Contractions Used in the Glossary.
The letters A. B. C. refer severally to the poems, entitled by me, “The Pearl,” “Cleanness,” and “Patience.”
| A.S. | Anglo-Saxon. |
| Dan. | Danish. |
| Du. | Dutch. |
| E. | English. |
| O.E. | Old English. |
| Prov.E. | Provincial English. |
| N.Prov.E. N.P.E. | North Provincial English. |
| Fr. | French. |
| O.Fr. | Old French. |
| Prov. Fr. | Provincial French. |
| Fris. | Frisian. |
| G. Doug. | Gawin Douglas’s Æneid, published by the Bannatyne Club, 2 vols. |
| Ger. | German. |
| Goth. | Gothic. |
| Icel. | Icelandic. |
| Jam. | Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary. |
| K. Alex. | King Alexander, Romance of (Ed. Stevenson). |
| Met. Hom. | Metrical Homilies (Ed. Small). |
| O.N. | Old Norse. |
| O.S. | Old Saxon. |
| Prompt. Parv. | Promptorium Parvulorum (Ed. Way). |
| Sc. | Scotch. |
| O.Sc. | Old Scotch. |
| S.Sax. | Semi-Saxon. |
| Sw. | Swedish. |
| O.Sw. | Old Swedish. |
| Town. Myst. | Townley Mysteries. |
| T. B. | Troy Book (Ed. Donaldson). |
Gaps in numbering represent notes that were shown inline, with or without visible numbers.
1. Edited by Sir Frederic Madden for the Bannatyne Club, under the title of “Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt,” and by me for the Early English Text Soc., 1865.
2. Wyntown nowhere asserts that Huchowne is a Scotchman.
3. Edited for E. E. T. Soc. by Rev. G. G. Perry, M.A.
4. This is evident from the following particulars:—
I. In old Scotch manuscripts we find the guttural gh (or ȝ) represented by ch; thus, aght, laght, saght, wight, are the English forms which, in the Scotch orthography, become aucht (owed), laucht (seized), saucht (peace), wicht (active). It is the former orthography, however, that prevails in the Morte Arthure.
II. We miss the Scotch use of (1) -is or -ys, for -es or -s, in the plural number, and of possessive cases of nouns, and in the person endings of the present tense indicative mood of verbs; (2) -it or -yt, for -ed or -d, in the preterites or passive participles of regular verbs.
III. There is a total absence of the well-known Scotch forms begouth (began), sa (so), sic (such), throuch, thorow (through). Instead of these bigan, so, syche, thrughe (thurgh) are employed. See Preface to Hampole’s Pricke of Conscience, pp. vii, viii.
5. This is shown by the frequent employment of -es as the person ending of the verb in the present tense, plural number. The corresponding Southern verbal inflexion -eth never occurs; while the Midland -en is only occasionally met with in the third person plural present, and has been introduced by a later copyist. There are other characteristics, such as the predominance of words containing the A.S. long a; as hame (home), stane (stone), thra (bold), walde (would), etc.; the frequent use of thir (these), tha (the, those), etc.
6. The peculiarities referred to do not appear to be owing to the copyist of the Lincoln manuscript (Robert de Thornton, a native of Oswaldkirk in Yorkshire), who, being a Northumbrian, would probably have restored the original readings. The non-Northumbrian forms in the Morte Arthure are— 1. The change of a into o, as bolde for balde, bote for bate, one for ane, honde for hande, londe for lande; 2. they, theyre, them, theym, for thay, thaire, tham; 3. gayliche, kindliche, semlyche, etc., for gayly, kindly, seemly, etc. (the termination lich, liche, was wholly unknown to the Northumbrian dialect, being represented by ly or like); 4. churle, churche, iche, mache, myche, syche, wyrche, etc., for carle, kirke, ilk, make, mykelle, swilk, wyrk, etc.; 5. infinitives in -en, as drenschen, schewenne, wacchenne, etc.; 6. the use of eke, thos, for als (alswa), thas; 7. the employment of aye for egg. The former word never occurs in any pure Northumbrian work, while the latter is seldom met with in any Southern production.
7. The poems are Northern in contradistinction to Southern, but they are not Northern or Northumbrian in contradistinction to Midland.
8. Printed by Mr. D. Laing in his “Inedited Pieces,” from a MS. of Mr. Heber’s. Other copies are in the Vernon MS., and Cotton Calig. A. ii.; the latter imperfect.
9. Other specimens of this dialect will doubtless turn up. Mr. Brock has found a MS. in British Museum (Harl. 3909) with most of the peculiarities pointed out by me in the preface to the present work, and I believe that this dialect was probably a flourishing one in the 13th century. See O.E. Homilies, p. li.
10. (1) en as the inflexion of the pres. tense pl., indic. mood of verbs; (2) s in the second and third pers. sing. of verbs; (3) ho = she; (4) hit = its; (5) tow = two; (6) deȝter = daughters, etc.
11. See p. 36, ll. 1052-1066; p. 37, ll. 1074-1089; pp. 161-162, ll. 4956-4975.
12. See pp. 25, 26 (Jason’s unfaithfulness); pp. 74, 75, ll. 2241-2255; p. 75, ll. 2256-2263; p. 69, ll. 2267-2081; p. 158, ll. 4839-4850; p. 189, ll. 4881-4885; p. 165, ll. 5078-5086, etc.
13. In the Harl. MS. 3909, nearly all the p. part. and preterites end in -et (-ut and -et occur in Romances ed. by Robson).
14. This seems to furnish an etymology for Clent Hills, Worcestershire—brent is the term employed in Alliterative.
15. Matthew, chapter xx.
17. “4. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
“5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.”
22. History of English Rhythms, vol. i. p. 159.
23. Syr Gawayn, ed. Madden, p. 302.
24. Wherever the Text has been altered, the reading of the MS. will be found in a foot-note.
25. Polychronicon R. Higdeni, ap. Gale, p. 210, 211. See Garnett’s Philological Essays, p. 43, and Specimens of Early English, p. 338.
26. It is to be regretted that Garnett did not enter upon details, and give his readers some tests by which to distinguish the “five distinctly marked forms.”
27. In English works of the fourteenth century the -en of the Midland, and the -es of the Northumbrian is frequently dropped, thus gradually approximating to our modern conjugation.
28. We are here speaking of works written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
29. Robert of Brunne, in his “Handlyng Synne,” often employs it instead of -en, but only for the sake of the rhyme.
30. The Midland dialect is a very difficult one to deal with, as it presents us with no uniform type; and, moreover, works written in this idiom are marked by Northern or Southern peculiarities, which have led many of our editors altogether astray in determining the locality of their composition.
31. Published by the Camden Society, 1842.
32. Edited by Mr. Halliwell for the Percy Society.
33. Edited by me for the Philological Society, 1862.
34. -us and -ud for -es and -ed, as well as hom, hor, do occasionally occur in the MS. containing our poems.
35. The Romance of William and the Werwolf is written in the West-Midland dialect as spoken probably in Shropshire.
36. Robson’s Metrical Romances, p. 54, l. 9.
37. Woldus = woldes = wouldst, appears in Audelay’s poems (in the Shropshire dialect of the fifteenth century), p. 32, l. 6.
38. The so-called Northumbrian records of the ninth and tenth centuries frequently use -es instead of -est, in the 2nd pers. preterite of regular verbs, e.g.,
ðu forcerdes usic on-bec = Thou turnedst us hindward. —(Ps. xliii. 11.)
ðu saldes usic = Thou gavest us. —(Ps. xliii. 12.)
ðu bi-bohtes folc ðin butan weorðe = Thou soldest thy folk without price. —(Ps. xliii. 12.)
ðu ge-hiowades me & settes ofer me hond ðine = Thou madest me and settest over me thy hand. —(Ps. cxxxviii. 5.)
ðu ðreades ða ofer-hygdan = Thou hast rebuked the proud. —(Ps. cxviii. 21.)
Ic ondeto ðe fader drihten heofnes forðon ðu gedeigeldes ðas ilco from snotrum & hogum & ædeaudes ða ðæm lytlum = I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. —(Matt. xi. 25).
39. Þou torned us hindward. —(Early English Nn. Psalter, xliii. 11.)
Þou salde þi folk. —(Ibid. xliii. 12.)
Þou meked us. —(Ibid. xliii. 20.)
Þou made me and set þi hand over me. —(Ibid. cxxxviii. 5.)
Þou snibbed proude. —(Ibid. cxviii. 21.)
40. I am informed by a Shropshire friend that it prevails in his county under the form shinneh.
Win = will, in winnot, wunnot = will not, is still heard in the West-Midland districts. It is found in Robson’s Romances and in Liber Cure Cocorum.
50. So I got up by break of day and set out; and went straight till I well nigh came within two miles of the town, when, as the devil would have it, a horse was standing at an ale-house door; and my calf (the devil bore out its eyes for me) took the horse for its mother, and would suck her.
51. Three specimens of the East-Midland dialect have come to light since writing the above. Harl. MS. 3909; Troy Book, ed. Donaldson, E. E. T. Soc.; The Lay-folks Mass-Book, ed. Simpson, E. E. T. Soc.
52. In the romance of “Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt” we find “blonk (horse) sadele,” “fox felle” (skin). In blonk an e has probably been dropped.
53. The feminine form is seldom employed.
54. The Northumbrian plural article is tha.
55. The Northumbrian corresponding form is thas.
56. Scho occurs once in the present poems.
57. Yowreȝ (yours) sometimes takes the place of youre in the romance of “Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyȝt.”
58. Page 92, l. 108.
59. Page 91, l. 72.
60. Syr Gawayn, l. 1932.
61. I would say that says me I = I myself say. —R. M.
62. Schonied occurs for schoned. No Southern writer would retain, I think, the i in the preterite.
63. Garnett asserts that the present participle in -ande is “a certain criterion of a Northern dialect subsequent to the thirteenth century.” It is never found in any Southern writer, but is common to many Midland dialects. Capgrave employs it frequently in his Chronicles. It is, however, no safe criterion by itself.
64. The final e is often dropped.
65. In The Wohunge of Ure Lauerd the e is constantly omitted.
66. “Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt.”
67. Taken with some few alterations from Sir F. Madden’s “Syr Gawayn.”
68. A line, however, is missing from the MS. on fol. 55b. See page 15.