There they found a proud portèr Sayes, "Christ thee save, thou proud portèr; 175 Sayes," Christ thee save and see.' "Nowe you be welcome," sayd the portèr, "Wee beene harpers," sayd Adler younge, Sayd, "And your color were white and redd, I wold saye king Estmere and his brother Then they pulled out a ryng of gold, Layd itt on the porters arme: "And ever we will thee, proud portèr, Thow wilt saye us no harme." Sore he looked on kyng Estmère, Then opened to them the fayre hall yates, 180 185 190 Kyng Estmere he stabled his steede 195 Soe fayre att the hall bord; The froth, that came from his brydle bitte, Saies, "Stable thy steed, thou proud harper," 200 It doth not beseeme a proud harpèr "My ladde he is so lither," he said, "He will doe nought that 's meete; And is there any man in this hall Were able him to beate." Ver. 202. To stable his steede. fol. MS. 205 "Thou speakst proud words," sayes the king of "Thou harper here to mee: There is a man within this halle, Will beate thy ladd and thee." "O, let that man come downe," he said, And when hee hath beaten well my ladd, Downe then came the kemperye man, For all the gold, that was under heaven, [Spaine, 210 215 "And how nowe, kempe," said the kyng of Spaine, "And how what aileth thee?" He saies, "It is writt in his forhead All and in gramaryè, That for all the gold that is under heaven, Then kyng Estmere pulld forth his harpe, The ladye upstart from the borde, pray thee "Stay thy harpe, thou proud harpèr, * He stroake upon his harpe againe, Saies, "sell me thy harpe, thou proud harper, For as many gold nobles thou shalt have' i. e. Entice. Vid. Gloss. 220 225 230 235 240 6 "What wold ye doe with my harpe," he sayd,' "To playe my wiffe and me a FITT, * "Now sell me," quoth hee," thy bryde soe gay, 245 As shee sitts by thy knee, And as many gold nobles I will give, As leaves been on a tree." "And what wold ye doe with my bryde soe gay, Iff I did sell her thee? More seemlye it is for her fayre bodye To lye by mee then thee." Hee played agayne both loud and shrille, And Adler he did syng, "O ladye, this is thy owne true love; Noe harper, but a kyng. O ladye, this is thy owne true love, And Ile rid thee of that foule paynìm, 250 255 260 The ladye looked, the ladye blushte, While Adler he hath drawne his brande, Up then rose the kemperye men, "Ah! traytors, yee have slayne our kyng, Kyng Estmere threwe the harpe asyde, And Estmere he, and Adler yonge 265 270 * i. e. a tune, or strain of music. See Gloss. Ver. 253. Some liberties have been taken in the following stanzas; but wherever this edition differs from the preceding, it hath been brought nearer to the folio MS. And aye their swordes soe sore can byte, That soone they have slayne the kempery men, Or forst them forth to flee. Kyng Estmere tooke that fayre ladyè, And marryed her to his wiffe, And brought her home to merry Englànd 275 280 The word Gramarye, which occurs several times in the foregoing Poem, is probably a corruption of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a Conjuring Book in the old French Romances, if not the Art of Necromancy itself. ttt Termagaunt (mentioned above in p. 46,) is the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens : in which he is constantly linked with Mahound or Mahomet. Thus in the legend of "Syr Guy" the Soudan (Sultan) swears, "So helpe me Mahowne of might, And Termagaunt my God so bright." Sign. p.iij. b. This word is derived by the very learned Editor of Junius from the Anglo-Saxon Tyn very, and Mazan mighty.-As this word had so sublime a derivation, and was so applicable to the true God, how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps Tyn-mazan or Termagant had been a name originally given to some Saxon idol, before our ancestors were converted to Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as profane and improper to be applied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the East, had brought them acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who thought all that did not receive the Christian law, were necessarily Pagans and Idolaters, supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same with that of their Pagan forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give the ancient name of Termagant to the God of the Saracens just in the same manner as they afterwards used the name of Sarazen to express any kind of Pagan or Idolater. In the ancient romance of Merline" (in the editor's folio MS.) the Saxons themselves that came over with Hengist, because they were not Christians, are constantly called Sarazens. However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both Mahound and Termagaunt made their frequent appearance in the Pageants and religious Enterludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited with gestures so furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton speaks of Wolsey: "Like Mahound in a play, Ed. 1736, p. 158. In like manner Bale, describing the threats used by some Papist magistrates to his wife, speaks of them as grennyng upon her lyke Termagauntes in a playe." [Actes of Engl. Votaryes, pt. 2. fo. 83. Ed. 1550, 12mo.]-Accordingly in a letter of Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College, to his wife or sister,* who, it seems, with all her fellows (the players, had been "by my Lorde Maiors officer[s] mad to rid in a cart," he expresses his concern that she should "fall into the hands of suche Tarmagants." [So the orig. dated May 2, 1593, preserved by the care of the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith, Fellow of Dulw. Coll.]-Hence we may conceive the force of Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doing Termagunt: it out-herods Herod." A. 3. sc. 3.-By degrees the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and especially to a violent brawling woman; to whom alone it is now confined, and this the rather as, I suppose, the character of Termagant was anciently represented on the stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats. Another frequent character in the old pageants or enterludes of our ancestors, was the Sowdan or Soldan representing a grim eastern tyrant: This appears from a curious passage in Stow's Annals [p. 458.]-In a stage-play "the people know right well that he that plaieth the Sowdain, is percase a sowter [shoemaker]; yet if one should cal him by his owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his tormentors might hap to break his head." The sowdain, or soldan, was a name given to the Sarazen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the word sultan), as the soldan of Egypt, the soudan of Persia, the sowdan of Babylon, &c. who were generally represented as accompanied with grim Sarazens, whose business it was to punish and torment Christians. I cannot conclude this short Memoir, without observing that the French romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it as we in their old romances, corrupted it into Tervagaunte: And from them La Fontaine took it up, and has used it more than once in his tales. This may be added to the other proofs adduced in these volumes of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed each others romances. * See Lysons's "Environs of London," 4to., vol. i. |