Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book, 62, 80, 94, 96, 99, 100, 107, 109, 125, 136, 153. (7) b A b A b A b A b; as in ll. 31, 58:-- And séyd-e, sír', for góddes lóv-e. That wás my fádres héritág-e. Most of the further variations are caused by the slurring of a slight syllable which is practically superfluous; or, on the other hand, by the omission of an unaccented syllable where we should expect to hear one. The former of these processes is simple and common. Thus, in l. 18, we have:-- To hélp-e dél_en his_ lóndes, where the two syllables italicised are run together, and the line is really of the type no. 3. It is the other process, viz. the omission of an expected syllable, which jars so disagreeably on the modern ear; though common (as was said) in nursery rimes. Thus, in l. 23:-- On his déth-bédd-e. In l. 41:-- Tho léet-e théy the kníght lý-en. In l. 68:-- And déyd-e whán tým-e cóm. These are of the types A b A A b (cf. no. 1); b A b A b A A b (cf. no. 7); and b A b A A b A (cf. no. 6); and were no doubt considered sufficiently good. The lilt of the verse carried the reciter along. The latter half-verse is usually of types (1), (2), or (3), with three accents. Examples of (1) occur in 3, 16, 17, 20, 41, 50; of (2), in 1, 7, 8, 26, 32; of (3), in 10, 18, 19, 28, 39. But some occur of a still shorter type, viz. A b A b A; as in--ón his fáir-e fél, 76; so also in 79, 107, 109, 128. When an unaccented syllable is dropped, we even find such lines as--sýk thér he láy, 11 (A A b A); sýk thát he láy, 21 (the same); whán he góod cówd-e, 48 (A b A A b); he láy stóon-stíll-e, 67 (b A A A b); and the like. Whether the number of accents in the second half-line was ever diminished to _two_, may be doubted. Rather we may suppose that, in reciting the lines slowly but emphatically, a fictitious additional accent was placed upon the _italicised_ syllables in such half-lines as--by sé-ÿnt[102] _Mar_-týn, 53; wálk-_yng-e_ thár-e, 89; be bét-_en_ anón, 115; and árt _so_ yíng, 148; a rám _and_ a ríng, 172; to wénd-e _ther_-tó, 173. This slippery matter I leave to the reader's discretion. § 32. An excellent critical examination of the Tale of Gamelyn, by E. Lindner, appeared in the Englische Studien, ed. E. Kölbing, vol. ii. pp. 94, 321 (1878). He made, however, the unlucky mistake of confusing MS. Harl. 1758 with MS. Harl. 7334, not being aware that there are _two_ copies of the poem in the Harleian collection; thus unfortunately missing the readings of MS. Harl. 7334, which is much the best copy, and would have solved some at least of his difficulties. Nevertheless, his article is highly useful, and I must refer the reader to it for further information. I here briefly note a few of his results. He remarks that Gamelyn was first composed for recitation; observe the frequent use of _litheth_, i.e. 'listen ye,' at the beginning of each section of the lay; see ll. 1, 169, 289, 341, 551, 769; cf. l. 615. For a comparison of Gamelyn with Lodge's novel called 'Euphues golden Legacie' (see § 34), he refers us to Delius' edition of Shakespeare, ii. 347 (1872). At p. 101, he gives a complete Rime-index to the whole poem, and at p. 107 notices some false rimes. The rimes (he says) are chiefly of the most ordinary character, and the poem is very inartificial; see, e.g., ll. 135-8, 261-270, 315-8, 529-534, 649-652, 729-732, 811-4; &c. The author constantly repeats himself; note the repetition of _sore_, 10, 11; _for to dele_, 42, 43; ll. 72, 73; 85-6, compared with 97-8; _al that my fader me biquath_, 99, 157, 160, 360; 120-1; 149, 150, compared with 151-4; 190-1, &c. Short expressions or 'tags' occur over and over again; as _ther he lay_, 11, 21, 25, 33, 50, 52, 66; _Cristes curs mot he have_, 106, 114, 116, 818; _by Cristes ore_, 139, 159, 231, 323; _he began to goon_, 126, 220, 236, 498; _evel mot ye thee_, 131, 363, 448, 720; cf. 379, 413, 517; _whyl he was on lyve_, 20, 58, 157, 225, 228. There are frequent examples of alliteration, as _litheth and lesteneth_, 1; _bote of bale_, 32, 34; _stondeth alle stille_, 55; _stoon-stille_, 67, &c.; more examples can easily be found. We also find repetitions of ideas, the latter part of the verse merely reproducing the former, as in 107, 174, 217, 221, 381, 699, 732. At p. 324, is an analysis of some of the looser rimes. At p. 328, is an analysis of the grammatical forms and of the varieties of spelling. At p. 113, Lindner is inclined to connect the story with the time of Fulke Fitz Warin, i.e. with the time of King John[103]; see Ten Brink, Early Eng. Literature (English version), p. 149. At p. 321, he says that the description of Gamelyn's brother's house, with its hall-door (461), outer gate (286), postern-gate (589), bower (405), &c., suits the description of an Anglo-Norman manor-house of the thirteenth[104] century; see T. Wright, A History of English Culture, London, 1874. The father of the hero was evidently a Norman knight; cf. l. 108. § 33. Little need be said of previous editions of the Tale of Gamelyn. It was first printed, in a worthless text, with capricious alterations, by Urry, in 1721[105]. But in 1847, Mr. T. Wright printed it for the Percy Society, from the best text, viz. that in MS. Harl. 7334; yet he, somewhat carelessly, omitted three lines (563, 601, 602). This was reprinted in Bell's Chaucer, with the omission of the same three lines. In Morris's Chaucer, the three missing lines are restored; but in some other places, the edition follows Mr. Wright's text rather than the MS. Dr. Furnivall's Six-text edition contains the text of six _other_ MSS.; he purposely omitted MS. Harl. 7334, on the ground that it was already in type; whence Lindner's very natural mistake. I have thus had the great advantage of collating the readings of MS. Harl. 7334 with those of six other MSS., to the improvement of the text as a whole. All the copies go back to _one_ original; the second best copy is in the Corpus MS., from which the Lansdowne MS. does not greatly vary. The other MSS. give inferior readings, the Sloane MS. being the worst. For further particulars, I refer the reader to the Notes in vol. v.; and to the somewhat fuller account in my separate edition of the Tale of Gamelyn, published at Oxford in 1884. § 34. Long before the Tale of Gamelyn first appeared in print, a MS. copy was consulted by Thomas Lodge, who founded upon it part of a prose story, which was afterwards printed at London in 1592 with the title: 'Euphues golden Legacie, found after his death in his Cell at Silexedra, bequeathed to Philavtus Sonnes, nvrsed vp with their Father in England.' Of this novel there is a convenient reprint in Shakespeare's Library, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, vol. ii. An analysis of this story, comparing it with 'Gamelyn,' is given in my separate edition already referred to; and copious extracts from it are given by Mr. W. Aldis Wright in his Introduction to his edition of As you Like It. The result is interesting; for |