Anoder broder in Almayne, Emperour that Sarysinys wrought ageyn. He loved bothe God [and] man: Of whom I will speke awhyle. And on a nyght of seynt John The baptist, the kyng to cherche wold gon, For to heren his evensong; Him thought he dwelled there to long, His thought was more in worldly honour In Magnificat1 he herd a vers, In langage of his owne tunge, In Lateyn he ne westm that they songe; Deposuit potentes de sede the hymn so called. m ne wist, knew not. n eye. Et exaltavit humiles,, That was the verse wethought lees : "Sir, soche is Goddis myght, That he may make hie lowe His will in twenkelynge of a nye"." Thenne was the toder kyng out of mynde". Was Goddis aungell his pryde to felle. The aungell in halle joy made, And derke nyght felle him uppone. "A king like him went out of the ["And in his thought a sleep him tok," chapel, and all the company with him; MS. Vernon.] stall, or seat. while the real king Robert was forgotten and left behind.' Ther was none that spake ayen. But the sexteyn of the cherche att last Thou art here felonye to werche To robbe God and holy churche," &c. Att his paleys there he stode, And called the porter: "False gadlyng", Anon the yates to on doo, The porter [seide] "Who clepeth $ soo?" "Thou shalt wete ar we gone; Thy lord I am thou shalt wele knowe: Thou shalt wete I am kyng," &c. When admitted, he is brought into the hall; where the angel, who had assumed his place, makes him the fool of the hall, and cloathes him in a fool's coat. He is then sent out to lie with the dogs; in which situation he envies the condition of those dogs, which in great multitudes were permitted to remain in the royal hall. At length the emperor Valemounde sends letters to his brother king Robert, inviting him to visit, with himself, their brother the pope at Rome. The angel, who personates king Robert, welcomes the messengers, and cloathes them in the richest apparel, such as could not be made in the world. q ¶ renegado, traitor. г at the call [in haste]. ⚫ calls. The aungell welcomed the messageris, In Cristyndome was none soo fyn; The messangeres wentt with the kyng', With foxis taylys hongyng al abowght, [Al men on him gan pyke, And maden joye of his comyng, &c. Afterwards they return in the same pomp to Sicily, where the angel, after so long and ignominious a penance, restores king Robert to his royalty. Sicily was conquered by the French in the eleventh century", and this tale might have been originally got or written "There is an old French Romance, ROBERT LE DIABLE, often quoted by Carpentier in his Supplement to Du Cange. And a French Morality, without date or name of the author, in manuscript, Comment il fut enjoint a ROBERT le diable, fils du duc de Normandie, pour ses mesfaites, de faire le fol sang parler, et depuis N. S. ut merci du lui. Beauchamps, Rech. Theat. Fr. p. 109. This is probably the same Robert. [The French prose romance of RoBERT LE DIABLE, printed in 1496, is extant in the little collection, of two volumes, called BIBLIOTHEQUE BLEUE. It has been translated into other languages: among the rest into English. The English version was printed by Wynkyn de Worde. The title of one of the chapters is, How God sent an aungell to the hermyte to shewe him the penaunce that he sholde gyve to Robert for his synnes. -"Yf that_Robert wyll be shryven of his synnes, he must kepe and counterfeite the wayes of a fole and be as he were dombe, &c." It ends thus, Thus endeth the lyfe of Robert the devyll That was the servaunte of our lorde. And of his condycyons that was full evyll Worde. The volume has this colophon. "Here endeth the lyfe of the moost ferefullest and unmercyfullest and myschevous Robert the devill which was afterwards called the servaunt of our Lorde Jhesu Cryste. Emprinted in Fletestrete in [at] the sygne of the sonne by Wynkyn de Worde. There is an old English MORALITY on this tale, under the very corrupt title of ROBERT CICYLL, which was represented at the High-Cross in Chester, in 1529. There is a manuscript copy of the poem, on vellum, in Trinity College library at Oxford, MSS. Num. LVII. fol.-ADDITIONS.] [Robert of Cicyle and Robert the Devil, though not identical, are clearly members of the same family, and this poetic embodiment of their lives is evidently the offspring of that tortuous opinion so prevalent in the middle ages, and which time has mellowed into a vulgar adage, that "the greater the sinner the greater the saint.' The subject of the latter poem was doubtlessly Robert the first duke of Normandy, who became an early object of legendary scandal; and the transition to the same line of potentates in Sicily was an easy effort when thus supported. The romantic legend of "Sir Gowther" recently pubPopular Poetry," is only a different verlished in the "Select Pieces of Early sion of Robert the Devil with a change of scene, names, &c. The Bibliotheque Bleue is a voluminous collection, of which Warton appears to have seen only two volumes.-EDIT.] |