תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Anoder broder in Almayne,

Emperour that Sarysinys wrought ageyn.
The kyng was called kyng Roberd,
Never man wyst him aferd,
He was kyng of mikell honour
He was cleped a conquerour:
In noo land was his pere,
Kyng ne duke, fer ne nere:
For he was of chyvallry flour,
His broder was made emperour:
His oder broder Goddis vyker,
Pope of Rome, as I seyde ere;
He was cleped pope Urban,

He loved bothe God [and] man:
The emperour was cleped sir Valamond,
A stronger werrour was none found,
After his broder of Cecyle,

Of whom I will speke awhyle.
That kyng thought he had no pere
In all the world, ferre ne nere,
And in his thought he had pryde,
For he hadde no pere in never a syde.

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
Thanne in Jesu our Saviour:

In Magnificat1 he herd a vers,
He made a clerke it to rehers,

In langage of his owne tunge,

In Lateyn he ne westm that they songe;
The verse was this I telle the,

Deposuit potentes de sede

the hymn so called.

m

ne wist, knew not.

n

eye.

Et exaltavit humiles,,

That was the verse wethought lees :
The clerke seyde anon ryght,

"Sir, soche is Goddis myght,

That he may make hie lowe
And low hie in a lytyll throwe;
God may do, without lye,

His will in twenkelynge of a nye"."
The kyng seyde with thought unstabill
"Ye rede and syng false in fable:
What man hath that power
To bryng me in soche daunger?
My name is flour of chevalrye,
Myn enemyes I may distroye:
Noman leveth now in londe
That me may now with stonde.
Thenne is this a song of nought." de
This is errour thenne he thought, i
And in his slepe a thought him toke*,
In his pulpitte as seyth the booke.
Whanne even song was all idone,
A kyng lyke him home ganne gone
All men gonne with him wende,

Thenne was the toder kyng out of mynde".
The newe kyng, as I the telle,

Was Goddis aungell his pryde to felle.

The aungell in halle joy made,
And all his men of him were glade.
The kyng waked that was in cherche,
His men he thougth woo to werche;
For he was left there alone,

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.]

[ocr errors]

stall, or seat.

while the real king Robert was forgotten and left behind.'

[blocks in formation]

Ther was none that spake ayen.

But the sexteyn of the cherche att last
Swythly to hym he ganne goo fast,
And seyd "What doost thou here,
Fals thefe, and theves fere?

Thou art here felonye to werche

To robbe God and holy churche," &c.
The kyng ranne ought thanne faste;
As a man that were wode,

Att his paleys there he stode,

And called the porter: "False gadlyng",
Open the yates in hyeng'."

Anon the yates to on doo,

The porter [seide] "Who clepeth $ soo?"
He answerd ryght anon,

"Thou shalt wete ar we gone;

Thy lord I am thou shalt wele knowe:
In pryson thou shallt lye full lowe,
[And ben an-hanged and to-drawe
As a traytour bi the lawe,]

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.

[ocr errors]

The aungell welcomed the messageris,
And gaf hem clothyng ryche of pryse,
Forred it was all with ermyn,

In Cristyndome was none soo fyn;
And all was congetted with perles ryche,
Never man sawe none hem leche:
Soche clothyng and it were to dyght,
All Cristendome hem make ne myght,
Where soche clothyng were to selle,
Ne who them made kanne noman tell.
And all they were of o clothyng
Soche before mad never kyng;

The messangeres wentt with the kyng',
To grete Rome without lettyng;
The fole Robert with him went,
Clothed in a folis garnement,

With foxis taylys hongyng al abowght,
Men myght him knowe in ye rought, &c.
The aungell was clothed all in white,
There was never fonde soche a wyghte:
All was cowched in perles ryche,
Saw never man anoder him liche.
All was whyte bothe tyre and stede,
The place was fayr ther they yede ";
So fayre a stede as he on rode
Was never man that ever bystrode.
And so was all his aparell
All men there of hadde mervayle.
Hys men were all rychely dyght
Here" reches can telle no wyght,
Of clothis, gyrdelis, and oder thyngis,
Every squyer men thought knyghtis*;
All they redyn in ryche araye,
But kyng Robert as I you saye,

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

[Al men on him gan pyke,
For he rod al other unlyke.
An ape rod of his clothing
In tokne that he was underling.]
The pope and the emperour also,
And oder lordis many mo,
Welcomed the aungell as for kyng

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
Emprinted in London by Wynkyn de

Worde.

The volume has this colophon. "Here endeth the lyfe of the moost ferefullest and unmercyfullest and myschevous

[ocr errors]

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.]

« הקודםהמשך »