Charms to Recover Stolen Cattle

Author(s): J. M. McBryde, Jr.

Source: Modern Language Notes , Jun., 1906, Vol. 21, No. 6 (Jun., 1906), pp. 180-183
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

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 180 MODERN LANGUAGE NOIES. [Vol. xxi, No. 6.

disputed paragraph, might have had Kyd more in inferring between the two passages such inter-
or less in mind at every point, he was writing relations of reference as would be necessary for a
primarily of a group in which Kyd was naturally definite statement that Nash meant to indicate
included. This conclusion by no means destroys Kyd as author of a Hamlet play.
the possibility of Kyd's being here indicated as Fortunately, outside testimony, at least as to
the author of an Vr-iHamlet, but it suggests con-the existence of an early Hamlet, seems more
siderable need of caution as to the inference, and definite, inasmuch as Henslowe has an entry in his
some re-examination of the evidence on that par- Diary, " 9 of June 1594, Rd. at hamlet ... VIIJ,"
ticular point. The writer's own view as to the and Lodge in his Wits' Miserie [1596], mentions
question has already been stated, but is repeated " the Ghost which cried so miserably at the theater
here for cleaness: like an Oister wife Hlamlet revenge." Certainly
II. That the paragraph may serve as corrobo- Henslowe's reference here seems clear and Lodge's,
rative of otheir testimony as to an Ur-Hamlet, but
taken with that, practically conclusive; so that
that taken alone, it proves little. The argument the two somewhat reinforce the possibility that
from probabilities may be considerable, but it Nash's reference was to a play, but it must be
must be distinguished from that of certainty. remembered, for accuracy, that Henslowe' s record
1. For one thing, although the context and was five years later than Nash's Epistle (1589)
later references make it seem probable that Nashand Lodge's Wits Miserie still two years later;
in speaking of " whole Harntet " and " handfulls so that their mention of a play at these later dates
of tragicall speaches," has in mind a play, it is does not prove that Nash knew of it in 1589.
not impossible that he means merely The Hytorie If, however, we accept all favorable possibilities
of Hamblet, as illustrating the climax of the as certainties, -conceding that a Hamlet-play did
tragic or melodramatic. Certainly that tale, being exist in 1589 and that it could not, in that form,
newly translated into the English along with other or at that time, have been written by Shakspere-
tales from Belleforrest's Hitoires lTragiques, andit seems highly probable that Kyd was the author
doubtless current among the dramatists of the day, of the early play and if so, that Nash had him
abounds in " tragicall speaches " and so might vaguely in mind as such in his reference to "whole
reasonably be sd to have " handfulls " of them, Hamlets." IKyd's strong caim to the authorship
if length rather than number be taken as the of an Ur-Hamlet however--granting its existence-
measure. Moreover, Nash was, in any case, using rests, not on the reference in the paragraph, how-
the expression " whole Hamlets" in a figurative ever valuable that may have proved as a clue,
sense, since he must have known of the existence but upon the evidence furnished by the resem-
of the prose tale and its equipment of " tragicall blance between the acknowledged works of Ryd
speaches," and would not have inferred that a and the 1603 quarto of Hamlet. Whoever denies
Hamlet play was taken directly from Seneca Kyd's authorship of the assumed play must be
when he was blaming others for ignorance of the ready to account for these strong resemblances, if
classics. Such loose phraing must be carefully not to suggest a more probable author.
dealt with.
2. Then, too, as to the chief evidence from 0. L. HATCHER.
which Nash's declaration of Kyd's authorship is Bryn Mawr CbUlge.
usually inferred, i. e., the expression " the Kidde
in Aesop." The present writer has already ex-
pressed some slight doubt that a pun was intended,
though readily admitting such a possibility. Even CHARMS TO RECOVER STOLEN
granting the pun, however, it is a rash inference CATTLE.
to condlude that it meant he was to indicate Kyd
as the author of an Ur-Hamlet. The word Ham- The two charms that follow have not been pub-
let is used in one connection, whereas the possiblelished, so far as I know, and have been gleaned
pun on Kyd's name occurs several lines later in a from Cambridge 1ss. in the swath of the indus-
trious Cockayne, Though the first, as far as it
different connection; so that we are hardly jusified

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 June, 1906.] MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. 181

goes, is practically identical with ithe version in A fragmenet of this charm appears in Grimm's
Leechdomns, 3, 286, the second exhibits important Teuttonic lMiythology, Stallybrass, 1880-1888, 4,
variations in the Latin fornlula and offers a better 1849:
and clearer text. Abraham tibi semitas vias, montes concludat
(A.) Ms. C. C. C. 190, fol. 130 (Wanley, Job et flumina, Isaac tibi telnebras inducat. Jacob
P. 1 0). te ad iudicium ligatum perducat.5
Gif feoh sy under fangen. Gif hit sy hors, A later version of this same fragment appears
sin3 on his feteran obbe on his bridele. Gif hit in English in all Oxford Ms. (seveniteenth century),
sy over feoh, sin3 on Acet fot 1 spor ancd ontend iii
Bibl. Bodl. e Mus. 243, fol. 34:
canldela anbd dryp on Acwt hofrec bcet wex priwa. Abraham shutt ye way to thee yt yu ronnle no
Ne mve3 hit pe lnan m-an forhelani. Gif hit sy
further/ Isaack send darknes to thee yt yupresume
to goe no further. Jacob be wth thee & bringe
ilinorf, Sin3 ponnze onl feower healfe 1ses huses and
sne on iiddclanl: Crux Christi2 reducat. Crux thee to this place N. -+ retUrne returne in ye name
Christi per furttuin periit, inventa est. Abraham of ye father & ye sonne & ye lholy ghost. Amen.
tibi semitas, uias, monites, concludat; Iob et Saye6 this Orison afore sayd turning thee into
flumina; [Iacob te] 3 ad iudic [i] um li3atum ye 4 parts of ye worlde & then goe to ye church
per-
ducat. Judeas Clist ahen3an, -Acet heomn corn to & cause a masse to be songe of ye holy ghost 3
wite swa strani3an, -3e dydan heom daeda pa wyr-dayes together & ye theefe shall come agayne
restan. Hily Act drofe on3uldon; helon hit to without fayle by ye grace of god. probatum est.
hearme micclum, for pam hi hit forhelan ne Now, as A and B agree in all essential details
mihtan. except in the passage, A brahair tibi, ....
In Cockayne's version there follows a rhyth- perducat; as this passage is inaccurate and corrupt
mical formula of about eighteen lines, which sets in both versions; as it is introduced abruptly, with
forth the legal right of the origilnal owner to the serious interruption to the context ; as it is found
property, and which will be given in ftull further both in Grimm and in a later English MS. inde-
on in this article. pendent of the Crux Christi reducat; it is evident
In the Cambridge ms. this charm follows imme- that we have here tvo independent charms loosely
diately after a brief extract from Ex Decretis and carelessly tacked together. I have not been
Sacti Gelasii Papce. It also appears in B. M. able, however, to discover a fuller or more accu-
Ms. Harl. 438, fol. 128 (new numbering, in pen- rate version of this interpolated charm.
cil, 138b), which is a transcript from MS. C. C. C. The conclusion of A, Iudeas Grist ahen3an, etc.,
190, made by Mr. John Richford anld others, and is evidently translated either from B or from some
donated to the Museum by D. George Hickes. older Latin version. The originial must certainly
(B.) Ms. C. C. C. 41, fol. 227-228 (margin); have been Latin, not Elnglislh.
new nunmbering, fol. 207-208. Both charms (disregarding the Abraham tibi,
Clux Christi reducat. Crux Christi periit et etc. ) are clearly ritualistic, developing out of
inuenta est. Habraclham tibi uias, montes, si- priestly ceremonies based on the well-known
legend of the finding of the Cross by St. Helena.
lua [s], semitas, flumina [s], andronas [andrones],
[con]cludat; Isaac tibi tenebras inducat; Crux The forin of the charm, -parallelism, or " similia
Iacob te a [d] iudic [i] Wum ligatumn perducat. similibus," --is one of the oldest and most wide-
Iudei Christum crucifixerunt per simnum; sibi met spread.7 A, however, omits the application to
ipsum perpetraielrLnt opus; celaureunt quod non
potuerunt celare: sic nec hoc furtum celatiur nec 'Grimm's punetuiation is reproduced. It might, how-
celare possit per dominum nostrum. ever, make the connection of the separate clauses clearer
by placing a semicolon after concludat and after induicat.
The source of this fragment is not given.
1 See Stopford Brooke's note on this heathen ceremony,
65The italicized words appear in the ms. in red ink.
Hist. Early Eng. Lit., p. 473.
7 See M. Miiller, tber den Stilfor)n der altdeutschen Zau-
2 Ms. a]ways XPI. 3 See following MS.
berspriiche bis 1300, Gotha, 1901, pp. 36-39; 0. Eber-
4This gives the proper reading for A. It may be noted
that B omlits Job. mann, Blut- und W4undseyen, Palu2stra, XXIV, 131 ff.;

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 182 MiODERN LANG UA GE NOTES. [Vol. xxi, No. 6.

the deed in hand, swa ncefre beos dced forholen Christi reducat towards each point; and in the
ne wyrde, as in A and B of Grein-Wuclker. German version the thief is solemnly adjured to
Although ill these two versions allusion is made return with the stolen property either before sun-
to the miraculous finding of the Cross, there is no rise or before midday, sunset having been appar-
mention of St. Helena by name, as in Grein- ently omitted. There is the same parallelism as
Wiilcker, i, 325, C, and in the two following in the Anglo-Saxon versions.
versions,-one from an unpublished English mB.
Das Kreuz geschlagen:
of the seventeenth century, the other a popular "Wiederkehre der Dieb vor Aufgang der Sonne mit
version common to the peasants of Pomerania. dem gestohlenen Gut."
The English version, taken from Bibl. Bodl. MS. Vaterunser sprechen, das Kreuz schlagen:
116, fol. 71, exhibits a curious mixture of me- " Wiederkehre der Dieb vor Mittag mit dem gestohlene
Gut."
diaval divination and of direct prayer to the saint.
Bibl. Bodl. Douce Ms. 116, fol. 71, xvii Vaterunser sprechen, das Kreuz schlagen:
"Wiederkehre der Dieb [vor Untergang der Sonne]
century. Charme to find out a theefe.
mit dem gestohlenen Gut."
The maur how to find out a theef, is thus, turn
Vaterunser sprechen:
yr face to ye east & make a cross upon cristall Wt " Das Kreuz Christi ward verborgen, ward wiederge-
oyl, & undr ye cross write these 2 words (Saint funden durch die Sankt Hellmann.-Also wahr muss der
Helen) then a child yt is innocent, and a chant Dieb wiederkehren und sich wiederfinden mit dem ge-
stohlenen Gut." 9
virgin borne in true wedlock, & not base begotten,
of ye age of 10 years, must take ye Cristall in his Immediately following Cockayne's version, and
hand, and behind his back, kneeling on thy knees, joined on to it without a break, comes a peculiarly
thou must devoutly, and reverently say ovr this interesting rhythmical recital of the legal right of
prayr thrice, I beseech thee my Lady S. Helen, the owner to the stolen property, the whole being
mother of King Constantine, Woh did find ye cross an independent, purely legal formula, borrowed
whereupon Christ dyed: by this thy holy devotion from the solemn oaths taken or administered in
and inuention of ye cross, and p ys ye same cross, case of stolen goods,'0 and here tacked on, with
& p ye joy wol thou conceivest at ye finding thereof
& p ye love wo' thou bearest to thy sonne Con- 9Ulrich Jahn, Hexenwepen und Zauberei in Pommem,
stantine, & p ye great goodness, wah thou dost Stettin, 1886, p. 55, No. 12.
always use, yt thou show me in this cristall, w'I 10 See Thorpe's Ancient Law8 and Institutes of BEnland,
soev I wish or desire to know; amen. & whn ye Records Commission, 1840, I, 184. The whole passage in
Cockayne, with slight and unessential verbal differences,
child seeth y angell in ye Cbristall, demand wht
is identical with that in the Ancient Laws. On page 178,
you will, & the Angell will make answer there- note, Price, the first editor, calls attention to the marked
unto. Memorandum, just as sun rising, wI ye rhythmical character of the phrasing in these oaths: " It
wheather is fair & clear.8 is impossible to read these oaths without perceiving at
The German version, though found among the every turn their rhythmical quantity and alliteration. An
ear any way accustomed to Anglo-Saxon poetry will easily
peasants and betraying its popular origin by the
detect the disjointed members of their poetic formulse,
corruption, "Sankt Hellmann" for St. Helen, and instinctively arrange them in the order in which they
retains pretty faithfully the original formula, ought to stand." To this Thorpe adds: " It is, however,
which after all is simple, and offers little oppor-
to be observed, that in these and similar pieces, neither

tunity for variation. In Grein-Wfulcker A and metre nor alliteration is constant, and that the latter, when
it does occur, is usually unlike the common poetic allit-
B we have the simple ceremony of turning to the
eration, having no ' chief letter' (h6futstafr) in the
four points of the compass and reciting the Orux second line. The use of this kind of alliteration in early
laws and judicial documents, as well as of final rime, was
Wuttke, Der deutsce Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart, Ber-common to all the Germanic and Scandinavian nations.
lin 1900, ? 226. Those who wish to see more on this subject may consult
Grimm's 'Deutsche Rechs Altherthfimer,' page 6." Both
8 Cf. the " glass prospective" in Friaar Bacon and Frar
Bungaq, Ward's edition, sc v, 1. 110; cf. Ward's note Cockayne and Thorpe print the passage as prose. I have
on the line and also his discussion of the magical glms in ventured to separate it into lines, as showing more dearly
the Introduction, p. xxvi ff. the rhythmical and poetic character.

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 June, 1906.] MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES. 183

no connecting words, to the religious ritual.11 It Christ was stolen and was found again, so may
is as follows: this property be recovered and returned to the
Hit becwmeS and becwsel se 'e hit ahte 12 owner; then, still further to hamper the move-
mid fullan folcrihte, swa swa hit his yldran ments of the thief, he calls on the patriarchs,-
mid feo and mid feore rihte be3eatan, Abraham is to shut off all ways of escape by land,
and lsetan and kefdan 'am to 3ewealde
Job by water, and Jacob is to bring the thief
5 &e hy wel uCan; and swa ic hit hiebbe
bound to judgment; finally, after employing these
swa hit se sealde te to syllanne ahte
unbryde and unforboden; and ic a3nian wile solemn heathen and religious ceremonies for the
to a3enre ahte Seet 'Set ic luebbe, restoration of his property, he proceeds to invoke
and niefre yntan ne plot ne ploh, the aid of the law, by reciting his indisputable
10 ne turf ne toft, ne furh ne fotms3l,
claim to his own.
ne land ne lese, ne fersc ne mersc,
ne ruh ne rum, wudes ne feldes, J. M. MCBRYDE, JR.
sandes ne strandes, wealtes ne weeteres,
Sweet Briwr I8titute, Va.
butan Seet leste Sa hwile -e ic libbe
15 for-am [Se] [n]is se man on life -e sfre gehyrde
Seet man cwiMe oVon crafode hine on hundrede
oNon ahwar on gemote on ceapstowe oJ'Pe on cyricware
Sa hwile he lifde. Unsac he wess on life
beo on le3ere swa swa he mote. Do swa ic here
CORNEILLE'S DRAMA.
20 beo Su be Sinum and lest me be minum
ne 3yrne ic -Sines, ne Lsetes ne landes
Die Dramatigchen Theorien Pierre Corneille.
ne sace ne socne. ne -u mines ne terft
ne mynte ic -e nan Jing. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Kritik des
franz6sischen Dramas, von JOHANNEs BiMt,
The logical process of development by which
Dr. Phil. 8vo., 150 pp. Berlin: Mayer und
these independent charms were strung together
Miller, 1901.
might seem to have been as follows: The owner
of the stolen property, having evidently deter- In the work before us, which is merely a
mined to omit no step for the restoration of his reprint of the author's inaugural dissertation,
cattle, first tries a purely heathen ceremony of we have a typical specimen of that kind of spe-
dripping into the hoof prints of the stolen animalscialized historical research which is so character-
wax from three lighted candles; next, by a sort istic of the German Universities. The subject
of sympathetic treatment, he cites the loss and under consideration is the dramatic theories of
recovery of the Holy Cross, - as the Cross of Corneille, as elucidated in the poet's prefaces,
notices, "examens" to the various plays and in
sAbrupt as the transition here is from the O7rux the three well-known " discours " which serve as
Christi
formula to the legal recital and also in the case of the introductions to the three-volume edition of his
Orux Christi and the Abraham tibi . . concludat above, it is
works published in 1660. But the author is here
characteristic of many of the charms, which, being some-
not so much concerned with a criticism and evalu-
times meaningless collocations of words and phrases, are
often made up of independent formulas, either whole or ation of these theories as he is to fix the interpre-
in part, strung together without any connecting links. tation Corneille put upon the teachings of Aristotle
For a similar example, see Ebermann, p. 47, where the and to show how far, in actual practice, the French
Longinus formula for stanching blood is tacked on to the
poet has observed and how far transgressed his
river Jordan charm.
own rules.
12Cockayne prints from ms. Cott. Julius C 2, fol. 97b
(a paper x. of transcripts), collated with Textus Roffen- The narrow limitations thus set to the theme
sis, p. 50. Thorpe's version is from ms. Corpus Christi have, of necessity, confined the author mostly to
383 (tenth century). The following variants have been the threshing out of old straw. And we fail to
noted in Thorpe: 2folc-rihte. 3 be3eaton. 4 letan. 8 aie.
see that his work has resulted in anything new or
9 =fre fie myntan, undoubtedly the correct reading. 10
illuminating. Corneille' s attitude toward the tra-
fot-mew. 11 lse. 13 wateres. 14 fie hunle. 15forbam nis
cniman. 16 hundrcde. 17 ceap-stowe, cyrie-ware. 18 lifede. ditional three unities, his misconception of the
20 beo fie. 22 bearft. meaning Aristotle attached to the tragic emotions,

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