Melion and Biclarel - University of Liverpool

Two Old French Werwolf Lays
451. ‘a mes’: I have followed Horak, Grimes and Tobin in emending P’s ‘a
merveille’ (cf. T ‘a mez’), which better preserves both the metre and the narrative
logic.
477. ‘li leus’: Horak, Monmerqué/Michel and Grimes follow C faithfully here in
reading ‘et li leus’. The present edition follows Tobin’s tacit omission of ‘et’ to
supply a more sound logical and metrical reading.
478. ‘li leus’: P reads ‘et li leus’, which most editors have allowed to stand. I have
followed Tobin in omitting ‘et’ to clarify the sense of the line.
536. MS ‘ans .II.’.
562. ‘la sale’: Grimes reads ‘sa sale’.
576. After v. 576, T adds: ‘Quant il ot toute la guerre acordee, / Il s’en revait en
sa contree’.
580. ‘Sa’: Horak reads ‘La’.
583. ‘si bailli’: both Monmerqué/Michel and Grimes note that ‘bailli’ should be
understood as ‘malbailli’ (cf. v. 589). Monmerqué/Michel offer a possible
restoration: ‘Por ce qu’el l’ot si mal bailli’ (p. 67 n.1).
592. Kittredge wonders whether the reference to nobles (‘li baron’) in the
following line, ‘ce dïent bien tot li baron’ (v. 592: ‘thus say all the nobles’),
should be read as ‘li breton’ (‘Arthur and Gorlagon’, p. 168 n.2): the insertion of
‘baron’ may be a transcription error. In the prologue to Equitan, Marie describes
the Breton composers as coming from the nobility, rather than being professional
musicians; the connection is strengthened by her rhyming of barun with Bretun
(vv. 1-2). Perhaps, in Melion, ‘li baron’ stands as a synonym for ‘li breton’,
aristocratic composers of true adventures.
594. ‘kerra’: Horak transcribes this as ‘herra’, but for sense substitutes ‘crerra’
from T’s model ‘crera’.
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