The Romaunce of the Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras His Sone Who Conquerede Rome
General
The Romaunce of the Sowdone of Babylone and of Ferumbras His Sone Who Conquerede Rome
Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814 -- Romances; English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500; Romances, English
p. 49, l. 1695. Folk Baliant is not mentioned in any other poem of our
romance. See «Introduction», p. xxvii.
p. 49, l. 1698. «chese», O.E. «cêosan», Mod. E. «choose». It here means
“to be free to choose”:—“You shall not be free to choose,” “you shall
have no choice,” “you shall do what you are ordered.” See Mätzner’s
remark [in his «Wörterb.», p. 562, s. v. «cheosen»] to Halliwell,
«Dict.» p. 250. [p122]
p. 49, l. 1699. «Aleroyse.» See note to l. 884.
p. 49, l. 1711. «Turpyn.» There was a real bishop of this name, who,
according to the «Gallia Christiana», held the see of Reims from
A.D. 753 to 794. As we find him described in the romances, Turpin
was the very type of a knight-bishop. In the poem of «Aspremont», he
bears before the Christian army the wood of the true cross which in
his hands beams with brightness like the sun. In the romance of the
«Enfances Ogier» it was he, into whose custody Ogier was given, when
he had been made a prisoner after his revolt, in company with the king
of Lombardy, against Charlemagne (see above, note to l. 856), and
who, notwithstanding the order of Charles to have Ogier starved to
death, kept the Dane alive, who afterwards, when the Saracens invaded
France, proved a great help to the Christian arms. As we read in the
«Chanson de Roland», ll. 2242ss, Turpin met his death at Roncesvaux,
but according to the «Chronicle of Turpin», he survived the disaster of
Roncesvaux, and was saying mass for the dead, when he saw the angels
carrying the soul of Roland up to heaven. But from Gaston Paris’s Essay
«De Pseudo-Turpino» we know this chronicle to be an apocryphical book
written by two monks of the eleventh and twelfth century.
p. 49, l. 1717. «set not of youre barons so light» = “do not count,
consider them so little.” Cf. “to take one so lighte,” in «Syr
Ferumbras», ll. 114, 156.
p. 50, l. 1721. «gyfe no coost» has the same meaning as «give no tale»
= “make no account, do not mind.” See Zupitza’s note to «Guy», 8143.
Cf. also «Sowdan», l. 2793, and «Syr Ferumbras», l. 5847, 101, 4975;
and also ll. 173, 1578.
p. 50, l. 1723. Bryer of Mounteȝ or Berard de Montdidier was celebrated
for his gallantries and attentions to the ladies:
“D’ardimen vail Rotlan et Olivier
E de domnei Berart de Mondesdier.”
«i. e.»—“In prowess I am equal to Rolland and to Oliver, in matters
of love to Berart of M.” says the troubadour Peire Vidal in his poem
«Dragoman seiner»; cf. also «Fierabras», ll. 2125–7:
“Je ne sai cui vous estes, car ne vous puis viser,
Mais je cuit c’as pucieles sivés moult bien juer,
En cambre sous cortine baisier et acoler.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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