The Master of Game. Edward of Norwich

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СКАЧАТЬ of body and of head, and more lecherous, but he is not so swift, nor so light, nor so mighty. And many men say, but I make no affirmation upon that, when he is right old he beateth a serpent with his foot till she be wrath, and then he eateth her and then goeth to drink, and then runneth hither and thither to the water till the venom be mingled together and make him cast all his evil humours that he had in his body, and maketh his flesh come all new.²³ The head of the hart beareth medicine against the hardness of the sinews and is good to take away all aches, especially when these come from cold: and so is the marrow. They have a bone within the heart which hath great medicine, for it comforteth the heart, and helpeth for the cardiac, and many other things which were too long to write, the which bear medicine and be profitable in many diverse manners. The hart is more wise in two things than is any man or other beast, the one is in tasting of herbs, for he hath better taste and better savour and smelleth the good herbs and leaves and other pastures and meating the which be profitable to him, better than any man or beast. The other is that he hath more wit and malice (cunning) to save himself than any other beast or man, for there is not such a good hunter in the world that can think of the great malice and gynnes (tricks or ruses) that a hart can do, and there is no such good hunter nor such good hounds, but that many times fail to slay the hart, and that is by his wit and his malice and by his gins.

      As of the hinds some be barren and some bear calves, of those that be barren their season beginneth when the season of the hart faileth and lasteth till Lent. And they which bear calves, in the morning when she shall go to her lair she will not remain with her calf, but she will hold (keep) him and leave him a great way from her, and smiteth him with the foot and maketh him to lie down, and there the calf shall remain always while the hind goeth to feed. And then she shall call her calf in her language and he shall come to her. And that she doeth so that if she were hunted her calf might be saved and that he should not be found near her. The harts have more power to run well from the entry of May into St. John’s tide²⁴ than any other time, for then they have put on new flesh and new hair and new heads, for the new herbs and the new coming out (shoots) of trees and of fruits and be not too heavy, for as yet they have not recovered their grease,²⁵ neither within nor without, nor their heads, wherefore they be much lighter and swifter. But from St. John’s into the month of August they wax always more heavy. Their skin is right good for to do many things with when it is well tawed and taken in good season. Harts that be in great hills, when it cometh to rut, sometimes they come down into the great forests and heaths and to the launds (uncultivated country) and there they abide all the winter until the entering of April, and then they take to their haunts for to let their heads wax, near the towns and villages in the plains there where they find good feeding in the new growing lands. And when the grass is high and well waxen they withdraw into the greatest hills that they can find for the fair pastures and feeding and fair herbs that be thereupon. And also because there be no flies nor any other vermin, as there be in the plain country. And also so doth the cattle which come down from the hills in winter time, and in the summer time draw to the hills. And all the time from rutting time into Whitsunday great deer and old will be found in the plains, but from Whitsunday²⁶ to rutting time men shall find but few great deer save upon the hills, if there are any (hills) near or within four or five miles, and this is truth unless it be some young deer calved in the plains, but of those that come from the hills there will be none. And every day in the heat of the day, and he be not hindered, from May to September, he goes to soil though he be not hunted.

      ¹ September 14. See Appendix: Hart, Seasons.

      ² An engine of war used for throwing stones.

      ³ G. de F., p. 12. “Ainsi que fet un homme bien amoureus” (“As does a man much in love).”

      ⁴ This word ligging is still in use in Yorkshire, meaning lair, or bed, or resting-place. In Devonshire it is spelt “layer.” Fortescue, p. 132.

      ⁵ G. de F., p. 12, has “limer” instead of “greyhound.”

      ⁶ This passage is confused. In G. de F., p. 12, we find that the passage runs: “Et aussi il y a ruyt en divers lieux de la forest et on paix ne peut estre en nul lieu, fors que dedans le part.” Lavallée translates these last five words, “C’est à dire qu’il n’y a de paix que lorsque les biches sont pleines.” In the exceedingly faulty first edition by Verard, the word “part” is printed “parc,” as it is in our MS.

      ⁷ G. de F., p. 14, says the harts go to gravel-pits and bogs to fray.

      ⁸ The MS. transcriber’s mistake. It should be “cow.”

      ⁹ G. de F. has “2 calves” as it should be.

      ¹⁰ G. de F. has “greyhound,” as it should be (p. 15): “Et dès lors vont ils jà si tost que un levrier a assés à fere de l’ateindre, ainsi comme un trait d’arcbaleste” (“And from that time they go so quickly that a greyhound has as much to do to catch him as he would the bolt from a crossbow).”

      ¹¹ Well proportioned. See Appendix: Antler.

      ¹² Shirley MS. has the addition here: “Which be on top.”

      ¹³ In modern sporting terms, a warrantable deer.

      ¹⁴ See Appendix: Curée.

      ¹⁵ Should be: venison.

      ¹⁶ Harness, appurtenances. See Appendix: Harness.

      ¹⁷ Means from a cross-bow or long-bow.

      ¹⁸ Go off the scent.

      ¹⁹ This should read as G. de F. has it (p. 20): “Et aussi affin que les chiens ne puissent bien assentir de luy, quar ilz auront la Cueue au vent et non pas le nez” (“And also that the hounds shall not be able to wind him, as they will have their tails in the wind and not their noses”).

      ²⁰ Ponds, pools. See Appendix: Stankes.

      ²¹ G. de F., p. 21: “Et s’il fuit de fort longe aux chiens, c’est à dire que il les ait bien esloinhés.” See Appendix: “Forlonge.”

      ²² Most old writers on the natural history of deer repeat this fable. See Appendix: Hart.

      ²³ See Appendix: Hart.

      ²⁴ Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24.

      ²⁵ See Appendix: Grease.

      ²⁶ This sentence reads somewhat confusedly in our MS., so I have taken this rendering straight from G. de F., p. 23.

CHAPTER IV

      OF THE BUCK AND OF HIS NATURE

      A BUCK is a diverse beast, he hath not his hair as a hart, for he is more white, and also he hath not such a head. He is less than a hart and is larger than a roe. A buck’s head is palmed with a long palming, and he beareth more tines than doth a hart. His head cannot be well described without painting. They have a longer tail than the hart, and more grease on their haunches than a hart. They are fawned in the month of June and shortly to say they have the nature of the hart, save only that the hart goeth sooner to rut and is sooner in his season again, also in all things of their kind the hart goeth before the buck. For when the hart hath been fifteen days at rut the buck scarcely beginneth to be in heat and bellow.

      And also men go not to sue him with a lymer, nor do men go to harbour him as men do to the hart. Nor are his fumes put in judgment СКАЧАТЬ