Go to Robyn and Gandelyn: Introduction

THE TALE OF GAMELYN: FOOTNOTE

1 For I am as light of foot as you, even if you swore it to the contrary
 

THE TALE OF GAMELYN: NOTES

1 Fitt titles and numbers are not marked in the Petworth manuscript, but spaces in the manuscript and the formulaic Lithes and listeneth opening (and its variants) make it clear where a new fitt begins; there are six.

3 The name appears to be spelt in the manuscript Bonndes, but in line 348 ybounde is written in just the same way, and this should be taken as a sign of the ambiguity possible in these minim-based letters (in much the same way Arveragus in Chaucer's Franklin's Tale appears to be spelt Arneragus throughout the excellent Hengwrt manuscript).
The name should mean of the boundaries or of the borders, which is not very informative, especially since it is obscure where this story is set.

14 Sir John's land was held in purchas or fee simple as he had gathered it in his lifetime, not inherited it. Though line 58 refers to a portion he had inherited from his father, it was not all entailed to the eldest son, and the father could divide it among the three sons, though this was itself against the contemporary practice of primogeniture; hence the reaction of the advisers in line 43.

38 The name Gamelyn is held to mean son of the old man, from OE gamol, old man. According to line 356 Gamelyn has been oppressed by his brother for sixteen years before he comes to manhood. This would suggest he is very young as the poem starts, adding point to Sir John's description of him in this line as my yonge sone.

42 Before londes the letters hon are crossed out.

45 It seems that the advisers decide to split the land into two as a compromise between Sir John's proposal for a tripartite division and their own preference for keeping it all together.

53 St. Martin of Tours was a Roman cavalry officer in fourth-century France who became a highly influential Christian leader; he is an appropriate person for a knight to swear by, perhaps especially as Sir John divides his possessions, since he was famous for parting his cloak with a beggar.

56 Sir John speaks his own dying will, to divide the property into three. This takes effect, though the eldest brother subverts it.

57 A ploughland was the amount of land that could be worked throughout the year by eight oxen, so this is a handsome bequest.

82 Gamelyn handles his beard in a sign that he has come to maturity; this is also a sign of thoughtfulness.

90 The eldest brother is obviously treating Gamelyn as a kitchen servant, a frequent feature of this "male Cinderella" story; cf. the placement of Sir Gareth in King Arthur's kitchen in Malory's Tale of Sir Gareth.

92 Gamelyn uses the impolite second person singular to express his feelings, and so outrages his brother: they were evidently not on the level of intimacy which would have made the thou form natural.

102 gadlynge is a rude term for a youth, which may also imply illegitimacy. This is how Gamelyn takes it in line 108.

116 Sands notes (1966, p. 160) that Gamelyn means "Unless you be the one (that is, dare to be the one to beat me)."

122 A pestle could, in a large kitchen, be a sizeable club; Gamelyn, being treated like a servant, has no conventional weapons at hand.

127 The loft where the brother takes refuge would be a floor above the shared hall; there would probably be a ladder that could be drawn up. This is almost certainly the same place as the solere where he takes refuge later (line 349) and possibly also the torret (line 327).

130 MS thei is corrected by the scribe to he.

137 Skeat suggested (1884, pp. 38-39) that this refers to St. Richard of Chichester (also mentioned, it seems, in the Gest, line 362), and seen as a "pattern of brotherly love"; the saint is invoked again in line 614.

146 The letter w is deleted before me.

165 MS: anon. This reading is unique to Petworth and is most unlikely to be original: to make sense of it would require dropping And at the start of the next line. It is better to assume the scribe has misread the quite precise on noon, found in the other MSS and parallel to on tresoun earlier in the line.

197 A franklin ranks below a knight, so Gamelyn shows his nobility by helping him. There is some resemblance hereabouts to the action in the Gest when the knight helps a yeoman at a rural sport festival, lines 536-67. Some feel the franklin's sons are dead (Scattergood, 1994, p. 160), but this is a version of the knightly rescue of those oppressed by an ogre. At line 204 the franklin fears he has lost his sons but if God hem borowe, and at 251, after Gamelyn has defeated the champion, the franklin has his sons again. There is some resemblance to the uncompleted story of the knight's son in the Gest (lines 105-12).

230 If Gamelyn was very young when his father died (see note to line 38), how did the champion know of him in this way? There seems an inconsistency in the chronology.

251 The MS has thre crossed out before there.

267 MS: that is inserted above the line. The word is absent in most MSS, but a few amplify to there were that. Only Petworth has the single relative pronoun as an afterthought, which suggests that it might have been an editor's insertion in its exemplar.

272 By saying "I have not sold half my goods," Gamelyn uses a mercantile metaphor to suggest "I have hardly started yet." The champion and the franklin continue in the same metaphor in lines 274 and 276.

273 The verb broke or brouke (line 332) means use or enjoy, and in company with a part of the body makes a bland oath like "As I live and breathe" (also see lines 295, 563).

277 The shrine of St. James the Apostle was at Santiago di Compostella in Galicia, North-Western Spain, a major focus of medieval pilgrimage. Skeat felt this line (repeated at line 760) derived from A Poem on the Times of Edward II, which had some other verbal similarities to Gamelyn (1884, pp. xii-iii), but the connections are all very general and, like this line, in common usage.

296 MS has a corrected by the scribe before smote.

319 catour. The word means caterer, but the scribe writes it with a capital C; this may be influenced by the classical figure Cato, but the abbreviation for our is also very clear, so this is probably an instance of the casual capitalization characteristic of medieval manuscripts.

327 torret. See the note on loft, line 127.

333 MS: a is corrected by the scribe before was.

336 God and good day was a familiar farewell.

364 The eldest brother, having appropriated the property that their father willed to Gamelyn on his death-bed, now offers to make Gamelyn his heir, and Gamelyn apparently accepts.

369 MS: Gamelyn seyde. It is necessary to insert he after seyde: the Petworth scribe has not realized that a speech begins with Gamelyn, but most of the MSS have seyde he.

392 Two (the first of its occurrences in this line). MS: Tho.

404 my. MS: thy.

407 Adam transfers loyalty to Gamelyn not blindly, but with a due sense of return from such an action. Some have felt this is mean-minded of Adam, but it rather represents the processes of "bastard feudalism" at work, and there is no suggestion in the poem that Adam is anything other than a true supporter of Gamelyn.

426 his. MS: his his.

445 Gamelyn speaks ironically: "If we shall anyway absolve them of their sin," i.e., "take vengeance." The priestly metaphor is recurrent in this scene, see lines 499, 512, 519, 529.

447 The reference is either generally to "holy love" or specifically to St. Charity, reputed to be the daughter of St. Sophia, whose other daughters were St. Faith and St. Hope.

453 The MS has me the, but, as the is the object of the first verb warne and me is the object of the second verb bringe, syntactic logic requires that they appear in the reverse order, and the text is so emended.
MS: bondes. The rhyme requires bendes, which is in most other manuscripts.

460 gestes. MS: gettes.

478 "But may they always prosper, who cause you much grief" -- a positively phrased form of curse on Gamelyn.

481 "All who give you security, may evil befall them" -- the reverse of the wish in line 478.

499 spreyeth. MS: spreyneth. Most MSS have some form of spreyneth or sprengeth, which Skeat translates as "sprinkle" (1884, p. 43). It seems most likely that the original read spreyeth, but the religious irony of the passage was not picked up by an early scribe who, assuming a nasal abbreviation, wrote spreyneth in the spirit of physical combat. In an attempt to restore the irony perceived because a spire can be a club, or an asperge for sprinkling holy water, scribal emendation to spreyngeth occurred.

520 armes. MS: arnes.

528 bet. MS: bet haue be. Most MSS have better and all of them lack haue be. This seems the one instance where Petworth is more wordy than other MSS, and it seems necessary to emend on these grounds.

529 Religious irony continues: Gamelyn is giving the holy men "orders" in the form of attention to their tonsures, with his own forceful way of laying on of hands.

533 MS: brast. This is linguistically acceptable, but can be emended to barst to improve the rhyme.

563 So brouke I my chyn. "As I may use my chin": a vague form of oath like "As I live and breathe."

594 An idiom to describe a bad hangover.

605 her. MS: he.

606 Tho. MS: To.

647 Gamelyn says, "If you brought five with you, you would be twelve," mocking the comfort they are (foolishly) taking in numbers.

655 Skeat feels this "evidently refers to an English outlaw, such as Robin Hood" (1884, p. 45).

661 "I will venture so I might have food" -- ironic understatement by Adam.

696 The MS has ca'd before made. Most other MSS have cried and made, which makes for a long line. It may be the Petworth scribe was here reading an emended manuscript, and started to write an excised ca'd and or called and. There seems no reason to follow the other MSS, and ca'd is omitted.
A man was pronounced "wolfshead" to indicate that as an outlaw his life was worth no more than a wolf's: anyone could hunt him. His land was also forfeited, in this case to his elder brother, who is also the sheriff, so confirming his appropriation of Gamelyn's property.

699 Harley 7334 and some MSS influenced by it read To telle hym tydinges how the wynde was wente, a characteristic scribal inflation against the condensed clarity of the Petworth line.

704 tyddyngges. MS reads tyddyngge, though a small final flourish may suggest a plural abbreviation.

709 Daniel notes that wif is an uninflected plural (1967, p. 140) and refers to the wives of the husbondes, that is, farmers, householders, stewards and so on. Several manuscripts emended to both husbonde and wif to clarify that Gamelyn is not being described as married at this point; he will marry in the last lines of the poem.

710 nexte shyre. The next county where his brother has jurisdiction.

724 foote. MS: fotte.

735 MS: cours, with the u subpuncted for correction.

775 had he no cors means that like Robin Hood he was universally popular.

777 Gamelyn was especially feared by clerics in orders. This feature is shared with the Robin Hood tradition, but also with Chaucer, Langland, and other contemporary satirists, who, like the author of Gamelyn, have no criticism of parish priests, but much of the "regular" clergy.

782 The eldest brother is now bribing the jurors to bring in a result favorable to him: this was a common corrupt practice in the period.

784 This line, like 799-800, and perhaps 767-68, seems a reference to the traditional greenwood opening of the Robin Hood ballads, particularly in the use of the word shawes.

800 men. MS: mon.

807-10 These lines are the most striking example in the poem of the "awkward verbal repetition" (Scattergood, 1994, p. 160) which apparently relates to oral performance. Some manuscripts drop lines 807-08, but they clearly belong to the poem in its original form.

853 stede. MS has sete which has been erroneously carried on from line 851. The logical reading in this collocation, which also gives good rhyme, is stede.

863 sherrive. MS: sherrve.

875 shirreve. MS: sirreve.

889 Gamelyn has won his land and his lede (line 891) through the king's generosity, not through the fulfilment of his father's will. That he becomes Sir Ote's heir in line 893 (as he became their brother's in line 364) seems another way of avoiding the implications of the planned breach of primogeniture. For a discussion see Introduction, p. 185.