almost' is a queer thing to say, though I am not ready to assert that it was absolutely impossible in Old French. But as good as,' 'the same practically as does allow a preceding almost,' and that accordingly seems preferable.

6

In the Zs. f. rom. Philol., xxxv, 732, Schultz-Gora has a note on "Afrz. ausi com (que) 'fast,' as to which I have to note that he seems to take 'as good as' and 'almost' as synonyms. Discussing the second example which he gives (... que aussi comme tous sont convertiz) he says "Es ist klar, dass der Schluss bedeuten muss: 'fast alle sind zum Christentum bekehrt,' "" and a few lines below: "Dieselbe Bedeutung 'so gut wie,' 'fast' liegt bei ausi com deutlich erkennbar vor" in another example which he quotes. But in all the six passages cited by him for the meaning 'fast' it seems to me that the meaning is equally well or better given by assuming equivalence (for all practical purposes, under the circumstances), and not merely approximation; that is, that the real meaning is as good as' and not 'almost.' In one of them, indeed, the phrase is tout aussi comme nu, where tout, 'quite,' is perfectly natural if the following words are understood as meaning as good as naked,' while almost' emphasized by tout seems rather unlikely. The brief mention of Schultz-Gora's article in Romania, XLII, 138, says: "La locution se rencontre en particulier avec tout, tous, et elle a le sens de 'presque'; autre exemple dans Robert de Clari, XLVI, 3." This may refer to tout or tous after our phrase. I add a few other examples: Le Jeu de la Feuillée, ed. Langlois in Les Classiques français du moyen âge, v. 576: Car il est aussi ke sour l'eure; Guillaume de Machaut, Prise d'Alexandrie, v. 3535: Li rois, qui estoit esbahis, Et aussi com tous escahis; and Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre, in Euvres de Guill. de Machaut, ed. Hoepffner, vol. I, v. 795: S'estoie einsi comme ravis; Paris et Jeanroy, Extraits des Chroniqueurs, p. 229: et dist ensi que par mautalent (from Froissart); Froissart's Meliador, v. 11220: Or sont ensi que rafreschi. Doubtless a number of other examples could be collected from Froissart's prose. I mention also v. 7698 in Constans's edition of Le Roman de Troie: Ensi come fiz de s'antain, because ensi que there may be translated 'as being'; it expresses identity, and not either equivalence strictly or approximation; cf. Ivain, 2435: Un tel chevalier con je sui (meaning himself), and Tobler, Vermischte Beiträge, I (second edition), p. 16.

6

It is true that there is not very much difference though the difference is real-in the general sense of some passages where I incline to the meaning as good as,' but this meaning, I think, increases the effectiveness of certain passages and is to be preferred on that account. It is not to be assumed that the English phrase is a translation of the Old French.

2. A good time. In Paris et Jeanroy, Extraits des Chroniqueurs français, p. 266, we have car cellui la se tient a Paris et la se donne du bon temps. Here origin (i. e., translation) from the French looks more plausible; the earliest date for the English phrase in the Oxford Dict. is 1666. Still, the interval between this date and the time of Froissart is so great that if the English phrase was taken from French it was apparently not from Old French.

3. Between brothers, in reference to a price spoken of by the intending seller of an article as very low; as, "between brothers it's worth ten dollars." How old this use is I do not know. There is an interesting passage in Gautier d'Arras, ed. Löseth, vv. 129192: Un cheval Qui bien vaut, pour vendre a sen frere, Deus cenz mars. Cf. Tobler, Li Proverbe au vilain, no. 87, and his note. 4. Brother-in-law. As the same phrase occurs in Old French one may conjecture that the English is a translation of the French, where it occurs in Guillaume de Palerne, ed. Michelant, v. 8303: Ami entier et frere en loi, meaning 'brother-in-law.' Also in Godefroy's Dict., s. v. loi in vol. v, I find Pere en loi (spelt loy in the passage quoted) de mariage defined as beau-père. This is a much later example; the first one I give belongs early in the thirteenth century and is therefore earlier than the first example of brother-inlaw in the Oxford Dict., which is dated about 1300.

5. Hot foot or hot-foot appears from the Oxford Dict. to be over six hundred years old in English. It so strikingly resembles the Old French chalt pas, chaut pas, defined by Godefroy as aussitôt, sur-le-champ, and by Bédier in his glossary to the Oxford Folie Tristan as rapidement, that one wonders whether it is not a translation of that phrase, which is very common in the Quatre Livre des Reis. But in that case we might rather expect hot pace, and further foot-hot marked " ?Obs.” in the Oxford Dict. seems rather to indicate native origin.

6. Like master, like man, for which the recognized French is tel maître tel valet, has an Old French correspondent of different

form. In English it is given by the Oxford Dict. for the year 1548 in the form lyke men lyke maister, s. v. like, adj. and in that place are also other similar phrases with like. Godefroy, s. v. mesnice in vol. v, has, from Christine de Pisan, Selon seigneur mesgniee duite, besides other citations. I may add a Provençal example from N'At de Mons, ed. Bernhardt, poem no. v, v. 244: Per que dizon las gens: Cal senher tal mainada, and the same form of the proverb is in Raynouard, Lexique Roman, v, 1, s. v. qual. But there is obviously no occasion to suppose French origin for the English proverb.

7. Much more striking is the resemblance between English and Old French for the long and (the) short of it, with the variant the short and the long of it, which latter appears from the quotations in the Oxford Dict., s. v. long, vol. vi, p. 414, to be the older form, and even this is first listed there for about the year 1500. The Old French form, in which all my references thus far give the word for 'short' first, appears much earlier. Thus, in the Roman de Troie, ed. Constans, v. 22544 is Ço fu toz li briés et li lons, of which a variant in one Ms. is Cert tos li cors et tos li lons, showing the other word for 'short.' In Miracles de Nostre Dame, ed. Paris and Robert, vol. 1, p. 319, v. 183, occurs Briefment c'est le court et le lone; and Godefroy offers in vol. IX, p. 227 an example of the sixteenth century. In this case a French origin is highly probable. English, it may be observed, has other current sayings with the same meaning; as, to make a long story short, to put the thing in a nutshell, in short, to sum up, the sum and substance is, etc. 8. Love me, love my dog. An example of this proverb, s. v. love in the Oxford Dict. is dated 1546, but it is doubtless older. In Gautier d'Arras, Eracle, ed. Löseth, vv. 1916-17, is the same thought, though not in proverb form (probably then current); Car puis que sire a chier sen chien Tuit li autre li vuelent bien; and cf. Dolop., v. 10429; On sert lo chien por lo signor.

9. To make the best of a thing. Cf. Chrétien de Troyes, La Charrette (Lancelot), v. 1604: Si an face trestot son miauz.

10. Necessity knows (or has) no law. I mention this only on account of the form with has, which is in the Oxford Dict., s. v. law (VI, p. 114), with the date 1555, for a passage where it is mentioned as a common saying. Can this form have come from the In the Mistére du Viel Testament, ed. Rothschild, vol.

I, v. 7352, may be found Necessité n'a loy aucune (cf. Dolop., v. 5084... besoigneus n'a loi), and for Provençal we read in Bartsch-Koschwitz, Chrestomathie Provençale (1903-04), col. 297: Car dreitz ditz que necessitatz Non a ley, et es veritatz.

...

...

11. What . . . what, occurring in Chaucer, for instance, now what with . . . what with, meaning 'partly. partly' (for examples see the larger dictionaries under what, adv.). This really seems to be an imitation of the similar Old French que . que with the same distributive meaning, which is very frequent. Godefroy, s. v. que, vol. VI, has numerous examples, and many more could easily be added. A single one, from the Roman de Thebes, ed. Constans, will serve as an illustration, vv. 429-30: Iluec aveit, mon escient, Que dus, que contes, plus de cent. Since this que in Old French is really the neuter pronoun (see Tobler, Vermischte Beiträge, II (second ed.), p. 164, foot-note) the English what corresponds to it closely.

12. One cannot tell which is which. Cf. Ipomedon (written in English), v. 9607; ne sai quel est quel.

Harvard University.

THE GLASTONBURY PASSAGES IN THE PERLESVAUS

BY WILLIAM A. NITZE

2

Scholars have been skeptical with reference to an early, twelfth century association of Glastonbury with the Grail Legend, and apparently with good reason. Crestien de Troyes' Perceval shows no such connection, and the expression vaus d'Avaron used by Robert de Borron (3123, 3221) while identified by Newell (PMLA., XVIII (1903), 510) with Glastonbury and its propaganda is considered by Foerster (Wörterbuch, 182*) to have no great importance. The view repeatedly expressed by Baist, tho never supported by documentary evidence, that both Robert and the Perlesvaus go back to a Latin work, which incorporated the données of Crestien and changed his graal into a Christian relic, and which was written in Glastonbury, has in general found little favor.3 An article, published by me in Modern Philology, 1 (1903), 247 ff., in which evidence is adduced to show the connection of the Perlesvaus with Glastonbury material, has scarcely fared better: Foerster admits the connection but affirms that it is late (183*).

Thus, it has seemed to me worth while to republish this evidence in a somewhat more detailed form, and to show-what I failed to show in 1903-its connection with the supposed discovery of the bodies of Arthur and Guenevere, at Glastonbury, in 1191.

The passages in question are as follows:

1. At the end of the romance, we read in the two extant Mss. that are fairly complete:

Li latins de coi cist estoires fust traite an romanz fu pris an l'ille d'Ava

1In a note Foerster adds (p. 183*): "Man möchte eine Erklärung heraustüfteln, dass die vaus d'Avaron erst in die zweite Bearbeitung hineingekommen wären, und zwar auf Veranlassung von Glastonbury, wo inzwischen der Josef und vielleicht auch Kristian's Gral bekannt geworden wären." But this is clearly begging the question.

2

* Litblt., 1892, col. 160, and ZrP, XIX (1895), 326 ff.

'See, however, Suchier, Geschichte der französischen Literatur, 138.

I follow the printed text of Potvin (without change), but the text of Hatton 82 is substantially the same. The Welsh text and the incunabula of the Perlesvaus lack the passage. As for the remaining MSS. they are too fragmentary to make a positive assertion, but the probability is that they ended as above. Cf. Potvin 306.