SIR TRISTREM: FOOTNOTES
1 Unless he cause my torment to cease
2 Among the people it was not hidden (i.e., it was no secret; it was well known).
3 Through coats of mail the blood spewed
4 He did not know whom to blame for it
5 It [his heart] would have burst through blood and bone
6 To learn the ins and outs of [his] story
7 He did not stop [searching] because of that
8 He [Rohand] asked him [Tristrem] directly
9 As soon as he looked at it
10 He commended them to God and [said] good day
11 They advised the King to rid [himself of a problem]
12 You say I prevent my uncle from taking a wife
13 They didn't care who the man might be / In all the world / Who might slay him [the dragon] or who knew how to; / He would have Ysonde as a reward.
14 She asked for the drink from Ireland
15 Do not forsake for any payment / Doing that deed
16 And asked advice about those two [alternatives]
17 Tristrem came just / As Isolt had [gone] away
18 To go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
19 [It would have been] good if you had commanded me
20 If [only] I dared, [but I don't] because of the King
21 But though I thought [myself] to die [as a result]
22 Except for the one [who] carried me to the ship
23 Neither of them might be sated with the other
24 They do not care about such sexual play
25 He [the Duke] offered him [Tristrem], in truth
26 Her hope [of receiving Tristrem's love] lasted so long [without fulfillment]
27 Without his [the giant's] waiting for him [for combat]
28 It seemed as if they were not images / Standing there
29 One of us shall lose his life-blood
30 For what action do you blame her
31 He was sorry, that noble young man
32 As a man who may do much (i.e., who is rich or powerful)
SIR TRISTREM: NOTES
1 In the manuscript, a large capital I begins the romance. Large capitals also appear at the beginning of lines 34, 276, 452, 529, 573, 771, 1211, 1255, 1442, 1541, 1629, 1805, 1926, 2014, 2047, 2267, 2751, 2850, 3235, and 3290.
Because of damage to the manuscript, probably due, as Scott suggests, to the cutting out of an illumination, the end of the first line is missing. However, the entire line appears as a catchphrase on the preceding page.
Ertheldoun is Erceldoune, a village in Berwickshire, Scotland.
2 The Tomas referred to here (and again in lines 10, 397, 412 and 2787) as the purported source of the story of Sir Tristrem is Thomas of Erceldoune (fl. ?1220-?1297), a poet and prophet who is said to have predicted the death of the King of Scotland, Alexander III. Another work attributed to him but written long after his death is The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune, edited by James A. H. Murray for the Early English Text Society (o.s. no. 61) in 1875.
3 The MED cites this line as an example of the use of the phrase in roune meaning "secretly" or "mysteriously." These meanings seem not to fit the context. The word probably has the meaning of "poem" or "song" in this context, and the author is here merely using the convention of citing an authority for his work.
20 McNeill notes that to abide is used here as "a mere expletive, which cannot be adequately translated."
23 McNeill notes that "Rouland" should be read for the manuscript reading of "Morgan," though he does not make the emendation in his text. I have followed Kölbing in making the emendation.
24 On Morgan, see the note to line 74.
39 Earlier editors agree on reading pouer as "the poor"; but it might also mean "the military force" or "the army."
44 On Rouland Rise (and also Rouland Riis on line 49), W. W. Skeat ("The Romance of Sir Tristrem," Scottish Historical Review 6 [1909], 59) says the "Rise" or "Riis" "is obviously the Welsh name Rhys, which has been Englished both as Reece and Rice."
74 Ermonie (which appears again in lines 762, 807, and 906, and as "Hermonie" in lines 532 and 849) as Tristrem's heritage is discussed at length by Ernst Brugger ("Almain and Ermonie as Tristan's Home," MP 25 [1927-28], 269-290). He suggests that in the Norse version of Thomas's story,
Ermenia, Tristram's home, was a town and port in Brittany. Tristram was therefore a Breton as well as his enemy, Duke Morgan. . . . The English translation [i.e., Sir Tristrem] does not go so much into details as the Saga, is more vague in its geographical indications, but generally confirms, or does not contradict, those about Tristram's home in the Saga. Ermenie is not yet a town. Navigation is necessary for passing from King Mark's court in England to Ermenie or vice versa. . . . Brittany . . . may have been thought of as adjacent to Ermonie and to the country of Duke Morgan, though this is not expressly stated . . . (pp. 272-273).
Brugger also suggests, however, that if Ermonie is original to the Tristan story, which he considers to have a Pictish origin, "Ermenie" should be identified with "Manann-Manau in Scotland" and goes on to say that a "confusion of Ermenie=Manann with Ermenie=Brittany . . . may have been the reason why Thomas transplanted Tristan's home from Scotland to the Continent; but I am inclined to think that this shifting was rather caused by the ambiguity of the name Bretaigne" (p. 289).
In another article ("Loenois as Tristan's Home," MP 22 [1924-25], 159-191), Brugger discusses the location of Tristan's home given in the Beroul (as opposed to the Thomas) tradition and identifies this place, Loenois or Lyonas, as Lothian, which he considers "far more important than Ermenie" (p. 190) because closer to what he sees as the Pictish origin of the legend.
80-81 The verse form and the sense suggest that there has been an omission by the scribe of two lines at this point.
95 Here and elsewhere throughout the manuscript, gan is an auxiliary verb indicating the past tense. Thus "gan he wende" means "he went."
146 The goinfainoun or "gonfalon" is a small pennon, here raised on the mast, or, as in line 173, suspended beneath the steel head of a knight's lance.
176-77 The paragraph mark used by the scribe to indicate new stanzas is erroneously placed before line 176, rather than before line 177, where the new stanza actually begins.
189 I follow Kölbing in emending the manuscript reading "Of" to "On."
247-49 The meaning of these lines is that Rohand, the steward of Tristrem's father Rouland, goes to his own wife's childbed and claims that his wife had two children, one of whom is Tristrem. Perhaps wiif is best taken as a dative form: he went "to his own wife" in her childbed. Rohand pretends the child is his own to protect Tristrem from his father's enemy Morgan. As part of the deception, he adopts the strategy referred to in lines 252-53 of disguising his name by reversing the syllables. In other versions of the legend, this strategy is adopted by Tristrem himself when he goes to Ireland in order that his identity as the slayer of the brother of the Queen of Ireland will not be revealed.
272 McNeill glosses held his hert in an as "kept his heart in one (i.e., in equanimity, repressing his sorrow)." Kölbing glosses "hielt sein herz in gleicher stummung, d.h. unterdrükte seinem kummer" (held his heart in constant temper, that is, suppressed his grief). The sense is clearly that Rohand did not wear his heart on his sleeve.
291 McNeill's note summarizes the opinions of the previous editors on this line:
This line defies interpretation as it stands. Scott in his glossary gives "Thede, apparently a contraction for they gede." But, as Kölbing points out, such a conjecture is untenable. Kölbing suggests that thede may be equivalent to the Old English theód, and proposes to read -
And everich play in thede,
which would have the same sense as in lede in verse 64, so that the line would mean every game known to the people - every game in the country.
The sense of the line is surely something like: he taught him "the manner of playing of every nation" of the old law and the new. Such a reading might be achieved without emendation if "thede" is taken as a genitive form. The Old English "theód," from which the Middle English word derives, is a feminine noun which would have a genitive in -e, so it is possible to read "thede" as a genitive form in this line.
297 W. W. Skeat ("The Romance of Sir Tristrem," Scottish Historical Review 6 [1909]: 61) says of Manerious: "the great puzzle is the wonderful name Manerious, which no one (says the note [i.e., McNeill's note]) can explain. However, I explained it once somewhere some years ago. It should rather be Manerius; and it is nothing but the Old Norman and Middle English word Manére, touched up with a Latin suffix to imitate its original. For what is its original? It is merely a French translation, meaning 'manner,' of the Latin name Modus. But what is meant by Modus? It is to be feared that its fame has departed; yet it was at that time one of the most famous of all works, as well known as the Roman de la Rose, or as the name of Newton is now to the students of science. Le Livre du Roi Modus et de la Reine Reson (The Book of King Manner and Queen Reason) was the chief authority on this very subject of 'venery' or hunting, containing all the precious terms of the chase and all the directions for the cutting up of the deer which, as the Romance informs us, Sir Tristrem knew so well. If he really knew more of hunting terms than even King Manner, he had great reason to be proud."
Skeat's explanation seems preferable to that of A. E. H. Swaen (Anglia 41 [1917], 182), who suggests reading "the puzzling name as Manuredus, i.e. Manfredus. Manfred, king of Sicily, wrote additional chapters to the Emperor Frederick the Second's famous treatise on falconry."
313 The OED notes that "aire" (of which air in this line is a variant) is "the earlier equivalent of aerie."
322The MED entry on the word "assise" (of which asise in this line is a variant spelling) refers to H. J. R. Murray's A History of Chess (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913) p. 455, for an explanation of the term in this context. Murray writes: "In the Middle Ages there was no tribunal whose word on the game of chess could be final. All attempts at the improvement of the game were from the necessity of the case individual at the outset, and each had to win its way to universal or national acceptance. Hence the first result of such attempts was a loss of uniformity, and the rise of local rules which differentiated the game of one locality from that of another. It took time for a happy improvement discovered perhaps in Spain to reach Germany, England, or Iceland, and all the modifications did not commend themselves to players in other countries. This led to the growth of what were called Assizes, the different codes of rules by which chess was played in different places or at different times. Thus we hear of the Lombard assize - the rules of the game as played by the famous players of Lombardy. We also hear in England of the long and short assizes, of which the former would appear to have been the ordinary mediaeval game, and the latter a game commencing from a different and more advanced arrangement of the pieces. We have a reference to the former in the Scotch version of the Tristram romance, Sir Tristrem . . . ."
325 The manuscript reads "Tristem." I have emended to "Tristrem." McNeill observes that "the sense of this and the following lines is very obscure. They seem to mean that Tristrem, doing as the wise do, looks upon the hawks on the one part, and the money on the other, as two separate parts, and lets the captain of the ship win as much money as he himself wins hawks." The problem with this interpretation is that in lines 340-41 we learn that Tristrem won 100 pounds. The MED, citing this line, glosses "delen a twinne" as "?act in two ways, work toward a double goal." However, in other instances cited by the MED the phrase means merely "to separate"; and it is possible that all that is meant is that Tristrem sets himself apart from Rohand in the process of playing the game. Lines 326-28, however, do seem to suggest that Tristrem plays wisely by allowing his opponent to win sometimes.
384 Kölbing glosses weder as "wetter" ("storm" or "bad weather" and McNeill glosses it as "weather"; but it seems to make as much or more sense to read it as "whither" or "wherever."
397 McNeill reads tho as "they, in the indefinite sense of people in general." It seems, however, that assigning it its more normal meaning of "then" yields better sense.
403-07 McNeill says that the sense of these difficult lines seems to be: "Whoever can say anything better (tell the story in a better manner), may say what he has to say (his owhen) here like a courteous man. But let each man praise what is pleasant to him at the end - i.e., when I have finished my version of the story." (See the introduction for another reading of "As hende").
410 Blihand or "bleaunt" is a costly silk fabric.
412 Toun might mean "a town," but it might also mean an enclosed space, a garden or a courtyard, where a reading might occur.
420 A peni can be a coin of small value or, if used more exactly, an "English silver coin, weighing approximately 22 grains, decreasing in weight and value from about 1300 A.D., equal to 1/12 of a shilling or 1/240 of a pound" (MED).
431 The OED, citing this line, considers temed to be a form of teem (v. 1, definition 8) "to betake oneself, to repair, go, proceed to." McNeill glosses as "appealed"; Kölbing as "berief sich" (relied on); and Scott as "tamed." The last meaning makes little sense; however, the verb "teme" is defined by the OED as "subjugate," and the sense could be that Tristrem subjugated himself to (that is, put himself under the protection of) the king.
446 A les or "leash" is here a set of three hounds.
454 The MED and OED both take Martirs as an erroneous form of the plural of "mart," a slaughtered animal (originally "a cow or ox slaughtered at Martinmas and prepared for provision for the winter," MED). But, despite the fact that line 455 makes this the most plausible reading, it is likely that the poet also was suggesting (or that the scribe was thinking of) images of martyrs quartered for their faith.
464 The manuscript reads "Tristem." I have emended to "Tristrem."
472 The phrase In lede is nought to lain, which literally means "Among the people it not to lie" is basically a metrical filler. The best translation is an emphatic "truly."
476 McNeill defines the "heminges" as "a piece of the hide cut out to make brogues for the huntsmen."
485 Scott, McNeill and Kölbing all read "spande"; but, as the MED suggests, this is an error for spaude ("shoulder"). The two minims were read as n rather than u. McNeill and Kölbing also read brede as "breadth"; but it seems possible that the meaning intended is something like a "cut of meat" (from "brede" = "roasted or grilled meat; also a roast" [MED]).
486 The erber is the first stomach, as opposed to the "rede" (line 489), which is the fourth stomach. On the process of dressing or "dighting" the erber, see J. Douglas Bruce, "The Breaking of the Deer in Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight," Englische Studien 32 (1903), 23-36; the note to line 1774 in English Hawking and Hunting in The Boke of St. Albans: A Facsimile Edition of Sigs. a2-f8 of The Boke of St. Albans (1486), ed. Rachel Hands (London: Oxford University Press, 1975) 141. The process is also referred to in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 1330.
487 The stifles are the joints "at the junction of the hind leg and the body (between the femur and the tibia) in a horse or other quadruped" (OED).
491 The noubles or "numbles" are inner parts of an animal used for food. The word is also found in the form "umble" and the parts so designated are used in making "umble pie." The phrase "to eat humble pie" is from the word "humble," according to the OED, but perhaps with jocular reference to "umble pie."
499 The word quirré, which comes from the Old French "cuirée," meaning "skin," refers to "certain parts of a deer placed on the hide and given to the hounds as a reward" (OED).
502 M. Y. Offord, in her note to The Parlement of the Thre Ages, line 80 (EETS, o.s. 246, [London: Oxford University Press, 1959] 41), notes that "a small piece of gristle at the end of the sternum . . . was thrown up into a tree to crows or ravens, as a kind of luck-offering."
518 Hunting calls were used as a form of communication during and after the hunt. Presumably the tokening or signal referred to here is the "retraite," the signal used to announce the return of the hunters. On hunting calls, see John Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk: The Art of Medieval Hunting (New York: St. Martin's, 1998), pp. 160-71.
531 The MED, citing this line, glosses the phrase spac biforn as "spoke first," but the meaning here must be something like "spoke right up."
537 McNeill glosses the tag For thought as "that can be imagined."
564-65 These lines, which earlier editors do not explain, present a problem of interpretation. A possible reading of the lines might be: "They took leave [of Tristrem] in the hall, whoever might reach the young man." The suggestion would be that those in the hall honored Tristrem by taking their leave of him if they could get to him, which was difficult because of the throng of people wishing to reach him after the display of his talent.
615 The manuscript reads "Tristram," but, as McNeill notes, this is obviously an error for "Rohand," to which I have emended the text.
687 The MED defines scarlet as "a robe, an article of clothing, etc.: of fine quality, perh. of scarlet color."
736 Kölbing suggests emending "skete" to "swete."
743 McNeill glosses with sight as "with a glance." The MED, citing this line, glosses "with a sigh."
754 Kölbing suggests that the word "he" (referring to Tristrem) is needed to complete the line: Rohand tells how Tristrem was begotten by his parents.
823 Unsought seems to suggest that one could find ten sons of kings at Morgan's table without even looking for them, that is, that kings' sons were plentiful there.
851-58 Kölbing and McNeill both ascribe all of these lines to Morgan, but it seems as if they are an exchange: Morgan admits killing Tristrem's father; Tristrem replies that since he has admitted it, reparations are due; Morgan asks if it is for his rights (the reparations) that Tristrem has come from Mark.
874-75 Here, as in lines 80-81, the verse form and the sense suggest that there has been an omission by the scribe of two lines.
906 Almain is discussed by Ernst Brugger in his article on "Almain and Ermonie as Tristan's Home" (cited above in the note to line 74) and at greater length in the second part of that article (MP 26 [1928-29], 1-12). Brugger asserts in the former article that "Almain was not Morgan's duchy, but was, like Ermonie, occupied by Tristan as his heritage" (p. 269). Though in the English poem Almain must be adjacent to Ermonie, Brugger suggests in the latter article that if Almain is to be traced back to the original form of the legend, which he regards as Pictish, it must be a corruption of "Albaine," a "northern neighbor" of Lothian (10).
921 In the phrase mi nem, there is a transference of n from "min" to the following noun. It is not unusual for a similar transference to occur with articles and with other possessive pronouns. See, for example, "A neten" (for "An eten," ["A giant"]) in line 950; "thi nore" (for "thin ore" [your mercy]) in line 2004; "thi nem" (for "thin em" [your uncle]) in line 2150; and "thi nare" (for "thin are" [your mercy]) in line 2135.
943 Latoun ("latten") is an alloy of copper, tin, and other metals.
948 Moraunt is the character who, in the French versions of the Tristan legend, is generally called le Morholt or le Morhot and, in Malory, Marhaus or Marhalt. In these versions, he is the Queen of Ireland's brother, whom Tristrem kills in combat to end the demand for tribute to the King of Ireland. In Sir Tristrem, Moraunt is presented as the brother of Ysonde (see line 1324) rather than her uncle.
955 The MED, citing this line, defines rade as "a protected place near shore where ships could lie at anchor."
968 As McNeill suggested, the word "tha" (after "thing" in the manuscript) seems to be crossed out.
1040 It seems fitting that Tristrem has a lion as the heraldic emblem on his shield, since the lion was the "Kyng and prince of alle bestes . . . . and some leouns . . . haven scharpe and fers hertes," as John of Trevisa writes in On the Properties of Things: John of Trevisa's Translation of Bartholomæus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975) II, 1214.
1093 McNeill reads "Zour," but the letter he reads as a "Z" seems to be comparable to the initial capital yogh as it appears elsewhere in the manuscript Thus I have transcribed it as "Y."
1132 McNeill suggests that following Kölbing's emendation of "thai" for "he" would improve the sense. It is possible to maintain the manuscript reading and to translate as: "Each of them had done what he might"; but perhaps a more suitable approach would be to emend "he" to "hie," an alternate form of "they," or to leave the manuscript reading and consider "he" as the third person plural pronoun. This form appears frequently enough in Middle English. See, e.g., Havelok the Dane, line 152 ("He [They] wrungen hondes, and wepen sore").
1150 McNeill says that for the manuscript reading of "son," "send must be read." The emendation is not necessary, however, if we read "yare" as a verb (meaning "to prepare").
1157 His is ambiguous in this line. It might refer to Tristrem: that is, Tristrem asked for a blessing for himself. It might also refer to Mark: Tristrem asked for his (Mark's) blessing. In either case, the subject (he=Tristrem) is understood.
1173 McNeill and the MED are probably correct in considering the manuscript reading "ride" an error for "rive," which is required by the rhyme. Thus I have emended to "rive."
1202 The phrase under line is used in Middle English, as the OED observes, as a mere expletive. Its literal meaning in something like "clothed in linen" or "in [one's] clothes."
1204 The manuscript reads "medicie." I have emended to "medicine," which is required by the rhyme.
1220 According to the MED, fowe is "a kind of particolored fur" and griis is a kind of gray fur, probably "fur from the back of the Russian gray squirrel in winter."
1226 Croude or "crowd" is "a name applied to various forms of the early fiddle: any of a class of stringed instruments with two to six strings, with bow, and later a fingerboard, in the shape of a rectangle, ellipse, or double ellipsoid, and played, depending on size, at the shoulder or across the knees" (A Dictionary of Middle English Musical Terms, compiled by Henry Holland Carter [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961]).
1228 It is appropriate for the Irishmen to swear by St. Patrick, their patron saint.
1234 The first two letters of "sche" are not clearly legible in the manuscript; thus McNeill's text reads ". . he," though he does suggest that the word must be "sche."
1248 The phrase maken aloft means "to start or begin" something. In this line the word play means "music."
1290 Fet could be the third person singular of "feden" ("to feed" or "to nourish") or of "fetten" ("to rescue"). McNeill says the "sense" is "whoever cherishes an unknown man (is doomed to disappointment, for) he always goes away."
1308-9 Kölbing translates these lines: "Sie ahnten rache, weil sie ihn allein hatten fahren lassen" (They had a premonition about vengeance because they had let him travel alone).
1317 Gain is an alternate spelling of "gan." It gives a past sense to the word "frain" ("ask"). See the note to line 95.
1356 The MED, citing this line, glosses reles as "taste" and "? also beauty." McNeill glosses it as "description." Something like "beauty" is probably the sense intended, but it is possible that another sense of "reles" is intended either as the primary meaning or as a pun. The word can also mean "relief" or "abatement of distress" (MED). For the King and for the barons, a wife could relieve them of the problem of not having a direct heir to the throne.
1366 The point of this line is not immediately obvious. Perhaps the sense is something like "A little bird told me" that you are accusing me of preventing my uncle from marrying.
1381 According to the OED, vair is "a fur obtained from a variety of squirrel with grey back and white belly, much used in the 13th and 14th centuries as a trimming or lining for garments." On griis, see note to line 1220.
1390 The MED, citing this line, glosses fare as "rigging." However, the term might also refer to the "merchandise" of the ship.
1445 John of Trevisa (in On the Properties of Things: John of Trevisa's Translation of Bartholomæus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975] II, 1214) notes that when lions are pursued by hounds and hunters, "they lotyeth [lie concealed] nought nouther behuydeth [hide] hemself but sitteth in feldes where he may be seye [seen] and arrayeth himself to defens and renneth out of woode and covert with swift rennynge and cours, as though he wolde acounte vile schame to loty [lie concealed] and to huyde [hide] hymself. . . . Whanne he is ywounded he taketh wonderliche heede and knoweth hem that him furst smyteth, and reseth on [charges] the smytere though he nevere be in so gret multitude."
1520 Skeat, in his note to Piers Plowman C.II.147 (The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman in Three Parallel Texts . . . [London: Oxford University Press] 1961, II, 27) defines "treacle" (tryacle in his text) as "a sovereign remedy" and says that "the chief point to be observed is that it was considered to be an antidote against poisons, because it contained the flesh of vipers."
1584 The manuscript reads "mi brother." I have emended to thi brother. McNeill notes the error, and observes that "it was the queen's brother, not Ysonde's, who was slain by Tristrem"; but he does not emend his text.
1586 McNeill reads "be," where the manuscript has "he."
1608 The manuscript reading of "lerld" is, as the MED suggests, apparently an error for "lerde," to which I have emended the text.
1633 The sense of this line seems to be that the steward claims he will not fight because "a wrong is being perpetrated there."
1645 See Sir Walter Scott's note on love potions in his edition of Sir Tristrem (313-315). Scott writes that "the noted hippomanes [a growth found at the forehead of a newborn foal and considered in antiquity to be an aphrodisiac] was the principal ingredient in these love-potions; but the bones of a green frog (provided the flesh had been eaten by ants), the head of a kite, the marrow of a wolf's left foot, mixed with ambergris, a pigeon's liver, stewed in the blood of the person to be beloved, and many other recipes, more or less nauseous, are confidently averred to be of equal virtue."
1655-59 McNeill gives the "sense" of these lines as: "Thus the true knights rowed, and Tristrem also rowed, and continued to row, all the time that they came fresh (having been relieved while Tristrem was still at the oar), though he was only one man to three of them - a great labour."
1663 The pin here refers to a pin or peg "inserted in a drinking vessel marking equal portions of the contents" (MED).
1677 In lide = "in lede," means literally "among the people" or "on earth;" but here it is a virtually meaningless tag.
1681 For thought is difficult to gloss in this context. In her translation of Sir Tristrem, Jessie Weston translates "Long as man's thought" (160). This seems too loose a gloss. The phrase may be seen as a nearly meaningless tag. Or the sense may be something like "when we think about it" (similar to McNeill's gloss "that can be imagined" for the phrase as it appears in line 537). It is also conceivable that what is intended is "for-thought," a participle from "forthinken" (regret). The sense would then be that Tristrem and Ysonde were together in joy and also in pain, which was to be regretted. This reading is supported by the "to sain" in the following line. The phrase suggests that the comment that the drink was made in an evil time explains what came before.
1720 ff. In these lines Ysonde sneaks into bed to make Mark think he has slept with her rather than Brengwain. She asks for the drink from Ireland to make it seem to him that they have shared the love potion, but she lets the cup fall because she does not want to share it with Mark and she no longer needs it to strengthen her love of Tristrem, since their love is already sealed by the earlier drinking of the potion.
1734 ff. The fact that Ysonde would laugh when Tristrem is in grief seems strange. Kölbing translates these lines: "Ysonde lachte, wen Tristrem in leid war, absichtlich" (Ysonde laughed when Tristrem was in sorrow, intentionally) and explains that her laughter was intentional so that no one would suspect the relationship between them. It might also be a sign that Ysonde's mind is affected by the love-sickness caused by their forced separation, the laughter being a kind of mad laughter. She does, after all, in the next line, plan to kill Brengwain. Susan Crane sees these and the surrounding lines as a "dramatization of feelings alternating between joy and sorrow, hope and disappointment" which "nearly captures Thomas's idea that love's contrary movements are reciprocal and inseparable" (p. 191).
1853 A rote is "a medieval stringed-instrument of the harp family consisting of a solid, triangular wooden frame with seven strings and played like a guitar with the hand." The harp of the Irish minstrel is, if the term is used technically (and not loosely to indicate a stringed instrument, as is sometimes the case), "a triangular-shaped diatonic instrument consisting of a small tripartite frame (body, front pillar, and arched neck with metal tuning pins) on which from eight to eighteen strings of twisted hair, gut, or wire were strung" (A Dictionary of Middle English Musical Terms, compiled by Henry Holland Carter [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1961], p. 414 and p. 185).
1854 The ring refers to a "metal ring attached to an object for fastening, lifting, etc." (MED).
1875 On dathet, John Edwards (Scottish Historical Review 1 [1904], 56) says, "This old imprecation is not Anglo-Saxon; it came over with the Conqueror, but early found an abiding place here. It is explained as coming from the Merovingian French, `Deu hat,' meaning `God's hate.'" Perhaps the best gloss on the word would be "damn" or "curses [on him]!"
1876 McNeill says that this line is "so corrupt as to be unintelligible." Perhaps some sense can be made of it by taking stound as a verb (as in "stound," OED v. 1) which means "to be painful" or "to cause great pain." Lines 1875 and 1876 then mean: "A curse on him always, / If this [his playing] cause [you] great pain concerning [that is, because it reminds you of] Tristrem." The earliest use of such a meaning recorded in the OED is 1500, but the parallel meaning of the noun "stound" dates back to 1300. There remains, however, an abrupt shift in the earl's thought, from cursing the minstrel for reminding Ysonde of Tristrem to rewarding him for traveling with them because his music pleases her.
1930 The manuscript reads "Tristren," which I have emended to "Tristrem," the form in which the name most frequently appears throughout the manuscript.
1940 I follow the suggestion of the MED in emending by adding "and" between the words "sorwe" and "site," which are contiguous in the manuscript.
1993 Say seems to govern both what comes before it and what follows. The sense is: "Ask to go with him, and say to him if he still loves you, `send Tristrem away.'" The shift from indirect to direct discourse occurs frequently in Middle English romances.
2002 I follow Kölbing's suggestion in emending the manuscript reading of "thi nemes" to "his emes" ("his uncle's," i.e., Mark's).
2004 On thi nore, see the note to line 921.
2019 Meridok's plan is to trap Tristrem by separating him from Ysonde thus causing him to arrange a meeting with her which Mark can observe.
2051 McNeill says that "the line is unintelligible." Kölbing suggests emending to "Tristrem go with hem bede" ("Bid Tristrem to go with them"). This seems to be the sense of the line. Perhaps the emendation is not necessary, since it is not unusual for the verb "to go" to be understood.
2080-90 This stanza is typical of the compressed style of the poet. Tristrem sees through the dwarf's deception and immediately adopts the strategy of accusing Ysonde of harming him by slandering him to Mark. Tristrem's words are addressed to the dwarf, whom he calls "Maister," which may be used as a term of respect when addressing someone of a higher station or merely as a polite (or occasionally ironic) way of addressing someone of a lower station.
2135 On thi nare, see the note to line 921.
2138 The word make is repeated in this line of the manuscript.
2144 Kölbing notes that Ungiltles must be read as either "ungilti" or "giltles;" the sense is surely that Mark now believes Tristrem is not guilty of the accusations that have been made against him.
2169 A constable is "the chief officer of a ruler's household or court" (MED).
2184 In the Middle Ages, blood-letting was routine preventive medicine, a way of ridding the body of evil humors, as well as a cure for specific diseases. On this subject, see Stanley Rubin, Medieval English Medicine (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1974) 140 ff.
2199 Tristrem's leap of thirty feet is quite an accomplishment. The current record for the long jump, held by Carl Lewis, is twenty-eight feet, ten and a quarter inches.
2201 Willes is a genitive singular of "will" and is used here as a predicate adjective.
2229 ff. On the ordeal with the hot iron, see Ernest C. York, "Isolt's Ordeal: English Legal Customs in the Medieval Tristan Legend," SP 68 (Jan. 1971), 1-9. York notes that the ordeal "had gone out of use in England almost a century before" Sir Tristrem was written. For a more general literary context, see Ralph J. Hexter, Equivocal Oaths and Ordeals in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975). For historical information about ordeals, see Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), and Henry Charles Lea, The Ordeal, with additional original documents in translation by Arthur E. Howland, ed. Edward Peters (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1973).
2234 The merkes are the "posts by which the path of the accused is designated in a trial by ordeal" (MED).
2235 York (see note to lines 2229 ff.) notes that "Westminster was not a bishopric [the usual site of a trial by ordeal] until the sixteenth century and then only for a short time. But here an earlier Anglo-Saxon custom may be pertinent. According to the laws of Ethelred, `every ordeal shall take place in a royal manor.' Westminster Abbey, from the time of the Confessor on, held numerous manors, many of which were royal ones" (8).
2280 Ycorn is the past participle of "chesan," "to choose."
2286 F. Holthausen (in "Zur Erklärung und Textkritik der ME. Romanze `Sir Tristrem,'" Anglia, 39 [1915], 381) suggests reading "Hir" instead of "And." However, given the poet's tendency to use nearly meaningless tags, the manuscript reading should remain. The line then becomes a redundant (or perhaps emphatic) phrase meaning "and he did," but perhaps best translated by something like "indeed."
2290 Maugré is a preposition governing the genitive case. Thus maugré his means "in spite of him."
2296 McNeill translates "And he quickly gains intelligence of this (i.e., of the reconciliation between Mark and Ysonde) . . ." But it seems more likely that fraines this refers to seeking battle. The poet uses "frainen" again in this sense in line 2626.
2327 Scott, McNeill and Kölbing all take mete as "meal," probably because Tristrem is said to have come upon Morgan as he began to cut his bread (see line 820). It is also possible that "mete" is related to the verb "meten" in the sense of encounter.
2329 Bist is from the verb "bien," which means "to buy" or, as here, "to pay for" or "to atone for."
2371 An is the third singular present of "unnen" ("to grant").
2393 Deste is the past tense of "dashen" ("to fall precipitously" or "to collapse").
2474 The OED, citing this line, defines fede as "Great, large" and notes that the etymology is unknown and that "the senses assigned are somewhat uncertain, and perh. the examples do not all contain the same word." The MED, also citing this line, suggests that the word may be related to the Old Icelandic "feyja" ("to rot, decay") and defines the term as "Decayed, withered; ?hoary (forest)."
2496 It seems possible to translate this line in two ways. It might mean: "On account of the love each had for the other." But it might also mean: "On account of love, each gazed on the other." The latter meaning would require the line to be punctuated: "For love, ich other bihalt;" rather than as it appears in the text.
2508 The line means "A year minus three weeks."
2548 McNeill reads "liue" (live), but the minims that he reads as u may also be read as an n. Reading "line" (as a form of "lien," "to lie,") makes much better sense in the context.
2557 This line appears at the bottom of the first column on folio 295 v. There is a sign after the fourth line of the column to indicate that this line should be inserted at that point.
2590 McNeill glosses this line: "In spite of the plans we are able to devise."
2628 McNeill glosses thurchsayn as "explored." Kölbing glosses it as "durchsuchen" ("search through").
2663-73 Of these lines, Susan Crane says, "The whole of Tristan's debate on whether or not to marry Isolt of Brittany . . . is distilled into one stanza" (190).
2666 McNeill omits the word "ous," which appears in the manuscript between "hath" and "wrought."
2674 That refers to the intention to marry Ysonde of the White Hands.
2725 Brether is a plural form. Thus "brethern" (as in line 3310, for example) is a double plural (as is also the word "children"). The n-plural also appears in the word "fon" ("foes") in line 3245.
2730 The word fre as used in this line seems to have a legal connotation as it does, for example, in The English Register of Godstow Nunnery, near Oxford; ed. Andrew Clark; EETS o.s. 129 (London: Kölbing emends to "blac."
2742 The MED, citing this line, glosses merkes as "tracks (of an animal)"; but it seems preferable to read it as a variant of "markes" (which appears in line 2710), meaning "boundary markers." The point is that Tristrem's hounds run beyond the boundary markers into the giant's territory. The chance thus arising (see line 2739), Tristrem enters into the forbidden territory.
2744 I have emended the manuscript reading "blalc" to "blac." McNeill reads "blalc" but says in his glossary that it is erroneously written for "blac." Kölbing emends to "blac."
2746 McNeill suggests that Kölbing's emendation of "was fade" to "forbade" "would certainly make the sense more intelligible than it at present is." However, if "douke" is read in a general sense (meaning "knightly warrior") and taken as referring not to Duke Rohande but to the giant Beliagog, the line makes perfect sense. "Fade" would mean "eager for battle" in this context.
2749 Priis is the signal on the hunting horn that indicates that the quarry has been taken.
2779 Bleynt is the past tense of "blenchen" ("to move suddenly or sharply; jerk, twist; flinch, wince, dodge," MED). This line explains how Tristrem evaded the spear. By turning quickly aside, the spear passed between his hauberk and his body.
2786 The line, which translates literally as "Tristrem's life he nearly sold," means "He nearly killed Tristrem."
2801 ff. McNeill translates this line: "Tristrem acknowledged him as a free man - i.e., accorded him his freedom." Skeat ("The Romance of Sir Tristrem," Scottish Historical Review 6 [1909], 61) says, "This is a very harsh construction of knewe. I take fre in its usual sense of `liberal' or `bounteous.' Further, I alter the semi-colon after fre to a comma, and place another comma after Beliagog. The sense is `Tristrem knew him, Beliagog, (to be) liberal in his promise, (namely), if I am to conceal nothing, that he would make a bright hall for him.' Here is nothing forced or obscure. For hight, a promise, see the Cursor Mundi, l. 785. The semi-colon after fre deprives the rest of the passage of its verb." Another possible explanation is to read 2801 either as McNeill does or as meaning "Tristrem knew him to be generous." In the next line, "hight" could be read as the past of "hien" ("to hasten or hurry"). The sense would then be: "Beliagog rushed right in, truly, to make him a bright hall for Ysonde and Brengwein."
2814 Kölbing glosses this line: "Sein werk zu ende zu führen" ("to carry through his work to the end").
2841 McNeill says that to calle is "an expletive with no more definite meaning than `so to say,' `so to speak"'; it is possible, however, that the phrase means something like "[ready] to be summoned" and is emphasizing the life-like quality of the statues of the dogs.
2851 York Powell ("A Few Notes on Sir Tristrem," Englische Studien 6 [1883], 464) says: "Sein Matheus toun is S. Mahé in Brittany on the coast, I fancy. This spot was well known to Englishmen and Scots at the date of the original poem. He is in Bretein l. 2641, and S. Mahé by Ushant i[s] [article reads "in"] not so far from S. Pol de Leon, the Lyoun of l. 2855. So we get an indication of travel or of knowledge of the Brittany coast such as a knight or bachiler serving in the wars or as ambassador might show. S. Mahé was well known from the Brittany wars of Ed. III and Rich. II to Englishmen."
2880 The MED, citing this line, notes that Withouten oth is used "as a tag or emphatic" to mean "assuredly, unquestionably, truly, indeed."
2936-37 McNeill seems to capture the sense when he glosses these lines: "Kölbing is probably correct in reading let as a form of "leten" meaning "speak of" or "judge." This line makes best sense when seen as a continuation of the description of the beloved: "My beloved fair and sweet . . . who knows well how to speak of love." Line 3306 might be translated as "May Christ send her to you" (i.e., "May you save her"); or, if "hir" is taken to refer to Ysonde (named in line 3308), the line might mean: "May Christ send her [Ysonde] to you / [If] you undertake to make better my sorrow / For love of the noble Ysonde." If the latter reading is preferred, the period at the end of line 3306 should be changed to a comma.
2943 The phrase in lede (literally "in the [his] country" or "among the people" is here a rhyming tag with little real meaning.
2966 The word are in this line modifies "duelled" in the following line.
2968 The MED, citing this line and also line 3177, says that the phrase to lithe (literally "to hear" or "to listen") is "a more or less empty metrical tag."
2976 The word blo, meaning dark and thus virtually synonymous with "black," survives in the phrase "black and blue" where "blue" is "a corruption arising when blo became obsolete after 1550" (OED).
3050 The MED, citing this line, defines hayte as "?to fight, do battle"; but the more normal meaning of "to show hatred" seems more appropriate to the context.
3068 Catherine of Alexandria was a saint supposed to have lived in the fourth century who was "a noble girl persecuted for her Christianity, who despised marriage with the Emperor because she was a `bride of Christ' . . . . Her protests were against the persecution of Christians by Maxentius; her tortures consisted of being broken on a wheel (later called Catherine wheel), but the machine broke down injuring bystanders; Catherine was beheaded." She was a patron of nurses ("because milk instead of blood flowed from her severed head") and of young girls (Oxford Dictionary of Saints).
3128 Clerk and knight is one of the contrasting pairs commonly used in Middle English to represent completeness. The sense of the phrase is "one and all."
3139 McNeill takes to-kest (his reading is "tokest" as meaning "destroyed." I prefer to read "to-kest," which I take as related to the verb "casten," which can mean "to cast one's eyes at" or "to look at something." Though the examples of this sense cited by the MED generally have a word meaning "look" or "eye" in conjunction with "cast," the sense of looking is suggested by the notion of spying. Thus "to-kest" would mean something like "looked over" or "surveyed."
3153 Bond and fre is another example of a contrasting pair used in Middle English to suggest completeness (see the note to line 3128). Thus the sense of the phrase is "everyone."
3173 The claper is the "lid or clapper of a beggar's clapdish" (MED). Scott (362) notes that lepers "usually carried the cup and clapper mentioned in the text. The former served to receive alms, and the noise of the latter warned the passenger to keep aloof, even while bestowing his charity."
3183 This line only makes sense if hem is taken as referring to Canados and Ysonde. Apparently her threats to catch them in the act are a way of preventing Canados from having his way with Ysonde. Although the antecedent is far removed from hem in this reading, the interpretation is supported by the following lines in which Brengwain complains about Canados to Mark.
3248 The sense of yeld in this line is something like "paid them back for." Tristrem and Ganhardin are paying back the bold knights (like Meriadok) for their old deeds, i. e., the harm done to Tristrem and Ysonde.
3261 In the manuscript the last letter of stirops is an "o." The word thus reads "stiropo," but the MED considers this an error for "stirops," to which I have emended the word.
3296 About the phrase A knight that werd no schone (wore no shoes), Scott says: "The knights often made whimsical vows, to forbear a certain part of their dress, armour, or habits of life, until they had executed a particular adventure . . . ." However, the line probably refers to the fact that the second Tristrem is a young and untested knight. To "win one's shoes" meant to prove oneself in combat. (See, e.g., Rauf the Collier, line 765: "It war my will, worthy, thy schone that thow wan . . . ."
3305-6 Kölbing is probably correct in reading let as a form of "leten" meaning "speak of" or "judge." This line makes best sense when seen as a continuation of the description of the beloved: "My beloved fair and sweet . . . who knows well how to speak of love." Line 3306 might be translated as "May Christ send her to you" (i.e., "May you save her"); or, if "hir" is taken to refer to Ysonde (named in line 3308), the line might mean: "May Christ send her [Ysonde] to you / [If] you undertake to make better my sorrow / For love of the noble Ysonde." If the latter reading is preferred, the period at the end of line 3306 should be changed to a comma.
3398 Scott defines haggards as "wild hawks, metaphorically, loose women." A stale is "a lover or mistress whose devotion is turned into ridicule for the amusement of a rival" but may also have the meaning of a "decoy-bird" (OED).