136; igripen pl. grasped 3/52 [OE grīpan]

iʒe(n)

see ehe

yʒyrned

pp. desired 14g/34 [OE giernan]

ihaten

see hoten

yhere

v. hear 5/17, 420; iherd(e) pa. heard 2/3; pp. 4/83 [OE gehēran]

yhold

see hold

yhote

see hoten

ylaft

see leve v.¹

ilce

see ilk(e)

ilchone

pron. each one 6/63, 68 [OE ylc + ān]

ilefde

pa. believed 2/123 [OE gelēfan]

ylent

see lent

ileste

v. last 2/341; ilesteþ pr. 3 sg. 2/347 [OE gelœ&c.ovline;stan]

ylet

see lete

ilich(e)

adj. like 2/316, 318, 319; unchanging 2/358, 362; adv. equally 8/161; ever ~ always the same thing 8/369 [OE gelīc, gelīce]

ilk(e), ilce

adj.¹ same; þat ~ that (same) 9/ 24 [OE ilca]

ilke, ylka

adj.² each; ~ a every [from OE ylc]

ille

adj. evil 8/203; adv. badly 7b/211 [ON illr]

ilome

adv. frequently 2/49, 290 [OE gelōme]

ylore

see lese

ilorned

see lerne

ymad, ymake

see makien

ymagynacions

n. pl. delusions 19/47 [OF]

ymarked

pp. appointed 5/548 [OE mearcian]

imeind

see meind

imeteð

pr. 3 sg. meets 3/77 [OE gemētan]

imunde

n. thought 2/252 [OE gemynd]

ynde

n. indigo 10/76 [OF inde]

inmyddes

adv. in the middle 9/167; prep. in the middle of 10/222 [cf. OE on middan]

innen

adv. in þer ~ therin 3/22 [OE innan]

innogh, inoʒe, ynow(h), ynoh

adj. enough, many, in plenty; adv. very 9/289, 14g/13 [OE genōg]

inohreaðe

adv. soon enough 4/8 [from prec. + OE hreþe]

ynome

see nym

ynorissed

pp. brought up 18a/94 [OF noriss‐, from norir]

insiʒt

n. in ~ in understanding of 2/195 [OE in + sihð]

instrumente

n. intermediary 19/106 [OF enstrument]

into

prep. up to 6/104 [OE in tō]

inwardly

adv. intently 17/264 [OE inweardlīce]

inwið

adv. inside 4/69; prep. within 11/307, 18b/152 [OE in + wið]

inwitt

n. reasoning power 7a/10 [OE in + witt]

yquited

pp. paid 7b/107 [OF quiter]

yre

n. anger 16/11 [OF ire]

yreke

pp. covered up 18a/28 [cf. MDu reken]

iren

n. iron band 1/31 [OE īren]

irnen

v. 3/60 (urneþ pr. pl. 2/375; arnde pa. 3/57; ourn pa. pl. 5/85, urn 5/89) run, hasten [OE iernan]

yronne

see renne

is

see be(n)

isæh

see iso(n)

iscend

see schende

isch

see ich

yse, iseʒ, yseiʒe

see iso(n)

isechen

v. seek 3/48 [OE gesēcan]

yseyd

see segge(n)

isene

adj. obvious 2/166, evident 2/275, 367, visible 5/354 [OE gesēne]

iset, ysett

see settez

ishote

pp. shot, sent out 2/23 [OE scēotan]

isiʒen

pp. come 3/111 [OE sīgan]

iso(n), yse

v. (iseʒ pa. 2/29, 108, 109, isæh 3/28, 53, 54, iseh 3/147, yseiʒe 5/328) see [OE gesēon]

ysouced

pp. soused 12/97 [from OF sous]

yspent

see spende

ysprad

see spradden

isprunge

pp. spread 2/300 [OE springan]

iswolʒe

see swolʒed

ytauhte

see teche

yþes

n. pl. waves 8/147, 233 [OE y&c.macr;þ]

iþoncket

see thonketh

ytynt

see tyne

ytuiʒt

pp. snatched 5/192 [cf. OE twiccian]

yused

see usyt

yvele

adj. wicked 1/16, 56 [OE yfel]

yvore

n. ivory 10/178 [OF yvore]

iwar

adj. aware 2/147, 17/398 [OE gewær]

iweden

n. pl. gear 3/25 [OE gewēde]

ywerd

see wered

iwys(se), iwyis

adv. indeed [OE gewis]

iwivet

pp. in ~ o married 4/85 [OE wīfian]

ywon

adj. accustomed 5/317 [from OE gewunian]

ywon

see wynne

iworht, ywrought, ywro(w)ght

see wurche(n)

ywrite

see write

jangelis

pr. 3 sg. chatters 15/265; janglande pr. p. grumbling 8/90, 433 [OF jangler]

jangler

n. boaster 16/457 [OF jangleor]

janglynge

ppl. adj. chattering 16/345 [OF jangler]

jape

n. joke 17/130, foolishness 8/57, trick 18a/347; pl. tricks, false judgements 11/ 238 [from OF japer]

jape

pr. 1 sg. joke 17/140 [OF japer]

japer

n. joker, trifler 17/340 [from prec.]

jogelour

n. entertainer 7b/71; juglurs pl. clowns 4/12 [OF joglere, juglere]

joyned

pp. appointed 8/62 [OF joindre]

jolef, joly(f)

adj. happy 8/241, fine 18a/77, merry 18a/300 [OF jolif ]

jolilé

adv. lustily 9/42 [from prec.]

jowked

pa. lay asleep 8/182 [OF jouquier]

Judeus

n. pl. Jews 1/75 [Lat Iudaeus]

juele

n. jewel 10/23 [OF juele]

jug(g)e

v. judge; pr. 1 sg. decree 16/524, 629; imp. judge 8/413; jugged, ‐it pp. condemned 8/245, 11/188, decided 11/180 [OF juger]

juglurs

see jogelour

jupartie

n. jeopardy 17/465 [OF jeu parti]

justed

pa. jousted 9/42 [OF juster]

justifiet

pa. administered justice to 11/229 [OF justifier]

kaghten

see cach(ch)e

kay

adj. left 9/422 [ON, cf. Dan kej]

kayred

pa. went 9/43 [ON keyra]

kaisere

n. emperor 3/113 [Lat Caesar, OE cāsere]

kan

see con

kark

n. trouble 8/265 [AN kark]

karle

n. man 15/134 [ON karl]

katel

n. wealth 12/55 [AN catel]

kaught

see cach(ch)e

kautelles

see cautellis

kealche‐cuppe

n. boozer, toss‐pot 4/68 [OE celc + cuppe]

kecchen

see cach(ch)e

keie

n. key 13/263 [OE cœ&c.ovline;g]

kele

v. cool, be lessened 15/46, 134 [OE cēlan]

kende

see kynde adj.

kene

adj. brave 9/482, fierce 2/276, 14p/11, sharp 4/35, 14k/6, wise 11/254; kennest superl. boldest, bravest 3/95, 113 [OE cēne]

kenliche, kenely

adv. boldly 3/93, extremely 11/63 [OE cēnlīce]

kenne

v. recognize 3/167, understand 8/357 [ON kenna]

keorvinde

ppl. adj. cutting, sharp 4/30, 35 [OE ceorfan]

kepe, keep

n. in take ~ (in)to pay attention to 6/9, 90, 133 [from next]

kepe

v. control 6/107, maintain 19/35; pr. 2 sg. subj. protect 7b/26; kepten pa. pl. took charge of 11/ 66 [OE cēpan]

keping

n. controlling 6/77, persevering 6/ 87 [from prec.]

kerke

see kyrke

kerve

v. cut 7b/65, 17/325; carf pa. made 8/131; corven pa. pl. cut 7b/185, 8/153; korven, ycorven pp. 16/425, 18b/159 [OE ceorfan]

kest(e)

v. (kest, caste(n) pa. & pp.) throw, cast; cast (shadow) 8/440, direct (eyes) 9/ 228, utter 9/64, set 11/83, plan 13/190 [ON kasta]

keve

v. sink down 10/320 [ON kefja]

kever

v. be obtained 8/223; kevered pa. in ~ me got for myself 8/485 [OF (re)cuvrir]

keverid

pp. covered 6/226, kevered 16/271 [OF cuvrir]

kyd(de)

see kyþe

kimeð

see comen

kyn

see kin(ne)

kynde

n. nature 6/78, 7b/161, 10/74, kindred 9/5, 15/62, species 16/174, 311 [OE (ge)cynd]

kynde

adj. natural 7b/59, seemly 9/473, right‐minded 10/276, kende compassionate 14r/19 [OE (ge)cynde]

kyndely

adv. with elegance 9/135, properly 15/133 [from prec.]

kindenes

n. pl. kindnesses 6/209 [as prec.]

kyne

n. pl. cattle 7a/18 [OE cy&c.macr; pl. + ‐n]

kinelond

n. kingdom 3/163 [OE cyne‐ + land]

kinge

n. gen. pl. of kings 3/53, 66, kingen 3/91, 113, 130 [OE cyning]

kin(ne), kun

n. kind 14a/7, family 14j/36, 69, followers 15/20; alle ~ all kinds of 7b/58, 69, 200, eny ~ any kind of 7b/267; kynes gen. in other ~ of other kind 7a/20; pl. kinds 11/63 [OE cynn]

kynned

pa. was born 11/209 [cf. OE (ge)cennan]

kynrede

n. kindred, family connections 18a/ 113 [OE cynn + rœ&c.ovline;den]

kyrke, kerke

n. church [ON kirkja]

kirtel, kirtill

n. short coat, tunic 5/229, 15/ 290; kirtels pl. gowns 16/235 [OE cyrtel]

kysttes

n. pl. chests 8/159 [ON kista]

kyte

n. kite (large bird) 16/349 [OE cy&c.macr;ta]

kyth

n. country [OE cy&c.macr;þ]

kyþe

v. show; bring 14j/42; cuþest pr. 2 sg. 2/90; cuþ pr. 3 sg. 2/132, 138; kydde pp. shown 9/263, made known 11/44, acknowledged 11/254, ~ for recognized as 11/222; kyd as adj. famous 9/51 [OE cy&c.macr;þan]

kitte

pa. cut 18b/119; kit pp. 18b/196, 197 [OE *cyttan]

knave

n. labourer 7b/46; gen. 7a/54; pl. 7a/ 62 [OE cnafa]

knawen

see cnawe

knawynge

n. recognition 19/41 [from OE cnāwan]

kneland

pr. p. kneeling 5/250 [OE cnēowlian]

knytte

v. tie 15/133, knette fasten 16/438; knyt, knette pp. united 16/381, fastened 16/628 [OE cnyttan]

knowable

adj. capable of knowing 6/59 [from OE cnāwan]

kn(o)we

see cnawe

knowes

n. pl. knees 18b/77 [OE cnēow]

knowlechinge

n. recognition 13/16 [from OE cnāwan]

koke

v. put hay into haycocks 7a/13 [ON, cf. Norw kok ‘heap’]

konne(þ)

see con

konnyng, kunnynge

n. knowledge 12/31, 16/513, skill 16/167, 487, ability 18b/29, 205 [from OE cunnan]

korven

see kerve

koude

see con

kun(ne)

see con, kin(ne)

lac

n. fault 5/460 [cf. MDu lac]

lach(che)

v. (laʒt, laght pa. & pp.) take; reach 8/322, take on 9/234, pull back 9/156; ~ out take away 8/425, ~ to pick up 9/433 [OE læccan]

lachesse

n. slackness 7b/253 [AN lachesse]

lacke

imp. criticize 7b/85 [cf. MDu laken]

ladde

n. fellow 7b/194, 15/41 [uncertain]

lad(de)

see lede v.

ladliche

adv. with ill will 4/17 [OE lāþlīce]

læc

pa. in ~ to pursued 3/80 [OE lūcan]

læiden

see legge

læðest

see layth

laft(en), laftes

see leve v.¹

lagh

n. law; Christian faith 11/34, religion 11/187, 203 [late OE lagu, from ON]

laght, laʒt

see lach(che)

laʒe

v. laugh; lah(h)eð pr. 3 sg. laughs 4/48, 62; loh, louʒ, lugh, lowe, laʒed pa. laughed 3/ 159, 5/314, 8/461, smiled 14g/15 [OE hlæhhan]

lay(e)

n. song 5/20, 17/64, poem 9/30 [OF lai]

lay(e)

see legge, lien

layk

n. folly 8/401; pl. games 9/262 [ON leikr]

laykyng

n. performing 9/472 [from ON leika]

layne

v. hide; pp. hidden 10/244; imp. remain silent 11/179 [ON leyna]

layt(e)

v. look for, search; laitid pp. 11/155 [ON leita]

layth

adj. hateful 8/401; læðest superl. 3/33 [OE lāþ]

lake

n. lack 16/87 [cf. MDu lak]

lange

v. yearn 19/8 [OE langian]

lange

adv. long 15/192 [OE lange]

langynge

n. yearning 19/1 [OE langung]

langour

n. sorrow 10/357, misery 19/23 [OF langour]

lant

see lene v.

lapped

pp. wrapped 9/217 [uncertain]

lappes

n. pl. sleeves 10/201 [OE læppa]

lare

n. teaching 4/39 [OE lār]

large

adj. broad 9/210, 10/201 [OF large]

largelich, largelye

adv. generously 5/451, fully 19/27 [from prec.]

lasse

adj. as n. lesser 11/247; l(e)asse adv. less 4/26, 7b/165 [OE lœ&c.ovline;ssa]

lasseþ

pr. 3 sg. lessens 13/3 [from prec.]

lasshit

pa. flashed 11/334 [? imitative]

laste

n. in upon ~ in the end 8/194 [OE latost]

lastes

n. pl. crimes 8/198 [cf. OI lo¸str]

lastunge

n. detraction 4/21 [from ON lasta]

lat

see lete v.

later

adj. in ~ ende last part 11/136 [OE lator]

laude

n. praise 18b/3, 8 [OF laude]

launde

n. glade 16/302 [AN launde]

laus

see lose adj.

laused

pa. uttered 8/489 [from ON lauss]

lave

v. bail 8/154; lavande pr. p. flowing 11/314 [OE lafian, OF laver]

laverd

n. lord 4/15, 60 [OE hlāford]

lawe

n. decree 8/405 [late OE lagu, from ON]

le

n. shelter 8/277 [OE hlēo]

leape

pr. 3 sg. subj. rise 4/90; leop, le(e)p pa. leapt 3/25, 8/154, 179, 18a/374; leopen, lepen pl. hurried 11/61; refl. in ~ heom leapt 3/51 [OE hlēapan]

leasse

see lasse

leche

n. surgeon 14k/24; pl. doctors 7b/295 [OE lœ&c.ovline;ce]

lechede

pa. healed 7b/189 [from prec.]

ledares

n. pl. controllers 7b/251 [OE lœ&c.ovline;dere]

lede, lude

n. man, knight [OE lēod]

lede

v. draw 15/85; ledeþ pr. pl. in ~ to lead against 2/280; lad(de) pa. led 5/584, 13/68 [OE lœ&c.ovline;dan]

leele

see lele

leely(che)

see lel(l)y

leere

see lere

leest, leste

superl. adj. smallest 6/39, 15/228; as n. least 11/162; atte ~ at the least 16/ 452, 17/362 [OE lœ&c.ovline;st]

leet

see lete v.

lef

n. foliage 8/447 [OE lēaf ] lef see le(o)f, leve v.²

lefsel

n. shelter of leaves 8/448 [OE lēafsele]

lege

adj. liege 8/51, 11/224 [OF lege]

legge, leye

v. (leið pr. 3 sg.; lay(e) imp.; leyde pa.; leiden, læiden pa. pl.) lay; set 8/168, put 8/174, impose 1/36, wager 7b/ 290, 18a/155, pawn, pledge 7b/292; ~ on attack 3/34, 68, 18a/375, strike (with hammer) 15/245, ~ þeron apply to it 5/30, ~ to wedde mortgage 7a/73 [OE lecgan]

leʒe

v. tell lies 14j/56 [OE lēogan]

leyser

n. leisure 17/227, time to spare 16/ 464, 487 [OF leisir]

leist

pr. 3 sg. lasts 2/333 [OE lœ&c.ovline;stan]

lele, leele

adj. honest, trustworthy 7b/140, 261, 295, serviceable 7a/103 [AN leel]

lel(l)y, leely(che)

adv. faithfully 7b/140, 9/449, 10/305, trustworthily 7b/298, sincerely 11/268 [from prec.]

leme

n. beam of light 11/334 [OE lēoma]

lemed

pa. gleamed 10/119 [OE lēoman]

lemmon, lemman

n. mistress, beloved [OE lēof + man]

lene

v. give (to) 7b/15, 231, 286, grant 8/347, 11/315; lant pp. granted 11/272 [OE lœ&c.ovline;nan]

lene

adj. lean 7a/279, poor 7b/263 [OE hlœ&c.ovline;ne]

leng

comp. adv. longer 2/42, 5/84, 11/179, lenger 5/330, 18a/18, 383, lengore 14j/ 12 [OE leng]

lenge

v. remain, dwell; lengyd pa. 11/68 [OE lengan]

lenger

comp. adj. longer 6/37 [OE lengra]

lenghe

n. length 10/416, 15/76, on ~ prostrate, flat out 15/41, 176, for a long time 10/167 [OE lengu]

lent, ylent

pp. come 8/201, 14g/25, gone 14g/11 [OE lendan]

lenten

n. spring 14h/1 [OE lencten]

lenþe

n. in on ~ for a long time 9/232 [OE lengþu]

leoden

n. gen. pl. of peoples 3/73 [from OE lēod]

le(o)f, lof, l(e)ove, luef,

adj. dear (to) 2/203, 4/83, 11/34; me is ~ my pleasure is 2/281; ~ liif dear beloved one 5/102, 406; as n. beloved 14j/31, 14k/21; levere comp. in me were ~ I would rather 17/352, have I ~ 17/471; levest superl. most precious 7a/85 [OE lēof ]

leop, lep(en)

see leape

lepe

n. basket 2/359 [OE lēap] lere n.¹ face 10/398, cheek 9/318, complexion 11/95 [ON hlýr, OE hlēor] lere n.² flesh 9/418 [OE līra]

lere

v. teach 7b/222, 15/35; pr. pl. learn 16/ 25; leere imp. teach 17/97; lerde pa. 14d/ 15 [OE lœ&c.ovline;ran]

lered

ppl. adj. learned, clerical 1/50, 16/46 [from prec.]

lerne

v. teach, prescribe 7b/340; ilorned pp. gained knowledge 2/216 [OE lēornian]

lernynge

n. teaching 19/128 [from prec.]

les

adj. untruthful 8/428 [OE lēas]

lese

v. lose 5/178, 6/123; leste pa. 1 sg. 10/ 9; lestez pa. 2 sg. 10/269; les pa. 3 sg. 3/ 71; ylore pp. 5/209, 545, lorn(e) 6/160, 18a/221, lest lost from sight 8/88 [OE lēosan]

leste

see leest, lese, lyst(e)

lete

n. appearance 2/35 [OE gelœ&c.ovline;te]

lete, leete, lette,

v. (lat, lette pr. 3 sg. & imp.; let, leet pa.; ylet pp.) let 7b/119, stop 5/279, prevent 16/151, 17/94, desist 6/19, abandon 7b/293, cause (to) 13/106; ~ awai leave aside 2/177, neglect 2/250, ~ be(n) desist from 5/114, 17/248, leave alone 6/171, ~ by esteem 7a/3, ~ to serven desist from serving 16/439 [OE lœ&c.ovline;tan]

lethe

v. heal 8/3, cease 10/377, 11/347 [uncertain]

lettes

n. pl. hindrances 12/57 [from OE lettan]

lettyng

n. delay 7b/5 [as prec.]

leve

v.¹ abandon 12/107; laft pa. gave 9/ 369, lefte remained 19/96; laftes pa. 2 sg. left 11/292; laften pa. pl. abandoned 8/405, left 11/61; levyd pp. remained 11/328, ylaft left 18a/8 [OE lœ&c.ovline;fan]

leve

v.² (leve pr. 1 sg. 7b/99, 298; levez pr. 3 sg. 10/302, 304; lef imp. sg. 7a/24, leve 7b/214; leveth imp. pl. 7a/3) believe; believe to be 11/176, trust 7b/99 [OE gelēfan] leve v.³ see libbe

levedi

n. lady [OE hlœ&c.ovline;fdige]

levere, levest

see le(o)f

lewed(e)

adj. ignorant 7a/4, 12/72, 76, foolish 12/96, 99, 106, lewde vulgar 16/616 [OE lœ&c.ovline;wede]

lewedlych

adv. uselessly 12/90, 92 [from prec.]

lewednes

n. ignorance 12/82, lewdenesse incivility 16/520 [from OE lœ&c.ovline;wede]

libbe, leve

pr. 1 sg. live 7a/44, 7b/16, 14g/ 5; libbeth pl. 7b/70; levyng pr. p. 6/13 [OE libban, leofian]

lich

n. corpse 4/79, 11/146, 314 [OE līc]

licnes

n. likeness 6/55 [OE gelīcness]

lien, lye, ligen, ligge

v. (lið pr. 3 sg. 3/162, lyth 18b/183, lyeth 7a/89, lys 8/458; lien pl. 1/65, ligeð 3/107; lygge pr. 3 sg. subj. 7b/160; lien imp. 3/161; ligginde pr. p. 3/3, liggeand 5/388; lay pa. 9/37, lyggid 11/76) lie; stay 9/37, stay in bed 9/88, lie idle 7b/160, apply 7a/89, be appropriate 13/253, be allocated 1/65 [OE licgan]

lyfe

n. (live dat.) in bi his ~ upon pain of death 3/45, opon ~ alive 11/150, on ~ alive 8/293, 17/138, in this life 8/51; lyvez gen. in hys ~ longe all his life 10/477 [OE līf ]

lyflode

n. food, livelihood [OE līflād]

lyftes

pr. 3 sg. builds 9/12; lyfte pa. lifted 9/369, 433; lyft pp. raised 9/258 [ON lyfta]

ligen, ligg‐

see lien

lyght

adj. easy 16/553; liʒtest superl. 6/16 [OE lēoht]

lyght

see lyhte

lighte

pa. illuminated 18b/19 [OE līhtan]

lyʒt

v. descend 9/423; lyʒtis pr. 3 sg. alights 9/329; liʒt imp. 9/254; lighten pa. pl. fell 11/322; lyht pp. 14g/12, lyʒte arrived 10/247 [OE līhtan]

liʒtly, lightly

adv. easily 6/160, 19/29, casually 15/115, probably 8/88, swiftly, quickly 8/179, 288, 9/292, 328, at once 11/334 [OE lēohtlīce]

lyhte

adj. bright 14h/14, lyght 16/188, lyʒte pleasant 10/238 [OE lēoht]

likeing, likinge

n. love 13/28, joy 10/247, of gode ~ pleasing 5/599 [from next]

liken, liki

v. please 2/342; lykes, likeþ pr. 3 sg. pleases; impers. it pleases [OE līcian]

liklyhede

n. likelihood, probability 18b/144 [ON líkligr + OE *‐hœ&c.ovline;du]

lyknyng

n. in in ~ of by imitating 8/30 [ME liken, from like adj.]

lylled

pa. quivered 8/447 [MDu lillen]

lym

n. limb 10/462; pl. 7a/8 [OE lim]

lymped

pa. fell 8/194, happened to 8/265 [OE limpan]

lynage

n. family, relatives 7a/26 [OF lignage]

lyndes

n. pl. loins 9/139 [OE lendenu, ON lendir]

lire

n. flesh 11/149 [OE līra]

lys

see lien

lyst

n. desire, longing 6/19, 10/173, joy 10/ 467 [from next]

lyste, lest, lust

pr. 3 sg. pleases to 17/159; impers. it pleases (him etc.) 2/213, 8/42, 11/162, ne ~ me I have no wish to 2/287, me ~ bet I would rather 2/39; lyst(e), leste pa. wished 8/51; pa. impers. it pleased (him etc.) 13/29, 155, 16/551, 17/84, 18a/12 [OE lystan]

listely

adv. craftily 6/227 [OE listelīce]

lyte

n. little 16/111, 264, 18a/9 [OE ly&c.macr;t]

lyte

adj. small 16/64, 350; in ~ worth of little value 7b/263 [ON ly&c.macr;t]

lith

n. limb 10/398, bone, joint 15/228 [OE liþ]

lyth

see lien

lið

see lien

lyþe

v. assuage 10/357 [OE līþian]

liðe(n)

v. travel 3/4, sail 3/85 [OE līþan]

live

see lyfe

lo

interj. in ~ what see what 7b/259 [? from ME loke]

lode

n. in on ~ in my care 8/504 [OE lād]

lodesmon

n. steersman 8/179 [OE lādman]

lodlich, lodely, loþli(ch)

adj. hateful 2/32, 71, 91, horrible 5/78, 461, terrible 8/230, 11/328 [OE lāþlic]

loef

see love

lof

n. praise; of ~ excellent 8/448 [OE lof ]

lof

v. love 8/30, lovye 7b/218, 221; luveden pa. pl. 1/72, lofden 9/21 [OE lufian]

lof

adj. see le(o)f

lofte

n. in on ~ aloft, above [ON loft]

log(g)e

n. shelter 8/457, 461 [OF loge]

loʒe

n. water 10/119, sea 8/230 [OE luh from Gaelic loch]

loʒe

adj. lowly 9/302; logh as n. in on ~ below 11/147; loghe adv. low 11/334 [ON lágr]

loh

see laʒe

loke, lokin

v. look 4/16, behold 14r/4, consider 10/463, watch over 7b/85, 8/504, take care 2/166, 295, 7b/277, 14k/30 [OE lōcian]

loken

see louked

lollares

n. pl. idlers 7b/74, 287 [from MDu lollen and Lollaert]

loltrande

pr. p. lounging 8/458 [uncertain]

lome

n. vessel 8/160, receptacle, tomb 11/ 68, 149; pl. tools 7a/45 [OE lōma]

lome

adj. defective 2/364 [OE lama, loma]

londe

n. land, country; lont 8/322 [OE lond]

long

adj. as n. in upon ~ in the end 11/175 [OE long]

longen

pr. pl. pertain 11/268, 18a/31; longande pr. p. belonging 10/462 [cf. OE gelang]

longes

n. pl. lungs (eaten as offal) 7b/189 [OE lungen]

longeth

pr. impers. in me ~ I long 17/312 [OE langian]

lont

see londe

lording

n. lord, sir [from OE hlāford]

lore, loore

n. learning 14j/58, knowledge 12/73, teaching 8/350, lesson 17/397, instruction 12/8, 28, 31, doctrine, way of thinking 13/18, contrivance 11/264, manner 10/236 [OE lār]

lorelles

n. pl. wastrels 7b/129 [from OE ‐loren, pp. of ‐lēosan]

lorn(e)

see lese

los

n. praise 9/258 [OF los]

lose

v. ruin 8/198 [OE losian]

lose

adj. loose 13/262, laus 18a/210 [ON lauss]

losynger

n. evildoer 8/170 [OF losenger]

lossom

adj. lovely [OE lufsum]

lot(e)

n.¹ noise 8/161, 9/119, voice 10/238; pl. 8/183, voices 9/244 [ON lát]

lote

n.² casting of lots 8/180 [OE hlot]

loþ

adj. hateful (to) 2/65, 72, 194, reluctant 7b/48; superl. 17/237 [OE lāþ]

loþe

n. grief 10/377, in withouten ~ without stint 9/127 [OE lāþ]

loþli(ch)

see lodlich

louable

adj. praiseworthy 7a/103 [OF louable]

louʒ

see laʒe

louked

pa. was fastened 9/217; loken pp. 9/ 35, locked 14r/2, enclosed 11/147 [OE lūcan]

loused

pa. uttered 11/178 [from ON lauss]

love

n. loaf 7b/196, loef 7b/286 [OE hlāf ]

love

see le(o)f

love‐bene

n. love‐favour 14k/26 [OE lufu + bēne]

lovelych, loveloker, lovelokkest

see lufly(ch)

loves

n. pl. hands 11/349 [? ON lófi]

lovesom, ‐sum, lufsoum

adj. lovely 5/111, 460; as n. lovely one 10/398 [OE lufsum]

lovyd

pp. glorified, praised 11/288, 324 [OE lofian]

lovye

see lof v.

lovyng

n. praising 8/237, 11/349 [from OE lofian]

lowe

see laʒe

lowede

pa. refl. in ~ hym submitted 7b/194 [from low adj., ON lágr]

luche

pr. pl. tip 8/230 [uncertain]

lud

n. language (of birds) 14g/4 [OE lœ&c.ovline;den]

lud

adj. loud 2/6, 4/3; ludere fem. dat. sg. 3/30, 150; lude adv. loudly 2/112, 141, 3/93 [OE hlūd, hlūde]

lude

see lede

luef

see le(o)f

luff

n. love 19/31 [OE lufu]

lufly(ch)

adj. gracious 9/38, beautiful 9/433, lovelych lovely 9/419; loveloker comp. more lovely 10/148; lovelokkest superl. adj. loveliest 9/52; luveliche, luflych adv. willingly 4/39, amicably 9/254 [OE luflic, luflīce]

lugge

imper. pull 15/137 [? ON]

lugh

see laʒe

lur

n. injury 8/419; pl. sorrows 10/358, deprivations 11/328 [OE lyre]

lurkkes

pr. 3 sg. moves cautiously 8/277 [uncertain]

lust

imp. listen 2/263, 267; luste pa. listened 2/143, 253 [OE hlystan]

lust

see lyst(e)

lust(e)

n. enjoyment 16/15, desire 16/219, 17/476 [OE lust]

lusti

adj. vivacious 13/85, vigorous 13/196, 16/130 [from OE lust]

lut

pa. bent 9/418 [OE lūtan]

luteþ

pr. 3 sg. lies low 2/373 [OE lūtian]

luther

adj. wicked, evil 7b/253, 295, 8/198; luðere dat. pl. 3/32, 68; luþer adv. badly 8/500 [OE ly&c.macr;þre]

luveden

see lof v.

luveliche

see lufly(ch)

ma

n. more 3/169 [OE mā]

macers

n. pl. mace‐bearers 11/143 [OF maissier]

mach

v. equal 9/282 [from OE gemæcca]

macod, maced, mad(e)

see makien

mæi

n. kinsman 3/2 [OE mœ&c.ovline;g]

mæste

n. mast, acorns 3/77 [OE mæst]

maghty, maʒti

adj. powerful 11/27, 143, 283 [from next]

maʒt

n. power 8/112 [OE mæht]

mahen, maht, may

see mowe

may

n. maiden 10/435, girl 14g/29, 14k/35 [? OE mœ&c.ovline;g]

mayn

adj. great, strong 9/94, 187 [OE mægen‐, ON megn]

maire

n. mayor 11/65; pl. mayors 7b/87 [OF maire]

maist, maystow

see mowe

mayster

n. knight 9/136; maystres pl. masters 7b/87 [OE mægester, OF maistre]

maysterful

adj. domineering 10/401 [from prec.]

mayster‐mon

n. chief official 11/201 [mayster + OE man]

maystrie

n. compulsion 11/234 [OF maistrie]

make

n. partner, husband 14g/18, 33, 14r/ 3; pl. mates 14h/20 [OE gemaca]

makelez

adj. matchless 10/435 [from prec.]

makien, ma

v. (mas pr. 3 sg.; macod, makede, maket, makkyd pa.; maced, makyd, ymake, ymad, mad(e) pp.) make; build 1/13, 11/43, ordain 1/70, compose 12/105, 134, summon 1/6; ~ in mynde record 15/50, ~ opon throw open 11/128, ~ feste celebrate 10/283 [OE macian]

malais, malese

n. hardship 5/240, 7b/233 [OF malaise]

malicious

adj. sinful 8/508 [OF malicius]

malskred

pp. bewildered 8/255 [cf. OE malscrung, ‘enchantment’]

malte

v. melt 11/158 [OE gemæltan]

man, me

pron. one 1/52, 2/142, 340, 3/68, 5/112, 7a/54, anyone 1/39; men pl. people, they 5/194 [OE man]

manace

v. threaten 8/422 [OF manacer]

manas

n. threat 11/240 [OF manase]

mandeþ

pr. 3 sg. sends forth 14h/16, 25 [OF mander]

maner(e)

n. kind(s) of 12/54, 88, 13/18, custom 9/90; al ~ every kind of 5/589; pl. respects 8/22, manners 10/382, kinds 11/ 60 [AN manere]

manerly

adv. ceremoniously 11/131 [from prec.]

manhede

n. human nature 19/105 [from OE man + *‐hœ&c.ovline;du]

manifældlice

adj. of many kinds 1/81 [OE manig‐fealdlīce]

manken(ne)

n. mankind 14l/16, 14p/9 [OE mancyn]

manred

n. in ~ maked done homage 1/11 [OE manrœ&c.ovline;den]

mansed

adj. accursed 8/82 [cf. OE amansian]

marbre

n. marble 11/48 [OF marbre]

mare

comp. adj. greater 1/43, more 4/21; as n. more 1/54 [OE māra]

marjorys

n. pl. pearls 10/206 [OF margerie]

marres

pr. 2 sg. damage 10/23, pr. pl. perish 8/172; marred pp. spoilt 8/474 [OE merran]

mas

see makien

mate

adj. daunted 9/336 [OF mat]

matere

n. subject 16/26; materes pl. elements 8/503 [OF matere]

matyd

pp. overcome 11/163 [OF mater]

maulardes

n. pl. ducks 5/310 [OF malart]

mauth

see mowe

mawe

n. belly, throat [OE maga]

me

see man

meast

superl. adj. greatest 4/74 [OE mœ&c.ovline;st]

meaðeleð

pr. 3 sg. speaks 4/38, pronounces 4/61 [OE maþelian]

meche

see miche

mecul

see micel mede n.¹ reward 8/22, bribery 11/234; pl. virtues 11/270 [OE mēd] mede n.² meadow 16/184, 17/53 [OE mœ&c.ovline;d]

medill

v. deal 15/90 [OF medler]

meek

v. in ~ hym submit himself meekly 6/ 158 [from meek adj., ON mjúkr]

meere

n. place 11/114 [OE gemœ&c.ovline;re]

me(e)te

adj. sufficient 8/420, equal 15/257 [OE gemœ&c.ovline;te]

me(e)ve

v. move 16/150, prompt 12/106; pr. pl. occur 10/64; meved pa. 9/90, 10/ 156 [AN mever]

meind

pp. mingled 2/131; imeind mixed 2/18 [ME mengen, OE mengan]

meynye

see meny

mekelye

adv. gently 19/119 [from ON mjúkr]

mekest

superl. adj. most compassionate 11/ 250 [ON mjúkr]

mekylle

see micel

meled

pa. spoke 9/447 [OE mœ&c.ovline;lan]

melle

n. mill 18a/388 [OE mylen]

melly

n. contest 9/342 [OF melee]

mellyd

pp. mingled 11/350 [OF meller]

memorie

n. commemorative Mass 7b/104 [OF memorie]

men

see man, mon

mende

n. mind 14r/20 [OE gemynd]

mende

v. help 15/159; mendyd pp. cured 11/298 [AN mender]

mendenantes

n. pl. beggars 7a/76 [OF mendinant]

mene

v.¹ mean 17/171, recall 11/151; imp. have in mind 6/3; menande referring to 19/125; mente pa. 16/581; ment pp. in ~ be intended for 16/158 [OE mœ&c.ovline;nan]

mene

v.² (refl.) in me ~ complain 14j/8; meneþ pr. pl. complain 14h/22; menyd pa. lamented 11/247 [OE mœ&c.ovline;nan]

menege

v. remember 7b/104 [OE mynegian]

meny, meynye

n. retinue 9/101, followers 11/65 [OF menie]

menyng

n. interpretation 12/150, intention 19/75 [from OE mœ&c.ovline;nan]

menske

n. honour 10/162, courtesy 11/337 [ON mennska]

menskefully

adv. elegantly 11/50 [from prec.]

menskes

pr. 3 sg. honours 11/269; menskid pa. 11/258; mensked pp. adorned 9/153 [as prec.]

menstraci

n. minstrelsy [OF menestralsie] ment(e) see mene v.¹

meoster

n. craft, skill 4/14, 80, occupation 4/26; mesters n. gen. in ~ mon craftsman 11/16 [OF mester]

mercyable

adj. merciful 8/238, 18b/236 [OF merciable]

merciles

adj. obtaining no mercy 11/300 [from OF merci]

mere

n. water 10/158, sea 8/112 [OE mere]

meré

see miri

meritorie

adj. meritorious 11/270 [OF meritoire]

merlyon

n. merlin (small hawk) 16/339 [AN merilun]

Mersh

n. March 14g/1 [AN marche]

mershe

n. marsh 2/304 [OE mersc]

mersyen

v. impose a fine upon 7b/37 [AN mercier]

merþes

see mirþe

mervayl

adj. wonderful 8/81 [OF merveil]

mervelande

ppl. adj. full of wonder 19/68 [OF merveillier]

mesch(i)ef, methchef, myscheve

n. misfortune 7b/233, 14l/8, trouble 8/209, 484, 11/240, evil 12/12, injury 15/258; mischeves pl. evils 6/159 [OF meschief ]

mese

n. moss 5/248 [OE mēos]

meshe

v. crush 2/84 [? OE *mœ&c.ovline;scan]

mest

adv. most(ly) 5/12, 25 [OE mœ&c.ovline;st]

mesters

see meoster

mesuage

n. dwelling house 18a/125 [AN mesuage]

mesure

n. restraint 8/295, moderation in judgement 17/418, design 16/305; over ~ immeasurably 16/300 [OF mesure]

mete

n. food; mealtime 7b/51 [OE mete]

mete

v. dream 16/108, 115; mette pa. 16/ 95, 17/90 [OE mœ&c.ovline;tan]

mete

see me(e)te

metely

adv. fittingly 11/50 [from OE gemœ&c.ovline;te]

methchef

see mesch(i)ef

metropol

n. capital 11/26 [OF metropole]

meve(d)

see me(e)ve

micel

adj. great 1/4, much 1/57, 58, muchele 3/36, 4/25, 72, mochel 13/165, 236, mecul 11/27, 286, mekylle 19/50, mykel 14j/ 30, mukel large 8/268; muchel as n. much 14j/58; mochel, muchel adv. much 14k/31 [OE micel, mycel]

miche, meche, much

adj. much 5/28, 278, 11/206, 220, large 11/81, great 8/70, 9/ 182 [from prec.]

mid

prep. with; adv. in oþer ~ others as well 2/136 [OE mid]

middel

n. waist 14g/16 [OE middel]

myddes

n. middle 9/74, 19/98 [cf. OE on middan]

myghtely(e)

adv. completely 19/27, powerfully, 19/131, steadfastly 19/137 [from OE mihtig]

myghtty

adj. steadfast 19/135 [OE mihtig]

miʒt

n. power, faculty 6/45, command 12/ 150; pl. strengths 9/282 [OE miht]

myhtes

see mowe

mykel

see micel

milde

adj. gentle 1/9 [OE milde]

mynde

n. memory 16/69 [OE gemynd]

min(e)

see ich

mynyd

pa. excavated 11/43 [OF miner]

mynnyd

pa. mentioned 11/104 [ON minna]

mynnyng

n. observing 11/269 [from prec.]

minstre

n. church 1/61, 80 [OE mynster]

mint(e)

pa. intended 1/66, pointed out 11/ 145 [OE myntan]

miri(e), meré

adj. lovely 5/58, 62, 436, 8/32, elegant 9/153, excellent 11/39; myriest superl. 9/142, 10/435 [OE myrige]

mirþe

n. entertainment 9/45, music 10/92; merþes pl. joys 9/40 [OE myrgþ]

mis

adv. awry 4/13, wrongly 4/61 [from OE miss, ‘loss’]

misbede

imp. maltreat 7b/42 [OE misbēodan]

myscheve

see mesch(i)ef

myserecorde

n. mercy 10/366 [OF misericorde]

mysetente

pp. uttered in error 10/257 [mis‐+ OF attendre]

mysgo(on)

pp. gone wrong 18a/364, 398, 401 [OE mis‐ + gān]

mislikeþ

pr. pl. displease 2/344 [OE mislīcian]

myslykynge

n. discomfort 19/13 [from prec.]

myspened

pp. misspent 7a/93 [from OE mis‐ + spendan]

misraddest

pa. 2 sg. advised wrongly 2/160 [OE misrœ&c.ovline;dan]

missays

n. hardship 5/262 [OF messaise]

mysse

n. loss 10/262, 364, wrong 8/420 [OE miss]

misse

v. fail 16/40, 75; mysse pr. 1 sg. lack 10/382; myste pp. lacked 11/300 [OE missan]

myssepayed

pp. displeased 8/399 [OF mespaiier]

mist

see mowe

myste

n. spiritual mysteries 10/462 [from Lat. mysticus ?]

miswent

pp. turned in the wrong direction 13/226 [OE miswendan]

mith

n. might 14p/28, 14r/15 [OE miht]

mið

prep. with 4/18 [OE mid]

mythe

v. hide 14j/48 [OE mīþan]

mywen

v. stack 7a/14 [cf. OE mūwa]

mo, moo

n. others 14h/22, 18a/116; wiþouten ~ without any other 6/55, 87 [OE mā]

mo

adj. more; adv. in ever ~ all the time 2/238 [OE mā]

mochel

see micel

mod

n. heart, mind; feeling 2/8, behaviour 10/401 [OE mōd]

moder‐sunnen

n pl. mother‐sins 4/84 [OE mōdor + synn]

mody

adj. proud 8/422; as n. pl. emotional ones 14h/22 [OE mōdig]

moght‐freten

adj. moth‐eaten 11/86 [OE moþþe + fretan]

moʒt

see mowe

mol

n. dirt 10/382 [uncertain]

molde

n. earth 7b/17, 11/270; pl. clods 8/ 494, 10/30, 11/343 [OE molde]

mollok

n. rubbish 18a/19 [unknown]

mon

n. man; monnen gen. pl. of men 3/95, 125, men 7a/29 [OE mon]

mon(e)

n. sorrowing 5/198, 10/374, complaint 7b/130, 14r/11 [OE *mān, cf. OE mœ&c.ovline;nan, ‘complain’]

mone

v. utter 14k/39 [ON muna, ‘remember’]

moni

adj. many [OE monig]

moniales

n. pl. nuns 7a/76 [Lat monialis]

monlokest

superl. adj. noblest 11/250 [OE mannlic]

moot

see mot(e)

moote

v. speak 15/159 [OE mōtian]

mor

n. moor 14c/1, 2, 5 [OE mōr]

mordre

n. murder 18b/178 [OE morþor]

mordrer(e)

n. murderer 16/353, 612 [from prec.]

396 more

comp. adj. as n. greater 11/247; of ~ in addition 7b/35 [OE māra]

mornyng

n. mourning 10/262 [OE murnung]

morow(e), morwe, mor(o)wen

n. morning 7b/180, 11/306, 12/155 [OE morgen]

mortas

n. socket 15/220 [OF mortaise]

mose

n. titmouse (small bird) 2/69 [OE māse]

mote

n.¹ city 8/422 [OF mote]

mote

n.² speck 8/268, 299; pl. spots 11/86 [OE mot]

mot(e), moot, motte

pr. sg. & pl. (most, muste pa.) must; may 2/52, 9/342, 15/ 246; pa. might 5/233, 330; impers. in us ~ we must 15/25 [OE mōt]

moul

n. earth 10/23 [uncertain]

moulyng

n. mouldering 11/86 [ON *mugla]

mountes

pr. 3 sg. amounts 11/160 [OF monter]

mowe

v. be able to 6/107, 110; may pr. 1 sg. can do 14j/64; mist pr. 2 sg. might 2/78, mowe may 7b/40, maht 14j/40, mauth 14l/5, 11, 19, maist 16/116, maystow 2 sg. + pron. may you 18b/128; muʒe pr. pl. might 2/62, 182, mahen may 4/15, 73, mowe 6/143, 12/70, can 7b/ 224, 343; mowe 2 sg. subj. 7b/233; moʒt pa. might, was able; myhtes pa. 2 sg. could 1/39, 14k/22 [OE mæg etc.]

mowled

ppl. adj. gone mouldy 18a/16 [? from ON *mugla]

much

see miche

muchel(e)

see micel

muckel

n. dimensions 9/142 [OE mycelu]

muʒe

see mowe

muynde

n. record 12/25, mind 12/74, recall 12/150 [OE gemynd]

mukel

see micel

mulne

n. mill 2/86 [OE mylen]

munec

n. monk 1/72; munekes pl. monks 1/47, 57 [OE munuc]

munster

n. cathedral 8/268 [OE mynster]

munten

n. pl. hills 3/86 [OF mount, OE munt]

mur(e)ʒþe, murthe

n. pleasure 2/341, 355, joy 11/335 [OE myrgþ]

murgeþ

pr. pl. make happy 14h/20 [OE myrgan]

murye

adv. joyfully 16/592 [OE myrige]

murily

adv. merrily 18b/101 [from prec.]

mus

n. pl. mice 2/87 [OE mūs]

muste

see mot(e)

mustir

v. manifest 15/277 [OF mustrer]

muð

n. mouth 4/13, 14p/7 [OE mūþ]

na

adj. no 1/5, 3/45, 4/6, nan 1/12; nenne masc. acc. sg. 3/28 [OE nān]

nabbeþ

pr. pl. have not 2/252; nade pa. 5/ 392, 8/257 [OE nabban from ne + habban]

nadres, neddren

n. pl. adders 1/24, 4/54 [OE nœ&c.ovline;ddre]

naʒt

n. night 8/352, 465 [OE næht]

naityd

pp. recited 11/119 [ON neyta, ‘use’]

naked

adj. as n. naked flesh 9/423 [OE nacod]

nakryn

adj. of drums 9/118 [OF nacaire]

nalde

see nil

nam

pr. 1 sg. am not 5/430, 14j/71; nis pr. 3 sg. 2/369, 4/50, 14g/26; nas pa. sg. 5/ 150, 354, 11/285, nes 14j/53; nare pl. 5/ 390; nere pa. subj. 2/22, 17/409 [OE nam etc. from ne eam etc.]

nam

see nym

nameliche, namely

adv. especially 7b/51, 275, 12/73 [from OE nama]

nammore, namoore

n. nothing more 1/ 38, 17/176, 18a/44 [OE nān + māra]

nan, no(o)n

pron. none 1/41, no‐one 11/ 241, 16/159 [OE nān]

nan

see na

nappe

v. sleep 8/465 [OE hnappian]

nare, nas

see nam

narew

adj. narrow 1/26 [OE nearu]

natheles

adv. nevertheless 13/70, 16/162 [OE nā þē lœ&c.ovline;s]

nauht(e), nawt

see noʒt adv.

naule

n. navel 10/459 [OE nafela]

nauþer

see nother

ne

adv. not; conj. nor, nee 10/262 [OE ne]

nease

n. nose 4/78 [? cf. MDu nese]

neddren

see nadres

nede

n. business 16/384, 559 [OE nēd]

nedelyngis

adv. necessarily, absolutely 15/ 15 [OE nēadlunga]

nede(s)

adv. necessarily 5/468, 8/44, 45 [from OE nēd]

neʒed, nyhed

pa. approached 7b/322, 8/ 352, 9/132; ~ to approached 8/465 [from next]

neh, neiʒe, nyʒ

adv. nearly 3/123; 5/199, 12/124 [OE nēah]

neiʒhonde

adv. nearly 6/40 [from prec. + OE hond]

neyh, nyh, neigh

prep. near 7b/297, 322, 13/168 [OE nēah]

neltu

see nil

nemely

adv. nimbly, quickly 15/120, 219 [from OE nœ&c.ovline;mel]

nempned

pa. named 5/600 [OE nemnan]

nenne

see na

ne(o)deþ, nedis

pr. 3 sg. is necessary (for); neded pa. 18a/166, 307 [OE nēodian]

neodful(e)

adj. necessary; as n. needy 4/55 [from OE nēod]

neppes

n. pl. cups 4/59 [OE hnæp]

ner

adj. comp. nearer 14k/13; nexte superl. nearest 18b/172 [OE nērra, nehst]

ner(e)

adv.¹ nearly 7b/175, 8/169; ner(r)e comp. more closely 8/85, never the ~ no nearer success 16/619 [OE nēr]

nere

adv.² never 7a/40 [OE nœ&c.ovline;fre]

nere, nes

see nam

nevenes

pr. 3 sg. names 9/10; nevenyd pp. 11/195 [ON nefna]

neves

n. pl. nephews 1/8 [OE nefa]

new(e)

adv. newly, anew 5/593, 11/6, 14, 37 [OE nēowe]

nexte

see ner

nyce

see nys

nyceté(e)

n. foolishness 16/572, 18a/192 [OF niceté]

nyʒ

see neh

nyght

v. become night 16/209 [from OE niht]

niʒtes

n. gen. by night 2/238 [OE niht]

niʒtingale

n. pl. nightingales 2/203 [OE nihtegala]

nyh

see neyh

nyhed

see neʒed

nil

pr. 1 sg. will not 5/211, 17/146, nulle 14k/20; neltu pr. 2 sg. + pron. will you not 2/150; nil 3 sg. 5/332; nold(e) pa. would not 2/159, 5/280, did not want 16/90, nalde 4/55 [OE nyllan, ne + willan]

nym

imp. (nom, nam pa.; namen, nome pa. pl.; ynome, nomen, nummen pp.) take; seize, capture 1/7, 16, 8/76, 95, 360, adopt 9/91 [OE niman]

nys, nyce

adj. foolish [OF nice]

nis

see nam

nist

pa. knew not 5/288, 494, nyste 16/152, 18a/371, 446 [OE nyste, ne + wyste]

nith

n. night 14q/15 [OE niht]

nivelin

v. snivel 4/24 [uncertain]

no

adv. not 5/333, 424; as n. denial 5/50; conj. nor 5/150, 354 [OE nā]

nobelay

n. nobleness 9/91 [OF nobleie]

node

n. pl. in gode ~ brave deeds 2/388 [OE nēod]

noght

adj. to no avail 11/101 [OE nōwiht]

noʒt

n. nothing; nohte dat. 3/118 [as prec.]

noʒt, nouʒt, nauht(e), nawt

adv. not (at all); ryhte ~ not at all 7a/82 [as prec.]

noy

n. suffering 11/289 [from OF anoi]

noiþer

see noþer

nok

n. corner 8/278 [uncertain]

nold(e)

see nil

nome

n. name [OE nama, noma]

nom(en)

see nym

non

adv. not at all 11/157 [OE nān]

non

see nan

none

n. noon 15/15; pl. noon mealtimes 7b/ 146 [OE nōn, Lat nona]

nones

adv. in for þe ~ for the purpose 11/ 38, indeed 5/53, now 15/219 [ME *for þan anes]

none‐tide

n. midday 5/497 [OE nōntīd]

noon

see nan

noot, not

pr. 1 sg. do not know 17/35, 133 [OE ne wāt]

nortelrye

n. good breeding 18a/113 [jocular formation on OF norture]

not

see noot

notable

adj. well‐known, notorious 18b/233 [OF notable]

note

n.¹ business 2/330, 9/358, 420, event 10/155, construction 11/38, fuss 11/101 [OE notu]

note

n.² tune 5/602, 18b/69 [OF note]

noþeles

adv. nonetheless 2/149, 374 [OE nā þē lœ&c.ovline;s]

noþer, noiþer

pron. neither; adj. in no ~ no other 5/230 [OE nāhwæþer]

nother, nouther, nowther, nauþer, nothyre, noþir

adv. & conj. neither, nor [as prec.]

noþerward

adv. downwards 2/144 [from OE neoþor]

noþing

adv. not at all 5/31, 13/156, 16/158 [OE nān þing]

noþynk

n. nothing 10/308 [as prec.]

nouche

n. brooch 13/22 [OF nuche]

nouʒt

see noʒt

nourne

v. state 11/101; nournet pp. in ~ me after addressed me in the name of 11/195 [cf. Sw norna, ‘whisper’]

noust

adv. not 14e/3, nout 14j/53, nouth 14q/13 [OE nōwiht]

nouþe

adv. just now 5/466, 7b/299 [OE nū þā]

nowiderwardes

adv. in no direction 1/32 [from OE nōhwider]

nulle

see nil

nummen

see nym

nw(e)

adj. new 9/105, 118 [OE nīwe]

o

see on , adj. & num., prep.

obeissant

adj. obedient 13/104 [OF obeissant]

oc

see ac

occupyed

pp. filled 19/107 [OF ocuper]

oen

see on , pron.

of

adv. off 3/158, 16/132, 18b/213; prep. from 1/67 [OE of ]

ofdred

pp. afraid 4/90 [OE ofdrœ&c.ovline;dan]

office

n. service 13/12, duty 16/236 [OF office]

ofte

adv. often; ofter comp. more often 17/ 496 [OE oft]

oftoned

pp. annoyed 2/254 [OE of + tēonian]

oghne

adj. own; owe 2/100, oʒe 2/118, ahne 4/71, owhen 5/163, owen 9/408, aune 9/10; ahʒere dat. fem. 3/163; auen pron. 9/293 [OE āgen]

oʒain

adv. back 5/162; prep. towards 5/497 [OE ongēan]

oʒt

see o(u)ʒt

ohte

adj. brave 3/51 [from OE ōwiht]

olofte

adv. above 16/683 [ON á lopti]

on

adj. & num. one 8/40, 9/30, 206, 314, 12/17, o 2/333, 6/63, 69, 12/152, 17/37, oo 6/91, an 1/64, 4/60, 69 [OE ān]

on

pron. one (person) 2/117, 13/20, 85, 116, oen 7a/10, ænne 3/71 [as prec.]

on, o

prep. in 1/41, 56, 3/21, on 3/142, 4/ 17, 40 [OE on]

onane

adv. then 19/68, 92 [OE on āne]

one

adj. & adv. alone 6/55, 7a/52, 8/216, ane 3/99 [OE ān]

on(e)

see a

onende

prep. concerning 10/186 [OE on emn]

ones

adv. once 15/221, 17/481 [OE œ&c.ovline;nes]

one‐under

adv. underneath 11/70 [OE on + under]

onfon

v. begin 3/42 [OE onfōn]

onhit

pp. taken hold of 8/411 [from OE hittan]

only(ch)

adj. single 6/44, only 12/60 [OE ānlīc]

onlicnes

n. likeness, image 3/23 [OE onlīcnes]

onoh

n. enough 1/29 [OE genōg]

onswarez

pr. 3 sg. answers 9/386 [OE andswarian]

ontfule

adj. as n. pl. envious people 4/14 [from OE anda]

oo

adv. all the time 14h/7 [OE ā]

oo

see on adj. & num.

opan

prep. upon 5/506 [OE up + on]

ope

adj. open 2/168 [from OE open]

opelond

adv. in the country 7a/44 [OE uppe + lond]

openlice

adv. openly 1/54 [OE openlīce]

or

adv. in ~ … ~ either … or 13/22, 216 [OE oþþe]

or

conj. before 15/146, 215, 256 [OE ār]

ord

n. point 4/29 [OE ord]

ordainy

pr. 1 sg. appoint 5/205; ordande pp. prepared 15/243 [AN ordeiner]

ordenaunce

n. decree 16/390 [OF ordenance]

order

n. in by ~ in turn 16/400 [OF ordre]

ordinel

adj. ordered, regular 6/95 [Lat ordinalis, OF ordenel]

ore

n. mercy 14k/12 [OE ār]

orhel

n. pride 4/3 [OE orgel]

oryʒt

adv. fittingly 9/40 [OE on riht]

orisoun

n. prayer 8/328 [OF orison]

orl

n. leader 3/56 [OE eorl]

orlogge

n. clock 16/350 [OF orloge]

orped

adj. doughty, valiant 13/192 [OE orped]

ossed

pa. showed 8/213 [uncertain]

ost

n. army 5/290 [OF (h)ost]

ostel

n. dwelling place 9/253 [OF (h)ostel]

other, ouþir, ouþer, auþer

adv. & conj. either 6/197, or 1/22, 5/350, 8/2, 12/55, 65(1); ~ … or either … or 6/150, 9/88; ~… oþer 2/328, 8/52, 11/86 [OE oþþe]

oðer

pron. & adj. the other 4/34, 14k/20; oþre pl. 4/31, 13/54, 66 [OE ōþer]

oþerwhile

adv. at other times 5/289, 297, 13/117, from time to time 7a/50 [OE ōþerhwīle]

oþerwyse

adv. in a different way 12/64 [OE on ōþre wīsan]

oþre

see oðer

ou

see ʒe

ought

adv. at all 15/252, aught 17/268 [from next]

o(u)ʒt, auht

n. anything, anything whatever 6/5, 202, 7b/235, 9/300; ~ worþ worth anything 12/88 [OE āwiht, āht]

ouhte

see awith

oure

n. hour 6/47 [AN ure]

ourn

see irnen

ous

see we pron.

oute

adv. openly 13/157, 232 [OE ūte]

outetake

pr. 1 sg. except 6/190 [OE ūt + ON taka]

ouþer

see other

outrageouse

adj. excessive 16/336 [OF outrageus]

outtrage

adj. extraordinary 9/29 [OF outrage]

over

prep. in ~ al(le) everywhere 16/172, 284 [OE ofer]

overdede

n. excess 2/352 [OE ofer‐ + dœ&c.ovline;d]

overdrofe

pa. passed 11/117 [OE oferdrīfan]

overloked

pa. surveyed from above 9/223 [OE ofer‐ + lōcian]

overquatie

v. in þe ~ glut yourself 2/353 [OE ofer‐ + OF quatir]

overseʒ, oversey

pa. looked over 2/30, oversaw, supervised 7b/120 [OE ofersēon]

oversithon

adv. too often 1/44 [OE ofer + sīþum]

overtan

pp. overtaken 8/127 [OE ofer‐ + ON taka]

overture

n. opening 10/218 [OF overture]

overvareþ

pr. pl. overrun 2/387 [OE oferfaran]

overwalt

pp. overturned 9/314 [OE ofer‐ + wæltan]

ovireshake

pp. shaken off 16/681 [OE ofer‐+ scacan]

oway, owy

adv. away [OE onweg, aweg]

owe

interj. expressing surprise 15/127, 140 [uncertain]

owe, ow(h)en

see oghne

owere

prep. over, throughout 19/18, 21 [OE ofer]

pace

v. go 17/80 [OF passer]

pay

n. in to (my) ~ pleasingly 16/271, 474 [OF paie]

pay

v. please 7b/332; paid pp. satisfied 13/ 51 [OF payer]

payne

n. bread 7b/285 [OF pain]

paynym

n. pagan 11/203, 285 [OF painime]

payred

pp. broken 10/246 [OF apeirer]

palfray

n. lady’s horse 5/156 [OF palefrei]

palmeres

n. pl. full‐time pilgrims 7b/63 [AN palmer]

panade

n. cutlass 18a/75, 106 [cf. OF penarde]

pane

n. fur edging 9/154 [OF pane]

panne

n. top of skull, brain‐pan 13/74 [OE panne]

pape

n. pope 1/63 [OE pāpa, Lat papa]

papenjay

n. parrot 16/359 [OF papingai]

parage

n. high rank 10/419, 11/203 [OF parage]

parayle

v. dress 7b/56 [from OF apareil]

paraunter, paraventure

adv. perhaps [OF par aventure]

parcener

n. sharer 6/121 [AN parcener]

pardé, perdé

interj. certainly 16/509, 571, 17/497 [OF par Dieu, par Dé]

parfay

interj. truly 5/315, 339 [AN par fay]

parfyte

adj. perfect 16/568 [OF parfit]

parfitely

adv. perfectly 6/139 [from prec.]

parfourned

pp. manifested 18b/4, 6; parfournest pr. 2 sg. 18b/155 [OF parfournir]

parte

v. in ~ with share in 7b/144; imp. share 7b/285 [OF partir]

partie

n. division, unit 6/39, part 6/131, 225, 17/394 [OF partie]

partlez

adj. deprived 10/335 [from OF part]

passeth

pr. 3 sg. surpasses 16/300; passe pl. proceed 9/378; passyd pp. surpassed 11/ 163 [OF passer]

patris

pr. 3 sg. prattles 15/266 [from Lat pater(noster)]

patro(u)nes

n. pl. patrons of ecclesiastical livings 7a/78, lords 9/6 [OF patron]

pavement

n. paved floor 18b/225 [OF pavement]

peaðereð

pr. 3 sg. stirs 4/46 [unknown]

peert

adj. pushy 18a/96 [OF apert]

peyneth

pr. 3 sg. refl. takes pains 16/339; peyne subj. sg. in hym ~ strive 16/662 [OF pener]

pelers

n. pl. columns 16/230 [OF piler]

pelure

n. fur 9/154 [OF pelure]

penned

pp. imprisoned 10/53 [OE *pennian]

pensyf

adj. sorrowful 10/246 [OF pensif ]

pented

pa. belonged 9/204 [from OF apendre]

perceth

pr. 3 sg. pierces 16/331 [OF percer]

perdé

see pardé

pere

n. equal 10/4, 15/222 [OF per]

perez

n. pl. pear‐trees 10/104 [OE pere]

person

n. parson 18a/89, 123 [OF persone]

pes

n. pea 7b/166; peses pl. 7b/306 [OE pise sg.]

pese

n. peace 8/423 [AN pes]

pese‐coddes

n. pl. pea‐pods 7b/316 [OE pise + cod]

peté

n. pity 8/327 [OF pité]

phalmes

n. pl. psalms 7a/47 [OE psalm, Lat psalmus]

philisophres

n. pl. scientists 6/38 [AN philosofre]

piche

v. pitch (hay) 7a/13, cut 7b/64; picchit, pyʒt pp. set 10/117, 192, 11/79; ~ of set with 10/205–6 [OE *piccan]

pie, py

n. magpie 2/126, 15/266, 18a/96 [OF pie]

pyece, pyse

n. individual 10/192, 229 [OF piece]

pykares

n. pl. pilferers 7a/17 [from next]

pike

imp. gather 6/126, 8/393; pykede pa. hoed 7b/118 [uncertain]

pykstaff

n. pilgrim’s staff 7b/64 [ON píkstafr]

piled

ppl. adj. stripped of hair, bald 18a/81, 452 [from OE pilian]

pynakled

pp. with pinnacles 10/207 [from OF pinacle]

pinchid

pa. squeezed 11/70 [AN *pinchier]

pyne

n. torment 4/25, 6/75, 11/188, anguish 8/412, 10/330, 15/260, penance 8/423, pain 14l/4; pines, pinen pl. torments 1/ 34, 4/35, 8/91 [OE *pīn]

pynez

pr. pl. confine 8/79 [? from OE gepyndan]

pinin

v. torture 4/82; pined(en) pa. pl. afflicted with (torture) 1/18, 76; pined pp. tortured 1/20, 77, 15/52 [OE pīnian]

pining

n. pl. tortures 1/19, 76 [from prec.]

pynnes

n. pl. pegs 7b/199 [OE pinn]

pyonys

n. pl. peonies 10/44 [OF pioné]

pysan

n. neck‐armour 9/204 [OF pizane]

pitosly

adv. piteously 8/371, with sympathy 10/370 [from AN pitous]

play

see pleie(n)

plaidi

v. plead the case 2/184 [OF plaidier]

plaiding

n. legal dispute 2/12 [from prec.]

playferes

n. pl. playfellows 8/45 [OE plega + (ge)fēra]

playn

n. meadow 10/104, pl. 10/122 [OF plain]

plain

adj. flat 5/353, pleyn smooth 10/178, 16/180, open 16/528 [OF plain]

playne, pleyn

v. complain 17/496, lament 16/179; ~ hym complain 7b/166; playnez pr. 3 sg. in ~ on complains about 8/376; pleynede pa. 7b/156, lamented 8/371, 10/53, 242 [OF plaindre]

planed

pp. levelled off 11/50 [OF planer]

planted

pa. established 8/111 [OE plantian, OF planter]

plat

adv. flat 18b/223 [OF plat]

plate

n. plate‐armour 9/204 [OF plate]

pleie(n), play

v. fool around 2/213, 18a/ 104, play 4/32, relax 5/66; pleieð pr. 3 sg. performs 4/29; pleyde pa. joked 18a/4 [OE plegian, plægian]

pleyn

adj. full 16/126 [OF plain]

pleyn

see plain, playne

pleynede

see playne

pleynly

adv. fully 17/272 [from OF plain]

plesaunce

n. pleasure, desire 16/218, 389, 636, 676 [OF plaisance]

plyande

pr. p. swaying 8/439 [OF plier]

plyʒt, plite

n. hostility 9/266, covenant 11/ 285 [OE pliht]

plyʒtles

adj. blameless 11/296 [from prec.]

plyhte

pr. 1 sg. pledge; ~ my treuthe plight my troth 7b/33 [OE plihtan]

plyt

n. state 8/114, manner 13/181, plite circumstances 16/294 [OF plit]

plite

see plyʒt

plonged

pp. plunged 12/81 [OF plongier]

plonttez

n. pl. plants 10/104 [OE plonte]

pobbel

n. pebble 10/117 [OE papol‐]

poyned

n. cuff 10/217 [OF poignet]

poynt

n. proviso 7b/35, particular 12/136, moment 19/22, 23, fro ~ to ~ in every respect 16/461 [OF point ]

poke

n. sack 18a/424 [OE pohha, OF poque]

pole

n. pool 10/117 [OE pōl]

polettes

n. pl. pullets, chickens 7b/303 [OF poulet]

policed

pp. polished 13/145 [OF polir]

pontificals

n. pl. bishop’s robes 11/130 [Lat pontificalis]

popper

n. dagger 18a/77 [from ME poppen, ‘strike’]

pore

see pover

porte

n. bearing 16/262 [OF port]

porvay

v. acquire 8/36; purveye pr. 2 sg. subj. provide 17/426 [AN porveier]

potage

n. soup or stew 7b/182, 285 [OF potage]

potte

pa. put 7b/197, 203; pot pp. 12/168 [OE potian]

pouþer

n. powder 12/82 [OF poudre]

pouþred

pp. pulverized 12/96; powdered scattered about 10/44 [from prec.]

pover

adj. poor 5/486; pore as n. poor people 7b/283 [OF povre]

poverlich

adj. like a poor man 5/236, 567 [from prec.]

powlez

n. pl. deeps 8/310 [OE pōl]

prayng

n. request 12/114 [from OF preier]

pref

see preve

preye

v. pray, beg 18b/73, 81 [OF preier]

prelacie

n. body of prelates 11/107 [AN prelacie]

preostes

see prost

prese

n. worth 10/419 [OF pris]

present

adv. here and now16/423 [OF present]

presente

n. presence 10/389 [OF present]

prest

adj. prompt 8/303, ready 16/307 [OF prest]

prestly

adv. promptly 7b/102, 11/130 [from prec.]

preue

adj. steadfast 8/525, valiant 9/262 [OF preu]

preve, pref

n. proof 16/497; in put in ~ to proved to be 10/272 [OF preve]

preven

v. prove 16/534; preve imp. show 8/288 [AN prever]

prevy

see privee

prye

v. gaze 17/404 [uncertain]

prik

pr. 1 sg. urge on 16/389; priketh pr. 3 sg. penetrates sexually 18a/377 [OE prician]

primate

n. bishop 11/107

prime

n. in hey ~ 9 a.m. 7b/119 [OE prīm, Lat prima (hora)]

primerole

n. primrose 14c/10, 11, 14 [cf. OF primerose]

pris, priis, price

n. reputation 13/3, 251, value 17/24, 19/30, praise as victor 13/127, excellence 10/193, 419; of ~ excellent 5/51, 64, 249 [OF pris]

prises

n. pl. levers 11/70 [OF prise]

privee, prevy

adj. secret 18b/116, private 16/260, special 10/12 [OF privé]

prively

adv. secretly, privately 18a/203, 18b/ 92 [from prec.]

proces(se)

n. discourse, argument 17/268, 292, business 17/485; in in ~ in course of time 16/430 [OF proces]

proferi

v. in ~ forþ offer 5/434; proferes pr. 3 sg. refl. presents (herself) 8/41; profrede pa. offered 7b/150, 318 [OF proffrir]

prophecy

n. prophetic books of Old Testament 12/128, 130 [OF profecie, Lat prophetia]

prost

n. priest 2/322; preostes gen. priest’s 1/47 [OE prēost]

prouesse

n. prowess 13/162 [OF proesce]

proverbis

n. pl. sayings 7b/264 [OF proverbe]

provid

ppl. adj. experienced 6/158 [OF prover]

providens

n. governing power 11/161 [OF providence]

provinces

n. pl. nations 9/6 [OF province]

prud(e)

adj. proud 4/7, 78, 14p/11; as n. pl. 4/1 [OE prūd, from OF prud]

pruyde

n. pride 7b/349 [OE pry&c.macr;de]

psalmyde

adj. in ~ writtes psalm writings, Psalter 11/277 [from OE psalm, Lat psalmus]

puison

n. poison 13/247 [OF puison]

pur

prep. in ~ charité for charity’s sake 7b/ 169, 266 [AN pur]

purchace

v. win 17/33 [AN purchacer]

pure, puyre

adj. pure 7b/124, refined, courtly 9/262 [OF pur]

pured

pp. trimmed 9/154 [OF purer]

purper

adj. dark coloured 5/242 [Lat purpura]

purveye

see porvay

put

n. pit 4/82 [OE pytt]

qu

‐ see also wh‐

quarterne

n. prison 1/24 [OE cweartern]

quaþ

see quod

qued

n. injury 8/4 [OE cwēad, ‘filth’]

queynte

adj. fanciful 6/145, quaynt intricate 11/133, quoynt gracious 8/417 [OF queinte]

quek

pr. pl. quack 16/594 [imitative]

quelles

pr. 3 sg. alleviates 8/4; quelled pa. killed 8/228 [OE cwellan]

queme

v. please 2/209 [OE cwēman]

queme

adj. pleasing 11/133 [OE (ge)cwēme]

quere

see quoer

questis

n. pl. singing 11/133 [OF queste]

queþen

adv. whence 9/461 [ON hvaðan]

quik

adj. alive 17/52, lively 9/177; as n. the living 12/175 [OE cwic]

quikken

pr. 3 sg. subj. develop 8/471 [from prec.]

quile

n. time 9/30, 257, while 11/105 [OE hwīl]

quit‐clayme

pr. 1 sg. give up claim to 9/293 [OF quiteclamer]

quyte

v. repay 16/112, get even with 18a/ 10, 62; quyteth pr. 3 sg. in ~ her hire rewards 16/9; quyt pp. 17/242, 18a/470 [OF quiter]

quyte

adj. free 16/663 [OF quite]

quod, quoþ, quaþ

pa. said 2/117, 5/226, 7a/26, 89, 102, 8/85 [OE cweþan]

quoer, quere

n. choir 7a/60, 11/133 [OF quer]

quoynt

see queynte

quontyse

n. marvel 11/74 [OF cointise]

qw‐

see wh

rachenteges

n. pl. chains 1/29 [OE racentēah]

rad

adj. afraid 9/251 [ON hræddr]

rad, radde(st)

see redon

radly

adv. quickly, promptly [OE hrædlīce]

ræie

adj. bold 3/58 [OE hrēoh]

ræse

n. assault 3/129 [OE rœ&c.ovline;s]

ræveden

see reve

ræveres

n. pl. robbers 1/50 [OE rēafere]

rage

n. passion 13/222 [OF rage]

rage

v. romp, flirt 18a/104 [OF rager]

raght, raʒt

see reche

rayke

v. go [ON reika]

rayleþ

pr. 3 sg. displays 14h/13; rayled pp. set 9/163 [OF reillier]

raysoun

see reso(u)n

rak

n. cloud 8/176; rakkes pl. 8/139 [cf. ON rek(i)]

rakel

adj. hasty 8/526 [uncertain]

ramel

n. muck 8/279 [OF ramaille]

randez

n. pl. borders 10/105 [OE rand]

rape

pr. pl. refl. hurry 7b/125; imp. refl. 7a/ 102 [ON hrapa]

rapely

adv. impetuously 10/363 [ON hrapalliga]

rather

comp. adv. sooner 7b/125 [OE hraþor]

rattes

n. pl. tatters 11/260 [uncertain]

raughte

see reche

rauþe

n. mercy, pity [from OE hrēow]

rave

pr. 3 sg. subj. act wildly 15/248 [AN raver]

ravyne

n. rapaciousness, greed 16/336; fowles of ~ birds of prey 16/323 [OF ravine]

ravysedest

pa. 2 sg. in ~ doun drew down (by force) 18b/17 [OF raviss–, from ravir]

rawes

n. pl. hedgerows 10/105 [OE rāw]

real

adj. royal 16/415 [OF real]

reame

see reume

rebel

adj. disobedient 16/457 [OF rebelle]

reche

v. hand over 9/66; reches pr. 3 sg. hangs 9/183; raʒt, raght, raughte pa. reached 9/432, set off 17/447, granted 11/ 256, 280, 338 [OE rœ&c.ovline;can]

rec(c)he

v. care 17/338, 434, pr. 1 sg. 2/58, 60, 10/333; roghte pa. in ~ of cared for 16/111 [OE reccan]

rechles

n. incense 4/77 [OE rēcels]

rechles

adj. carefree 9/40 [OE reccelēas]

recoverede

pp. won 16/688 [AN recoverer]

recoverer

n. relief 8/279 [AN recoverer]

redde(n), rede

see redon

rede, reed

n. counsel, course of action 2/ 307, advice 16/586, 608, 17/422 [OE rœ&c.ovline;d]

red(e)les

adj. baffled 11/164; as n. foolish ones 8/502 [from prec.]

redy

adj. in ~ of wise in 11/245 [from OE rœ&c.ovline;de]

redily

adv. fully 9/392 [from prec.]

redon

v. read 7a/69, guess 17/129; rede pr. 1 sg. advise 7a/102, 7b/283, 15/282, 293; redis 3 sg. speaks 15/24; rad(de) pa. ordered 8/406, read 16/21, advised 16/579; raddest 2 sg. advised 2/159; redden pl. 9/363; redde pp. spoken 9/443 [OE rœ&c.ovline;dan]

reed

adj. red 18a/296; as n. 18a/100 [OE rēad]

refete

v. refresh 10/88; refete, refetyd pp. fed 8/20, 11/304 [AN refeter]

refourme

subj. repeat 9/378; reformyng pr. p. restoring 6/58; refo(u)rmid pp. restored 6/48, 76 [OF refo(u)rmer]

refused

pp. excluded 7a/78 [OF refuser]

regni

v. reign 5/425; regneth pr. 3 sg. rules over 17/379 [OF reignier]

regretted

pp. grieved for 10/243 [OF regretter]

rehersen

v. give an account of 16/488; rehersed pp. repeated 9/392 [OF rehercer]

reken

adj. lovely 10/5, 92, upright 11/245; rekenest superl. adj. as n. noblest 11/135 [OE recen]

rekenly

adv. fittingly 9/251 [from prec.]

reklessenes

n. impetuosity 19/69 [from OE reccan]

rekneþ

pr. 3 sg. enumerates 12/26 [OE gerecenian]

reled

pa. rolled 9/304 [from OE hrēol n.]

relees

n. discharge 7b/99 [OF reles]

relusaunt

adj. glittering 10/159 [OF reluisant]

reme

see reume

remen

pr. pl. cry 8/502 [OE hrēman]

remenant

n. remainder 16/271 [OF remenant]

remorde

pp. afflicted 10/364 [OF remordre]

remwe

v. remove 10/427; remewit pa. departed 11/235 [OF remuer]

ren

n. run 18a/225 [from ON renna]

renaide

adj. renegade from the faith, apostate 11/11 [as next]

renayed

pp. refused to go to 8/344 [OF renaier]

renden

v. tear 8/526 [OE rendan]

renk(e), rynk

n. man, knight, sir [OE rinc, ON rekkr, earlier *renkr]

renne

v. run 8/52, 16/247, 18a/36; rennes pr. 3 sg. is current 9/310; ronnen pa. pl. ran 11/62; yronne pp. 18a/39, 236 [ON renna, OE rinnan]

renomed

pp. in ~ of famed for 13/255 [OF renomer]

renouns

n. pl. great reputations 5/202 [OF renoun]

rental

n. rent‐roll 7b/99 [AN rental]

rentes

n. pl. incomes 7a/73 [OF rente]

repairen

pr. pl. go 11/135 [OF repairer]

repe

v. reap 7a/15 [OE reopan]

replicacion

n. argument in reply 16/536 [OF replicacion]

repreve

n. reproach 17/419 [AN repreove]

rere

v. rise up 10/160, pp. stirred up 9/353 [OE rœ&c.ovline;ran]

reso(u)n, raysoun

n. reason 8/191, statement 9/392, 19/16, argument 12/81, 83, 96, 16/ 534; speke ~ speak 9/227; pl. words 9/443, 11/52 [OF resoun, raisoun]

rest

n. in at his ~ firmly in its place 16/376 [OE ræst]

restay

v. pause 10/437 [OF resteir]

restorment

n. recompense 11/280 [OF restorement]

retrete

v. reproduce 10/92 [OF retraitier]

reume, reame, reme

n. realm; ryalmes pl. 9/310 [OF realme, reaume]

reve

v. take away 8/487; pr. 3 sg. subj. take from 14g/33, deprive 18a/157; reveth pr. 3 sg. 16/86; ræveden pa. pl. plundered 1/ 38, 47 [OE rēafian]

reveyd

pp. driven 5/82 [AN riveier]

revel

n. revelling 9/40, 313 [OF revel]

reverenced

pa. bowed to 9/251 [from OF reverence]

reverez

see rivere

reverye

n. wildness 18a/151 [OF reverie]

revestid

pp. robed 11/139 [OF revestir]

rewe, rwe

v. regret 5/570, have pity 8/176, 502, 17/455, make sorry 15/69; reweþ pr. 3 sg. grieves 14k/14; rewe imp. have pity 14j/26, 63 [OE hrēowan]

rew(e)ful

adj. sorrowful 5/114, miserable 16/613 [from OE hrēow]

riall

adj. royal 11/77, glorious 10/160, 191 [AN rial]

ryalmes

see reume

rybauder

n. teller of ribald stories 7b/75 [from OF ribauder]

ribaudy

n. ribaldry 5/9, 18a/12 [OF ribauderie]

riche

n. kingdom 2/357, 361, 3/35 [OE rīce]

ric(h)e

adj. noble, powerful, splendid; as n. noble people 9/66; adv. splendidly 5/362, 9/159 [OE rīce, OF riche]

ryd

v. free 9/364 [OE ryddan]

ridend

pr. p. riding 1/49; ryden pp. ridden 7a/74 [OE rīdan]

rigge

n. back 5/500, 8/379 [OE hrycg, ON hryggr]

ryghtful(l)

adj. just, upright 16/55, 390, by right 16/639 [OE rihtful]

riʒt

n. what is right 2/229, justice 8/323; pl. in to (his) ~ fittingly 5/136, 292 [OE riht]

riʒt, ri(g)ht, riþt

adv. rightly 4/71, 14j/33, duly 8/326, exactly 8/344, upright 15/ 164, just 16/272, very 16/644; ful ~, wel ~ straight away 5/85, 191, 270, ~ nought nothing at all 19/50 [OE rihte]

riʒte

adj. very 2/276 [OE riht]

ryʒtwys

adj. just 8/490, 11/245 [OE rihtwīs]

ryhtfulnesse

n. justice 7a/32 [from OE rihtful]

rikeneres

n. pl. calculators 4/47 [from next]

rikenin

v. calculate 4/47 [OE gerecenian]

rinde

n. bark 5/260 [OE rind]

ryngand

pr. p. ringing, clamorous 11/62 [OE hringan]

rynk

see renk(e)

rise

n. branch [OE hrīs]

rist

pr. 3 sg. rises 18a/339, 395 [OE rīsan]

riþt

see riʒt adv.

ryve

v. break off 15/248 [ON rífa]

rivere

n. river bank 5/308, 16/184; reverez pl. 10/105 [OF rivere]

roche

n. rock 5/347, 349 [OF roche]

rode

n.¹ rood, cross; ~ tre cross 14p/25 [OE rōd]

rode

n.² red colour 14h/13, (ruddy) complexion 5/107, 11/91 [OE rudu]

rode

n.³ road 8/270 [OE rād]

roghlych

adj. stern 8/64 [from OE rūh]

roghte

see rec(c)he

roʒ(e), rowe

adj. rough; as n. turbulence 8/ 144 [OE rūh]

roynyshe

adj. mysterious 11/52 [uncertain]

ronge

pa. rang 16/492 [OE hringan]

ronk(e)

adj. rebellious 8/490, 11/11, fresh 11/91; as n. determination 8/298 [OE ranc]

ronkly

adv. arrogantly 8/431 [from prec.]

ronnen

see renne

roo

n. roe‐deer 16/195 [OE rā]

rorde, rurd

n. voice, utterance 2/311, 8/64, noise 8/396 [OE reord]

rote

n. root 5/256, 260, 10/420 [OE rōt]

rotede

pp. decayed 4/79 [OE rotian]

rottok

n. decayed matter 11/344 [from prec.?]

roun

n.¹ in on ~ around 8/147 [AN runt]

roun

n.² song 14g/38, 14h/2 [OE rūn]

roun

v. murmur 9/362; rowned pa. 8/64 [OE rūnian]

rouncé

n. horse 9/303 [OF rounci]

rous

n. talk 9/310 [ON hrós]

rousty

adj. foul 7b/75 [OE rūstig]

rout

n.¹ company 5/283, crowd 11/62 [OF route]

rout

n.² jerk 9/457 [cf. OE hrūtan]

routes

pr. 3 sg. snores 8/186; routeth 18a/ 313 [OE hrūtan]

routhe

n. pity 11/240, 16/427 [from OE hrēow]

routheles

adj. pitiless 17/346 [from prec.]

routyng, rowtyng

n. snoring 18a/312, 360 [from OE hrūtan]

rowe

see roʒ(e)

rowm

adj. big, spacious 18a/272; comp. 18a/ 291 [OE rūm]

rowned

see roun

ruch(ch)ed

pa. refl. in hym ~ turned 9/303, prepared himself 9/367 [OE *ryccan]

ruddok

n. robin 16/349 [OE rudduc]

rudnyng

n. red glare 8/139 [from OE rudian]

rugge

v. pull 15/131 [ON rugga]

rukelin

v. heap 4/45; rukeleð pr. 3 sg. 4/52 [from next]

ruken

n. pl. piles 4/45 [? ON hrúka]

rungen

pa. pl. rang 9/195 [OE hringan]

runisch

adj. fierce 9/457 [uncertain]

runyschly

adv. roughly 8/191, fiercely 9/ 304, 432 [from prec.]

rurd

see rorde

rwe

see rewe

sacryd

pp. consecrated 11/3, 159 [OF sacrer]

sadde

adj. grave 11/324, 19/68, serious, real 16/ 578 [OE sæd]

sadelye

adv. seriously 19/70

sæ

n. sea 1/1 [OE sæ&c.macr;]

sæden, sægen, sæin

see segge(n)

saf

prep. except 8/182; conj. in ~ þat except that 9/394 [AN sa(u)f ]

safe

adj. saved 19/40 [OF sauf]

saffer

n. sapphire 10/118 [OF safir]

saghe, sawe

n. account 10/226, speech 11/ 184; pl. commands 8/67, sayings 10/278, stories 15/274 [OE sagu]

saʒtled

pa. became calm 8/232 [OE sahtlian]

say

see seo

saym

n. grease 8/275 [OF saim]

saynte

adj. holy 14b/5 [OF saint]

sayntuaré

n. shrine 11/66 [OF saintuarie]

saytz

see seggen

sake

n. wickedness 8/172 [OE sacu]

sale

n. hall [OE sæl, OF sale]

sal(th), saltu

see schal

salue

v. salute, greet 18b/81 [OF saluer]

same(n)

adv. together 9/50, 363 [OE ætsamne]

samnes

imp. pl. refl. assemble 8/385 [OE samnian]

sare

adv. sorely 15/69, 19/69 [OE sāre]

sari

adj. sorry, grieved 3/2 [OE sārig]

satte

see sitt

satteled

pa. descended 8/409 [? OE *sætlan]

saule

n. soul 19/21, 46 [OE sāwol)

saunteryng

n. babbling 15/70, 150 [obscure]

sauter

n. Psalter [OF sauter]

save

v. preserve 16/461 [OF sauver]

save

adj. saved 8/334 [OF sauf ]

saverly

adj. satisfying, adequate 10/226 [from OF savour]

savyng

prep. and conj. except 6/21, 18a/117 [from OF sauver]

savour

n. satisfaction 17/269, pl. scents 16/ 274 [OF savour]

savoured

pa. smelt 8/275 [OF savourer]

sawe

see saghe

saweð

pr. 3 sg. disseminates 4/89 [OE sāwan]

sawle

n. soul 4/59 [OE sāwol]

scærp

adj. sharp 1/27, 31 [OE scearp]

scaft

see schafte

scal

see schal

scale

n. bowl 4/60 [ON skál]

scalen

n. pl. fish‐scales 3/109 [OF escale]

scape

v. escape 18a/233 [from AN ascaper]

schadde

see schede

schaef

n. sheaf 7b/350 [OE scēaf ]

schafte, scaft

n. shaft, spear 3/59, 9/205 [OE scæft]

schaʒe

n. thicket 8/452 [OE sceaga]

schal

pr. 1 sg. (schalt 2 sg., salt 14l/10, salth 14l/20; schaltu 2 sg. + pron., saltu 14l/21; sc(h)al 3 sg., sal 14l/12; scullen, schul(en), schulle, scholen pl.; scolde, sholde, sc(h)ulde pa.; sc(h)uldest, schust pa. 2 sg.) shall, should, would; must 3/68, 5/226, 6/1; pa. might 3/27, had to 7a/42 [OE sceal, scolde]

schalk

n. man, knight [OE scealc]

schamie

imp. refl. in ~ þe you should be ashamed 2/161 [OE scamian]

schankes, schonkes, sconken

n. pl. legs 3/13, 9/431, under ~ on his feet 9/160 [OE scanca]

s(c)hap, shape

v. (schaped, s(c)hope pa.; shapen pp.) make 11/88, fashion 7a/ 18, prepare 17/282, plan 13/200, 229, decree 8/247, bring about 16/502; refl. prepare oneself 6/26, 11/129 [from OE scieppan]

scharpe

adv. shrilly 2/141 [OE scearpe]

scharpely

adv. firmly 19/131 [from prec.]

schawin, schawe, schewe

v. display 4/3, tell 9/27, be seen 9/420; shewen pr. pl. show 18b/7; schawde pa. displayed 4/78; schewed pp. offered 9/315 [OE scēawian, sceāwian]

schede

v. distinguish 2/197, depart 10/ 411; schadde pa. shed 11/182 [OE scēadan]

s(c)hende

v. reproach 2/274, ruin 16/494; shente pa. put to shame 16/255; iscend, schent pp. put to shame 3/36, 14p/27, destroyed 8/476, 15/191, spoiled 17/38; schended ppl. adj. damaged 8/246 [OE scendan]

s(c)hene

adj. beautiful 10/203, 14j/2, bright 16/299; as n. bright sun 8/440, lovely person 10/166 [OE scēne]

scheome

see s(c)home

schere

n. expression 9/334 [OF chere]

schere

v. cut 9/213 [OE sceran]

schet

pp. enclosed 8/452 [OE scyttan]

schewe(d)

see schawin

schewynge

n. revelation 19/79 [OE scēawung]

schild(e)

v. shelter 2/62, shield 8/440; pr. 1 sg. 2/57; imp. hide 2/163 [OE scildan]

schille

v. ring out 5/272 [OE scellan]

schille

adj. shrill 2/142; adv. loudly 5/104, 526, shille clearly 14j/66 [OE scill]

schyre

adj. bright 8/476, 10/28, 284, fair 9/ 317 [OE scīr]

schitworde

n. pl. foul language 2/286 [OE *scite + word]

scholen

see schal

s(c)home, scome, scheome

n. shame 2/ 167, 3/36, 4/73, shameful thing 2/363 [OE scomu]

schomely

adv. shamefully 8/128 [from prec.]

schonkes

see schankes

schope

see s(c)hap

s(c)hore

n. hillside 10/166, bank 10/230 [OE scora]

schoter

n. archer 6/199 [from OE scēotan]

schowved

see schwve

schrewes

see shrewe

schrichest

pr. 2 sg. screech 2/223 [imitative]

schruden

v. clothe 4/55 [from OE scrūd]

schulde(st), schulen, schulle

see schal

schulen

v. squint 4/13; schuleð pr. pl. 4/18 [cf. OE bescy&c.macr;lan]

schunien

v. avoid 4/87; schuniet pr. 3 sg. 2/229 [OE scunian]

schust

see schal

schwve

v. thrust 9/205; schowved pa. pushed 8/246, shoofe 16/154 [OE scūfan]

sckete

adv. at once 8/195 [ON skjótt]

sclavain

n. cloak 5/343 [AN esclavine]

scolde

see schal

scome

see s(c)home

sconken

see schankes

scornynge

ppl. adj. mocking 16/346 [from OF escarnir]

scort

adj. short 1/26 [OE sceort]

screwen

see shrewe

sculde, scullen

see schal

scurtes

n. pl. saddle‐skirts 9/171 [ON skyrta]

se

adv. so 4/88 [OE swā]

seche

v. seek, look for; find 11/41; south, so(u)ghte pp. sought 14q/14, driven 15/103, driven in nails 15/148, examined 15/263 [OE sēcan]

sede

see segge(n)

see

see seo

seele

see sele

seere, seerly

see ser(e), serelych

seese

see sese

seet

see seo, sitt

sege

n. throne 8/93, bishop’s throne 11/35, siege 9/1 [OF sege]

segge

n.¹ man, knight [OE secg]

segge

n.² sedge 2/18 [OE secg]

segge(n), sægen, sæin, seyn(e)

v. (seie pr.1 sg.; seist, saytz 2 sg.; seið 3 sg., seyt 5/556; segget pl. 2/98; segge 2 sg. subj. 2/60; segget imp. pl. 2/113; seiing pr. p. 6/100; sede pa. 2/33; sæden pa. pl. 1/53; yseyd pp.) say, speak, tell, recite; ~ of speak about 2/309 [OE secgan]

seʒ(e), seiʒe, seigh, seyn

see seo

seyntwarie

n. sanctuary 7a/79 [AN sanctuarie]

seist

see segge(n)

seiþen

adv. afterwards 14l/21 [OE siþþan]

seke

see syke

seker

adj. sure 9/265, certain 19/34, 36 [OE sicor]

sekernesse, sikernes

n. certainty 19/38, 116, 131 [from prec.]

sekirly

adv. in truth 6/185 [from OE sicor]

sekke

n. sack‐cloth 8/382 [OE sæcc]

seknes

n. sickness 19/96 [OE sēocness]

seld

n. shield 14n/2 [OE sceld]

selde(n)

adv. seldom 10/380, 17/168 [OE seldan]

sele, seele

n. happiness 8/242, 296, felicity 11/279 [OE sœ&c.ovline;l]

selere

comp. adj. better 3/28 [OE sēlra]

sely

adj. wretched, poor 18a/42, 236, 246 [OE gesœ&c.ovline;lig]

selly

n. wonder [OE sellic adj.]

selve, self

adj. same 5/341, 16/96, actual 6/ 189 [OE self(a)]

sembla(u)nt

n. expression, faces 4/25, sign 9/468 [OF sembla(u)nt]

sembled

pp. assembled 8/177 [OF sembler]

seme

v. arbitrate between 2/187 [OE sēman]

seme

adv. becomingly 10/190 [ON sœmr]

sem(e)ly

adj. proper 6/203, lovely 5/411, 10/34, 14h/26; semlokest superl. as n. 14g/6; semely adv. fittingly 11/35 [ON sœmiligr]

sen

conj. since 15/7, 79, 89, 19/15 [OE siþþan]

sen

see seo

senatours

n. pl. statesmen 7b/87 [OF senateur, Lat senator]

sende

pa. sent 13/27, 34, sent a message 11/ 111; sendez pa. 2 sg. 8/415; send(e) pp. 11/8, 12 [OE sendan]

sendel

n. fine silk 7b/10 [OF cendal]

sene

n. eyesight 2/240, 368 [OE sēon]

sene

ppl. adj. visible 14j/4 [from OE sēon]

sengeley

adv. uniquely 10/8 [from OF sengle]

senne

n. sin 14l/15, 14r/8; pl. 14n/8 [OE synn]

senous

see synnous

sentence

n. teaching 16/35, meaning 16/ 126, decision 16/383, 530, subject matter 18b/111 [OF sentence]

seo, sene

v. (so pr. 1 sg. 2/34; sichst pr. 2 sg. 2/242; suþ 3 sg. 2/246, seþ 5/251, seet 14p/17; see imp.; s(e)iʒe pa. 5/147, 355, 9/200, seʒ 8/116, 10/175, 200, sih 13/ 136, say 7b/281, 18b/53, seigh 18a/5, 238, saugh 18a/204; seʒe pa. subj. 14j/ 54, syʒe 10/308; sen pp. 9/239, seyn 18b/ 140, 221) see; take care 15/264 [OE sēon]

seoc

see syke

seolcuðe

adj. rare, wonderful 3/111 [OE seld‐cūþ]

seove(n)

num. seven 3/88, 4/84, 86 [OE seofon]

ser(e), seere

adj. individual, various 9/124, 12/5, 15/224 [ON sér]

serelych, seerly

adv. individually 6/68, 103, 8/193 [from prec.]

serewe

n. sorrow 14j/13 [OE sorh]

serjauntes

n. pl. officers 8/385 [OF serjant]

sertayn

adv. indeed 9/174 [OF certain]

sertes

adv. assuredly 7a/22 [OF certes]

servyd

pp. deserved 11/275 [from OF deservir]

servin

v. in ~ of perform 4/12; servez pr. 3 sg. is of use 10/331; servið pr. pl. 4/14, 85 [OF servir]

servise

n. food at table 9/130 [OF servise]

sese, seese

v. cease 6/74, 15/138; sesez imp. pl. stop 8/391; sesed pa. ceased 8/369; pp. ended 9/1, 134 [OF cesser]

sese

pr. 3 sg. subj. seize 16/481 [OF seisir]

sete

n. throne 8/24, place at table 9/72 [ON sæti]

sete(n)

see sitt

seþ

see seo

seþþen, sethe(n)

adv. afterwards 5/162, 7b/62, 281 [OE siþþan]

seþþen, seþthe, seth

conj. since 5/121, 469, 7a/40, 12/1; ~ þat since 5/425 [as prec.]

settez

pr. 3. sg. establishes 9/14; sett(e) subj. in ~ atte nouʒt regard as nothing 19/52; pa. valued 10/8; in ~ a crie on entreated 5/511, ~ at a leef/pes thought nothing of 7a/97, 7b/166, ~ hym in seized 19/83; sett(e), (i)set, ysette pp. arranged 3/9, determined 8/487, seated 13/123, made firm 15/233, placed 16/149; ~ in asent agreed 8/177, ~ of established by 11/24 ~ be set on 19/30 [OE settan]

sewes

n. pl. broths 9/124 [OE sēaw]

sewid

pa. followed 11/204 [AN suer]

sextene

n. sacristan 11/66 [OF secrestein]

sexti

num. sixty 5/90 [OE siextig]

sh‐

see also sch

sharpe

adj. painful 16/2 [OE scearp]

sheete

v. shoot, use a bow 18a/74 [OE scēotan]

sherewe

see shrewe

shewen

see schawin

sholde

see schal

shon

n. pl. shoes 7a/18 [OE scō]

shoofe

see schwve

shoon

pa. shone 18a/444 [OE scīnan]

shope

see s(c)hap

shore

see s(c)hore

shrewe

n. scoundrel 7b/151, sherewe 18a/ 53; schrewes, screwen pl. 2/287, 8/77 [? OE scrēawa, ‘shrew‐mouse’]

shryve

pr. 1 sg. refl. make my confession 17/440 [OE scrīfan]

sichst

see seo

sidbordez

n. pl. side tables 9/115 [OE sīd + bord]

syfle

pr. 3 sg. subj. blow 8/470 [OF siffler]

siʒe, sih

see seo

siʒt

n. in in ~ to see 9/28 [OE ‐siht]

sih

see seo

syk

n. sigh, sighing [cf. next]

sike

v. sigh [OE sīcan]

syke, seoc

adj. sick, ill 3/2, 7b/147, 271; seke as n. sick man 16/104 [OE sēoc]

siker

v. assure 9/394 [from next]

siker

adj. certain 5/27, trusty 9/111, 115; sykerost superl. most certain 7a/39 [OE sicor]

sikerliche, sikerlik, sikerly

adv. certainly, truly [from prec.]

sikernes

see sekernesse

syn

conj. since 8/35, 9/24, 17/48 [OE siþþan]

singlerty

n. uniqueness 10/429 [OF senglerté]

synglure, syngulere

adj. exceptional 19/115, in in ~ as special 10/8 [OF]

synne

adv. afterwards 8/229 [OE siþþan]

synnous, senous

n. pl. sinews 15/103, 132, 147 [OE sinewe, seonewe]

syre

n. lord 7b/281, father 18a/392 [OF sire]

syt

n. evil 8/517 [ON *sýt]

siþe

n. time 2/293, 325; syþe pl. times 14j/ 46 [OE sīþ]

siðen

v. go 3/85 [OE sīþian]

syth(en)

adv. afterwards, then, since [OE siþþan]

syth(en)

conj. after, since, because; ~ þat since 18b/196 [as prec.]

sytole

n. citole (stringed instrument) 10/91 [OF citole]

sitt

pr. 3 sg. (sittende pr. p. 1/40; satte, sete, seet, pa. sg.; sete(n), seet pl.; sete pp.) sit, be seated; remain 1/40, weigh on 15/207 [OE sittan]

syttynge

ppl. adj. suitable 16/551 [from prec.]

skelton

pr. pl. hasten 11/278 [? ON]

skile

n. reason 6/174; skylles pl. arguments 10/54, 16/537 [ON skil]

skilful, skylfol

adj. reasonable 17/392, intelligible 12/144; skilfulle as n. righteous 11/278 [from prec.]

skilfully

adv. sensibly 16/634 [from prec.]

skirmi

v. in ~ wið toss 4/33; skirmeð pr. 3 sg. tosses 4/31, juggles 4/28 [AN eskirmir]

skleatteð

pr. pl. flap 4/18 [uncertain]

slade

n. valley 10/141 [OE slæd]

slaʒtes

n. pl. buffets 8/192 [OE slæht]

slayre

n. veil 7b/5 [? MLG sleyer]

slaked

pa. grew quiet 9/244 [OE slacian]

slawe

see slowe

sleigh

adj. sly 18a/86 [ON slœ&c.acute;gr]

sleighly

adv. cleverly 17/462 [from prec.]

sleihte, sleighte

n. skill 13/142, cunning scheme 13/193, trickery 18a/157, subtleties 18a/196; slyʒtes pl. devices 8/130 [ON slœgð]

sleke

v. abate 14p/21; slekkyd pa. relieved 11/331 [cf. ON sløkkva]

slent

n. splash 11/331 [ON sletta v.]

slente

n. slope 10/141 [ON]

slep(e)

pa. slept 1/54, 5/75, 134 [OE slœ&c.ovline;pan]

sleuthe

n. sloth 7b/245, 253 [OE slœ&c.ovline;wþ]

slydez

pr. 3 sg. slips 8/200, 466, slyd slips away 16/3 [OE slīdan]

slyʒtes

see sleihte

slypped

pp. in ~ upon slepe fallen asleep 9/ 244 [MLG slippen]

slo

v. slay, kill 5/332, slee 16/217; slou(ʒ), slo(w)h pa. 5/313, 13/45, 71, 14q/7, struck 3/154; sloʒen pl. slew 3/32 [OE slēan, ON slá]

sloberande

pr. p. dribbling 8/186 [cf. MDu slubberen]

slode

pa. fell 11/331 [OE slīdan]

sloghe

see slowe

sloumbe‐slep

n. deep slumber 8/466 [OE sluma + slēp]

slouthe

n. sloth 17/286 [from ME slou, cf. sleuthe]

slowe

adj. slothful 7b/244; slawe as n. slothful man 4/36; sloghe adv. drowsily 8/466 [OE slāw]

sluchched

ppl. adj. soiled 8/341 [uncertain]

smærte, smerte

adj. painful 3/127, 14l/10 [OE smeart]

smal(e)

adj. slender, thin; adv. into little pieces 5/538 [OE smæl]

smartly

adv. promptly 9/407 [from OE smeart]

smat, smo(o)t

pa. sg. smote, struck 3/62, 136, 138; ~ to struck at 3/75, ~ of struck off 13/73; smiten pl. 3/127; pp. 9/407 [OE smītan]

smoþely

adv. deftly 9/407 [from OE smōþ]

snelly

adv. quickly 15/118 [OE snellīce]

so

adv. & conj. so, as; as if 2/77, 97, 142, so well that 5/31; ~ as just as 13/126, al ~ just as 14j/43, ~ may be perhaps 7b/41 [OE swā]

so

see seo

soberly

adv. solemnly 8/334, 10/256, 19/121 [from OF sobre]

sobre

adj. serious 10/391 [OF sobre]

soche

adj. such 6/167 [OE swylc]

socour

n. aid 18b/82 [OF socours]

soffraunce

n. patience 8/417 [AN suffraunce]

soffre

imp. allow, accept, agree to 7b/82, 89 [OE soffrir]

softe

adj. quiet 13/166 [OE softe]

soghe

imp. spread 8/67 [OE sāwan]

soghte

see seche

sojournd

pa. lived 5/47 [AN sojurner]

sok

n. sucking 8/391 [OE soc]

sokored

pp. aided 8/261 [OF socorre]

solace, solas

n. fun 7b/22, comfort 8/487, 17/460 [OF solas]

solas

v. delight 5/383, solace amuse 16/ 297 [from prec.]

soleyne

adj. single 16/607, 614 [AN solein]

solemplye

adv. ceremoniously 19/103 [from OF solempne]

somedel

see sumdel

somwhat

n. something 18a/349 [OE sum + hwæt]

sonde

n. beach 8/341, sand 16/243 [OE sand, sond]

sondre

see so(u)ndre

sondri

adj. various 13/132, 16/258, 17/27, 28 [OE syndrig]

sone

adv. quickly, at once; sonnest superl. soonest 6/18 [OE sōna]

song(en)

pa. sang 2/26, 7b/122 [OE singan]

sooth

see soþ(e)

sor(e)

n. misery 5/263, 560, 8/507, pain 14g/ 35 [as next]

sore

adj. painful 14j/60, 16/13; adv. painfully, terribly 8/140, 14k/14, grievously 13/17, soore heavily 15/207, intensely 16/ 6, vigorously 18a/375 [OE sār, sāre]

sorfeet

n. surfeit, excess 7b/276 [OF sorfait]

sorful

adj. sorrowful 14p/3 [OE sorhful]

sorʒe

n. sorrow; filth 8/275 [OE sorh]

sortes

n. pl. lots 8/193 [OF sort]

soþ

adj. true [OE sōþ]

soþ(e), sooth

n. truth; for ~ in truth, truly [OE sōþ]

sothely

adv. truly 16/581 [OE sōþlīce]

sothfastlye

adv. firmly 19/74 [OE sōþfæstlice]

soþþe

adv. afterwards 2/324 [OE seoþþan]

sotlice

adv. foolishly 1/4 [from next]

sottes

n. pl. fools 2/297 [OE sott, OF sot]

souded

pp. in ~ to enlisted in the service of 18b/127 [OF souder]

soughte

see seche

souʒed, swey

pa. roared 8/140, sounded 8/ 429 [OE swōgan]

soukynge

see sowke

soun, sowne

n. sound 5/436, voice 8/429, utterance 11/324, 341 [AN soun]

sounde

n. health 11/92 [OE ‐sund]

so(u)ndre

n. in in ~ in pieces 15/190, 194 [phrase from OE onsundran]

soupe(n)

v. eat 7b/228, 18a/292; pr. pl. 11/ 336 [OF souper]

sourquydrye

n. pride 9/311 [OF surcuiderie]

soutares

n. pl. shoemakers 7a/72 [OE sūtere, Lat sutor]

south

see seche

soverayne, sufferayn

adj. highest 16/254, supreme 19/107 [OF soverein]

soveraynely

adv. most of all 15/55 [from prec.]

sovereynes

n. pl. superiors 7b/82 [as prec.]

sowe

v. do needlework 7b/10 [OE siowan]

sowke

v. suck 18a/303; soukynge pr. p. 18b/ 6 [OE sūcan]

sowl

n. relish eaten with bread 7b/285 [OE sufel]

spac

adv. in also ~ quickly 5/343 [ON spakr]

space

n. place 8/365, time 11/312, 15/124, 16/53 [OF (e)space]

spæren

n. pl. spears 3/110 [OE spere]

spak(e)

see speke

spakest

superl. adj. as n. wisest 8/169 [ON spakr]

spakly

adv. at once 8/338, frequently 11/ 312 [as prec.]

spale

n. rest 2/258 [OE spala]

sparcle

n. spark 6/136; sparkles pl. burning bits 18a/31 [cf. OE spærca]

spare

v. cease 16/699 [OE sparian]

speche

n. language 12/3, 4, 5 [OE spēc]

special

n. in in ~ particularly 13/52 [OF especial, Lat specialis]

spede

v. prosper 13/256; spedez pr. 2 sg. 9/ 410; speddestu pa. 2 sg. + pron. did you succeed 2/169; spedde pa. pl. succeeded 17/26; spede impers. in may the ~ it may prosper for you 7b/42, ille ~ þame may it go badly for them 15/71; refl. in me ~ make haste 16/385 [OE spēdan]

spe(e)de

n. success 11/132, help 17/9, profit 19/113; goode ~ quickly 15/29 [OE spēd]

speedly, spedely

adv. swiftly 6/135, profitably 15/124 [OE spēdlīce]

speke

pa. spoke 5/324, spak(e) 16/134, 18b/ 188 [OE sprecan]

spelle

n. speech 10/363, mere talk 2/264, sayings 2/294 [OE spell]

spelunke

n. tomb 11/217 [Lat spelunca]

spende

pr. 1 sg. utter 9/410; (y)spent, spende pp. finished, dead 5/199, 215, employed 15/124 [OE spendan]

spene

v. spend 7a/28, 69, practise 2/165; spenþ pr. 3 sg. spends, gives of itself 2/ 362 [? from prec.]

spennd

pa. clasped 10/49 [ON spenna]

sperhauke

n. sparrow‐hawk 16/338, 569 [OE spearhafoc]

speten

v. spit 2/39; sput pr. 3 sg. subj. 8/ 338 [OE spœ&c.ovline;tan, spittan]

spice

n. herb 16/206; in special ~ precious creature 10/235 [OF espice]

spire

n. reeds 2/18 [OE spīr]

spiten

n. pl. fin‐spines 3/110 [OE spitu]

spornande

pr. p. stumbling 10/363 [OE spornan]

spradde(n)

pa. spread 7b/184, 8/365; ysprad pp. 18b/2 [OE sprœ&c.ovline;dan]

spray

n. twig 14g/2 [uncertain]

spreynd

pp. sprinkled 18b/188 [OE sprengan]

spurie

v. spur 3/122 [from OE spura]

spuse

n. spouse 14r/1 [OF spus]

sput

see speten

sputeden

pa. pl. dug 7b/184 [OE spittan]

squerel

n. collective squirrels 16/196 [AN esquirel]

sse

pron. she 14a/5, 6, 14d/15 [? from OE hēo]

stablyd

pa. established 11/2; pp. 11/274 [OF (e)stablir]

stadde

pp. placed 11/274 [ON pp. staddr]

stæfne

see steven

stærcliche

adv. fiercely 3/34 [from OE stearc]

stærcne

see starc

stayned

pp. coloured 9/170 [ON steina]

stal

see stele

stale

n. position 9/107 [OE stal]

stalked

pa. walked cautiously 10/152 [OE stalcian]

stalle

v. detain 10/188 [OF estaller]

stalworþ

adj. stalwart 5/41 [OE stœ&c.ovline;lwyrþe]

stant

see stonde

starc

adj. violent 2/5; stærcne masc. acc. sg. strong 3/59 [OE stearc]

stard

pr. 3 sg. jumps 2/379; start, sterte pa. sprang 9/431, ~ up started up 17/447, 18a/438, 440 [cf. OE styrtan]

stare

n. starling 16/348 [OE stær]

stareblind

adj. completely blind 2/241 [OE stærblind]

staren

pr. pl. shine 10/116 [OE starian]

starf

see sterve

stature

n. form 16/366 [OF stature]

statute

n. law 16/387 [OF statut]

staven

n. pl. outlines 3/22 [OE stæf ]

sted

n. horse 9/176, 281; steden dat. sg. 3/ 25; stiedes pl. 13/110 [OE stēda]

stede

n. place 5/207, 13/204 [OE stede]

stefne

see steven

stek

pa. clung 9/152 [OE *stecan]

stel‐bawe

n. stirrup 9/435 [OE stēle + boga]

stele

pa. 2 sg. stole 2/103; stal 3 sg. 18a/ 141, 143 [OE stelan]

stelene

adj. pl. steel 3/107 [from OE stēle]

stel‐gere

n. armour 9/260 [OE stēle + ON gervi]

stepe

adj. shining 10/113 [OE stēap]

stere

pr. 1 sg. urge 6/80 [OE stēran]

steryng

n. impulse 6/3 [from prec.]

sterne

n. rudder 8/149 [ON stjórn]

sterne

adv. sternly 2/112 [OE styrne]

sternes

n. pl. stars 8/207, 10/115 [ON stjarna]

sterre

n. star 16/300 [OE steorra]

sterry

adj. starry 16/43 [from prec.]

sterte

see stard

sterve

v. die 16/420, 17/323, 18b/177; starf pa. 3 sg. 17/449; sturven pa. pl. 1/41 [OE steorfan]

steven

n. voice; in at ~ in conversation 10/ 188; stefne 2/314, 317, 3/150, stæfne 3/ 30 [OE stefn]

stiedes

see sted

stif, styffe

adj. brave, strong, firm, unflinching; uncompromising 2/5; ~ and stronge powerful 9/34; adv. without flinching 9/ 294 [OE stīf ]

stifly, stiffely

adv. firmly 6/148, 15/102, bravely 9/287 [from prec.]

stiheð

pr. 3 sg. rises 4/91; styʒ pa. sg. ascended 12/174 [OE stīgan]

stikeð

pr. 3 sg. stays 4/57 [OE stician]

stille

v. hold in silence 17/230 [OE stillan]

stille

adj. quiet 5/103, 14j/33, inactive 14j/70; adv. secretly 5/567, in a low voice 8/371, gently 14h/21 [OE stille]

stynte

v. stop 17/383; in ~ of cease from 10/353, 18b/105; stynte pa. sg. ceased 17/407; stynten pa. pl. 17/103; stint pp. finished 5/447, 8/73 [OE styntan]

stiðimoden

adj. valiant 3/59 [OE stīþmōd]

styþly

adv. firmly 9/431 [OE stīþlīce]

stoc

n. stump 2/25 [OE stoc]

stonde

v. stand; submit 16/546; stant, stont pr. 3 sg. stands 3/106, 5/556, 14r/10 [OE standan, stondan]

ston‐stil

adj. stone‐still 9/242 [OE stān + stille]

stote

v. stop 10/149 [? MDu stōten]

stounde

n. while 14k/38, 14m/2; in þat ~ then 5/550, in a ~ once 18a/138; pl. times 11/288 [OE stund]

stouned, stowned

pa. stunned 8/73, 9/301, were stunned 9/242 [OF estouner]

stout

adj. bold 5/184, 293 [OF (e)stout]

stræhte

see streche

stræme

see stram

strayne

v. restrain 9/176; straynez pr. 3 sg. stirs 10/128; strayned pa. controlled, carried along 8/234 [OF estreindre]

strayt

adj. tight 9/152 [OF (e)streit]

stram, strem

n. stream 3/83, 10/125; stræme dat. 3/107; stremes pl. currents 8/162, 234, seas 8/311 [OE strēam]

stra(u)nge

adj. foreign 12/2, 15, disdainful 16/584; as n. pl. strangers 17/411 [OF stra(u)nge]

streche

v. reach out 6/51, go 5/341; stræhte pa. held out 3/59 [OE streccan]

stree

n. straw 18a/19 [OE strēaw]

streʒt

adj. direct 8/234, well pulled‐down (stretched) 9/152; adv. justly 11/274 [OE streht, pp. of streccan]

stremande

pr. p. streaming, glowing 10/115 [from OE strēam]

stremes

see stram

strenges

n. pl. cords 1/23 [OE streng]

strengthe

n. force 1/67 [OE strengþu]

strepeth

pr. 3 sg. strips 18a/209 [OE *strēpan]

stresse

n. distress 10/124 [OF destresse]

stryf

n. suffering 10/248 [OF estrif ]

strikeþ

pr. 3 sg. flows 14h/21 [OE strīcan]

stryndez

n. pl. currents 8/311 [uncertain]

stryvande

pr. p. contending 8/311 [OF estriver]

stroyer

n. destroyer 16/360 [from OF destruire]

stronge

adj. great 8/305; adv. valiantly 10/ 476 [OE strang]

strot

n. wrangling 10/353 [OE *strūt]

struyen

pr. pl. destroy 7b/27 [from OF destruire]

stub(be)

n. tree‐stump 5/346, nail 15/102 [OE stub(b)]

stuyves

n. pl. stews, brothel 7b/71 [OF estuve]

sturez, stureð

pr. 3 sg. brandishes 9/331; ~ him occupies himself 4/44 [OE styrian]

sturne

adj. grim 9/334 [OE styrne]

sturnely

adv. grimly 9/331 [from prec.]

sturven

see sterve

subtil

see sutile

sucred

pp. sugared, sweetened 17/384 [from OF sucre]

sufferayn

see soverayne

suffisaunce

n. satisfaction enough 16/637 [AN suffisaunce]

suffise

v. permit 16/460; in ~ to be adequate for 10/135–6 [OF suffis‐, from suffire]

sulle

v. sell 7b/291; sullen pr. pl. 7b/329 [OE syllan]

sulve

adj. very 2/69 [OE sylf (a)]

sumdel

adv. something about 1/74, somewhat 4/21, 90, in some degree 7b/41, somedel rather 16/65; pron. part 16/112 [OE sum + dœ&c.ovline;l]

summe

adj. pl. some 4/12 [OE sum]

sumtime

adv. once 5/45 [OE sum + tīma]

sumwile

, sumwhyle adv. once 1/42, 8/57, at times 2/6 [OE sum + hwīl]

supplantorez

n. pl. usurpers 10/440 [OF supplantor]

sur

adj. rueful 4/24 [OE sūr]

sure

adv. securely 10/222 [OF seur]

sustene

v. support 18b/31, 38 [OF sustenir]

sustren

n. pl. sisters 4/83 [OE swuster]

sute

n. suit; in of self ~ of matching material 10/203 [OF sute]

suþ

see seo

suþe

adv. very 2/2, 12, 155 [OE swy&c.macr;þe]

sutile, subtil

adj. delicate 16/272; on ~ wise in expert fashion 11/132 [OF sutil]

swa

adv. so much 1/20, 4/72, thus 1/25, 4/ 38, in this way 1/30 [OE swā]

swa, swo

conj. as 3/76, 123, while 3/71, as if 3/80; ri ʒ t ~ just as if 2/76 [as prec.]

swærd

see sweord(e)

swayves

pr. 3 sg. sweeps 8/253 [ON sveifla]

swal

pa. 3 sg. swelled up 2/7, swelled 18b/ 108 [OE swellan]

swange

n. waist 9/138 [ON svangi]

sware

v. answer 10/240 [ON svara]

sware

adj. squarely built 9/138 [from AN esquarre]

swart

adj. black 8/363 [OE sweart]

swarves

pr. 3 sg. in ~ of turns aside from 11/167 [OE sweorfan]

swefte

adv. swiftly 10/354 [OE swift]

sweʒe

imp. hurry 8/72; sweyed, sweʒed pa. fell 8/151, brought 8/236 [OE swēgan]

swey

see souʒed

sweinde

pa. hung 3/14, struck 3/157; swenged swung round 8/250 [OE swengan]

swe(i)vene

n. dream 10/62, 16/115, 118 [OE swefn]

swelme

n. pain 8/3 [OE *swelm]

swelte

pr. 3 sg. subj. may burn 4/69 [OE sweltan]

swencten

pa. pl. oppressed 1/14 [OE swencan]

swenged

see sweinde

sweord(e)

n. sword 3/14, 74, 4/30, swærd 3/154; sweoreden pl. 3/143 [OE sweord]

sweore

see swyre

swepe

v. gather up 8/250; swepe pa. waded 8/341 [cf. OE swāpan]

swete

n. sweetness 16/161 [from OE swēte]

swete

v. sweat 7a/57, 7b/24, 134 [OE swœ&c.ovline;tan]

swettere

comp. adv. more agreeably 7b/228 [OE swēte]

swiche, swilce

adj. such; swilc pron. such 1/54 [OE swilc]

swikedom

n. treachery 2/167 [OE swicdōm]

swikeldom

n. treachery 2/163 [from OE swicol]

swikelhede

n. treachery 2/162 [as prec.]

swikes

n. pl. traitors 1/9 [OE swica]

swikeþ

pr. 3 sg. stops 2/336 [OE swīcan]

swinc, swinke

n. hard work, labour 1/57, 7b/241 [OE swinc]

swyndid

pa. faded away 11/342 [OE swindan]

swynes‐hed

n. pighead, i.e. sluggish fellow 18a/408 [OE swīn + hēafod]

swynkares

n. pl. workers 7b/259 [from next]

swynke

v. labour, do bodily work; swonken pp. 18a/381 [OE swincan]

swipen

n. pl. blows 3/69 [OE swipu]

swipte

pa. struck 3/158 [OE swippan]

swyre, sw(e)ore

n. neck 2/73, 3/20, 9/138, 14g/28 [OE swīra, sweora]

swiþe

adv. very, greatly, quickly; as ~ at once 16/623 [OE swīþe]

swyþez

pr. 3 sg. scorches 8/478 [ON svíða]

swyve

v. copulate with 18a/324; pp. 18a/ 412, 463 [OE swīfan, ‘move, sweep’]

swo

see swa

swoet

n. sweat 7b/241 [OE swāt]

swogh

n. soft noise 16/247 [from OE swōgan]

swoghe

adj. deathly 9/243 [OE geswōgen]

swolʒ

n. gullet 8/250 [from next]

swolʒed

pp. swallowed up 8/363, iswolʒe swallowed 2/146 [OE swelgan]

swonken

see swynke

swo(o)te

adj. sweet, lovely 4/77, 16/274, 296 [OE swōt]

swore

see swyre

swowed, swoned

pa. fell asleep 8/442, swooned 5/197; swownyng pr. p. 18b/ 173 [from OE *geswōgan, pp. geswōgen]

swulc

conj. & prep. as if 3/110, 166, like 3/ 109 [OE swulce]

swulche

adj. pl. such 3/112 [OE swulc]

ta

pr. pl. (as fut.) will take 8/78; ta, take imp. take 9/413, pass 15/244; token pa. pl. spread 11/57; tan pp. taken 9/490 [ON taka]

tabernacle

n. canopy over throne 5/412 [AN tabernacle]

tabourers

n. pl. drummers 5/521 [from next]

tabours

n. pl. drums 5/301 [AN tabur]

tacche

v. fasten 15/119; tacched pp. attached 9/219, 10/464 [OF atacher]

tadden

n. pl. toads 4/53 [OE tādige]

take

see ta

tale

n. conversation, debate 2/3, 17/218, words 10/257, speech 2/140, 8/135, report 11/102; tale pl. speeches 2/257 [OE talu]

talent

n. purpose 8/416, desire 11/176 [OF talent]

talenttyf

adj. desirous 9/350 [OF talentif]

tan

see ta

tape

n. blow 9/406 [cf. OF taper]

taxour

n. assessor (of a fine) 7b/37 [AN taxour]

te

def. art. the 1/58 [from OE se etc.]

teames

n. pl. brood 4/84 [OE tēam]

tecche

n. blemish 11/85 [OF teche]

teche

imp. direct 9/401; ytauhte pp. taught 7b/20 [OE tœ&c.ovline;can]

te(e)

v. go, travel 5/212, 318, 8/87, 416; teþ pr. pl. 5/274 [OE tēon]

teene

see tene

tegædere

adv. together 1/46 [OE tōgædere]

teynted

ppl. adj. convicted 15/77 [from OF ateint]

telle

v. describe 5/56, count 15/227; telde pa. told 7b/76 [OE tellan]

teme

n.¹ plough‐team 7b/20, 141 [OE tēam] teme n.² subject 8/358 [OF tesme]

temen

pr. 3 pl. belong 10/460; pa. 11/15 [OE tēman]

tempest

v. torment 19/92; pp. 19/132 [OF tempester]

tempreþ

pr. 3 sg. tunes 5/437; tempred pa. 5/526 [OE temprian]

tene

num. ten 5/99 [OE tīen]

tene, teene

n. anger 7b/124, 8/90, suffering 11/331, grief 14k/8, sorrow 17/61; pl. 10/ 332 [OE tēona]

tene

pr. 2 pl. subj. penalize 7b/36 [OE tēonian]

tenor

n. purport 8/358 [AN tenur]

tente

n. heed 10/387, 15/254 [from OF atente]

tent(e)

v. attend (to) 8/59, 15/180, 185, tend 8/498 [? from prec.]

tercel

n. male (hawk) 16/393, 405, 463 [OF tercel]

tercelet

n. male hawk 16/529, 533 [OF tercelet]

termes

n. pl. regions 8/61 [OF terme]

testyf

adj. headstrong 18a/150 [AN testif ]

þa

adv. then 3/1, 47 [OE þā]

þa

conj. when 3/9, 4/78; ~ … þa when … then 1/5–6 [OE þā]

þa

rel. pron. which 3/24, 87, 120, who 3/26, 65 [OE se etc.]

þaʒ, þagh

conj. though [OE þēah]

þan

adv. then 6/49, 15/42 [OE þanne]

þan

conj. when 14l/12 [as prec.]

þan

pron. dat. in after ~ after that 2/200, bi ~ from that 5/553 [OE se, dat. þœ&c.ovline;m]

thank

n. commendation 17/15, 376 [OE þanc]

þankworþ

adj. creditable 13/7 [OE þancweorþ]

thar

pr. pl. need 15/297 [OE þearf ]

þar

adv. there 2/97 [OE þār]

þar

conj. where 1/24, 2/16, 26, 126 [as prec.]

þarafter, þarbi

see þeraftur, þerbi

þar(e)vore

adv. for that reason 2/274, therefore 12/29, 79, 140 [OE þār + fore]

þarynne, þarmid

see þerinne, þermyde

ðat

conj. so that 1/31; þatow conj. + pron. that you 5/165, 454 [OE þæt, þæt + þou]

þat

pron. that which, what 2/95, 159, 218, 11/166, whatever 8/178 [OE þæt]

þaut

conj. though 14d/7 [OE þēah]

þe

rel. pron. which 3/11, 4/4 (2), 50 (1), who 3/27, 4/50 (2) [OE þe]

the

see þu

þear

see þer

þede

n. country [OE þēod]

þeder

adv. to there 9/402 [OE þider]

thee

v. prosper 16/569 [OE þēon]

þeʒ, þeh, þey

conj. though; just because 2/ 48, if, even if 2/284, 359, 384, 12/37, 49 [OE þēah]

þeines

n. pl. followers 3/94 [OE þegn]

thekynge

n. thatching 7b/199 [cf. OE þeccan]

þen(e)

conj. than 3/29, 6/34, 9/24 [OE þænne]

þenk, þenche

v. (þenkþ pr. 3 sg.; þenkande, thenkende pr. p.; þohte pa.; þoʒtest pa. 2 sg.; þohten pl.) think; intend to 2/157, 3/85, 11/225, hope (to) 13/254, 256; ~ in þou ʒ t imagine 5/373 [OE þencan]

þenkeþ

see þinkeþ

thenne

adj. as n. thin 18a/212 [OE þynne]

þenne

adv. thence 13/239 [OE þanon]

þenne

conj. when 3/42, 77, 98 [OE þænne]

þens

adv. thence 6/230, thennes 18b/113 [from OE þanon]

þeo

def. art. the 12/9 [OE se etc.]

þeo

pron. those 4/83 [OE þā]

þeose

see þes

þer

conj. where; þear 4/6 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r]

þerabof

adv. on top of it 8/382 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + on + bufan]

þeraftur, þarafter

adv. accordingly 7b/90; ~ longe after a long time 2/45 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r æfter]

þerate

adv. at it 5/380 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r æt]

þerbi, þarbi

adv. from them 9/117, concerning that 2/98, 244, thereby 12/65 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rbī]

therbiforn

adv. before that 18a/143 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + beforan]

there‐aʒeins

adv. to that 17/369 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + ongean]

þer(e)as

conj. where 8/41, 43, 9/432 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + ealswa]

þereof

adv. from them 12/31 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rof ]

þerinne, þarynne

adv. in it, in there, in that place [OE þœ&c.ovline;rinne]

þerk

n. darkness 5/370 [OE *þeorc]

þermyde, þarmid

adv. therewith 2/81, 156, with it 7b/68, with them 7b/155 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rmid]

þeroute

adv. out of there; out of doors 7a/ 16, overboard 8/174, 211 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rūte]

þertill

adv. to it 11/69, 15/12 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + ON til]

þerto

adv. to it; furthermore 6/4 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rtō]

þerwyth

adv. with it 8/60, at that, then 8/ 232, 9/121 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rwiþ]

therwythalle

adv. then, with that 16/405, 17/349 [OE þœ&c.ovline;r + wiþ + eall]

þes

demons. adj. & pron. this 4/40, 12/40; þes, þeos(e) pl. these 4/8, 21, 46, þeus(e) 12/29, 47 [OE þes etc.]

þet

conj. until 4/48, so that 4/69 [OE þæt]

þewes

n. pl. virtues 8/30 [OE þēaw]

þider

adv. thither, in that direction [OE þider]

þiderward(es)

adv. to that 2/143, towards there 4/18, 11/61, 112 [from prec.]

þilke

pron. that one 13/150; adj. that same 13/12, 167, 258, these same 16/61 [ þe from OE se + ilca]

þin

see þu

þing

n. in bi al ~ from every feature 5/321, 375; þing pl. matters 5/4, affairs 5/218 [OE þing]

þinkeþ, thynkes, þenkeþ

pr. 3 sg. & impers. (it) seems, me ~ it seems to me; þink subj. it would seem; þuʒte, þoghte pa. [OE þyncan, impers.]

þire

see þu

þis(e)

demons. adj. pl. these 5/340, 8/422 (1) [OE þes etc.]

tho, þoo

demons. adj. & pron. pl. those 6/ 108, 7a/49, 7b/25, 8/475, 10/109, 15/69 [OE þā]

tho, þo(o)

adv. then 2/25, 5/49, 7b/19 [OE þā]

tho

conj. when 7b/239 [OE þā]

þode

n. pl. peoples 2/387 [OE þēod]

þoghte

see þinkeþ

þoʒ, þof

conj. though, even though 2/304, 6/80; ~ al although 6/194 [ON þó, earlier *þoh]

þoʒtest, þohte(n)

see þenk

þole(n), þolien

v. suffer, endure; þoleden pa. pl. 1/55 [OE þolian]

thonk

pr. 1 sg. thank 17/155; thonketh pr. pl. 7b/135; þonked pa. 5/472; iþoncket pp. 4/87 [OE þoncian]

þonne

adv. thence 2/132 [OE þanon]

þore

adv. there [OE þār]

þor(o)u, þor(o)w, tho(u)rgh

prep. through [OE þurh]

þos

demons. adj. fem. nom. this 2/41; pl. these 2/139 [OE þes etc.]

þoþer

def. art. + pron. the other 12/17 [þe from OE se + ōþer]

þoþwethere

adv. even so 1/59 [OE þēahhwæþere]

þou, thow

conj. though 7b/34, 195, 14l/17 [OE þēah]

þouth

n. thought 14n/7 [OE þoht]

þrawen

pp. tied 9/194 [OE þrāwan]

threnen

adv. thrice 11/210 [OE þrinen, from ON]

þrengde

pa. crushed 1/27 [OE *þrengan]

þrestelcoc

n. male thrush 14h/7 [OE þrostle + OE cocc]

þretest

pr. 2 sg. in ~ to threaten 2/83; þreatið, þreteþ pr. 3 sg. threatens 4/ 63, refl. in him ~ chides 14h/7 [OE þrēatian]

þrid(de)

adj. third [OE þridda]

þrye(s)

adv. three times 12/141, 16/61, 18a/ 411, 18b/90 [from OE þrīwa]

þrin

adv. in them 4/45, 46 [OE þœ&c.ovline;rinne]

þriste

adj. bold 2/171 [OE þrīste]

thryvandly

adv. beautifully 11/47 [from next]

þryved

pa. prospered 8/521 [ON þrífask]

throgh

n. coffin 11/47 [OE þrūh]

þroʒe, þrowe

n. time, turn 2/260, while 14l/1 [OE þrāg]

thropes

n. pl. villages 16/350 [OE þrop]

throstel

n. thrush 16/364 [OE þrostle]

throte‐bolle

n. Adam’s apple 18a/419 [OE þrotbolla]

þu

pron. thou 3/161; the acc. thee 17/45, 18b/10; þin poss. adj. thy 14k/12; þire poss. adj. dat. fem. 3/162 [OE þū etc.]

þuʒte

see þinkeþ

þullich

pron. such 4/69 [OE þyllic]

þurʒ, thurgh

prep. through; þurth 5/237, 393 [OE þurh]

þurhut

adv. through and through 4/34; prep. right through 3/62 [OE þurh + ūt]

þusen

n. pl. thousands 1/33 [OE þūsend]

þuster

n. darkness 2/198, 230, 232 [OE þy&c.macr;stru]

þusternesse

n. darkness 2/369 [from prec.]

þustre

adj. dark 2/249 [OE þy&c.macr;stre]

þuvele

n. thicket 2/278 [OE þy&c.macr;fel]

þwarle

adj. intricate 9/194 [? cf. OE þweorh]

thwytinge

n. whittling 7b/199 [OE þwītan]

þwong

n. thong 9/194 [OE þwong]

tyd

adv. quickly [cf. ON títt]

tyde

n. time 12/155; þis ~ now 15/185, 235 [OE tīd]

tidende

n. tidings 3/49; pl. tydinge 3/1, tyþynges 8/78 [OE tīdung, ON tíðendi]

tydes

pr. 3 sg. comes to 18a/321; tid pp. occurred 17/224 [OE tīdan]

tyʒed

pp. fastened 10/464 [OE tēgan]

til

conj. until 1/9 [ON til]

tylye

v. cultivate 7b/244; tilede pa. 1/52; tiled pp. 1/40 [OE tilian]

til(le)

prep. to 7b/98 (2), 15/181 [ON til]

tylte

v. tumble 8/361; tult pa. 8/252 [OE *tyltan, cf. tealt ‘unsteady’]

tymes

n. pl. in by ~ on occasions 9/41 [OE tīma]

tyne

n. bit 8/59 [uncertain]

tyne

v. lose 8/500, 10/332, 15/300, waste 8/505, miss, fail to see 15/254; ytynt pp. lost 7a/93 [ON týna]

type

v. throw 8/506 [uncertain]

tipet

n. dangling tip of hood 18a/99 [uncertain]

typped

adj. consummate 8/77 [ON typpa v.]

tired

pa. dressed 5/586 [from OF atirer]

tit(e)

adv. quickly, at once 9/299, 15/12, 299; as ~ quickly 9/31 [cf. ON títt]

tyþynges

see tidende

title

n. inscription 11/102 [OF title]

to

n. toe 8/229 [OE tā]

to

adv. too 2/171, 257, 344, 7b/274, 12/59 [OE tō]

toberste

pr. 3 sg. subj. break 2/122 [OE tōberstan]

toblaweð

pr. 3 sg. blows around 4/89 [OE tōblāwan]

tobreke

v. break in pieces 18a/64; tobroke pp. shattered 18a/423 [OE tōbrecan]

tochan

pa. 3 sg. split in two 3/63; tochine pp. weatherbeaten 5/262 [OE tōcīnan]

toclæf

pa. 3 sg. split 3/155 [OE tōclēofan]

todeld

pa. dispersed 1/3 [OE tōdœ&c.ovline;lan]

todrawez

pr. 2 sg. dispel 10/280; todrowe pa. pl. tore to pieces 2/126 [from OE dragan]

togederes

adv. together 4/45, 52, togider 5/201 [OE tōgædere]

toʒeines

prep. towards 3/54 [OE tōgegnes]

to‐yere

adv. this year 15/164 [OE tō + gēar]

token, tokne

n. sign, proof 6/92, physical evidence 11/102, love token 13/25 [OE tācn]

token

see ta

tom(e)

n. interval 8/135, leisure 10/134, opportunity 11/313 [ON tóm]

tomurte

pa. broke 8/150 [uncertain]

tone

n. insult 2/50 [OE tēona]

tonge

n. pair of tongs 2/156 [OE tonge]

tonne

see tunne

torent

pp. torn to shreds 11/164, 16/432 [OE torendan]

torett

pa. tore up 5/81 [OE tō + *rittan]

torneie

pr. pl. tourney 13/117; tournayed pa. 9/41 [OF to(u)rneier]

torof

pa. ripped 8/379 [from ON rífa]

toshyvered

pp. broken in pieces 16/493 [cf. MDu scheveren]

tosomne

adv. together 3/40 [OE tosomne]

toswolle

pp. swollen up 2/145 [OE tōswellan]

totered

pa. tossed 8/233 [MDu touteren]

toþen

n. dat. pl. teeth 3/137 [OE tōþ]

totore, totorn

pp. torn to shreds 5/106, torn apart 5/171, 538, torn 16/110 [OE tōteran]

totose

v. tear to pieces 2/70 [OE tō + *tāsian]

towches

n. pl. musical notes 9/120 [OF touche]

towe

v. take 8/100 [OE togian]

trammes

n. pl. schemes 9/3 [OF traime]

travayl(e)

n. work 8/505, 15/300, suffering 15/254, trouble 17/3 [OF travail]

travayle

v. work, labour; tax 6/153; travayledez pa. 2 sg. worked 8/498; travayled pp. burdened 19/133 [OF travaillier]

trawe

see trowe v.

tren

see trowe n.

trenchaunt

adj. cutting, sharp 18a/76 [OF trenchant]

trendli

pr. 3 sg. subj. roll 2/135; pa. 10/41 [OE ‐trendlian]

tresor

n. royal treasury 1/3 [OF tresor]

trespased

pp. offended 12/117 [OF trespasser]

tret

pr. 3 sg. treads 17/347 [OE tredan]

trete

v. deal with 16/34 [OF tretier]

treulich, trewliche, treuely, trewely

adv. truly, indeed 6/35, 7b/20, justly 6/127, faithfully 18a/279, 19/35 [OE trēowlīce]

treuthe, trouthe

n. pledge 1/12, justice 7b/ 36, 11/268, integrity, honesty 7b/49, 57, 69, 17/160; treothes pl. pledges 1/12 [OE trēowþ]

trewe

n. truce, respite 7b/354 [OE trēow]

tricherie

n. treachery 9/4 [OF tricherie]

tryed

ppl. adj. fine 9/219 [OF trier]

trillyd

pa. flowed 11/322 [? ON]

tryste

n. confidence 19/36 [ON]

tryst(e)

v. (triste pa.) trust 6/30, 13/175, rely on 8/324, believe 9/380 [ON treysta]

tryste

adv. faithfully 10/460 [cf. prec.]

trysty

adj. faithful 12/151 [as prec.]

trompes

see trunpes

tronyd

pp. enthroned 11/255 [from OF trone n.]

trouthe

see treuthe

trowe

n. tree 2/135; tren pl. 12/161 [OE trēow]

trowe, trawe

v. believe, think [OE trēowian]

trunpes, trumpes, trompes

n. pl. trumpets 5/301, 9/116, 16/344 [OF trumpe]

trusse

pr. pl. pack up 13/236 [OF trusser]

trwe

adj. true; adv. firmly 10/460 [OE trēowe]

tulk

n. man, knight [ON túlkr, ‘interpreter’]

tult

see tylte

tun

n. village 1/49, monastic estate 1/71 [OE tūn]

tunne

n. barrel 4/59, tonne 16/104, cask 18a/40 [OE tunne]

tunscipe

n. people of the village 1/49 [OE tūnscipe]

turnyd

pa. converted (to Christian use) 11/ 15 [OE turnian]

turtel

n. turtle‐dove 16/510, 577 [OE turtla]

tuteleð

pr. 3 sg. whispers to 4/37 [uncertain]

twa

num. two 1/29, 4/69 [OE twā]

tweye

num. two 12/140, 17/170, 182 [from OE twēgen]

twelmonyth

n. as adv. in a year 9/383 [OE twelf + mōnaþ]

twengst

pr. 2 sg. pinch 2/156 [OE twengan]

twyes

adv. twice 18b/96 [from OE twige]

twynne

v. separate 15/193 [from OE twinn]

uch(e)

adj. each; uchon(e) pron. every one 7b/218, 8/164, uschon 11/93 [OE ylc, ylc + ān]

ughten

n. morning 11/118 [from OE ūhta]

ule

see hule

umbe

adv. about 8/309, 381 [OE ymbe]

umbefoldes

pr. 3 sg. covers 9/181 [prec. + OE faldan]

umbepyʒte

pp. adorned around 10/204 [OE ymbe + *piccan]

umbetorne

adv. around 9/184 [OE ymbe + OF tourn]

unavisid

pp. unconsidered 6/135, ill‐judged 10/292 [from OF aviser]

unbynde

v. free 16/523 [OE unbindan]

unbrent

pp. unburnt 18b/16 [from ON brenna]

unclene

adj. gross 2/233 [OE unclœ&c.ovline;ne]

uncler

adj. feeble 8/307 [from OF cler]

uncortoyse

adj. ungrateful 10/303

uncouþe

adj. unknown, strange 5/535 [OE uncūþ]

uncrounede

ppl. adj. untonsured 7a/62 [from AN coruner]

undede

pa. opened 5/385 [OE undōn]

undep

adj. shallow 1/26 [OE undēop]

undepartable

adj. indivisible 6/40 [from OF departable]

underfangen

pp. received 1/2; ~ fram received by 1/63 [OE underfōn, pp. underfangen]

undergæton

pa. pl. understood 1/9, underʒete 5/576; pp. recognized 2/168 [OE undergetan]

undernomen

pa. pl. understood 8/213; undernome pp. realized 5/320 [OE underniman]

understont

pr. 3 sg. understands 4/49; understonde pp. 12/144 [OE understondan]

undertide

n. morning 5/181; pl. 5/282 [OE underntīd]

underveð

pr. 3 sg. receives 4/39 [OE underfōn]

uneþe

see un(n)eþe

unglad

adj. unhappy 8/63 [OE unglæd]

ungode

adj. as n. dat. wicked one 2/129, 245 [OE ungōd]

unhappes

n. pl. misfortunes 17/456 [from ON happ]

unheled

pp. uncovered (by water) 12/160 [OE unhelan]

unkynde

adj. unnatural 13/167, cruel 16/ 434, 457 [OE uncynde]

unkyndnes

n. ingratitude 19/77 [from prec.]

unknawynge

n. ignorance 19/19 [from OE cnāwan]

unkut

adj. unrecognized 14l/3 [OE uncūþ]

unlouke

v. unlock, release 11/67, 162 [OE unlūcan]

unme(e)te

adj. excessively large 9/208, wrong 15/127 [OE un(ge)mœ&c.ovline;te]

unmeþe

n. immoderation 2/352 [OE unmœ&c.ovline;þ]

unmilde

adj. cruel 2/61 [OE unmilde]

un(n)eþe, unnethes

adv. scarcely 5/221, 416, 9/134, 19/85, with difficulty 17/4 [OE unēaþe]

unnynges

n. pl. indications 8/213 [? from OE unnan]

unorne

adj. feeble 2/317 [OE unorne]

unpreste

adj. unprepared 11/285 [from OF prest]

unrede

n. bad advice 2/161, evil counsel 2/ 212 [OE unrœ&c.ovline;d]

unriʒt

n. wickedness 2/165 [OE unriht]

unsaʒt

adj. warlike 11/8 [from OE sæht]

unseli

adj. wretched 4/14 [OE unsœ&c.ovline;lig]

unsittyng

adj. unsuitable 17/307 [from OE sittan]

unskathely

adj. as n. innocent 11/278 [from ON skaði]

unsounde

n. trouble 8/527 [OE un‐ + sund]

unsparid

pp. unrestrained 11/335 [OE un‐ + sparian]

unstrayned

pp. in ~ of untroubled by 10/ 248 [from OF estreindre]

unte

prep. unto 8/470 [cf. ON und‐ + OE tō]

untellendlice

adj. unspeakable 1/19 [from OE tellan]

unþe(a)w

n. vice 2/194, 4/88 [OE unþēaw]

unthrifty

adj. inauspicious, unlucky 15/90 [from ON þrift]

untressed

pp. not braided 16/268 [from OF trecier]

unwar

adj. foolish 8/115 [OE unwær]

unweelde

adj. feeble 18a/32 [from OE wielde]

unwemmyd

pp. unspotted 11/96, 266 [OE unwemmed]

unwiʒt

n. monster 2/33, 90; pl. 2/218 [OE un‐ + wiht]

unwrenche

n. dirty trick 2/169 [OE unwrenc]

unwreste

adj. bad 2/178; adv. poorly, badly 2/342 [OE unwræste]

unwroʒen

pp. exposed 2/162 [OE unwrēon]

unwurþ

adj. cheap 2/339 [OE un + wurþ]

up

prep. upon 2/15, 18a/436 [OE up]

upbraydes

pr. 3 sg. reproaches 8/430, 18a/ 436 [OE upbregdan]

upbroʒte

pa. uttered 2/200 [OE up + bringan]

uphalden

pp. raised 11/349 [OE up + haldan]

upynyoun

n. opinion 8/40 [OF opinion]

uppart

adv. upwards 4/91 [OE upweard]

uppen

prep. upon 3/97, 127 [OE uppan]

upright

adj. in bolt ~ flat on her back

18a/412 [OE upriht]

upros

pa. got up 8/378 [OE up + rīsan]

ure

see we pron.

urneþ

see irnen

usage

n. habit 16/15, practice 16/411, use 18b/75 [OF usage]

usant

adj. accustomed 18a/86 [OF usant]

usaunce

n. practice 16/674 [OF usance]

uschon

see uch(e)

usyt

pa. practised 11/187, 200; yused pp. used 12/18, 19, 33 [OF user]

ut

adv. out 1/43, 2/8, 53, 121 [OE ūt]

uthalve

adv. towards the outer edge 2/110 [cf. OE ūthealf n.]

uðen

n. pl. waves 3/37 [OE y&c.macr;þ]

utmast

adj. outermost 5/357 [OE ūtemest]

utter

adv. outside 8/41 [OE ūtter]

uvel

n. evil 4/20 [from next]

uvele(e), uvole

adj. wicked, evil 2/247, 4/ 21, hostile 2/8 [OE yfel]

vayles

pr. 3 sg. avails 11/348 [OF valoir]

vayned

see wayned

vaire

adj. beautiful 2/15; vairur comp. 2/152; væireste superl. most handsome 3/27 [OE fæger]

vaste

adv. close 3/40 [OE fæste]

veyrdit

n. verdict 16/503, 525 [AN verdit]

vengen

v. avenge 13/180 [OF vengier]

venym

n. venom 8/71 [AN venim]

verde

n. army 3/27 [OE ferd, fyrd]

verdure

n. green 9/161 [OF verdure]

verez

pr. 3 sg. turns 10/177; pa. 10/254 [from OF vertir]

ver(r)ayly

adv. truly 9/161, 11/174 [from next]

verrey, verrai

adj. true 6/117, 12/132, 13/ 53, itself (intensive) 8/370; ~ reson reason itself 6/105, ~ sooth the absolute truth 18a/ 70 [AN verrey, verrai]

vers

n. pl. verses 16/124, 141 [OE fers, OF vers]

vertewos

adj. virtuous 6/16 [OF vertuous]

verþe

adj. fourth 12/161 [OE feorþa]

vertu(e)

n. power 8/284, 11/286; pl. 11/174 [OF vertu]

vesture

n. clothing 9/161 [OF vesture]

viage

n. journey 17/75 [OF viage]

vyfte

adj. fifth 12/90, 164 [OE fīfta]

viʒte

see fith v.

vyl

see falles

vilainie, vilenie

n. wickedness 4/74, dishonour 13/10, 17/438, vileynye injury 18a/337 [AN vilainye, vilenie]

visage

n. face 5/80 [OF visage]

vyse

n. face 10/254 [OF vis]

vlesch

n. flesh 12/171 [OE flœ&c.ovline;sc]

voyde

v. empty 8/370, leave 9/345 [OF voider]

volc

n. people 3/164 [OE folc]

voluper

n. nightcap 18a/449 [AN volupier]

volweþ

see folʒi

vor

see for

vorbisne

n. proverb 2/98, 244 [OE fōreby&c.macr;sen]

vorʒut

see forʒete

vormeste

see formeste

vorseyde

ppl. adj. aforesaid 12/96, 106 [from OE on foran + secgan]

vorþ

see forþ

vorþi

see forthy

vote

n. claw 2/51 [OE fōt]

vouched

pa. offered 8/165 [OF voucher]

voules

n. pl. birds 12/164 [OE fugol]

vram, vrom

see fram

vul(e)

see ful(e)

vullen

see falles

vurste

adj. first 12/27 [OE fyrst]

waa

n. sorrow 19/4, 49, 136 [OE wā]

wade

v. in ~ in enter into 17/150 [OE wadan]

wæl

see wel(e)

wæld(e)

n, plain 3/48, 115 [OE wald]

wælle

n. stream 3/112 [OE wælla]

wær

see where

wæron

see be(n)

wage

v. continue securely 10/416 [AN wager]

wages

n. pl. payment 9/396 [AN wage]

wai

interj. alas 2/120, 5/234; wailawai, weylawei, weilaway 2/220, 14j/25, 49, 18a/218 [ON vei, OE weg lā weg]

wayke

adj. weak 7a/23, 9/282, 18b/29 [ON veikr]

waymentyng

n. lamentation 17/65 [from AN waimenter]

waymot

adj. angry 8/492 [OE wēamōd]

wayned, vayned

pa. sent 8/467; pp. brought 9/264, 10/249 [OE ‐wægnan]

ways

n. pl. in in ich ~ in every way 5/158 [OE weg]

wayte

pr. 3 sg. subj. in ~ after keeps a watch on 8/86; pa. kept watch 10/14 [AN waitier]

wakien

v. stay awake 4/42; wake pr. 1 sg. 14g/22, am awake 16/7, 482; wakes pr. 3 sg. 8/130, wakande pr.p. awake 19/97 [OE wacian]

wakkest

adj. superl. weakest 9/354 [from OE wāc]

wakned

pa. created 9/119 [OE wæcnian]

walden

see wille

wale

n. in to ~ in abundance 11/73 [ON val]

wale

v. find 9/398; walon pp. made their way 11/64 [from ON val n.]

wallinde

ppl. adj. boiling 4/68 [OE wallan]

walt

see welde

walterez

pr. 3 sg. rolls 8/263, 297; walterande pr. p. 8/247; waltered pa. 8/142 [cf. MLG walteren]

walwen

pr. pl. roll about 18a/424 [OE walwian]

wamel

v. feel sick 8/300 [uncertain]

wan

see when, wynne

wandez

n. gen. haft’s 9/215 [ON vo¸ndr]

wanlez

adj. without hope 8/262 [ON ván + OE ‐lēas]

wante

pr. 1 sg. lack 16/287; wantis 3 sg. is lacking 15/204 [ON vanta]

wantynge

n. lack 19/13 [from prec.]

wap

n. stroke 8/499 [imitative]

war

adj. cautious 2/170, 192, aware 8/249, 16/218, 17/275 [OE wær]

war

see where

warande

v. warrant 15/104 [OF warand]

warded

pp. protected 8/258 [OE weardian]

waren

see be(n)

warevore

adv. wherefore 2/268 [OE hwœ&c.ovline;r + for]

warlok

n. shackle 8/80 [? OE waru + loc]

warlowe

n. scoundrel 15/63 [OE wœ&c.ovline;rloga]

warni

pr. 1 sg. summon 2/330; warnez pr. 3 sg. commands 8/469; warnede pa. 13/ 108, ~ before informed in advance 16/45 [OE warnian]

warnynge

n. commands 7b/90 [from prec.]

warpeð

pr. 3 sg. (worp imp.; warp(yd), warpped, werpe pa.) throw 2/121, 125, 4/31, utter 2/45, 8/356, 9/224, 11/ 321, 329 [OE weorpan]

warsæ, wher(e)so

conj. wherever 1/52, 9/ 395, 18a/384 [OE swā hwœ&c.ovline;r + swā]

warth

see worthe

warþe

n. shore 8/339 [OE waroþ]

wast

n. waist 9/144 [? OE *wæst]

wasted

pp. destroyed 8/475 [AN waster]

wasto(u)r(e)s

n. pl. idlers, parasites 7b/27, 139, 158 [AN wastour]

wat

see what, wite, wit(e)

watz

see be(n)

wawes

n. pl. waves 8/142, 10/287, 17/1 [OE wœ&c.ovline;g]

wax(e), wexe(n)

v. (wax, wex pa.; waxen pp.) grow, become; rise (of colour) 16/444 [OE waxan]

we

pron. pl. we; ous acc. & dat. us 5/167, 427; ure poss. adj. our 1/55, 3/32, 4/87 [OE wē etc.]

we

interj. alas 5/176, expressing surprise 15/ 61 [OE wœ&c.ovline;]

wedde

see legge

wede

n. clothes 11/96; pl. clothes, armour [OE wœ&c.ovline;d]

weder

n. weather 5/269, 17/2 [OE weder]

wedy

v. weed 7b/66 [OE wēodian]

weele

see wele

weet

adj. wet 18a/253 [OE wœ&c.ovline;t]

wegge

n. wedge 15/242; pl. 15/235 [OE wecg]

weghe

n. man 11/96; wehes pl. 11/73 [OE wiga]

weylawei

see wai

weis, weyes

n. gen. in nanes ~ not at all 4/ 16, noon other ~ in no other way 16/654 [OE weg]

weyven

v. neglect 17/284 [AN weyver]

welde

v. (walt pa.) wield 9/270, occupy 8/ 464, 9/485, possess 8/16, 9/231, control 8/322, rule 11/161 [OE *weldan]

welder

n. controller 8/129 [from prec.]

wele

n. riches 9/7, 11/233, joy 8/262, 9/50, 485, 10/133, precious thing 10/14 [OE wela]

wel(e)

adv. very; much 5/464, 6/186, 8/ 114, fully 5/183, 350, almost 2/216, easily 1/39, really, indeed 16/7, 12, wæl well 1/ 63 [OE wel]

wele‐dede

n. good works 11/301 [OE weldœ&c.ovline;d]

wel‐haled

ppl. adj. pulled up tight 9/157 [OE wel + OF haler]

wely

adj. happy 10/101 [OE welig]

welke

pa. walked 10/101, 16/297 [OE wealcan]

welkyn

n. sky 8/207, 10/116 [OE weolcen]

welle

n. source 16/62, 129, 17/178, spring 16/211, 215 [OE wella]

wel(l)e

adj. good 14c/8, 12, 15, 15/104 [OE wel ]

welle‐spring

n. spring 14c/21 [OE wella + spring]

well‐stremes

n. pl. streams from a spring 16/187 [OE wella + strēam]

welneʒ(e), ‐negh, ‐nyh

adv. nearly 2/44, 9/7, 11/119, 13/45 [OE wel‐nēh]

welt

pa. rolled around 8/115 [ON velta]

welþe

n. well‐being 13/97, bliss 15/59 [OE wela + ‐th]

welwed

pp. shrivelled 8/475 [OE wealwian]

wemles

adj. spotless 11/85 [OE wamm + ‐lēas]

wemme

n. flaw 10/221 [OE wamm]

wende

v. (wende pa.) go 2/288, 7b/4, 8/ 339, 12/176, come 5/427, turn 14g/22, alter 1/71, change 14j/41; ~ of turn from 8/403 [OE wendan]

wene

v. (wenst, wenest 2 sg.; wenestu 2 sg. + pron.; wende(n), wened pa.) think, believe; suppose 2/303, 371, know 9/270, intend 18a/ 451; I ~ (tag) indeed 14k/4 [OE wēnan]

wenyng

n. belief 8/115 [from prec.]

weole

n. happiness 14h/35 [OE wela]

weorien

v. defend 3/90; wered pa. protected 8/486 [OE werian]

weorkes

see werk

wepe

n. weeping 5/195, 234 [from next]

wepe

pa. pl. wept 5/591 [OE wēpan]

wer

pa. 3 sg. wore 10/205; wered , ywerd pp. worn 5/241, 7a/81, 18a/449 [OE werian]

wer

see wer(re)

werbles

n. pl. trillings 9/119 [OF werble]

werdis

n. gen. world’s 14o/1 [OE weorold]

wered, ywerd

see wer

wered

see weorien

werk

n. activity 5/317, 6/1, workmanship 5/374; weorkes, werkez pl. buildings 1/71, designs 9/164, 216 [OE we(o)rc]

wern

see be(n)

werne

v. refuse 13/224 [OE wernan]

werpe

see warpeð

wer(re)

n. war 5/5, 9/16, 11/215, 13/65 [AN werre]

wers(e), worse, wurs

comp. adj. as n. worse 8/48; adv. in þe ~ any the worse 2/303, me is þe ~ it is the worse for me 2/34 [OE wyrsa]

wertes

n. pl. plants 8/478 [OE wyrt]

wes

see be(n)

wesche

pa. pl. washed 11/333 [OE wæscan]

weste

v. sink in the west 16/266 [from OE west]

wete

n. moisture 11/321 [OE wœ&c.ovline;t]

weve

v. pass 10/318 [OE wœ&c.ovline;fan]

wex(en)

see wax(e)

whalles bon

n. whalebone, ivory 10/212 [OE hwœ&c.ovline;l + bān]

what, wat, whet, quat

adj., adv. & pron. what; whatever 5/467, 13/258; ~ … so whatever 9/384, whatso, quatso 8/243, 9/ 255, in what way 19/14 [OE hwæt, swā‐hwæt‐swā]

when, hwen, quen, wan, won

conj. when 2/324, 4/18, 11/57, 14l/8 [OE hwanne, hwænne]

wheras

conj. where 18b/121, 143 [OE hwœ&c.ovline;r + ealswā]

where, quere

adv. & conj. where, war 3/31, 133, wær 3/147; where wherever 9/100, 16/172 [OE hwœ&c.ovline;r]

whereso

see warsæ

wherof

adv. about which 13/37 [OE hwœ&c.ovline;r + of ]

whet

see what

whi, wi, hwi, quy

adv. why 2/218, 268, 4/86, 11/186 [OE hwī]

whider

adv. to where; ~ so wherever 5/340 [OE hwider]

whil(e), wile

adv. formerly 2/202, 5/8, 14j/ 57, for a while 14g/35; conj. while 1/35, quil 11/215 [OE adv. hwīle, conj. þā‐hwīle‐þe]

whylen

adv. formerly 14j/44, whilom once upon a time 18a/201 [OE hwīl, dat. pl. hwīlum]

whiles

n. in þe ~ in the meantime 7b/6 [OE hwīl]

whilke

see whoche

whittore

comp. adj. whiter 14g/28 [from OE hwīt]

who, wo, qwo

pron. who; ~ that whoever 13/256; wham, hwam acc. & dat. whom 5/128, 14j/8; ~ se anyone who 4/38 [OE hwā etc.]

whoche

pron. which 12/15, whilke 15/292 [OE hwylc, hwilc]

whonene

adv. whence 2/138 [OE hwonan]

whoso

pron. whoever 16/410 [OE swā hwā swā]

wi

see whi

wycked

adj. vicious 14j/24 [? from OE wicca, ‘wizard’]

wyddered

pp. withered 8/468 [? cf. OE ‐widerian]

wide

adv. far off 2/288, far and wide 2/300 [OE wīde]

wydwe

n. widow 18b/50 [OE widewe]

wyght

see wyht

wigleð

pr. 3 sg. staggers 4/61 [cf. MLG wiggelen]

wyʒe

n. man, knight, (in address) sir; being 8/111, 206, anyone 8/356 [OE wiga]

wyʒt, wight

adj. loud 9/119, strong, powerful 11/69, 15/199, 279; wihtere gen. pl. bold 3/125; wighter comp. stronger 15/201; wyʒtest superl. bravest 9/261 [ON vígt]

wyʒtly

adv. vigorously 7b/18 [from prec.]

wyht, wight

n. person 10/338, 13/176, 16/ 221, 17/180, 18a/83; wiʒte pl. creatures 2/87, 204 [OE wiht]

wyht

adv. at once 14h/36 [ON vígt]

wyke

n. week 17/430 [OE wice]

wykke

adj. wicked 8/69, 17/458 [? from OE wicca ‘wizard’]

wyl, wille

adj. wandering 8/473; ~ of unsuccessful in 15/205 [ON villr]

wyldren

n. desolate region 8/297 [? from OE wild‐dēor]

wyle

n.¹ cunning scheme 13/229, guile 14p/ 13, trick 18a/193; wiles pl. 13/190 [? AN * wile]

wile

n.² time 14p/16; one ~ for a while 2/ 199 [OE hwīl]

wile

see while

wilful

adv. deliberately 16/429 [cf. OE wilfullīce]

wilfully

adv. willingly 19/34 [OE wilfullīce]

wille

n. vigour 14h/15, what you want 19/13; at ~ in his power 8/130 [OE willa]

wille, wol(e), wulle(n)

pr. 1 & 3 sg. (ichil, ichulle 1 sg. + pron.; wilte, wolt 2 sg.; wiltow 2 sg. + pron.; wule 3 sg.; willen pl.; wolde pa.; walden pa. pl.) will, shall; wish 8/83, 9/271, intend to 12/17 [OE willan]

wille

and see wyl

wilnable

adj. capable of being willed 6/52 [from next]

wylnez

pr. 2 sg. wish 10/318 [OE wilnian]

wind(e)

n. air 4/1, breath 15/204 [OE wind]

winde(n)

v. approach furtively 3/98, embrace 16/671; wounden pp. bound around 9/215 [OE windan]

winiærd

n. vineyard 1/71 [OE wīngeard]

wynke

pr. 1 sg. sleep 16/7, 482 [OE wincian]

wyn(ne

) n. joy 9/15, 14o/1 [OE wynn]

wynne

v. (wan pa.; wonnen pa. pl.; wonnen, ywon pp.) win 7b/105, 9/70, 14q/18, get 1/68, 14j/40, gain 11/301, produce 7b/18, stock up 7b/343, win over 13/194, reach 8/237, come 9/461; ~ owy win back 5/561, ~ me find my way 9/402 [OE gewinnan]

wintre

n. pl. years 1/35, 55, 56 [OE winter]

wyrche

see wurche(n)

wyrde

n. fate 8/247, 10/249, providence 10/273 [OE wyrd]

wyrk

see wurche(n)

wirschipfulle

adj. full of honour 19/100 [OE weorþscipe + ‐ful]

wyrschippes

n. pl. marks of honour 19/103 [OE weorþscipe]

wis

adv. certainly 17/474 [from OE gewis]

wyschande

pr. p. yearning for 10/14 [OE wy&c.macr;scan]

wyse

n. way, manner; fashion 7b/56, 11/77, state 10/133; in none ~ by no means 7b/ 328, alle maner ~ in every way 13/57, any ~ in any way 16/457 [OE wīse]

wisly

adv. surely 16/117 [OE wislīce]

wysse

v. instruct 8/60; wissede pa. directed 7b/162 [OE wissian]

wiste

see wit(e)

wyt, wytte

n. mind 8/74, wisdom 8/129, understanding 7b/59, 16/146, intelligence 12/55, 106, 149, advice 7b/55, clever talk 18a/47 [OE wit]

wit

pron. we two 3/151, 152 [OE wē, dual wit]

wit

prep. with 2/287, 301, against 2/56, 57 [OE wiþ]

wit(e), witte

v.¹ (wat(e), wot, woet pr. 1 & 3 sg.; ichot 1 sg. + pron.; wost 2 sg.; wostu 2 sg. + pron.; wit(t)e imp. 13/52, 19/121; wiste, wuste(n) pa.) know, learn; possess 2/195 [OE witan]

wite

v.² keep 5/206; wat pr. 3 sg. defends 3/96 [OE ‐wītian]

wite

v.³ blame 17/385 [OE wītan]

wyter

adj. wise 14g/26 [OE vitr]

witere

imp. inform 11/185 [ON vitra]

wyterly, witterly

adv. for certain 7a/37, 8/ 330, 11/183 [from ON vitr]

wiþ

prep. with; by 5/538; ~ þat then 11/69 [OE wiþ]

wiþal

adv. with that 13/51; prep. with 15/ 240 [OE wiþ + OE eall]

wyþer

v. in ~ wyth resist 8/48 [OE wiþerian]

wyþer

adj. opposite 10/230 [OE wiþer]

wyþerly

adv. rebelliously 8/74 [from prec.]

withoute(n), witute

prep. without 2/183, 264, outside 14r/10; adv. 16/244 [OE wiþūtan]

withsitte

v. oppose 7b/202 [OE wiþ + sittan]

wiðstonden

v. resist 4/93 [OE wiþstandan]

witnesse

n. testimony 13/161 [OE witnes]

wytte

see wyt, wit(e)

witterly

see wyterly

wyttyng

n. knowledge 17/236 [from OE witan]

witute

see withoute(n)

wleoteð

pr. pl. gleam 3/109 [OE wlitigian]

wlyteþ

pr. pl. warble 14h/11 [? cf. OE writian]

wlonk

adj. luxuriant 8/486, splendid 10/122 [OE wlonc]

wo

n. sorrow 8/256, 14h/8; me is ~ unhappy am I 5/331 [OE wā]

wo

see who

wode

n. woad 2/76 [OE wād]

wode, wood(e)

adj. mad 5/394, 15/63, furious 6/12, 8/142; wodder comp. 8/162 [OE wōd]

wode‐gore

n. cover of the wood 14j/62 [OE wudu + gāra]

woderove

n. woodruff (woodland plant) 14h/ 9 [OE wudu‐rofe]

wod‐schawes

n. pl. groves 10/284 [OE wudu + sceaga]

wodschip

n. fury 8/403 [OE wōdscipe]

woet

see wit(e)

woʒe

n. evil 2/164, 198 [OE wōh]

wol

adv. very 14m/6 [OE wel]

wol(e), wolde

see wille

wolle

n. wool 7b/12 [OE wull]

wombe

n. belly, stomach [OE womb]

won

n. place 8/69, dwelling 8/464, 9/257; wones pl. halls 5/365, barns 10/32 [from OE wunian ‘dwell’]

won

see when, won(ne)

wonder, wondir

n. marvel 9/16, awful fact 15/130 [OE wundor]

wonder

adj. marvellous 10/221, 12/123; wonder, wondir, wounder adv. very, extraordinarily 5/104, 356, 401, extremely 14h/32, wonderfully 13/91, terribly 15/ 207 [from prec.]

wonderly(ch)

adv. amazingly 8/384, absurdly 12/72 [OE wundorlīce]

wondres

pr. pl. in opon ~ wonder at 11/125 [OE wundrian]

wone

n. custom 17/318 [from OE gewuna]

wone, wony, wunie

v. (wonyes pr. 2 sg.; wonez, wonnes 3 sg.; woned(e) pa.; woned, wont pp.) dwell 3/170, 11/279, 12/167, 14l/2, remain 6/180, 9/257, live 7a/1, 8/462, 9/50, 10/47, 284, exist 9/17; pp. accustomed 7b/164, 10/15, 17/400 [OE wunian]

wonges

n. pl. cheeks 14g/23 [OE wong]

woning

n. lamentation 2/311 [OE wānung]

won(ne)

adj. dark 8/141, pale 14g/23 [OE wonn]

wonnen

see wynne

wontreaðe

n. misery 4/42 [ON vandræði]

wood(e)

see wode

woot(t)e

see wotte

worche

see wurche(n)

worching

n. activity 6/83, operation 16/5 [from OE wyrcan]

word(e)

n. pl. words 2/180, 182, 4/31 [OE word]

worded

pp. said 8/421 [from OE word]

wordynge

n. words 7b/90 [from prec.]

wore

see be(n)

worltlich

adj. worldly 4/1 [OE woroldlic]

worp

see warpeð

wors(c)hip(p)e

n. honour [OE weorþscipe]

worshipe

v. honour 18b/59 [from prec.]

worthe, wurðen

v. (worth pr. 3 sg.; worþed, warth pa.; worthyn pp.) be; become 11/ 330, will be (pr. in fut. sense) 7b/160, befall 7a/98, come 8/360, come to pass 9/485; ~ him become for him 4/53, ~ of happen to 8/243 [OE weorþan]

worthily, worþilych, worþelych

adj. worthy 7b/9, honoured 9/343, lovely 8/475; as n. gracious one 10/47; worþloker comp. finer 8/464; worþyly adv. with decorum 9/72, attractively 9/144, honourably 17/ 186 [from OE weorþlic, weorþlīce]

wost, wostu

see wit(e)

wot

see wit(e), wotte

woþe

n. danger 9/222, 11/233; pl. 10/151 [ON váði]

wotte

v. know 15/130; wot(te) pr. pl. 11/ 185, 15/261, woot(t)e 15/3, 157 [from OE witan, pa. wāt etc.]

wounden

see winden

wounder

see wonder

wowes

pr. pl. woo 14h/19, woweþ 14h/31 [OE wōgian]

wowyng

n. wooing 14g/31 [from prec.]

wræken

pr. pl. subj. avenge 3/35, wreken 3/36 [OE wrecan]

wrake

n. distress 9/16 [OE wracu]

wrakeful

adj. vengeful 11/215 [from prec.]

wrang(e)

adj. wrong 15/26, 182; as n. sorrow 10/15 [OE wrang from ON]

wrast

pr. pl. tear 8/80 [OE wrœ&c.ovline;stan]

wrastel

pr. pl. wrestle 8/141 [OE *wrœ&c.ovline;stlian]

wrastelynge

vbl. n. wrestling 16/165 [from prec.]

wrath

v. be angry 8/431, 518; refl. in ~ hym become angry 7b/149; wrathed pa. 8/74 [cf. OE wrœ&c.ovline;þan]

wre

see wriþ

wreaðfule

adj. as n. wrathful man 4/28 [from OE wrœ&c.ovline;þþu]

wreccehed

n. misery, poverty 1/43 [from next]

wrecc(h)e, wrech

adj. miserable 2/335, poor, wretched 1/15, 34, 8/258 [OE wrecca]

wreken

see wræken

wreker

n. avenger 16/361 [from OE wrecan]

wrenche

n. trickery 2/247 [OE wrenc]

wrenche

v. twist 4/13; wrencheð pr. 3 sg. 4/20, 21 [OE wrencan]

wrie

v. turn, go 15/182 [OE wrīgian]

write

v. write; wroot pa. 18b/131; write pp. written 13/60, 16/19, ywrite 5/1, 12/32, wretyn 6/41, 106 [OE wrītan]

writelinge

n. trilling, warbling 2/48 [from OE writian]

wriþ

pr. 3 sg. covers 5/244, wre imp. 17/380 [OE wrēon]

wryþe

v. turn 10/350; pr. pl. torture 8/80; wrythen pa. pl. twisted 1/23 [OE wrīþan]

wroche

n. wretch 5/333 [OE wrecca]

wroght(yn), wroʒt, wrohte

see wurche(n)

wronge

pa. wrung 7b/172 [OE wringan]

wroot

see write

wrote

v. grub in earth 5/255; wrot pa. dug 8/467 [OE wrōtan]

wroþ(e)

adj. angry; wroþer comp. 8/162 [OE wrāþ]

wroþely

adv. angrily 8/132; wroþeloker comp. 8/132 [OE wrāþlīce]

wrought, wrouʒt, wrouhte, wrouthte

see wurche(n)

wule, wulle(n)

see wille

wunder

n. a marvel 2/361; wunder pl. atrocities 1/34 [OE wundor]

wunder

adv. in ~ ane wondrously 3/131, 165 [from prec.]

wunderlice

adj. wonderful 1/81; wunderliche adv. gloriously 3/35 [OE wundorlīce]

wundri

pr. 1 sg. in ~ þarof wonder at that 2/ 228 [OE wundrian]

wunie

see wone

wunne

adj. blissful 14h/35 [from OE wynn]

wurche(n), worch(e), wyrche, wyrk

v. (worching pr. p.; wroʒt(en), wroghtyn, wrouhte(n), wrohte, wrouthte, wurhte pa.; iworht, wrouʒt, wro(u)ght, ywro(w)ght pp.) perform, carry out 4/74, 6/1, 8/136, 9/3, 13/215, make 3/15, 5/ 13, 8/206, 9/399, cause 14q/2, do 9/238, 11/301, 13/217, 15/261, act 15/34, work, be active 6/5, 45, 7a/23, 7b/80, work at 7b/6, do (building) work 1/59, fashion 16/305 [OE wyrcan, wircan]

wurs

see wers(e)

wurðen

see worthe

wurtscipe

n. ceremony 1/61 [OE weorþscipe]

wuste(n)

see wit(e)

yaf(e)

see ʒive

ye

adv. yea, yes indeed [OE gē]

yerde

n. in under youre ~ subject to you 16/ 640 [OE gerd]

yerne

adv. rapidly 16/3, eagerly 16/21 [OE georne]

yet

adv. still 18b/188 [OE gēt]

yeve

see ʒive

yexeth

pr. 3 sg. belches 18a/297 [OE geocsian]

yo(o)re

adv. (for) a long time 16/17, 476; ful ~ very long ago 18a/43, for a very long time 18a/376 [OE geāra]

yot

see ʒede

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