For this session, I have brought Helena Antonia (That's the heroine's name!), an eighteenth-century Swedish chapbook. I've had her around for three years, and now I feel that it's time to tangle some temperance à la suédoise (Swedish style)...
Poor Lena happens to fall into the same pitfalls that other handless maidens do: get an Eastern ruler to fall for her, get kicked out of the harem, find a new crush abroad, said crush goes to war... sloshed messenger included, of course!
Lena winds up in Flanders (Northern/Dutch Belgium), where she is sheltered by nuns and subsequently attacked by pirates (co-wives and nuns and pirates, oh my!) before being shipwrecked and washed upon the English coast and get King Henry the Umpteenth (there have been eight Henrys on the English throne since the Norman Conquest), number not mentioned, betrothed to her.
Poor, poor Lena. Henry goes to war against the Armenians (poor Armenians, too!). The Queen Stepmother is banished from court to her palace of Hosweren (where can it be? Sounds pretty far more Saxon than Norman. In the French version, she resides in Dover, with a magnificent view of the Channel and Calais). The Duke of Colchester is made regent.
You bet your life what happens next!
"But when the messenger came to the old queen's palace, she had him plied in the best of ways (hon lät pâ bästa sätt undfägna honom), so that he got drunk and fell asleep (han blev drucken och insomnade) when she, as he was unaware (honom ovetande), took the letters and read them...
But when the messenger came to the place where the old queen resided, scouts sent by her brought him into her presence, and she plied him in the very best of ways (hon undfägnade honom pâ sitt allra bästa), so that he got drunk and fell asleep (han blev drucken och insomnade)..."
This ethylic coma is a stock leitmotif in the "Handless Maiden" cycle.
To continue with the French version, La Manekine, by Philippe de Rémi. Joie is Hungarian, she comes to the Highlands, marries the King of Scots, he leaves for a tournament (a more peaceful activity) in Ressons, France (the author's native land and the seat of courtly culture). The Queen Stepmother is living in Berwick. Same gambit to intercept letters:
"Pour lui engagner et deçoivre,
lui fit donner bon vin à boire.
Ne s'en perçut le pautonnier:
s'en but tant et si volentiers He drank so much, on his own free will,
que de son sens se delivra that he was bereft of reason/consciousness
par le fort vin que l'enivra."
"Bien s'est aperçu qu'il fut ivre,
mais maintenant en est delivres: He realized that he had been drunk, and they
pense qu'on le fit là jesir made him stay for a while for him to recover.
pour réposer à son plaisir"
"Forts vins ne li furent véés,
Et il s'en est tel grad conreé
Qu'il est en ivresse déchu.
Ainsi fut il deux fois déchu.
Qu'il onques garder ne s'i sot,
Se s'en tint puis maint jour à sot
Par ivresse sont plus de mals faits ; Temperance rant, recalling Chaucer's
Pour c'est qu'il tout fou que s'y met. Man of Law's Tale, in which the messenger
Plus d'hommes sont étés tués is branded a prattling, reeking sinner.
Et maint grant bien fait delué ; Ensemble fu-il de celui Drunken violence has had many a casualty. Qui solement s'i embati. However, ethanol has no such effect upon his system. Tant but le gars qu'il s'enivra, He drank so much that he became intoxicated. Jusqu'au lendemain ne délivra The effect lasted all night, until the next day.
D'ivresse; de ce fin lie
La méchante dame outrequidie.
La où le messager se dort, Cui le vin demenoit plus fort. A son caves les ont tost mises Et dedens se boiste rassises ; De là se partent, si s'en vont Comme ivre dormant laissé l'honte. He left his honour/shame by sleeping drunk.
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