The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/544 (page 13)
    [V.] EMPERATOR BETOLDUS. Betoldus regnyd a wis Emperoure yn the cyte of Rome; the whiche ordeynyd for a lawe, that euery woman that tooke an other man than hire husbonde, that thei shuld be put to perpetuelle prisone. There was a kny3t hadde a faire wife, that tooke an other vndir him, and in avowtry was with childe; and therfore by the lawe this woman [c- 2 ] was demyd to perpetualie prisone, in the whiche prisone sche bro3te forthe, and bare a faire childe, a sone. This child wex vnto the age of vij 3ere. The lady his modir vsithe euery day gretly to sorowe and to wepe. In a day this childe sawe his moder wepe; he spake to hire, and seide, “ Modir, why wepist thou ? telle me the cause of thi sorowinge.” “ A ! deere sone,” quoth she, “ I have gret cause to sorowe, and thou eke; for ouer our hedis ys passage and goynge of peple, and there shynithe the sonne in here clerenesse, and solas ther is y-had; and thou and I buth here in perpetuel derkenesse, in so moche that I may not see the, ne thou me ; and therfore alias! that euer I was bore yn to this wordle.” Thenne spake the childe to his moder, “ Suche joye or suche li3t as thou spekist of, sawe I neuer, and therfore I knowe not what it meenythe; for here in this derkenesse I was y-bore, and therfore if I have mete and* drynke y-nowe, it were piesing to me to dwelle here stille, alle the days of my life. And therfore, modir, I pray the, wepe not, but make me solas and com- fort, and chere me.” In alle the tyme of this lamentacione bitwene the moder and the sone, the Emperours stiward stod ouer hire hedys, and hurd, and hadde gret compassione and pite; and went to the Emperour, and * knelid, and praide for hire delyueraunce; and the Emperour grantyd his bone, and soo they weere delyuerd, &c. an, MS.