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 The Sowdone of Babylone.

 Early English Text Society.
 Extra Series. No. XXXVIII.
 1881.


 BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN.
 NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT.
 PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.




 THE
 ENGLISH CHARLEMAGNE ROMANCES.

 PART V.

 The Romaunce of
 The Sowdone of Babylone
 and of
 Ferumbras his Sone who conquerede Rome.

 RE-EDITED
 FROM THE UNIQUE MS. OF THE LATE SIR THOMAS PHILLIPPS,
 with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary,
 BY
 EMIL HAUSKNECHT, PH. D.

 LONDON:
 PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
 BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co.,
 PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING-CROSS ROAD, W.C.
 MDCCCLXXXI.
 [«Reprinted 1891, 1898.»]




 Extra Series,
 XXXVIII.

 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.




CONTENTS.


 INTRODUCTION … v

   Popularity of the Carlovingian Romances … v

   Popularity of the Ferumbras Poem … vi

   The Provençal Ferabras … ix

   The Fierabras Poem an Enlarged and Recast Portion of the Old Balan
   Romance … xi

   The Poem of the Destruction de Rome … xiii

   MSS. of the French Fierabras … xv

   The English Sir Ferumbras, its Source, etc. … xvi

   The Poem of the Sowdan of Babylon, its Sources, its Differences
   from the Original Balan Romance and from the Ashmolean Ferumbras …
   xxii

   Dialect of the Sowdan … xxxiv

   Metre and Rhymes of the Sowdan … xl

   Date and Author of the Sowdan … xlv

   MS. of the Sowdan … xlvii

   Roxburghe Club Edition of the Sowdan … xlviii

 ADDITIONS … xlix

   The Hanover MS. of the French Fierabras Compared With the Sowdan …
   xlix

   The Hanover Version Compared With Sir Ferumbras … lii

 SKETCH OF THE STORY … liv

 THE ROMAUNCE OF THE SOWDONE OF BABYLONE AND OF FERUMBRAS HIS SONE
 WHO CONQUEREDE ROME … 1

 NOTES … 95

 GLOSSARIAL INDEX … 133

 INDEX OF NAMES … 141

[p-v]




INTRODUCTION.


The exploits of Charles the Great, who by his achievements as conqueror
and legislator, as reformer of learning and missionary, so deeply
changed the face of Western Europe, who during a reign of nearly half
a century maintained, by his armies, the authority of his powerful
sceptre, from the southern countries of Spain and Italy to the more
northern regions of Denmark, Poland, and Hungary, must have made a
profound and unalterable impression in the minds of his contemporaries,
so that for centuries afterwards they continued to live in the memory
of the people. Evidence of this high pitch of popularity is given
by the numerous «chansons de geste» or romances, which celebrate
the deeds, or are connected with the name, of the great and valiant
champion of Christendom.

It is true that the sublime figure of Charlemagne, who with his
imaginary twelve peers perpetually warred against all heathenish
or Saracen people, in the romances of a later period, has been
considerably divested of that nimbus of majestic grandeur, which the
composers of the earlier poems take pains to diffuse around him.
Whereas, in the latter, the person of the Emperor appears adorned with
high corporeal, intellectual, and warlike gifts, and possessed of all
royal qualities; the former show us the splendour of Royalty tarnished
and debased, and the power of the feodal vassals enlarged to the
prejudice of the royal authority. Roland, in speaking of Charlemagne,
says, in the «Chanson de Roland», l. 376:—

 “Jamais n’iert hum qui encuntre lui vaillet,”

and again the same Roland says of the Emperor, in «Guy de Bourgoyne»,
l. 1061: