EMARÉ: FOOTNOTES
1 Bear our errand (prayer) between heaven and earth
2 Whoever will, for a time, stay (to listen to me)
3 And knew well how to distribute [wealth] and govern
4 [And he] had a double king's [birth]mark
5 On sentence of death for the child and wife / And for fear of your own life
6 He had never seen such [a beautiful one] among the people
DEGARÉ: NOTES
Abbreviations: MS: Cotton Caligula A.ii; Kö: Kölbing; G: Gough; M: Mills; F&H: French & Hale; R: Rickert; Ri: Ritson; Ru: Rumble; S: Sands. See Select Bibliography for full references.
1-12 Although most romances begin with a prayer or invocation, this one is somewhat longer than most. R claims that it is "the longest introductory prayer in any English romance" (p. 33).
2 The images of light which inform the opening prayer are pervasive throughout the tale. Emaré herself is frequently described as "fayr and bryght" and her robe is dazzling.
4 The narrator asks God for an act of "grace" which will inform the actions of both narrator and listener. The narrative that follows illustrates the grace given for virtuous action.
7-8 The poet appeals to the Virgin, praying that she will intercede to secure a place for humanity in heaven. This same intercession is sought by Emaré in lines 315, 671. Emaré, as the long-suffering mother of the next Holy Roman Emperor, is modeled after the Virgin: the Virgin is intercessor between humanity and heaven, so Emaré is the intercessor between the various worlds of the poem, eventually uniting three generations of men.
23 R discusses the derivation of the name "Emaré," assuming it is meant to contrast with "Egaré," a name Emaré adopts in line 360. "Egaré" comes from the OF esgaree, meaning "outcast." The word "Emaré," stems from OF esmeree, meaning "refined" or "excellent"; although it also could come from OF esmarie, meaning "afflicted or troubled" (Emare, p. xxix).
24 The narrator calls attention to his source quite frequently throughout the poem, though no direct source is known. See lines 115, 162, 216, 319.
52-54 See Beaumanoir's La Manekine, in which the queen, on her deathbed, urges the king to marry his own daughter. She insists on this only if the barons refuse to recognize the daughter as heir to the throne. If he takes a second wife, she charges him that she must look exactly like his first wife; obviously, the only woman who will resemble the queen will be her own daughter. Here, the death of Queen Erayne begins Emaré's series of misfortunes. See also Perrault's rendition of the popular folk narrative Peau d'Ane (Donkey Skin), which adheres to these same stipulations which impel the king toward incest. The child without one or both parents is a common feature in medieval romance and folklore. See Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, Physician's Tale, Knight's Tale, and Perceval, various Tristrem romances, tales of the young Arthur, Le Freine, King Horn, Havelok, and Le Bone Florence of Rome.
56 The nurse figure who nurtures and/or trains the young protagonist can also be found in the OF La Belle Helene de Constantinople. R (in her line note) makes several suggestions about the name "Abro." Probably it comes from the medieval Latin "Abra," meaning "female servant," though a corruption from Arabic might also be possible.
58-62 The narrator emphasizes Emaré's ability to embroider throughout the text. See lines 67, 376-84, 427-29, 730. Embroidery is also the Amerayle's daughter's forte. In Nicholas Trivet's Anglo-Norman Chronicle, Constance learns the seven liberal arts and numerous foreign languages. See also Le Bone Florence of Rome (lines 58-63): "He set to scole that damsyell, / Tyll sche cowde of the boke telle, / And all thynge dyscrye, / Be that she was xv yere olde, / Wel she cowde as men me tolde, / Of harpe and sawtyre."
66 whyte. MS: whythe.
68 MS: All he.
77 A: And. R and M emend to read A ledde, meaning "he led," as in line 989.
78 Playnge may well carry sexual connotations here; see line 254.
83 The earliest medieval silks came from Sicily where schools of silk weavers were famous from the mid-twelfth century onward. Arab invasion and occupation of the island from 827 to 1091 placed skilled weavers and designers from the Middle East on the island. Later, under the Norman kings who conquered the island in 1091, the weaving industry continued to thrive, especially in Palermo. Palermo silks were highly prized in cathedrals and courts throughout Europe. Rickert notes that the cloth is similar to actual cloths woven in Palermo; she cites Michel, Recherches sur le Commerce, la Fabrication et l'Usage des Etoffes de Soie, d'Or, et d'Argent (Paris: Impr. de Crapelet, 1852-54), esp. vol. II, 354-55. She also speculates on potential connections between characters in the text and historical personages (Introduction, pp. xxxi-xxxii). The wealth associated with the cloth can be ascertained in comparison with statistics available on the cloth industry in medieval Europe. A fine piece of cloth from Brussels could easily be worth 800 grams of gold or one diamond, five rubies, and five emeralds.
83-180 The robe described in this passage is a key image in the poem (see introduction). The long description of the parade of fairy ladies in Sir Launfal has a similar effect, though placed toward the end of the narrative. Galeran de Bretagne, lines 509-51, presents a description of an elegant cloth. In that romance, the female child is abandoned wrapped in a cloth on which are embroidered two couples: Paris and Helen, and Floris and Blancheflor (see notes to Le Freine). For actual elegant fabrics, embroidery, and garments worn during the period, whether European or Byzantine, see Eunice R. Goddard, Women's Costume in French Texts of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, The Johns Hopkins Studies in Romance Literatures and Languages, vol. 7 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1927; rpt. New York: Johnson, 1973); Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England & France, the 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries, A Technical History of Costume, vol. 3 (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1939); Mary G. Houston, Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Costume and Decoration, 2nd ed., A Technical History of Costume, vol. 2 (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1947; rpt. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965); Joan Evans, Dress in Medieval France (Oxford: Clarendon, 1952); Opus Anglicanum: English Medieval Embroidery (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1963); Blanche Payne, History of Costume (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), especially her chapters on the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, pp. 157-97; Pauline Johnstone, The Byzantine Tradition in Church Embroidery (London: Tiranti, 1967); Cyril G. E. Bunt, Byzantine Fabrics (Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1967); Maurice Lombard, Les Textiles dans le monde musulman du VIIe au XIIe siecle (Paris: Mouton, 1978); Stella M. Newton, Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340-1365 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1980); Kay Staniland, Embroiderers (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1991). Mary Houston's texts are especially useful because they identify the MSS which contain the visual images. She notes that ornamental woven and embroidered textiles reached "their finest and fullest development . . . [in] the last half of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth" (Medieval Costume, p. 62). In her study of Byzantine costume, Houston discusses the shroud of Byzantine Emperor Honorius' wife, Maria, which, when it was melted down, yielded 36 lbs. of pure gold (Ancient, p. 134). Houston notes that the extant examples of royal Byzantine costume, from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries were dignified in construction and elegant to an extreme. Gem studdings are not uncommon. Cloaks of the Byzantine royal household often contained embroidered panels, called tablion "which was an important feature of men's court dress from the fifth to the tenth century, and even later. On it was lavished the most sumptuous decoration of the whole costume. As a rule, it was a cloth of gold embroidered in jewels. The Empresses wore it also from the eighth to the eleventh century, but otherwise it was confined to the Emperor and his nobles" (p. 136). The use of embroidery for illustration in cloth can be seen in the depiction of the adoration of the Magi which forms the substantial border of Empress Theodora's cloak, represented in a sixth-century mosaic in the church of S. Vitali, Ravenna. (It is represented by Houston's figs. 148a and 148b on p. 137.) Houston also discusses a carved ivory panel depicting the bejewelled and embroidered court costumes of Emperor Romanus and Empress Eudocia who reigned in Constantinople from 1068 to 1071 (Ancient, pp. 150-51). She notes that Byzantine costume influenced the Western courts and ecclesiastical dress considerably; Western Europe imitated the elegance, design, and expense of Byzantine clothings. See, for example, her fig. 167a (p. 157) depicting the German emperor which demonstrates this line of influence. In the Rotuli litterarum clausarum in turri londinensi asservati by Thomas D. Hardy (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1833-44), vol. 1, 54, King John is reported (in an inventory from 1205) as having a royal robe made of Eastern silk which was studded with sapphires, cameos, pearls, emeralds, rubies, and turquoise. And in Henry Thomas Riley's Memorials of London and London Life in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1868), p. 44, Richard II in 1377 is reported to have used hats and hoods as security for a loan. One was made of scarlet, embroidered with rubies, balasses, diamonds, sapphires, and large pearls; the others were cloth or fur studded with embroidered gems. Magic clothes are a feature of the Cinderella folktale. Emaré shares several features of the widespread Cinderella tradition. See Alan Dundes, Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook (New York: Garland, 1982); Marian Roalfe Cox, Cinderella (London: David Nutt, 1893); Anna Birgitta Rooth, The Cinderella Cycle (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1951). Also compare her cloak with the pilgrim's sclavin in Langland where it is covered with protective metals (Piers Plowman, B text V, 527-31, ed., W. W. Skeat [London: Oxford University Press, 1886], I, 180):
An hundreth of ampulles . on his hatt seten,
Signes of Synay . and shelles of Galice;
And many a cruche on his cloke . and keyes of Rome,
And the vernicle bifore . for men shulde knowe,
And se bi his signes whom he soughte hadde.
85 The MS includes the word hyght at the end of the line. The word is blotted and, since it disrupts the meter, Kö and G considered it erased. Ru, M, and F&H all leave the word out; R leaves it in.
91 Gems, "stuffed with ymagerye" (line 168), were thought to possess virtues (or powers). Lapidaries, or guides to stones and their qualities, were popular in the Middle Ages. The Peterborough Lapidary (PbL) and several others mentioned in subsequent notes are gathered in a collection called English Mediaeval Lapidaries, ed. Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson EETS o.s. 190 (London: Oxford University Press, 1933). The correspondence between the stones on Emaré's robe and the virtue of the gems is discussed by Hanspeter Schelp; however, he selects only those qualities of the stones which are consistent with his religious/moral reading of Emaré. On the virtues of stones, see Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose:
Rychesse a girdell hadde upon,
The bokel of it was of a stoon
Of vertu gret and mochel of myght,
. . . . . . . . . . .
The mourdaunt wrought in noble wise,
Was of a stoon full precious,
That was so fyn and vertuous,
That hol a man it coude make
Of palasie, and of toth-ake.
(lines 1085-87, 1094-98)
And Langland's Piers Plowman: "Fetislich hir fyngres . were fretted with golde wyre / And there-on red rubyes . as red as any glede / And diamantz of derrest pris . and double manere safferes, / Orientales and ewages . enuenymes to destroye" (B text, II, 11-14). For topaze, see notes to line 139; for rubies, see line note 130.
94 Crapowtes were believed to originate in a toad's head. Toad-stones, in the Peterborough Lapidary (Evans and Serjeantson, p. 79), are "gode for medecyne and for venym, and ther as he is may no yvel be done. And he maketh a man and woman myghty; also he maketh a man to incres fro day to day, and abounde in worthinnes. And some seyne that ther is one of the colour of wax, and he is gode to conquer batayls." Nakette is "agate," with the n from the definite article allided to the initial vowel. The "Achate," or agate in the PbL "temporeth softly and comforteth old men . . . . All the maner of achates ben god ayens venymm and ayens bighting of serpentes and he kepeth A man fro evell thinges; and he encresite strengthe and maketh god spekyng togeder and creable and of goode colour; he geveth gode consayl and he maketh good beleve, he holpeth the plesauns to god and to the wordell." Of another color of Agate, the writer claims "Men trowen that the fyft maner ther-of helpith wich-crafte, for ther-with thei changen tempest and stauncheth ryvers and stremes" (pp. 64-65). R suggests that this stone is "nacre," meaning mother-of-pearl. In this and subsequent notes, I have provided fuller quotations from the lapidaries (I have regularizing u/v, i/j, þ, and writing out abbreviations).
104 The Emperor's comment points to the possibility of reading the effect of the cloth as an enchantment.
111 The fact that the Saracen princess makes the cloth "wyth pryde" opens up the possibility for reading the cloth as sinful or as inappropriately powerful, although it also attests to the perfection of craft in the garment. See introduction.
113 Azure was a highly esteemed color for cloth in the Middle Ages.
121-56 R notes similarities between this description and a passage in Mai und Beaflor where a young woman wears a marvelous robe.
122 Ydoyne and Amadas are well-known lovers. Amadas is not of the same rank as his beloved Ydoyne; he goes through a long series of sufferings and trials before he wins her. The similarity with Emaré only occurs in the extreme trials that must be endured and in Emaré's statement that she is "symple" and lowborn (although this is not true at all). Her rank and lineage are what confer upon her son the title of emperor. The tale of Ydoyne and Amadas, also woven in a cloth, is described in Sir Degrevant (lines 1477-78).
125 The "trewe-love-flour" is an herb whose four leaves resemble a love knot. It is mentioned in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (line 612).
127 Carbunkull, "schineth as feyre whose schynyng is not overcom by nyght" (PbL, 82). Saffere, or sapphire, "distrowen fowlnes and envy, and comforteth the body and membres, and letteth the man fro enprisonyng; and he that with the saphir towcheth the iiij places of the prison or of the cheynes, if he have gode beleve he schal be delyverd by vertu of the ston . . . The bok tellen us that the saphir is wel good to acord men togidder, and to brek wyche-craft; and it is mych worthe to hele byles and swellyng; if it be geven to him that have byles or swellyng within the body, anon he schall be hole by vertu that gode hathe gyven therto; and it schall kele the body of hot syknes, and do away the sorow of the hede, and it helpeth the seknes of goomes, and it chaseth owte the ange of yene . . . it maketh a man to have wyte and myght . . . Also this ston was of gret autorite in old tyme, that men seyd that they wold holowgh it to hir god, and so it was syngulerly holowed to her god appolyne. For when naciouns axedet consel of appolyn in tyme of sacrifice, they hope to be certefy and to have answer the rather if saphir ston wer present" (PbL, 101-02).
128 Kassydonys is Chalcedony: "Calcidonice is a ston of white pale coler . . . and it cometh owt of the est, and it is lik to cristal; and he that bereth him schall be wel spekyng and ful of gret eloquens; and if he have eny ple or cause, schwe the stone to his adversary, and it schall helpe him in his cause . . . and if a man be juged thorow fals jugement this wol nat leve fro him that he schall not be lost from him; and he schall love the service of god whiles he bereth him clen" (PbL, 75). Onyx can "kepeth him saaf and encreseth his bewte. The onycle is blak of color . . . . He doeth away fantasies, and maketh a man to hawe gret dremes, and he maketh a man hardy in fyght, and he helpeth a man in plee, and so to conquer his ryght. . . . He that bereth it schal have many gode graces" (PbL, 115-16). In the London Lapidary, its blackness "signifieth the synne of man and also the tendrenesse of . . . the flesshe that is alwey freele to falle"(PbL, 27).
130 Deamondes: "The lapidare seyth us that god gave many fayre vertues and grace to the diamond, that if a man bere it in strenth and vertu, it kepith him fro grevance, metinges and temtacions, and fro venym . . . it defendeth him fro his enemyis; . . . also it kepth the sed of man wythinne the wombe of his wyfe, and it helpeth the child and kepeth the childis membres hole" (PbL, 83). And the London Lapidary observes: "holy he shal be that this vertuouse ston berith in clennesse"(p. 31). On Rubyes, the London Lapidary says: "the gentil rubie fyne and clene is lorde of stones and is also of water of waters" (pp. 21-22).
132 glewe. MS: Gle. Emended by G, R, F&H, Ru, and M to maintain the rhyme scheme.
134 Tristrem and Isowde is a famous story of adulterous love; in some versions of their story, however, the magic potion is emphasized. The fated nature of the two lovers' suffering and their separations are similar to Emaré's fate; however, adultery is never an issue here.
139 Topase: "He that bereth this ston schall love to lede his body chastly, and then mor to loke hevenly wayes . . . In the tresor of kyngges no thyng is mor cler nor mor preciose then this preciose ston is . . . he helpeth ayens the passioun of lynatik folke . . . . Also he stancheth blode, and he helpeth hem that han the emoroides and swageth him. And he wold not suffre fervent water for to boile, as it is seyd in bokes. Dias seythe that it asswageth bothe wrath and sorowgh, and it helpeth ayens yvel thowghtes and frenesesy, and ayens soden dethe" (PbL, pp. 106-07).
146 Florys and Blawncheflour's idyllic courting takes place in a Middle Eastern setting, exotic for medieval English listeners. The story was popular. See F. C. de Vries, ed., Floris and Blanchefleur (Dissertation, 1930; rpt. Groningen Drukkerijv Press, 1966); A. B. Taylor, ed., Floire et Blancheflor (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927). It is also available in S and F&H.
151 knyghtus and senatowres. These nouns seem out of place in a list of gems. R suggests "Ther were onyx and centaureus."
152 Emerawde "is a ston that overpasseth al the grennesse of grenhede; . . .and the esmeraude cometh owte of the lond of tyre by a water of paradis. Nero hathe a myrrour of this ston wherein he loked, and he wyst by the vertu of this stone al that he wole seke or deseyre. It encresseth ryches and maketh word of man dredfull. Also is myche worthe ayens the gowte and ayens tempest and ayenes lechery. . . ''(PbL, 85). The Sloane Lapidary says: "it mendeth the sight of a man, and doth away great tempests of wethers" (p. 121); and the North Midlands Lapidary claims: "Emeraud helpys a man is eyn and kepes the syght" (p. 40).
vertues. M emends to v[alowr]es to preserve the rhyme scheme. See line 994.
154 Coral: "a ston that groweth in the red see as an erbe that is gren, and when it is owte in the eyr it wexyth hard and red and recembleth to a branche . . . it kepeth away tempest and . . . delyverith a man fro fantaseys; ane it geveth a gode begynnyng and a gode endyng . . . . Also whoso bereth this stone upone him or one his fynger, he schal get love . . . . Wycches tellen that this stone withstondith lyghtynge; and Ised [Isidore of Seville] sayth the same, that it putteth away tempest and whirlewyndes" (PbL p. 77).
155 Perydotes may well be the "deadotes" described in the PbL: "He that bereth this ston, ther schall no fantasie overcom him. Also yf this ston towche a ded body thris, this body schall aryse and mowe by vertu of this ston, but he schall not speke neyther doe . . . a man schal never dye whiles this ston is upon him" (p. 84). Crystall: "a stone that conceyveth wel fyre of the sone bem. Also make pouder ther-of, gif it to the nurse to drynke, and it schal increse her mylke. . . Also he kepeth a man chast . . ."(PbL, 76).
156 garnettes are not listed in the English lapidaries. Anselmus Boetius de Boot published his Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia in Lyons in 1636, and it claims that the garnet protects against melancholia. See Joan Evans, Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922), pp. 152-53.
158 The Sultan of Babylon appears in a number of other Middle English texts; see The Romaunce of the Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras, ed. Emil Hausknecht, EETS e.s. 38 (London: Trübner, 1881) and the Sultan of Babylon in Three Middle English Charlemagne Romances, ed. Alan Lupack (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1990), pp. 1-103.
164 The unicorn is a symbol of virginity. It was, according to legend, notoriously vicious and wild; it could only be tamed by a virgin, and would lay its head in her lap. See John Williamson, The Oak King, the Holly King and the Unicorn: The Myths and Symbolism of the Unicorn Tapestries (New York: Harper and Row, 1986); Jurgen W. Einhorn, Spiritalis unicornis: das Einhorn als Bedeu-tungstrager in Literatur und Kunst des Mittelalters (Munchen: W. Fink, 1976).
168 ymagerye. See Launfal line 951 and Gower's Confessio Amantis, 5. 5771.
198 The idea of Emaré (and later Segramour) being "worthy under clothing" is emphasized and repeated throughout the lay. See Chaucer's Sir Thopas, line 2107: "So worthy under wede"; Second Nun's Tale, lines 132-33: "She, ful devout and humble in hir corage, / Under hir robe of gold, that sat ful faire "; and the Romaunce of the Rose, lines 2684, 4754, and 6359.
202 they go. MS: gan the go.
218 doun. MS: dou.
219 swythe. MS: swyde. Ru's emendation.
223-28 Here, Syr Artyus's incestuous desires are revealed to the audience. See Elizabeth Archibald, "Incest in Medieval Literature and Society," Forum for Modern Language Studies 25 (1989), 1-15; James A. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); David Herlihy, Medieval Households (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985). See the theme developed in Sir Degaré and in Gower's "Apollonius of Tyre," "Canace and Machaire," and "Tale of Constance." The possessiveness of the father is also echoed in Chaucer's Physician's Tale. As with the Oedipal myth which featured mother-son incest, the Middle Ages' most well-known incest narrative featured a victimized male: St. Gregorius. See Hartmann von Aue, Gregorius (Tubingen: M. Niemeyer, 1984). See also the OF La Belle Helene de Constantinople and La Manekine.
239 A papal bull is, in this case, a dispensation from the laws of consanguinity.
245 This may be a hint of the fairy origins of Emaré. See also lines 396, 443, and 701.
247-49 The king now reveals his sexual desire for his daughter to her. It has been hinted in lines 188-89 and made clear to the audience in 223-28.
264 MS: þorne.
268 See Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, line 439.
273 M emends shate to shote.
280 This sudden reversal in emotion, without any explanatory development or representation of internal debate, is common in the action-oriented romance or lay. M (p. 199) points to La Manekine, lines 6697-714, as a text which represents a more gradual change of heart.
287 yn. MS: vn. R emends to vp, followed by M and F&H. G reconstructs the line to read: And toke [hym] up [full] hastyly.
303 kelle is usually glossed as "headdress" but could also mean "cloak," "garment," or "shroud," thus befitting the King rather than Emaré. M (p. 199) argues for the latter interpretation, noting also lines 612 and 938.
310 Now is inserted in the margin at the end of the line.
313-27 The image of the rudderless ship is a powerful one, both in Christian iconography of the Middle Ages and in the English literary tradition. Within the Christian tradition, the ship has often been used as an image of faith or of Holy Church. An extensive and excellent discussion of the iconography is available, with illustrations, in V. A. Kolve's chapter, "The Man of Law's Tale: The Rudderless Ship and the Sea," pp. 297-358 in his book, Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984). Within the literary tradition of northern Europe, the image of Tristan and Isolde on their various ship journeys, the ship of faith and various other boats found in the Holy Grail quest narratives, the ships that carry souls from one world to another in dream visions and romances, and the image of the sorrowful mariner in the Old English "Song of the Wayfarer," are just a few well-known examples. See also Guillaume de Deguileville, Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode, ed. William A. Wright. (London: Roxburghe Club, 1869), pp. 190-92. See also the psychological-religiosity of the "at sea" image found, for example, in Hugh of St. Victor's treatise on Noah's Flood (De arca Noe morali): "let a man return to his own heart, and he will find there a stormy ocean lashed by the fierce billows of overwhelming passions and desires, which swamp the soul as often as by consent they bring it into subjection. For there is this flood in every man, as long as he lives in this corruptible life, where the flesh lusts against the spirit. Or rather, every man is in this flood, but the good are in it as those borne in ships upon the sea, whereas the bad are in it as shipwrecked persons at the mercy of the waves" (cited in Kolve, pp. 336-37); Hugh of St. Victor's text is available in his Selected Spiritual Writings (London: Faber, 1962).
314-15 See the Man of Law's Tale, lines 832-33: "In hym triste I, and in his mooder deere, / That is to me my seyl and eek my steere." See also lines 670-72 below.
331 In the MS, this line is followed by line 338 which is crossed out and then repeated in the correct position.
357 poynt. MS: poyn. Universally emended to poynt.
366 worthy. MS: wordy.
377 MS: sylky is partially erased; I have emended to sylkyn following M, F&H, and Ru.
396 MS: erdly.
409 MS: calle.
411 This line was omitted and added in the margin of the MS.
415 M emends the line to Then spakke the ryche ray to parallel line 430.
441-50 This unearthly characteristic of Emaré is emphasized in the poem: see lines 245 and 396. Since the Queen considers Emaré a cast-off from her own land, possibly from the fairy world, and possibly a "fiend," note the complication added here if we consider Galatians 4:30 "What saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman."
445 M (p. 199) finds the word "unhende" to be consistent with "the deliberately low-keyed style" of the poem.
450 the. MS: de. Ru emends as I do.
481-95 R suggests that the passage may reflect "the last great Saracenic attempt upon Europe" which was conducted in 1212. Then, the King of Castile summoned help from other European countries to repel the Ottoman Empire's territorial advancements.
496 MS: stward.
499 yn place has been variously interpreted. In her notes, R suggests that the line be emended to "yn thylke place" meaning "as it was her place to do." Ru interpolates place so that it becomes palace: "She wente wyth chylde yn palace." F&H gloss "place" as "there."
504 The birthmark in many romances, like Havelok, can serve to identify children who are separated somehow from their parents. Here, however, Segramowre is always with Emaré. It may indicate his later ascendence to the imperial throne, or it may be a hold-over from other folk materials where the birthmark identifies a lost child. See Havelok, line 604: "On his right shuldre a kine-merk," and lines 2139-47:
So weren he war of a croiz full gent
On his right shuldre swithe bright,
Brighter than gold again the light
So that he wiste, heye and lowe,
That it was kunrick that he sawe.
It sparkede and full brighte shon
So doth the gode charbuncle ston
That men see moughte by the light
A penny chesen so was it bright.
F&H (p. 439) read this mark as indicating that both father and mother were of royal blood.
529 he. MS: she.
533 tho. MS: do. M leaves do with the gloss of "then." In fact, the scribe repeatedly interchanges þ, d, and t.
535-40 Although the motive for the evil mother-in-law is not certain here, Gower places his version of the story in a section on "Envy." In Chaucer's translation of the Romaunt of the Rose, Envy is portrayed as follows:
And by that ymage, nygh ynough,
Was peynted Envye, that never lough,
Nor never wel in hir herte ferde,
But if she outher saugh or herde
Som gret myschaunce or gret disese.
Nothyng may so moch hir plese
As myschef and mysaventure;
Or whan she seeth discomfiture
Upon ony worthy man falle,
Than likith hir wel withalle.
She is ful glad in hir corage,
If she se any gret lynage
Be brought to nought in shamful wise.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Envie is of such crueltee
That feith ne trouthe holdith she
To freend ne felawe, bad or good.
Ne she hath kyn noon of hir blood,
That she nys ful her enemy . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
I trowe that if Envie, iwis,
Knewe the beste man that is
On this side or biyonde the see,
Yit somwhat lakken hym wolde she;
And if he were so hende and wis
That she ne myght al abate his pris,
Yit wolde she blame his worthynesse,
Or by hir wordis make it lesse.
(lines 247-59, 265-69, 281-88)
540 See Sir Gowther, line 71: "a felturd fende."
558 MS: That hyt euur so shullde be. I have followed R's emendation which maintains the rhyme scheme. M, Ru, and F&H emend likewise.
580 R notes that fyne should probably be emended to afyne as in line 913.
587-97 See Shakespeare's Winter's Tale II, iii, 170-83. Leontes instructs Antigonus to abandon Perdita:
Mark and perform it - seest thou? for the fail
Of any point in't shall not only be
Death to thyself but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife
. . . . . . . . We enjoin thee,
As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry
This female bastard hence, and that thou bear it
To some remote and desert place, quite out
Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it,
Without more mercy, to its own protection
And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune
It came to us, I do in justice charge thee,
On thy soul's peril, and thy body's torture,
That thou commend it strangely to some place
Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up.
594 kith. MS: kygh. G and Ru also emend to kith. The scribe frequently interchanges yoghs and thornes.
606 delfull. MS: defull. G's emendation, followed by others.
629 MS: commaunndement.
631-33 See Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, lines 463-83.
635 blode. MS: blolde.
667-68 Emaré asserts herself. See also Clerk's Tale, lines 1037-43.
684 chawnses ylle. M glosses as "tribulations," which is perhaps best.
685 MS: dw led. A blemish in the MS obliterates the "el."
685-87 Emaré winds up in the house of a merchant. In most versions of the narrative, the long-suffering wife is put to sea and then taken in by a Roman Senator. M argues that "the substitution of the merchant for the senator . . . makes very little difference, since he is a quite colourless character"(p. 200). But Ramsey notes that the lower aristocracy in the figure of Syr Kadore and the middle class in the figure of the burgess here indicates some criticism levelled at the aristocracy. If so, it is consistent with material found in most of the other English Breton lays which suggests that virtue often resides or can reside in those outside the centers of power or outside the court worlds.
688 MS: Eeuery.
692 syde. MS: sythe.
701 erthyly. MS: erdyly.
702 such. MS: shuch.
722 metes. MS: mete.
730 sewed. MS: shewed.
733-41 See Florent in Octavian. Mills writes, "here, as at other points in Emaré, vividness is sacrificed to the celebration of well-bred courtesy" (p. 200).
751 MS: Kodore.
780 they. MS: the.
792 Lord. MS: Lor.
799-804 M notes again that the sentence on the mother-in-law is softened. In other texts she is commonly killed. See Octavian and Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale.
820-22 M notes that "the king's wish to do penance is rather unexpected, as he had never, even in his thoughts, been guilty of his wife's death, but it enhances the parallelism between his situation and that of his father-in-law. In the Man of Law's Tale, it is remorse at having slain his own mother that brings the husband to Rome as a penitent" (lines 988-94).
838 they. MS: the.
839 In the MS, line 837 gets repeated after this one, but is then crossed out.
841 her. MS: he.
846 shalt. MS: shat.
867 Menstrelles. MS: Mentrelles.
897 In the MS, chylde is written and crossed out after the word lytyll.
905, 917 grete ende. The meaning of the phrase is obscure. R notes: "The 'great end' of the hand would naturally be the thumb (see also Italian dito grosso, Catalan dit gros, English great toe)" (p. 46). G, F&H, and M read grece ende. G glosses grece as stairs (from OF gres), thus, according to R, "top of the stairs." F&H gloss as "foot of the (dais) steps," and M as "foot of the steps." Ru reads grete end and observes: "possibly what is intended is the hall or stairway, leading from the central part of the building to the sleeping chambers, the 'great end' being that end nearest the central rooms" (p. 128).
943 that. MS: wat.
950 was. MS: wax. So emended by G, R, Ru and M emend also.
973 tawghte. MS: thawghte.
989 Ri and G both emend A to And. R, Ru and M gloss the A as "he."
1000 stayde. MS: sayde. R's emendation. G emends to say[s]de (seized).
1024 Segramour. MS: egramour.
1030 See Le Freine where the evidence of the beautiful cloth confirms identity.
1032 MS: playn þ garye. The thorn can be interpreted as "the" or the French "de." "Complaint" is a verse form common in Celtic and Middle English literature. F&H (p. 455) suggest that "stories were often written around [complaints] to explain their existence and provide a setting."
1033 Jhesus. MS: Ihe. R transcribes Ihero; G, Jesu; F&H, Ihesus; M, Jesus.
1034 wone. MS: wene. I follow R's emendation, as does M.