THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. GEORGE IN THE SOUTH ENGLISH LEGENDARY: FOOTNOTES
1 Dacian, who was the wicked prince at that time (Dacian the wicked, who was prince at that time)
2 And glowered with [an] evil expression
3 "[My] fine fellow, what [sort of man] are you, to be so foolish and audacious?["] (see explanatory note)
4 Lines 19-20: [In] that you shame not only us, as we all see, / But also our gods, when you say they are devils["]
5 Who dare to say to us, and [to] our gods, so boldly such disgraceful (blasphemous) [things]
6 or it (your mind) will have to go another [way]
7 for you speak about nothing (i.e., in vain)
8 ["]You shall at once be subject to a different kind of mockery today"
9 They beat him with tough whips and made [fresh] wounds on top of the others
10 To have his living flesh salted and rubbed with a haircloth
11 I.e., to add to his other woes, of which he had plenty
12 And gave orders to take this holy man and put him up on top [of it]
13 Exactly according to the strategy he had devised, he ordered [them] to make a fire [that was] fierce enough
14 And leaned against the [cauldron] lip
15 They drew their weapons forth and sharpened them keenly to bite
16 That there should be no fear [in that house] of great sickness or of a severe famine.
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. GEORGE IN THE SOUTH ENGLISH LEGENDARY: NOTES
Abbreviations: A = Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 43 (SC 6924), fols. 59r-60v; C = Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 145, fols. 59r-60r [base text]; L = Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 108 (SC 1486), fols. 130r-131r.
2 The C scribe's bigute (biƷute,"begotten") does not rhyme with write ("written"), but in the original SEL the rhyme would be bigite/write (as in the earliest manuscript, L), since write(n) is not subject to dialectal variation in the same way as bigite(n). The scribe's u in bigute is the typical Southwestern reflex of late West Saxon i/y, whereas the i form implies the poet's dialect was influenced rather by Midland speech.
13 develes chikene. Despite its humorous plausibility in the context, this reading, along with those in many other manuscripts (e.g., London, British Library MSS Harley 2277, deueles cunne; and Cotton Julius D. ix, deuelischildren; Oxford, Bodleian Library MSS Bodley 779 [SC 2567], deuelis hynen; and Addit. C. 38 [SC 30236], feendes chikyns), is undoubtedly a corruption. The closest Latin sources have Omnes dii gentium daemonia,"All the gods of the Gentiles are devils," which is a quotation from Vulgate Psalm 95:5 (Septuagint), and a common hagiographic topos. The correct SEL reading is preserved in A, deuelschine; and L, deuelschine, deriving from OE deofolscin,"demonic illusion/phantom" (DM 3.46-47).
13-14 Here SEL reads very close to the Sarum Breviary:"Cum videret apud impium Dacianum populos multos Christum Dominum blasphemantes et dæmones adorantes: crucis vexillo armatus, Sanctoque Spiritu repletus, in vocem hujusmodi prorupit, Omnes dii gentium dæmonia : Dominus autem cælos fecit." (Procter and Wordsworth, eds., Breviarum ad Usum Insignis Ecclesiae Sarum, 3.257-58) ("When [George] saw lots of people in the presence of the wicked Dacian blaspheming Christ the Lord and worshiping demons, he armed himself with the banner of the Cross and, filled with the Holy Spirit, he suddenly shouted out as follows: All the gods of the Gentiles are demons, and the Lord made the heavens"). The phrases omnis [sic] dii gentium demonia and Dominus autem celos fecit are here written in the margin of C (DM 1.156).
15-16 Dacian's rage in the Latin passio is rendered less vividly or visually than in SEL: Datianus imperator vehementer exarsit, et intra semet ipsum fremere cepit,"the emperor Datian grew hot with intense anger, and began to rage within himself" (Matzke,"Contributions," p. 530). There may be echoes here of the Vulgate version of Psalm 2:1 and 13 (Septuagint).
17 The French epithet, Bel amy, used here and at line 25, was a common expression of derision in early Middle English (compare CT VI[C]318, The Introduction to The Pardoner's Tale), but it is possible that the SEL-poet is echoing the language of one of his Latin source texts, in which Dacian appears to express regret that George's beauty (pulchritudinem) is to suffer such violence under torture (see Matzke,"Contributions," p. 526, where the reading doles is probably an error for doleo).
19 as. C: ac. DM's emendation.
27 Be. So C. DM emend to Beo. Similar emendations by DM are to be found at lines 37-38, 44, 71-72, 87-88, and 92.
30 Dacian means that George's statements against the gods amount to obscene mockery, ribaudie ("ribaldry") but that he is now about to become an object of gross humor himself, as a victim of public torture.
31-46 In the margin of C: Prima tormenta ("first torment"). In the Latin Z-text, the apparatus is an eculeum, or rack for stretching the limbs. The SEL-poet freely adapts and expands the following passage (our translation from the Z-text, ed. Matzke,"Contributions," p. 533) so as to render it even more visual and emotive:
Dacian . . . ordered Saint George to be lifted up on a rack and his body stretched out and lacerated to bits (membratim) with flesh hooks (ungulis). Then he commanded that his (George's) flanks be torched, so that the insides of his bowels became visible. And when the martyr had endured these pains for Christ, [Dacian] ordered him taken down and thrust outside the city, and there hung up to be whipped and bloodied with all kinds of stripes, and salt was cast into the wounds made by the stripes, and the stripe-wounds were rubbed with a haircloth (cilicio . . . fricari).
36 In the margin of C: Secunda pena ("second torment").
38 him. C: hi.
47 In the margin of C: Tercia pena ("third torment").
53 In the margin of C: iiija pena ("fourth torment").
64 In the margin of C: va pena ("fifth torment").
74 Medieval vernacular writers routinely used the name of the Islamic Mohammed as a pagan god of any era. The SEL-poet appears to have invented this outburst of Dacian's, which has no equivalent in any of the sources, although towards the end of the Y version, after George has resuscitated a corpse, Dacian bursts his girdle in frustration, falls from his throne, and sadly bemoans the loss of his kingdom.
77 Here SEL omits another episode found in the Latin texts in which George seems to yield to Dacian's attempt to cajole him into sacrificing to the idols, but in the temple the next day George secures the destruction of idols, priests, temple, and much of the crowd.
83 In the margin of C: vja pena ("sixth torment").