SIR AMADACE: FOOTNOTES

1 Then he told his pack-horse driver what the merchant promised

2 Lines 380–81: Though it were four times as good (as it is), / I guarantee it by Saint John

3 When fools may walk wholly bewildered (homeless)
 

SIR AMADACE: NOTES

I have used the following abbreviations in these textual and explanatory notes: A: Advocates Manuscript; B: Christopher Brookhouse, ed., Sir Amadace and The Avowyng of Arthur; IR: Ireland Manuscript; M: Maldwyn Mills, ed., Six Middle English Romances; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; P: Ad Putter, “Gifts and Commodities”; R: John Robson, ed., Three Early English Metrical Romances; W: Henry Weber, ed., Metrical Romances of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries.

I have based my text on the Ireland Manuscript (c. 1450) following R, B, M. There are some notable differences from the Advocates Manuscript (late fifteenth century), documented by R. W prints A. I have followed B, R in supplying some lines from A.

1 A leaf, containing four stanzas (24 lines), is missing from IR. It is clear, however, that Sir Amadace has put himself in financial jeopardy by excessive spending that is to be understood as generosity rather than profligacy — a common didactic motif. A note has been inserted in IR explaining that a leaf is lost, but I have chosen to begin lineation with fol. 17, following the practice of past editors.

3 be. B: þe; R, M: be.

7 Qu for "wh" or "w" is common throughout. Third-person singular pasts in -it (e.g., kennit, line 18) and -ut (e.g., ordanut, line 50) are also common. For a detailed account of spelling and accidence see B, pp. 11-16.

11 on B: one.

12 Thaghe. IR: Thazghe. M: Thagh.

29-30 Keeping one's debts a secret was a cardinal mercantile rule. See Chaucer's Shipman (VIII[B²]225–34). See also notes to lines 34 and 48..

31 wedsette: to mortgage, to put one's land up as a pledge against debt (OED).

34 Compare Chaucer's Merchant "sownynge alwey th' encrees of his wynnyng" (I[A] 275) and his Shipman, who meticulously keeps his debts a secret, also he might have to flee the country. See note to line 48 below.

40 Sir Amadace's display of generosity creates more an image of affluence than charity as he prepares to go into hiding.

48 Compare Chaucer's Shipman who avows that he would have to pretend to go on "a pilgrimage, or goon out of the weye" (VII[B2] 230-34) if his pryvetee were known.

50, 56 R, B, M inserted the a.

60 P argues that the story of Sir Amadace is designed to “exemplify the wisdom and ultimate profitability of reckless spending” (371), thereby creating an enduring body of indebtedness and gratitude (similar to that of a blood-brother relation­ship) between Sir Amadace and the White Knight/merchant. This celebration of gener­osity is based on the religious belief that one does not own goods, and espouses a gift economy in which “repaying kindness does not cancel gratitude but only engages the giver’s gratitude in return” (P, pp. 374, 394).

81 hur. MS originally reads his, which is deleted and changed to hur.

93 no. B misreads: so.

96 my. B misreads: me.

97 IR: Amace. B notes the mark in IR indicating that the scribe intended to correct the word. I have corrected to Amadace.
squier. B misreads: squir.

121 his. B misreads: is.

129 IR, M: A; I have followed R, B: And.

134 mon. Omitted by B.

143 rowunde: a round minted coin. MED lists this alternative spelling which is consistent with the dialect and orthographical patterns of the poem.

157 The lady's explanation parallels Sir Amadace's situation. Here is the first reference to fole (fool), which will become Amadace's role.

172 telle that he seke lay. B silently "emends" to tell that seke he lay.

204 IR inserts A Fitte at the end of this line and at the end of line 516.

206 he. B misreads: me.

212 I will. IR: will. Acephalous syntax (the dropping of a subject pronoun) commonly occurs in Middle English. R's emendation, followed by B, M, and me.

225 According to P, Sir Amadace does not see his gift to the White Knight/merchant as a loss, but as a “conversion of real capital into ‘gret merit,’ an entitlement to gratitude and future reward that binds one to other bearers of this ‘symbolic capital.’ By refusing to invest in ‘merit,’ the merchant excludes himself from the community of givers, a community whose founding member is of course God himself” (379).

237 R, B, M insert The . . . the.

246 womon. B: woman.

250 thritti powunde. Perhaps a loose analogue to Judas' selling of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver lurks in the background here as Amadace kindly uses the sum to redeem the lady and her knight, rather than betray them, even though it is all that he has. Rather than being like Judas, he's like the widow with her mite, which goes for charity.

260 B (p. 103) explains the ancient tradition, preserved in folklore, of punishing a debtor by refusing burial. The practice had long since disappeared by the time of the poem. This section also begins the "grateful dead" motif, wherein the hero finds and buries a previously unburied corpse. The ghost of the grateful dead person subsequently offers to help the hero on condition of receiving half of whatever reward is ultimately obtained. See G. H. Gerould, The Grateful Dead, Publications of the Folk-Lore Society, 60 (London, 1908). Williams suggests that in this type of story, there are, in fact, two folk motifs operating: the “Grateful Dead” and the “Divided Winnings” (“Sir Amadace,” p. 65). As a literary example of the “Grateful Dead” motif in isolation, Williams offers Cicero’s story of Simonides who, having buried an exposed corpse, is warned in a dream not to set out to sea; those who ignore the warning are drowned. See also the Book of Tobit, the medieval French texts Richard le Biaus and the Lion de Bourges, and the fifteenth-century prose romance of Oliver de Castille et Artus d’Algarbe.

295 Thritty prustus. The singing of a "trental" was deemed the most efficacious of masses for the dead. Compare the boast of the friar in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale (III[D] 1724-28).

373-81 I have followed R, B in supplying lines 344-55 from A. Because M does not, his lineation is twelve lines lower from this point.

411 IR, R, B, M: word. I have emended to world on the grounds that the phrase is so common in this poem and elsewhere as to be almost formulaic.

414 hit. B: his.

429 IR reduplicates in this.

435 no mon. IR: non. R's emendation followed by M and me.

439 B, following IR, has this line between my lines 468 and 469. The shifting of the line to this position not only creates two twelve-line stanzas but also clarifies the sequence in lines 436-41. The scribe may have skipped the line, then incorporated it later where it makes grammatical sense but leaves lines 436-41 somewhat obscure.

441 See note to line 260.

449 tho. Omitted by both R and B; M: the[m].

453 This line is repeated in IR following line 455.

455 R, B insert have. This line is written in the margin and in what appears to be a later hand.

486 loke. B: like.

500 come. M: tome (leisure) without explanation. It is frequently difficult to dis­tinguish “c” from “t” in Middle English manuscripts. MED notes come as an erro­neous variant of tome in MS Fairfax 3 of John Gower, Confessio Amantis, II, 2680.

504 hase. B omits the e here and in line 681.

510 Betwix. B: Bettwix.

561 Certan. R, B, M: Sertan.

569 stedus as opposed to "hors" are "warhorses" or "chargers" (MED).

571 oredrofe. “Overdriven,” referring to violent motions of the sea (MED).

593 yoman. B: yomon. So too in line 698.

594 degre. B: degree.

629 IR, R, B: My nayre; as B notes, this is clearly a false juncture. Such disjunctures are common in Middle English manuscripts. I have corrected to Myn ayre as has M.

637-48 I have followed R, B in supplying lines 575-86 from Sir Amadas (Advocates MS). Because M has not, his lineation is twenty-four lines from this point.

650 lene. B: leue.

685 IR, R, B: my nowun; I have read: myn owun, as has M. Clearly a false juncture.

699 he. B: be.

707 Within the “Grateful Dead” story type, there is no known literary source for the White Knight’s threat to kill the wife and child of Sir Amadace. However, a similar plot climax does appear in the later Olvier et Artus (Williams, “Sir Amadace,” p. 67).

709 spoke. R: speke.

717 IR, R, B: thi none; M: thin one. Correction of another false juncture.

719-20 B concludes line 719 with thu hit spare, taken from the end of line 720. He erroneously omits all schall be / Goddes forbote, Sir, and thus is a line short in this stanza.

759 Sayn Drightine: Holy Lord (from Old English).

786 thay. B: that.

801 bede. IR: be; I have followed R, B, M: bede. The test of obedience to his covenant parallels that of God's testing of Abraham (Genesis 22), where the father will slay his son rather than break his vow to God. Like Isaac, the child is spared when the angel bids "cease" and provides the redemptive substitution of a ram stuck in thorns, which medieval commentaries interpreted as a figuration of Him who died on the Cross. Perhaps this is why the poet sets Amadace's test on the Eve of Christ's nativity.

805 woe. B: toe.

812 by. B: be.

823 toune. B: towne.

845 IR, R, B: of. Although "of" is possible, "or" fits the familiar formula much better. M agrees.