English and Scottish popular ballads - National Library of Scotland

260 29. THE BOY AND THE MANTLE
this, like the Mcittulssaga, was founded upon
some version of the fabliau which is not now-
extant. One of these is an agreement between
vv 574-6 and the sixth stanza of our
ballad. The mantle, in English, is enclosed
between two nut-shells ; * in German, the bag
from which it is taken is hardly a span wide.
In the Mottulssaga, p. 9, 1. 6, the mantle
comes from a puss, a small bag hanging on
the belt ; in Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lan-
zelet, from ein ma?zigez teschelin, and in the
latter case the mantle instantaneously expands
to full size (Warnatsch) ; it is also of all
colors known to man, vv 5807-19. Again,
when Guenever had put on the mantle, st. 10
of our ballad, " it was from the top to the toe
as sheeres had itt shread." So in ' Der Man-
tel,' vv 732, 73.3
:
Untie [= unten] het man in zerizzen,
Oder ruit mezzern zesnitten.f
The Lanzelet of Ulrich vou Zatzikhoven,
dating from the first years of the thirteenth
century, with peculiarities of detail and a
partially new set of names, presents the out-
line of the same stoiy. A sea-fairy sends a
maid to Arthur with a magnificent gift, which
But possibly the last verse should be taken with what fol-
lows.
* In Halm, Griechische Miirchen, No 70, II, 60 f, a walnut
contains a dress with the earth and its flowers displayed on
it, an almond one with the heaven and its stars, a hazel-nut
one with the sea and its fishes. No 7, I, 99, a walnut contains
a complete costume exhibiting heaven with its stars, a
hazel-nut another with the sea and its waves. No 67, II,
33, an almond encloses a woman's dress with heaven and
its Btars on it, a hazel-nut a suit for her husband. In the
Grimms' No 1 13, three walnuts contain successively each a
tiner dress than the other, II, 142 f, ed. 1857. There are
three similar nuts in Haltrich, No 43, and in Volksmilrchen
aus Venetien, Jahrhuch fiir r. u. e. Lit., VII, 249, No 12.
Ulrich 's mantle is worked with till manner of beasts, birds,
and sea monsters, on earth or under, and betwixt earth and
heaven : Lanzelet, 5820-27.
t I cite the text according to Warnatsch. Warnatsch
thinks it worth noticing that it is the queen only, in Mantel
771 f, as in our ballad, st. 14, that curses the maker of the
mantle; not, as in the fablian, the gentlemen whose Feelings
»ir> bo much tried. These, like the queen in the ballad, ont
mainlit le mriii 'el et i'i- , 1 n i qui tl aporta,
1
Not even for Ginovere hubsch unde guot, or Enttedin
rein.-. The queen has always been heedful of her acts, end
. never done anything wrong docb isf sin an den gedenken
missevarn, Heaven knows how, Ulrich is very feeble
here.
is, however, conditioned upon his granting a
boon. Arthur assents, and the maid takes,
from a small bag which she wears at her girdle,
a mantle, which is of all colors that man
ever saw or heard of, and is worked with
every manner of beast, fowl, and strange fish.
The king's promise obliges him to make all
the court ladies don the mantle, she to have it
whom it perfectly fits. More than two hundred
try, and there is no absolute fit. J But
Iblis, Lanzelet's wife, is not present : she is
languishing on account of his absence on a
dangerous adventure. She is sent for, and by
general agreement the mantle is, on her, the
best-fitting garment woman ever wore. Ed.
Hahn, vv 5746-6135.
The adventure of the Mantle is very briefly
reported to Gawain, when on his way with
Ydain to Arthur, by a youth who had just
come from the court, in terms entirely according
with the French fabliau, in Messire Gau-
vain, ou La Vengeance de Raguidel, by the
trouvure Raoul, ed. Hippeau, p. 135 ff, vv
3906-55, and in the Dutch Lancelot, ed.
Jonckbloet, Part II, p. 85. vv 12,500-527,
poems of the thirteenth century. The one
lady whom the mantle fits is in the latter
A remark is here in place which will be still more appli-
cable to some of the tests that are to be spoken of further
on. Both the French fabliau and the English ballad give to
the mantle the power of detecting the woman that has once
done amiss, a de rien messcrre. We naturally suppose that
we understand what is meant. The trial in the fabliau is
so conducted as to confirm our original conception of the
nature of the inquest, and so it is, in the case of Arthur's
queen, Kay's lady, and the old knight's wife, in the ballad.
But when we come to the charmingly pretty passage about
( Iradock's wife, what are we to think ' Is the mantle in a
teasing mood, or is it exhibiting its real quality 1 If once
to have kissed Cradock's mouth before marriage is once
to have done amiss, Heaven keep our Mirandas and our Per-
ditas, and Heaven forgive our Juliets and OUT Rosalinds
("Les dames et demoiselles, pour ctre baisees devant leur
noces, il n'est pas la contnme de France," we know, but
this nice custom could hardly have had sway in England.
Is then this passage rendered from something in French that
is lost?) But the mantle, in the ballad, alter indulging its
humor or its eapt ioiism ss for a moment, does Cradock's wife
full justice. The nnuille, if uncompromising as to ads. at
least does not assume lo bring thoughts under its jurisdic-
tion. Many of the probations allow themselves this range,
and as no definite idea is given of what is charged, no one
need lie shocked, or perhaps disl lll'bed, by the number of
i victions. The satire loses /est , and the moral effect is
not improved.
t
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