Torrent of Portyngale Part 1

Torrent of Portyngale.

by Unknown.

INTRODUCTION.

-- 1. _The MS. and Halliwell's edition_, p. v.

-- 2. _Metre and Versification_, p. vi.

-- 3. _Dialect_, p. x; _short vowels_, p. xi; _long vowels_, p. xii; _inflexions_, p. xiii.

-- 4. a. _The contents of the Romance_, p. xvi; b. _its character_, p. xx; c. _Origin of the story of Torrent_, p. xxi; d. _Legend of Eustache or Plasidas_, p. xxii; e. _Sir Isumbras_, p. xxiv; f. _Romances of Octavian_, p. xxv; g. _Sir Eglamour_, p. xxvi; h. _Comparison of Torrent and Eglamour_, p. xxvii; i. _the 2 Romances independent_, p. x.x.x.

-- 5. _Arrangement of this Edition_, p. x.x.xii.

-- 1. The ma.n.u.script from which the following romance of _Sir Torrent of Portugal_ is taken, is a folio volume on paper, of the fifteenth century, preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester.

A description of this volume is given by Halliwell in his _Account of the European MSS. in the Chetham Library at Manchester_, Manchester, 1842, page 16, and by Prof. Koelbing in his _Englische Studien_, vii.

195. The only edition of this romance that we have hitherto had was done by Halliwell. As he had, besides his own transcript, another copy made by Madden, his text is a pretty accurate one, and therefore the results of Prof. Koelbing's collation, printed in his _Englische Studien_, vii.

344 ff., concern, for the most part, things of little importance, except one very curious pa.s.sage, l. 88, where Halliwell renders the quite correct reading of the MS., _p la more de dewe_ = _par l'amour de dieu_, by _Pericula more bedew[n]e_. Also, from l. 1720, the counting of the lines is wrong by 100 lines.

A few short fragments of a printed edition were found by Halliwell in the Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford, and added to his work as an Appendix. They contain the following pa.s.sages of the MS.:

Fragment III. = lines 462-489.

II. = 492-520.

VI. = 820-851.

V. = 917-948.

IV. = 949-970.

I. = 1807-1866.

A seventh fragment, of which not much more than the rhyming words are preserved, was omitted by Halliwell, and was printed for the first time in Prof. Koelbing's collation.

This Chetham MS. contains the romance in a very debased and corrupt form, so that the original reading in many pa.s.sages can hardly be recognized.[1] The scribe, who copied the poem from an older MS., lived (no doubt) at a far later period than the poet; he did not therefore understand a great many old expressions, and these he used to supplant by words of his own; he also transposed and even omitted many lines, and spoiled the rhyme, because he had not the slightest idea of the nature of the stanza in which the poem is composed. Halliwell did not trouble himself about the restoration of the true readings; he merely reproduced the traditional text, even where it would have been very easy to do more, though many pa.s.sages are hopelessly corrupt; still worse is the fact, that he did not recognize the metre as the tail-rhymed twelve-line stanza, for he prints six-line stanzas.

[Footnote 1: Halliwell says, Preface v f.: 'It is very incorrectly written, and the copy of the romance of Torrent of Portugal, which occupies 88 pages of the book, contains so many obvious blunders and omissions, that it may be conjectured with great probability to have been written down from oral recitation.']

In consequence, the whole of the philological work on the text had still to be done, and a new edition was plainly necessary; the more that this poem, though not written in the best period of romance poetry, treats of a legendary subject widely spread in the Middle Ages, and is nearly related to another poem, _Syr Eglamour of Artois_.

-- 2. METRE AND VERSIFICATION.

As I mentioned before, the romance of _Sir Torrent_ is composed in the well-known tail-rhymed twelve-line stanza, and belongs to that cla.s.s of it in which the first and the second couplets have different rhyme-sounds (cf. Koelbing, _Amis and Amiloun_, p. xiv ff.). Only the incompleteness of many stanzas, and the many defects in reference to the rhyme, can excuse Halliwell for not apprehending the character of the metre. As to the structure of the eight lines of the four couplets, each contains (or at least ought to contain) four accents, the _caudae_ three; but as we, unfortunately, possess only one MS., a conclusive statement on this point is impossible. There is no doubt about the fact that neither the really incorrect rhymes nor the wanting of them can be due to the author of the poem: even when romance poetry was decaying, the poets were fairly perfect rhymers: with all deficiencies in this department, the copyists are to be charged.

_Consonant_ rhymes (s. _Schipper Altengl. Metrik_, p. 299) are found in _Torrent_ in the following pa.s.sages: l. 141 _rode--rode_ ags.

_rod--rad_. 450 _the--the_ ags. _eon--e_. 1558 _indede--dede_. 2205 _lay--lay_, _sg.--plr. prt._

Identical rhymes are frequent, especially in the _caudae_: 81 _stond--stond_. 177 _there--there_. 500 _he--hee_. 1887 _there--there_.

2538 _blithe--blithe_. 39 _take--take_. 342 _bold--bold_, a. s. o.

_a.s.sonances_: 195 _bon~--Rome_. 518 _undyrstond--strong_. 537 _name--alone_. 699 _yod--fotte_. 758 _name--tane_. 896 _bryng--wynd_.

1257 _overcom~--Aragon~_. 1768 _man~--cam~_. 2164 _anon~--fome_. 2544 _sithe--hide_.

Besides the rhymes we find abundant alliteration, as in most of the Middle English Romances. On alliteration, cf. Regel, Die alliteration in La?amon, _Germ. Stud._ I. 171; F. Lindner, The alliteration in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, _Essays on Chaucer_, Pt. III., p. 197 ff. Koelbing, _Sir Tristrem_, p. x.x.xvii, and _Amis and Amiloun_, p. lxvi. Lindner as well as Koelbing has adopted Regel's cla.s.sification, and so shall I. The most frequent is two alliterative words in one verse; they can be cla.s.sed in the following way:--

I. A. The same word is repeated in two succeeding lines; v. 456 f.: _Forthe sche browght a {whyt} sted, As {whyt} as the flowyr in~ med_; v. 618 f.: _In IV {quarters} he hym drowe, And euery {quarter} vppon a bowe_. v. 2026 f.: _But ran into a {wilde}rnes Amongist beests that {wyld} wes_. v. 2465 f.: _They axid {hors} and armes bryght, to {hors}bak went thay in ffere_.

B. _Alliterative combinations, one part of which is a proper name._ _Torrent_ is several times combined with the verb _take_; 26: _Towarde hym he {t}akythe {T}orrayne_; 224: _{T}orrent thether {t}oke the way_; 519: _{T}orrent {t}oke a dulful wey_; 2269: _Whan sir {T}orent was {t}akyn~ than~_; 91: _Now, be my {t}rowthe, seyd {T}orent than~_; 1161: _Alas, said {D}esonell the {d}ere_; 2523: _As was {d}ame {D}esonell_; 1906 = 1946 = 1969: _{M}ary {m}yld. To {s}end unto her {S}athanas._ v. 1091: _The {c}astell of {C}ardon~._

II. A. _Words of the same root are alliterative._ 133: _Torrent, on {kne} {kne}lyd he_; 671: _That on hys {kne} he {kne}ld_; 2502: _And {kne}lid on her {kne}_; 205: _Torrent {kne}lyd on hys {kne}_ = v. 528; 881: _And {kne}lyd vppon ys {kne}_; 1883: _She {kne}lid down~ vppon~ her {kne}_; 2563: _Down~ they {kne}lid on~ her {kne}_; 512: _By {d}ymmynge of the {da}y_; 1158: _For her love {d}id I never no {d}ede_; 1801: _That ylke {d}ede, that she hath {d}one_; 1943: _How she {fl}ew in a {ffl}ight_; 2384: _{Liffe} and {lyv}elode, whill I {lyve}_; 233: _A {lyon~} & a {lyon}a.s.se_; 1671: _For to se that {s}elly {s}ight_; 407: _For the {t}alles thou hast me {t}old_; 1466: _And fals {t}alis hym~ {t}old_; 2578: _Euer we {will} be at youre {will}_.

B. Relations in which alliterative words stand to each other according to their meaning.

_a._ Concrete ideas are joined together because they belong to the same sphere of life. 2017: _{B}yrdus and {b}estis, aye woo ye be_; 113: _{b}one and {b}lod_; 21: _{k}yng and {k}nyght_; 83: _And ryche {c}astelles in that {c}ontre_; 251: _In lond with a {f}yndes {f}ere_; 102: _That {f}yndes {f}are for aye_; 1094: _Both at {k}nyght and {k}nave_; 584: _Bothe in~ {f}rethe and in {f}eld_; 660: _Stomlyng thurrow {f}rythe and {f}en~_; 1378: _Both be {h}old and be {h}yll_; 2398: _{l}ym~ and {l}ith_; 750: _{L}ytyll and {m}ykyll, {l}ese and {m}ore_; 1899: _That was {l}ord of all that {l}ond_; 2152: _Loo, {l}ordys of euery {l}ond_; 2375: _With all {m}aner of {m}ynstralsye_; 149: _He reynyd hys {s}ted vnto a {s}take_; 1065: _{W}aytes on the {w}all gan blowe_; 13: _{w}ater and {w}ynde_.

_b._ In the same way abstract ideas are connected, so far as they belong to the same sphere of life. 460: _That {d}ethe ys {d}ynt schalt ou not thole_; 1600: _Of {d}eth yaue he no {d}out_; 782 = 2062: _{f}eyer and {f}re_; 2153: _{F}alshode wyll haue a {f}oule end_; 1988: _{H}elpe and {h}old I shall hym yeve_; 1492: _They {s}at and {s}ong_; 683: _Cryst hym {s}aue and {s}ee_; 1303: _That he was {s}ad and {s}ore_; 1612: _set {s}adly and {s}ore_; 335: _G.o.d that {s}ofryd wonddes {s}ore_; 322: _{st}yff and {st}rong_ = 1491 = 2590; 1205: _That {w}ekyd was and {w}ight_; 1584: _{w}ekyd and {w}ight_; 1849: _Her one child {w}oke and be-gan to {w}epe_; 1559: _And {w}ot ye {w}ell and not {w}ene_; 246: _Sche {w}eppte_, _as sche were {w}od_.

C. The grammatical relations in which the alliterative words stand to each other.

_a._ Subst. and adj. in attributive or predicative combinations. _As {b}old as eny {b}ore_; _With {br}owes {br}od and wyde_; 142: _hys {b}ugell {b}old_; 307: _In a {d}ongon~ that ys {d}ym_; 82: _My {f}ayer~ {f}orestes {f}ellythe downe he_; 209: _The {f}eyer~ {f}yld_; 426: _{gl}emyrryng ase the {gl}ase_; 1592: _{g}ood {g}ate_; 171 = 596: _the {h}oltes {h}ore_; 1484: _To an {h}ye {h}yll_; 1183: _{s}ydes {s}are_; 154: _Thowe the {w}ey nevyr so {w}ykkyd were_; 2054: _{w}ekyd {w}eders_; 506: _In the {w}yld-some {w}ay_; 535: _{W}yldsom {w}eyes haue I {w}ent_; 2030: _She {w}ent on that {w}ilsom~ {w}ay_.

_b._ Verbs or adjectives combined with the adverb or substantive which contains their secondary adverbial meaning. 1478: _To {b}e here at his {b}ane_, cf. 1678: _That there his {b}ane hath {b}e_; 1944: _To her {b}irdus was she {b}oun~_; 2016: _With {b}lis on euery {b}ow?e_; 135: _That {b}owght hym with hys {b}lod_; 1045: _Thurrow the {b}ody he gan hym {b}ere_; 1404: _To the {b}ote they {b}are_; 334: _Thus he {c}ovyrd owt of {c}are_; 27: _That {d}owghtty ys in {d}edde_, cf. 1725; 98: _With-owt {f}ere that he schold {f}are_; 603 = 977: _Also {f}ast ase he myght {f}are_; 536: _With {f}yndes for to {f}yght_; 802: _To {f}yght with that {f}yndes fere_; 1262: _That was {gr}ow both {gr}ene and {g}ay_; 1060 = 2330: _Torent be the {h}ond he {h}ent_; 270: _That {m}eche ys of {m}yght_; 713: _That {m}eche wase of {m}yght_; 24: _For G.o.d ys {m}ost of {m}yght_, cf. 1112: _To a {m}an off {m}yght_; 1879: _Vp she {r}ose ageyn~ the {r}ough_; 2100: _Go {s}ech her in~ the {s}ee_; 2129: _And {s}ett hym~ oute in to the {s}ee_; 2469: _That {s}emely to {s}e were_; 126: _And {s}ymly was to {s}ene_; 415: _That dare I {s}othely {s}ey_; 1170: _Torrent {s}ett on hym~ so {s}ore_; 139: _Serttes, yf I hym {sl}epyng {sl}one_; 181: _Torrent vndyr hys {sp}ryt he {sp}rent_; 179: _But {st}ond {st}yll_; 2410: _He is so {st}iff at euery {st}oure_; 987: _Torrent in~ the {st}orrope {st}od_; 1912: _For no {st}roke wold she {st}ynt_; 2060: _By a {t}okyn~ I shall the {t}ell_; 2397: _Or {w}alkyd in {w}ede_; 383: _In hys {w}alke ther ase he {w}ent_; 725: _And {w}ent forthe on hys {w}ey_; 107: _And on hys {w}ey gan he {w}ynd_; 2030: _She {w}ent on that {w}ilsom~ {w}ay_; 989: _ale {w}yld at {w}yle_; 2088: _In no {w}ise he {w}old_; 1206: _To {w}ed her to my {w}yffe_; 749: _That {w}yt ys vndyr {w}ede_; 1315: _All men {w}onderid on that {w}ight_; 33: _{w}orthyest in {w}ede_.

_c._ Substantives and verbs are combined in the relation of subject and predicate. 2221: _Down {kn}elid that {kn}yght_; 854: _Whether the {f}ynd can {f}yght_; 2390: _There that his {l}ady {l}ent_; 2064: _My {l}ove was on the {l}ent_; 1219: _Gret {l}ordys to churche her {l}ed_; 170: _The fyndes {sp}ere {sp}arrythe hyme nothyng_; 84: _No {st}on lettythe he {st}ond_.

_d._ Verbs and substantives are combined as predicate and object. 2490: _his {b}ak to {b}end_; 2532: _That {c}outh moche {c}urtesye_; 273: _Thy {d}ethe than wyll he {d}yght_, cf. 1043: _Hys {d}ethe to hyme ys {d}yght_; 1648: _Thy {d}eth now is {d}ight_; 2123: _What {d}eth they wold hym {d}o_; 161: _My lordes {f}rethe thus to {f}ell_; 2235: _{F}ound hym his {fi}ll off {ffy}ght_; 1743: _The {ff}orward ye to {f}ulleffylle_; 651: _He {g}athyred svm of hys {g}ere_; 210: _Vpp both his {h}andes he {h}eld_; 1799: _For Iesu is love, that {h}arood {h}ell_; 1820: _Whan they {l}ed that {l}ady ffre_; 2080: _{L}eve we now that {l}ady gent_; 1663: _Ech on other {l}aid good {l}ode_; 1495: _To G.o.d that {m}ade {m}an_; 435: _A gret {m}aynerey let he {m}ake ryght_; 264: _To hym sche {m}ad here {m}one_; 645: _He {r}awght Torrent soche a {r}owght_; 1172: _And all to {sh}everd his {sh}eld_; 502: _Tho he be {st}rod an.o.ble {st}ede_; 2482: _Torent be {str}ode a stede {str}ong_; 281: _I schall the {t}ell soche a {t}okyn~_; 2013: _Ne {w}anted she no {w}oo_; 115: _He that schall {w}end soche a {w}ey_; 439: _Hom-ward to {w}end ther {w}ey_; 2448: _And than~ to {w}end her {w}ay_; 2457: _And to her logyng {w}ent her {w}ay_; 1544: _Other {w}ayes yf I {w}end_; 207: _That hathe thys {w}orld to {w}yld_.

-- 3. THE DIALECT.

The stanza of twelve lines was probably first employed in the north of England; at least it would be difficult to prove the existence of a poem composed in this metre in the southern part of the country; therefore it is beforehand probable that the romance of _Torrent_ was composed either in some part of the Midlands or in the North. In order to determine the dialect more precisely, we restrict ourselves to a careful consideration of the rhymes.

1. SHORT VOWELS.

Old English _a_ is (1) preserved before _n_ and _m_: 744 and 788 _Iame -- +name+_. 927 _Adryan -- +jentylmane+_. 13 _+londe+ -- +wonande+_. 352 _+stond+ -- +lygand+_. 1128 _+stond+ -- +shynand+_. No part. pres.

on-_ond_ rhyming with an unvariable _-ond_ has been traced out until now, but 1824 _+wepand+ -- wonde_ (ags. _wunden_) seems to be the first.

2. Changed into _o_. 516 _rome -- +frome+_ ags. _rum -- fram_. 2446 _+mon~+ -- done_. 1190 _none -- shone -- +anon+ -- done_. 1257 _+ouercom+ -- Aragon~_. 1989 _son -- +can+_ (= _+con+_). 2040 _+anon~+ -- bone_. A curious exception is 1929 _+grame+ (= greme) -- teme -- Ierusalem_; cf. _Gaw._ l. 312.

O.E. _e_, the _i_-umlaut of _a_, is preserved: 373 _end -- +wend+_. 476 _+went+ -- jent_. 924 _tell -- +h.e.l.l+_. 1702 _+h.e.l.l+ -- Desonelle_. 1798 _fell -- +h.e.l.l+_. The past partic. of _seon_, _segen_, has been contracted into _sen_. 1562 _+sene+ -- wene_.

O.E. _ae_ has become _a_: 45 _+spake+ -- take_. 363 _ffare -- +bare+_.

726 and 876 _+sale+ -- Portynggalle_. 1074 _pa.s.se -- +was+_. 1131 _+sale+ -- tale_. 1233 _+thare+ -- fare_. 1236 _+was+ -- Sathanas_. 1399 _care -- +thare+_. 2287 _+was+ -- alas_.

_ae_ has become _e_: 2026 _wildernes -- +was+_. 764 _derre -- clere -- +ware+_ (ags. _waer_). 1951 _+there+ -- bere_. 328 _+glad+_ (= _gled_) -- _redd_.

_ae_ has become _ay_ by the vocalization of the following _g_: 25 _+fayne+ -- Torrayne_. 1025 _+may+ -- +day+_, _+wey+ -- +laye+_. 1071 _+say+ -- +day+_. 2029 _+day+ -- +way+_.