MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN MEDIEVAL ROMANCE MANUSCRIPTS

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y God or chance or destiny, but a failure to protect himself against feminine intrigue has jeopardized that favor, on a level as much – and probably more – personal than it is public. As Alexander’s motivation in secretly visiting Candace is personal (sexual), so he remains in her thrall only until his regal identity is revealed. As the story races onward towards its end, Candace’s claims to have brought Alexander low, in the pattern of a new Delilah, do not seem fully justified: Alexander’s death from poisoning comes at another’s hand, and without any overt causal relation between the events. Yet this incident’s occurrence late in the romance, very close to Alexander’s ultimate demise, contributes to an impression of correlation, even if causation remains elusive. The moral trajectory of the last episodes of the Alisaunder is one that reflects on the king’s human frailty, and susceptibility to the common lot of all mankind, a subjugation to the Wheel of Fortune: Jn þis world falliþ mony cas Boþe lite blisse and schort solas Jponydoun and Pallidanas And Alsolon þat so fair was Þey lyued here bote lite ras And sone vchon forȝete was Þeo ladies schynen so þe glas And þis maidenes wiþ rody face Passen sone so flour on gras So stong [sic] so fair neuer non nas Þat he no passiþ wiþ allas Auenture so haþ turned his pas Aȝeynes þe kyng his mas (Smithers, Alisaunder, 1:426.6541-6553) Ladies and maidens, biblical heroes and chivalric ones, all are subject to the changeability of fortune, a fate, like that of man by woman deceived, cast as a universal 147
one. Alexander’s death is inevitable, and the political accidents of its occurrence are subordinate to the recognition of this moral truth. All of this, then, from Alexander’s conception, to his affair with Candace, to his death, lies in the unannotated sections of the text, and for reasons, we may speculate, not dissimilar from those that allowed Merlin’s conception and youth to languish unmarked in Arthour and Merlin. These portions of the text primarily concern Alexander as individual or individual moral exemplar, and do not showcase his actions as a military or political leader, or the events of national importance that characterized his reign. 2.4 People, Places and the Marvels of the East What of the notes that do occur, however? Hand B’s practice here is both a continuation of some of the concerns he showed in Arthour and Merlin and, inevitably, an expansion on those concerns – inevitably, because the total number of notes is so much larger in Alisaunder that we may begin to get a rich feel for several different thematic strains in Hand B’s annotation. In Arthour and Merlin the notes were fairly narrowly focused, tracing the history of Vortigern’s kingship through the lens of the military and political corporate action that facilitated his rise to and fall from power. Alisaunder offers a wider array of notes, including a number of different leitmotifs. The first of these is a direct extension of the pattern evident in the Arthour and Merlin notes. Proper names – both of people and places – remain central to Hand B’s notes, and the annotator maintains an interest in troop movements, often presented in terms of the movement of a named general (at the head of his implied military forces) to 148
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MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN MEDIEVAL ROM
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MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN MEDIEVAL ROM
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For my parents, Ceil and Jim ii
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3.2 Cok the Compiler: Cok’s Relig
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To all the librarians who welcomed
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Marginal annotation is a body of pa
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disguise, etc.), but coming into re
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simultaneously, such “rules” ar
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flawed as (or even more flawed than
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etter understood as encyclopedic, r
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of different directions, examining
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intentions of even the best-connect
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manuscript of a visually beautiful
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elements are similar to those found
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methods, including the subdivision
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sense. 51 While Parkes has chosen a
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ordinatio - “professional readers
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thought in the annotations and from
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clear division between the annotati
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as most important, particularly in
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throughout his career: the Wife of
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can be connected with the medieval
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that has been so fruitful in the st
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TYPE III, which comprises marginali
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categories, a large number of the f
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omances. 92 The manuscript contains
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already been posited, by innumerabl
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manuscripts are not confined to a s
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etween a work’s entire, real audi
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sources. This man is John Cok, an A
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notes create tight structural readi
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CHAPTER 1: NAMES, MARVELS AND DREAM
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century scholastics to facilitate a
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however, wholly eccentric, as we sh
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42r: “· How Arthour ȝaf bataill
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Cornewaile,” “Eleyne þat was k
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primarily Latin literacy. Conversel
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mountain is critical to a reader at
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y marginal notes. They are, on the
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þat shal haue a white tong and tre
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Brut, 124 Wace’s Roman de Brut an
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text almost word for word. 129 It i
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to the crown and subsequent death.
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In terms of a practical aid for rea
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imperatives. 143 In Caligula, a mor
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The mnemonic model for annotations
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insertion into the Metrical Chronic
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f. 6v, at Robert of Gloucester, Met
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obscures Gwendolene’s gender. Aru
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fifteenth century” by Kelly DeVri
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clere, / Il ot esté Uther, sun per
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adapted to pious meditation, but no
Page 105 and 106: 1.4 Standing Out From the Ordinary
Page 107 and 108: marvel of the fighting eagles, emph
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Page 113 and 114: Metrical Chronicle, 1.350.37-38). E
Page 115 and 116: surely of a piece with the dreams t
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Page 119 and 120: on texture of vertical lines (folds
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Page 123 and 124: significance in the larger context
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Page 127 and 128: is held out to Arthur a few lines l
Page 129 and 130: and Rome) emphasize the nationalism
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Page 133 and 134: main scribe). 244 Hand B annotates
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Page 137 and 138: 143. 253 Likewise, while the comman
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Page 141 and 142: each sister and achieving a differe
Page 143 and 144: And damyseles caroles lediþ On gre
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Page 149 and 150: But corporate political action is k
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Page 159 and 160: Readers are alerted not only to Ale
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Page 163 and 164: And afolk me clepiþ Vetas Al blak
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Page 167 and 168: eciprocal love (“And he [louede]
Page 169 and 170: “vndurstod wel / Þat þe kyng is
Page 171 and 172: 2.5 Romance, Chronicle and the Form
Page 173 and 174: An interest in letters recurs at se
Page 175 and 176: urial to the fallen Greeks. “That
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Page 179 and 180: person or reproduced directly. Ther
Page 181 and 182: kind of reading aid, and one that h
Page 183 and 184: 90ra, at 10949: “ Nowey dis | Mil
Page 185 and 186: walwanus idem sunt” (“Note that
Page 187 and 188: If we set aside, however, these ind
Page 189 and 190: Launcelot, for all the love that ev
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Page 193 and 194: IMPERATOR. Item in the Castel of Do
Page 195 and 196: were peteuous lettyrs, but in no wy
Page 197 and 198: quotations from Joseph of Exeter in
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ecalls the “XV kyngis” he has p
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debate - although, once again, the
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faucon mak of busard / No hardy kny
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appear a few notes in a fourteenth-
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makes a formal, public declaration:
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cheualier.” And, in the last, Gal
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gain and greater honor than ever,
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CHAPTER 3: MEET THE ANNOTATOR: JOHN
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Cambridge, Corpus Christi College M
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As for Cok himself, he is best know
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text; he ages, he becomes infirm, h
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chronicle reaches the historical pe
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I is “Bew clerk,” and that he
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The rex dictus here (Henry II) is n
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Ego Iohannes Portuensis episcopus r
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Our picture deepens, however, as we
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ichness of each piece and an apprai
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desired to create a neat break betw
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closed together with the blue ink s
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The mark is not unique to Cok. A ve
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intended for others involved in the
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however, it also means either that
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description that refers to the firs
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From the view of the table of conte
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texts, comprising in all a total of
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forgiving sin and lamenting the hum
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They kill the Father by a thousand
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great religious authorities like Be
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Oportebat nos, dilectissime, cleric
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495.15. mendacium. Seculares namque
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The inclusion of this additional ma
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sinner, to understand the nature of
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What follows is a guide for the bet
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intercessor, an addressee appropria
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that they may be used, as a way of
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conjugation of the pronoun hic, wit
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These levels of meditation are not
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patristic, others heretical and sti
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despised, and he seizes his chance,
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classified as “Narrative Reading
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anonymity is tantamount to a generi
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authorship of the text is not the p
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also invokes the standard medieval
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names, but not on the surface of an
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French text is figured as part of t
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This time there is no mention of Ro
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Examination of the language Cok use
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A hub of London literary life, Shir
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addressing the public of the ‘fes
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4.2 Reading Cok’s Notes: Decoding
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summarizing narrative content and s
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instead at a point somewhere in the
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(line 456), a full eight lines afte
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that is, he was probably more likel
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everence, concord, innocence, and c
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the speech of which the “members
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4.4 Language and Interpretation: Mo
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and scribe who routinely copied and
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no means a practice universally or
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text’s diction does not solely ru
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Woman, revealing her history and mo
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allegorical meaning. This would not
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4.5 The Marvelous, Again Following
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tempted. That he exhibits steadfast
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“Scipilions” rather than the mo
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while the “nota per totum” head
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f. 64ra at Lovelich, History, XLV.2
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Northgallie.” Confused by the cor
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Cok either prepares the text with t
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will be confounded by a second “h
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presenting the text must necessaril
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manuscript layout. Nor does he seem
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evidence is too scanty to either cl
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instead that the numbering to stand
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“Of hym [Lancelot of the Lake] Sc
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culmination and conclusion of the f
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In the text of the prophetic geneal
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This presentation of Lancelot of th
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noted? There are some common themes
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frequently one of origin, the begin
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the artifact of the prophetic tree
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So much for the major content and t
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As I have already briefly mentioned
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picture. 605 The instructions do no
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movement of troops, specifying name
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these instructions focuses on the s
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we can see some of the range permis
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was used in the presentation and in
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annotations. 618 Laid out with larg
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Ultimately, of course, while it wou
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masculine bias read perhaps some ev
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the court by vicious factional squa
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defeats are unimportant to the prog
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121r, at 189.15: “Here sir Bew- |
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the Gareth’s sources. 647 Still,
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entertainment, as the author of the
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Still, some important details of th
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scholars, 658 and some of which pla
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While the notes have included some
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physical proximity to the Gareth, t
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Lyonet’s protection of her sister
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Avilion” (Malory, Works, 38.10),
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the realism of the Morte Darthur’
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Looking more closely at the note ma
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significance of the Grail from a pu
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elsewhere. It has already been obse
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This nuancing of the notes’ viole
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marvelous separate from the explica
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his identification as Lancelot’s
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A further special quality seems to
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their meaning. The notes offer no e
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In their totality, the annotations
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individual, showing the hand in a d
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f. 19v at Malory, Works, 33.14: beg
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ignoring this moment - or any simil
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combat is signaled when the princip
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achieving the adventure. This appro
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e seen as an extension of Reader M
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employed not, as one might suppose,
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patterns in chronicles, which thems
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stages in that episode will receive
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Modern evaluation seems to echo obs
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manuscripts, and at mining these no
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Lucius (the first Christian king) a
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Anno · M · lxxx 751 · Coronacio
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Anno · M\o/ · CC · xvj\o/ Corona
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Anno · M\o/ · CCCC · xiij · ix\
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f. 6v-7r: excerpt of the Compendium
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same as in the original, text in re
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Nota bene de paciencia Nobile vinc
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ff. 8r-46r, Tractatus de Interiori
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Synodo Congregatos in PL 184:1085-1
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tocius humani | generis · o miseri
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ff. 141r-159r, De Fide ad Petrum si
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Vut peccata vilia de terra radiantu
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Capacity is worth nothing, where th
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Morales ad Lucilium, and - perhaps
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David assert that “the question [
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22va, at XXIII.322: “[┐] de ass
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68va, at XLVI.439: “┐ how kinge
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WORKS CITED Ackerman, Robert. “He
Page 489 and 490:
Boffey, Julia, and John J. Thompson
Page 491 and 492:
Cooper, Helen. “Opening Up the Ma
Page 493 and 494:
Gaimar, Geoffrey. The Anglo-Norman
Page 495 and 496:
Hunter, Joseph. A Catalogue of the
Page 497 and 498:
Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn, and Denise D
Page 499 and 500:
Lyons, Faith. “Malory’s Tale of
Page 501 and 502:
Orme, Nicholas. “John Holt (d. 15
Page 503 and 504:
The Social History of Books, circa
Page 505 and 506:
———. Wace’s Roman de Brut:
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MARGINAL ANNOTATION IN MEDIEVAL ROMANCE MANUSCRIPTS

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