VII
THE GEST HYSTORIALE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY
ABOUT 1375.
The Fall of Troy was one of the most popular subjects of mediaeval story. Lydgate wrote a Troy Book about 1420; fragments of another are attributed to ‘Barbour’, whose identity with the author of The Bruce has been questioned; a third version, anonymous, is known as the Laud Troy Book; and Caxton chose as the first work to be printed in English the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (about 1474). More famous than any of these full histories are two single stories detached from the cycle: Jason’s Quest of the Golden Fleece, which is admirably told by Gower in the fifth book of his Confessio Amantis; and the Love of Troilus and Cressida, which gave a theme both to Chaucer and to Shakespeare.
The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, from which our extracts are taken, is a free rendering of the prose Historia Troiana finished in 1287 by Guido de Columna (most probably the modern Terranova in Sicily). The translation, which appears to have been made in the North or North-West Midlands in the second half of the fourteenth century, is preserved only in an imperfect fifteenth-century MS. at the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. In the Early English Text Society’s print, edited by Panton and Donaldson, the text extends to over 14,000 lines.
The table of contents prefixed to the MS. promises ‘the nome of the knight þat causet it [sc. the story] to be made, and the nome of hym that translatid it out of Latyn into Englysshe’; but the extant MS. does not fulfil the promise. The execution suggests a set task and a journeyman poet. Phrases are repeated carelessly; there is a great deal of padding; the versification is monotonous; and the writer is too often at the mercy of the alliteration to maintain a serious level. Yet he is not a slavish or a dull translator. The more romantic elements of the story, such as the matter of the Odyssey, had already been whittled away in his original, and he shows little desire or capacity to restore them. But he knew as well as the Old English poets the forcefulness of alliterative verse in scenes of violence, and describes with unflagging zest and vigour the interminable battles of the siege, and storms such as that which wrecked the fleet of Ajax.
The Prologue is a curious example of the pseudo-critical attitude of the Middle Ages. Homer is despised as a teller of impossible tales, and a partisan of the Greeks,—for Hector is the popular hero of the mediaeval versions. The narratives of Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, products of the taste for fictitious history that spread westward from Greek-speaking lands in the fourth and following centuries, are accepted as reliable documents; and Guido de Columna as their authoritative literary interpreter. No mention is made of Benoît de Sainte-Maure, whose Roman de Troie, written in French about 1184, served as source to Guido, and, directly or indirectly, as inspiration to the whole body of Western writers who dealt with the ‘Matter of Troy’. For these lapses the English translator need not be held responsible. On the merits of Homer, Dares, Dictys, and Guido de Columna, he probably accepted without question the word of his master Guido.
PROLOGUE.
MAISTUR in magesté, Maker of alle,
Endles and on, euer to last!
Now, God, of þi grace, graunt me þi helpe,
And wysshe me with wyt þis werke for to ende
Of aunters ben olde of aunsetris nobill, 5
And slydyn vppon shlepe by slomeryng of age;
Of stithe men in stoure, strongest in armes,
And wisest in wer, to wale in hor tyme,
Þat ben drepit with deth, and þere day paste,
And most out of mynd for þere mecull age. 10
Sothe stories ben stoken vp, and straught out of mynde,
And swolowet into swym by swiftenes of yeres,
For new þat ben now next at our hond,
Breuyt into bokes for boldyng of hertes,
On lusti to loke with lightnes of wille, 15
Cheuyt throughe chaunce and chaungyng of peopull;
Sum tru for to traist, triet in þe ende,
Sum feynit o fere and ay false vnder.
Yche wegh as he will warys his tyme,
And has lykyng to lerne þat hym list after. 20
But olde stories of stithe þat astate helde
May be solas to sum þat it segh neuer,
Be writyng of wees þat wist it in dede,
With sight for to serche of hom þat suet after,
To ken all the crafte how þe case felle 25
By lokyng of letturs þat lefte were of olde.
Now of Troy for to telle is myn entent euyn,
Of the stoure and þe stryffe when it distroyet was.
Þof fele yeres bene faren syn þe fight endid,
And it meuyt out of mynd, myn hit I thinke, 30
Alss wise men haue writen the wordes before,
Left it in Latyn for lernyng of vs.
But sum poyetis full prist þat put hom þerto
With fablis and falshed fayned þere speche,
And made more of þat mater þan hom maister were. 35
Sum lokyt ouer litle, and lympit of the sothe.
Amonges þat menye, to myn hym be nome,
Homer was holden haithill of dedis
Qwiles his dayes enduret, derrist of other,
Þat with the Grekys was gret, and of Grice comyn. 40
He feynet myche fals was neuer before wroght,
And turnet þe truth, trust ye non other.
Of his trifuls to telle I haue no tome nowe,
Ne of his feynit fare þat he fore with:
How goddes foght in the filde, folke as þai were! 45
And other errours vnable, þat after were knowen,
That poyetis of prise have preuyt vntrew:
Ouyde and othir þat onest were ay,
Virgille þe virtuus, verrit for nobill,
Thes dampnet his dedys, and for dull holdyn. 50
But þe truth for to telle, and þe text euyn,
Of þat fight, how it felle in a few yeres,
Þat was clanly compilet with a clerke wise,
On Gydo, a gome þat graidly hade soght,
And wist all þe werkes by weghes he hade, 55
That bothe were in batell while the batell last,
And euþer sawte and assembly see with þere een.
Thai wrote all þe werkes wroght at þat tyme
In letturs of þere langage, as þai lernede hade:
Dares and Dytes were duly þere namys. 60
Dites full dere was dew to the Grekys,
A lede of þat lond, and logede hom with.
The tother was a tulke out of Troy selfe,
Dares, þat duly the dedys behelde.
Aither breuyt in a boke on þere best wise, 65
That sithen at a sité somyn were founden,
After, at Atthenes, as aunter befell.
The whiche bokes barely, bothe as þai were,
A Romayn ouerraght, and right hom hymseluyn,
That Cornelius was cald to his kynde name.
He translated it into Latyn for likyng to here,
But he shope it so short þat no shalke might
Haue knowlage by course how þe case felle;
For he brought it so breff, and so bare leuyt,
Þat no lede might have likyng to loke þerappon; 75
Till þis Gydo it gate, as hym grace felle,
And declaret it more clere, and on clene wise.
In this shall faithfully be founden, to the fer ende,
All þe dedis bydene as þai done were:
How þe groundes first grew, and þe grete hate, 80
Bothe of torfer and tene þat hom tide aftur.
And here fynde shall ye faire of þe felle peopull:
What kynges þere come of costes aboute;
Of dukes full doughty, and of derffe erles,
That assemblid to þe citie þat sawte to defend; 85
Of þe Grekys þat were gedret how gret was þe nowmber,
How mony knightes þere come, and kynges enarmede,
And what dukes thedur droghe for dedis of were;
What shippes þere were shene, and shalkes within,
Bothe of barges and buernes þat broght were fro Grese; 90
And all the batels on bent þe buernes betwene;
What duke þat was dede throughe dyntes of hond,
Who fallen was in fylde, and how it fore after.
Bothe of truse and of trayne þe truthe shalt þu here,
And all the ferlies þat fell, vnto the ferre ende. 95
Fro this prologe I passe, and part me þerwith.
Frayne will I fer, and fraist of þere werkes,
Meue to my mater, and make here an ende.
EXPLICIT PROLOGUE.
THE XXXI BOKE: OF THE PASSAGE OF THE GREKYS FRO TROY (ll. 12463–12547).
Hyt fell thus, by fortune, þe fairest of þe yere
Was past to the point of the pale wintur. 100
Heruest, with the heite and the high sun,
Was comyn into colde, with a course low.
Trees, thurgh tempestes, tynde hade þere leues,
And briddes abatid of hor brem songe;
The wynde of the west wackenet aboue, 105
Blowyng full bremly o the brode ythes;
The clere aire ouercast with cloudys full thicke,
With mystes full merke mynget with showres.
Flodes were felle thurgh fallyng of rayne,
And wintur vp wacknet with his wete aire. 110
The gret nauy of the Grekes and the gay kynges
Were put in a purpos to pas fro the toune.
Sore longit þo lordis hor londys to se,
And dissiret full depely, doutyng no wedur.
Þai counted no course of the cold stormys, 115
Ne the perellis to passe of the pale windes.
Hit happit hom full hard in a hondqwile,
And mony of þo mighty to misse of hor purpos.
Thus tho lordes in hor longyng laghton þe watur,
Shotton into ship mony shene knightes, 120
With the tresowre of þe toune þai token before,
Relikes full rife, and miche ranke godes.
Clere was the course of the cold flodis,
And the firmament faire, as fell for the wintur.
Thai past on the pale se, puld vp hor sailes, 125
Hadyn bir at þere backe, and the bonke leuyt.
Foure dayes bydene, and hor du nyghtis,
Ful soundly þai sailed with seasonable windes.
The fyft day fuersly fell at the none,
Sodonly the softe winde vnsoberly blew; 130
A myste and a merkenes myngit togedur;
A thonder and a thicke rayne þrublet in the skewes,
With an ugsom noise, noy for to here;
All flasshet in a fire the firmament ouer;
Was no light but a laite þat launchit aboue: 135
Hit skirmyt in the skewes with a skyre low,
Thurgh the claterand clowdes clos to the heuyn,
As the welkyn shuld walt for wodenes of hete;
With blastes full bigge of the breme wyndes,
Walt vp the waghes vpon wan hilles. 140
Stith was the storme, stird all the shippes,
Hoppit on hegh with heste of the flodes.
The sea was vnsober, sondrit the nauy,
Walt ouer waghes, and no way held,
Depertid the pepull, pyne to behold, 145
In costes vnkowthe; cut down þere sailes,
Ropis al torochit, rent vp the hacches,
Topcastell ouerturnyt, takelles were lost.
The night come onone, noye was the more!
All the company cleane of the kyng Telamon, 150
With þere shippes full shene, and þe shire godis,
Were brent in the bre with the breme lowe
Of the leymonde laite þat launchit fro heuyn,
And euyn drownet in the depe, dukes and other!
Oelius Aiax, as aunter befelle, 155
Was stad in the storme with the stith windes,
With his shippes full shene and the shire godes.
Thrifty and þriuaund, thretty and two
There were brent on the buerne with the breme low,
And all the freikes in the flode floterand aboue. 160
Hymseluyn in the sea sonkyn belyue,
Swalprit and swam with swyngyng of armys.
et he launchet to lond, and his lyf hade,
Bare of his body, bretfull of water,
In the slober and the slicche slongyn to londe; 165
There he lay, if hym list, the long night ouer,
Till the derke was done, and the day sprang;
Þare sum of his sort, þat soght were to lond
And than wonen of waghes, with wo as þai might,
Laited þere lord on the laund-syde, 170
If hit fell hym by fortune the flodes to passe.
Þan found þai the freike in the fome lye,
And comford hym kyndly, as þere kyd lord;
With worship and wordes wan hym to fote.
Bothe failet hym the fode and the fyne clothes. 175
Thus þere goddes with gremþ with þe Grekes fore,
Mighty Myner〈u〉a, of malis full grete,
For Telamon, in tene, tid for to pull
Cassandra the cleane out of hir cloise temple.
Thus hit fell hom by fortune of a foule ende, 180
For greuyng þere goddes in hor gret yre.
Oftsythes men sayn, and sene is of olde,
Þat all a company is cumbrit for a cursed shrewe.