English and Scottish Ballads Volume I Part 5

"Niederlandische Volkslieder. Gesammelt und erlautert von Hoffmann von Fallersleben." 2d ed. Hannover, 1856.

BOOK I.

THE BOY AND THE MANTLE.

No incident is more common in romantic fiction, than the employment of some magical contrivance as a test of conjugal fidelity, or of constancy in love. In some romances of the Round Table, and tales founded upon them, this experiment is performed by means either of an enchanted horn, of such properties that no dishonoured husband or unfaithful wife can drink from it without spilling, or of a mantle which will fit none but chaste women. The earliest known instances of the use of these ordeals are afforded by the _Lai du Corn_, by Robert Bikez, a French minstrel of the twelfth or thirteenth century, and the _Fabliau du Mantel Mautaille_, which, in the opinion of a competent critic, dates from the second half of the thirteenth century, and is only the older lay worked up into a new shape. (Wolf, _Ueber die Lais_, 327, sq., 342, sq.) We are not to suppose, however, that either of these pieces presents us with the primitive form of this humorous invention. Robert Bikez tells us that he learned his story from an abbot, and that "n.o.ble ecclesiast" stood but one further back in a line of tradition which curiosity will never follow to its source. We shall content ourselves with noticing the most remarkable cases of the use of these and similar talismans in imaginative literature.

In the _Roman de Tristan_, a composition of unknown antiquity, the frailty of nearly all the ladies at the court of King Marc is exposed by their essaying a draught from the marvellous horn, (see the English _Morte Arthur_, Southey's ed. i. 297.) In the _Roman de Perceval_, the knights, as well as the ladies, undergo this probation. From some one of the chivalrous romances Ariosto adopted the wonderful vessel into his _Orlando_, (xlii. 102, sq., xliii. 31, sq.,) and upon his narrative La Fontaine founded the tale and the comedy of _La Coupe Enchantee_. In German, we have two versions of the same story,--one, an episode in the _Krone_ of Heinrich vom Turlein, thought to have been borrowed from the _Perceval_ of Chretien de Troyes, (_Die Sage vom Zauberbecher_, in Wolf, _Ueber die Lais_, 378,) and another, which we have not seen, in Bruns, _Beitrage zur kritischen Bearbeitung alter Handschriften_, ii. 139; while in English, it is represented by the highly amusing "bowrd," which we are about to print, and which we have called _The Horn of King Arthur_. The forms of the tale of the Mantle are not so numerous. The _fabliau_ already mentioned was reduced to prose in the sixteenth century, and published at Lyons, (in 1577,) as _Le Manteau mal taille_, (Legrand's _Fabliaux_, 3d ed., i. 126,) and under this t.i.tle, or that of _Le Court Mantel_, is very well known. An old fragment (_Der Mantel_) is given in Haupt and Hoffmann's _Altdeutsche Blatter_, ii. 217, and the story is also in Bruns _Beitrage_. Lastly, we find the legends of the horn and the mantle united, as in the German ballad _Die Ausgleichung_, (_Des Knaben Wunderhorn_, i. 389,) and in the English ballad of _The Boy and The Mantle_, where a magical knife is added to the other curiosities. All three of these, by the way, are claimed by the Welsh as a part of the _insignia_ of Ancient Britain, and the special property of Tegau Eurvron, the wife of Caradog with the strong arm. (Jones, _Bardic Museum_, p. 49.)

In other departments of romance, many other objects are endowed with the same or an a.n.a.logous virtue. In Indian and Persian story, the test of innocence is a red lotus-flower; in _Amadis_, a garland, which fades on the brow of the unfaithful; in _Perceforest_, a rose. The _Lay of the Rose_ in _Perceforest_, is the original (according to Schmidt) of the much-praised tale of Senece, _Camille, ou la Maniere de filer le parfait Amour_, (1695,)--in which a magician presents a jealous husband with a portrait in wax, that will indicate by change of color the infidelity of his wife,--and suggested the same device in the twenty-first novel of Bandello, (Part First,) on the translation of which in Painter's _Palace of Pleasure_, (vol. ii. No. 28,) Ma.s.singer founded his play of _The Picture_. Again, in the tale of _Zeyn Alasman and the King of the Genii_, in the _Arabian Nights_, the means of proof is a mirror, that reflects only the image of a spotless maiden; in that of the carpenter and the king's daughter, in the _Gesta Romanorum_, (c. 69,) a shirt, which remains clean and whole as long as both parties are true; in _Palmerin of England_, a cup of tears, which becomes dark in the hands of an inconstant lover; in the _Fairy Queen_, the famous girdle of Florimel; in _Horn and Rimnild_ (Ritson, _Metrical Romances_, iii. 301,) as well as in one or two ballads in this collection, the stone of a ring; in a German ballad, _Die Krone der Konigin von Afion_, (Erlach, _Volkslieder der Deutschen_, i. 132,) a golden crown, that will fit the head of no incontinent husband. Without pretending to exhaust the subject, we may add three instances of a different kind: the Valley in the romance of _Lancelot_, which being entered by a faithless lover would hold him imprisoned forever; the Cave in _Amadis of Gaul_, from which the disloyal were driven by torrents of flame; and the Well in _Horn and Rimnild_, (_ibid._) which was to show the shadow of Horn, if he proved false.

In conclusion, we will barely allude to the singular anecdote related by Herodotus, (ii. 111,) of Phero, the son of Sesostris, in which the experience of King Marc and King Arthur is so curiously antic.i.p.ated.

In the early ages, as Dunlop has remarked, some experiment for ascertaining the fidelity of women, in defect of evidence, seems really to have been resorted to. "By the Levitical law," (_Numbers_ v.

11-31,) continues that accurate writer, "there was prescribed a mode of trial, which consisted in the suspected person drinking water in the tabernacle. The mythological fable of the trial by the Stygian fountain, which disgraced the guilty by the waters rising so as to cover the laurel wreath of the unchaste female who dared the examination, probably had its origin in some of the early inst.i.tutions of Greece or Egypt. Hence the notion was adopted in the Greek romances, the heroines of which were invariably subjected to a magical test of this nature, which is one of the few particulars in which any similarity of incident can be traced between the Greek novels and the romances of chivalry." See DUNLOP, _History of Fiction_, London, 1814, i. 239, sq.; LEGRAND, _Fabliaux_, 3d ed., i. 149, sq., 161; SCHMIDT, _Jahrbucher der Literatur_, xxix. 121; WOLF, _Ueber die Lais_, 174-177; and, above all, GRAESSE'S _Sagenkreise des Mittelalters_, 185, sq.

_The Boy and the Mantle_ was "printed verbatim" from the Percy MS., in the _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_, iii. 38.

In the third day of May, To Carleile did come A kind curteous child, That cold much of wisdome.

A kirtle and a mantle 5 This child had uppon, With brouches[L7] and ringes Full richelye bedone.

He had a sute of silke About his middle drawne; 10 Without he cold of curtesye, He thought itt much shame.

"G.o.d speed thee, King Arthur, Sitting at thy meate: And the goodly Queene Guenever 15 I cannott her forgett,

"I tell you, lords, in this hall, I hett[L18] you all to heede, Except you be the more surer, Is you for to dread." 20

He plucked out of his poterner,[L21]

And longer wold not dwell; He pulled forth a pretty mantle, Betweene two nut-sh.e.l.ls.

"Have thou here, King Arthur, 25 Have thou heere of mee; Give itt to thy comely queene, Shapen as itt is alreadye.

Itt shall never become that wiffe, That hath once done amisse:"-- 30 Then every knight in the kings court Began to care for his[L32].

Forth came dame Guenever; To the mantle shee her hied[L34]; The ladye shee was newfangle, 35 But yett shee was affrayd.

When shee had taken the mantle, She stoode as shee had beene madd: It was from the top to the toe, As sheeres had itt shread. 40

One while was it gule[L41], Another while was itt greene; Another while was it wadded; Ill itt did her beseeme.

Another while was it blacke, 45 And bore the worst hue: "By my troth," quoth King Arthur, "I think thou be not true."

She threw down the mantle, That bright was of blee; 50 Fast, with a rudd redd, To her chamber can shee flee.

She curst the weaver and the walker That clothe that had wrought, And bade a vengeance on his crowne 55 That hither hath itt brought.

"I had rather be in a wood, Under a greene tree, Then in King Arthurs court Shamed for to bee." 60

Kay called forth his ladye, And bade her come neere; Saies, "Madam, and thou be guiltye, I pray thee hold thee there."

Forth came his ladye, 65 Shortlye and anon; Boldlye to the mantle Then is shee gone.

When she had tane the mantle, And cast it her about, 70 Then was shee bare 'Before all the rout.'

Then every knight, That was in the kings court, Talked, laughed,[L75] and showted 75 Full oft att that sport.

Shee threw downe the mantle, That bright was of blee; Fast, with a red rudd, To her chamber can shee flee. 80

Forth came an old knight, Pattering ore a creede, And he proferred to this litle boy Twenty markes to his meede,

And all the time of the Christma.s.se, 85 Willinglye to ffeede; For why, this mantle might Doe his wiffe some need.

When she had tane the mantle, Of cloth that was made, 90 Shee had no more left on her, But a ta.s.sell and a threed: Then every knight in the kings court Bade evill might shee speed.

Shee threw downe the mantle, 95 That bright was of blee; And fast, with a redd rudd, To her chamber can shee flee.

Craddocke called forth his ladye, And bade her come in; 100 Saith, "Winne this mantle, ladye, With a little dinne.

Winne this mantle, ladye, And it shal be thine, If thou never did amisse 105 Since thou wast mine."

Forth came Craddockes ladye, Shortlye and anon; But boldlye to the mantle Then is shee gone. 110

When she had tane the mantle, And cast it her about, Upp at her great toe It began to crinkle and crowt: Shee said, "Bowe downe, mantle, 115 And shame me not for nought.

Once I did amisse, I tell you certainlye, When I kist Craddockes mouth Under a greene tree; 120 When I kist Craddockes mouth Before he marryed mee."

When shee had her shreeven, And her sines shee had tolde, The mantle stoode about her 125 Right as shee wold,

Seemelye of coulour, Glittering like gold: Then every knight in Arthurs court Did her behold. 130

Then spake dame Guenever To Arthur our king; "She hath tane yonder mantle Not with right[L134], but with wronge.

See you not yonder woman, 135 That maketh her self soe 'cleane'[L136]?

I have seene tane out of her bedd Of men fiveteene;

Priests, clarkes, and wedded men From her, bydeene: 140 Yett shee taketh the mantle, And maketh her self cleane."

Then spake the little boy, That kept the mantle in hold; Sayes, "King, chasten thy wiffe, 145 Of her words shee is to bold: