¹ Auchinleck MS. (1330–40), Cbg. Univ. Lib. MS. Ff. n. 38 (15th c), Egerton MS. 2862 (ca. 1400), Rawlinson MS. F. 34 (15th a); Douce MS. 261 (ca. 1564), Percy MS. (Brit. Mus. Add. 27879, ca. 1650); and quartos by Copland, de Worde, and John King (mid-16th c). See John Edwin Wells, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 10501400 (New Haven, 1916), p. 134 and Supplements.

² J. W. Hales and F. J. Furnivall ed. (London, 1868), iii, 19.

³ Sire Degarre: A Study of a Mediaeval Hack Writer's Methods, Texas Univ. Stud, in Eng., No. 11 (1931), p. 5 and n. 1.

⁴ Sire Degaré: A Study of the Text and Narrative Structure, Princeton Stud, in Eng., No. 11 (1935), p. 86.

⁵ MLN, iii (1938), 153 ff.

⁶ Sire Degarre, Englische Textbibliothek, ed. J. Hoops, No. 19 (Heidelberg, 1929).

⁷ Middle English Metrical Romances (New York, 1930), pp. 287–320. Although this is the best text in which to read the story, in citations, quotation, and comparisons made below I have used Schleich's edition because his line numbering is more convenient for referring to variants in the several texts.

⁸ “The Auchinleck MS and a Possible London Bookshop of 1330–1340,” PMLA, lvii (1942), 608, n. 53.

⁹ “Story Patterns in Some Breton Lays,” Medium Mvum, xxii, ii (1953), 79 f.

¹⁰ Sohrab and Rustem: The Epic Theme of a Combat between Father and Son, Grimm Library, No. 14 (London, 1902).

¹¹ Laura A. Hibbard (Loomis), Mediœval Romance in England (New York, 1924), p. 301; see also n. 32 below.

¹² P. 84; note, however, that Faust admits it may be a translation of an OF original, p. 64, n. 21.

¹³ Schleich, p. 21.

¹⁴ Faust, p. 22, cites the unpubl. diss. (Chicago, 1923) by Muriel Eothwell Carr, “Sire Degarrée: A Middle English Metrical Romance Edited from the MS, etc.,” pp. 37–45.

¹⁵ Cf. 11. 35, bayne=two; 39, mynnyng=morninge (xii monthys, R); 97, apert=stowt; 251, dede vp = leyd up; 340, 360, dintes = strokes; 449, iustep=rydeth; 458, staleworp = doughtye (myghty, R); 474, iuste=ffight; 506, pert=fayyr; 530, beren=dassh; 753, palefrai= liakney; 890, rauisse=do uylony; 935, tosprong = barst; 950, brondes brist = styjff strokys; 1062 aumenere = pawtener.

¹⁶ I give as readings of Z here, as elsewhere, the reading of one or more of ERWCpKD and P when they agree and when none of them agrees with A or C.

¹⁷ E.g., 11. 80, 104, 170, 196, 255, 256, 309, 329 ff, 337, 361, 407, 444, 445, and 455 are a few of those in A which have the double negative construction not in Z.

¹⁸ Some of those to be found in Z and not in AC : without doute, as ryght it wolde, at the laste, anone ryght, also perde, ryght sone, in a stonde, without lesynge, iwys, withouten more, in dede, with all, withouten fayle, as I you tell, anone full ryght, for to se, more and some, truelye, perdie, and sothe to say, loude and stylle, in sothe.

¹⁹ E.g., U. 10,16,93,154,191, 596,635, 761, 766,799, 809,912,914,997.

²⁰ Schleich's abbreviated textual notes make it difficult to establish the pronunciation of the name in Z, and not all the texts are complete. A tabular comparison of A with Cp and P, however, will show the difference:

De-gar-(é) A Cp P

Trisyllable 39 13 3

Dissyllable 3 39 50

Rimes “-e” all 9 0 (?)

“ ”-ore“ 0 5 all (?)

Def. 11. 2 5 15

P and Cp (ed. E. V. Utterson, Select Pieces of Early English Popular Poetry [London, 1825], i, 114–155), like the other texts after Z also use Sir before the name before the hero is knighted and use it elsewhere more often than does A; see Faust, p. 34, who reviews Miss Carr's discussion of the name in establishing the grouping of E with the other texts.

²¹ A lanyard or strap for attaching parts of armor. OED, s.v. “lainer.” I have checked the reading in the Auchinleck MS. and find it clear (cf. Schleich's text and note to 1. 571). This unusual detail, the tangling of a jouster's harness (the king “mi3t flit nother fer ne ner” 572), it seems to me, also shows the author's care: Degaré “as God almi3ti wold” (537) wins by a freak accident and not an accurate thrust which a complete novice would be unlikely to accomplish.

²² Arthurian Tradition, p. 229, and s.v. “Brkriu's Feast” in “Index of Names and Titles.”

²³ “Index,” s.v. “Empty castle,” “Yellow man,” “Women, castle (isle, land) of.”

²⁴ Walter H. French, whose help I gratefully acknowledge, first suggested that I compare the texts for evidence of a redactor's work; see my unpubl. diss. (Cornell, 1946), “The Work of the Redactors of Sir Launfal, Richard Cœur de Lion, and Sir Degaré.”

²⁵ See, e.g., the arguments on relative dating of similar stories in “The Sources of Sir Launfal: Lanval and Graelent,” PMLA, ixm (1948), 392–404.

²⁶ Of 1073 lines (in the French and Hale text) only 91 deal with the meeting of the parents; 10 times as much space is devoted to Degaré‘s adventures as to his parents’ union. In Sir Launfal, on the contrary, all 1044 lines are devoted to the love story.

²⁷ French and Hale, ME Metrical Romances, pp. 345–350.

²⁸ Arthurian Tradition, pp. 42 f, 44 f. 47 f.

²⁹ Cf. the courtly love passages in Marie's Lanval with those in the English version “The Sources of Sir Launfal,” pp. 394–402.

³⁰ P. 80. Earlier commentators mention the sword in connection with the Hildebrand story; Potter, p. 52; Hibbard, pp. 301–305.

³¹ Cross and Slover, pp. 29 f.; see also Loomis, p. 327.

³² Laura Hibbard Loomis, “Chaucer and the Breton Lays of the Auchinleck MS,” SP, xxxviii (1941), 15 f., nn. 4, 6.