Reynard the Fox: A Poem in Twelve Cantos |
Common terms and phrases
animals appear Bear Bellin better blood bring brought Bruno cause charge clear council court cried crimes Dame deed doubt enemies eyes fables fail fair faith fate fear fight gain give gold grace Grimbart hand hast hath head hear heard heart Henning hide Hinze honour hope hour Ifegrim King knave land leave length lies Lord lost Meanwhile Monarch never night Nobel noble o'er once pain poem pray prey Queen Quoth race rage replied rest Reynard round royal scarcely scrip seek seen sent shame share side soon sought speak spoke stand stood story straight tale tell thee thine things thou thought throne took trow truth twas unto wife Wolf
Popular passages
Page xiii - Twas on the feast of Whitsuntide, The fields were green in summer pride, And glittering o'er the mountain's side A thousand flowers appear'd. — Low from the ,thicket coo'd the dove, And trilling loud their notes of love, In every bush, and brake, and grove, The feather'd quire were heard. — From every bank and every vale, The violet blue and primrose pale, Perfumed the balmy air; And all below, and all on high, The earth, the streamlets, and the sky, Were bright, and gay, and fair.
Page ix - English, and it was printed by Caxton, 1481 ; another edition following in 1485, or 1487. In England, as in Holland, a popular abridgment was found necessary, and appeared under the title of The most delectable history of Reynard the Fox, London, 2639 ; A new edition appeared in 1846. A continuation, The Shifts of Reynardine, the son of Reynard the Fox. London 1684.
Page ix - MS. No. 80. This MS. is very carelessly written. It contains no less than nine errors in this chapter. It is supposed by Dr. Kennicott to have been written about the middle of the thirteenth century, and is in the German character. Notwithstanding the great carelessness of the scribe, Dr. Kennicott remarks, " Plurimas habet codex variationes et nonnullas pretii haud vulgaris.
Page xi - In the versification he has endeavoured to imitate as closely as possible the quaint and homely simplicity of the original, but has occasionally varied the metre, to avoid the monotony inseparable from the continued recurrence of lines of the same length.