Part 26 (1/2)

[1932. Apparently corrupt. Perhaps _is_ should be _it_. ”That this strife--as to what it meant.”]

2045. _That weren of Kaym kin and Eues._ The odium affixed to the supposed progeny of Cain, and the fables engrafted on it, owe their origin to the theological opinions of the Middle Ages, which it is not worth while to trace to their authors. See _Beowulf_, ed. Thorpe, p. 8; and _Piers Plowman_, A. X. 135-156; answering to p. 177 of Whitaker's edition. See also the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_:

And of Sab the duk Mauryn, He was of _Kaymes kunrede_. --l. 1932.

In _Ywaine and Gawaine_, l. 559, the Giant is called ”the karl of _Kaymes kyn_,” and so also in a poem printed by Percy, int.i.tled _Little John n.o.body_, written about the year 1550.

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

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

2076.

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

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

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

On which Sir W. Scott remarks, ”The bed-chamber of the queen was constructed of wooden boards or s.h.i.+ngles, of which one could easily be removed.” This will explain the line which occurs below, 2106, ”He stod, and totede in at a bord.”

2092. _Aboute the middel_, &c. In the French, a person is placed by the Seneschal to watch, who first discovers the light.

2132. _Bi the pappes he leyen naked._ ”From the latter end of the 13th to near the 16th century, all ranks, and both s.e.xes, were universally in the habit of sleeping quite naked. This custom is often alluded to by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and all our ancient writers.” Ellis, SPEC.

METR. ROM. V. I. p. 324, 4th Ed. In the _Squyr of Lowe Degre_ is a remarkable instance of this fact:

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

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

2192. Cf. the French, l. 843.

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

[2201. Read _ne neme_ = took not, sc. their way, just as in l. 1207.]

2240-2265. _Lokes, hware he stondes her_, &c. Comp. the Fr. ll. 913-921.

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

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

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

2314.

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

So likewise in the Fr. l. 928, _A cheualier l'out adubbe_. The ceremony of knighthood is described with greater minuteness in the Romance of _Ly beaus Desconus_, l. 73; and see _Kyng Horn_, ed. Lumby, ll. 495-504.

2320. _Hwan he was king, ther mouthe men se_, &c. Ritson has justly remarked, Notes to _Ywaine and Gawaine_, l. 15, that the elaborate description of Arthur's feast at Carlisle, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth, l. ix. c. 12, has served as a model to all his successors. The original pa.s.sage stands thus in a fine MS. of the 13th century, MS.

Harl. 3773. fol. 33 _b_. ”Refecti autem epulis diversos ludos acturi campos extra civitatem adeunt. Tunc milites simulachra belli scientes _equestrem ludum_ componunt, mulieribus ab edito murorum aspicientibus.