Sir Isumbras, Notes

SIR ISUMBRAS: FOOTNOTES

1 They folded the cloak and gave it to him (Isumbras)

2 Devise a way to come into the land where I am, / And we will slay the king (Sultan)

3 For my lord's soul, or for his love if he is alive, I will always give you clothes and food

4 And commanded those that were heathen to be christened quickly

SIR ISUMBRAS: NOTES

In the text initial ff is transcribed as F. Terminal -ff I have left as in the MS, though usually modern transcription would be -f as in off for of.

Before 1 The text is preceded by an incipit: Hic incipit de milite Ysumbras.

1-18 Though the manuscripts all vary in their introductory stanzas, the Cotton manuscript includes a longer depiction of Isumbras' prosperity, with greater emphasis on his courtesy.

God that made bothe erthe and hevenne
And all this worlde in deyes sevenn,
    That is full of myghthe,
Sende us alle his blessynge,
Lasse and more, olde and yynge,
    And kepe us day and nyghte.

I wyll you tell of a knyghte
That dowghty was in eche a fyghte,
    In towne and eke in felde;
Ther durste no man his dynte abyde,
Ne no man ageyn hym ryde,
    With spere ne with schelde.

A man he was ryche ynowghe
Of oxen to drawe in his plowghe
    And stedes also in stalle;
He was bothe curteys and hende,
Every man was his frende
    And loved he was with all.

A curteys man and hende he was;
His name was kalled Syr Isumbras,
    Bothe curteys and fre,
His gentylnesse nor his curtesye
There kowthe no man hit discrye;
    A ffull good man was he.

every
also
blows sustain

diligent

noble

3, 6 These lines are supplied from the Thornton manuscript. They do not appear in the Gonville-Caius text.

8 hardy. MS: handy. Broh's emendation.

9 This line is written in the margin of the manuscript, as are other tag lines on the first folio.

10 Ysumbras. The first “element” of this name seems to derive from the Germanic isen ‘iron’ and, according to Purdie, “continental records reveal a great variety of early medieval names containing this evocative element” (“Generic Identity,” p. 119).

15 fair. The first letter is obscured by deterioration of the manuscript, and the fact that this is written in the margin.

19–21 Fowler has examined the significance of clothing and nakedness in Sir Isumbras, and states that “as these features of the narrative recur, they accumulate into the topos of investiture.” In this opening passage, Isumbras is “established as a paragon of wealth and ‘gentylnesse’, in part by his habit of giving clothing to his followers” (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 100).

21 and. MS: (missing). Broh's emendation. Parts of the line are not legible in the manuscript.

32-33 MS is scarcely legible. Broh and Schleich agree on this reading, which is based, in part, on the Cotton MS.

33 names sevene. Jewish tradition offers several versions of the Diety's seven names, generally agreeing on Adonai, Eloheim, El, and Yahweyl Jehova. Others are Ely Saboth, Alpha, Omega, Messian, Pastor, and Agnus. They were to be spoken and written with care, for their expression evoked mystic powers.

35-172 These lines are supplied from the Cotton manuscript. A folio (fol. 97) has been cut from the Gonville-Caius text.

41 Birds are conventional messengers, though less common in romance. The Holy Ghost traditionally is depicted as a dove. A stag is the messenger in the Eustace legend.

64–102 Fowler (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 101) rightly notes the allusions to Job found in this part of the tale:

Job-like, Isumbras suffers the loss of his animals, retainers, buildings and riches. His devastation is visually expressed by a ‘a dolfull syghte’ [line 97] that is as central to the reader’s understanding of the tale as it is traumatic to the hero . . . Stripped of their social status, the members of his family stand before him in their original animal bodies. The phrase ‘naked as they were borne’ alludes to Job 1.21, where Job patiently compares his loss of his children to his state of nakedness at birth and death. This image of lack of clothing resonates as a kind of limit case, a bottom line of human existence. It figures the human body without its social inflections, without dominion of any kind.

100 In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon to sleep naked.

133-34 Knights departing on Crusade "took the cross," that is, wore red crosses on their surcoats as a sign of their vow to fight for God. In a similar fashion, pilgrims wore badges distinctive of their destinations sewn to their sleeves. A cross indicated a journey to Jerusalem. That Isumbras carves the sign into his flesh demonstrates his extraordinary spiritual zeal, marking his identification as a penitent pilgrim, the first position in the “chain of social persons through which Isumbras moves in the course of the plot” (Fowler, “Romance Hypothetical,” p. 101).

135 In storye as clerkes seye. A romance formula often used to focus attention on the strange, mythic inevitabilities of romance narrative. Compare "in romaunse as men rede," line 759, a line that recurs frequently in Breton Lays found in these same MSS and in Octavian lines 15, 282, 631, 1182, and 1806. See also line 501 for a further variation on the formula; or Octavian, line 1039.

157-62 The Lincoln Thornton and Advocates' manuscripts include a full stanza here:

Yitt in a wode thay were gone wylle,
Towne ne myghte thay none wyne tille
    Als wery als thay were.
Bot whene thre dayes till ende was gane,
Mete ne drynke ne had thay nane.
    Thay weped for hungre sore.
No thynge sawe thay that come of corne
Bot the floures of the thorne
    Upone those holtes hore.
Thay entirde than to a water kene;
The bankes were full ferre bytene,
    And watirs breme als bare. (Lincoln)

157-62 Purdie points out several connections between Sir Isumbras and the Old French Guillaume D’Angleterre. She argues that because these correlative passages cannot be found in the legend of St. Eustace, Sir Isumbras and Guillaume have a more specific relationship than one defined simply by their association with the saint’s legend and, consequently, the “Man Tried by Fate” grouping. Regarding this particular passage, she links the starving of Isumbras’ family to a passage in Guillaume where “the royal couple [is] so hungry that . . . the wife threatens to eat one of their baby sons until Guillaume shocks her out of it by offering to cut out some of his own flesh for her” (“Generic Identity,” p. 121). See notes for line 315 and lines 356–57 for other passages similar to Guillaume as mentioned by Purdie.

168 pley the is an emendation based on the Lincoln Thornton reading (line 176), and suggested by Broh. The Cotton text reads pleyde, which is less coherent. Mills gives this as pley de with "thee" as a gloss.

182 In Lincoln Thornton and Advocates' texts, Isumbras, too, almost kills himself for grief.

194 Grykkysche see. The eastern Mediterranean, separating the Christian world from the Muslim world or the West from Jerusalem (see Octavian, lines 407 and 569; Sir Eglamour, lines 893 and 1063; Castle of Perseverance, line 173; and Richard the Lionhearted, line 1270) or separating Greece from Troy (see Lydgate’s Troy Book, line 8017, or the Harley MS Siege of Troy, lines 166–71).

199 Topcastles were platforms with battlements at the tops of ships' masts from which missiles could be fired.

203-09 Deterioration of the manuscript here obscures the lettering at the beginning of these lines. My reading follows Broh and Schleich. In line 204 wakkyn, Broh reads walle.

217 her. MS: hes. Broh's emendation.

230 not. MS: nt. Broh's emendation.
lay. Fowler highlights the “lexical polyvalence” of this word in Middle English, stating that its meanings included the following: law, principle, religion, faith, belief, system of government, system of law enforcement, justice, kingdom, practice, way of life, and custom (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 116).

231 The Sultan's puzzling expression is perhaps due to the combination of two separate lines. The Cotton text gives the second tag line of the stanza as And with His blode us bowghte (line 234), and the final tag line as Of hym [the Sultan] . . . they shulde have noghte (line 240). Lincoln Thornton reads And made this worlde of noghte (line 248) and Loke that ye gyffe hym noghte (line 254). However, there is a tradition, exemplified in the Charlemagne romances, of portraying Moslem worship in Christian forms. It is conceivable that, given this context, the scribe may have noticed nothing incongruous in a Saracen believing he had been "bought" (saved) by Mohammed; certainly the line is formulaic with a Christian referent. Broh points out that the use of "bought" here forms a parallel with the Sultan's attempts to buy Isumbras' services and his wife (lines 271ff.).

236 over may be a mistake for ever (see Broh), but this cannot be confirmed by reference to other manuscript readings, since all vary.

240-43 Here deterioration of the manuscript obscures the lines. My reading follows Broh's and Schleich's with minor variation in lines 240 and 241.

250–55 In effect, the Sultan offers him three new social positions (that of a Muslim, a legal subject of the Sultan, and a knight in the Sultan’s retinue) in return for Isumbras making an oath of fealty, one that directly conflicts with his initial vow in lines 52–54 (Fowler, “Romance Hypothetical,” p. 107).

272 Perhaps the plot toys loosely with a biblical analogue here, where Abram gives Pharoah Sarah for which they get safety but Pharoah gets plagues. See Genesis 12:10-20; also Genesis 20:1-8 and 26:1-11.

280-85 This reiteration of the wedding vow seeks to justify Isumbras’ eventual revenge and conquering of Saracen lands. As Fowler (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 111) states:

The vow contrasts a Christian ideal of consent with the heathen king’s wicked violation of that ideal in three spheres: the political (expressed by his plan to conquer unconsenting Christian territories), the religious (expressed by his attempt to force Isumbras to convert), and the sexual (expressed by the raptus).

288 The abduction by the Sultan of the queen has been linked by Fowler (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 108) with the topos of raptus:

a criminal act that, according to medieval lawyers, covers actions we would now describe as ranging from abduction to rape. Raptus is the mirror-opposite of lawful marriage, because, in canon law if not always in practice, marriage consisted of an exchange of vows that performs the consent of two qualified persons; raptus, of course, is defined as proceeding by force rather than by consent.

291 All the later manuscripts include a stanza:

The littill childe one lande was sett
And sawe how mene his fadir bett,
    He wepid and was full waa.
The lady grete and gafe hir ill,
Unnethes thay myght halde hir still
    That ne scho hirselve walde slaa.
Hir armes scho sprede and lowde gane crye
And ofte scho cryed one oure lady,
    "Sall we departe in two?
Allas, for sall I never blythe be,
My weddede lorde sall I never see.
    Now wakyns all my woo." (Lincoln)

307 par charyté. Schleich's emendation. The lettering of the Gonville-Caius manuscript is obscured. Broh reads perchaunce, which is less idiomatic.

315 Purdie connects this line to a passage from Guillaume D’Angleterre by pointing out that in the Old French tale a ring token also plays a prominent role: “Guillaume’s wife recognizes him years later by a ring, while Isumbras’ wife manages to give him a ring before she is abducted. In one version of the text, this ring reappears to identify him to her later on” (“Generic Identity,” p. 121).

353 thought makes better sense than the manuscript's reading, nought (perhaps a scribal error brought on by the proximity of nyght). Cotton (line 361) reads thowghte.

359 Grykkysche see. The eastern Mediterranean, separating the Christian world from the Muslim world or the West from Jerulsalem (see Octavian, lines 407 and 569; Sir Eglamour, lines 893 and 1063; The Castle of Perseverance, line 173; and Richard the Lionhearted, line 1270); or, separating Greece from Troy (see Lydgate's Troy Book, line 8017, or the Harley MS Siege of Troy, lines 166-71).

376-97 This reference to ironworking, and the author's fairly specific knowledge of the trade, have suggested to some that the poem was composed near Norfolk, a center for that industry. See Trounce, "The English Tail-Rhyme Romances," p. 37.

378 This line has been obliterated in the Gonville-Caius manuscript. It is here supplied from the Cotton text. Broh's emendation.

392 Isumbras is no longer an apprentice and hires himself out at journeyman wages. His ability to build and maintain a good fire would have been valued in a smithy.

395–99 According to Fowler, Isumbras’ position as a smith is a pivotal point in his journey back to noble status: “He forges armour as if he were reconstituting the social person of the knight he once was: he rebuilds his social body as he builds the armour” (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 102).

403 The plural kynges does not agree with the singular pronoun in the following line. The Thornton manuscript refers to kings throughout the passage, the Cotton refers to one.

417 The manuscript reads wepne, but the plural provides a smoother reading, and it occurs in the Cotton manuscript. Thornton refers to swerdes.

420-24 The Advocates' manuscript contains lines which make the prayer one for vengeance:

Ther he saw rydand in felde
Mony semely under schelde
    That knythts were hym thought.
"Lord, thou leve me myght in feld
The hethen sowden that I myth yelde
    This wo that he me wrogth.
For and I myght ons with hym mete
Syche a stroke I schuld hym reche,
    That ys dede chuldder be bogth.

436-47 The Advocates' manuscript includes a greatly expanded and more heroic account of the battle (33 lines), which lasts three days. Isumbras is not wounded, nor his horse slain; rather, he kills a heathen king and seizes his horse. More is made of the killing of the Sultan.

465 my is repeated in the manuscript.

469 Isumbras is healed by nuns, but other romance heroes in similar circumstances are usually healed by courtly ladies.

494 Acre, now in northwest Israel, was a major port and seat of a Crusader kingdom which fell in 1291.

571 lat see. This is a filler phrase (tag), usually having the sense "let us / me see," "I'll show you."

597-99 Ashmole, Advocates', and Lincoln Thornton manuscripts include the following details:

When knyghtis went to pute the stane
Twelve fo[t]e befor theym everychon
He putte it as a balle;
Therefor envye at hym thei hade
They justyd at hym with strokis sadde,
And he overcam them all. (Advocates')

The cause of the tournament, then, is the knights' jealousy because of their defeat. The Cotton manuscript says all envy him for his high status. The Ashmole text includes a longer description of the combat.

603 Sareyyn. Fowler draws on the expansive OED entry on ‘Saracen’ to point out that the word had a range of meanings in Middle English, one that included “Arab, Turk, Muslim, non-Christian, pagan, unbeliever, or infidel” and was “inherited by medieval Europe from the Roman Empire’s designation for the nomadic Arab peoples that troubled its Middle Eastern boundaries” (“Romance Hypothetical,” p. 98).

627 The manuscript reading sore is perhaps a misspelling of sorowe, which appears in the Cotton text (line 645) and to which I have emended the reading here.

639 In the Cotton text, the knights think Isumbras may be a thief:

This palmere hath done somme traytorere
Of your golde or your fee
By nyghte or by daye.

652 Cotton includes the lines:

"Jhesu Criste, hevenne kynge,
Sende me somme tokenynge
Of my trewe fere,
That I myghte wyte somme gladnes
Of my lorde Syr Isumbras
In what londe that he were."

659 For has been emended following Broh. The letters or have been obliterated in the manuscript.

676 The Cotton manuscript includes a passage not found in other texts, which describes the reunion of the hero and his wife through the recognition of rings. This is a conventional motif in the reunion episode.

"Say me, palmere, or thou go,
Was ther any token betwene you two
    Whenne ye departed atwynne?"
The palmere answered thus:
"A rynge was broken betwyx us,
    That no man shulde it kenne."

The lady toke up a grete sykynge
And seyde, "Lette me se that rynge,
    If that thou trewe be."
"Loo, madame, have it here,
I have born it this fourtene yere,
    I shewde hit non but the."

She toke forth a purse so clene,
The halle shone therof bydene,
    So wele it was iwrowghte.
That othur party thereinne was
Nowe was this a wonthur kace,
    So mony londis as he hadde sowghte.

She layde togydur the partyes tweyne;
Hole it wax, the sothe to seyne,
    Ryghte amonge hem alle.
"Blessed be God of His swete grace,
Nowe have I my lord, syr Isumbras,
    Here all in myn halle."
The lady that was so fayre of face,
Swonedde thryse in that place,
    For fayne she hadde her lorde bolde.

The Thornton, Advocates', and Ashmole manuscripts present the whole reunion scene in three stanzas.

676–90 This recognition scene “embodies the triumph of unity of person and the long-waited final accession of Isumbras to lordship: he is at that moment simultaneously and suddenly a knight, a husband, and a king” (Fowler, “Romance Hypothetical,” p. 104).

692 The speech in Advocates' is harsher:

And cummandded that yche baron bolde
Ryche and pore, yong and olde,
That thei Cryston schull be.
And all that wold not see
He badde that men schuld them sloo
That no thyng for them schuld goo
Neder golde nor fee

698 The last three letters in schent have been obliterated, and are supplied following the Cotton text. Cambridge MS's more southerly dialect uses sch spellings. Cotton uses sh.

736 In the Advocates', Ashmole, and Lincoln Thornton texts, the sons appear in angelic garb, led by an angel:

In an angell wede were thei clade,
And an angell them to batell badde,
That semely was to se. (Advocates')

741 Powell (“Models of Religious Peace,” pp. 122–23) spends considerable time examining the difference in the number of dead Muslims across the various versions of this tale:

In some of the manuscripts . . . Isumbras and his small band kill twenty thousand and three of the soldiers they are facing, about two-thirds of them, while in other manuscripts, they kill thirty thousand and three, all or essentially all of them.

The difference between 20,003 and 30,003 might be dismissed as evidence of a simple scribal error. . . . But rather than a meaningless variant, the discrepancy might instead be a sign of a genuine scribal disagreement, too, considering that the figure of 20,003 leaves ten thousand Muslims standing, alive and apparently unconverted, when the poem ends. At the least, even if all we hope to accomplish is the restoration of an original reading, the variant forces us to ask: for a medieval audience, does a happy ending require the annihilation of a religious enemy? In a poem that is pervasively aware of the permanence of religious conflict, such a question about heathen survival seems likely to have been of great ideological significance.

745 In most other manuscripts, an angel tells the sons what to say.

748 Ashmole, Advocates', and Lincoln Thornton manuscripts contain the following stanza emphasizing Isumbras' piety and the reunion of the family:

Ofte was Syr Ysambrace wele and woo
But never yitt als he was tho,
    One knees than he hym sett.
He grett and sayde with mylde stevene,                     wept
"Thankede be the heghte kyng of hevene
    My bale thane hase he bett."
Sir Ysambrace and that lady free
Kyssed all thare childir three,
    Ilkane for joye thay grett.
Mare joye myghte never no mane see
Thane men myghte one thame see
    In armes whene thay were mett. (Lincoln)

755 Dishes of wild game and domesticated animals were served, presumably at a banquet.

After 771 The lines Explicit Ser Ysumbras. Incipit Vita de Katerine virginis follow in the Gonville and Caius manuscript.