Ich erde a blisse budel us bade, That he ben derne done. Many of these measures were adopted from the French chansons". I will add one or two more specimens. On our Saviour's Passion and Death. Jesu for thi muchele might That ran down bi ys syde; Thou zef us of thi grace, Lutel wot hit any mon How love hym haveth y bounde, That for us o the rode ron, Ant boht us with is wonde; The love of him us haveth y maked found, Ever and oo, nyht and day, he haveth us in his thothe, The following are on love and gallantry. The poet, named Richard, professes himself to have been a great writer of love songs. Weping haveth myn wonges wet, For wilked workeant wone of wyt, It was customary with the early scribes, when stanzas consisted of short lines, to throw them together like prose. As thus: 'A wayle whiyt as whalles bon | a grein in golde that godly shon | a 'tortle that min hart is on | in tonnes trewe | Hire gladship nes never gon while y may glewe.' Sometimes they wrote three or four verses together as one line. With longynge y am lad | on molde y waxe mad | amaide marreth me. Y grede y grone un glad for selden y am sad | that semely for te see. Levedi thou wewe me to routhe thou havest me rad | be bote of that y bad my lyf is long on the7. Again, 1 Ibid. f. 62. b. 8 Ibid. f. 79. 4 Ibid. f. 128. same age. $ Ibid. f. 66. 2 See MSS. Harl. ut. supr. f. 49. 76. Probably this song has been somewhat modernised by transcribers. 6 Ut supr. f. 67. 7 Ibid. 63. b. 30 SATIRE IN ALEXANDRINE-THE PRIESTS NOT SPARED. Most i rydden by rybbes dale | wilde wymmen for te wale | anı welde wreck ich wolde : Founde were the feirest on | that ever was mad of blod ant bon-in boure best with blode1. This mode of writing is not uncommon in ancient manuscripts of French poetry. And some critics may be inclined to suspect, that the verses which we call Alexandrine, accidentally assumed their form merely from the practice of absurd transcribers, who frugally chose to fill their pages to the extremity, and violated the metrical structure for the sake of saving their vellum. It is certain, that the common stanza of four short lines may be reduced into two Alexdrines, and on the contrary. I have before observed, that the Saxon poem cited by Hickes consisting of one hundred and ninety-one stanzas, is written in stanzas in the Bodleian, and in Alexandrines in the Trinity manuscript at Cambridge. How it came originally from the poet I will not pretend to. determine. Our early poetry often appears in satirical pieces on the established and eminent professions. And the writers, as we have already seen, succeeded not amiss when they cloathed their satire in allegory. But nothing can be conceived more scurrilous and illiberal than their satires when they descend to mere invective. In the British Museum, among other examples which I could mention, we have a satirical ballad on the lawyers, and another on the clergy, or rather some particular bishop. The latter begins thus: Hyrd-men hatieth ant vch mones hyne, For ever uch a parosshe heo polketh in pyne Nou wol vch fol clerc that is fayly Wend to the byshop ant bugge bayly, Nys no wyt in is nolle3. The elder French poetry abounds in allegorical satire: and I doubt not that the author of the satire on the monastic profession, cited above copied some French satire on the subject. Satire was one species of the poetry of the Provencal troubadours. Anselm Fayditt, a troubadour of the eleventh century, who will again be mentioned, wrote a sort of satirical drama, called the HERESY of the FATHERS, HEREGIA DEL PREYRES, a ridicule on the council which condemned the Albigenses. The papal legates often fell under the lash of these poets; whose favour they were obliged to court, but in vain, by the promise of ample gratuities. Hugues de Bercy, a French monk, wrote in the twelfth century a very lively and severe satire; in which no person, not even himself, was spared, and which he called the BIBLE, as containing nothing but truth3. 1 Ibid. f. 66. 2 MSS. ut supr. f. 70. b. 4 Fauchett, Rec. p. 141 3 Ibid. f. 71. 5 Fontenelle, Hist. Theatr. Fr. p. 18. edit. 1742. In the Harleian manuscripts I find an ancient French poem, yet respecting England, which is a humorous panegyric on a new religious order called LE ORDRE DE BEL EYSE. This is the exordium. Qui vodra a moi entendre Oyr purra e aprendre The poet ingeniously feigns, that his new monastic order consists of the most eminent nobility and gentry of both sexes, who inhabit the monasteries assigned to it promiscuously; and that no person is excluded from this establishment who can support the rank of a gentleman. They are bound by their statutes to live in perpetual idleness and luxury and the satyrist refers them for a pattern or rule of practice in these important articles, to the monasteries of Sempringham in Lincolnshire, Beverley in Yorkshire, the Knights Hospitalers, and many other religious orders then flourishing in England.1 : When we consider the feudal manners, and the magnificence of our Norman ancestors, their love of military glory, the enthusiasm with which they engaged in the crusades, and the wonders to which they must have been familiarised from those eastern enterprises we naturally suppose what will hereafter be more particularly proved, that their retinues abounded with minstrels and harpers, and that their chief entertainment was to listen to the recital of romantic and martial adventures. But I have been much disappointed in my searches after the metrical tales which must have prevailed in their times. Most of those old heroic songs are perished, together with the stately castles in whose halls they were sung. Yet they are not so totally lost as we may be apt to imagine. Many of them still partly exist in the old English metrical romances, which will be mentioned in their proper places; yet divested of their original form, polished in their style, adorned with new incidents, successively modernised by repeated transcription and recitation, and retaining little more than the outlines of the original composition. This has not been the case of the legendary and other religious poems written soon after the conquest, manuscripts of which abound in our libraries. From the nature of their subject they were less popular and common; and being less frequently recited, they became less liable to perpetual innovation or alteration. The most antient English metrical romance which I can discover is entitled the GESTE OF KING HORN. It was evidently written after the crusades had begun, is mentioned by Chaucer 2, and probably still remains in its original state. I will first give the substance of the story, and afterwards add some specimens of the composition. But I must premise, that this story occurs in very old French metre in the MSS. of the British Museum 3, so that probably it is a translation: a 1 MSS. ibid. f. 121. 2 Rim. Thop. 3402. Urr. 3 MSS. Harl. 527. b. f. 59. Cod mem. 32 GESTE OF KING HORN-A METRICAL ROMANCE. circumstance which will throw light on an argument pursued hereafter, proving that most of our metrical romances are translated from the French. Mury, king of the Saracens, lands in the kingdom of Suddene, where he kills the king named Allof. The queen, Godylt, escapes; but Mury seizes on her son Horne, a beautiful youth aged fifteen years, and puts him into a galley, with two of his play-fellows, Achulph and Fykenyld the vessel being driven on the coast of the kingdom of Westnesse, the young prince is found by Aylmar king of that country, brought to court, and delivered by Athelbrus his steward, to be educated in hawking, harping, titling, and other courtly accomplishments. Here the princess Rymenild falls in love with him, declares her passion, and is betrothed. Horne, in consequence of this engagement, leaves the princess for seven years; to demonstrate, according to the ritual of chivalry, that by seeking and accomplishing dangerous enterpriseshe deserved her affection. He proves a most valorous and invincible knight and at the end of seven years, having killed king Mury, recovered his father's kingdom, and atchieved many signal exploits, recovers the princess Rymenild from the hands of his treacherous knight and companion Fykenyld; carries her in triumph to his own country, and there reigns with her in great splendour and prosperity. The poem itself begins and proceeds thus: : Alle heo ben blythe, that to my songe ylythe1: A songe yet ulle ou singe of Alloff the god kynge, Ant huere sone hihte Horne, feyrore childe ne myhte be borne: Feyror childe than he was, bryht so ever eny glas, So whyte so eny lilye floure, so rose red was his colour; This non his yliche in none kinges ryche. Tueye feren2 he hadde, that he with him ladde, Al rychemenne sonne and al suyth feyre gromes, Weth hem forte pley anuste3 he loved tueye, That on was hoten Achulph child, and that other Ffykenild, Yt was upon a somersday also, as ich one telle may, Allof the gode kynge rode upon his pleying, Bi the se side, there he was woned to ride; With him ne ryde bot tuo, at to felde hue were tho: Shipes systene of Sarazins kene : He asked what hue sohten other on his lond brohten. But I hasten to that part of the story where prince Horne appears at the court of the king of Westnesse. 1 Listen. 2 Companions. 3 Alike. The kyng com into hall, among his knyghtes alle, Forth he cleped Athelbrus, his stewarde, him seyde thus: 'Of some mystere of woode and of ryvere1, 'Byfore me to kerven, and of my course to serven3, 'Ant his feren devyse without other surmise; 'Horne-childe, thou understond, teche hym of harpe and songe.' Athelbrus gon leren Horne and hyse seren; Horne mid herte laghte al that mon hym taghte, Within court and withoute, and overall aboute, Lovede men Horne-child, and most him loved Ymenild The kinges owne dothter, for he was in hire thohte, Hire loved him in hire mod, for he was faire and eke gode, And that tyne ne dorste at worde and myd hem spek ner a worde, Ne in the halle, amonge the knyhtes alle, Hyre forewe and hire payne nolde never fayne, Bi daye ne bi nyhte for here speke ne myhte, With Horne that was so feir and fre, tho hue ne myhte with him bc, In herte hue had care and wo, and thus hire bihote hire tho: Hue sende hyre sonde Athelbrus to honde, That he come here to, and also childe Horne do, In to hire boure, for hue bigon to loure, And the fond sayde, that seek was the mayde, And bed hym quyke for hue nis non blyke. The stewarde was in huerte wo, for he wist whit he shulde do, About Horne he yinge to boure forte bringe, He thohte en his mode hit nes for none gode; He toke with him another, Athulph Horne's brothers, 'Athulph, quoth he, ryht anon thou shalt with me to boure gon, 1 So Robert de Brunne of king Marian. Hearne's Rob. Gloc. p. 622. He couthe of wod and 2 In another part of the poem he is introduced playing on his harpe. ryvere He made Rymenild a lay ant he seide weilaway, &c. In the chamber of a bishop of Winchester at Merdon castle, now ruined, we find mention made of benches only. Comp. MSS. J. Gerveys, Episcop. Winton 1266. Iidem red. comp. 'de ii. menfis in aula ad magnum descum. Et de iii. menfis, ex una parte, et ii, menfis ex altera 'parte cum tressellis in aula. Et de i. mensa cum tressellis in camera dom, episcopi. Et v. formis in eadem camera.' Descus, in old English dees, is properly a canopy over the high table. See a curious account of the goods in the palace of the bishop of Nivernois in France in the year 1287, in Montf. Cat. MSS. ii. p. 984. col. 2. 3 According to the rules of chivalry, every knight before his creation passed through two offices. He was first a page; and at fourteen years of age he was formally admitted an esquire. The esquires were divided into several departments; that of the body, of the chamber, of the stable, and the carving esquire. The latter stood in the hall at dinner, where he carved the different dishes with proper skill and address, and directed the distribution of them among the guests. The inferior offices had also their respective esquires. Mem. anc. Cheval. i. 16. seq. 4 Messenger. 5 Companion, friend. |