“Indeed,” said the doughty knight, and doffed his high helm,And held it in his hands as he offered his thanks,“I have lingered long enough—may good luck be yours,And He reward you well that all worship bestows!And commend me to that comely one, your courteous wife,Both herself and that other, my honoured ladies,That have trapped their true knight in their trammels so

quaint.But if a dullard should dote, deem it no wonder,And through the wiles of a woman be wooed into sorrow,For so was Adam by one, when the world began,And Solomon by many more, and Samson the mighty—Delilah was his doom, and David thereafterNow these were vexed by their devices—‘twere a very joyWas beguiled by Bathsheba, and bore much distress;Could one but learn to love, and believe them not.For these were proud princes, most prosperous of old,Past all lovers lucky, that languished under heaven,

bemused.And one al all fell preyTo women that they had used.If I be led astray,Methinks I may be excused.

(SGGK 2407-28)

2 Samuel 11 (New International Version)

 1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.  2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then [a] she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

The opening lines of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

(BL MS Cotton Nero A.x., f.91a)

The opening lines of Beowulf

(BL MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv)

Sir Robert Cotton

(1571-1631)

Cotton Nero A.x (Sir Gawain, Pearl)

Cotton Vitellius A.xv (Beowulf)

Chaucer portrait in MS Harley 4866 (Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes, c.1412)

THE DIALECTS OF LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (1)

The wery huntere, slepynge in his bed,To wode ayeyn his mynde goth anon;The juge dremeth how his plees ben sped; (Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls 99-105,

The cartere dremeth how his cart is gon; London dialect c. 1380-82)

The riche, of gold; the knyght fyght with his fon; The syke met he drynketh of the tonne;The lovere met he hath his lady wonne.

Bot of alle þat here bult of Bretaygne kyngesAy watz Arthur þe hendest, as I haf herde telle.Forþi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe, (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 25-32;Þat a selly in si3t summe men hit holden NW Midlands nr. Cheshire,And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez. s. Lancashire, n. Staffordshire, c. 1400) If 3e wyl lysten þis laye bot on littel quile,I schal telle hit astit, as I in toun herde.

THE DIALECTS OF LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (2)

Ac on a May morwenynge on Maluerne hilles (Piers Plowman B.1.1-10; Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me þo3te. Northwest Midlands dialect, I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste near Malvern & Worcester, c. 1370)Vnder a brood bank by a bourne syde,And as I lay and lenede and loked on þe watresI slombred into a slepyng, it sweyed so murye.

Manne on molde, be meke to me,And haue thy maker in þi mynde,And thynke howe I haue tholid for þe,With pereles paynes for to be pyned.The forward of my Fadir free (York Play of the Harrowing of Hell,

Haue I fulfillid, as folke may fynde, Yorkshire dialect, c. 1475)

Þer-fore a-boute nowe woll I beeÞat I haue bought for to vnbynde.Þe feende þame wanne with trayneThurgh frewte of erthely foode,I haue þame getyn agayneThurgh bying with my bloode.

THE DIALECTS OF LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND (3)

Ane dooly sesoun to ane cairfull dyteSuld correspond, and be equivalent. (Robert Henryson, The Tesatment of Cresseid 1-7, Richt sa it wes quhen I began to wryte Late Middle Scots before 1500)

This tragedy; the wedder richt fervent,Quhen Aries, in middis of the Lent,Shouris of haill can fra the north discend;That scantly fra the cauld I micht defend.

why pryncys a'n dewolowscon egereugh an porthowpy mar ny wreugh y fyth guow

yn certan kynys tremenerak an porthow hep dyweth (Cornish Play of the Resurrection,

a vyth ygerys yn weth Cornwall, 15th c.)

sur may thello aberuethan myghtern a lowene

ChaucerPiers Plowman

Sir Gawain

York Plays

Henryson

Cornish plays