Henryson's Cresseid
Older Scots Reading 1
Chapter 5 · Henryson's Cresseid
📜 Henryson's Cresseid
Seven lines from one of the best-known poems in Older Scots: a stanza in which the narrator speaks straight to a woman whose story he has been telling, and says he will not blame her. Because he addresses her as "thou", this chapter is also the first to read the second-person forms in Scots. Wikipedia's article prints the stanza without a translation, so the glosses are mine.
The text
| Line | Older Scots | Gloss (mine) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yit nevertheless, quhat ever men deme or say | Yet nevertheless, whatever men judge or say |
| 2 | In scornefull langage of thy brukkilnes, | in scornful language of your frailty, |
| 3 | I sall excuse als far furth as I may | I shall excuse as far forth as I may |
| 4 | Thy womanheid, thy wisdome and fairnes, | your womanhood, your wisdom and fairness, |
| 5 | The quhilk fortoun hes put to sic distres | which Fortune has put to such distress |
| 6 | As hir pleisit, and nathing throw the gilt | as it pleased her, and nothing through the guilt |
| 7 | Of the throw wickit langage to be spilt! | of you through wicked language to be spoiled! |
Source: Wikipedia, The Testament of Cresseid, the passage the article introduces with "The most explicit statement of this breaks through in the passage:", as the page tool gave it. The article prints no translation and no glosses (some words link to dictionary entries that I did not read). The glosses are mine and unverified; lines 5 to 7 are the least certain.
The rhymes follow ABABBCC: say / may (A), brukkilnes / fairnes / distres (B), gilt / spilt (C). That matches the scheme the article gives for the poem.
Walking through it
- The second person. thy appears in lines 2 and 4 and means "your" (singular): the narrator is speaking to Cresseid. the in line 7, Of the, is the object form "thee", not the article. Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 5 listed þe and þi / ti for these forms; here the spellings are the and thy, with th for thorn.
- Verbs. sall is "shall" (as in Chapter 2). hes is "has", a 3rd singular with -s, in line with the -es variant of Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 6; Chapter 7 gave haþ. pleisit ends in the Scottish past -it (Chapter 1). wickit carries the same ending but works as an adjective, "wicked".
- No ending after men. deme or say have a plural subject, men, and no -is, -en or -eþ. A bare form is not one of the plural endings Middle English Grammar 1, Chapter 6 listed, and the sources I read do not say why. I note it only.
- Letters. quhat and quhilk have quh- for wh-; Yit begins with y ("yet"); throw is "through"; scornefull has a doubled l where we write -ful, and langage lacks a u.
- Word endings. womanheid ends in -heid ("-hood"), and brukkilnes and fairnes in -nes ("-ness"). These are my readings from the sense and from Modern English.
- The relative clause. The quhilk ("the which") joins line 5 to line 4: it refers to her womanhood, wisdom and fairness. fortoun is the subject of hes put: Fortune has put them to distress. That reading is mine.
- The hardest part. Lines 6 and 7 can be read more than one way. I read them as "as it pleased her (Fortune), and not at all through the guilt of you, to be spoiled through wicked language". The wording of the gloss is a guess from the sense, and the article gives nothing to check it against.
- Small words. als ("as"), sic ("such"), nathing ("nothing"). These are my readings; the article's links to dictionary entries were not read.
New words
| Older Scots | Meaning | Modern English relative |
|---|---|---|
| deme | judge, think | deem |
| scornefull | scornful | scornful |
| brukkilnes | frailty, brittleness (my reading) | brittleness |
| excuse | excuse | excuse |
| womanheid | womanhood | womanhood |
| fortoun | Fortune | fortune |
| gilt | guilt | guilt |
| spilt | spoiled, ruined (my reading) | spilt (a different sense) |
Try It Yourself
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Who wrote the poem, and in which language is it?
Show answer
Robert Henryson, a 15th-century Scottish makar; Middle Scots.
2. What is the rhyme scheme of the stanza?
Show answer
ABABBCC: rhyme royal.
3. Translate I sall excuse als far furth as I may.
Show answer
"I shall excuse as far as I can."
4. Who is thy in line 2 addressed to?
Show answer
Cresseid, the woman the narrator is speaking to.
5. What does the mean in Of the throw wickit langage?
Show answer
"Thee" (you), the object form, not the article.
6. Which past forms end in -it?
Show answer
pleisit and wickit.
7. What does quh- stand for in quhat and quhilk?
Show answer
wh-: "what" and "which".
8. Which three words rhyme in lines 2, 4 and 5?
Show answer
brukkilnes, fairnes, distres.
9. Why is the gloss of lines 6 and 7 uncertain?
Show answer
The lines can be read more than one way, and the article prints no translation or glosses to check against.
10. Who is the subject of hes put?
Show answer
fortoun: Fortune.