Gredy is þe godles.
When þe coppe is follest, þenne ber hire feyrest
Under boske (bush) shal men weder abide.
When þe bale is hest, þenne is þe bote nest.
highest
remedy nighest
Brend child fur dredeþ.
Fer from eʓe, fer from herte.
Of unboht hude men kerveþ brod þong.
hide
Dere is boht þe hony þat is licked of þe þorne.
Ofte raþ reweþ.
haste
Ever out comeþ evel sponne web.
Hope of long lyf gyleþ mony god wyf.
The well-known phrase ‘all and some’ is first found in this Manuscript. The old sum is here equivalent to one.
Meanwhile, beyond the Humber, the French Romance of Sir Tristrem was being translated. The proportion of obsolete English words is rather greater than in the Havelok, and the former poem may therefore be dated about 1270. We unluckily have it only in a Southern transcript made sixty years later. The rimes give some clue to the true old readings; and when we see such a phrase as ich a side, we may be sure that the old Northern bard wrote ilka side. We find such new forms as fer and wide, and furthermore.[1]
- ↑ P. 169 of Scott's edition, in the year 1811. I give a stanza or
two from p. 149.
Strokes of michel might,
Thai delten hem bituene;
That thurch hir brinies bright,
Her brother blode was sene;
