The Lay of Havelok the Dane Part 24

Quant sa nief fut apparaillee, Dedenz fist entrer sa meisnee, Ses cheualers & ses serganz, Sa femme demeine & ses enfanz: La reyne mist el batel, Haueloc tint souz son mantel.

Il meismes apres entra, A Dieu del ciel se comanda, Del hauene sont desancre, Car il eurent bon orre.

Instead of the storm, in the French text Grim's ship is attacked by pirates, who kill the whole of the crew, with the exception of himself and family, whom they spare on the score of his being an old acquaintance.

733-749. _In Humber_, &c. So in the Fr. _Ceo fut el north_, &c. Cf. ll.

122-135.

Tant out nage & tant sigle, Q'en vne hauene out parvenu, Et de la nief a terre issu.

Ceo fut el North, a Grimesbi; A icel tens qe ieo vus di, Ni out onques home habite, Ne cele hauene n'ert pas haunte.

Il i adresca primes maison, De lui ad Grimesbi a non.

Quant Grim primes i ariua, En .ii. moitez sa nief trencha, Les chiefs en ad amont dresce, Iloec dedenz s'est herberge.

Pescher aloit sicome il soloit, Siel vendoit & achatoit.

753.

_He took the sturgiun and the qual, And the turbut, and lax withal, He tok the sele, and the hwel_, &c.

The list of fish here enumerated may be increased from l. 896, and presents us with a sufficiently accurate notion of the different species eaten in the 13th century. Each of the names will be considered separately in the Glossary, and it is only intended here to make a few remarks on those, which in the present day appear rather strangely to have found a place on the tables of our ancestors. The sturgeon is well known to have been esteemed a dainty, both in England and France, and specially appropriated to the King's service, but that the whale, the seal, and the porpoise should have been rendered palatable, excites our astonishment. Yet that the whale was caught for that purpose, appears not only from the present pa.s.sage, but also from the Fabliau int.i.tled _Bataille de Charnage et de Caresme_, written probably about the same period, and printed by Barbazan. It is confirmed, as we learn from Le Grand, by the French writers; and even Rabelais, near three centuries later, enumerates the whale among the dishes eaten by the Gastrolatres.

In the list of fish also published by Le Grand from a MS. of the 13th century, and which corresponds remarkably with the names in the Romance, we meet with the _Baleigne_. See _Vie Privee des Francois_, T. II.

sect. 8.

Among the articles at Archbishop Nevil's Feast, 6 Edw. IV., we find, _Porposes and Seales XII._ and at that of Archbishop Warham, held in 1504, is an item: _De Seales & Porposs. prec. in gross XXVI. s. VIII.

d._ Champier a.s.serts that the Seal was eaten at the Court of Francis I., so that the taste of the two nations seems at this period to have been nearly the same. For the courses of fish in England during the 14th and 15th centuries, see Pegge's _Form of Cury_, and Warner's _Antiquitates Culinariae_, to which we may add MS. Sloane, 1986. [_Cf._ _Babees Book, &c._, ed. Furnivall, 1868, p. 153.]

[784. For _setes_ we should probably read _seten_ or _sette_, which would be as good a rime as many others. The scribe has probably made the rime more perfect than the sense. It must mean, "In the sea were they oft set." We cannot here suppose _setes_ = _set es_ = set them.]

839. _And seyde, Hauelok, dere sone._ In the French, Grim sends Havelok away for quite a different reason, viz. because he does not understand fishing.

903. _The kok stod_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 242.

Et vn keu le roi le retint, Purceo qe fort le vist & grant, Et mult le vist de bon semblant.

Merueillous fes poeit leuer, Busche tailler, ewe porter.

The last line answers to l. 942 of the English version.

939. _He bar the turues, he bar the star._ The meaning of the latter term will be best ill.u.s.trated by a pa.s.sage in Moor's _Suffolk Words_, where, under the word _Bent_, he writes, "_Bent_ or _Starr_, on the N.W.

coast of England, and especially in Lancashire, is a coa.r.s.e reedy shrub--like ours perhaps--of some importance formerly, if not now, on the sandy blowing lands of those counties. Its fibrous roots give some cohesion to the silicious soil. By the 15 and 16 G. II. c. 33, plucking up and carrying away _Starr_ or Bent, or having it in possession within five miles of the sand hills, was punishable by fine, imprisonment, and whipping." The use stated in the Act to which the _Starr_ was applied, is, "making of Mats, Brushes, and Brooms or Besoms," therefore it might very well be adapted to the purposes of a kitchen, and from its being coupled with turves in the poem, was perhaps sometimes burnt for fuel.

The origin of the word is Danish, and still exists in the Dan. _Staer_, Swed. _Starr_, Isl. _staer_, a species of sedge, or broom, called by Lightfoot, p. 560, _carex cespitosa_. Perhaps it is this shrub alluded to in the Romance of _Kyng Alisaunder_, and this circ.u.mstance will induce us to a.s.sign its author to the district in which the Starr is found.

The speris craketh swithe thikke, So doth on hegge _sterre-stike_. --l. 4438.

945. _of alle men_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 254.

Tant estoit franc & deboneire, Que tuz voloit lur pleisir fere, Pur la franchise q'il out.

959. _Of him ful wide the word sp.r.o.ng._ A phrase which from the Saxon times occurs repeatedly in all our old writers. A few examples may suffice.

Beowulf waes breme, Blaed wide sprang.

_Beowulf_, ed. Thorpe, p. 2.

Welle wide sp.r.o.ng as eorles word.

_La?amon_, l. 26242.

Of a knight is that y mene, His name is sp.r.o.ng wel wide.

_Sir Tristrem_, st. 2, p. 12.

The word of Horn wide sp.r.o.ng, How he was bothe michel and long.

_Horn Childe_, ap. Rits. _Metr. Rom._ V. iii. p. 291.

See also the _Kyng of Tars_, ll. 19, 1007, _Emare_, l. 256, _Roland and Ferragus_, as quoted by Ellis, _Ly beaus Desconus_, l. 172, and _Chronicle of England_, l. 71.

984.

_In armes him noman (ne) nam, at he doune sone ne caste._

The same praise is bestowed on Havelok in the French text, l. 265,--

Deuant eus liuter le fesoient As plus forz homes q'il sauoient, Et il trestouz les abat.i.t--

and it was doubtless in imitation or ridicule of the qualities attributed to similar heroes, that Chaucer writes of Sir Thopas, "Of wrastling was ther non his per." Cant. Tales, l. 13670.

1006. _To ben er at e parlement._ Cf. l. 1178. If we examine our historical records, we shall find that the only parliament held at Lincoln was in the year 1300, 28 Edw. I., and the writs to the _Archbishop of York_, and other n.o.bles, both ecclesiastical and secular, are still extant. The proceedings are detailed at some length by Robert of Brunne, Vol. II. p. 312, who might have been in Lincoln at the time, or, at all events, was sufficiently informed of all that took place, from his residence in the county. If we could suppose that the author of the Romance alluded to this very parliament, it would reduce the period of the poem's composition to a later date, than either the style or the writing of the MS. will possibly admit of. It is therefore far more probable the writer here makes use of a poetical, and very pardonable licence, in transferring the parliament to the chief city of the county in which he was evidently born, or brought up, without any reference whatever to historical data.

1022.

_Biforn here fet anne lay a tre, And putten with a mikel ston_, &c.

This game of _putting the stone_, is of the highest antiquity, and seems to have been common at one period to the whole of England, although subsequently confined to the Northern counties, and to Scotland.

Fitzstephen enumerates casting of stones among the amus.e.m.e.nts of the Londoners in the 12th century, and Dr Pegge, in a note on the pa.s.sage, calls it "a Welch custom." The same sport is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, among the diversions pursued at King Arthur's feast, as will appear in a subsequent note (l. 2320). By an edict of Edward III. the practice of casting stones, wood, and iron, was forbidden, and the use of the bow subst.i.tuted, yet this by no means superseded the former amus.e.m.e.nt, which was still in common use in the 16th century, as appears from Strutt's _Popular Pastimes_, Introd. pp. xvii, x.x.xix, and p. 56, sq. In the Highlands this sport appears to have been longer kept up than in any other part of Britain, and Pennant, describing their games, writes, "Those retained are, throwing the _putting-stone_, or stone of strength (_Cloch neart_) as they call it, which occasions an emulation who can throw a weighty one the farthest." _Tour in Scotl._ p. 214. 4to.

1769. See also _Statist. Account of Argyleshire_, xi. 287. In the French Romance of Horn, preserved in MS. Harl. 527, is almost a similar incident to the one in Havelok, and would nearly amount to a proof, that Tomas, the writer of the French text of Horn, was an Englishman.

In the Romance of _Octovian Imperator_ it is said of Florent,

At _wrestelyng_, and at _ston castynge_ He wan the prys, without lesynge; Ther n'as nother old ne yynge So moch.e.l.l of strength, That myght the ston to hys _but_ bryng, Bi fedeme lengthe. --l. 895.

It is singular enough, that the circ.u.mstance of Havelok's throwing the stone, mentioned in the Romance, should have been founded on, or preserved in, a local tradition, as attested by Robert of Brunne, p. 26.

Men sais in Lyncoln castelle ligges ?it a stone, That Hauelok kast wele forbi euerilkone.

1077-1088. _The king Athelwald_, &c. Comp. the Fr. text, ll. 354-370.

Quant Ekenbright le roi fini, En ma garde sa fille mist; Vn serement iurer me fist, Q'au plus fort home le dorroie, Qe el reaume trouer porroie.

a.s.sez ai quis & demande, Tant q'en ai vn fort troue; Vn valet ai en ma quisine, A qui ieo dorrai la meschine; &c.

1103. _After Goldeborw_, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 377.