Original Documents,
ILLUSTRATING THE ARTS, &c. OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERIOR OF A CHAMBER IN A CASTLE.
The following curious descriptive account of the interior of a chamber is taken from a manuscript of the fifteenth century in the Public Library at Cambridge, containing the metrical romance of Sir Degrevant. There is another copy of the same romance in the library of Lincoln cathedral, which furnishes a few variations. The rarity of such pieces gives considerable interest to this extract.
Ther was a ryal rooffe
In a chaumber of loffe,
Hyt was buskyd above
With besauntes ful bryȝth,
All off ruel bon[1],
Whyȝth[2] oger[3] and parpon[4],
Mony a dere wrothe[5] stone,
Endentyd and dyȝth.
Ther men myȝth se, ho that wolde,
Arcangeles of rede golde[6],
ffytly mad of o[7] molde,
Lowynge[8] ful lyȝth;
With the Pocalyps of Jon,
The Powles Pystoles everychon.
The paraboles of Salamon,
- ↑ This term is mentioned in Sir Thopas and the ballad of Thomas of Ercildoun as the material of a saddle; and in the Turnament of Tottenham as having ornamented the head-dress of Tibbe. Its precise meaning does not seem to be known; but it is explained by Scott to be "the round bone of the knee."
- ↑ With.
- ↑ Ogee mouldings. See Prof Willis's Architectural Nomenclature, p. 11.
- ↑ A stone through a thick wall which shews both ends. In Craven, a thin wall, the stones of which are built on the edge, is called a par-point: in Scotland, a wall in general, and in Aberdeenshire the parapet of a bridge, is called a parpane. See Jamieson, supp. in v.
- ↑ Wrought with great pains.
- ↑ This probably refers to the carved corbels.
- ↑ One.
- ↑ Shining.
