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occasions, it happened to be Cadmon's turn to keep guard at the stable during the night, and, overcome with vexation, he quitted the table and retired to his post of duty, where, laying himself down, he fell into a sound slumber. In the midst of his sleep, a stranger appeared to him, and, saluting him by his name, said, "Cædmon, sing me something." Cædmon answered, "I know nothing to sing; for my incapacity in this respect was the cause of my leaving the hall to come hither." "Nay," said the stranger, "but thou hast something to sing." "What must I sing?" said Cædmon. Sing the Creation," was the reply, and thereupon Cadmon began to sing verses "which he had never heard before," and which are said to have been as follows:

Nu we sceolan herian* heofon-ríces weard, metodes mihte,

and his mod-ge-thonc, wera wuldor fæder! swa he wundra ge-hwees, ece dryhten, oord onstealde. He ærest ge-scéop ylda bearnum heofon to hrófe, halig scyppend ! tha middan-geard mon-cynnes weard, ece dryhten, æfter teode, firum foldan,

frea ælmihtig!

66

Now we shall praise

the guardian of heaven,
the might of the creator,
and his counsel,
the glory-father of men!
how he of all wonders,
the eternal lord,
formed the beginning.
He first created

for the children of men
heaven as a roof,
the holy creator!
then the world

the guardian of mankind,
the eternal lord,
produced afterwards,
the earth for men,
the almighty master!

Cadmon then awoke; and he was not only able to repeat the lines which he had made in his sleep, but he continued them in a strain of admirable versification. In the morning, he hastened to the townreeve, or bailiff, of Whitby, who carried him before the Abbess Hilda; and there, in the presence of some of the learned men of the place, he told his story, and they were all of opinion that he had received the gift of song from heaven. They then expounded to him in his mother tongue a portion of Scripture, which he was required to repeat in verse. Cædmon went home with his task, and the next morning he produced a poem which excelled in beauty all that they were accustomed to hear. He afterwards yielded to the earnest solicitations of the Abbess Hilda, and became a monk of her house; and she ordered him to transfer into verse the whole of the sacred history. We are told that he was continually occupied in repeating to himself what he heard, and, "like a clean animal, ruminating it, he turned it into most sweet verse."'t Cædmon thus composed many poems on the Bible histories, and on miscellaneous religious subjects, and some of these have been preserved. His account of the Fall of Man is somewhat like that given in Paradise Lost, and one passage in it might almost be supposed to have been the foundation of a corresponding one in Milton's sublime epic. It is that in which Satan is described as reviving from the consternation of his overthrow. A modern translation into English follows:

[Satan's Speech.]

Boiled within him

his thought about his heart; Hot was without him

his dire punishment.

* In our specimens of the Anglo-Saxon, modern letters are substituted for those peculiar characters employed in that language to express th, dh, and w.

+ Wright.

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But around me lie

iron bonds;

presseth this cord of chain; I am powerless!

me have so hard

the clasps of hell
so firmly grasped !
Here is a vast fire
above and underneath;
never did I see

a loathlier landskip;
the flame abateth not,
hot over hell.

Me hath the clasping of these rings,
this hard polished band,
impeded in my course,
debarred me from my way.
My feet are bound,
my hands manacled ;
of these hell doors are
the ways obstructed;
so that with aught I cannot
from these limb-bonds escape.
About me lie
huge gratings
of hard iron,
forged with heat,
with which me God

hath fastened by the neck.

Thus perceive I that he knoweth my mind, and that he knew also,

the Lord of hosts,

that should us through Adam

evil befall,

about the realm of heaven,

where I had power of my hands.'*

The specimen of Cædmon above given in the original language may serve as a general one of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It will be observed that it is neither in measured feet, like Latin verse, nor rhymed, but that the sole peculiarity which distinguishes it from prose is what Mr Wright calls a very regular alliteration, so arranged, that in every couplet there should be two principal words in the line beginning with the same letter, which letter must also be the initial of the first word on which the stress of the voice falls in the second line.

A few names of inferior note-Aldhelm, abbot of

*Thorpe's edition of Cadmon, 1832.

and

Malmsbury, Ceolfrid, abbot of Wearmouth, and Felix of Croyland-bring down the list of Anglo-Saxon writers to BEDE, usually called the Venerable Bede, who may be allowed to stand at the head of the class. He seems to have spent a modest studious life, unchequered by incident of any kind, at the monastery of Wearmouth, where he died in 735. His works, consisting of Scriptural translations commentaries, religious treatises, biographies, and an ecclesiastical history of the AngloSaxons, which is the only one useful in the present age, were forty-four in number; and it is related that he dictated to his amanuensis, and completed a book, on the very day of his death. Almost all the writings of these men were in Latin, which renders it less necessary to speak particularly of them in this place. Our subsequent literary history is formed of comparatively obscure names, until it presents to us the enlightened and amiable King ALFRED (848-901),* in whom learning and authorship graced the royal state, without interfering with its proper duties. He translated the historical works of Orosius' and Bede, and some religious and moral treatises, perhaps also Esop's Fables and the Psalms of David, into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, designing thereby to extend their utility among his people. No original compositions certainly his have been preserved, excepting the reflections of his own, which he takes leave here and there to introduce into his translations. The character of this monarch, embracing so much gentleness, along with manly vigour and dignity, and displaying pure tastes, calculated to be beneficial to others as well as himself, seems as if it would have graced the most civilised age nearly as much as it did one of the rudest.

Chair of Bede.

After Alfred, the next important name is that of ALFRIC, archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1006. This learned prelate was a voluminous writer, and, like Alfred, entertained a strong wish to enlighten the people; he wrote much in his native tongue, particularly a collection of homilies, a translation of the first seven books of the Bible, and some religious treatises. He was also the author of a grammar of the Latin tongue, which has given him the sub-name of the Grammarian.' Alfric himself declares that he wrote in Anglo-Saxon, and in that avoided the use of all obscure words, in order that he might be understood by unlettered people. As he was really successful in writing simply, we select a specimen of Anglo-Saxon prose from his Paschal homily, adding an interlinear translation:

Hethen cild bith ge-fullod, ac hit ne bræt na (4) heathen child is christened, yet he altereth not his hiw with-utan, dheah dhe hit beo with-innan his shape without, though he be within awend. Hit bith ge-broht synfull dhurh Adames changed. He is brought sinful through Adam's forgægednysse to tham fant fate. Ac hit bith athwogen disobedience to the font-vessel. But he is washed

Where double dates are thus given, it will be understood that the first is the year of the birth, and the second the year of the death, of the individual mentioned.

fram eallum synnum with-innan, dheah dhe hit withfrom all sins inwardly, though he oututan his hiw ne awende. Fac swylce tha halige wardly his shape not change. Even 80 the holy fant water, dhe is ge-haten lifes wyl-spring, is ge-lic font water, which is called life's fountain, is like on hiwe odhrum wæterum, & is under dheod brosin shape (to) other waters, and is subject to cornunge; ac dhæs halgan gastes miht ruption; but the Holy Ghost's might ge-nealacth tham brosnigendlicum watere, dhurh comes (to) the corruptible water through sacerda bletsunge, & hit mæg sythan (the) priests' blessing, and it may afterwards lichaman & sawle athwean fram eallum synnum, body and soul wash from all sin, dhurh gastlice mihte. through ghostly might.

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Cynewulf, bishop of Winchester, Wulfstan, archbishop of York, and some others, bring down the list of Anglo-Saxon authors to the Conquest, giving to this portion of our literature a duration of nearly five hundred years, or about the space between Chaucer and our own day. During this time, there were many seats of learning in England, many writers, and many books; although, in the main, these have now become matter of curiosity to the antiquary only. The literature may be said to have had a kind of protracted existence till the breaking up of the language in the latter part of the twelfth century; but it was graced by no names of distinction. We are here called upon to advert to the historical production usually called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which consists of a view of early English history, written, it is believed, by a series of authors, commencing soon after the time of Alfred, and continued till the reign of Henry II. Altogether, considering the general state of Western Europe in the middle ages, the literature of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers may be regarded as a creditable feature of our national history, and as something of which we might justly be proud, if we did not allow ourselves to remain in such ignorance of it.

INTRODUCTION OF NORMAN FRENCH.

The Conquest, by which a Norman government and nobility were imposed upon Saxon England, led to a great change in the language. Norman French, one of the modifications of Latin which arose in the middle ages, was now the language of education, of the law courts, and of the upper classes generally, while Saxon shared the degradation which the people at large experienced under their conquerors. Though depressed, yet, as the speech of the great body of the people, it could not be extinguished. Having numbers on its side, it maintained its ground as the substance of the popular language, the Norman infusing only about one word for every three of the more vulgar tongue. But it was destined, in the course of the twelfth century, to undergo great grammatical changes. Its sounds were greatly altered, syllables were cut short in the pronunciation, and the terminations and inflections of words were softened down until they were entirely lost. Dr Johnson expresses his opinion, that the Normans affected the Anglo-Saxon more in this manner than by the introduction of new words. So great was the change, that the original Anglo-Saxon must have become, in the first half of the thirteenth century, more difficult to be understood than the diction of Chaucer is to us. The language which resulted was the commencement of the present English. Its origin will afterwards be traced more minutely.

THE NORMAN POETS OF ENGLAND.

The first literary productions which call for attention after the Conquest, are a class which may be considered as in a great measure foreign to the country and its language. Before the invasion of England by William, poetical literature had begun to be cultivated in France with considerable marks of spirit and taste. The language, which from its origin was named Romane (lingua Romana),* was separated into two great divisions, that of the south, which is represented popularly by the Provençal, and that of the north, which was subdivided into French and Anglo-Norman, the latter dialect being that chiefly confined to our island. The poets of the south were called in their dialect trobadores, or troubadours, and those of the north were distinguished by the same title, written in their language trouveres. In Provence, there arose a series of elegant versifiers, who employed their talents in composing romantic and complimentary poems, full of warlike and amatory sentiment, which many of them made a business of reciting before assemblages of the great. Norman poets, writing with more plainness and simplicity, were celebrated even before those of Provençe; and one, named Taillefer, was the first man to break the English ranks at the battle of Hastings. From the preference of the Norman kings of England for the poets of their own country, and the general depression of Anglo-Saxon, it results that the distinguished literary names of the first two centuries after the Conquest are those of NORMAN POETS, men who were as frequently natives of France as of England. Philippe de Thaun, author of treatises on popular science in verse; Thorold, who wrote the fine romance of Roland; Samson de Nanteuil, who translated the proverbs of Solomon into French verse; Geoffroi Gaimar, author of a chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon kings; and David, a trouveere of considerable eminence, whose works are lost, were the most noted predecessors of one of much greater celebrity, named Maistre WACE, a native of Jersey. About 1160, Wace wrote, in his native French, a narrative poem entitled Le Brut D'Angleterre (Brutus of England). The chief hero was an imaginary son of Æneas of Troy, who was represented as having founded the state of Britain many centuries before the Christian era. This was no creation of the fancy of the Norman poet. He only translated a serious history, written a few years before in Latin by a monk named GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, in which the affairs of Britain were traced with all possible gravity through a series of imaginary kings, beginning with Brutus of Troy, and ending with Cadwallader, who was said to have lived in the year 689 of the Christian era.

This history is a very remarkable work, on account of its origin, and its effects on subsequent literature. The Britons, settled in Wales, Cornwall, and Bretagne, were distinguished at this time on account of the numberless fanciful and fabulous legends which they possessed-a traditionary kind of literature resembling that which has since been found amongst the kindred people of the Scottish Highlands. For centuries past, Europe had been supplied with tale and fable from the teeming fountain of Bretagne, as it now is with music from Italy, and metaphysics from Germany. Walter Calenius, archdean of Oxford, collected some of these of a professedly his

* Any book written in this tongue was cited as the livre Romans (liber Romanus), and most frequently as simply the Romans: as a great portion of these were works of fiction, the term has since given rise to the word now in general use,

romance.

torical kind relating to England, and communicated them to Geoffrey, by whom they were put into the form of a regular historical work, and introduced for the first time to the learned world, as far as a learned world then existed. As little else than a bundle of incredible stories, some of which may be slightly founded on fact, this production is of small worth; bit supplied a ground for Wace's poem, and proved an unfailing resource for the writers of romantic narrative for the ensuing two centuries; nor even in a later age was its influence exhausted; for from it Shakspeare drew the story of Lear, and Sackville that of Ferrex and Porrex, while Drayton reproduces much of it in his Polyolbion, and it has given occasion to many allusions in the poems of Milton and others.*

Maistre Wace also composed a History of the Normans, under the title of the Roman de Rou, that is, the Romance of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, and some other works. Henry II., from admiration of his writings, bestowed upon him a canonry in the cathedral of Bayeux. Benoit, a contemporary of Wace, and author of a History of the Dukes of Normandy; and Guernes, an ecclesiastic of Pont St Maxence, in Picardy, who wrote a metrical life of Thomas à Becket, are the other two Norman poets of most eminence whose genius or whose writings can be connected with the history of English literature. These writers composed most frequently in rhymed couplets, each line containing eight syllables.† COMMENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT FORM OF ENGLISH. Of the century following the Conquest, the only other compositions that have come down to us as the production of individuals living in, or connected

*Ellis's Metrical Romances.

↑ Ellis's Specimens, i., 35-59. A short passage from Wace's description of the ceremonies and sports presumed to have taken

place at King Arthur's coronation, will give an idea of the writings of the Norman poets. It is extracted from Mr Ellis's work, with his notes:

• Quant li rois leva del mangier,
Alé sunt tuit esbanoier,1

De la cité es champs issirent;
A plusors gieux se despartirent.
Li uns alerent bohorder,2

Et les ineaux3 chevalx monstrer:
Li autre alerent escremir,
Ou pierres getier, ou saillir.
Tielx i avoit qui dars lancoent,
Et tielx i avoit qui lutoent;
Chascun del gieu s'entremetoit,
Qui entremetre se savoit.
Cil qui son compaignon vainquoit,
Et qui d'aucun gieu pris avoit,
Estoit sempres au roi mené,
Et à tous les autres monstré ;
Et li rois del sien li donoit,
Tant donc cil liez s'en aloit.
Les dames sor les murs aloent,
Por esgarder ceulx qui joient.
Qui ami avoit en la place,
Tost li tornost l'oil ou la face.
Trois jorz dura la feiste ainsi;
Quand vint au quart, au merore ii,
Li rois les bacheliers fieufas
Enors deliverez devisa,6
Lor servise a celx rendi,
Qui por terre l'orent servi :
Bois dona, et chasteleriez,
Et evesquiez, et abbaiez.

A ceulx qui d'autres terres estoient,
Qui par amor au roi venoent,
Dona coupes, dona destriers,
Dona de ses avers plus chers. &c.'

1 To amuse themselves.
Fieffa, gave fiefs.

To just. 3 Fleet (isnel). To leap He gave them livries of lands.

with, England, are works written in Latin by learned ecclesiastics, the principal of whom were John of Salisbury, Peter of Blois, Joseph of Exeter, and GEOFFREY of MONMOUTH, the last being the author

of the History of England just alluded to, which is supposed to have been written about the year 1138. About 1154, according to Dr Johnson, the Saxon began to take a form in which the beginning of the present English may plainly be discovered.' does not, as already hinted, contain many Norman words, but its grammatical structure is considerably

It

altered. There is a metrical Saxon or English translation, by one LAYAMON, a priest of Ernely, on the Severn, from the Brut d'Angleterre of Wace. Its date is not ascertained; but if it be, as surmised by some writers, a composition of the latter part of the twelfth century, we must consider it as throwing a valuable light on the history of our language at perhaps the most important period of its existence. A specimen, in which the passage already given from Wace is translated, is presented in the sequel. With reference to a larger extract given by Mr Ellis, of which the other is a portion, that gentleman remarks-'As it does not contain any word which we are under the necessity of referring to a French origin, we cannot but consider it as simple and unmixed, though very barbarous, Saxon. At the same time,' he continues, 'the orthography of this manuscript, in which we see, for the first time, the admission of the soft g, together with the Saxony, as well as some other peculiarities, seems to prove that the pronunciation of our language had already undergone a considerable change. Indeed, the whole style of this composition, which is broken into a series of short unconnected sentences, and in which the construction is as plain and artless as possible, and perfectly free from inversions, appears to indicate that little more than the substitution of a few French for the present Saxon words was now necessary to produce a resemblance to that Anglo-Norman, or English, of which we possess a few specimens, supposed to have been written in the early part of the thirteenth century. Layamon's versification is also no less remarkable than his language. Sometimes he seems anxious to imitate the rhymes, and to adopt the regular number of syllables, which he had observed in his original; at other times he disregards both, either because he did not consider the laws of metre, or the consonance of final sounds, as essential to the gratification of his readers; or because he was unable to adapt them throughout so long a work, from the want of models in his native language on which to form his style. The latter is perhaps the most probable supposition; but, at all events, it is apparent that the recurrence of his rhymes is much too frequent to be the result of chance; so that, upon the whole, it seems reasonable to infer, that Layamon's work was composed at, or very near, the period when the Saxons and Normans in this country began to unite into one nation, and to adopt a common language.'

SPECIMENS OF ANGLO-SAXON AND ENGLISH
PREVIOUS TO 1300.

We have already seen short specimens of the Anglo-Saxon prose and verse of the period prior to the Conquest. Perhaps the best means of making clear the transition of the language into its present form, is to present a continuation of these specimens, extending between the time of the Conquest and the reign of Edward I. It is not to be expected that these specimens will be of much use to the reader, on account of the ideas which they convey; but, considered merely as objects, or as pictures, they will not be without their effect in illustrating the history of our literature.

Tauresfeld.

[Extract from the Saxon Chronicle, 1154.] On this yæer wærd the King Stephen ded, and bebyried there his wif and his sune wæron bebyried æt king was ded, tha was the corl beionde sæ. That ministre hi makiden. Tha the durste nan man don other bute god for the micel eie And ne of him. Tha he to Engleland come, tha was he underfangen mid micel wortscipe; and to king bletcæd in Lundine, on the Sunnen dæi beforen mid-winter-dæi.

Literally translated thus:-'A. D. 1154. In this year wife and his son were buried, at Touresfield. That was the King Stephen dead, and buried where his minister they made. When the king was dead, then was the earl beyond sea. And not durst no man do other but good for the great awe of him. When he to England came, then was he received with great worship; and to king consecrated in London, on the Sunday before mid-winter-day (Christmas day).'

[Extract from the account of the Proceedings at Arthur's Coronation, given by Layamon, in his translation of Wace, executed about 1180.] *

Tha the king+ igeten1 hafde
And al his mon-weorede,2
Tha bugan3 out of burhge
Theines swithen balde.
Alle tha kinges,
And heore here-thringes.
Alle tha biscopes,
And alle tha clarckes,
Alle the eorles,
And alle tha beornes.
Alle tha theines,
Alle the sweines,
Feire iscrudde,5
Helde geond felde.6

Summe heo gunnen? æruen,8
Summe heo gunnen urnen,9
Summe heo gunnen lepen,
Summe heo gunnen sceoten,10
Summe heo wrestleden
And wither-gome makeden,11
Summe heo on velde
Pleowweden under scelde,12
Summe heo driven balles
Wide geond the feldes.
Moni ane kunnes gomen
Ther heo gunnen drinen.13
And wha swa mihte iwenne
Wurthscipe of his gomene,14
Hine me15 ladde mide songe
At foren than leod kinge;
And the king, for his gomene,
Gaf him geven16 gode.

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4 Their throngs of servants.

6 Held (their way) through the fields. 7 Began.

5 Fairly dressed.

9 To run.

8 To discharge arrows. 10 To shoot or throw darts.

11 Made, or played at, wither-games, Sax. (games of emulation), that is, justed.

19 Some they on field played under shield; that is, fought with swords.

13 Many a kind of game there they gan urge.' Dringen (Dutch), is to urge, press, or drive.

14 And whoso might win worship by his gaming. 15 Him they led with song before the people's king.' Me, a word synonymous with the French on.

16 Gave him givings, gifts.

Alle tha quenel

The icumen weoren there,
And alle tha lafdies,
Leoneden geond walles,
To bihalden tha duge then,
And that folc plæie.
This laste threo dages,2
Suule gomes and swule plæghs,
Tha, at than reorthe dreie
The king gon to spekene3
And agaf his gode cnihten
All heore rihten ; 4

He gef seolver, he gæf gold,

He gef hors, he gef lond,
Castles, and clothes eke;
His monnen he iquende.5

which he occasionally diversifies the thread of his story, are, in general, appropriate and dramatic, and not only prove his good sense, but exhibit no unfavourable specimens of his eloquence. In his description of the first crusade, he seems to change his usual character, and becomes not only entertaining, but even animated.'*

Of the language of Robert's Chronicle, the following is a specimen, in its original spelling:

Engelond ys a wel god lond, ich wene of eche lond best,

Y-set in the ende of the world, as al in the west.

The see goth hym al about, he stont as an yle.
Here fon heo durre the lasse doute, but hit be thorw

gyle

Of fole of the selve lond, as me hath y-seye wyle.

[Extract from a Charter of Henry III., 4. d. 1258, in From south to north he ys long eighte hondred myle. the common language of the time.]

Henry, thurg Godes fultome, King on Engleneloande, Lhoaverd on Yrloand, Duk on Norman, on Acquitain, Earl on Anjou, send I greting, to alle hise holde, ilærde and ilewede on Huntindonnschiere. Thæt witen ge wel alle, that we willen and unnen, that ure rædesinen alle other the moare del of heom, that beoth ichosen thurg us and thurg that loandes-folk on ure kineriche, habbith idon, and schullen don in the worthnes of God, and ure treowthe, for the freme of the loande, thurg the besigte of than toforen iseide rædesmen, &c.

Literal translation :-'Henry, through God's support, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, of Acquitain, Earl of Anjou, sends greeting to all his subjects, learned and unlearned, of Huntingdonshire. This know ye well all, that we will and grant, what our counsellors all, or the more part of them, that be chosen through us and through the land-folk of our kingdom, have done, and shall do, to the honour of God, and our allegiance, for the good of the land, through the determination of the beforesaid counsellors,' &c.

THE RHYMING CHRONICLERS.

Layamon may be regarded as the first of a series of writers who, about the end of the thirteenth century, began to be conspicuous in our literary history, which usually recognises them under the general appellation of the RHYMING CHRONICLERS. The first, at a considerable interval after Layamon, was a monk of Gloucester Abbey, usually called from that circumstance ROBERT OF GLOUCESTER, and who lived during the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. He wrote, in long rhymed lines (Alexandrines), a history of England from the imaginary Brutus to his own time, using chiefly as his authority the Latin history by Geoffrey of Monmouth, of which Wace and Layamon had already given Norman French and Saxon versions.* The work is described by Mr Warton as destitute of art and imagination, and giving to the fabulous history, in many parts, a less poetical air than it bears in Geoffrey's prose. The language is full of Saxon peculiarities, which might partly be the result of his living in so remote a province as Gloucestershire. Another critic acknowledges that, though cold and prosaic, Robert is not deficient in the valuable talent of arresting the attention. The orations with 1. All the queens who were come to the festival, and all the ladies, leaned over the walls to behold the nobles there, and that folk play."

2 This lasted three days, such games and such plays.

8 Then, on the fourth day, the king went to council?

♦ And gave his good knights all their rights or rewards. 5 He satisfied.

* Robert's Chronicle, from a particular allusion, is supposed to have been written, at least in part, after 1297.

This is, of course, nearly unintelligible to all except antiquarian readers, and it is therefore judged proper, in other specimens, to adopt, as far as possible, a modern orthography.

[The Muster for the First Crusade.]

A good pope was thilk time at Rome, that hecht1 Urban,

That preached of the creyserie, and creysed mony man. Therefore he send preachers thorough all Christendom, And himself a-this-side the mounts and to France

come;

And preached so fast, and with so great wisdom,
That about in each lond the cross fast me nome.3
In the year of grace a thousand and sixteen,
This great creyserie began, that long was i-seen.
Of so much folk nyme4 the cross, ne to the holy land go,
Me ne see no time before, ne suth nathemo.5
For self women ne beleved,6 that they ne wend thither
fast,

Ne young folk [that] feeble were, the while the voyage y-last.

So that Robert Curthose thitherward his heart cast, And, among other good knights, ne thought not be the last.

He wends here to Englond for the creyserie,
And laid William his brother to wed? Normandy,
And borrowed of him thereon an hundred thousand
mark,

To wend with to the holy lond, and that was somedeal stark. *

*

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There wend the Duke Geoffrey, and the Earl Baldwin there,

And the other Baldwin also, that noble men were,
And kings syth all three of the holy lond.
The Earl Stephen de Blois wend eke, that great power
had on hond,

Beaumond,

And Robert's sister Curthose espoused had to wive.
There wend yet other knights, the best that were alive;
As the Earl of St Giles, the good Raymond,
And Niel the king's brother of France, and the Earl
And Tancred his nephew, and the bishop also
Of Podys, and Sir Hugh the great earl thereto;
And folk also without tale,9 of all this west end
Of Englond and of France, thitherward gan wend,
Of Normandy, of Denmark, of Norway, of Britain,
Of Wales and of Ireland, of Gascony and of Spain,
Of Provence and of Saxony, and of Alemain,
Of Scotlond and of Greece, of Rome and Aquitain.

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