Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850

Various

Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

Notes

ENGLISH AND NORMAN SONGS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

In a vellum book, known as The Red Book of Ossory, and preserved in the archives of that see, is contained a collection of Latin religious poetry, written in a good bold hand of the 14th century; prefixed to several of the hymns, in a contemporary and identical hand, are sometimes one sometimes more lines of a song in old English or Norman French, which as they occur I here give:

"Alas hou shold y syng, yloren is my playngeHou sholdy wiz zat olde man}} swettist of al zinge."To leven and let my leman }"Harrow ieo su thy: p fol amor de mal amy.""Have mrcie on me frere: Barfote zat ygo.""Do Do. nightyngale syng ful myrieShal y nevre for zyn love lengre karie.""Have God day me lemon," &c."Gaveth me no garlond of greene,Bot hit ben of Wythones yuroght.""Do Do nyztyngale syng wel miryShal y nevre for zyn love lengre kary.""Hew alas p amorOy moy myst en tant dolour.""Hey how ze chevaldoures woke al nyght."

It is quite evident that these lines were thus prefixed (as is still the custom), to indicate the air to which the Latin hymns were to be sung. This is also set forth in a memorandum at the commencement, which states that these songs, Cantilene, were composed by the Bishop of Ossory for the vicars of his cathedral church, and for his priests and clerks,

"ne guttura eorum et ora deo sanctificata polluantur cantilenis teatralibus turpibus et secularibus: et cum sint cantatores, provideant sibi notis convenientibus, secundum quod dictamina requirunt."—Lib. Rub. Ossor. fol. 70.

We may, I think, safely conclude that the lines above given were the commencement of the cantilene teatrales turpes et seculares, which the good bishop wished to deprive his clergy of all excuse for singing, by providing them with pious hymns to the same airs; thinking, I suppose, like John Wesley in after years, it was a pity the devil should monopolise all the good tunes. I shall merely add that the author of the Latin poetry seems to have been Richard de Ledrede, who filled the see of Ossory from 1318 to 1360, and was rendered famous by his proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteller for heresy and witchcraft. (See a contemporary account of the "proceedings" published by the Camden Society in 1843; a most valuable contribution to Irish history, and well deserving of still more editorial labour than has been bestowed on it.) I have copied the old English and Norman-French word for word, preserving the contractions wherever they occurred.

I shall conclude this "note" by proposing two "Queries:" to such of your contributors as are learned in old English and French song-lore, viz.,

1. Are the entire songs, of which the above lines form the commencements, known or recoverable?

2. If so, is the music to which they were sung handed down?

I shall feel much obliged by answers to both or either of the above Queries, and

"Bis dat, qui cito dat."James Graves.

Kilkenny, Nov. 1. 1850.

MISPLACED WORDS IN SHAKSPEARE'S TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

In that immaculate volume, the first folio edition of Shakspeare, of which Mr. Knight says: "Perhaps, all things considered, there never was a book so correctly printed"! a passage in Troilus and Cressida, Act. v. Sc. 3., where Cassandra and Andromache are attempting to dissuade Hector from going to battle, is thus given:

"And. O be perswaded: doe not count it holy,To hurt by being iust; it is lawful:For we would count giue much to as violent thefts,And rob in the behalfe of charitie."

Deviating from his usual practice, Mr. Knight makes an omission and a transposition, and reads thus:

"Do not count it holyTo hurt by being just: it is as lawful,For we would give much, to count violent thefts,And rob in the behalf of charity."

with the following note; the ordinary reading is

"'For we would give much to use violent thefts.'"

To use thefts is clearly not Shakspearian. Perhaps count or give might be omitted, supposing that one word had been substituted for another in the manuscript, without the erasure of the first written; but this omission will not give us a meaning. We have ventured to transpose count and omit as:

"For we would give much, to count violent thefts."

We have now a clear meaning: it is as lawful because we desire to give much, to count violent thefts as holy, "and rob in the behalf of charity."

Mr. Collier also lays aside his aversion to vary from the old copy, and makes a bold innovation: he reads,—

"Do not count it holyTo hurt by being just: it is as lawful,For us to give much count to violent thefts,And rob in the behalf of charity."

Thus giving his reasons: "This line [the third] is so corrupt in the folio 1623, as to afford no sense. The words and their arrangement are the same in the second and third folio, while the fourth only alters would to will." Tyrwhitt read:

"For we would give much to use violent thefts,"

which is objectionable, not merely because it wanders from the text, but because it inserts a phrase, "to use violent thefts," which is awkward and unlike Shakspeare. The reading I have adopted is that suggested by Mr. Amyot, who observes upon it: "Here, I think, with little more than transposition (us being, substituted for we, and would omitted), the meaning, as far as we can collect it, is not departed from nor perverted, as in Rowe's strange interpolation:

"For us to count we give what's gain'd by thefts."

The original is one of the few passages which, as it seems to me, must be left to the reader's sagacity, and of the difficulties attending which we cannot arrive at any satisfactory solution."

Mr. Collier's better judgment has here given way to his deference for the opinion of his worthy friend; the deviation from the old copy being quite as violent as any that he has ever quarrelled with in others.

Bearing in mind Mr. Hickson's valuable canon (which should be the guide of future editors), let us see what is the state of the case. The line is a nonsensical jumble, and has probably been printed from an interlineation in the manuscript copy, two words being evidently transposed, and one of them, at the same time, glaringly mistaken. The poet would never have repeated the word count, which occurs in the first line, in the sense given to it either by Mr. Collier or by Mr. Knight.

Preserving every word in the old copy, I read the passage thus:—

"O! be persuaded. Do not count it holyTo hurt by being just: it is as lawful as(For we would give much) to commit violent theftsAnd rob in the behalf of charity."

"To count violent thefts" here would be sheer nonsense; and when we recollect how easy it is to mistake comit for count, the former word being almost always thus written and often thus printed, we must, I think, be convinced that in copying an interlineated MS., the printer misplaced and misprinted that word, and transposed as, if the repetition of it be not also an error.—"For," commencing the parenthesis, "we would give much" stands for cause. The emphasis should, I think, be laid on for; and commit be accented on the first syllable. Thus the line, though of twelve syllables, is not unmetrical; indeed much less prosaic than with the old reading of count.

This correction, upon the principle which governs Messrs. Collier and Knight, and which indeed should govern all of us,

"To lose no drop of that immortal man,"

ought to be satisfactory; for it is effected without taking away a letter. The transposition of two evidently misplaced words, and the correction of a letter or two palpably misprinted in one of them, is the whole gentle violence that has been used in a passage which has been, as we see, considered desperate. But, as Pope sings:

"Our sacred Shakspeare,—comprehensive mind!Who for all ages writ, and all mankind,Has been to careless printers oft a prey,Nor time, nor moth e'er spoil'd as much as they;Let the right reading drive the cloud away,And sense breaks on us with resistless day."Periergus Bibliophilus.

October, 1850.

MASTER JOHN SHORNE

If proof were wanted how little is now known of those saints whose names were once in everybody's mouth, although they never figured in any calendar, it might be found in the fact that my friend, Mr. Payne Collier, whose intimate knowledge of the phrases and allusions scattered through our early writers is so well known and admitted, should, in his valuable Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company (1557-1570), have illustrated this entry,—

"1569-70. Rd. of Thomas Colwell, for his lycense for the pryntinge of a ballett intituled 'Newes to Northumberlande yt skylles not where, to Syr John Shorne, a churche rebell there' … iiijd."

by a note, from which the following is an extract:—

"Sir John Shorne no doubt is to be taken as a generic name for a shaven Roman Catholic priest."

Reasonable, however, as is Mr. Collier's conjecture, it is not borne out by the facts of the case. The name Sir John Shorne is not a generic name, but the name of a personage frequently alluded to, but whose history is involved in considerable obscurity. Perhaps the following notes may be the means, by drawing forth others, of throwing some light upon it. In Michael Wodde's Dialogue, quoted by Brand, we read—

"If we were sycke of the pestylence we ran to Sainte Rooke; if of the ague, to Sainte Pernel or Master John Shorne."

Latimer, in his Second Sermon preached in Lincolnshire, p. 475. (Parker Society ed.), says,—

"But ye shall not think that I will speak of the popish pilgrimages, which we were wont to use in times past, in running hither and thither to Mr. John Shorn or to our Lady of Walsingham."

On which the editor, the Rev. G. E. Corrie, remarks that he was—

"A saint whose head quarters were probably in the parish of Shorn and Merston near Gravesend, but who seems to have had shrines in other parts of the country. He was chiefly popular with persons who suffered from ague."

Mr. Corrie then gives an extract from p. 218. of the Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries, edited by Mr. Wright for the Camden Society; but we quote from the original, Mr. Corrie having omitted the words given in our extract in Italics:—

"At Merston, Mr. Johan Schorn stondith blessing a bote, whereunto they do say he conveyd the devill. He ys moch sowzt for the agou. If it be your lordeschips pleasur, I schall sett that botyd ymage in a nother place, and so do wyth other in other parties wher lyke seeking ys."

In that extraordinary poem The Fantassie of Idolatrie, printed by Fox in his edition of 1563, but not afterwards reprinted until it appeared in Seeley's edition (vol. v. p. 406.), we read—

"To Maister John ShorneThat blessed man borne;For the ague to him we apply,Whiche jugeleth with a boteI beschrewe his herte roteThat will truste him, and it be I."

The editor, Mr. Cattley, having explained bote "a recompense or fee," Dr. Maitland, in his Remarks on Rev. S. R. Cattley's Defence of his Edition of Fox's Martyrology, p. 46., after making a reference to Nares, and quoting his explanation, proceeds:

"The going on pilgrimage to St. John Shorne is incidentally mentioned at pages 232. and 580. of the FOURTH volume of Fox, but in a way which throws no light on the subject. The verse which I have quoted seems as if there was some relic which was supposed to cure the ague, and by which the juggle was carried on. Now another passage in this same fifth volume, p. 468., leads me to believe that this relic really was, and therefore the word 'bote' simply means, a boot. In this passage we learn, that one of the causes of Robert Testwood's troyble was his ridiculing the relics which were to be distributed to be borne by various persons in a procession upon a relic Sunday. St. George's dagger having been given to one Master Hake, Testwood said to Dr. Clifton,—'Sir, Master Hake hath St. George's dagger. Now if he had his horse, and St. Martin's cloak, and Master John Shorne's boots, with King Harry's spurs and his hat, he might ride when he list.'"

That there is some legend connected with Master John Shorne and "his bote, whereunto they do say he conveyd the devill," is evident from a fact we learn from the Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, namely, that at the meeting on the 5th Nov. 1847, the Rev. James Bulwer, of Aylsham, Norfolk, sent a series of drawings exhibiting the curious painted decorations of the rood screen in Cawston Church, Norfolk, amongst which appears the singular saintly personage bearing a boot, from which issues a demon. An inscription beneath the figures gives the name "Magister Johannes Schorn." It is much to be regretted that fuller details of this painting have not been preserved in the Journal of the Institute.

The earliest mention of Master John Schorne is in the indenture for roofing St. George's Chapel at Windsor, dated 5th June, 21 Henry VII. (1506), printed in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. ii. p. 115., where it is covenanted

"That the creastes, corses, beastes, above on the outsides of Maister John Shorne's Chappell, bee done and wrought according to the other creastes, and comprised within the said bargayne."

William J. Thoms.

CORRIGENDA OF PRINTER'S ERRORS

In my note on Conjectural Emendation (Vol. ii., p. 322.), your printer, in general so very correct, has by a fortunate accident strengthened my argument, by adding one letter, and taking away another. Should my note be in existence, you will find that I wrote distinctly and correctly Mr. Field's prænomen Barron, and not Baron. And I have too much respect for my old favourite, honest George Wither, to have written Withers, a misnomer never used but by his adversaries, who certainly did speak of him as "one Withers." I should not have thought it necessary to notice these insignificant errata, but for the purpose of showing Printer's errors do and will occur, and that Shakspeare's text may often be amended by their correction. You will recollect honest George's punning inscription round his juvenile portrait:

"I grow and Wither both together."

Periergus Bibliophilus.

FOLK LORE OF WALES

No. 3. Meddygon Myddvai.—On the heights of the Black Mountains, in Caermarthenshire, lies a dark-watered lake, known by the name of Lyn y Van Vach. As might be predicated, from the wild grandeur of its situation, as well as from the ever-changing hues which it takes from the mountain shadows, many a superstition—gloomy or beautiful—is connected with its history. Amongst these may be reckoned the legend of the Meddygon Myddvai or "surgeons of Myddvai." Tradition affirms that "once upon a time" a man who dwelt in the parish of Myddvai led his lambs to graze on the borders of this lake; a proceeding which he was induced to repeat in consequence of his visits being celebrated by the appearance of three most beautiful nymphs, who, rising from the waters of the lake, frequently came on shore, and wandered about amongst his flock. On his endeavouring, however, to catch or retain these nymphs, they fled to the lake and sank into its depths, singing—

"Cras dy fara,Anhawdd ein dala!"

which may be rendered [eater of] "hard baked bread, it is difficult to retain us!" Difficulties, however, but increased the determination of the shepherd; and day after day he watched beside the haunted lake, until at length his perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of a substance resembling unbaked bread, which floated on the water: this he fished up and ate, and on the following day he succeeded in capturing the nymphs: on which he requested one of them to become his wife; to this she consented, on condition that he should be able to distinguish her from her sisters on the following day. This was no easy task, as the nymphs bore the most striking resemblance to each other; but the lover noticed some trifling peculiarity in the dress of his choice, by means of which he identified her. She then assured him that she would be to him as good a wife as any earthly maiden could be, until he should strike her three times without a cause. This was deemed by the shepherd an impossible contingency, and he led his bride in triumph from the mountain; followed by seven cows, two oxen, and one bull, which she had summoned from the waters of the lake to enrich her future home.

Many years passed happily on, and three smiling children—afterwards the "surgeons of Myddvai"—blessed the shepherd and his Undine-like bride; but at length, on requesting her to go to the field and catch his horse, she replied that she would do so presently; when striking her arm three times he exclaimed, Dôs, dôs, dôs; Go, go, go. This was more than a free dweller in the waters could brook; so calling her ten head of cattle to follow her, she fled to the lake, and once more plunged beneath its waters.

Such is the legend; of which reason vainly expresses its disbelief, as long as the eye of faith can discern physical proofs of its truth in the deep furrow which, crossing the mountain in detached portions, terminates abruptly in the lake; for it seems that when the two oxen were summoned by their mistress, they were ploughing in the field; and at their departure, they carried the plough with them, and dragged it into the lake.

The nymph once more appeared upon the earth; for as her sons grew to manhood, she met them one day in a place which, from this circumstance, received the name of Cwm Meddygon, and delivered to each of them a bag, containing such mysterious revelations in the science of medicine, that they became greater in the art than were ever any before them.

Though so curiously connected with this fable, the "surgeons of Myddvai" are supposed to be historical personages, who, according to a writer in the Cambro-Briton, flourished in the thirteenth century, and left behind them a MS. treatise on their practice, of which several fragments and imperfect copies are still preserved.

No. 4. Trwyn Pwcca.—Many years ago, there existed in a certain part of Monmouthshire a Pwcca, or fairy, which, like a faithful English Brownie, performed innumerable services for the farmers and householders in its neighbourhood, more especially that of feeding the cattle, and cleaning their sheds in wet weather; until at length some officious person, considering such practices as unchristian proceedings, laid the kindly spirit for three generations, banishing him to that common receptacle for such beings—the Red Sea. The spot in which he disappeared obtained the name of Trwyn Pwcca (Fairy's nose); and as the three generations have nearly passed away, the approaching return of the Pwcca is anxiously looked forward to in its vicinity, as an earnest of the "good time coming."

The form which tradition assigns to this Pwcca, is that of a handful of loose dried grass rolling before the wind (such as is constantly seen on moors); a circumstance which recalls to mind the Pyrenean legend of the spirit of the Lord of Orthez, mentioned by Miss Costello, which appeared as two straws moving on the floor. Query, Has the name of "Will o' the Wisp" any connexion with the supposed habit of appearing in this form?

Seleucus.

CONNEXION OF WORDS—THE WORD "FREIGHT."

The word employed to denote freight, or rather the price of freight, at this day in the principal ports of the Mediterranean, is nolis

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