Kyng Estmere threwe the harpe asyde,
And swith he drew his brand;
And Estmere he, and Adler yonge,
Right stiffe in stour can stand
And aye their swordes soe sore can byte,
Throughe help of Gramaryè,
That soone they have slayne the kempery men,
Or forst them forth to flee
Kyng Estmere tooke that fayre ladyè,
And marryed her to his wiffe,
And brought her home to merrye England
With her to leade his life.
***The wordGramarye, which occurs several times in the foregoing Poem, is
probably a corruption of the French word Grimoire, which signifies a conjuring Book
in the old French romances, if not the art of Necromancy itself.
***Termagauntis the name given in the old romances to the God of the Saracens: in
which he is constantly linked withMahoundor Mahomet. Thus in the legend ofSyr
Guythe Soudan (Sultan) swears,
So helpe me Mahowne of might,
And Termagaunt my God so bright.
Sign. p. iij. b.This word is derived by the very learned editor of Junius from the Anglo-Saxon Tyr,
very, and Magan, mighty. As this word has so sublime a derivation, and was so
applicable to the true God, how shall we account for its being so degraded? Perhaps
Tyr-magan, or "Termagant," had been a name originally given to some Saxon idol,
before our ancestors were converted to Christianity; or had been the peculiar attribute
of one of their false deities; and therefore the first Christian missionaries rejected it as
profane and improper to be applied to the true God. Afterwards, when the irruptions
of the Saracens into Europe, and the Crusades into the east, had brought them
acquainted with a new species of unbelievers, our ignorant ancestors, who thought
that all that did not receive the Christian law were necessarily Pagans and Idolaters,
supposed the Mahometan creed was in all respects the same with that of their Pagan
forefathers, and therefore made no scruple to give the ancient name of "Termagant" to
the God of the Saracens: just in the same manner as they afterwards used the name of
"Sarazen" to express any kind of Pagan or Idolater. In the ancient romance of
"Merline" (in the editor's folio MS), the Saxons themselves that came over with
Hengist, because they were not Christians, are constantly called Saracens.
However that be, it is certain that, after the times of the Crusades, both "Mahound"
and "Termagaunt" made their frequent appearance in the pageants and religious
interludes of the barbarous ages; in which they were exhibited with gestures so
furious and frantic, as to become proverbial. Thus Skelton speaks of Wolsey
"LikeMahoundin a play,
No man dare him withsay."
Ed. 1736, p. 158.And Bale, describing the threats used by some Papist magistrates to his wife, speaks
of them as "grennyng upon her lykeTermagauntesin a playe." [Actes of Engl.
Votaryes, Part 2. fol. 83. ed. 1550. 12mo.] Hence we may conceive the force of