Part 35

“God would that every wife that dwelleth in this land, Would teach her daughter as ye shall understand, As a good wife did of the North countré How her daughter should learn a good wife to be: For lack of the mother’s teaching Makes the daughter of evil living, My lief dear child.”

Another is:

“In other men’s houses make thee no mastery, Nor blame thou nothing thou sees with thine eye; Daughter, I thee pray, bear thee so well That all men may say thou art true as steel; For wise men and old Say good name is worth gold, My lief dear child.

Sit not at even too long at gaze with the cup, For to wassail and drink all up; So to bed betimes, at morn rise belive, And so may thou better learn to thrive. He that will a good house keep, Must oft times break a sleep, My lief dear child.

If it betide, daughter, thy friend from thee fall, And God send thee children that for bread will call, And thou have mickle need, help little or none, Thou must then care and spare, hard as the stone— For evil that may betide, A man before should dread, My lief dear child.”

The order of the stanzas is different from that here printed.

The rhyme-scheme is normally aabbccd; but the first, second, seventeenth, and last stanzas are irregular—abcddc, ababcdcdeef, aabbccdde, and aaaa, thus varying in both number and arrangement of lines. The first four verses contain roughly the same number of accents, the fifth and sixth vary greatly in length, while the seventh is a constant refrain to all stanzas except the first and last.

The poem is distinctly popular in tone; and I have seldom attempted to improve its rough metre, holding that the effect is racier as it is.

p. 31. Kirk. Text has church, but the rhyme is work.

p. 32. Thrive ... life. The corresponding couplets are usually proverbial in character.

p. 33. Whatsoever he be. Apparently on the basis that “e’er a man is better than ne’er a man.”

p. 33. Atterling. Literally, one who deals in poisons (O. E. ator); hence, a witch; hence, a shrew.

p. 34. Maze. Without the help of the N.E.D., the word is puzzling; but the context seems to demand maze, connected with amaze, rather than maze = labyrinth.

p. 35. Shooting at the cock. The popular old English pastime of throwing missiles to bring down a cock tied by the leg.

p. 37. Deed ... speed. The meaning is that a deed finished quickly helps on another by giving place to it.

p. 38. Term-day. Servants were hired by the year at special times which varied according to the district, being usually coincident with the big fairs of that part. Michaelmas was a usual time.

p. 40. As a wren hath veins. The wren is so small that but little blood can be let from her veins. Put more strongly: “You cannot squeeze blood out of a stone.”

HOW THE WISE MAN TAUGHT HIS SON

Found in various MSS. The version in The Babees’ Book is printed from Lambeth 853, fol. 186. Another is given in Queene Eliz. Achad. from Ashmole 61, fol. 6. Ritson, in his Ancient Popular Poetry, printed Harl. 4596, and Hazlitt, in his Early Popular Poetry, MS. Camb. Ff. ll. Luytel Caton

(Part II., Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., published by Dr. Furnivall, 1902) says:—

“Now whoso will, he may hear In English language, How the Wise Man taught his Son, That was of tender age” (ll. 5-8).

It is doubtful whether this poem was written in imitation of the preceding, or that of this, but the Wise Man, through its connection with Cato, has the longer pedigree. A poem in the Exeter Book begins: “Thus a wise father (frodfæder) instructed his dear son, a parent wise in mind, old in virtues, sagacious in words,” &c. Although I have not been able to compare the different versions in detail, I incline to believe that there are recognisable links between them all. The Good Wife is, however, much the more vivid and amusing of the two.

The metre is ababbcbc, but the poem loses little by being turned into prose.

p. 47. All that there is. This passage suggests one in the Blickling Homilies (No. VIII. Soul’s Need, ed. Morris), which goes back to St. Augustine.

JOHN RUSSELL’S BOOK OF NURTURE

First printed by Dr. Furnivall from MS. Harl. 4011, fols. 171-89, dated about 1460. Other copies are in Sloane 1315, fols. 49-67 and 2027, fols. 1-15b, supposed to be slightly earlier in date; also, Royal 17 D xv., article 5.

Nothing is known of the author beyond what he himself says, that he was usher and marshal to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (regent during the minority of Henry VI.). He was seemingly an old man and a widower before the death of Duke Humphrey, who was murdered in 1447. This seems to be suggested by the fact that he asks the reader’s prayers for Duke Humphrey (as the King is prayed for to-day) and then for the souls of his wife and his parents. If then he was forced to retire from court by old age (as he says in another place, see p. 77, above) some time before 1447, he might have been born even before 1360, and studied his courtesy under Edward III., or at the very latest under Richard ll.

The device of wandering in the country and there meeting with some one who furnishes the subject of the poem was extensively used by Chaucer and his school, derived by them in turn from French poets of the thirteenth century.