The invocation is typical of tail-rhyme romances. Tr notes the similarity in two ME Breton lays — Sir Gowther and Emaré. Chaucer’s The Tale of Sir Thopas offers an amusing send up of exhortations to pay attention.

A man that ledes hym therin. As Tr notes, man is dative, hym reflexive. Thus the invocation requests listeners to pay attention to the consequences of disloyalty, a theme that is central to the poem.

weddyd bretheryn. Sworn brotherhood or “blood” brotherhood, as it is sometimes called, is an ancient custom, whereby men bound themselves with an oath to be faithful to each other till death. Herodotus reports, for example, that the Scythians participated in a ritual whereby they cut their fingers, let the blood run into a chalice, dipped the tips of their swords in the blood, and drank it (see John Boswell, Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe [New York: Villard Books, 1994], p. 94). Tr notes that this bond among men was “superior to the marriage tie,” evidence of which appears in lines 306–07 when the calumniated queen expresses the disparity between these two oaths of loyalty, expecting that the bishop will honor the king before he will honor her: He wole doo more for hym, I wene, / Thanne for me, though I be qwene.

John Boswell also notes the multiple meanings for the term: in fact, the relationships called “blood brotherhood,” “sworn-brotherhood,” “spiritual brotherhood” and so on, vary enormously from culture to culture (and sometimes within a single society) in their mode of formation, in their social, legal, and religious significance, and in their personal (e.g., affective) aspects” (p. 272). Sworn brotherhood is also a central theme in Amis and Amiloun, the analogue Tr considers so closely related to Athelston. Elizabeth Ashman Rowe sees the phrase “sworn brother” as a cynical substitution for an “opportunistic brotherhood” who “join in pursuit of political opportunity rather than economic profit” (p. 81). Rowe compares this alliance to the false brotherhood of Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale.

That wolden yn Yngelond go dwel. Z emends to wilen yn Yngelond gon dwel. Tr rejects Z’s emendation on the grounds that the “phrase ‘of dyvers cuntre’ [in line] 20 strengthens the idea of strangers from widely separated parts meeting and joining themselves in brotherhood” (pp. 93–94). Because sworn-brotherhood is a central theme of the poem, Tr’s return to the MS has been retained. George Taylor, “Notes on Athelston,” suggests that wilen is preferred in line 11, while wolden is preferable for line 14: “to assume that the messengers were foreigners, as does T[rounce] only leads to further difficulties” (p. 20).

Wayside crosses were common in the Middle Ages, though here there is undoubtedly added religious significance, since the poem is preoccupied with ecclesiastical authority, Goddys werk, and the phenomenon of miracle.

In book iwreten we fynde. A conventional phrase often repeated in the poem in variant forms, that is a probable reason scholars still seek a lost source.

Athelston. The name could allude to at least three historical persons: Athelstan I, an obscure king of East Anglia and Kent in the ninth century, Athelstan II, the Danish prince Guthrum conquered by King Alfred and renamed Athelstan at baptism, and Athelstan III, victor at the Battle of Brunanburh in the year 937. (See Laura A. Hibbard, “Athelston, A Westminster Legend,” PMLA 36 [1921], 223–44.)

neyghyd hym nere. The usual meaning of neyghyd, “to approach,” makes “sound sense” according to George Taylor: “Athelston, being the king’s cousin, considered it advantageous to be about the Court, and his expectation was realized as we see in the vv. following where he succeeds his cousin” (p. 20).

Eerl of Dovere. Just as Egeland is given the castle at Stone, Wymound is given the castle at Dover, a strategically important site.

Stone is on the road from London to Canterbury. As F&H point out, nearly all the place names mentioned in the poem are on this road.

Edyff. The name may suggest a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon saint whose veneration continued into the fourteenth century. The name might also allude to Edward the Confessor’s wife.

That noble clerk, on book cowde rede. Literacy in late medieval England meant those who could read Latin, i.e., members of the clergy.

Tr draws a parallel between the precocious growth of the children in Amis and Amiloun and that of the children here, all of which seems to suggest nobility. The growth of the hero in Sir Gowther is also precocious, but is considered an effect of demonic paternity.

to boure and to halle. F&H suggest that the meaning is “both to public and to private counsel.” The bower was a relatively secluded area used for sleeping. For a more complete explanation, see the explanatory note for Havelok, line 239.

To don hem brenne and sloo. Tr notes that this is a “conventional punishment, especially of women, in the French chansons de geste, and, since it differs from the drawing and hanging with which offenders are later threatened, it may point to confusion of an old tale with a newer one” (pp. 98–100).

F&H’s comment that “the monks of St. Augustine’s in Canterbury were reputed to be gay fellows and good singers” is challenged by Tr who asserts that the merry monks are not engaged in frivolity, but rather are experiencing the “pleasant effect of the chanting of the services” (p. 182).

erly and late. A tag meaning throughout the day or perhaps, like line 302, suggesting matins and evensong.

on Goddys werk. Tr notes the variation between this line and line 50, of Goddys werk. The terms are interchangeable, but Goddys werk may be a specific reference to the Benedictine Rule.

worl. Tr notes the probable meaning (world) as correct. Z shows a parallel in Layamon in line 23081.

So moot thou the. This phrase, repeated regularly throughout the text, has something of the force of the modern “So help me God.”

Tr determines these lines to constitute “padding”; similar expressions may be found in the well-padded Bevis of Hampton and virtually all other English verse romances.

Thanne the kyng his hand up raughte. The raising of the hand, usually the right hand, indicates an ancient ritual of oathtaking that originally involved placing the right hand on a sacred object, sometimes a sword, while speaking the oath.

Several lines in the poem indict and, according to Tr, vilify the “false man,” a “constant habit of medieval narrative, including Chaucer” (p. 105).

Tr notes that despite the popularity of poisoning in literature as well as in life, “it seems to have been less used in England than elsewhere” (p. 105).

Tr attributes what seems to be gratuitous punishment of wife and children to ordeal stories derived from German and Scandinavian sources. Laura Hibbard Loomis, on the other hand, sees the Queen Emma and the Ploughshare story as indigenous to England, which suggests that such cruelty is not always culturally bound.

Wymound’s attitude, fostered by envy, is typical of literary traitors. Tr notes that the name Wymound connotes “rascality.” He points to the third executioner in a York Mystery play with the same name. Also, in a poem in the Reliquiae Antiquae the “wimorant” is a pejorative term for the rascally rabbit. George Taylor sees connotations in ME wighel, “deceit,” wicke, “wicked,” and wik-hals “rogue” (see “Notes on Athelston,” p. 20).

I wene he bar his owne name: / He was hoten Athelstane. The messenger is also named Athelston. This practice of reduplicating names is evident in Celtic tradition. Sa suggests that this is a possible indication of a lost source.

The kyng wole for the cuntas sake . . . knyghtes make. The couplet is repeated in lines 211–12, a linking strategy frequently found in tail-rhyme romance.

Westemynstyr. A feature of the poet’s attempt to adapt the narrative to an English environment, says Tr, who assumes a French source.

According to Thomas Wright’s Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England during the Middle Ages (London: Chapman and Hall, 1862), cherries “appeared to have been one of the most popular fruits in England during the Middle Ages” (p. 299). In romances such as Sir Cleges, the fruit is miraculous and instrumental in restoring Cleges’ status in the world.

Abyyd. Z notes that this early example of ME abye “to pay for” leads to confusion with abyde, “to abide” (p. 22).

Many critics have commented on the cruelty in this passage. Gordon Hall Gerould suggests that the behavior is Angevin in nature; he looks for a source in Walter Map. Tr remarks at the commonplace of this sort of treatment of women in the Middle Ages. As Elizabeth Ashman Rowe argues, “Despite its appearance to modern eyes, Athelston’s kicking his wife would not have been a crime in fourteenth-century England, and the resulting death of his child was not one for which he would have been likely to have been convicted” (p. 87). See Select Bibliography.

Soone withinne a lytle spase / A knave-chyld iborn ther wase. The end rhyme in this couplet is a favorite of East Midlands romance.

He was bothe whyt and red. A curious class distinction is made by F&H who suggest that white and red, conventional descriptions of flesh and blood, are “colors of the aristocracy,” and therefore distinct from the blac and brown used in Havelok (line 1009) to describe the lower classes. Tr points out other uses of the latter term in his rejection of F&H’s determination.

baret. Tr notes that this is a word found frequently in West Midlands poems. He offers no explanation for its presence here, suggesting the difficulty of locating poems within specific dialect areas.

The implication here is that he will be paid back in the end.

The mention of Spayne in this line has led to speculation among scholars concerning a historical model for Edyff. Among those considered are Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, and Constance of Castile, second wife of John of Gaunt, despite the fact that she was never a queen. Tr insists that this is evidence of a French original since in the chansons dealing with the “enfances of Charlemagne, his wife whom he ill-treats and who needs a rescuer, is a Spanish princess” (p. 110).

besauntys. A bezant (byzantium nummus) was a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire in widespread circulation in medieval Europe through the fifteenth century.

moregeve. A gift given a bride by the groom on the morning after the wedding. It is not part of a dowry, which would be provided by the bride’s family as a gift to her husband. Rather, it is proferred directly to the bride by her husband.

fyve and twenti thertoo. Tr conjectures that the five and twenty added to thirty miles announced in line 321 equals the distance from Canterbury to London.

Around 6 a.m., or less exactly, very early in the morning. For a more complete explanation, see the explanatory note for Horn, line 855. Tr makes a curious comment in response to the messenger’s putting his personal needs before duty: “John Bull wants his dinner” (p. 110).

Charynge-cross. Charing Cross is an area between modern Whitehall and Trafalgar Square now lending its name to a nearby London commuter train station. One of a series of thirteen memorial crosses erected by command of Edward I along the funeral procession route of his wife, Eleanor of Castile, in 1291. The route began and ended at Westminster Abbey.

Flete-strete. Named from the Fleet River, first recorded in 1280, it became a center of journalism in the modern era until most British newspapers moved to outlying areas of London.

Loundone-brygge. The original bridge was built in 994 A. D., but is now found in Lake Havesu, Arizona. Tr notes that this is the bridge over which Wat Tyler and his followers entered the city during the Rising of 1381. He dates the poem to about that time, though according to A. V. C. Schmidt and Nicolas Jacobs, it could have been written as late as 1399. Elizabeth Ashman Rowe concurs, suggesting that the poem points to Richard II and his troubled reign.

los. Tr rejects the F&H gloss on los as “praise” because it “gives no sense; whereas ‘loss’ provides us with just such an expression as medieval popular poets loved — the restatement of a fact in a negative form” (p. 111). But to our way of thinking “praise,” “glory,” or “repute” makes much better sense than loss in that the messenger loses — his time, his horse, and his effort — neither can he get any recognition from the church or aristocracy for this hard work. His perpetual frustration is a key part of the bourgeois humor of the poem.

Stone into Steppyngebourne. Stone Castle was a resting place for the bishops of Rochester on their journeys to and from London. Steppyngebourne is probably Sittingbourne.

Fro Osprynge to the Blee. Ospringe is a resting place on the Canterbury pilgrim route. Blee refers to the ancient forest of Blean on the plain above Canterbury.

bysschop ryke. Z suggests that ryke be understood as an adjective rather than as a suffix for bysschop.

have this and reed. Recalls the famous tolle lege passage in Book 8 of Augustine’s Confessions exhorting the Bishop of Hippo to take and read a Scriptural passage that subsequently changes his life (8.12.29). The archbishop’s tearful response here makes the allusion all the more probable.

For more on palfray, see the explanatory note to Havelok, line 2060.

A horse worth a hundred pounds would be very valuable in the Middle Ages. Perhaps the messenger is given to exaggeration.

Oure gostly fadyr undyr God. Tr points out the similarity of this expression with what Becket says in the Early South-English Legendary (EETS o.s. 87 [London: Trübner, 1887], p. 136): “Also dignete of the preost, herre than the kyngus is, and is gostliche fader ich am.”

And thy warysoun I schal thee geve . . . hundryd yere. Tr would like to omit and to improve the meter and logic of the passage. We have retained it because it is unlikely to have been an inadvertent insertion by a minstrel or copyist as Tr contends. Warysoun is an interesting term here. The archbishop tantalizes the messenger with more than a simple reward or payment, implying that he will be permitted to enjoy it even though he lives to a very old age. Perhaps it is a pension of some sort that is implied, or an annuity, or a land holding which would be in his name until death.

so lyght. The phrase could signify the bright illumination of Westminster in the morning sun.

kyrke. Probably the chapel within Westminster Abbey.

presoun free. Tr disagrees with F&H who suggests that this term means “on parole.” Instead, Tr believes that it means “strong prison,” which would make it more consistent with the following line and an earlier reference to fettering.

He swoor be God levande. There is a disagreement over who is swearing by God. While Z says that he refers to the king, Tr prefers to assign the gesture to the archbishop, which is more in keeping with the office and the urgency of the matter. S agrees with Tr.

Edith Rickert refers to Kyng Alisaunder (line 1750) — He laughwith and swerith by the sonne — as evidence of pre-Christian influence on oath taking.

See note for line 470.

Tr makes a lengthy comparison between Alryke and Bishop William Bateman who was a champion of the church and an opponent of the king’s power.

The cross, staff, miter, and ring are symbols of the archbishop’s office. The king is implying that since he gave these symbols to the archbishop, he also has the right to take them away. The struggle over the right to invest a bishop with the symbols of his office in the Middle Ages was called the Investiture Controversy — an extremely important power struggle between ecclesiastical and secular authority.

The archbishop is talking here about the formal process of Interdiction, in which the sacraments of the church were forbidden to those under its ban. The medieval church used the Interdict as a weapon in its struggles with secular authority, sometimes applying it to whole countries.

Heretics were denied burial in consecrated ground, as were criminals and prostitutes.

Tr notes an unusual repetition of the same rhymes in this stanza.

But yiff he graunte me that knyght, / His wyff and chyldryn fayr and bryght. These lines repeat in lines 537–38. Such repetition is not uncommon in ME romance. See, for example, Emaré, line 45.

Brokene-cros. The history of this important landmark has been a source for determining the poem’s date. The landmark acquired its name in 1379 and was removed in 1390. Despite this fact Schmidt and Jacobs contend that the poem could have been written “during or after the deposition crisis of 1399 and still have referred to a famous landmark removed a mere ten years or so previously” (Medieval English Romances, p. 194). Elizabeth Ashman Rowe notes that “neither Trounce nor Schmidt and Jacobs read Taylor’s ‘Notes on Athelston,’ which revives Z’s identification of the cross with the Chester Cross. Not only was the Chester Cross located in the correct place (it was in the Strand, which lies between Fleet Street and Westminster) but it also marked the bounds of Westminster and the liberty belonging to the house of Lancaster, making it a suitable place for the Archbishop of Canterbury to wait for the king” (p. 95). Rowe also notes that nothing known about Chester Cross contributes to the dating of the poem.

The ordeal by ploughshare leads Laura A. Hibbard [Loomis] to conclude that the source for the poem resides in a Westminster legend of Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor. The story is told in the Annales of Wintonia as follows:

In 1042 Emma, once known as the Flower of Normandy and the widow successively of the English king, Athelred the Redeless (978–1016), and of the Danish conqueror, Canute, was living at Winchester. She was possessed of great treasures many of which she gave to the great church of Saint Swithin whose bishop Alwyn was her most familiar friend. To her English sons, Athelred, Alfred and Edward, later known as the Confessor, she had given little or nothing, all her favor having been lavished on Harthacnut, her son by Canute. When, therefore, Edward came to the throne in 1042, he showed her no honour. Instead he surrounded himself with those Norman friends who had aided him in his long exile, and among them he especially honoured Robert of Jumieges whom he made Bishop of London and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The king was a man of wonderful simplicity and at last he would believe Robert even if the latter told him a black crow was white. In time Robert poisoned Edward’s mind against the good bishop Alwyn and Queen Emma.

The queen, who was imprisoned at Wherwell, promptly wrote a letter to those bishops whom she could trust and begged them to persuade the king that she might clear herself by an ordeal to take place at Saint Swithin’s. In a long speech which uninvited he made to the bishops, Robert accused the queen not only of evil conduct with Alwyn but of having consented to the murder of Alfred, the king’s brother, and of having planned to poison the king himself.

On the day of the trial a great concourse of people gathered in Saint Swithin’s church where in a row were placed nine red hot plough-shares. The queen, who had passed the previous night in prayer before the shrine of Saint Swithin and had been comforted by beholding the saint in a dream, walked forth bravely. Having cast off her mantle she closed her eyes and was led by two bishops across the burning metal while the people cried aloud: “Swithune, Sancte Swithune, tu illam adjuva!” Unconscious that she had passed the ordeal the queen opened her eyes and beheld the miracle. She prayed to be taken to the king who, overwhelmed with holy penitence, lay prostrate on the floor. Willingly he confessed his fault, willingly he restored Bishop Alwyn to highest favor. Joyous was the tumult of the people.

From Dover, where he had waited to hear the result of the ordeal, Robert fled to Jumieges where presently he died. In Winchester king and queen and bishop vied with each other in giving treasure and manors to the church of the holy saint who had saved them all. (As quoted in Laura A. Hibbard, “Athelston, A Westminster Legend,” pp. 227–28)

The doom, or ordeal, was a method of testing guilt or innocence by means of direct physical trial. The accused was “subject to some physical test, such as the plunging of a hand into boiling water” (OED). The result was thought to represent the immediate judgment of God. Trial by ordeal was no longer used by the time Athelston was written, but it continued to be an important literary convention. One thinks of a work such as Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan, where Isolde’s ordeal is one of the central episodes in the narrative.

It was customary to remove the clothes of ordeal victims, though here the queen retains her garments.

The high altar of St. Paul’s was famous for its elaborate adornment. Sa suggests that the offering may be part of the ordeal ceremony.

schewyd. Often used in relation to miracles, it indicates the suspension of natural phenomena by God, here to demonstrate innocence. Divine intervention is usually initiated by prayer in medieval romance.

To Jesu Cryst he prayde a bone. On general grounds this should be a prayer uttered by the queen. Tr argues that he refers to the archbishop.

And sithen it fell at syght. Tr notes that he can make nothing of this line. Sa also finds the line a mystery. Z, on the other hand, translates “It came to pass that she sighed.” Taylor suggests that the scribe may have mistook “sighed” for “sight” (p. 25). But it may mean that the baby has dropped into the birthing position.

As it was the landys lawe. This may refer to the custom whereby women had exclusive rights to witness and participate in the birthing process. Only under extraordinary circumstances would a man be allowed to intervene. A similar expression for privacy in birth is spoken by Josian in Bevis of Hampton (lines 3627–31).

The St. Edmund mentioned here is St. Edmund of East Anglia. Born of Saxons, raised a Christian, he became king of the East Angles in the ninth century. During a Viking raid he was killed either by scourging or shot with arrows as tradition relates, or by being offered to the gods in accord with Viking ritual practices. His body, later found to be incorrupt, was transferred to Bedricsworth (Bury St. Edmunds). In 925 King Athelstan founded a community of priests and deacons to take care of the shrine. One of the most famous representations of Edmund is in the Wilton Diptypch where he and Edward the Confessor are depicted as two royal patrons of England. Together they present King Richard II to the Virgin and Child. His traditional emblem is the arrow, the instrument of his passion, but he is occasionally depicted with a wolf, believed to have guarded his head after death. See the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, pp. 120–21; also see Lord Francis Hervey, Corolla Sancti Eadmundi: The Garland of Saint Edmund King and Martyr (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1907).

into the plas. Edith Rickert and F&H take this to mean “open square.” Tr thinks it means simply “thither,” just as in that plas is used for “there.”

Seynt Anne. The traditional name of the mother of the Virgin Mary; St. Anne does not appear in the Gospels, but her cult is popular in late medieval England. She is also the patron saint of childbirth. (See Kathleen Ashley and Pamela Sheingorn, eds. Interpreting Cultural Symbols: Saint Anne in Late Medieval Society [Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990.])

From what has the king to be absolved? Z suggests that the king’s sin is breaking his oath to his sworn brother. The rhetorical question posed by Tr is thus answered since he agrees with Z. But perhaps the absolution is necessary to eradicate his participation in the death of his unborn son. Though the act would not be considered criminal, it could be construed as immoral.

trees three . . . hors fyve. F&H suggest that “trees three” refers to the two uprights and crossbar of the gallows. Fyve, Tr remarks, is nothing more than a “popular number [used] as a rhyme word” (p. 130). Legal dragging usually required only one horse. Taylor suggests a relation to an incident involving Thomas Becket as described in L. F. Salzman’s English Trade in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931):

When Thomas Becket went to Paris in 1158, as Chancellor and Ambassador of Henry II, it is true that twelve well-appointed pack-horses formed part of his imposing Cavalcade, but there were also eight splendid chariots each drawn by five horses no less strong and shapely than war-horses. (p. 204)

youre arende. The messenger’s journey to Canterbury and back is his “business” in a double sense according to Tr, concerning both Egeland’s imprisonment and Wymound’s trial by ordeal.

Gravysende. The town of Gravesend on the road from London to Dover.

nought yit! lete! Sa remarks on the king’s imperious retort. “[E]ssentially it says something like ‘Do not indeed allow,’ to which we might add ‘yourself familiarities with me’” (p. 152).

Alle men. I.e., the citizens of London.

the Elmes. Thought to be west of Smithfield, a place where many elm trees grew. It was also a place of execution; such luminaries as William Wallace and Roger Mortimer met their fate there. Tr argues that Tyburn is a more likely site and the reference to the Elmes is based upon an OF phrase — juges de dessous l’orme (judges without tribunal) — as well as the frequent use of elm trees for hanging.