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NOTES TO SIR TRISTREM (2132-2229).
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2132. To wede is a mere meaningless expletive to complete the
verse, the sense which it conveys being already expressed by wode in
the previous line.
2138. Of sake he make me fre = That he make me free of blame or
guilt. The word sake recurs in this sense in line 2231 infra, though
other instances of this use of the word are unknown. Scott points
out in his glossary that sackless or sakeless is Scottish for innocent.
The word make in the MS. has been inadvertently repeated.
2144. Kolbing very justly remarks on this line that vngiltles is an
impossible word; it must be read either as vngilti or giltles. He
prefers the first of these forms on account of its harmony with the
metre.
2150. His heiy = Is high, is powerful.
2152. No rechey whaty liy = I don’t care what lies I tell.
2171. Briy so beiy = Bright as a ring.
2195. Bi tvene here is between the queen’s bed and that of
Tristrem.
2229. Scott has an interesting note on the trial by ordeal, from
which the following passage is extracted :—
“ The trial undertaken by Ysonde . . . consisted in actually carry¬
ing a piece of red-hot iron in the naked hand from the choir to the
altar through the whole length of a Gothic cathedral. It was ap¬
pointed by the canon law: 'Si quis fdelis libertate nobilitatis, tanto
talique crimine fublicetur, ut criminosus a populo suspicetur, per
ignem, candente ferro, caute examinetur.' According to the degree
of crime imputed to the accused, he carried an iron, called by the
Saxons the single or triple laga (load or burden). The latter, accord¬
ing to the laws of King Athelstan, weighed sixty shillings — i.e.,
three pounds. This mode of proof applied to all accusations in
which other testimony was defective, from petty larceny to high
treason. Nay, it was found effectual to establish the purity of
descent; for Inga, mother to Haco, King of Norway, underwent
the ordeal of hot iron, and successfully established the questionable
nobility of her son; and a young man offered by the same evidence
to prove himself the son of Riis ap Griffid, a Welsh prince inclined
to deny the relationship.—Gir. Camb., ‘Camb. Descrip.’ cap. xiii.
Gibbon has recorded the ingenious evasion of Michael Palasologus,
when pressed to undergo this ordeal by an insidious archbishop :
11 am a soldier,’ said he, ‘ and will boldly enter the lists with my
accusers; but a layman, a sinner like myself, is not endowed with
the gift of miracles. Your piety, most holy prelate, may deserve the
interposition of heaven, and from your hands I will receive the fiery
globe, the pledge of my innocence.’—‘Roman Empire,’vol. xi. p. 317.
The bishop dropped his plea, rather than himself become a party in
so hazardous a trial. Yet the clergy, to whom the custody of the
person accused was usually intrusted for a certain time before the