# Folk-Lore Record/Volume 1/Chaucer's Night-spell

CHAUCER'S NIGHT-SPELL.
YRWHITT'S Canterbury Tales enjoyed for half a century the reputation of being the best edited poem in the English language. But it had one failing: it was Tyrwhitt's text, and not the text of any one M.S. In 1847 the late Mr. Thomas Wright edited the Canterbury Tales for the Percy Society from the Harleian M.S. No. 7334, which he pronounced the "best and oldest MS." he had met with. That edition was a great boon to Chaucer students; albeit it bore occasional evidence that the editor, whose powers of work (great as they were) were always overtaxed, had not been able to bestow upon it the time and consideration necessary to do justice to his author or to his own powers of illustrating the language and allusions of Chaucer.
This is strikingly illustrated by the note which he makes on the curious Night Charm, which in The Miller's Tale Chaucer has put into the mouth of the carpenter:
"Lord Jhesu Crist, and seynte Benedyht Blesse this hous from every wikked wight, Fro nyghtes verray, the white Paternostre When wonestow now, seynte Petres soster."
This is Mr. Wright's version of the text. I now quote his note on Verray. "This is the reading of the MSS. I have consulted. Tyrwhitt reads mare, which is perhaps right."
Seeing that Verray was the reading of the MS. which he had selected as the "best and oldest," and of the other MSS. which he had consulted, I certainly was surprised to find Mr. Wright coming to the conclusion that Trwhitt's reading "mare" is perhaps right.
In spite of my respect for Mr. Wright's judgment on any matter connected with our early language and literature, I took a different ​view of this reading, and thought, perhaps, the MS. was right; and, at all events, the question was worth investigating.
Disappointed at finding that Brathwaite, in his Comment on The Miller's Tale (p. 31), had omitted the words of the charm, I made up my mind to collect the readings of it from as many MSS. as I could get access to; a resolution which I fear must have procured for me the character of a great bore, not only from some of my friends, but also from possessors of Chaucer MSS. to whom I was not known. Among the latter my thanks were especially due to the late Lord Ashburnham, to whose kindness and courtesy I was indebted for transcripts of "The Charm" from all his MSS.; while among the former I must gratefully remember the late Rev. John Wilson, of Trinity College, Oxford, who sent me similar transcripts from all the MSS. in the Bodleian, from one in his own college, and one at Corpus. I myself copied it from all the MSS. in the British Museum. For, while I was most anxious to clear up the meaning of the hitherto unnoticed "verray," I was also desirous to learn what I could about "the white Paternoster" and "St. Peter's Soster," indulging, like Mr. Micawber, in the hope "that something would turn up" which would furnish materials for a pleasant paper for the Society of Antiquaries.
When, on the formation of the Folk-Lore Society, I was invited to contribute to its publications, I remembered my old curiosity about Chaucer's Night Charm, and determined to look up my notes on the subject. But, alas! in the thirty years of a life (not altogether an idle one) which have passed since those notes were made, I regret to say, many of them have disappeared, and, of the numerous transcripts of the passage to which I have referred, I have only been able to recover the eight from the Oxford MSS., and two of those I copied from the British Museum; and some few references to passages in English and foreign books of folk-lore, more or less illustrative of the three allusions in the Charm, which appear to me at least very obscure, viz., "Nightes verray," "St. Peter's Soster," and "White Paternoster;" and I should now have hesitated to submit so fragmentary a paper to the Members of the Folk-Lore Society but for ​my belief that one of the main objects of that Society should be the gathering up of the remains of the Old-World Beliefs for the use of the English Grimm, whose genius and good fortune it may be to evolve from them the Mythology of England.
The following are the ten versions of the Night Spell as it appears in the MSS. to which I have referred. I omit, except in the first instance, the four introductory lines, as their repetition would occupy much space without any advantage, as they do not contain a word which tends to throw light upon the point at issue; and here let me plead, in justification of my preference for the old Mumpsimus "verray" over the new Sumpsimus "mare," not only that it occurs (varying only in orthography) in eight out of the ten MSS., but also that two or three years ago an accomplished friend with whom I had once talked over the Spell sent me the following readings of the line in which the word "verray" occurs, from the Six Texts Edition of The Canterbury Tales, published by the Chaucer Society, and that it is "verye," not " mare," in every instance:
* I. For nyghtes verye the white paternoster.
**** Ellesmere MS.
* II. For the nyghtes uerye, &c.
**** Hengwrt MS.
* III. For the nyghte's verye, &c.
**** Cambridge MS.
* IV. and V. For the nyghtes uerye, &c.
**** Corpus and Petworth MSS.
* VI. For the nyghte verye, &c.
**** Lansdowne MS.
I.
I crouche ye from elves and from wightes þ'c with ye might spel a none rightes on fotur halves of ye house abought and on the threswold of ye dore with oute J'hu crist and saint Benedicte Blisse yis house from everie wicked wight ffor þe nighte mar þe with a pater n'r Wher wendest þou seint petri's sustur.
II.
Now J'hu crist and seynt benedyght blisse this hous from ev'y wikkede wight for the nyghtes very the white pater noster where wentestow seynt Pet'is suster.
III.
J'hu crist and seint benedight Blisse this hous from every wikked wight ffor the nyghtes verie the white pater noster where wentestow thou seynt petir suster.
IV.
J'hu christ and seynt beneditht Blesse þis house from every wikked wight ffo þe nyghtees verie þe white pat'n'r Where wendestow þou seint petrus suster.
V.
J'hu crist and seint benedight Blesse þis hous from ev'y wikked wight ffo þe nightes verie the white pater noster Where wentestow thou seint petir suster.
VI.
J'hu crist and seint Benedight Blisse this hous from every wicked wight ffor the night mare the white pater nost' Wher wentestow seint petir suster.
VII.
J'hu crist and seynt Benedight Blesse this hous from every wikkede wight For the nightes verye the white pate noster Where wentestow thou seinte Peteris suster.
VIII.
J'hu criste and seinte beneditight Bille this house from ev'y wikkid wight fro nyghtis veere the white pat' nost' wher kneledestow thou seint peteres sist'.
IX.
Jh'u crist and seint Benedight Bliss this hous from every wikkede wyght ffor the nyghtes verye the white paternoster Where wentestow þow seynt peters suster.
X,
J'hu Criste and saynte Benedicte Blysse the howse frome everye wykede wyghte ffor the nyghtes werye the with pater n'r Where whentestow you saynte peters suster.
I had hoped to submit a few of the notes I had formerly made on the words "Verray," "Verye," and some analogous names; but it is a curious incident in connection with my advocacy of the reading "Veray," that, with the exception of a few brief references, such as "warra" in Haupt's 'Alt Deutsche Blatter, i. 371, to the word "Werre" in Wackernagel's Worterbuch, and the word "Vare" in Hoffman's Reineke Vos, the only memorandum of any length which I have recovered is in connection with a locality of which I never heard before, except from a cousin, who, when travelling on the Continent some forty years since, found himself in Thomsdorf.
In Kuhn and Schwartz's Nord-deutsche Sagen, Märchen, und Gebräuche, s. 66, they give a curious legend from Thomsdorf of Die Alte Fricke—the Devil's Grandmother; and in a note upon that legend (s. 508) the learned editors tell us that a similar legend is preserved in Haupt and Schmaler's Volkslieder der Wenden, ii. 172, where the old witch or sorceress is called "Wera," a name clearly analogous to "Werra," a Sclavonic deity, nearly connected with Frau Holle. He then refers to Grimm's Mythologie, where (2nd ed. p. 251) we are told in a note upon the infuriated Berchta "that in Voightland, on the eve of the new year, the Werre makes a careful search to see whether all the flax has been spun, and, if it has not, spoils whatever is left; and if on that evening the poise (a sort of thick broad cakes of flour and water) have not been got ready, tears open the body of ​those who have neglected to make them." Werre is more merciful than Berchta, who, if her expected feast has not been prepared for her, after tearing open the bodies of those who have so offended her, sews them up again, with a ploughshare instead of a needle, and iron chains instead of thread.
From the interest which I took in this subject, it was only natural that when Notes and Queries was established I should seek to gain through its columns some illustration of it. Accordingly, in February, 1850, I inserted (1st S. i. p. 229) an inquiry as to the three interesting points in this remarkable night-spell. This was almost immediately answered, as to two of them, by my kind and accomplished friend the late Canon Rock (ibid. p. 281), with the ingenious suggestion that the "White Paternoster" may possibly be the "Witch's Paternoster," and he quoted in support of this suggestion a paragraph from Henry Parker's Compendiouse Treatyse or Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, 1536, from which I will quote only one short passage, which seemed to bear very strongly in favour of Dr. Rock's hypothesis.
"It hath oft been knowen that wytches with sayenge of their Paternoster and droppynge of the holy candell in a man's steppes that they hated, hath done his fete rotten off;" and he went on to suggest that St. Peter's soster should rather have been St. Peter's daughter, St. Petronilla, the St. Pernell of The Golden Legend, who, as he tells us, "came to be looked upon in this country as the symbol of bad health under all its forms. Now, if we suppose that the poet mistook and wrote 'soster' instead of 'doughter,' we immediately understand the drift of the latter part of the spell, which was, not only to drive away witchcraft, but guard all the folks in that house from sickness of every kind."
I am bound, in candour, to add that the learned Canon in a subsequent communication dissented from my view of "veray," and for reasons which will be seen in Notes and Queries (4th S. iii. p. 438) states, "to my mind therefore 'nightes verray' is only and simply another word for our present term 'night-mare.'"
But the information which my divers inquiries had failed to elicit was a year or two afterwards incidentally brought forward in answer ​to an inquiry (1st S. xi. p. 206) as to the age and author of the old nursery hymn,
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, Look upon a little child, Pity my simplicity, And suffer me to come to Thee.
to which at page 313 Mr. W. J. Bernhard Smith wrote as follows:—
"The nursery hymn is probably in part derived from the Paternostre blanche, pour aller infalliblement en Paradis," to be found in the Enchiridion Papæ Leonis, Romæ, mdclx., which, absurd and almost profane as it is, I quote for his information, as the work which contains it is by no means common—
"Petite Patenôtre blanche que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir m'allant coucher, je trouvis trois anges à mon lit couchés, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie au milìeu, qui me dit que je me couchis, que rien ne doutis.
"Le bon Dieu est mon Pere, la bonne Vierge ma Mere, les trois apôtres sont mes Freres, les trois Vierges sont mes Sœurs. La chemise où Dieu fut né, mon corps en est enveloppé; la croix Sainte Marguerite à ma poitrine est écrite; Madame s'en va sur les champs à Dieu pleurant, rencontrit Monsieur Saint Jean. Monsieur Saint Jean, d'où venez vous? Je viens d'Ave Salus. Vous n'avez point vu le bon Dieu; si est, il est dans l'arbre de la croix, les pieds pendans, les mains clouans, un petit chapeaux d'épine blanche sur la tête.
Of this book, quoted by Mr. Smith, another correspondent P P.P. in the same volume, p. 511, gives a very interesting notice; from which it appears that it was first published at Rome in Latin in 1502, and was several times reprinted and early translated into French, in which language it has passed through many editions. It consists of a collection of prayers, many of which are those used by the Church, but for the most part burlesqued or disfigured and adopted for the purposes of sorcery as practised in the Middle Ages; among whom the book held the rank of a text-book; while it enjoyed great popu​larity among the rustic population from its containing many charms connected with rustic pursuits. P.P.P. adds, La Pate-Nôtre blanche is referred to in terms of reprobation by Jean B. Thiers, who says; "La prière ridicule que l'on appelle La Pate-Nôtre blanche, dont les zélateurs, qui sont en assez grand nombre, et surtout a la campagne, promettent infalliblement le paradis à ceus qui la disent tous les jours."
P.P.P does not give any reference to this passage, which is, I presume, taken from that curious book of Thiers, Traité des Superstitions qui regardent les Sacramens, of which I have a copy in 4 vols., 4th edition, Paris, 1774.
Mr. Smith explained afterwards that he was perfectly aware that the book had no claim to be considered as a book of genuine devotion, and that it was essentially a magical work, his copy being followed by the Grimoire, a book of black magic, and full of diabolical incantations.
Let me refer such of my readers as may desire to know more of these curious specimens of French popular literature to Nisard's interesting Histoire des Livres populaires, ou De la Littérature du Colporteur, 2$^{me}$ ed. Paris, 1864. Le Grand Gimoire is described at p. 129 et seq. of the first volume, and the Enchiridion at pp. 148 et seq. of same volume.
At the risk of sharing the reproach levelled at Gratiano of "speaking an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice," I must trespass upon my readers with another reference to Notes and Queries (1st S. viii. 613), not only for its version of the White Paternoster, in this case connected with Saint Peter's Brother, but for the curious charms illustrative of our Folk-Lore in the reign of James I., which the writer found on turning over an old book of Controversial Divinity, White's Way to the True Church, fo. 1624, and which all students of folk-lore will, I think, read with interest.
The extract is a long one, but I think as curious and valuable as it is long.
White is insisting upon "the prodigious ignorance" which he found among his parishioners when he entered upon his ministrations, and he proceeds thus to tell his own tale:— ​"I will only mention what I saw and learned, dwelling among them, concerning the saying of their prayers; for what man is ho whose heart trembles not to see simple people so far seduced that they know not how to pronounce or say their daily prayers; or so to pray that all that hear them shall be filled with laughter? And while, superstitiously, they refuse to pray in their own language with understanding, they speak that which their leaders may blush to hear. These examples I have observed from the common people.
The Creed.
"Creezum zuum patrum onitentem creatorum ejus anicuni. Dominum nostrum qui sum sops, virgini Mariæ, crixus fixus, Ponchi Pilati audubitiers, morti by sonday, father a femes, scelerest un judicarum, finis a mortibus. Creezum spirituum sanctum, ecli Catholi, remissurum, peccaturum, communiorum obliviorum, bitam, et turnam again."
The Little Creed.
Little Creed, Amen."
"This that followeth they call the 'White Paternoster:'
White Paternoster, Amen."
"Another Prayer:
"I blesse me with God and the rood, With his sweet flesh and precious blood; With his crosse and his creed, With his length and his breed, From my toe to my crowne, And all my body up and downe, From my back to my brest, My five wits be my rest; God let never ill come at ill, But through Jesus owne will, Sweet Jesus, Lord. Amen."
"Many also use to weare vervein against blasts; and, when they ​gather it for this purpose, firste they crosse the herbe with their hand, and they blesse it thus:
"Hallowed be thou, Vervein, As thou growest on the ground, For in the Mount of Calvary There thou wast first found. Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ, And staunchedst his bleeding wound; In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground."
These passages may be seen in "The Preface to the Reader," sec. 13, no page, but on the reverse of Sig. A 4.
The writer of this interesting communication winds up his paper with the following very valuable suggestion, which I earnestly commend to the consideration of such members of the Folk-Lore Society as, with a desire to promote its objects, may at any time come across any of these uninviting bulky folios of Controversial Divinity, and may have leisure to turn the opportunity to good account:
"It might at first appear somewhat strange that these interesting remnants of early belief should have escaped the notice of your numerous correspondents, whose attention has for so long a period been directed to this inquiry; but this may be accounted for if we remember that the volume in which they occur is one which would seem primâ facie least likely to afford any such materials. It is one of those uninviting bulky folios of which the reigns of James and Charles I. furnish us with so many specimens. Here we might fairly expect to discover abundant illustrations of patristic and scholastic theology, of learning and pedantry, of earnest devotion, and ill-temper no less earnest; but nothing whereby to illustrate the manners or customs, the traditions, or the popular usages or superstitions of the common people. This may be a hint for us, however, to direct our attention to a class of literature which hitherto has scarcely received the attention to which it would appear to be entitled; and I would venture to express my conviction, that, if those who are interested in the illustration of our popular antiquities were to give a little of their time to early English theology, the result would be more important than might at first be anticipated."