The Lay of Havelok the Dane

The Lay of Havelok the Dane

1. The English version of the Lay of Havelok, now here reprinted, is one of the few poems that have happily been recovered, after having long been given up as lost. Tyrwhitt, in his Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer, has a footnote (No. 51) deploring the loss of the Rime concerning Gryme the Fisher, the founder of Grymesby, Hanelok [read Havelok] the Dane, and his wife Goldborough; and Ritson, in his Dissertation on Romance and Minstrelsy(vol.i. p.lxxxviii. of his Metrical Romances)makes remarks to the same effect. It was at length, however, discovered by accident in a manuscript belonging to the Bodleian library, which had been described in the old Catalogue merely as Vit Sanctorum, a large portion of it being occupied by metrical legends of the Saints. In 1828, it was edited for the Roxburghe Club by Sir F.Madden, the title-page of the edition being as follows: The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane, accompanied by the French Text: with an introduction, notes, and a glossary, by Frederick Madden, Esq., F.A.S. F.R.S.L., Sub-Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum. Printed for the Roxburghe Club, London. W.Nicol, Shakspeare Press, MDCCCXXVIII. This volume contains a very complete Introduction, pp.i-lvi; the English version of Havelok, pp.1-104; the French text of the Romance of Havelok, from a MS. in the Heralds College, pp.105-146; the French Romance of Havelok, as abridged and altered by Geffrei Gaimar, pp.147-180; notes to the English text, pp.181-207; notes to the French ii text, pp. 208-210; and a glossary, &c., pp. 211-263. But there are sometimes bound up with it two pamphlets, viz. Remarks on the Glossary to Havelok, by S.W. Singer, and an Examination of the Remarks, &c., by the Editor of Havelok. In explanation of this, it may suffice to say, that the former contains some criticisms by Mr Singer (executed in a manner suggestive of an officious wish to display superior critical acumen), of which a few are correct, but others are ludicrously false; whilst the latter is a vindication of the general correctness of the explanations given, and contains, incidentally, some valuable contributions to our general etymological knowledge, and various remarks which have proved of service in rendering the glossary in the present edition more exactly accurate.1 2. Owing to the scarcity of copies of this former edition, the committee of the Early English Text Society, having first obtained the approval of Sir Frederic Madden, resolved upon issuing a reprint of it; and Sir Frederic having expressed a wish that the duty of seeing it through the press should be entrusted to myself, I gladly undertook that responsibility. He has kindly looked over the revises of the whole work,2 but as it has undergone several modifications, it will be the best plan to state in detail what these are. 3. With respect to the text, the greatest care has been taken to render it, as nearly as can be represented in print, an exact copy of the MS. The text of the former edition is exceedingly correct, and the alterations here made are few and of slight importance. Sir F.Madden furnished me with some, the results of a re-comparison, made by himself, of his printed copy with the original; besides this, I have myself carefully read the proof sheets with the MS. twice, and it may therefore be assumed that the complete correctness of the text is established. It seems to me that this is altogether the most important part of the work iii of a Text Society, in order that the student may never be perplexed by the appearance of words having no real existence. For a like reason the letters and (the latter of which I have represented by an italic w) have now been inserted wherever they occur, and the expansions of abbreviations are now denoted by italics. For further remarks upon the text, see the description of the MS. below, 26. Sidenotes and headlines have been added, but the numbering of the lines has not been altered. The French text of the romance, the title of which is Le Lai de Aveloc, and the abridgment of the story by Geffrei Gaimar, have not been here reprinted; the fact being, that the French and English versions differ very widely, and that the passages of the French which really correspond to the English are few and short. All of these will be found in the Notes, in their proper places, and it was also deemed the less necessary to print the French text, because it is tolerably accessible; for it may be found either in vol.i. of Monumenta Historica Britannica, ed. Petrie, 1848, in the reprint by M.Michel (1833) entitled Le Lai dHavelok, or in the edition by Mr T. Wright for the Caxton Society, 1850. An abstract of it is given at p.xxiii. The Notes are abridged from Sir F. Maddens, with but a very few additions by myself, which are distinguished by being placed within square brackets. The Glossarial Index is, for the most part, reprinted from Sir F. Maddens Glossary, but contains a large number of slight alterations, re-arrangements, and additions. The references have nearly all been verified,3 and the few words formerly left unexplained are now either wholly or partially solved. I have now only to add that a large portion of the remainder of this preface, especially that which concerns the historical and traditional evidences of the story (4 to 18), is abridged or copied from Sir F. Maddens long Introduction, which fairly exhausts the subject.4 All extracts included between marks of quotation are taken from it without alteration. But I must be considered responsible for the iv rearrangement of the materials, and I have added a few remarks from other sources. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 32049
Author: Madden, Frederic
Release Date: Apr 19, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Madden, Frederic, 1801-1873 , Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William), 1835-1912