The Lay of Havelok the Dane Part 22

[Sidenote: The feast lasts 40 days.]

+e feste of his coruni[{n}]g[133] 2948 Laste[de] with gret ioying Fourti dawes, and sumdel mo; o bigu{n}nen e denshe to go Vn-to e king, to aske leue, 2952 And he ne wolde hem nouth g{re}ue, [Sidenote: The Danes return home.]

For he saw at he woren yare In-to denemark for to fare, But gaf hem leue sone anon, 2956 And bitauhte hem seint Johan; [Sidenote: Ubbe is to rule Denmark.]

And bad ubbe, his iustise, at he sholde on ilke wise Denemark yeme and gete so, 2960 at no pleynte come him to.

[Footnote 133: MS. corunig.]

[Sidenote: Havelok remained in England for sixty years.]

+Hwan he wore parted alle samen, Hauelok bi-lefte wit ioie and game{n} In engelond, and was er-i{n}ne 2964 Sixti winter king with winne, And Goldeboru quen, at I wene: So mikel loue was hem bitwene, at al e werd spak of hem two: 2968 He louede hire, and she him so, [Sidenote: He and Goldborough were never apart.]

at neyer oe[r] mithe be For[134] oer, ne no ioie se, But yf he were to-gidere[135] boe; 2972 Neuere yete ne were{n} he wroe, For here loue was ay newe, [Sidenote: [Fol. 219b, col. 1.]]

Neuere yete wordes ne grewe Bitwene hem, hwar-of ne lathe 2976 Mithe rise, ne no wrathe.

[Footnote 134: _Qu._ Fro.]

[Footnote 135: MS. togidede.]

[Headnote: SUCH IS THE "GESTE" OF HAVELOK.]

[Sidenote: They had 15 children, all kings and queens.]

+He geten childre{n} hem bi-twene Sones and douthres rith fiuetene, Hwar-of e sones were kinges alle, 2980 So wolde G.o.d it sholde bifalle; And e douhtres alle q{ue}nes: Him sto{n}des wel at G.o.d child strenes.

[Sidenote: Such is the _geste_ of Havelok and Goldborough.]

Nu haue ye herd e gest al oru 2984 Of hauelok and of goldeborw.

Hw he were{n} born, and hw fedde, And hwou he wore{n} with wro{n}ge ledde In here youe, with trecherie, 2988 With tresoun, and with felounye, And hwou e swikes hauede{n} thit Reuen hem at was here rith, And hwou he were{n} wreken wel, 2992 Haue ich sey you eu{er}ildel;

[Headnote: SAY A PATERNOSTER FOR THE AUTHOR.]

And fori ich wolde biseken you, at haue{n} herd e rim[e] nu, [Sidenote: Each of you say a _pater-noster_ for the author.]

at ilke of you, with G.o.de wille, 2996 Seye a pat{er}-nost{er} stille, For him at haueth e rym[e] maked, And er-fore fele nihtes waked; at ih{es}u c{ri}st his soule bringe 3000 Bi-forn his fader at his endinge.

+Amen.+

NOTES.

[The following notes are abridged from the notes in Sir F. Madden's excellent edition, the abridgement being effected almost entirely by occasional omissions, and with but very slight unimportant changes of a few words, chiefly in the case of references to later editions of various works than were existing in 1828. I have added one or two short notes upon difficult constructions, but these are distinguished by being enclosed within square brackets. --W. W. S.]

9.

_He was the wicteste man at nede That thurte riden on ani stede._

This appears to have been a favourite expression of the poet, and to have comprehended, in his idea, the perfection of those qualifications required in a knight and hero. He repeats it, with some slight variation, no less than five times, viz. in ll. 25, 87, 345, 1757, and 1970. The lines, however, are by no means original, but the common property of all our early poetical writers. We find them in La?amon:

is wes e feiruste mon e aeuere aehte aer usne kinedom, a he mihte beren wepnen, & his hors wel awilden.

_La?amon_, vol. i. p. 174.

So also in the Romance of _Guy of Warwick_:

He was the best knight at neede That euer bestrode any stede.

Coll. Garrick, K. 9. sign. Ll. ii.

Again, in the _Continuation of Sir Gy_, in the Auchinleck MS., (ed. for the Abbotsford Club, 1840, 4to; p. 266),

The best bodi he was at nede That ever might bistriden stede, And freest founde in fight.

And again, in the _Chronicle of England_, published by Ritson from a copy in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 12. C. XII.

After him his sone Arthur Hevede this lond thourh and thourh.

He was the beste kyng at nede That ever mihte ride on stede, Other wepne welde, other folk out-lede, Of mon he hede he never drede. --l. 261.

The very close resemblance of these lines to those in Havelok, ll.

87-90, would induce a belief that the writer of the _Chronicle_ had certainly read, and perhaps copied from, the Romance. The MS. followed by Ritson was undoubtedly written soon after the death of Piers Gaveston, in 1313, with the mention of which event it concludes; but in the Auchinleck copy it is continued, by a later hand, to the minority of Edward III. It only remains to be observed, that the poem in MS. Reg.

12. C. XII. is written by the same identical hand as the MS. Harl. 2253 (containing _Kyng Horn_, &c.), whence some additional light is thrown on the real age of the latter, respecting which our antiquaries so long differed.

[15. "And I will drink ere I tell my tale." _Her_ = ere.

19. _And wite, &c._, i.e. And ordain that it may be so; cf. ll. 517, 1316. Both metre and grammar require the final _e_.]

31. _Erl and barun, _dreng_ and kayn._ The appellation of _Dreng_, and, in the plural, _Drenges_, which repeatedly occurs in the course of this poem, is uniformly bestowed on a cla.s.s of men who hold a situation between the rank of _Baron_ and _Thayn_. We meet with the term more than once in Doomsday Book, as, for instance, in t.i.t. Cestresc: "Hujus manerii [Neuton] aliam terram xv. hom. quos _Drenches_ vocabant, pro xv.

maneriis tenebant." And in a Charter of that period we read: "Alger Prior, et totus Conventus Ecclesiae S. Cuthberti, Edwino, et omnibus Teignis et _Drengis_, &c." Hence Spelman infers, that the Drengs were military va.s.sals, and held land by knight's service, which was called _Drengagium_. This is confirmed by a doc.u.ment from the Chartulary of Welbeck, printed in Dugdale, _Mon. Angl._ V. II. p. 598, and in Blount, _Jocular Tenures_, p. 177, where it is stated, "In eadem villa [Cukeney, co. Nottingh.] manebat quidam h.o.m.o qui vocabatur Gamelbere, et fuit vetus _Dreyinghe_ ante Conquestum." It appears from the same doc.u.ment, that this person held two carucates of land of the King _in capite_, and was bound to perform military service for the same, whenever the army went into Wales. In the Epistle also from the Monks of Canterbury to Henry II. printed by Somner, in his Treatise on Gavelkind, p. 123, we find: "Quia vero non erant adhuc tempore Regis Willelmi Milites in Anglia, sed _Threnges_, praecepit Rex, ut de eis Milites fierent, ad terram defendendam." In La?amon's translation of Wace the term is frequently used in the acceptation of thayn, and spelt either _dringches_, _drenches_, _dranches_, or _dringes_. [Cf. Sw. _drang_, a man, servant; Dan. _dreng_, a boy.] In the Isl. and Su. Goth. _Dreng_ originally signified _vir fortis_, _miles strenuus_, and hence Olaf, King of Norway, received the epithet of _G.o.ddreng_. See Wormii Lex. Run.

p. 26. Ihre, Vet. Cat. Reg. p. 109. Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic. V. I.

p. 156. The term subsequently was applied to persons in a servile condition, and is so instanced by Spelman, as used in Denmark. In this latter sense it may be found in Hickes, Diction. Isl., and in Sir David Lyndsay's Poems,

Quhilk is not ordanit for _dringis_ But for Duikis, Empriouris, and Kingis.

V. Pinkerton's Scotish Poems Reprinted, ii. 97.

V. Jamieson, Dict. _in voce_.

45.

_In that time a man that bore (Wel fyfty pund, y woth, or more.)_

This insertion receives additional authority from a similar pa.s.sage in the Romance of _Guy of Warwick_, where it is mentioned as a proof of the rigorous system of justice pursued by Earl Sigard,

Though a man bore an hundred pound, Upon him of gold so round, There n'as man in all this land That durst him do shame no schonde.

Ellis, _Metr. Rom._ V. II. p. 9. Ed. 1811.

Many of the traits here attributed to Athelwold appear to be borrowed from the praises so universally bestowed by our ancient historians on the character of King Alfred, in whose time, as Otterbourne writes, p. 52, "armillas aureas in bivio stratas vel suspensas, nemo abripere est ausus." Cf. _Annal. Eccl. Roffens._ MS. Cott. Nero, D. II. The same anecdote is related of Rollo, Duke of Normandy, by Guillaume de Jumieges, and Dudon de Saint Quentin.

91. _Sp.r.o.ng forth so sparke of glede._ Cf. l. 870. It is a very common metaphor in early English poetry.