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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:—

 “Laissomes ce viellart qui tous est assotez.”

[p-vi]

This glorification of the great Christian hero took its rise in France,
but soon spread into the neighbouring countries, and before long
Charlemagne was celebrated in song by almost all European nations.
Indeed, there are translations, reproductions, compilations of French
Charlemagne romances to be met with in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as
well as in Scandinavia and Iceland. Even in Hungary and Russia these
«chansons» of the Charlemagne cycle seem to have been known.[1]

A full account of almost all Charlemagne romances will be found
in Gaston Paris’s exhaustive work of the «Histoire poétique de
Charlemagne» (Paris, 1865), and in Léon Gautier’s «Epopées françaises»
(Paris, 1867).

Of all the Charlemagne romances, that of Fierabras or Ferumbras has
certainly obtained the highest degree of popularity, as is shown by
the numerous versions and reproductions of this romance, from the 13th
century down to the present day.

When the art of printing first became general, the first romance that
was printed was a prose version of «Fierabras»; and when the study of
mediæval metrical romances was revived in this century, the «Fierabras»
poem was the first to be re-edited.[2]

The balm of Fierabras especially seems to have been celebrated for
its immediately curing any wound; we find it referred to and minutely
described in Florian’s «Don Quichotte», I. chap. 10. The scene of
Fierabras challenging to a combat the twelve peers of France, and of
his vaunting offer to fight at once with six (or twelve) of them,[3]
must also have been pretty familiar to French readers, as the name of
Fierabras is met with in the sense of a simple common noun, signifying
“a bragging bully or swaggering hector.”[4]

Rabelais[5] also alludes to Fierabras, thinking him renowned enough as
to figure in the pedigree of Pantagruel.

In 1833, on a tour made through the Pyrenees, M. Jomard witnessed
[p-vii] a kind of historical drama, represented by villagers, in which
Fierabras and Balan were the principal characters.[6]

That in our own days, the tradition of Fierabras continues to live,
is evident from the fact, that copies of the Fierabras story, in the
edition of the «Bibliothèque Bleue», still circulate amongst the
country people of France.[7] There is even an illustrated edition,
published in 1861, the pictures of which have been executed by no less
an artist than Gustave Doré. And like Oberon, that other mediæval hero
of popular celebrity,[8] Fierabras has become the subject of a musical
composition. There is an Opera «Fierabras» composed by Franz Schubert
(words by Joseph Kupelwieser) in 1823, the overture of which has been
arranged for the piano in 1827, by Carl Czerny.[9]

The different versions and the popularity of the present romance
in France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, having been treated in the
Introduction to «Sir Ferumbras», we need not repeat it again here.[10]
As to the popularity of the «Fierabras» romance in the Netherlands, the
following passage from Hoffmann, «Horæ Belgicæ» (Vratislaviæ, 1830), I.
50, may be quoted here[11]:—

 “Quam notæ Belgis, sec. xiii. et xiv., variæ variarum nationum
 fabulæ fuerint, quæ ex Gallia septemtrionali, ubi originem ceperunt,
 translatæ sunt, pauca hæc testimonia demonstrabunt:— . . . . in
 exordio Sidraci:—[12]

   ‘Dickent hebbic de gone ghescouden,
 die hem an boeken houden
 daer si clene oerbare in leren,
 also sijn jeesten van heeren,
 van Paerthenopeuse, van Amidase,
 van Troijen ende van «Fierabrase»,
 ende van menighen boeken, die men mint
 ende daer men litel oerbaren in vint, [p-viii]
 ende dat als leghene es ende mere,
 ende anders en hebben ghene lere,
 danne vechten ende vrowen minnen
 ende lant ende steden winnen . . . . . .’—

 “Nec rarius tanguntur fabulæ de Carolo Magno, «Speculum Historiale»,
 IV. 1. xxix (cf. Bilderdijk, «Verscheidenh», I. D. bl. 161–2):—

   ‘Carel es menichwaerf beloghen
 in groten boerden ende in hoghen,
 alse boerders doen ende oec dwase,
 diene beloghen van «Fierabrase»,
 dat nie ghesciede noch en was . . . .
 die scone walsce valsce poeten,
 die mer rimen dan si weten,
 belieghen groten Caerle vele
 in sconen worden ende bispele
 van «Fierabrase van Alisandre»,
 van «Pont Mautrible» ende andre,
 dat algader niet en was . .   . .’”


That the «Fierabras» romance must have been well known and highly
popular in England and Scotland, may be gathered from the numerous
references to this poem in various Middle English works.

Thus the whole subject of the «Fierabras» romance is found in the
following passage, taken from «Barbour’s Bruce», ed. Skeat, 3, 435 ss.,
where the King is described as relating to his followers:—

 “Romanys off worthi Ferambrace,
  That worthily our-commyn was
  Throw the rycht douchty Olywer;
  And how the duz Peris wer
  Assegyt intill Egrymor,
  Quhar King Lawyne lay thaim befor
  With may thowsandis then I can say,
  And bot elewyn within war thai,
  And a woman; and wa sa stad,
  That thai na mete thar within had,
  Bot as thai fra thair fayis wan.
  Y heyte, sua contenyt thai thaim than;
  That thai the tour held manlily,
  Till that Rychard off Normandy,
  Magre his fayis, warnyt the king,
  That wes joyfull off this tithing:
  For he wend, thai had all bene slayne,
  Tharfor he turnyt in hy agayne,
  And wan Mantrybill and passit Flagot;
  And syne Lawyne and all his flot
  Dispitusly discumfyt he:
  And deliueryt his men all fre,
  And wan the «naylis», and the «sper»,
  And the croune that Ihesu couth ber; [p-ix]
  And off the «croice» a gret party
  He wan throw his chew