SIR GOWTHER: FOOTNOTES
1 Then the form (kynde) of men they took there
SIR GOWTHER: NOTES
Abbreviations: R: BL MS Royal l7.B.43; A: Advocates l9.3.1; B: Breul; M: Mills; N: Novelli.
1-14 R provides the first thirteen and a half lines (to the middle of "nyeght" in line l4), missing in A.
3 B omits on Rode.
10 The begetting of a child on a mortal woman by a demon or by sorcery is a frequent occurrence in Arthurian romance. Merlin and Arthur are archetypes of those conceived in this way. Merlin, who first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, is engendered in a nun, a daughter of King Demetia, by a seductive incubus. King Arthur is conceived when Uther Pendragon, with the aid of Merlin's sorcery, appears to Igrayne in the form of her husband. He begets Arthur the same night Igrayne's husband, the Duke of Tintagel, is killed. Uther soon arranges to wed Igrayne, but when Arthur is born the child must be relinquished to Merlin in payment for his services. (See note on lines 61-65 and 97-99 on The Devil's Contract).
17 The belief that demons could engage in shapeshifting at will is expressed during the dialogue between the Summoner and the Friar in Chaucer's Friar's Tale:
"I wende ye were a yeman trewely.
Ye han a mannes shap as wel as I;
Han ye a figure thanne determinat
In helle, ther ye been in youre estat?"
"Nay, certainly," quod he, "ther have we noon;
But whan us liketh we kan take us oon,
Or elles make yow seme we been shape;
Somtyme lyk a man, or lyk an ape,
Or lyk an angel kan I ryde or go.
It is no wonder thyng thogh it be so;
A lowsy jogelour kan deceyve thee,
And pardee, yet kan I moore craft than he."
(II [D] l457-l468)
Even the thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas did not deny that demons could assume human form to have intercourse with mortal women; yet he maintained that the bodies they formed for the purpose could not be considered human and any children begotten in this way could only result from stolen human semen. See Summa Theologica, Pars I, Art. III, reply to Obj. 6.
28-29 A reads ysoughht in line 28 and have y broughht in line 29. M reads the y as a pronoun rather than as the first syllable in the participle in both lines, while B reads a pronoun in the first line and omits it in the second line so that the line reads have broughht. I have accepted B's first pronoun because the clause needs a subject, but read ybroughht as a participle (and omit have as being redundant and unmetrical).
31 B interprets Estryke and Ostrych as Austria (p. 118) though N favors the definitions in OED and MED "which would most probably have pointed to the Baltic region." The OED suggests both an eastern kingdom or country and an East Frankish Kingdom.
33 For comly undur kell. A similar line is found in Emaré (line 303) and in Pistil of Swete Susan (line 128). The "kell" or head-dress, a veil intended to hide female beauty, fails to obscure the extraordinary comeliness of any of these exemplary women.
34-35 The upper right section of this leaf of A is torn away and portions of lines 34 and 35 have been supplied by the reading in R.
34 The lily suggests purity and is often associated with the Virgin Mary or female virgin saints in Christian symbolism. In the iconography of the Annunciation, an event at which the Archangel Gabriel appears to the Virgin to announce the impending birth of Christ, the flower is frequently present (see George Ferguson, Signs & Symbols in Christian Art).
42-44 A has only nine lines in this stanza. Since this is a tail-rhyme romance in twelve-line stanzas, I agree with B's decision to substitute three lines (42, 43, 44) from R.
46 A: x rather than ten. I have emended all Roman numerals to their verbal equivalent.
56 Sterility could be grounds for divorce in the Middle Ages though, as James Brundage points out in Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe, "several authorities explicitly excluded sterility as a basis of separation" (p. 201). Some critics have seen an allusion to the apocryphal story of Joachim and Anna, who became the parents of the Virgin Mary under similar circumstances. While the aged and barren Anna is in an orchard one day, an angel appears to her and prophesies that she will bear an extraordinary child. Lydgate retells the story in his Life of Our Lady, one of the companion texts in the Advocates MS.
61-65 Folklorists have identified several folktale motifs in Gowther including the Wish Child and The Devil's Contract. In both of these folktale motifs parents longing for a child pray to God; in some cases the prayer is answered by an angel (e.g., Joachim and Anna), while in others a pact is made with a devil before the child's birth. The child is then subject to diabolic influence from whose dominion it is freed finally either by its own ingenuity or by the intervention of Providence. Stith Thompson in The Folktale identifies the Devil's Contract motif in both the legendary tale of Robert the Devil and Sir Gowther and remarks that "Gowther, or Robert the Devil, was not to blame for his demonic association, since the fault lay entirely with his mother" (p. 269).
71 In medieval romance encounters with supernatural beings frequently take place under a certain kind of tree (e.g., Sir Orfeo, Sir Degaré, etc.). Often referred to as ympe (grafted) trees these trees facilitate interaction between the Otherworld and reality. See note on line 233 for the significance of the chestnut tree.
74 felturd fende finds a parallel in Emaré: A fowlle, feltred fende (line 540). Hairiness is often a characteristic of the devil or those perceived as exhibiting diabolic influence by their wild behavior. Born with a hairy body, Merlin is often characterized as a wild man when he retreats into the woods to watch the wild animals while himself hidden like a beast (see Richard Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages).
89 lappe. The OED defines this term as "a piece of cloth, the fold of a robe over the breast, which served as a pocket or pouch." That this pocket or pouch could also serve as a carrier for an infant is suggested in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale:
. . . that he pryvely
Sholde this child softe winde and wrappe . . .
And carie it in a cofre or in a lappe.
(IV [E] 582-85)
90 fonde. Perhaps the poet's choice of fonde for "lovemaking" indicates the husband's curiosity or the desire to procreate. The word might also be glossed as "try," or "find out," or "invent."
99 Gowther's kinship to Merlin is explicitly established here. See note to line 10. Merlin and Gowther have different mothers, but the same father. In Merlin, a twelfth-century version of the Merlin story by Robert de Boron, the prophet/magician is engendered by a demon on the pious daughter of a wealthy man while she sleeps. However, because she confesses and is signed with a cross at that time, her son's destiny is altered. Though he is born with a hairy body and preternatural knowledge, he is not subject to his father's will to evil.
105 A: wold is crossed out before coth.
106 gard is often used in a modal sense (e.g., caused, ordered, made).
108 A: barre; R: brathe. N suggests that "barre evidently came to the scribe's mind more readily than the original brathe" (p. 162). B preferred brathe, an emendation with which I agree.
115 R reverses lines 115 and 116. B's emendation follows R here as do I.
129 snaffulld. According to the OED "snaffle" and its related form "snuffle" means "to make a sniffling noise, to inhale audibly." This is a term, as Novelli suggests, "appropriate for a nursing infant" (p. 162), particularly one with Gowther's voracious appetite.
130 That the infant Gowther is able to tear off his mother's nipple suggests the presence of teeth. Early dentition was often regarded as an indication of a child's extraordinary future and was frequently associated with dog-like attributes. Shakespeare expresses this folkloric belief in Richard III:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes.
To worry lambs, and lap their gentle blood.
(said of Richard III, Act IV, scene iv, lines 49-50)
In King Henry VI, Part III, Gloucester says of himself:
The midwife wonders and the women cried,
"Oh, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!"
And so I was; which plainly signified
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
(Act V, scene vi, lines 74-76)
Early dentition could also be a characteristic of vampirism, werewolfism, or the consequence of sorcery. See Paul Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore & Reality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 30.
137 A: behovyd. B emends to behode.
141 A: No nodur mon myght hit beyr; B omits mon for the sake of the meter. I have retained it for the sake of Gowther's humanity.
142 The falchion Gowther has made for himself has symbolic value. For M it suggests Gowther's "unbridled violence in his unregenerate days, and his militancy in his later career. His refusal to give it up at the Pope's bidding in 289-91 underlines its significance as symbol and talisman; it is an essential part of him, and must go with him on his new quest for forgiveness" (p. 2l5). E. M. Bradstock, in "The Penitential Pattern in Sir Gowther," argues that the falchion, unlike the straight sword of a Christian knight, is of Oriental origin and a weapon the Saracens would carry. Bradstock sees it as "an apt weapon for a ferocious persecutor of Christians. Further, like its Saracen creators who had 'their dark origins in the race of Cain' but were always reclaimable through baptism, and like Gowther himself who was born of a devil, this falchion has the potential for good or evil" (p. 7).
149-50 This is a puzzling passage in that there seems to be no motivation for the Duke's knighting of Gowther. N suggests that this detail is evidence that Robert the Devil is a close analogue.
151-52 B emends these two lines with the corresponding lines in R: He gaf him his best swerd in honde / Ther was no knyght in all that londe.
157 Mor sorro: B follows R and substitutes dowrey for sorro.
172 Matins is the first of the canonical hours, followed by lauds, prime, terce, sext, none, vespers, and compline.
175 MS: For late lowde and styll: B emends to Erly and from R.
176 is fadur wyll. The question of Gowther's paternity is raised again. The poet reminds us that Gowther's father is a demon whose will he has been destined to carry out. Yet Gowther's baptism brings him into a state of grace that, in effect, cancels diabolic predestination and renders his actions a matter of free will.
179-80 B emends these two lines to correspond with R: In parke and in wylde forest, / Where he myght it gete.
181-92 R omits the raping of the nuns in line 188: (For he and is men bothe leyn hom by). R reads:
As he rode on huntyng uppon a day
He saw a nonnery bi the highway,
And theder gan he ride;
The prioresse and here covent
With procession agayn him went,
Trewly in that tyde.
Thei kneeled down oppon here knee,
And said "Leige lord, welcome be yee!"
Yn hert is nowght to hide
He drofe hem home into here churche,
And brend hem uppe thus gan he werche,
His lose spring ful wide. fame
(lines 175-86)
187 That the prioress and her charges should be frightened of Gowther's body underscores his diabolical appearance. The absence of armor suggests Gowther's rejection of chivalric codes of conduct.
193 B emends to: All that ever on Cryst wold leve.
196 B emends maryage to maryagys.
233 cheston tre. The choice of tree may be significant. According to George Ferguson's Signs & Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954; rpt., 1961), the chestnut in its husk is surrounded by thorns, but unharmed by them. "For this reason it is a symbol of chastity because this virtue is a triumph over the temptations of the flesh symbolized by the thorns" (p. 29).
254 stydfast. B emends to styward perhaps to indicate to whom the property is bequeathed. Yet the identity of that person as "this olde erle" in the previous line serves adequately to designate the heir. The poet needs only to signify the quality of that heir's character which he has in his choice of stydfast.
256 Gowther's rejection of horse and man underscores both his determination to atone for his transgressions and the solitude that atonement requires.
259 See note to line 142.
296 B omits that thu revus to maintain metrical integrity.
301 B emends Pope stole to apostoyle.
305 The dog, because of its attributes of watchfulness, obedience, and fidelity, could be understood as a symbol of these virtues and for Gowther is a fitting sign of penance. There are many examples of the faithful dog that could have been known to the Gowther poet. One comes from the apocryphal story of Tobias in which the dog accompanies his master on an arduous journey to restore the eyesight of Tobias' father. Another is from the story of St. Roch, a fourteenth-century French hermit who, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, "spent much of his life on pilgrimages" (p. 346). While on one of his many journeys, he caught the plague and was fed in the woods by a dog. "In England his memory is recalled in the Sussex place-name (St. Rokeshill) and by screen painting in Devon and Norfolk. These depict him as a pilgrim with a sore on his leg, accompanied by a dog with a loaf of bread in its mouth" (p. 346).
307 In A cuntré is crossed out before ceté.
309 testamentys is glossed by M as authorities, but witnesses seems a more likely meaning since at this point Gowther needs evidence of his first penitential act rather than validation.
311 Much like a ministering angel to a desert hermit, the greyhound succors Gowther in his neediness. Albertus Magnus in his encyclopedic work, Man and the Beasts, defines the special qualities of these dogs: "Greyhounds seldom, if ever, bark; on the contrary, they show disdain for the yelping of small dogs which bark for the sake of showing their prowess as watchdogs. Nor do they rush headlong to greet any newcomer, since they seem to regard such a flurry of activity as beneath their dignity. Moreover, this dog must be fed more milk than whey when it is weaned." See Albert the Great, Man and the Beasts: De Animalibus (Books 22-26), trans. James J. Scanlan (Binghamton, N. Y.: Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1987), p. 81.
313 The cardinal number three was called by Pythagoras the number of completion indicating beginning, middle, and end. Here it suggests, perhaps, a time of ordeal, like Christ's descent into Hell, though Gowther arises on the fourth day rather than the third.
320 R reads: The emperor of Almayn thereyn gan dwell.
324 Thof. A: Of. B emends to Thof. The variation between this line in A and the corresponding line in R is worth noting for the variance in sense as well as diction: A: Of he wer well wroght. R: Though him were woo yn thought. The line in A suggests that though Gowther is attractive and would have gained admittance based on his appearance he nonetheless assumes a posture of humility and does not force entry but waits until the appropriate signal is given before entering with the rest of the group. When he finally gains admittance he goes to a place under the table and assumes the posture of an obedient dog. The implication of R on the other hand is that despite his heavy heart Gowther chooses to remain outside the gate until a signal is given for general admittance. In this way R places emphasis on Gowther's psychological state rather than on his physical appearance as A does.
331 R: He presid blythely thorow the prese.
340 The emphasis on Gowther's fair appearance here justifies the reading of line 324 above. A similar line is found in Sir Isumbras: "The faireste mane that ever I seghe" (line 258). It has been suggested by N and others that this tale incorporates a male Cinderella motif. For N "the menial station of the male Cinderella becomes the hero's means of doing penance, and his provision with armor and his success in the three battles a sign that he is in divine favor" (p. 32-33).
371 B suggests that the name Hob, a diminutive of Robert, provides a verbal link between Sir Gowther and Robert the Devil. N rejects the notion as mere coincidence because the name may also be associated with rustics and clowns.
394 B emends to Yeit mey God gyffe hur thoro Is myght. In a request reminiscent of the one made by Gowther's mother, the Emperor expresses his keen desire to have his daughter's voice restored. The daughter's muteness differs from Gowther's because it is neither self-imposed nor penitential, but an accident of nature. For this reason the Emperor seeks a corrective from God. In Robert the Devil the daughter's muteness is greatly expanded when she attempts several times to reveal Gowther's true identity to her father, but is unable to communicate effectively.
420 In A fo is cancelled before fadur.
429 R: Whan blade thorow brenyys brast.
442 A: H is cancelled at the beginning of the line.
445 The juxtaposition of the "two small hunting dogs" (raches) with the "two fine greyhounds" calls attention to the importance of dogs and their attributes in this poem. It may be recalled that a greyhound is the first dog to assist Gowther's penance by bringing him a loaf of bread (like the dog in the Life of St. Roch) while the spaniel and the hunting dogs serve as his dinner companions. Gowther's association with hunting dogs seems to complement his own early predilection for hunting prey while his contact with greyhounds suggests an increasing association with the divine. For an interesting discussion of the divine attributes of this breed of dog see Jean-Claude Schmitt, The Holy Greyhound: Guinefort, Healer of Children Since the Thirteenth Century, trans. Martin Thom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
454 The messenger plays a significant supporting role in medieval romance serving as a link between characters, between the human and the supernatural worlds, and between elements of plot.
456 sone he come. B emends to come he sone, thus maintaining the rhyme.
463-65 B substitutes from R to maintain a consistent twelve-line stanzaic structure. M omits them in his edition, but indicates their presence by ellipsis. He then transfers the three lines to his endnotes and comments on their "corrupt" nature. But though they may be corrupt, something like them must have been part of the original poem.
501 A: That laft wer on lyve slone, with lyve marked for cancellation.
504 B emends he hym cheys to is gone to maintain the rhyme scheme. M follows B.
537 A: Amoghe. R: Amonghe.
554 The epithet styff in stour appears several times in the second half of the poem (lines 482, 554, 613). Taken with similar descriptions such as stalworthe and store, doghhty of body and bon, and styf and store, the phrase seems to indicate Gowther's increasing practice of chivalric codes of behavior.
563 Gowther's white suit of armor, the third and most symbolic, completes the color triad. The progression from black to red and finally to white parallels Gowther's moral progression. For a discussion of color symbolism in medieval romance see Jessie Laidlay Weston, The Three Days' Tournament, and Shirley Marchalonis, "Sir Gowther: The Process of a Romance," Chaucer Review 6 (1971/72), 14-29.
566 with wene. B emends to withowt wene.
575 baners. A: barons; R: baners. I prefer R to avoid the repetition of barons in line 574.
578 The description here indicates the heraldic symbols on the Sultan's banner.
584 B omits suryly.
591 B emends y wene to thanne.
621 thei. A: the. M emends to them, the sense being that the enemies' lives became painful (lothe) to them.
629 N suggests that the sense of this line should be: "The dumb duke made him [the Sultan] remain a hostage," but a more probable reading (concurrent with R) is leve his wedde, i.e., "leave his hostage." Gowther causes the Sultan to leave his hostage permanently by decapitating him in the next line.
632 B reads: And lovyd God in hart ful feyn.
635 Here Gowther is wounded in the shoulder. In Robert the Devil the hero is wounded in the thigh, an injury which then becomes an important sign of recognition. The placement of Robert's wound recalls the Scriptural Jacob, wounded in the thigh in his struggle with an angel, the wound of the Fisher King in the Grail stories, and Odysseus' wound in Homer's Odyssey. For an interesting discussion of symbolic wounding see Bruno Bettelheim, Symbolic Wounds: Puberty Rites and the Envious Male (New York: Collier Books, 1962).
646-47 B reverses these lines.
653 B emends he come sone to sone he come.
668 The three-day tournament motif, popular in medieval romance, serves as the ultimate test of knightly prowess and carries implications of progressive spiritual refinement. The hero fights incognito in different suits of armor for three successive days to prove his worthiness both to serve his lord and to win a noble lady. See Jessie Laidlay Weston, The Three Days' Tournament: A Study in Romance and Folklore (London: D. Nutt, 1902).
683 B adds heynde at the end of this line to complete the rhyme.
689 hym. A: kym. B's emendation.
699 Gowther's remorse for his crimes against the nuns is so great that he builds an abbey and a convent in order that all those contained within might pray for the souls of their murdered sisters. It is interesting to note that R, which omits the rape scene, substitutes monkus grey for the sisters. In R Gowther builds two abbeys, one for the nuns and another for Cistercian monks. The monks, rather than the sisters, pray for the souls of the dead nuns.
711 The Emperor is actually Gowther's father-in-law, a term not used before the late sixteenth century according to the OED.
715 B deletes so.
718 B adds mayntened before ryche. R reads pouer rather than ryche.
720 to be crossed out before toke.
730 B changes has to was.
735 In A this line appears in the upper right margin rather than in its appropriate place in the stanza.
744 A omits any reference to Saint Guthlac while R explicitly identifies Gowther with the English saint:
There he lyeth in a shryne of gold
And doth maracles, as it is told,
And hatt Seynt Gotlake. is called
He make blynd men for to se,
Wode men to have here wit, parde,
Crokyd here crucches forsake.
(lines 679-84)
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Guthlac (c. 673-714), of royal blood from the Mercian tribe of Guthlacingas, became a soldier at age fifteen. After nine years of warfare, however, he decided to become a monk at Repton, a double monastery ruled by Abbess Aelfrith. In about 701 he adopted the hermetic life at Crowland, a site surrounded by fens and marshes and thought to be inhabited by evil spirits. Guthlac fought the demons for fifteen years before he died. At that time Edburga, the new abbess of Repton, sent a shroud and leaden coffin. Guthlac's sister, Pega, attended his burial with several of his disciples. A year later the grave was opened and the body was discovered incorrupt. Guthlac is regarded as one of the most important pre-Conquest saints of England (pp. 184-85).
746 The theme of the vicissitudes of fortune is also found in Sir Isumbras, a companion text in A.