The bold numbers refer to the appropriate line in the French text where the presence of the note is indicated by an asterisk.
3. De verdure, et. The first example of lyric caesura, also in ll. 105, 181, 249 and so forth, and less common here than epic caesura. The final e of verdure is not elided into the following initial vowel, as it would normally be, and counts as a syllable.
8. Joyeux et gay. In MidF it was common to use pairs of words meaning the same, or almost the same. See also infra l. 10, dueil et esmay; l. 38, les despiz et deulx; l. 43, a repoz në a paix. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 1, p. 40, l. 1, note. In the prose section and epistles Creton occasionally launches into triplets. Infra, p. 195, l. 11; p. 201, ll. 8–9; p. 307, ll. 7–8.
13. je vous pri. 1st person present indicative of -er verbs are more common with an analogical e than without, e.g. ll. 719, 1141, prie; ll. 912, 1346, crie; l. 3658, desire. But cf. also ll. 313, 611, affi; l. 712, pri; ll. 1657, 2089, lo.
24, 26. certains … plains. The OF form of the masculine singular noun and adjective, with -s, occurs alongside the ModF form, e.g. l. 346, grans homs; l. 1055, li sires de Persi; l. 1071 li homs.
38, 39. These are the first examples of epic caesura: at the break in the line the final unstressed e of salee and Ymbernie is not counted, even preceding a consonant. See also ll. 46, 78, 102, and following. Epic is more common than lyric caesura in the Prinse et mort.
41. Grant quantité. The ModF form grande occurs only twice, ll. 3246, 3359. The usual form of the feminine adjective is grant. On the other hand, the usual form of the adverb is ModF grandement, e.g. ll. 427, 1579, 3373. OF granment is only found twice, ll. 151, 245.
63. guinder = ‘to hoist up’. Creton must have written guinder – AD's reading – not wuidier = ‘to unload’; the horses were being loaded on to ships for passage to Ireland.
70–71. tour / … tour. The first tour (noun masculine) = ‘skill’, the second (noun feminine) = ‘tower’, an acceptable rhyme in MidF. Less acceptable was to have a word rhyming with itself, e.g. ll. 81, 83, gent / … gent. Some other examples are at ll. 164–165; 832, 835; 1377–1378.
73–75. gens vi laide et orde, / L'un desciré … / L'un ot un trou. Creton treats cavalierly the collective noun gent (noun feminine singular) and gens (noun masculine plural), both meaning ‘people’, ‘army’, or ‘retinue’. Gent is feminine, e.g. ll. 222, 573, except for l. 1031, gent desrouté. Adjectives preceding gens are feminine, ll. 473, 949; following are masculine, ll. 721, 847. However, at p. 323, l. 17, and p. 325, l. 2 the past participles agree with gens feminine; at p. 325, ll. 5, 7, the past participle agrees with gens feminine, then masculine in the same sentence. See also ll. 737–740, ceste gent s'esmaie / De peur qu'ilz ont … / Il me lairont; ce ne sont que gens laie / Et non saichans. The question of number is equally confused; l. 2139, gens has a singular verb, and in ll. 737–738, and 2544–2547, gent first has a singular verb then a plural one. Creton is driven by demands of rhyme and especially metre.
Ot … avoit. In MidF the past historic tense is frequently used where ModF would use the imperfect, infra ll. 801, 2693. A mixture of the two is not uncommon, as here and at ll. 271–275; p. 187, l. 20, and ll. 2693–2694.
107–108. son … / avec. See the variant readings in these lines. Words and letters in H with an underlining have been written over an erasure. It is certain that in l. 107, H originally had LB's reading le, and in l. 108, LB's et.
117–119. hardi / … apers … / … esbahi. Creton is inconsistent in the form of the masculine plural adjective, as he is in the singular, supra ll. 24–26; hardi and esbahi, rhyming with lui and vy, are the OF forms; apers is the ModF form. Further examples are ll. 206, 685, 1301, and 2125.
151. granment. For the OF form of grandement, supra, l. 41, endnote (hereafter ‘note’).
155. For desir meaning ‘regret’ see E. Huguet, Dictionnaire de la langue française du XVIe siècle, 7 vols (Paris, 1925–1967), s.v. ‘desir’.
175. homs = homme; a relic of OF nominative case, singular, but the s is analogical. Homs < homo, infra, ll. 346, 348, 2027.
177. tant sont boiz pereilleux. All MSS have les boiz, which gives one syllable too many. Creton omits the definite article, infra, l. 202, Que cerf ne fait; also l. 2699, Ly metoient croix sur la teste.
190. esragoient. g before a/o is sometimes used to represent a soft g. Other examples are l. 389, desloga; l. 1214, changable; l. 3239, manga.
213. Col = ModF cou. Nouns which owe their ModF forms to a back-formation from their plural, appear here in their OF form. Some other examples are, l. 344, ruissel; l. 982, mantel; l. 1834, vaissel; l. 2071, morsel.
222. desoremaiz counts as only three syllables, also at ll. 1498, 1634, 1842. It counted as four at l. 143. Interconsonantal e is weak by MidF but this is often not reflected in the spelling, e.g. l. 483, aideront; l. 591, parlera; l. 921, souverain; ll. 2042, 2181, serement; ll. 3263, 3495, derrenier, are all of two syllables. Salsebery, ll. 546, 1182 is of three syllables; l. 2156 of two syllables only. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 19.
243. nulle riens. There are some other examples of OF feminine nouns with a flexional s in the singular, infra l. 1538, saisons; l. 2323, raisons; l. 3620, voulentes; p. 185, l. 17, cités.
254–255. H has a minor correction in both of these lines; l. 254 originally read Maquemoire, the i has been erased but is just visible. In l. 255 the z of painez has been squeezed in later. Z is often used for s, a final ez does not necessarily indicate that the e is stressed, e.g. l. 346, a merveillez; l. 405, nous y fusmez; l. 729, maintez foiz.
281. H's original reading lacks one syllable, si has been added from AD's reading. The same emendation has been made at l. 419.
290. Ses amis. Ses is the first of only two examples of the OF masculine singular possessive adjective, infra l. 3064, ses corps. There is one example of the OF masculine plural possessive adjective, l. 709, my compaignon.
294. H's line as it stands has one syllable too many. ABCD's soit, singular, has been preferred to soient, plural; only one seigneur – the earl of Gloucester – went to parley with McMurrough. In the preceding line, H originally read moins; an a has been written over the o.
302. qu'i = ce qu'il, l in pre-consonantal position – qu'i seroit – was silent by now, so that qui and qu'il became homophonous and were often confused. Cf. infra ll. 373, 382, 1211, qu'i = qu'il; l. 794, quil = qui; l. 2757, qu'i = qu'ilz.
309. Present le roi = (literally) ‘the king being present’, a construction based on the Latin ablative absolute. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 13. Other examples are l. 1911, ce fait; p. 189, ll. 17–18, la messe oïe; ll. 2662–2663, presens / Tous ceulx.
335. N'autre. H originally read Autre, as in B; the N is written over an erasure, and the a is written in the space between the initial letter and the rest of the line.
339–340. Sa semblance … / Veez pourtraite. Around 1400 semblance = ‘portrait’. Portraire = to delineate any subject, not necessarily a likeness. See Musée du Louvre, Paris 1400: Les Arts sous Charles VI, ed. E. Taburet-Delahaye (Paris, 2004), p. 28.
340. Vëez counts as two syllables here, only one at l. 1133.
343. As they stand, HABCD lack one syllable. L's reading – et deulx deux – has been preferred.
349–350. Lui et le conte parlerent … / En racontant. In MidF the present participle, racontant, does not always refer to the subject of the main clause, Lui et le conte. Here it refers only to le conte: Gloucester is enumerating McMurrough's crimes against Richard. Infra, ll. 2117–2118, 2165; p. 189, l. 4; l. 3573.
363. moult lui estoit tart = ‘he was very impatient’. Di Stefano, Dictionnaire des locutions, s.v. ‘tard’: il m'est tart que: indique surtout l'impatience de, l'empressement à.
373. Et qu'i cuidra avoir bon, si l'envie. Ibid. s.v. ‘bon’: avoir de bon sur qqn = l'emporter = ‘to get the upper hand of’, and avoir du bon = avoir le dessus = ‘to have the upper hand’.
390. une meure = ‘a blackberry’, something of little value. OED, s.v. ‘fig, 4. a.’, ‘As a type of anything small, valueless, or contemptible’.
406. Aises du corps comme poisson en Saine = ‘as happy as fish in water’. See Di Stefano, Dictionnaire des locutions, s.v. ‘poisson’.
419. HBC's hypometric line has been amended following AD. Cf. supra, l. 281, note. D was originally short of one syllable also, si having been added later. At ll. 1094 and 2673, A has a regular line and D's correction makes it the same. L has a regular line, but its reading is further from that of the other MSS.
432. se m'ait Dieux (also l. 999). The OF 3rd person present subjunctive of -er verbs, i.e. the form without final e, survives in a few stereotyped expressions. Other examples are ll. 1515, 1674 doint (< donner); ll. 792, 1444, gart (< garder). See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 13, p. 95, l. 87 and note.
443. rebous was originally written rebours, the scribe later crossing out the r to make a better rhyme for the eye with nous: tous: doulx. These rhymes – also ll. 1384–1387, m'ame: larme: ferme: diffame – illustrate the weakness of a pre-consonantal r at this time.
463. Quant au roy pleut, qui. Although que was commonly used as a subject form in MidF – see D's reading at l. 239 and B's at l. 326 – the single example in H, unsupported by the other MSS has been amended.
483. lui aideront. Aideront counts as two syllables, supra, l. 222, note. Aidier can still be intransitive (as in OF) as used here, also l. 489; p. 311, ll. 10, 16. The ModF transitive usage co-exists, supra l. 1550, p. 311, l. 26.
487. envoiee. Considering that donnee agrees with the preceding direct object – que, l. 486, whose antecedent is la bulle sëellee, l. 485 – LB's reading has been preferred to HACD's.
493. Lors veïssiez. An OF figure of speech that was still being used right up into the fifteenth century. See N. Andrieux-Reix, ‘Lors veïssiez, histoire d'une marque de diction’, Linx, 32 (1995), pp. 133–145. Creton is referring beyond the text to the action he is describing; he is inviting the listener or reader to step into the scene and witness it for himself.
520. Biau for beau. The first of a sprinkling of Northern forms, probably scribal in origin. Infra ll. 1765–1767, mangonniaulx: monchiaulx: nouviaulx; and ll. 3701–3702, chastiaulx: biaulx. See also le for la, p. 193, l. 31 and note, je prendray la mort en pasience, comme tu le prins; and forms in ch, infra ll. 2555, 2617, commencha; l. 3043, aperchevoir; l. 3207, chieulx. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1320 Northern Region; Phonology: §§ i, viii, pp. 486–488. These spellings are not in the other MSS, except for C, which only has them where H does. This suggests that they were in the exemplars which H and C copied; the other MSS ‘corrected’ them out. Infra ll. 1142, 1977, no for nostre, is a Northern form, ibid. Morphology, § xxv (b), p. 490, but this comes from Creton, as it affects the syllable count.
543. All MSS have one syllable too many. The removal of the conjunction et is a suggested correction. S'est li fons = (aus)si est li fons.
Li fons. There are four other examples of the OF masculine nominative singular definite article, ll. 850, 1055, 1071, and 2027 In the last two cases li homs avoids elision, thus giving the correct number of syllables.
572–573. emprinse / … prinse. The rhymes at ll. 574–575, guise / … mise show that the n is not sounded. The rhymes at ll. 1576–1579 show this also. This pronunciation is not peculiar to Creton. In the mid 14th-century Les Voeux du héron written in monorhymed laisses, prins(s), ll. 28, 52, 71, 121, rhymes with païs, avis, paradis and other rhymes in -i in the laisse, ll. 27–144; also ll. 205–220. See Vows of the Heron, ed. Grigsby and Lacy.
591. parlera counts as two syllables. Infra l. 2001, feray, counts only as one syllable, but ll. 578, 590 and elsewhere counts as two. See above l. 222 and note.
626. merveilles. The form with s is well attested. Infra, ll. 951, 1425, 2640. See also Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘merveille’, and Tobler and Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ‘merveille’.
638. qui ne les haioit mie. An example of litotes. See OED, s.v. litotes. Ironical understatement … in which an affirmation is expressed [King Richard loved the Welsh and men of Cheshire] by the negative of the contrary [he did not hate them].
640–641. Cuidant … / Qu'arrivé feust le roy. Verbs of thinking, used affirmatively, are followed by the subjunctive, infra, l. 693, nous pensons … que le roy soit mort; or the indicative, l. 734, je croy … que vous estes traÿs; p. 191, l. 20, je croy … qu'il lui osta.
709. my compaignon. An isolated example of the OF masculine plural possessive adjective. Cf. supra, l. 290 and note.
737–740. ceste gent s'esmaie / De peur qu'ilz ont … / gens laie / Et non saichans. Supra, ll. 73–75, note. Also, l. 739, il me lairont. There are a few instances of OF il masculine plural pronoun, infra, l. 1571; p. 201, l. 8; l. 3018, but ilz is the usual form.
764. All MSS lack one syllable. There is enjambement between this line and the next. Creton may have regarded ll. 764–765 as one 14-syllable line, in which case the final, unstressed, e of deffendre would count as a syllable.
794. quil is a spelling variant of qui. Cf. supra, l. 302, note.
864. voise. OF 3rd person present subjunctive < aler.
891. quant il vit sa queue luire (literally) = ‘when he saw his tail shining’. There was a bizarre belief in France in the Middle Ages that Englishmen had tails: see P. Rickard, ‘Anglois coué and l'Anglois qui couve’, French Studies, 7 (1953), pp. 48–55; but this seems not to be pertinent here. See DMF, s.v. ‘luire’, I.C.: Voir sa queue luire = voir le moment favorable. I thank Professor Roccati for this reference.
896–899. haultaine: plaine: quinzaine: aime. The first three rhymes are good, there is assonance only with the fourth. This occurs occasionally elsewhere, e.g. ll. 1240–1243, 2144–2147.
918. qu'on = ce qu'on.
921. souverain counts as two syllables, supra, l. 222, note.
950. arme = âme, ‘soul’. In negative construction = ‘no one’. Cf. infra, l. 1550. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 372.
967. fouyus. Creton appears to have coined this past participle < fouir to fit the rhyme.
993. de la se departirent. It is obvious from what follows that the verb does not refer only to Rutland and Percy, infra, l. 1277, note.
1047. estourdiz has no pejorative meaning here, = ‘daring’.
1084. son beau frere = ‘brother’, also at ll. 1135, 1746. The usual meaning of beau frere is ‘brother-in-law’, ll. 1463, 1466, 1526. Similarly beau pere usually means ‘father-in-law’, ll. 1356, 2241, but can mean ‘father’, l. 3633.
1085. Die (subjunctive) has been changed from dit (present indicative); the e is written over the t.
1097. The break comes after the seventh syllable. There is lyric caesura in this line, as in l. 1094.
1133. veez counts as only one syllable, as in ll. 1541, 1939.
1142. no vie. Creton uses the Northern form of the feminine singular possessive adjective, instead of nostre, evidently because it is a monosyllable. This happens once more, at l. 1977. Supra, l. 520, note.
1207. Lui estre … demené. In ModF, étant, a present participle, would be expected rather than an infinitive. But cf. infra, p. 191, l. 12, les avoir veuz; p. 303, l. 24, toy avoir oü.
1230. chascun. H originally read chaccun, an s being written over the first of the double cs.
1241. trestout. H reads tout, the initial t being a large majuscule written over an erasure. It seems likely that H originally read trestout (LC's reading), and that has been preferred, otherwise the line lacks a syllable. Something similar occurs at l. 1479.
1277. S'en alerent. The verb does not refer only to Rutland and Percy, supra, l. 993, note.
1287. venoit … / Meschief et paine. The verb is agreeing with the nearer of two related subjects. Cf. p. 191, ll. 16–18, En ceste … compaignie estoit l'arcevesque de Cantorbie, Messire Thomas de Persi et le conte de Rotelant; p. 303, ll. 4–5, ton corps et ta personne est plus convenable a Mars. The ModF construction is also found, p. 197, ll. 6–7, l'archevesque de Cantorbie et le conte de Northomberlant alerent querre le duc de Lancastre.
1304–1306. juge … / juge. The first juge = ‘judge’; the second = ‘judgment’, an acceptable rhyme in MidF. Cf. supra, ll. 70–71, note.
1312–1314. loy … / loy. The same word rhyming with itself would have been frowned upon; also ll. 1377–1378, estuet … / estuet.
1355. j'espoir. Espoir, first person present indicative < esperer, is one of a handful of relics of OF vocalic alternation. See also l. 1408, muir < morir; and l. 1947, ains < amer. See Chrestomathie, ed Rickard, no. 13, p. 95, l. 82 and note.
1384. m'ame is the first of a handful of OF elided forms of a possessive adjective before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel. Some others are l. 1404, m'amie; l. 1415, m'esperance; l. 2294, s'image; p. 311, l. 3, s'esperance. Generally the ModF forms are used, supra l. 786, son ame; l. 515, son emprise; infra, p. 305, l. 27 ton ymage. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 1, p. 41, l. 32 and note.
1389. Encore. HBC's encores, makes the line hypermetric; AD's encore has been preferred to L's encor, as that is the usual spelling here. There is a similar situation with avecque(s) at ll. 3009, 3601.
1462. d'Excestre. H's original reading was decestre, the x added superscript; also infra, l. 1502.
1466. Ilz sont … y ne sont pas. Ilz, also spelled y, is used here twice rather than the ModF elles, because it is a monosyllable. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 17, p. 112, l. 116 and note; also no. 23, p. 140, l. 100 and note.
1469. Va comptant = compta. Infra, l. 1759, ala pensant = pensa.
1469–1501. Et lors lui va comptant … / … ce que fait lui a. This very long sentence has been broken at ll. 1484 and 1496 for the sake of clarity. The principal verb va comptant governs tout ce que, l. 1470, and eight noun clauses introduced by que, ll. 1473, 1475; comment, l. 1478; que, ll. 1480, 1482, 1485, 1497, and 1499.
1475. Et. H originally seems to have read Si. The scribe had changed S majuscule into an E; the E is written in darker ink over an S, and the t is written over an erasure.
1479. tresgrant. H reads grant preceded by an erasure. The descender of the g has been looped up to the left to form a T majuscule, which is an abbreviation of tres. C's reading is tresgrant, which gives the correct number of syllables. See also supra, l. 1241, note.
1515. doint. 3rd person present subjunctive < donner; also at l. 1674. Supra, l. 432, note.
1541. veez counts as one syllable only.
1568. cependent. = cependant. There is hesitation in the MidF period between a/e befora a nasal consonant. Infra, also l. 1878, atendant = atendent; l. 1969, valissent = valissant. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 5, p. 59, l. 27; and no. 6, p. 64, ll. 104, 106, note.
1577. prins. For the pronunciation, supra, ll. 572–573, note.
1603. artillerie counts as four syllables only. Supra, l. 222, note.
1639. monne = ‘nun’. LABD have moine = ‘monk’, which makes better sense but does not rhyme.
1661. qu'avec. HB's reading, avecques, makes the line one syllable too long. AD's reading makes the syllable count correct, and also makes the construction of the sentence clearer.
1705. fu is the imperfect subjunctive, as is fut. Cf. infra, ll. 3555, 3568. The usual form is feust, supra, ll. 641, 1018, or fust, infra, l. 2417, 3065.
1745. feïstes. HB's fistes gives a line of only nine syllables. LACD's feïstes has been preferred.
1752. Ne quë en dire. H's reading, Ne qu'en dire, lacks one syllable.
1759. ala pensant = pensa. Supra, l. 1469, note.
1765–1767. mangonniaulx: monchiaulx: nouviaulx. Supra, l. 520, note.
1766. roide. OED, s.v. ‘stiff, 6.’, ‘Tight, closely packed. Now hyperbolically in colloquial use: Densely crowded (with). Also figurative’. ‘Densely crowded with’ is clearly the meaning of roide here.
1777–1778. On les devroit tenir … / Et que croniques nouviaulx en feussent faiz. The ModF hypothetical construction (conditional) is followed by the OF (imperfect subjunctive).
1784. Moy le sisisme. All MSS read Moy sixiesme. The other rhymes of the quatrain are prime, rime, lime, and at l. 3477 .xxv.me rhymes with prime; thus the form sisisme would be expected here. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 825, pp. 318–319. Also, the line is hypometric; thus Moy le sisisme is suggested as Creton's original reading.
1809. Northomberlant counts here, and at l. 2008, as three syllables. Supra, l. 222, note.
1838. esvesque … autresi. Esvesque is attested in Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘evesque’. It is attributed to the rarity of initial e + consonant other than s; see Chrestomathie, no. 53, p. 274, l. 106, note. H originally had LBC's aussi; a t and a contraction mark have been written in very dark ink over the first s. The same change has been made by the scribe at l. 2266 and editorially at l. 1870. Autresi would have been what Creton wrote to give the correct syllable count.
1878. 1878 atendant = atendent. Supra, l. 1568, note.
1911. Ce fait = (literally) ‘this having been done’; supra, l. 309, note.
1933. Lors veïssiez. Supra, l. 493, note.
1939. veez counts as one syllable, as in ll. 1133, 1541.
1947. ains < amer. Supra, l. 1355, note.
1977. no gent. Supra, l. 520, note.
2001. feray counts as only one syllable. Supra, l. 222, note.
2008. Northomberlant counts as three syllables. Supra, l. 222, note.
2028–2031. mure is the form required by the rhyme. See Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘morir’. However, supra, ll. 888–891, conduire: muyre: duire: luire; infra, ll. 2236–2239, destruire: muire: conduire: fuire.
2042. serement counts as two syllables here and at l. 2181, but three syllables at ll. 2046 and 2055. Supra, l. 222, note.
2099. Du pas garder = de garder le pas. Infra, l. 3002, Du duc Henry faire mourir = de faire mourir le duc Henry. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 39, p. 213, l. 151.
2111. qu'a. H originally read que, an a being written over the e in very dark ink.
2133. Jusqu'a. H's original reading was jusque; a has been written over the e.
2139. Des gens (two syllables) gives the correct syllable count, de la gent (three syllables) does not. Creton is using gens (plural) as if it were gent (singular), supra, ll. 73–75, note.
2144–2147. paine: enmaine: aime: souveraine. There is assonance only between aime and the other rhyme-words. Supra, ll. 896–899, 1240–1243.
2165. Ainsi parlant, nous convint aprochier. Supra, ll. 349–350, note.
2187. deshonnour is the form required by the rhyme. The same applies at infra, honnour, p. 321, l. 20, and dolour, p. 321, l. 31. Cf. supra, honnour, l. 1533; doulour, l. 870.
2249. Sceü le fait. Supra, l. 309, note.
2266. autresi. For the alteration in H, supra, l. 1838, note.
2270. Trestoute nuit = ‘overnight’. By MidF, toute la nuit and toute nuit could both refer to one night in particular or to an unspecified night. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 42, p. 227, l. 205, note.
page 187, line 15. catholique = ‘Christian’. For this interpretation, see Le Grand Robert, s.v. catholique, II, 1o.
page 193, line 31. je prendray la mort … comme tu le prins. There are another two instances of the Northern le for la, 3rd person pronoun feminine, direct object, p. 199, l. 8, and l. 2801. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 27, p. 155, l. 38 and note; no. 39, p. 210, l. 23 and note. Also supra, l. 520, note.
page 195, line 11. bons, vrais et loyaulx is a triplet. Supra, l. 8, note.
page 197, line 12. et lui dist is the reading of all MSS; the syntax is rather confused. I suggest that et is a corrupt reading.
page 199, line 17. le mes = les me, a Northern form.
page 199, line 25. Albie = Albion = ‘England’. This is found also in Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Raynaud, I, no. 26, p. 106, l. 4; II, no. 285, p. 139, l. 12.
page 201, line 8. il sont. Supra, ll. 737–740, note.
page 211, line 6. tourna. It appears that H originally read tournoya, ACD's lesson; the a has been written over the second o and an erasure follows.
page 213, lines 1–4. Ainsi partismes … d'estre en France. These lines are only in AD. The reason behind the omission is unclear.
2296–2334. The imprecatory ballade (lines 2296–2334) has three stanzas on identical rhyme-schemes plus an envoi (the envoi sends – envoyer = ‘to send’ – the ballade to its addressees). See S.V. Spilsbury, ‘The Imprecatory Ballade: A fifteenth-century poetic genre’, French Studies, 23 (1979), pp. 385–396. Creton's language is restrained compared to that of Deschamps and François Villon.
2300. The missing line in C – as given in D – has been written in the right-hand margin by a modern hand.
2331. deveroient counts as three syllables, supra, l. 222, note; the break in the line comes after the sixth syllable. This has the effect of stressing toy, the object of Creton's execration.
2358. visce. Creton has made up a verb modelled on the noun vice. The scribes were thrown into confusion by it, as witness the variant spellings.
2437. desfaire (= ‘to depose’ or ‘to kill’) is written over an erasure. LABCD read faire mourir, certainly H's original reading. H's revised reading introduces an element of uncertainty: was Richard murdered or merely deposed? H's original reading was unambiguous.
2442. dis. H's original reading was diz. An s was written over the z, making a more satisfying rhyme for the eye.
2447–2478. hors de la ville / De Londres – ce ne fu pas guille. There is no de in HLBCD, l. 2447, which makes the line short by one syllable. A's hors de la ville gives a regular line. In l. 2448, all MSS originally read ce n'est pas guille, and the line again lacks a syllable. On the analogy of l. 3250 – where the scribe of H has changed nest > ne fu – ne fu has been judged to be what Creton originally wrote.
2501. All MSS read Norvic and the line is hypometric. Norvic has been amended to Norevic, on the analogy of Panebroc, l. 2510, to make eight syllables. Similarly Werwic, l. 2937, has been amended to Werewic.
2513. In BC, l. 2515 originally followed on l. 2513. The mistake was realized and l. 2515 scored out. l. 2514 follows, then l. 2515 in its correct place.
2525. Toute jour arose from a wish to avoid confusing tot jor (= toute la journée = ‘all day long’) with toz jorz (= toujours = ‘always’), perhaps on the analogy of toute nuit. See P. Rickard, ‘Toute jour, tout le jour, et toute la journée’, Romania, 85 (1964), pp. 145–180.
2536. Filz dë Isaac. HLB's f. disant is an obviously corrupt reading.
2541. la couronne means, by extension, ‘kingdom’, also infra, l. 2563. Tobler and Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ‘couronne’, has the meaning ‘royal domain’. ‘Kingdom’ is also the meaning of royauté, infra, l. 2790, but infra, l. 2681 it means ‘crown’.
2573. Without si, all MSS lack one syllable. The correction has been made following AD's reading at ll. 281, 419. In C, ll. 2572–2573 have been omitted.
2617. Il commencha imterroger. The construction commencer + infinitive (no a) was still current in the sixteenth century; see Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘commencer’. For other forms in ch and other Northern forms, supra, l. 520, note.
2648. interrogasïon counts as six syllables, but interrogasion, l. 2658, counts as five.
2656. yert. A solitary example of the OF 3rd person imperfect < estre. Creton regularly uses estoit, supra l. 2655; infra, ll. 2664, 2670; which has two syllables.
2660. A tousjours leur sera lait vice. A cliché, repeated infra, l. 2840.
2662. presens / Tous ceulx. Supra, l. 309, note.
2673. deulx en disant ainsi. HBC's reading lacks two syllables. AD's ambedeulx has been preferred to L's humblement, which was probably a mis-hearing of ambedeulx. Infra, ll. 2692–2693, where humblement does not figure.
2681. la royauté = ‘the crown’. Supra, l. 2541, note.
2688. Ce ly mist la pusse en l'oreille = (literally) ‘this put a flea in his ear’. DMF, s.v. ‘puce’: mettre la puce en l'oreille a qqn = Inspirer des inquiétudes à quelqu'un. But Lancaster would not have been worried by the peers’ response, it must mean that the loud acclamation roused, stirred him.
2693–2694. Furent … / … estoient. For the juxtaposition of tenses, supra, l. 75 and note.
2702. Baisa. A singular verb has been used instead of the grammatically correct plural – baiserent – for the sake of metre and rhyme.
2725–2726. Le roy baisa parmi la bouche / Le connestable. ModF word order – subject, verb, object – was not yet fixed in MidF. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, pp. 27–28. In these two lines le roy is the object, le connestable the subject; it is the Constable who has the active role. This is not a common feature of Creton's language, but see p. 197, ll. 11–12, l. 2812; he uses it here for the sake of the metre in order to have eight syllables in either line.
2788. de cuer fin. H's isolated le cuer has been amended following the other MSS here, and following all six MSS at ll. 1166–1167 and 2514.
2790. royaulté = ‘kingdom’. Supra, l. 2541, note.
2810. B's reading, the only regular one, has been preferred.
2826–2827. moult tart / Leur estoit de si long sejour. Supra, l. 363, note.
2830. l'elexsïon. This word seems to have caused confusion among the scribes, whereas at l. 2647 it was copied without question.
2833. com. L's reading has been preferred to comme, otherwise the line is hypermetric; l. 3267 is a similar case.
2836. compter. H's reading was originally conter; the scribe subsequently wrote a contraction mark over the o and a p over the n.
2900. feste = ModF faîte = ‘highest point’.
2937. For all MSS, werwic > werewic, supra, l. 2501 and note, norvic > norevic.
2963–2964. oultrance / … qui a ce. This is a doubtful rhyme, also infra, ll. 3013–3014, aliance / … qui a ce; ll. 3527–3528, France / … qui a ce.
3002. Du duc Henry. Supra, l. 2099, note.
3009. HACD are hypermetric. Avecque has replaced avecques, on the analogy of ll. 3330, 3488, and 3679. The same correction has been made, infra, l. 3601.
3018. il avoient. Supra, ll. 737–740, note.
3030. Salsebery = three syllables, also at ll. 3058, 3189. Supra, l. 222, note.
3064. ses corps = son corps, singular. Supra, l. 290, note.
3083. pere = third person present subjunctive < paroir, ‘to appear’. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1060, pp. 398–399.
3197. HL's puet is either a historic present tense (see Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 26, p. 153, l. 138, note), or an orthographic variant of peust, imperfect subjunctive, supra, ll. 565, 1801. The usual form of the past historic here is pot, supra, ll. 98, 177, 409.
3250. ne fu. The scribe has changed nest into ne fu. The f is formed from the long-tailed s with a cross-stroke, the u is written over an erasure.
3263. Supra, l. 222, note
3277. Le resembloit. In MidF resembler was in course of transition from a transitive (OF) to an intransitive (ModF) verb. For ModF usage, supra ll. 3148–3149; infra, p. 327, l. 13. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 40, p. 217, l. 118, note.
3298. la rachine de l'envie. The sense requires de instead of et.
3327. All MSS are hypermetric. Messire has been altered to Sire on the analogy of ll. 3533, 3571.
3353–3354. Maistre Pierre Blanchet, Henart / … de Kanbenart. This is not the only time that Creton omits the conjunction [et] between two names. See p. 323, l. 7, Scilla, Marius.
3376. connourir. A further word not found elsewhere. The scribe of L found it unfamiliar and substituted renourrir.
3396. Ilz les respondirent. A rare example of the transitive (OF) use of respondre. See A. Tobler and E. Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 12 vols (Berlin, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, 1925–2018), s.v. ‘respondre’, and Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘respondre’.
3404. vo requeste. All MSS have vostre requeste, and the line is hypermetric. The Northern vo is substituted on the analogy of l. 1142, no vie; l. 1977, no gent. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1320, p. 1490, Morphology, §xxv (b); and Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 4, p. 57, l. 9. Another example from Deschamps is: Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Raynaud, V, no. 893, pp. 79–80, refrain: Lors dis: «Oïl, je voy vo queue».
3495. derrenier. Of two syllables only. Supra, l. 222, note.
3543. Franche. H's reading was originally France; the scribe then wrote an h over the original e and added an e. The same alteration has been made infra, l. 3689.
3555. Fut is the imperfect subjunctive, also l. 3568. Supra, l. 1705, note.
3564. Son corps. In MidF the possessive adjective did not necessarily refer to the nearest antecedent. Here, Son clearly refers to la roüne, l. 3540.
3587. Grant douleur. All MSS read grant dueil which makes the line hypometric. Douleur is suggested as what Creton originally wrote, on the analogy of ll. 3596–3597.
3620–3621. la voulentés / … fust. All MSS have les voulentés, amended to singular because of the singular verb. For OF feminine singular nouns with a flexional s, supra, l. 243, note.
3633. Son beau pere = her father. Supra, l. 1084, note.
3645. Furent geteez. A's reading alone is grammatically correct. In MidF a verb could agree with the nearer of two or more co-ordinated subjects, supra, p. 191, ll. 17–18; infra, p. 303, ll. 4–5. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 31. Here Creton has it agreeing with the further, maintes larmes (l. 3644). For the ModF usage, supra, p. 197, ll. 5–7.
page 301, line 10–page 329, line 5.
Due to the indifferent quality of B, endnotes have been written for only a selected number of the many scribal errors and amendments.
page 301, line 11. come. B reads coe [with a mark of contraction above]. This has been extended with only one m, considering infra, p. 301, l. 24, e [contraction] nemis; p. 303, l. 5, p [contraction] so [contraction] ne; p. 317, l. 8, Ro [contraction] me; and so forth. Had the scribe meant comme, he would have written co [contraction] me. Similar cases are bone renommee, p. 315, l. 21; les bons homes, p. 315, l. 13.
page 301, line 12. For catholique = ‘Christian’, supra, p. 187, l. 15, note.
page 301, line 28. tout ce qu'i = tout ce qu'il. Supra, l. 302, note.
page 303, lines 15–18. affin que governs five clauses, the verbs of which are 1. fust rompue, 2. fussent finés, 3. fust devouree, 4. [fust] folié, and 5. [fussent] sustraiz. It was quite normal for the auxiliary verb to be merely understood in 4 and 5. In 4, B's foliable is corrupt, a past participle folié is required.
page 303, line 19. telle sepulture. B's reading was telles sepultures. The s of telles has almost been erased, and there are two dots beneath the final s of sepultures.
page 303, line 24. toy avoir oÿ. Supra, l. 1207, note.
page 305, line 24. par figures [et] par diz. The et is needed to complete the sense, on the analogy of p. 309, l. 11, par escript et par figures.
page 305, line 28. pensees et ymaginacions. This is a doublet, two words meaning the same, or almost the same. Professor Strohm has been led astray by Dillon's careless transcription: the ampersand between the two nouns has been omitted. Creton, ‘Remarks on the Manner of the Death of King Richard’, ed. Dillon, p. 88; Strohm, ‘The Trouble with Richard’, pp. 96–97.
page 305, line 35. sacrefice de voeux. B's reading, de feu, is obviously corrupt. De voeux, d'oroisons et de prieres is a triplet.
page 307, line 17. ly has been added to complete the sense. Supra, l. 3469, Et ce qu'ilz ly eussent fait faire.
page 309, line 10. je yray. Creton would not have used the conditional tense – yroy – here, but the future tense. Infra, p. 309, l. 11, te porteray; p. 309, l. 22, je la suyvray … et yray.
page 311, line 3. s'esperance. Supra, l. 1384, note.
page 311, line 9. The line as it stands lacks one syllable. Substituting trescrueulx for B's crueulx gives ten syllables. Infra, p. 315, l. 37, trescrueuse.
page 311, line 10. Aidiés luy, also infra, p. 311, l. 16, luy aidier. For the intransitive use of aidier, supra, l. 483, note.
page 311, lines 18–19. Fu … / … Priant mort et quatre de ses fieulx. B reads prirent mort: the scribe mistook Creton's priant for a verb – present participle < prier – which makes no sense, and changed it to prirent – 6th person past historic < prendre – which makes hardly any more sense. But priant = ‘Priam’, king of Troy: this is the form used by Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Reynaud, VIII, no. 1457, pp. 149–150, l. 3.
Fu … mort. In MidF mourir was still used transitively = ‘to kill’, as well as ModF intransitively = ‘to die’, supra, p. 307, l. 12.
Fieulx. B's reading: filz – does not rhyme with lieux. Fieulx is found in Christine de Pizan, Oeuvres poétiques, ed. M. Roy, I, s.v. Autres Balades, no. 37, pp. 250–251, l. 30. See also Pope, From Latin to Modern French, §391 (4), p. 155
page 311, line 33–page 313, line 4. doit ou doivent … se peut estre dolu ou deult encore … peut avoir esté ou est. Creton adopts a more pedantic and legalistic style in this epistle, in order that his borrowings from Valerius Maximus do not stand out.
page 313, line 27. B originally read commandement. It has been corrected editorially to commencement: supra, p. 313, l. 19. The scribe made the same mistake, p. 315, l. 10, but corrected it himself.
page 315, line 26. la oevre. Oevre is feminine, considering commencee in the following line.
page 319, line 5. ces = ses.
page 319, line 13. rudir. Another of Creton's made-up words = ‘to become gross’.
page 319, line 18. incertables. This is an error for Hesdin's intraitables = ‘impassable’.
page 321, line 20. honnour is the form required by the rhyme. Supra, l. 1533, honnour; p. 319, l. 19, honnourable. Similarly, infra, p. 321, l. 31, dolour would have been what Creton wrote. Supra, ll. 387, 769, 870.
page 321, line 34. Venez vers luy portant raim de lorier. Creton is more likely to have repeated the same refrain as in the preceding stanzas; this is what he did in the preceding ballades. B's – venez le veoir – was probably a scribal error, the result of contamination from the preceding lines.
page 323, line 11. discorde. B's discord has been amended – the line lacks one syllable, infra, p. 325, l. 30.
page 323, line 25. sang de France. B's roy de France is an obvious scribal error.
page 323, line 28. Ot. B's first et has been changed. Creton would have had a verb here.
page 323, line 23. nulles cités, (also grant vertus, p. 325, l. 26). Supra, l. 243, note. Fut is a subjunctive.
page 325, line 24. sang de France. The missing portion of the line is supplied from the other refrains.
page 327, line 13. The three refrains are lacking one syllable; the reading in the envoi has been preferred, p. 329, l. 5.
You have
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The bold numbers refer to the appropriate line in the French text where the presence of the note is indicated by an asterisk.
3. De verdure, et. The first example of lyric caesura, also in ll. 105, 181, 249 and so forth, and less common here than epic caesura. The final e of verdure is not elided into the following initial vowel, as it would normally be, and counts as a syllable.
8. Joyeux et gay. In MidF it was common to use pairs of words meaning the same, or almost the same. See also infra l. 10, dueil et esmay; l. 38, les despiz et deulx; l. 43, a repoz në a paix. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 1, p. 40, l. 1, note. In the prose section and epistles Creton occasionally launches into triplets. Infra, p. 195, l. 11; p. 201, ll. 8–9; p. 307, ll. 7–8.
13. je vous pri. 1st person present indicative of -er verbs are more common with an analogical e than without, e.g. ll. 719, 1141, prie; ll. 912, 1346, crie; l. 3658, desire. But cf. also ll. 313, 611, affi; l. 712, pri; ll. 1657, 2089, lo.
24, 26. certains … plains. The OF form of the masculine singular noun and adjective, with -s, occurs alongside the ModF form, e.g. l. 346, grans homs; l. 1055, li sires de Persi; l. 1071 li homs.
38, 39. These are the first examples of epic caesura: at the break in the line the final unstressed e of salee and Ymbernie is not counted, even preceding a consonant. See also ll. 46, 78, 102, and following. Epic is more common than lyric caesura in the Prinse et mort.
41. Grant quantité. The ModF form grande occurs only twice, ll. 3246, 3359. The usual form of the feminine adjective is grant. On the other hand, the usual form of the adverb is ModF grandement, e.g. ll. 427, 1579, 3373. OF granment is only found twice, ll. 151, 245.
63. guinder = ‘to hoist up’. Creton must have written guinder – AD's reading – not wuidier = ‘to unload’; the horses were being loaded on to ships for passage to Ireland.
70–71. tour / … tour. The first tour (noun masculine) = ‘skill’, the second (noun feminine) = ‘tower’, an acceptable rhyme in MidF. Less acceptable was to have a word rhyming with itself, e.g. ll. 81, 83, gent / … gent. Some other examples are at ll. 164–165; 832, 835; 1377–1378.
73–75. gens vi laide et orde, / L'un desciré … / L'un ot un trou. Creton treats cavalierly the collective noun gent (noun feminine singular) and gens (noun masculine plural), both meaning ‘people’, ‘army’, or ‘retinue’. Gent is feminine, e.g. ll. 222, 573, except for l. 1031, gent desrouté. Adjectives preceding gens are feminine, ll. 473, 949; following are masculine, ll. 721, 847. However, at p. 323, l. 17, and p. 325, l. 2 the past participles agree with gens feminine; at p. 325, ll. 5, 7, the past participle agrees with gens feminine, then masculine in the same sentence. See also ll. 737–740, ceste gent s'esmaie / De peur qu'ilz ont … / Il me lairont; ce ne sont que gens laie / Et non saichans. The question of number is equally confused; l. 2139, gens has a singular verb, and in ll. 737–738, and 2544–2547, gent first has a singular verb then a plural one. Creton is driven by demands of rhyme and especially metre.
Ot … avoit. In MidF the past historic tense is frequently used where ModF would use the imperfect, infra ll. 801, 2693. A mixture of the two is not uncommon, as here and at ll. 271–275; p. 187, l. 20, and ll. 2693–2694.
107–108. son … / avec. See the variant readings in these lines. Words and letters in H with an underlining have been written over an erasure. It is certain that in l. 107, H originally had LB's reading le, and in l. 108, LB's et.
117–119. hardi / … apers … / … esbahi. Creton is inconsistent in the form of the masculine plural adjective, as he is in the singular, supra ll. 24–26; hardi and esbahi, rhyming with lui and vy, are the OF forms; apers is the ModF form. Further examples are ll. 206, 685, 1301, and 2125.
151. granment. For the OF form of grandement, supra, l. 41, endnote (hereafter ‘note’).
155. For desir meaning ‘regret’ see E. Huguet, Dictionnaire de la langue française du XVIe siècle, 7 vols (Paris, 1925–1967), s.v. ‘desir’.
175. homs = homme; a relic of OF nominative case, singular, but the s is analogical. Homs < homo, infra, ll. 346, 348, 2027.
177. tant sont boiz pereilleux. All MSS have les boiz, which gives one syllable too many. Creton omits the definite article, infra, l. 202, Que cerf ne fait; also l. 2699, Ly metoient croix sur la teste.
190. esragoient. g before a/o is sometimes used to represent a soft g. Other examples are l. 389, desloga; l. 1214, changable; l. 3239, manga.
213. Col = ModF cou. Nouns which owe their ModF forms to a back-formation from their plural, appear here in their OF form. Some other examples are, l. 344, ruissel; l. 982, mantel; l. 1834, vaissel; l. 2071, morsel.
222. desoremaiz counts as only three syllables, also at ll. 1498, 1634, 1842. It counted as four at l. 143. Interconsonantal e is weak by MidF but this is often not reflected in the spelling, e.g. l. 483, aideront; l. 591, parlera; l. 921, souverain; ll. 2042, 2181, serement; ll. 3263, 3495, derrenier, are all of two syllables. Salsebery, ll. 546, 1182 is of three syllables; l. 2156 of two syllables only. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 19.
243. nulle riens. There are some other examples of OF feminine nouns with a flexional s in the singular, infra l. 1538, saisons; l. 2323, raisons; l. 3620, voulentes; p. 185, l. 17, cités.
254–255. H has a minor correction in both of these lines; l. 254 originally read Maquemoire, the i has been erased but is just visible. In l. 255 the z of painez has been squeezed in later. Z is often used for s, a final ez does not necessarily indicate that the e is stressed, e.g. l. 346, a merveillez; l. 405, nous y fusmez; l. 729, maintez foiz.
281. H's original reading lacks one syllable, si has been added from AD's reading. The same emendation has been made at l. 419.
290. Ses amis. Ses is the first of only two examples of the OF masculine singular possessive adjective, infra l. 3064, ses corps. There is one example of the OF masculine plural possessive adjective, l. 709, my compaignon.
294. H's line as it stands has one syllable too many. ABCD's soit, singular, has been preferred to soient, plural; only one seigneur – the earl of Gloucester – went to parley with McMurrough. In the preceding line, H originally read moins; an a has been written over the o.
302. qu'i = ce qu'il, l in pre-consonantal position – qu'i seroit – was silent by now, so that qui and qu'il became homophonous and were often confused. Cf. infra ll. 373, 382, 1211, qu'i = qu'il; l. 794, quil = qui; l. 2757, qu'i = qu'ilz.
309. Present le roi = (literally) ‘the king being present’, a construction based on the Latin ablative absolute. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 13. Other examples are l. 1911, ce fait; p. 189, ll. 17–18, la messe oïe; ll. 2662–2663, presens / Tous ceulx.
335. N'autre. H originally read Autre, as in B; the N is written over an erasure, and the a is written in the space between the initial letter and the rest of the line.
339–340. Sa semblance … / Veez pourtraite. Around 1400 semblance = ‘portrait’. Portraire = to delineate any subject, not necessarily a likeness. See Musée du Louvre, Paris 1400: Les Arts sous Charles VI, ed. E. Taburet-Delahaye (Paris, 2004), p. 28.
340. Vëez counts as two syllables here, only one at l. 1133.
343. As they stand, HABCD lack one syllable. L's reading – et deulx deux – has been preferred.
349–350. Lui et le conte parlerent … / En racontant. In MidF the present participle, racontant, does not always refer to the subject of the main clause, Lui et le conte. Here it refers only to le conte: Gloucester is enumerating McMurrough's crimes against Richard. Infra, ll. 2117–2118, 2165; p. 189, l. 4; l. 3573.
363. moult lui estoit tart = ‘he was very impatient’. Di Stefano, Dictionnaire des locutions, s.v. ‘tard’: il m'est tart que: indique surtout l'impatience de, l'empressement à.
373. Et qu'i cuidra avoir bon, si l'envie. Ibid. s.v. ‘bon’: avoir de bon sur qqn = l'emporter = ‘to get the upper hand of’, and avoir du bon = avoir le dessus = ‘to have the upper hand’.
390. une meure = ‘a blackberry’, something of little value. OED, s.v. ‘fig, 4. a.’, ‘As a type of anything small, valueless, or contemptible’.
406. Aises du corps comme poisson en Saine = ‘as happy as fish in water’. See Di Stefano, Dictionnaire des locutions, s.v. ‘poisson’.
419. HBC's hypometric line has been amended following AD. Cf. supra, l. 281, note. D was originally short of one syllable also, si having been added later. At ll. 1094 and 2673, A has a regular line and D's correction makes it the same. L has a regular line, but its reading is further from that of the other MSS.
432. se m'ait Dieux (also l. 999). The OF 3rd person present subjunctive of -er verbs, i.e. the form without final e, survives in a few stereotyped expressions. Other examples are ll. 1515, 1674 doint (< donner); ll. 792, 1444, gart (< garder). See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 13, p. 95, l. 87 and note.
443. rebous was originally written rebours, the scribe later crossing out the r to make a better rhyme for the eye with nous: tous: doulx. These rhymes – also ll. 1384–1387, m'ame: larme: ferme: diffame – illustrate the weakness of a pre-consonantal r at this time.
463. Quant au roy pleut, qui. Although que was commonly used as a subject form in MidF – see D's reading at l. 239 and B's at l. 326 – the single example in H, unsupported by the other MSS has been amended.
483. lui aideront. Aideront counts as two syllables, supra, l. 222, note. Aidier can still be intransitive (as in OF) as used here, also l. 489; p. 311, ll. 10, 16. The ModF transitive usage co-exists, supra l. 1550, p. 311, l. 26.
487. envoiee. Considering that donnee agrees with the preceding direct object – que, l. 486, whose antecedent is la bulle sëellee, l. 485 – LB's reading has been preferred to HACD's.
493. Lors veïssiez. An OF figure of speech that was still being used right up into the fifteenth century. See N. Andrieux-Reix, ‘Lors veïssiez, histoire d'une marque de diction’, Linx, 32 (1995), pp. 133–145. Creton is referring beyond the text to the action he is describing; he is inviting the listener or reader to step into the scene and witness it for himself.
520. Biau for beau. The first of a sprinkling of Northern forms, probably scribal in origin. Infra ll. 1765–1767, mangonniaulx: monchiaulx: nouviaulx; and ll. 3701–3702, chastiaulx: biaulx. See also le for la, p. 193, l. 31 and note, je prendray la mort en pasience, comme tu le prins; and forms in ch, infra ll. 2555, 2617, commencha; l. 3043, aperchevoir; l. 3207, chieulx. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1320 Northern Region; Phonology: §§ i, viii, pp. 486–488. These spellings are not in the other MSS, except for C, which only has them where H does. This suggests that they were in the exemplars which H and C copied; the other MSS ‘corrected’ them out. Infra ll. 1142, 1977, no for nostre, is a Northern form, ibid. Morphology, § xxv (b), p. 490, but this comes from Creton, as it affects the syllable count.
543. All MSS have one syllable too many. The removal of the conjunction et is a suggested correction. S'est li fons = (aus)si est li fons.
Li fons. There are four other examples of the OF masculine nominative singular definite article, ll. 850, 1055, 1071, and 2027 In the last two cases li homs avoids elision, thus giving the correct number of syllables.
572–573. emprinse / … prinse. The rhymes at ll. 574–575, guise / … mise show that the n is not sounded. The rhymes at ll. 1576–1579 show this also. This pronunciation is not peculiar to Creton. In the mid 14th-century Les Voeux du héron written in monorhymed laisses, prins(s), ll. 28, 52, 71, 121, rhymes with païs, avis, paradis and other rhymes in -i in the laisse, ll. 27–144; also ll. 205–220. See Vows of the Heron, ed. Grigsby and Lacy.
591. parlera counts as two syllables. Infra l. 2001, feray, counts only as one syllable, but ll. 578, 590 and elsewhere counts as two. See above l. 222 and note.
626. merveilles. The form with s is well attested. Infra, ll. 951, 1425, 2640. See also Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘merveille’, and Tobler and Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ‘merveille’.
638. qui ne les haioit mie. An example of litotes. See OED, s.v. litotes. Ironical understatement … in which an affirmation is expressed [King Richard loved the Welsh and men of Cheshire] by the negative of the contrary [he did not hate them].
640–641. Cuidant … / Qu'arrivé feust le roy. Verbs of thinking, used affirmatively, are followed by the subjunctive, infra, l. 693, nous pensons … que le roy soit mort; or the indicative, l. 734, je croy … que vous estes traÿs; p. 191, l. 20, je croy … qu'il lui osta.
709. my compaignon. An isolated example of the OF masculine plural possessive adjective. Cf. supra, l. 290 and note.
737–740. ceste gent s'esmaie / De peur qu'ilz ont … / gens laie / Et non saichans. Supra, ll. 73–75, note. Also, l. 739, il me lairont. There are a few instances of OF il masculine plural pronoun, infra, l. 1571; p. 201, l. 8; l. 3018, but ilz is the usual form.
764. All MSS lack one syllable. There is enjambement between this line and the next. Creton may have regarded ll. 764–765 as one 14-syllable line, in which case the final, unstressed, e of deffendre would count as a syllable.
794. quil is a spelling variant of qui. Cf. supra, l. 302, note.
864. voise. OF 3rd person present subjunctive < aler.
891. quant il vit sa queue luire (literally) = ‘when he saw his tail shining’. There was a bizarre belief in France in the Middle Ages that Englishmen had tails: see P. Rickard, ‘Anglois coué and l'Anglois qui couve’, French Studies, 7 (1953), pp. 48–55; but this seems not to be pertinent here. See DMF, s.v. ‘luire’, I.C.: Voir sa queue luire = voir le moment favorable. I thank Professor Roccati for this reference.
896–899. haultaine: plaine: quinzaine: aime. The first three rhymes are good, there is assonance only with the fourth. This occurs occasionally elsewhere, e.g. ll. 1240–1243, 2144–2147.
918. qu'on = ce qu'on.
921. souverain counts as two syllables, supra, l. 222, note.
950. arme = âme, ‘soul’. In negative construction = ‘no one’. Cf. infra, l. 1550. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 372.
967. fouyus. Creton appears to have coined this past participle < fouir to fit the rhyme.
993. de la se departirent. It is obvious from what follows that the verb does not refer only to Rutland and Percy, infra, l. 1277, note.
1047. estourdiz has no pejorative meaning here, = ‘daring’.
1084. son beau frere = ‘brother’, also at ll. 1135, 1746. The usual meaning of beau frere is ‘brother-in-law’, ll. 1463, 1466, 1526. Similarly beau pere usually means ‘father-in-law’, ll. 1356, 2241, but can mean ‘father’, l. 3633.
1085. Die (subjunctive) has been changed from dit (present indicative); the e is written over the t.
1097. The break comes after the seventh syllable. There is lyric caesura in this line, as in l. 1094.
1133. veez counts as only one syllable, as in ll. 1541, 1939.
1142. no vie. Creton uses the Northern form of the feminine singular possessive adjective, instead of nostre, evidently because it is a monosyllable. This happens once more, at l. 1977. Supra, l. 520, note.
1207. Lui estre … demené. In ModF, étant, a present participle, would be expected rather than an infinitive. But cf. infra, p. 191, l. 12, les avoir veuz; p. 303, l. 24, toy avoir oü.
1230. chascun. H originally read chaccun, an s being written over the first of the double cs.
1241. trestout. H reads tout, the initial t being a large majuscule written over an erasure. It seems likely that H originally read trestout (LC's reading), and that has been preferred, otherwise the line lacks a syllable. Something similar occurs at l. 1479.
1277. S'en alerent. The verb does not refer only to Rutland and Percy, supra, l. 993, note.
1287. venoit … / Meschief et paine. The verb is agreeing with the nearer of two related subjects. Cf. p. 191, ll. 16–18, En ceste … compaignie estoit l'arcevesque de Cantorbie, Messire Thomas de Persi et le conte de Rotelant; p. 303, ll. 4–5, ton corps et ta personne est plus convenable a Mars. The ModF construction is also found, p. 197, ll. 6–7, l'archevesque de Cantorbie et le conte de Northomberlant alerent querre le duc de Lancastre.
1304–1306. juge … / juge. The first juge = ‘judge’; the second = ‘judgment’, an acceptable rhyme in MidF. Cf. supra, ll. 70–71, note.
1312–1314. loy … / loy. The same word rhyming with itself would have been frowned upon; also ll. 1377–1378, estuet … / estuet.
1355. j'espoir. Espoir, first person present indicative < esperer, is one of a handful of relics of OF vocalic alternation. See also l. 1408, muir < morir; and l. 1947, ains < amer. See Chrestomathie, ed Rickard, no. 13, p. 95, l. 82 and note.
1384. m'ame is the first of a handful of OF elided forms of a possessive adjective before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel. Some others are l. 1404, m'amie; l. 1415, m'esperance; l. 2294, s'image; p. 311, l. 3, s'esperance. Generally the ModF forms are used, supra l. 786, son ame; l. 515, son emprise; infra, p. 305, l. 27 ton ymage. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 1, p. 41, l. 32 and note.
1389. Encore. HBC's encores, makes the line hypermetric; AD's encore has been preferred to L's encor, as that is the usual spelling here. There is a similar situation with avecque(s) at ll. 3009, 3601.
1462. d'Excestre. H's original reading was decestre, the x added superscript; also infra, l. 1502.
1466. Ilz sont … y ne sont pas. Ilz, also spelled y, is used here twice rather than the ModF elles, because it is a monosyllable. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 17, p. 112, l. 116 and note; also no. 23, p. 140, l. 100 and note.
1469. Va comptant = compta. Infra, l. 1759, ala pensant = pensa.
1469–1501. Et lors lui va comptant … / … ce que fait lui a. This very long sentence has been broken at ll. 1484 and 1496 for the sake of clarity. The principal verb va comptant governs tout ce que, l. 1470, and eight noun clauses introduced by que, ll. 1473, 1475; comment, l. 1478; que, ll. 1480, 1482, 1485, 1497, and 1499.
1475. Et. H originally seems to have read Si. The scribe had changed S majuscule into an E; the E is written in darker ink over an S, and the t is written over an erasure.
1479. tresgrant. H reads grant preceded by an erasure. The descender of the g has been looped up to the left to form a T majuscule, which is an abbreviation of tres. C's reading is tresgrant, which gives the correct number of syllables. See also supra, l. 1241, note.
1515. doint. 3rd person present subjunctive < donner; also at l. 1674. Supra, l. 432, note.
1541. veez counts as one syllable only.
1568. cependent. = cependant. There is hesitation in the MidF period between a/e befora a nasal consonant. Infra, also l. 1878, atendant = atendent; l. 1969, valissent = valissant. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 5, p. 59, l. 27; and no. 6, p. 64, ll. 104, 106, note.
1577. prins. For the pronunciation, supra, ll. 572–573, note.
1603. artillerie counts as four syllables only. Supra, l. 222, note.
1639. monne = ‘nun’. LABD have moine = ‘monk’, which makes better sense but does not rhyme.
1661. qu'avec. HB's reading, avecques, makes the line one syllable too long. AD's reading makes the syllable count correct, and also makes the construction of the sentence clearer.
1705. fu is the imperfect subjunctive, as is fut. Cf. infra, ll. 3555, 3568. The usual form is feust, supra, ll. 641, 1018, or fust, infra, l. 2417, 3065.
1745. feïstes. HB's fistes gives a line of only nine syllables. LACD's feïstes has been preferred.
1752. Ne quë en dire. H's reading, Ne qu'en dire, lacks one syllable.
1759. ala pensant = pensa. Supra, l. 1469, note.
1765–1767. mangonniaulx: monchiaulx: nouviaulx. Supra, l. 520, note.
1766. roide. OED, s.v. ‘stiff, 6.’, ‘Tight, closely packed. Now hyperbolically in colloquial use: Densely crowded (with). Also figurative’. ‘Densely crowded with’ is clearly the meaning of roide here.
1777–1778. On les devroit tenir … / Et que croniques nouviaulx en feussent faiz. The ModF hypothetical construction (conditional) is followed by the OF (imperfect subjunctive).
1784. Moy le sisisme. All MSS read Moy sixiesme. The other rhymes of the quatrain are prime, rime, lime, and at l. 3477 .xxv.me rhymes with prime; thus the form sisisme would be expected here. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 825, pp. 318–319. Also, the line is hypometric; thus Moy le sisisme is suggested as Creton's original reading.
1809. Northomberlant counts here, and at l. 2008, as three syllables. Supra, l. 222, note.
1838. esvesque … autresi. Esvesque is attested in Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘evesque’. It is attributed to the rarity of initial e + consonant other than s; see Chrestomathie, no. 53, p. 274, l. 106, note. H originally had LBC's aussi; a t and a contraction mark have been written in very dark ink over the first s. The same change has been made by the scribe at l. 2266 and editorially at l. 1870. Autresi would have been what Creton wrote to give the correct syllable count.
1878. 1878 atendant = atendent. Supra, l. 1568, note.
1911. Ce fait = (literally) ‘this having been done’; supra, l. 309, note.
1933. Lors veïssiez. Supra, l. 493, note.
1939. veez counts as one syllable, as in ll. 1133, 1541.
1947. ains < amer. Supra, l. 1355, note.
1977. no gent. Supra, l. 520, note.
2001. feray counts as only one syllable. Supra, l. 222, note.
2008. Northomberlant counts as three syllables. Supra, l. 222, note.
2028–2031. mure is the form required by the rhyme. See Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘morir’. However, supra, ll. 888–891, conduire: muyre: duire: luire; infra, ll. 2236–2239, destruire: muire: conduire: fuire.
2042. serement counts as two syllables here and at l. 2181, but three syllables at ll. 2046 and 2055. Supra, l. 222, note.
2099. Du pas garder = de garder le pas. Infra, l. 3002, Du duc Henry faire mourir = de faire mourir le duc Henry. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 39, p. 213, l. 151.
2111. qu'a. H originally read que, an a being written over the e in very dark ink.
2133. Jusqu'a. H's original reading was jusque; a has been written over the e.
2139. Des gens (two syllables) gives the correct syllable count, de la gent (three syllables) does not. Creton is using gens (plural) as if it were gent (singular), supra, ll. 73–75, note.
2144–2147. paine: enmaine: aime: souveraine. There is assonance only between aime and the other rhyme-words. Supra, ll. 896–899, 1240–1243.
2165. Ainsi parlant, nous convint aprochier. Supra, ll. 349–350, note.
2187. deshonnour is the form required by the rhyme. The same applies at infra, honnour, p. 321, l. 20, and dolour, p. 321, l. 31. Cf. supra, honnour, l. 1533; doulour, l. 870.
2249. Sceü le fait. Supra, l. 309, note.
2266. autresi. For the alteration in H, supra, l. 1838, note.
2270. Trestoute nuit = ‘overnight’. By MidF, toute la nuit and toute nuit could both refer to one night in particular or to an unspecified night. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 42, p. 227, l. 205, note.
page 187, line 15. catholique = ‘Christian’. For this interpretation, see Le Grand Robert, s.v. catholique, II, 1o.
page 193, line 31. je prendray la mort … comme tu le prins. There are another two instances of the Northern le for la, 3rd person pronoun feminine, direct object, p. 199, l. 8, and l. 2801. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 27, p. 155, l. 38 and note; no. 39, p. 210, l. 23 and note. Also supra, l. 520, note.
page 195, line 11. bons, vrais et loyaulx is a triplet. Supra, l. 8, note.
page 197, line 12. et lui dist is the reading of all MSS; the syntax is rather confused. I suggest that et is a corrupt reading.
page 199, line 17. le mes = les me, a Northern form.
page 199, line 25. Albie = Albion = ‘England’. This is found also in Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Raynaud, I, no. 26, p. 106, l. 4; II, no. 285, p. 139, l. 12.
page 201, line 8. il sont. Supra, ll. 737–740, note.
page 211, line 6. tourna. It appears that H originally read tournoya, ACD's lesson; the a has been written over the second o and an erasure follows.
page 213, lines 1–4. Ainsi partismes … d'estre en France. These lines are only in AD. The reason behind the omission is unclear.
2296–2334. The imprecatory ballade (lines 2296–2334) has three stanzas on identical rhyme-schemes plus an envoi (the envoi sends – envoyer = ‘to send’ – the ballade to its addressees). See S.V. Spilsbury, ‘The Imprecatory Ballade: A fifteenth-century poetic genre’, French Studies, 23 (1979), pp. 385–396. Creton's language is restrained compared to that of Deschamps and François Villon.
2300. The missing line in C – as given in D – has been written in the right-hand margin by a modern hand.
2331. deveroient counts as three syllables, supra, l. 222, note; the break in the line comes after the sixth syllable. This has the effect of stressing toy, the object of Creton's execration.
2358. visce. Creton has made up a verb modelled on the noun vice. The scribes were thrown into confusion by it, as witness the variant spellings.
2437. desfaire (= ‘to depose’ or ‘to kill’) is written over an erasure. LABCD read faire mourir, certainly H's original reading. H's revised reading introduces an element of uncertainty: was Richard murdered or merely deposed? H's original reading was unambiguous.
2442. dis. H's original reading was diz. An s was written over the z, making a more satisfying rhyme for the eye.
2447–2478. hors de la ville / De Londres – ce ne fu pas guille. There is no de in HLBCD, l. 2447, which makes the line short by one syllable. A's hors de la ville gives a regular line. In l. 2448, all MSS originally read ce n'est pas guille, and the line again lacks a syllable. On the analogy of l. 3250 – where the scribe of H has changed nest > ne fu – ne fu has been judged to be what Creton originally wrote.
2501. All MSS read Norvic and the line is hypometric. Norvic has been amended to Norevic, on the analogy of Panebroc, l. 2510, to make eight syllables. Similarly Werwic, l. 2937, has been amended to Werewic.
2513. In BC, l. 2515 originally followed on l. 2513. The mistake was realized and l. 2515 scored out. l. 2514 follows, then l. 2515 in its correct place.
2525. Toute jour arose from a wish to avoid confusing tot jor (= toute la journée = ‘all day long’) with toz jorz (= toujours = ‘always’), perhaps on the analogy of toute nuit. See P. Rickard, ‘Toute jour, tout le jour, et toute la journée’, Romania, 85 (1964), pp. 145–180.
2536. Filz dë Isaac. HLB's f. disant is an obviously corrupt reading.
2541. la couronne means, by extension, ‘kingdom’, also infra, l. 2563. Tobler and Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, s.v. ‘couronne’, has the meaning ‘royal domain’. ‘Kingdom’ is also the meaning of royauté, infra, l. 2790, but infra, l. 2681 it means ‘crown’.
2573. Without si, all MSS lack one syllable. The correction has been made following AD's reading at ll. 281, 419. In C, ll. 2572–2573 have been omitted.
2617. Il commencha imterroger. The construction commencer + infinitive (no a) was still current in the sixteenth century; see Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘commencer’. For other forms in ch and other Northern forms, supra, l. 520, note.
2648. interrogasïon counts as six syllables, but interrogasion, l. 2658, counts as five.
2656. yert. A solitary example of the OF 3rd person imperfect < estre. Creton regularly uses estoit, supra l. 2655; infra, ll. 2664, 2670; which has two syllables.
2660. A tousjours leur sera lait vice. A cliché, repeated infra, l. 2840.
2662. presens / Tous ceulx. Supra, l. 309, note.
2673. deulx en disant ainsi. HBC's reading lacks two syllables. AD's ambedeulx has been preferred to L's humblement, which was probably a mis-hearing of ambedeulx. Infra, ll. 2692–2693, where humblement does not figure.
2681. la royauté = ‘the crown’. Supra, l. 2541, note.
2688. Ce ly mist la pusse en l'oreille = (literally) ‘this put a flea in his ear’. DMF, s.v. ‘puce’: mettre la puce en l'oreille a qqn = Inspirer des inquiétudes à quelqu'un. But Lancaster would not have been worried by the peers’ response, it must mean that the loud acclamation roused, stirred him.
2693–2694. Furent … / … estoient. For the juxtaposition of tenses, supra, l. 75 and note.
2702. Baisa. A singular verb has been used instead of the grammatically correct plural – baiserent – for the sake of metre and rhyme.
2725–2726. Le roy baisa parmi la bouche / Le connestable. ModF word order – subject, verb, object – was not yet fixed in MidF. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, pp. 27–28. In these two lines le roy is the object, le connestable the subject; it is the Constable who has the active role. This is not a common feature of Creton's language, but see p. 197, ll. 11–12, l. 2812; he uses it here for the sake of the metre in order to have eight syllables in either line.
2788. de cuer fin. H's isolated le cuer has been amended following the other MSS here, and following all six MSS at ll. 1166–1167 and 2514.
2790. royaulté = ‘kingdom’. Supra, l. 2541, note.
2810. B's reading, the only regular one, has been preferred.
2826–2827. moult tart / Leur estoit de si long sejour. Supra, l. 363, note.
2830. l'elexsïon. This word seems to have caused confusion among the scribes, whereas at l. 2647 it was copied without question.
2833. com. L's reading has been preferred to comme, otherwise the line is hypermetric; l. 3267 is a similar case.
2836. compter. H's reading was originally conter; the scribe subsequently wrote a contraction mark over the o and a p over the n.
2900. feste = ModF faîte = ‘highest point’.
2937. For all MSS, werwic > werewic, supra, l. 2501 and note, norvic > norevic.
2963–2964. oultrance / … qui a ce. This is a doubtful rhyme, also infra, ll. 3013–3014, aliance / … qui a ce; ll. 3527–3528, France / … qui a ce.
3002. Du duc Henry. Supra, l. 2099, note.
3009. HACD are hypermetric. Avecque has replaced avecques, on the analogy of ll. 3330, 3488, and 3679. The same correction has been made, infra, l. 3601.
3018. il avoient. Supra, ll. 737–740, note.
3030. Salsebery = three syllables, also at ll. 3058, 3189. Supra, l. 222, note.
3064. ses corps = son corps, singular. Supra, l. 290, note.
3083. pere = third person present subjunctive < paroir, ‘to appear’. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1060, pp. 398–399.
3197. HL's puet is either a historic present tense (see Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 26, p. 153, l. 138, note), or an orthographic variant of peust, imperfect subjunctive, supra, ll. 565, 1801. The usual form of the past historic here is pot, supra, ll. 98, 177, 409.
3250. ne fu. The scribe has changed nest into ne fu. The f is formed from the long-tailed s with a cross-stroke, the u is written over an erasure.
3263. Supra, l. 222, note
3277. Le resembloit. In MidF resembler was in course of transition from a transitive (OF) to an intransitive (ModF) verb. For ModF usage, supra ll. 3148–3149; infra, p. 327, l. 13. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 40, p. 217, l. 118, note.
3298. la rachine de l'envie. The sense requires de instead of et.
3327. All MSS are hypermetric. Messire has been altered to Sire on the analogy of ll. 3533, 3571.
3353–3354. Maistre Pierre Blanchet, Henart / … de Kanbenart. This is not the only time that Creton omits the conjunction [et] between two names. See p. 323, l. 7, Scilla, Marius.
3376. connourir. A further word not found elsewhere. The scribe of L found it unfamiliar and substituted renourrir.
3396. Ilz les respondirent. A rare example of the transitive (OF) use of respondre. See A. Tobler and E. Lommatzsch, Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 12 vols (Berlin, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, 1925–2018), s.v. ‘respondre’, and Huguet, Dictionnaire, s.v. ‘respondre’.
3404. vo requeste. All MSS have vostre requeste, and the line is hypermetric. The Northern vo is substituted on the analogy of l. 1142, no vie; l. 1977, no gent. See Pope, From Latin to Modern French, § 1320, p. 1490, Morphology, §xxv (b); and Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, no. 4, p. 57, l. 9. Another example from Deschamps is: Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Raynaud, V, no. 893, pp. 79–80, refrain: Lors dis: «Oïl, je voy vo queue».
3495. derrenier. Of two syllables only. Supra, l. 222, note.
3543. Franche. H's reading was originally France; the scribe then wrote an h over the original e and added an e. The same alteration has been made infra, l. 3689.
3555. Fut is the imperfect subjunctive, also l. 3568. Supra, l. 1705, note.
3564. Son corps. In MidF the possessive adjective did not necessarily refer to the nearest antecedent. Here, Son clearly refers to la roüne, l. 3540.
3587. Grant douleur. All MSS read grant dueil which makes the line hypometric. Douleur is suggested as what Creton originally wrote, on the analogy of ll. 3596–3597.
3620–3621. la voulentés / … fust. All MSS have les voulentés, amended to singular because of the singular verb. For OF feminine singular nouns with a flexional s, supra, l. 243, note.
3633. Son beau pere = her father. Supra, l. 1084, note.
3645. Furent geteez. A's reading alone is grammatically correct. In MidF a verb could agree with the nearer of two or more co-ordinated subjects, supra, p. 191, ll. 17–18; infra, p. 303, ll. 4–5. See Chrestomathie, ed. Rickard, p. 31. Here Creton has it agreeing with the further, maintes larmes (l. 3644). For the ModF usage, supra, p. 197, ll. 5–7.
page 301, line 10–page 329, line 5.
Due to the indifferent quality of B, endnotes have been written for only a selected number of the many scribal errors and amendments.
page 301, line 11. come. B reads coe [with a mark of contraction above]. This has been extended with only one m, considering infra, p. 301, l. 24, e [contraction] nemis; p. 303, l. 5, p [contraction] so [contraction] ne; p. 317, l. 8, Ro [contraction] me; and so forth. Had the scribe meant comme, he would have written co [contraction] me. Similar cases are bone renommee, p. 315, l. 21; les bons homes, p. 315, l. 13.
page 301, line 12. For catholique = ‘Christian’, supra, p. 187, l. 15, note.
page 301, line 28. tout ce qu'i = tout ce qu'il. Supra, l. 302, note.
page 303, lines 15–18. affin que governs five clauses, the verbs of which are 1. fust rompue, 2. fussent finés, 3. fust devouree, 4. [fust] folié, and 5. [fussent] sustraiz. It was quite normal for the auxiliary verb to be merely understood in 4 and 5. In 4, B's foliable is corrupt, a past participle folié is required.
page 303, line 19. telle sepulture. B's reading was telles sepultures. The s of telles has almost been erased, and there are two dots beneath the final s of sepultures.
page 303, line 24. toy avoir oÿ. Supra, l. 1207, note.
page 305, line 24. par figures [et] par diz. The et is needed to complete the sense, on the analogy of p. 309, l. 11, par escript et par figures.
page 305, line 28. pensees et ymaginacions. This is a doublet, two words meaning the same, or almost the same. Professor Strohm has been led astray by Dillon's careless transcription: the ampersand between the two nouns has been omitted. Creton, ‘Remarks on the Manner of the Death of King Richard’, ed. Dillon, p. 88; Strohm, ‘The Trouble with Richard’, pp. 96–97.
page 305, line 35. sacrefice de voeux. B's reading, de feu, is obviously corrupt. De voeux, d'oroisons et de prieres is a triplet.
page 307, line 17. ly has been added to complete the sense. Supra, l. 3469, Et ce qu'ilz ly eussent fait faire.
page 309, line 10. je yray. Creton would not have used the conditional tense – yroy – here, but the future tense. Infra, p. 309, l. 11, te porteray; p. 309, l. 22, je la suyvray … et yray.
page 311, line 3. s'esperance. Supra, l. 1384, note.
page 311, line 9. The line as it stands lacks one syllable. Substituting trescrueulx for B's crueulx gives ten syllables. Infra, p. 315, l. 37, trescrueuse.
page 311, line 10. Aidiés luy, also infra, p. 311, l. 16, luy aidier. For the intransitive use of aidier, supra, l. 483, note.
page 311, lines 18–19. Fu … / … Priant mort et quatre de ses fieulx. B reads prirent mort: the scribe mistook Creton's priant for a verb – present participle < prier – which makes no sense, and changed it to prirent – 6th person past historic < prendre – which makes hardly any more sense. But priant = ‘Priam’, king of Troy: this is the form used by Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, ed. de Queux and Reynaud, VIII, no. 1457, pp. 149–150, l. 3.
Fu … mort. In MidF mourir was still used transitively = ‘to kill’, as well as ModF intransitively = ‘to die’, supra, p. 307, l. 12.
Fieulx. B's reading: filz – does not rhyme with lieux. Fieulx is found in Christine de Pizan, Oeuvres poétiques, ed. M. Roy, I, s.v. Autres Balades, no. 37, pp. 250–251, l. 30. See also Pope, From Latin to Modern French, §391 (4), p. 155
page 311, line 33–page 313, line 4. doit ou doivent … se peut estre dolu ou deult encore … peut avoir esté ou est. Creton adopts a more pedantic and legalistic style in this epistle, in order that his borrowings from Valerius Maximus do not stand out.
page 313, line 27. B originally read commandement. It has been corrected editorially to commencement: supra, p. 313, l. 19. The scribe made the same mistake, p. 315, l. 10, but corrected it himself.
page 315, line 26. la oevre. Oevre is feminine, considering commencee in the following line.
page 319, line 5. ces = ses.
page 319, line 13. rudir. Another of Creton's made-up words = ‘to become gross’.
page 319, line 18. incertables. This is an error for Hesdin's intraitables = ‘impassable’.
page 321, line 20. honnour is the form required by the rhyme. Supra, l. 1533, honnour; p. 319, l. 19, honnourable. Similarly, infra, p. 321, l. 31, dolour would have been what Creton wrote. Supra, ll. 387, 769, 870.
page 321, line 34. Venez vers luy portant raim de lorier. Creton is more likely to have repeated the same refrain as in the preceding stanzas; this is what he did in the preceding ballades. B's – venez le veoir – was probably a scribal error, the result of contamination from the preceding lines.
page 323, line 11. discorde. B's discord has been amended – the line lacks one syllable, infra, p. 325, l. 30.
page 323, line 25. sang de France. B's roy de France is an obvious scribal error.
page 323, line 28. Ot. B's first et has been changed. Creton would have had a verb here.
page 323, line 23. nulles cités, (also grant vertus, p. 325, l. 26). Supra, l. 243, note. Fut is a subjunctive.
page 325, line 24. sang de France. The missing portion of the line is supplied from the other refrains.
page 327, line 13. The three refrains are lacking one syllable; the reading in the envoi has been preferred, p. 329, l. 5.