Sir Degare, Notes

SIR DEGARÉ: FOOTNOTES

1 relieve themselves as they must do

2 should have gone south but rode

3 They didn't know what it would best be to do

4 For sure I know it will be a boy

5 Let it be christened by a priest's hands

6 Or something; nearly lost

7 fire; kindled, strong and vigorous

8 But neither knew who the other person was

SIR DEGARÉ: NOTES

Abbreviations: A: Auchinleck; C: Cambridge; R: Rawlinson; F&H: French and Hale; Ru: Rumble; S: Schleich; L: Laing.

1-3 The upper corner of fol. 78 has been cut out. Thus the first two lines and any designation of title are missing along with lines 36-42 on the verso of the leaf. C provides the first three lines of the opening. George P. Faust contends that C stands closer to A than any of the other MSS (Sir Degaré, p. 15) and is the primary text used to fill lacunae in L, S, and F&H. "Lysteneth, lordinges" constitutes a conventional exhortation to the audience.

3 C reads some tyme in land.

6 thai. MS: 3he. The scribe frequently uses 3 for the initial sound in pronouns, whether th, s, or y. It also serves as a sign for back gutteral consonants where we would supply g or gh. I have transcribed all such uses with letters of the modern alphabet indicative of the sound used by the scribe elsewhere in the MS, whether th- as in thei, s- as in she or sche, or y- as in you or yow.

18 strong. A: stron. L's emendation, followed universally.

19-20 A smudge on the MS obscures the latter halves of these lines. L supplies he hadde none (line 19) and fre and (line 20), which F&H accept. S reads: the kyng he hadde none [other] hair (line 19).

23-24 Several scholars have noted the Catskin Cinderella motif in these lines, i.e., the death of the Queen and the suggestion of father/daughter incest. See lines 168-176 for a more explicit indication of the motif.

25 she. The A scribe occasionally uses the yogh for the sibilant, where elsewhere he uses s-, sc-, ss-. I have silently transcribed all such uses as s.

36-42 These lines are supplied by C. See note to lines 1-2.

39 F&H note that "a minding day is one set apart for prayers and penances for the soul of a dead person. Giving to the poor was thought an act of merit; and maintaining religious houses insured constant prayers toward any desirable object" (p. 289). See lines 147-49. Almsgiving is an important feature of a number of Middle English romances particularly those with penitential themes.

43-46 The initial letters of these four lines have been obliterated in A, but are clear in C.

47 toward. A: towar.

54 To don here nedes and hire righte. The poet considers "nature's call" to be a natural right whereby the woman can stop the entourage according to her will and privilege.

58 forht. The scribe reverses the usual order of h and t. I have followed F&H in retaining the idiosyncracy.

60 S follows C and emends to: and couþen nowt here ri3t way holde.

63 souht. S emends to south. See note 58.

66 S follows C and inserts ri3t after habbeth to improve the meter.

70 aright. S follows C with mighte.

74 chastein tre. The chestnut tree has particular significance in the Breton lay; not only does it constitute a liminal area between the Celtic Otherworld and fictional reality, but in Christian iconography represents chastity; the chestnut in its husk is surrounded by thorns but remains unharmed by them. See notes on Sir Orfeo, Sir Gowther, and Sir Launfal.

75 F&H suggest that "sleep signals enchantment." Quite literally it marks the movement into the symbolic realm. Many scholars have noted that the language of the poem, much like that of dream, myth, and fairytale, encourages psycho-analytic readings. See Derek Brewer, "Medieval Literature, Folk Tale, and Traditional Literature," Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo-American Letters 11.4 (1981), 243-56, and Cheryl Colopy, "Sir Degaré: A Fairy Tale Oedipus," cited above; also note to line 855, below.

85 The scribe often uses yoghs for thorns and vice versa. I have followed S by replacing one with the other where sense is otherwise impeded.

85-86 This passage finds a close analogue in Lay le Freine, a companion text in A. In that poem Freine's mother laments woefully after having given birth to twin girls, for it implicates her as an adulterer. Some believed that each child born required separate paternity; twins, therefore, would result from two separate fathers. The Degaré poet uses the passage to describe the king's daughter's fear of being lost in the woods and eaten by wild beasts.

"Allas," sche seyd, "that y was born!
Withouten ende ich am forlorn!
(Lay le Freine, lines 95-96)

91-97 Superlative descriptions of appearance are usually reserved for the romance heroine. The description of the fairy knight is the first in the poem following the introduction of the king's daughter, who is left undescribed.

101-02 Knights often rode unarmed, arming themselves (with the help of a squire) only in preparation for battle.

108 wel or wo: "in gladness or grief," i.e., "under any circumstances."

109-14 The rape of a woman by a supernatural being, according to Clark H. Slover, belongs to the Sohrab and Rustem tale type, which includes a theme of combat between father and son. See note for line 1032. Many Middle English romances depict seductions of mortal women by supernatural beings usually in the guise of the husband, e.g., Sir Gowther, or, as in Sir Orfeo, where "ravishment" by the fairy king simply means "abduction," but rape seems to be a rare occurrence. For this reason, the similarity between this episode and the rape in the Wife of Bath's Tale is worth noting:

In th' olde dayes of Kyng Arthour,
Of which that Britons speken greet honour,
Al was this land fulfild of fayerye . . . .
And so bifel it that this kyng Arthour
Hadde in his hous a lusty bacheler,
That on a day cam ridynge fro ryver;
And happed that, allone as she was born,
He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn,
Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed,
By verray force, he rafte hir maydenhed.
(lines 857-59; 882-88)

Laura Hibbard Loomis, in "Chaucer and the Breton Lays of the Auchinleck MS," suggests that, though Degaré is not an Arthurian tale, Chaucer had it in mind when he wrote the Wife's story:

In these two preliminary episodes in the Wife's Tale and in Degaré, each serving as the incidental opening to a more important main story, we have the same association of "Britoun land" with fairy folk, the same emphasis on a king's noble knight, and the same situation, a helpless maiden ravished by this "noble" knight. When we reflect that no other known version of the Loathly Lady story has the rape incident for its introduction, that this was again, so far as we know anything about it, Chaucer's private and peculiar contribution, the probability that he borrowed it from something already associated in his mind with Britoun fairy tale is heightened (p. 31).

116 schilde. S emends to child here and elsewhere in the text.

117 The prophecy of the child's birth is a motif also present in other medieval romances, e.g., Yonec, Sir Gowther, Arthour and Merlin, etc. Some critics have noted an allusion to the apocryphal story of Joachim and Anna who, at an advanced age, became the parents of the Virgin Mary. See note on line 56 in Sir Gowther.

125 F&H note that the headless spear functions as the means of identification in Voyage of Bran. Here the fairy knight has killed a giant, the very act that Degaré will perform later.

128 aumener. A purse or pouch, usually possessing magical qualities, as in Sir Launfal. Here it functions as the container for the sword point, the object by which the son is identified by the father (see line 1062).

135 S follows C and emends to read: And went away, sore sikend.

155 Indentation here and subsequently in the text indicate rubricated capitals in A.

168-76 The earlier suggestion of father/daughter incest is made more explicit in this passage. Similar situations occur in Apollonius of Tyre, a popular narrative extant in several versions, e.g., Greek, Latin, Old English, Middle English, and Modern English (see Elizabeth Archibald's Apollonius of Tyre: Medieval and Renaissance Themes and Variations [Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991]), and Emaré, though the daughter here is not cast out of the kingdom. Alan Dundes in "To Love My Father All: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Folktale Source of King Lear," cites the Catskin Cinderella narrative as the source for the father/daughter incest motif in Shakespeare's King Lear. The motif also appears in Pericles, Shakespeare's retelling of Gower's Apollonius of Tyre story, where it helps to distinguish good kingship from tyranny. The tyrant is consumed by unnatural love for his daughter while the good king avoids the temptation.

172 S follows R and emends to: Swich sorewe to his herte wil smite.

173 blithe. A: bli3e.

177 S follows C to read: Gode madame, ne care þou nowt!

181-82 This passage has a close analogue in Lai le Freine. It may be significant that the births in both poems are described as sound or healthy, i.e. both mother and child survive:

When God wild, sche was unbounde,
And deliverd al with sounde:
(Lay le Freine, lines 85-86)

193 mighte hove. A: my houe. S: behove. I follow F&H's emendation.

194 The gloves sent from fairy land constitute the garment of recognition for the mother/son relation. Cheryl Colopy suggests that "the gloves - like Cinderella's slipper - would appear to be a female symbol, betokening a particular sexual fit and insuring recognition of the proper mate" (p. 31). Here, of course, Degaré's mate is not "proper," and the function of the gloves is more protective than conjugal, though still a means of identifying the right woman, in this case, his mother. George P. Faust suggests that the glove motif is a late addition to the narrative; its lack of integration seems an afterthought (p. 81). Perhaps this is the case; however, Degaré's recognition of his mother by a feminine garment so effectively balances the equation of the recognition of his father by a "phallic" device (i.e., the sword point) that the motif seems appropriate.

219-22 This passage finds a close parallel in Lay le Freine. Because of the salacious implications of her birth to twins, Freine's mother decides to send her away. Degaré's birth is illegitimate, but it is the implication of incest that compels his mother to send him away:

The maide toke the childe hir mide, 
And stale oway in an eventide, 
And passed over a wild heth; 
Thurch feld and thurch wode hye geth
Al the winterlong night. 
The weder was clere, the mone was light. 
	 (lines 145-50)

219 child. A: chil.

231 A: drupni; F&H emend to drupi.

232 S emends was to swithe.

254 The name given to the child by the hermit is significant. Meaning "almost lost" it describes the situation of the hero whose task is to find his parents, establish his inheritance, and attain an individual identity. It is probably no accident that Emaré's chosen name, Egaré, resembles Degaré. Meaning "outcast" Emaré conceives the name for herself when, cast out of her own kingdom, she arrives in a new land. Sir Degaré, written before Emaré, may also be related to the lost French poem L'Egaré.

257 Other. A: Othe.

265 S follows C to read: And bad, she scholde take gode hede.

266 foster. A: forster; F&H's emendation.

268 S emends the short line to read: Ten yer his lif she scholde holde.

269 hi. A: i.

274 here. A: ere; S: here; F&H: there.

277 A: inorisscher; F&H have emended to innorissched.

282 bo. S emends to too.

284 hermitage. S emends to hermite.

290 A: Sstaleworth; F&H have emended to Stalworht.

291 wan. S emend to was.

297 florines. According to the OED a florin is "the English name of a gold coin weighing about 54 grams, first issued at Florence in 1252. From the Latin florem, flos, or 'flower,' the coin originally was so called because it was imprinted with a lily." The English florin was first issued by Edward III.

302 S supplies a subject: And he biheld . . . .

303 hem. The scribe frequently aspirates vowels, as his for is, hit for it, Herl for Erl, and hem for em.

327 It may be significant that Degaré chooses the oak as his weapon. According to George Ferguson in Signs & Symbols in Christian Art, the oak tree resonates symbolic value in both Celtic and Christian traditions:

Long before the Christian era, the ancient Celtic cult of Druids worshipped the oak. As was often the case with pagan superstitions, the veneration of the oak tree was absorbed into Christian symbolism and its meaning changed into a symbol of Christ or the Virgin Mary. The oak was one of the several species of trees that were looked upon as the tree from which the Cross was made. Because of its solidity and endurance, the oak is also a symbol of the strength of faith and virtue, and of the endurance of the Christian against adversity (p. 35).

329 Ne. S read Ac.

335 S inserts forþ for wente.

347 For an interesting discussion of dragon lore, see Anne Clark's Beasts & Bawdy (New York: Taplinger, 1975).

347-56 It has been noted by Muriel Carr, George Faust, and others, that the description of the dragon is closely related to that in Bevis of Hampton in some of the Degaré MSS. For a complete discussion of the borrowing see Faust's study, p. 22, or Carr's dissertation.

359 F&H note that "monsters usually could not be injured with manmade weapons; they had to be fought with their own (see also the sword in Beowulf) or with primitive things like the club here, or even with bare hands" (p. 299). The Earl cannot penetrate the tough hide of the dragon with his sword, yet Degaré accomplishes the killing of the mighty beast with his oak "bat."

369 A: dagroun; S and F&H emend to dragoun.

374 S inserts was after bat.

384 F&H add a to maintain the meter.

401 S inserts þat before þai to maintain meter.

403-06 The brideshow is another possible Cinderella motif and refers to a custom whereby emperors or kings seeking a bride would order a number of eligible women to be assembled for perusal and selection. See Photeine Bourboulis, "The Bride-show Custom and the Fairy-Story of Cinderella," Cinderella: A Casebook, ed. Alan Dundes (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982), pp. 98-109.

404 A: wide cuntries and forth isowt; C: In that cuntre that myght be sowt. F&H and S replace this line with line 398 of C, but I have retained the original line because it suggests a more extensive pool of potential candidates than C.

416 Degaré is dubbed a knight by the Earl thereby marking his progression toward legitimation and manhood. To this point in the narrative he has only been referred to as Degaré or child Degaré.

418 S emends to: was wel bet.

423 A: palefrai hiis; F&H emend to hiis palefrai, thus maintaining the rhyme.

436 S inserts þer after counseil.

458 S heads the line with And seide to complete the octosyllabic line.

465 bitide. S emends to tide.

470 S inserts feir before him.

471 The OED defines sire as a term signifying both knighthood and paternity, particularly as grandsire.

472 anon. A: non. F&H's emendation.

478 S deletes quath the King.

489-91 F&H note that a knight's offering to the Trinity before a battle or a test of his prowess is also present in Havelok, Squire of Low Degree, The Song of Roland, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, and Pelerinage of Charlemagne.

493 A: And to; S and F&H emend to And tho.

504 S inserts þer before iset.

511 S inserts wel after hath.

523 S inserts Þe before man.

542 twie. A: þrie. S's emendation followed by F&H. The third stroke results in the king's unhorsing and occurs later.

544 A: vise me; S emends to avise me to save the meter. F&H suggest me vise to improve the meter (see note, p. 304).

555 S begins the line with Nor.

563 bare qued. The term, literally translated, means "naked evil." Here it is a euphemism for the devil who, it was believed, could not be called by his "real" name for fear of attracting him.

575 S omits Sire.

584 Degaré's designation as a "child" is commonplace and simply means knight; he is beyond childhood chronologically, but has much to learn about chivalric codes of conduct and the vicissitudes of life.

588-91 The motif of marriage to a spouse of unknown genealogy is also present in Lay le Freine. See also line 618.

590 wot. S emends to wiste.

599 kingdoms. S reads an ellision with is and transcribes kingdom's wel.

601 A: Covonaunt; F&H emend to Covenaunt.

611 And. S emends to He.

619-25 Though the Oedipal myth is suggested here, another likely source for this situation derives from The Legend of Pope Gregory, a companion text in A. There are many similarities between the two poems. Gregory, born of an incestuous union between brother and sister, cast out in a small boat, found and subsequently educated by a cleric, returns to his homeland by chance and unknowingly marries his mother. The recognition does not occur before the consummation of the marriage. However, once the fact is discovered both mother and son perform a protracted penance to atone for their sin. Gregory exiles himself for seventeen years exposed to harsh weather conditions; later he is elected Pope. Thomas Mann's The Holy Sinner is based upon the German version of the story, Gregorius.

622 L adds to hold to fill the lacuna in the MS and meet the rhyme requirements. S reads his for is and adds to have and hold, F&H add hold, which they gloss as "gracious." Conceivably the rhyme word was old. C breaks off at line 615 and is no help is solving the omission.

628 thai. A: tha.

643 S emends to read: Awai! A witles wrechche ich am.

659 The yonge bride here is about 35 years old, rather mature by medieval standards.

660 S inserts sche before chaunged.

676 was. A: wa.

677 Than the. A: The. S's emendation.

678 A: What; F&H emend to Why. The motivations behind the noises Degaré and his mother make would be of interest to the king, since they would deviate from the kinds of noises he might expect to hear on his daughter's wedding night.

679 mervailed. A: mervaile.

680 S heads the line with Hou.

685-86 In A these two lines are copied as a single line.

690 A: Hou; F&H emend to When. I have returned to the original question.

695 Discovery of the lost or abandoned child is an important motif in medieval romance, both facilitating narrative progression and fulfilling the basic romance paradigm of separation and reunion. See also Octavian, Emaré, Lay le Freine, etc.

710 A: hyngdom; L emends to kyngdom; followed by S and F&H.

713 ikepe. L and S read: I kepe; F&H: in kepe.

722-3 F&H note that this was practiced "so that the hero could encounter the enemy unaided - the only terms on which success was possible" (p. 564). Degaré's need to attain his own identity may also be a factor (see the introduction).

735 A: longe he; F&H emend to longe hit. S emends to: So longe he rode, hit drouw3.

755 A: heþing; F&H emend to heying. The scribe of A did not consistently distinguish between yoghs and thorns.

762-64 The enchanted castle motif is also present in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Perceval, Voyage of Maelduin, Guingamor, etc. Laura Loomis suggests that the "special reference to a great fire burning in the hall, seem[s] closer to the text of Libeaus [Desconus]" (Medieval Romance in England, p. 305).

772 A: itakked. F&H emend to nakked; S to itukked. L follows A.

773 The motif of a land ruled by women may be linked to a tradition associated with Morgan le Fay and the Isle of Avalon. In this tradition, Morgan, who lives with nine sisters, brings Arthur to Avalon and heals his wounds. Helaine Newstead suggests that allusions to the tradition exist in narratives such as Fergus, Malory's Book of Gareth, Chrétien's Yvain, the French Lanzelet, and the Middle English Sir Launfal, among others. Often the community of women, under siege by a fierce knight, necessitates their lady's request for the aid of the hero whom she has healed or harbored. In return she gives him splendid gifts and profound promises of love.

776 Sire. Omitted in A. S's emendation.

783-87 The dwarf closely parallels that in Libeaus Desconus.

792 The shoe style worn by the dwarf, as noted by Ru and F&H, is that of a knight. F&H explain that the "upper part of the shoes was pierced in regular patterns so that the bright color of the stocking would show through" (p. 311). L notes that early editors of the poem used the shoe style as an aid in dating it to the first half of the fourteenth century.

797 The line indicates the dwarf's silence. For an interesting discussion of this line as it appears in R and its subsequent misunderstanding, see David F. Johnson, "The Dwerff seyd neyther 'bow ne be': 'Ne bu ne ba' and Sir Degaré, Line 703," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 93 (1992), 121-23.

809 S inserts him before no.

835 F&H suggest that there is a lacuna after this line. Sone seems to be left without a rhyme, the couplet incomplete, but the sense of the scene is not disrupted by the omission. S adds a line to fill the lacuna with a false rhyme: Up at the gres his wai he nom.

838 Celtic harpers were known for their ability to induce an enchanted sleep.

840 the bedde he. A: Upon the he set adoun. F&H add bedde.

846 A: pilewer; F&H emend to pilewe. L and S follow A.

855 The gloss that F&H offer on this line, which I have retained, suggests that the lady is chastising Degaré for not having performed his professional duties as a protector of women. Derek Brewer, in his essay cited at line 75, asserts that the lady "mocks him for having slept like a beast all night and paid no attention to the ladies" (p. 253). Brewer seems to suggest that Degaré is neglecting his duties as a lover rather than as a knight.

859 nowt I ne hade. A: nowt ne hade. S and F&H add I thus providing a subject for the verb. Headless clauses are frequent in A, however; e.g., lines 926, 1017, 1066.

899 His houen. S emends to Here owen.

917 A: A wel; F&H emend to And wel. S emends to Ac wel.

926 S inserts he before him.

937 But the. F&H emend to And the.

938 Equine backbreaking is a common motif in medieval romance. Though the slaying of the knight's mount leaves the rider profoundly unhorsed, his loss does not imply his lack of jousting skill, but simply promotes hand-to-hand combat.

940 stirt. A: stir

961 A: That; F&H emend to Thurh. A bacinet is a steel skull cap worn underneath the chain-mail hood.

1004 A: Velaun; R: belamy. The distinction between the two terms may be significant. While the first means "villain" rather straightforwardly; the second could be used ironically as "rascal" or "knave." The latter term was often used in direct address to enemies or inferiors held in contempt.

1005 S begins the line And saide, for meter's sake.

1017 S begins the line with Hit to remedy the meter.

1032 See M. A. Potter, Sohrab & Rustem: The Epic Theme of a Combat Between Father and Son, for the literary significance of this confrontation, and Sigmund Freud on the psychological implications of this phase of the Oedipal complex. Derek Brewer suggests that Sir Degaré is more appropriately termed "anti-Oedipal," presumably because Degaré does not kill his father.

1065 A: swouþ; S reads swony; followed by F&H.

1066 A: whanne of; F&H add the subject when he of. S emends to place the subject before were: And whanne of swone arisen hi were. L leaves the verb headless.

1076-1109 The last page of Degaré in A has been cut out, except for some of the initial letters (fol. 84a). The ending is provided by R. I have followed S who also uses R to conclude the poem in his edition. L follows the black letter edition, which is somewhat different from R in wording.

1082 My dere is omitted in R. Ru supplies the phrase from Utterson who uses the Copland early print and the Percy Folio. S supplies the same phrase.

1088 Degaré his father. His functions as a sign of possession: Degaré's father.

1092 The marriage between Degaré and his mother is nullified (parted atwynn), which clears the way for the remarriage of Degaré to his lady and the marital consummation of his long-separated parents. See Lay le Freine where the annullment of the marriage between Guroun and Codre allows his remarriage to Freine, the twin he truly loves.

1093 were. R: we; Ru and S emend to were.

1095 S: With the kyng and his meyne.

1100 weddyd. S: wedd.

1103 R: yff; Ru and S emend to gyff. The benediction in L is more elaborate by two lines, adding and that we, upon Domes day, / come to the blysse that lasteth aye!