SALOP.
(About A.D. 1340.)
william and the werwolf.
Hit tidde after on a tune, as tellus oure bokes,
As þis bold barn his bestes blyþeliche keped,
Þe riche emperour of Rome rod out for to hunte.
In þat faire forest feiþely for to telle;
Wiþ alle his menskful meyné, þat moche was & nobul;
Þan fel it hap, þat þei founde ful sone a grete bor,
& huntyng wiþ hound & horn harde alle sewede;
Þe emperour entred in a wey evene to attele,
To have bruttenet þat bore, & þe abaie seþþen,
But missely marked he is way & so manly he rides,
Þat alle his wies were went, ne wist he never whider;
So ferforth fram his men, feþly for to telle,
Þat of horn ne of hound ne miʓt he here sowne,
& boute eny living lud lefte was he one.[1]
HEREFORDSHIRE.
(About A.D. 1300.)
Þilke that nulleþ aʓeym hem stonde
Ichulle he habben hem in honde.
. . . . . .
He is papejai in pyn that beteth me my bale,
To trewe tortle in a tour, y telle the mi tale.
He is thrustle thryven in thro that singeth in sale,
The wilde laveroc ant wolc ant the wodewale.
He is faucoun in friht dernest in dale.
Ant with everuch a gome gladest in gale,
From Weye he is wisist into Wyrhale,
Hire nome is in a note of the nyhtegale.
In a note is hire nome, nempneth hit non.
Whose ryht redeth roune to Johon.[2]
- ↑ Morris, Specimens of Early English, p. 243.
- ↑ Percy Society, Vol. IV. 26. See the Preface to this volume, where the writer of this poem is proved to be a Herefordshire man. He here mentions the Wye. He in this piece stands for he (illa). The two detached lines at the beginning come from the version of the Harrowing of Hell, in the same manuscript.
