kine-bearn arisen. and scal þin mære kun: wælden bus londes. geond þa world beon ihæged: and þu beo hæl and isund. He boute of his swefne: and hou be laefdi him sæide. mid muchelere lufe: he seide hit his leoden. hu him imette: and þa læfdi hine igrette. [Layamon's Brut ; or, Chronicle of Britain (MS. Cott. Calig. A. Ix., v. 1222–61), by Sir Frederic Madden, 1847, i., 52–4.] EXTRACT VII. A.D. 1200 (?) THE FINDING OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. By ORM, or ORMIN. [See p. 25.] & tegg þa wenndenn efft onngæn & comenn efft till gerrsalæm þær fundenn i þe temmple Bitwenenn þatt Judisskenn flocc batt læredd wass o boke; & tære he satt to fraggnenn hemm Off þeggre bokess lare, & alle patt himm herrdenn þær, Hemm þuhhte mikell wunnderr Off batt he wass full gæp & wis To swarenn & to fraggenn. & Sannte Marge comm till himm & seggde himm buss wipp worde Whi didesst tu, lef sune, buss Wipp uss, for uss to swennkenn? Witt hafenn sohht te widewhar Icc & ti faderr babe Wipp serrhfull herrte & sarig mod, Whi didesst tu piss dede ? & tanne seg de Jesu Crist Till babe buss wipp worde What wass guw swa to sekenn me, Whatt was guw swa to serrghenn? ' And they then turned back again that dear child to seek, and came again to Jerusalem, to seek him there within. and they him on the third day there found in the temple among the Jewish flock that learned was in book; and there he sat to ask them of their book's lore, and all that him heard there, them thought much wonder of that he was full shrewd and wise to answer and to ask. and Saint Mary came to him and said [to] him thus with word, Why didst thou, dear son, thus with us, for us to trouble? we-two have sought thee wide where I and thy father both with sorrowful heart and sorry mood, why didst thou this deed? and then said Jesus Christ, to both thus with word, what was [there to] you so to seek me, what was [there to] you so to sorrow? Ne wisste ge nohht tatt me birrp Abutenn hise bingess? & tegg he mihtenn nohht tatt word & comm wipp hemm till Nazaræþ, burrh sobfasst herrsummnesse & was wipp hem till þatt he wass Off brittig winnterr elde.' not wist ye not that me becomes my father's will [to] do? nor that me becomes [to] be careful about his things? and they might not that word yet then well understand; and he then went forth with them and did them their will, and came with them to Nazareth, so as the Gospel saith, and to them both he obeyed and bowed through soothfast obedience, and was with them till that he was of thirty winters' age.' [The Ormulum, edited from the original MS. in the Bodleian, by R. M. White, and R. Holt, 1878, 11. 8925-8964. The Modern version is from Marsh's Origin and History of the English Language, 1862, 183-5.] EXTRACT VIII. A.D. 1340 (?) KING ARTHUR AND THE ROUND TABLE. By ROBERT OF BRUNNE. He toke so mykille of curtasie In alle ansuere he was fulle wys, For his barons þat were so bold, pat alle be world pris of told,— [See p. 26.] For no man wist who was best Non sat hie, non sat lawe, But alle cuenly for to knawe; But alle o round, and alle were hende ; Non wist who of ban most was, For bei sat alle in compas; Alle at ons, doun þei siten, At ons ros, whin þei had eten; [Quoted in Appendix V. to Preface to the Handlyng Synne, edited by F. J. Furnivall for the Roxburghe Club, 1862, xxxviii.—xxxix.] T EXTRACT IX. A.D. 1346. THE BATTLE OF NEVILLE'S CROSS. By LAURENCE MINOT. ['The ninth song,—perhaps the most spirited of them all,—commemorates the battle of Nevile's Cross, and the defeat and capture of king David Bruce . . . It was by the counsel of Philippe of Valois that the Scots invaded England, we are told, and they were so confident in the belief that all the fighting men had been carried out of England to the French wars, that king David talked of descending from his horse at the palace of Westminster.' Wright, Introduction, xxiv. The following is part only of the ballad. See p. 27.] For Cuthbert of Dorem Haved thai no dout [fear]; Tharfore at Nevel Cros Law gan thai lout [bend]. Thare louted thai law [low], And leved allane. Thus was David the Bruse [Political Poems and Songs relating to English History, 13271485. Edited by Thomas Wright, 1859, i., 83–7, Rolls Collection. Minot's poems have been separately edited for the Clar. Press, 1887, by Jos. Hall.] EXTRACT X. A.D. 1356. THE LADY OF THE LAND. By SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE. [Under the title of The Daughter of Hippocrates, but with a less tragic termination, the following legend has been retold in the Indicator, by Leigh Hunt, who says in a note that it is founded on a tradition still preserved in the island of Cos.' It is also one of the tales in The Earthly Paradise of our latter-day ChaucerWilliam Morris. See p. 40.] 'And thanne passen Men thorghe the Isles of Colos & of Lango [Cos]; of the whiche Iles Ypocras [Hippocrates] was Lord offe. And some Men seyn, that in the Isle of Lango is zit the Doughtre of Ypocras, in forme & lykenesse of a gret Dragoun that is an hundred Fadme of lengthe, as Men seyn: For I have not seen hire. And thei of the Iles callen hire, Lady of the Lond. And sche lyethe in an olde Castelle, in a Cave, and schewethe twyes or thryes in the Zeer. And sche dothe non harm to no Man, but zif Men don hire harm. And sche was thus chaunged and transformed, from a fair Damysele, in to lyknesse of a Dragoun, be a Goddesse, that was clept Deane [Diana]. And Men seyn, that sche schalle so endure in that forme of a Dragoun, unto the tyme that a Knyghte come, that is so hardy, that dar come to hire & kisse hire on the Mouthe: And then schalle sche turne azen to hire owne Kynde, & ben a woman azen: But aftre that sche schalle not liven longe. . . . . And. a zonge Man, that wiste not of the Dragoun, wente out of a Schipp, & went thorghe the Ile, till that he come to the Castelle, and cam in to the Cave; & wente so longe, til that he found a Chambre, and there he saughe a Damysele, that kembed hire Hede, and lokede in a Myrour; & sche hadde meche Tresoure abouten hire. And he abode, tille the Damysele saughe the Schadewe of him in the Myrour. And sche turned hire toward him, & asked hym, what he wolde. And he seyde, he wolde ben hire Limman or Paramour. And sche asked him, zif that he were a Knyghte. And he seyde, nay. And than sche seyde, that he myghte not ben hire Lemman: But sche bad him gon azen unto his Felowes, & make him Knyghte, & come agen upon the Morwe, & sche scholde come out of the Cave before him; and thanne come & kysse hire on the Mowthe, & have no Drede; for I schalle do the no maner harm, alle be it that thou see me in Lyknesse of a Dragoun. For thoughe thou see me hidouse & horrible to loken onne, I do the tô wytene, that it is made be Enchauntement. For withouten doute, I am non other than thou seest now, a Woman; and therfore drede the noughte. And zif thou kysse me, thou schalt have alle this Tresoure, & be my Lord, and Lord also of alle that Ile. And he departed fro hire & wente to his Felowes to Schippe, and leet make him Knyghte, & cam azen upon the Morwe, for to kysse this Damysele. And when he saughe hire comen out of the Cave, in forme of a dragoun, so hidouse & so horrible, he hadde so grete drede, that he fleyghe azen to the Schippe; & sche folewed him. And when sche saughe, that he turned not azen, she began to crye, as a thing that had meche Sorwe; and thanne sche turned azen, in to hire Cave; and anon the Knyghte dyede. ' * [The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundeville, Kt., Halliwell's Reprint, 1883, pp. 23–25.] THE DESCRIPTION OF SLOTH. By WILLIAM LANGLAND. [Accidia, or Sloth, is a 'priest and parson.' He goes to sleep over his prayers, and is awaked by Repentance. See p. 30, and p. 49.] """What! awake, renke! [man]" quod repentance "and rape þe [make hasle] to shrifte." "If I shulde deye bi bis day me list nougte to loke; I can [know] nougte perfitly my pater noster as be prest it syngeth, I parfourned neure penaunce as be prest me higte, is two myle fro myne herte. I am occupied eche day haliday and other, With ydel tales atte ale⚫ and otherwhile in cherches; Goddes peyne and his passioun ful selde bynke I bere-on. ¶ I visited neuere fieble men ne fettered folke in puttes [dungeons], And as it came on towards him, with its teeth The body of a slain goat did it tear, The blood whereof in its hot jaws did seethe, Then his heart sank, and standing trembling there, • Yet he abode her still, although his blood * 'Meanwhile the dragon, seeing him clean gone, Morris, The Earthly Paradise, The Lady of the Land, pp. 524-5. |