Album Willem Pée

De jubilaris aangeboden bij zijn zeventigste verjaardag

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Two important metrical facts generally overlooked in The Owl and the Nightingale^*
door S. D'Ardenne

Two metrical facts have been strangely ignored¹ in the Early Middle English poem O & N, namely:

a)	transposition of words;
b)	haplographical forms.

Yet, they are important for the solution of cruces, and for the study of the metre.

* All the quotations are from C (MS Cotton Caligula A IX, British Museum), those from MS Jesus College 29, Oxford, sporadically cited are marked J.

1 C.L. Onions, An Experiment in Textual Reconstruction, in Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, vol. XXII (1937), Oxford; and Holthausen, in Anglia Bbl. 39 (1928) pp. 244-8, are happy exceptions.

a) Transposition of words

If we accept the two birds' statement (a rare point on which they agree) - we have every good reason to do so - namely, that Maister Nichole of Guldeford ... wot insiʒt in eche songe, has a fair knowledge of every song

wo singet wel, wo singet wronge. 196

we must conclude that he intended to write perfect verses. So much so that any line metrically wrong should deserve our attention; even those, which at first sight seem all right, but which do not make sense, or whose sense is questionable. Let us take the very first line:

Ich was in one sumere dale.

Much ink (and of different quality) has been spilt on it. Yet, it scans well. All the trouble arises from the general view that sumere means summer, which is sheer nonsense, since we know, with Maister Nichole, that the nightingale is dumb a sumere, ‘dumb in summer’, 416²; impossible for him to holde grete tale. For other scholars sumere is the dat. sg. fem. of sum, a certain, and one, is the indef. article ‘a’, which not only fails to make sense, but is tautologous. Now if we transpose one and in and read Ich was one in sumere dale ‘I was alone in a certain

2 Cf. Encyclopédie Ornithologique, éd. Paul Lechevalier, Paris, Tome V, pp. 191-213 describes the nightingale as ‘un mauvais époux mais bon père. Mais il semblerait encore que, loin de puiser dans sa paternité des élans de bonheur qui devraient donner plus d'essor à sa merveilleuse faculté de chanter, il n'y trouve qu'un pénible devoir à accomplir: Son chant en effet s'éteint subitement et de son larynx l'instant d'avant si souple et si harmonieux, il ne sort plus qu'un cri rauque presqu'aussi désagréable que le croassement des grenouilles’. Medieval authors, however, generally situate in spring (and rightly so) the nightingale's song, as e.g. Colin Muset: En mai, quant li rossignolet
Chantent cler au vert boissonet. (IV)

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valley’, we are, I think, closer to the original version. Cases of transposition of words are not infrequent in the poem. In this particular case the transposition was furthered by in one diʒele hale, ‘a secluded nook’ of the next line³. The MSS word-order is so deeply impressed on scholars' minds that any change brought to it is discarded, and the MS reading restored⁴.

_* * _*

Tofore þe sulfe þe pope of Rome, before the pope of Rome himself 746.

J reads Tofore þe sulfe pope of Rome, which has been generally preferred and adopted by critics and editors. Yet, although hidden by transposition of words and dittography, C preserves the original reading required by the metre: Tofore sulf þe pope of Rome. Cf. Sawles Warde, is seolf þe mon, 9, is Man himself.

_* * _*

Bituxen vs deme schulde, should be our judge, 1747.

Both metre and rhyme are wrong. J reads Bitwihen en deme schulle and preserves the right rhyme schulle/wulle, but the word-order is wrong. Moreover en, generally misread eu, is a case of dittography. Transposition is required to suit the metre, hence we suggest to read Vs bituxen deme schulle.

_* * _*

Ilome þu dest me grame, Often thou doest me harm, 49. Transposition would certainly improve the metre. I suggest to read

þu ilome dest me grame, rather than accept Onions's emendation Ilome þus þu dest me grame.

_* * _*

Bet þuʒte þe dreim þat he were, the music seemed better that it were, 21.

Both Holthausen and Onions suggest to read: þe dreim bet þuhte þat he were, which improves the metre. Another possible way would be to interchange bet and þuʒte, ald read: þuʒte bet þe dreim þat he were.

_* * _*

3 Cf. my note in R.E.S. n.s. IX (1948), p. 342.

4 This happened to the emended quotation of the line I gave in my article on The Editing of Middle English Texts in English Studies Today, Oxford, 1951, p. 74. The restoration was made without my being aware of it!

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And again transposition is required in:

Bet þuʒte þat he were ishote, it seemed that her notes came, rather, 23 of harpe and pipe þan of þrote. from harp and pipe than from throat. which should read: þuʒte bet þat he were ishote.

_* * _*

We agree with Onions who suggests to read: þar song þe ule hire tide, instead of þar þe vle song hire tide, where the owl sang her ‘hours’, 26.

_* * _*

Me luste bet speten þane singe, I would rather spit than sing, 39. Transposition is again required to improve the metre. We should read:

Bet me luste speten þane singe. Cf. Onions's reading: Me lest bet spete þanne singe., which is better than Holthausen's suggestion: Me luste speten bet þane singe.

_* * _*

Ho ne miʒte no leng bileue, she could no longer contain herself, 42. Onions accepts the MS reading. We prefer with Holthausen to emend it to:

Ne miʒte ho no leng bileue.

_* * _*

For mi song lutle hwile ilest, for my song does not last long, 1451 With Holthausen we emend it to: For lutle hwile mi song ilest.

C Me adun legge and þe buue / J Me adun legge and þe abuue, 208, We agree with Onions ans read: Me legge adun and þe abuue, should revile me and extol you.

Were aferd, ho spac bolde tale, were afraid, she spoke boldly, 410. Transposition would improve the metre, I suggest to read:

Aferd were ho spac bolde tale.

_* * _*

And blisseþ hit wanne ich cume, rejoices at my coming, 435. Onions suggests to interchange blisseþ hit and read:

And hit blesseþ hwanne ich cume. We rather keep the MSS reading.

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b) Haplographical forms

Atkins⁵ years ago cited a few haplographical cases, generally limited to the syncope of s, as in oþere(s) song, 11, cliures (s)charpe, 1676, &; but they do not affect the metre, and are not worth mentioning here. This is not the case of þis in the last line: her nis namore of þis (J correct þisse) spelle., emendation omitted by critics and editors, but noted by Onions.

_* * _*

For teche heom of his wisdome, to each them through his wisdom, 1766.

Another case of haplography ignored by critics and editors. The metre requires the reading: Forte teche heom of his wisdome.

_* * _*

Swo heore wit hi demþ adwole, 1777.
þat euer abid Maistre Nichole.

demþ has generally been correctly parsed 3rd sg. pres. indic. But what about hi? In our poem hi is either fem. pronoun sg. (e.g. in þat alreworste þat hi wuste, 10) she, a SE word; or plural ‘they’ as in hi holde plaiding suþe stronge, 12, though ho, heo is usually ‘they’. hi is left unexplained. Here is a tentative explanation: hi is haplographical for hit/hid (cf. abid for abit next line). And the following þat clause is thus the subject. The translation of the line would run as follows: ‘that Master Nicholas is kept continually waiting (for preferment) convicts their common sense of error’.

_* * _*

C Sele endeð wel þe loþe J Selde endeþ wel þe loþe, 943.

C. sele is obviously a mistake for selde, the J reading. The line makes sense and was translated ‘Seldom ends well the disliked’; but the rhythm of the line is wrong. Professor Bruce Dickins was the first, I think, to question the MS reading. He suggested to read grendeð instead of endeð and translated accordingly ‘Seldom grindeth well the reluctant’ (as for example in the Old Norse Grottasöngr, which, he

5 The Owl and the Nightingale, Cambridge, 1922, p. xxxii

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adds ‘impresses me as superior in point and prosody to Seldom endeth well the hated’.⁶ In prosody perhaps, but not in point. Indeed the so-called grendeð cited by Prof. Dickins as occurring in MS British Museum Add. 35116 fol. 24^d, should be read erendeð, ‘goes on an errand, acts as a good messenger’, which makes good sense and is metrically correct. Moreover it suits the context better than grindeth; in fact erendeð goes with plaideð of next line. Hence we should read:

Selde erendeð wel þe loþe,
And selde plaideþ wel þe wroþe.

‘Seldom does he act as a good messenger (or advocate) he who is hateful (sc. to the other party)’, that is, it is no good sending as a messenger (ambassador) a man who is not persona grata;⁷

‘And seldom does he plead well he who is angry.’

endeð is probably another case of haplography for e(re)ndeð, which occurs in the common version (Y) of C and J. Cf. erende, sb. message, 463. In endeð we may also see a case of omission of the abbreviation-mark er/re.

_* * _*

C þat hadde idon so muchel unriʒt / J þat hadde ido svich vnriht, that had behaved so badly, 1094.

J svich is haplographical for either s(w)o miche or s(w)o muche, the correct reading.

_* * _*

Oft spet wel a lute liste, 763, Often a little trick brings success

þar muche strengþe sholde miste. where great strength would (have) failed.

lute liste is very likely haplographical for lutel liste. For liste we should read list, which occurs sometimes (but not in this poem) without -e. As to miste Holthausen suggests that ‘vor mist ist have in Gedanken zu ergänzen’, which so far sounds the best explanation. For other views see Stanley, The Owl and the Nightingale,⁸ but they are less convincing.

Liège.

6 See my article On Middle English Criticism, in Études Anglaises, Janvier, 1954, pp. 12-16.

7 for other possible translations of these lines see my article (op. cit.), pp. 14-15.

8 in Nelson's Medieval and Renaissance Library, London, 1960, p. 122.