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Arthur: A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century — John Shaqi

Arthur: A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

General

Arthur: A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

Arthurian romances; Romances, English

Glastonbury,       Now hyt hooteþ Glastyngbury.
where he  dies,    Ther Artho_ur_ þat worthy kyng
                   Maked hys lyues endyng;                           616
                   But for he skaped þ_a_t batell_e_ y-wys,
                   Bretou_n_s & Cornysch sayeþ þus,
                   "Þat he leuyth ȝut p_ar_de,
                   And schall_e_ come & be a kyng aȝe."              620
                   At Glastyngbury on þe qweer
and is buried      Þey made Arto_ur_ez tou_m_be þere,
A.D. 542.          And wrote wyth latyn vers þus,
                   Hic iacet Arthurus rex quonda_m_
                         rex que futur_us_.                          624
                   Thys was þus forsoþe ydone
_Anno d_o_m_ini_   Þe yheer after þe Incarnacione,
qu_in_gente_simo_  Vyf hundred (.) fourty & two.
_quadragesi_m_o    Now saue vs alle fra woo                          628
s_e_c_un_do._      Ih_es_u cryst, heuenly kyng,
                   & grau_n_t vs alle hys blessyng;
                   And þat hyt Moote so be,
                   Seyeþ alle Pater & Aue.                           632

                Pater noster. Aue.

                   Ho þ_a_t woll_e_ more loke,
Read the French    Reed on þe frensch boke,
Book for the       And he schall_e_ fynde þere
rest.              Þynges þat y leete here.                          636
                   But yf þat god wolle grau_n_te gr_a_ce,
                   y schall_e_ rehercy in þis place
                   Alle þe kyngez þat after were,
                   And what names [þ]at þey bere;                    640
                   And ho þ_a_t woll_e_ þeyre gestes loke,
                   Reed on þe Frensch_e_ boke. Amen fiat.


[ FOOTNOTES

  2. ? MS. perhaps _Angecye_.

  3. The _s_ is rubbed: the word may be "onlesbury."

  5. _sepe_, ? for _seue_, seven. It is _p_ not _x_ (six) in the MS.
     But as Arthur had 200,000, and Lucius only 400,124, _sepe_ should
     mean _two_.

  6. Pughe's abridged Dictionary gives _tau_, _v.a._ be still; _taw_,
     _s.m._ and _adj._ quiet, silence, silent; _paid_, _s.m._ a cessation,
     quiet; _bront_, _a._ nasty, filthy, surly. _Or_, says Dr. Benj.
     Davies, you must take as equal to the modern Welsh _wr_, man, if it
     is not English; _peyd_ is cease, pause; _taw_, be silent. ]




WORDS


a, he, l. 370.
aspye, _sb._ espial, l. 416.
ayhe, again, l. 126.

beeme, _sb._ ? noise, display, from A.S. _béme_, a trumpet, l. 108.

falde, l. 480, felt, l. 472; field.
fusoun, gain, victory, l. 476. L. _fusio_, outpouring, plenty.
fyched, pierced, l. 462.

goom, man, l. 166.
gysarme, l. 463. _Hallebarde, pique, hache_. Roquefort.

hadde wyste, l. 546, had I known (how it would have turned out). See
  Nares, and the Poem "Beware of had-I-wyst," that he quotes. "Beware of
  _had-I-wyst_, whose fine bringes care and smart."
hawted, exalted, l. 113.
he, she, l. 582.
helyth, cover, l. 407.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Arthur: A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

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