Reading Lay le Freine

General notes: These are to supplement the glosses in the TEAMS edition. Remember to read out loud so as not to be confused by the spelling and to make use of what you know about the Great Vowel Shift.

Verbs

• -eth ending is used for present tense plural as well as present singular
• -en ending is also used for present tense plural, as in Layes that ben in harping
• -en for past participle, e.g. comen (35)
• y- is a prefix indicating the past participle; to figure out the meaning of the word, pretend the y- isn’t there.
• n- indicates a negative, as in nas = “was not”

Pronouns

• y, ich: I
• mi: my
• meselve: myself
• thou: thou (you singular, as subject of verb or preposition)
• the: thee (you singular, as object of verb or preposition)
• ye: you (singular polite or plural, as subject of verb)
• sche, she, hye, he: she
• hir: her
• thai, hye: they
• hem: them
• her: their

Spelling

• y = i, for example mani = many, thai = thay (Mod. Engl. “they”), and y (Mod. Engl. “I”)
• h sometimes precedes o at the beginning of the word, as in hold time for "old time."
• f sometimes appears for Mod. Engl. v, especially in words related to “give,” e.g. gaf, “gave”
• sch: sh
• -a-: -o- (actually this is a sound change that shifts back and forth over time and from one region to another; so, thonked = “thanked” (56) and spac = “spoke” (64)
• -t for –d after certain sounds, as in fint for “found” (44)

Vocabulary

• wite means “know”: clerkes wel it wite = “clerks know it well,” hye it wist = “she it knew” (88)
• ac means “but”
• gan is used to form an emphatic past, as in gan abide, “did abide” or “wait” (152)

Additional Glosses:

• 23 Breteyne: Brittany
• 53 knave: boy
• 153 heighe: high
• 159 nas . . . noither . . . no: was not . . . neither . . . nor
• 172 fre: gracious or noble
• 188 bokes: books
• 194 thare: there
• 218 hou: how; not (=ne wot): do not know; nere: never
• 273 yif: if
• 370 bour: bed-chamber