Early English Alliterative Poems 1

Early English Alliterative Poems 1

Early English Alliterative Poems

in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century

 

Author: Various

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

[List added by transcriber. Items in brackets do not have headers in the

body text, but were treated as subsections for grouping footnotes.]

 

Preface

[Introduction to _The Pearl_]

[Introduction to _Cleanness_]

[Introduction to _Patience_]

[General Introduction]

Remarks Upon the Dialect and Grammar

Grammatical Details

I. Nouns

II. Adjectives

III. Pronouns

IV. Verbs

V. Adverbs

VI. Prepositions

VII. Conjunctions

Description of the Manuscript

Contractions Used in the Glossary

 

The Pearl

Cleanness

Patience

 

Notes [distributed among the three poems]

Glossarial Index

 

 

 

 

PREFACE.

 

 

The following poems are taken from a well known manuscript in the

Cottonian collection, marked Nero A. x, which also contains, in the same

handwriting and dialect, a metrical romance,[1] wherein the adventures

of Sir Gawayne with the “Knight in Green,” are most ably and

interestingly described.

 

Unfortunately nothing can be affirmed with any certainty concerning the

authorship of these most valuable and interesting compositions. The

editor of “Syr Gawayn and the Green Knight” considers that Huchowne, a

supposed[2] Scotch _maker_ of the fourteenth century, has the best

claims to be recognised as the author, inasmuch as he is specially

referred to by Wyntown as the writer of the _Gret gest of Arthure_ and

the _Awntyre of Gawayne_.

 

I do not think that any certain conclusions are to be drawn from the

Scotch historian’s assertion. It is well known that more versifiers than

one during the fourteenth century attempted romance composition in the

English language, having for their theme the knightly deeds of Arthur or

Sir Gawayne. These they compiled from French originals, from which they

selected the most striking incidents and those best suited to an

Englishman’s taste for the marvellous. We are not surprised, then, at

finding so many romance poems treating of the exploits of the same hero,

and laying claim to be considered as original productions. In Scotland,

Huchowne’s works might no doubt have been regarded as the standard

romances of the period, but that they were the only English _gests_ is

indeed very doubtful.

 

The Early English alliterative romance, entitled the _Morte Arthure_,

published from a manuscript in Lincoln Cathedral by Mr. Halliwell,[3] is

considered by Sir F. Madden to be the veritable _gest of Arthure_

composed by Huchowne. An examination of this romance does not lead me to

the same conclusion, unless Huchowne was a Midland man, for the poem is

not written in the old Scotch dialect,[4] but seems to have been

originally composed in one of the Northumbrian dialects spoken _South_

of the Tweed.[5]

 

The manuscript from which Mr. Halliwell has taken his text is not the

original copy, nor even a literal transcript of it. It exhibits certain

orthographical and grammatical peculiarities unknown to the Northumbrian

dialect which have been introduced by a Midland transcriber, who has

here and there taken the liberty to adapt the original text to the

dialect of his own locality, probably that one of the North Midland

counties, where many of the Northumbrian forms of speech would be

intelligible.[6]

 

A comparison of the Arthurian romance with the following poems throws no

light whatever upon the authorship of the poems. The dialect of the two

works is altogether different, although many of the terms employed are

common to both, being well known over the whole of the North of England.

The grammatical forms (the best test we can have) in the poems are quite

distinct from those in the _Morte Arthure_, and of course go far to

prove that they do not proceed from the pen of the same writer.

 

The Editor of “Syr Gawayn and the Green Knight” acknowledges that the

poems in the present volume, as now preserved to us in the manuscript,

are not in the Scottish dialect, but he says “there is sufficient

internal evidence of their being _Northern_,[7] although the manuscript

containing them appears to have been written by a scribe of the Midland

counties, which will account for the introduction of forms differing

from those used by writers beyond the Tweed.”

 

Now, with regard to this subsequent transcription of the poems from the

Scotch into a Midland dialect,--it cannot be said to be improbable, for

we have abundant instances of the multiplication of copies by scribes of

different localities, so that we are not surprised at finding the works

of some of our popular Early English writers appearing in two or three

forms; but, on the other hand, a comparison of the original copy with

the _adapted transcriptions_, or even the reading of a transcribed copy,

always shows how the author’s productions have suffered by the change.

Poetical works, especially those with final rhymes, of course undergo

the greatest amount of transformation and depreciation. The changes

incident upon the kind of transcription referred to are truly

surprising, and most perplexing to those who make the subject of Early

English _dialects_ a matter of investigation.

 

But, in the present poems, the uniformity and consistency of the

grammatical forms is so entire, that there is indeed no internal

evidence of subsequent transcription into any other dialect than that in

which they were originally written. However, the dialect and grammatical

peculiarities will be considered hereafter.

 

Again, in the course of transcription into another dialect, any literary

merit that the author’s copy may have originally possessed would

certainly be destroyed. But the poems before us are evidently the work

of a man of birth and education; the productions of a true poet, and of

one who had acquired a perfect mastery over that form of the English

tongue spoken in his own immediate locality during the earlier part of

the fourteenth century. Leaving out of consideration their great

philological worth, they possess an intrinsic value of their own as

literary compositions, very different from anything to be found in the

works of Robert of Gloucester, Manning, and many other Early English

authors, which are very important as philological records, but in the

light of poetical productions, cannot be said to hold a very

distinguished place in English literature. The poems in the present

volume contain many passages which, as Sir F. Madden truly remarks, will

bear comparison with any similar ones in the works of Douglas or

Spenser.

 

I conclude, therefore, that these poems were not transcribed from the

Scotch dialect into any other, but were written in their own

West-Midland speech in which we now have them.

 

Mr. Donaldson, who is now editing for the Early English Text Society the

Troy Book, translated from Guido di Colonna, puts forward a plea for

Huchowne as its author, to whom he would also assign the _Morte Arthure_

(ed. Perry) and the Pistel of Sweet Susan.[8] But Mr. Donaldson seems to

have been misled by the similarity of vocabulary, which is not at all a

safe criterion in judging of works written in a Northumbrian, West or

East Midland speech. The dialect, I venture to think, is a far safer

test. A careful examination of the Troy Book compels me to differ in

toto from Mr. Donaldson, and, instead of assigning the Troy Book to a

Scotchman, say that it cannot even be claimed, in its present form, by

any Northumbrian south of the Tweed; moreover, it presents no appearance

of having been tampered with by one unacquainted with the dialect,

though it has perhaps been slightly modernised in the course of

transcription.

 

The work is evidently a genuine West-Midland production,[9] having most

of the peculiarities of vocabulary and inflexions that are found in

these _Alliterative Poems_.[10] I feel greatly inclined to claim this

English Troy Book as the production of the author of the _Alliterative

Poems_; for, leaving out identical and by no means common __EXPRESSION__s,

we find the same power of description,[11] and the same tendency to

inculcate moral and religious truths on all occasions where an

opportunity presents itself.[12] Without dwelling upon this topic, which

properly falls to the Editor of the Troy Book, it may not be out of

place to ask the reader to compare the following description of a storm

from the Troy Book, with that selected from the present volume on pp. 14 and 18.