Hugo de Lincolnia
[This 92 stanza Anglo-French version is , according to Child, contemporary with the murder. The translation (imitation) and notes are from: Sir Hugh of Lincoln, Or, An Examination of a Curious Tradition respecting the Jews, with a notice of the Popular Poetry Connected With It by Abraham Hume - 1849.
Footnotes moved to the end. Here's is Child's analysis from his headnotes to Child 155:
Child's Summary, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume 5, 1888:
An Anglo- French ballad of ninety-two stanzas, which also appears to be contemporary with the event, agrees in many particulars with the account given in the Annals of Burton, adding several which are found in none of the foregoing narratives. [8] Hugh of Lincoln was kidnapped one evening towards the beginning of August, by Peitevin, the Jew.[9] His mother at once missed him, and searched for him, crying, I have lost my child! till curfew. She slept little and prayed much, and immediately after her prayer the suspicion arose in her mind that her child had been abducted by the Jews. So, with the break of day, the woman went weeping through the Jewry, calling at the Jews' doors, Where is my child? Impelled by the suspicion which, as it pleased God, she had of the Jews, she kept on till she came to the court. When she came before King Henry (whom God preserve!), she fell at his feet and begged his grace: 'Sire, my son was carried off by the Lincoln Jews one evening; see to it, for charity!" The king swore by God's pity, If it be so as thou hast told, the Jews shall die; if thou hast lied on the Jews, by St. Edward, doubt not thou shalt have the same judgment. Soon after the child was carried off, the Jews of Lincoln made a great gathering of all the richest of their sect in England. The child was brought before them, tied with a cord, by the Jew Jopin. They stripped him, as erst they did Jesus. Then said Jopin, thinking he spoke to much profit, The child must be sold for thirty pence, as Jesus was. Agim, the Jew, answered, Give me the child for thirty pence; but I wish that he should be sentenced to death, since I have bought him. The Jews said, Let Agim have him, but let him be put to death forthwith: worse than this, they all cried with one voice, Let him be put on the cross! The child was unbound and hanged on the cross, vilely, as Jesus was. His arms were stretched to the cross, and his feet and hands pierced with sharp nails, and he was crucified alive. Agim took his knife and pierced the innocent's side, and split his heart in two. As the ghost left the body, the child called to his mother, Pray Jesus Christ for me! The Jews buried the body, so that no one might know of their privity, but some of them, passing the place the next morning, found it lying above ground. When they heard of this marvel, they determined in council that the corpse should be thrown into a jakes; but the morning after it was again above ground. While they were in agonies of terror, one of their number came and told them that a woman, who had been his nurse, had agreed for money to take the body out of the city; but he recommended that all the wounds should first be filled with boiling wax. The body was taken off by this nurse and thrown into a well behind the castle.[10] A woman coming for water the next day discovered it lying on the ground, so filthy that she scarce durst touch it. This woman bethought herself of the child which had been stolen. She went back to Lincoln, and gave information to Hugh's stepfather, who found her tale probable by reason of the suspicion which he already had of the Jews. The woman went through the city proclaiming that she had found the child, and everybody flocked to the well. The coroners were sent for, and came with good will to make their inspection. The body was taken back to Lincoln. A woman came up, who had long before lost her sight, and calling out, Alas, pretty Hugh, why are you lying here! applied her hands to the corpse and then to her eyes, and regained her sight. All who were present were witnesses of the miracle, and gave thanks to God. A converted [11] Jew presented himself, and suggested that if they wished to know how the child came by its death they should wash the body in warm water; and this being done, the examination which he made enabled him to show that this treason had been done by the Jews, for the very wounds of Jesus were found upon the child. They of the cathedral, hearing of the miracle, came out and carried the body to the church, and buried it among other saints with great joy: mult ben firent, cum m'est avis. Soon after, the mother arrived from the court, very unhappy because she had not been able to find her child. The Lincoln Jews were apprehended and thrown into prison; they said, We have been betrayed by Falsim. The next day King Henry came to Lincoln, and ordered the Jews before him for an inquest. A wise man who was there took it upon him to say that the Jew who would tell the truth to the king should fare the better for it. Jopin, in whose house the treason had been done, told the whole story as already related. King Henry, when all had been told, cried, Right ill did he that killed him! The justices[12] went to council, and condemned Jopin to death: his body was to be drawn through the city "de chivals forts et ben ferré[s]" till life was extinct, and then to be hanged. And this was done. I know well where, says the singer: by Canewic, on the high hill.[13] Of the other Jews it is only said that they had much shame.
Child's Footnotes:
9. "A la gule de aust." The day, according to the Annals of Burton, was the vigil of St. Peter ad vincula. We find in Henschel's Ducange, "ad festum S. Petri, in gula Augusti," and "le jour de feste S. Pere, en goule Aoust." Strictly taken, goule should be the first day, Lammas.
Peitevin was actually resident in Lincoln at the time. "He was called Peitevin the Great, to distinguish him from another person who bore the appellation of Peitevin the Little. The Royal Commission issued in 1256 directs an inquisition to be taken of the names of all those who belonged to the school of Peytevin Magnus, who had fled on account of his implication in the crucifixion of a Christian boy." London Athenaeum, 1849, p. 1270 f.
10. The site of the Jewry was on the hill and about the castle: London Athenseum, 1849, p. 1271.
11. These renegades play a like part in many similar cases.
12. Les Jus, 821; but this is impossible and we have li justis in 911.
13. "Canwick is pleasantly situated on a bold eminence, about a mile northward of Lincoln." Allen, History of the County of Lincoln, I, 208.
R. Matteson 2015]
HUGO DE LINCOLNIA. (From a chapter by Abraham Hume, 1849)
While the previous pages were passing through the press, the Anglo-Norman copy of the ballad reached me by accident. I have not seen M. Michel's monograph, nor had the benefit of his annotations; I take the text from the last of Mr. Halliwell's privately printed tracts. The reference to the original is Bibliotheque Royale, 7268. 3. 3. A. Colb. 3745, f. 135, r°.
There is much in this ballad to interest any one whose researches extend to that class of literature. Its length, its language, its versification, the dramatic character of portions, the minuteness of detail, the repetition of prominent names and the general redundancy of expression, (showing that it was sung slowly, and not hastily repeated!), the notices of ancient customs and superstitions, and the identification of persons and places, are among the subjects that will naturally attract the attention of various readers. With so many features of interest, it is surely unnecessary to apologize for venturing to present it for the first time in an English dress.
As the tradition has been associated with many places, it is necessary to show that in this case it refers to Lincoln at all. The following is Camden's account of Lincoln, from Gibson's edition of the Britannia, 1649, p. 467. "The Metropolis of this County is called by Ptolemy and Antoninus 'Liudum/by the Britons 'Lindcoit/ from the woods, (instead whereof it is in some places falsely written 'Luitcoit'), Bede calls it 'Lindecollinum/ and the city 'Lindecollina' the Saxons call it 'Lindo-collyne/ 'Lind-cyllanceaster/ the Normans 'Nichol,' we 'Lincoln/ the Latins 'Lincolnia.'" We also find in Gibson's notes, p. 478, this additional information. "Lincoln is called (as Mr. Camden observes), by the Norman writers, Nichol; and Mr. Thomas Twyne, in his Breviary of Britain, fol. 24. b, says he has observed the same many times written in antient Charters, and records of the Earls[1] thereof, written in the French tongue. And even so low as Edward the Fourth's time, William Caxton, in his Chronicle entitled 'Fructus Temporum/ page 141 and 295, calls it' Nickol.'" See also Archeeologia, vol. xx., p. 88. n.
The differences between this version of the story and the ordinary English ones are very marked. Thus the child is not a schoolboy nor playing at ball; he is stolen in the evening, not in the morning; it is Peitevin (or Partenin), not the Jew's daughter who removes him; there is no temptation by an apple; it is Agim (or Agon), not the Jew's daughter who is the murderer; the body is not directly thrown into the well, but plunged into it as a last resource; the Jew's daughter does not remove it, but a Christian woman who had been the nurse of a Jew; it is not "Our Lady's well" but one outside the town; the corpse is not found by the mother but by another person; there is no miraculous conversation on the part of the corpse; it is found on the ground at the margin of the well, not "fifty fadom deep;" it does not meet the mother, nor does she ever see her child again alive or
dead; he is not buried in the church-yard but in the mother church (Cathedral); the school-boy implements, pen, ink, bible and testament, are all omitted at the interment; and there is no miraculous ringing of bells or reading of books. With such discrepancies in the evidence, it is still more obvious than before, that we cannot find a "true bill" against any one of the accused.
If we examine the alleged facts in the Anglo-Norman ballad only, we find the following with others of a similar kind. The evidence on which the conviction takes place is Jopin's confession, but this contains scarcely a tithe of the particulars previously recorded by the minstrel. By that, he is not the murderer, but merely a particeps criminis, and the "King's
evidence" in the case; yet he is executed! The actual murderer, to whom the King's remark applies, is allowed to escape! All the Jews of England were accessaries, and the Lincoln Jews were chiefly aiding and abetting, yet a council composed mainly of Lincoln Jews try and condemn one only of the prisoners, whose utter innocence of the principal crime they well knew! By this account, no Jew was tried by Christians,—for even the King simply heard the confession and had it recorded as evidence,—whereas it is clear from a document quoted below[2], that none were executed but those who were tried by a jury exclusively Christian.
These circumstances are, however, of small importance. The interest of the ballad does not depend upon its reasonableness, its abstract truth, or its consistency with itself; nor would it be necessary to notice them, had we not been engaged in examining the probable truth or falsehood of the general tradition. This version affords additional and curious evidence of the popular feeling on the subject; but beyond this, it only tends to show that the feeling was ill-founded.
The dramatic character of the poem is evident, not only from the facts and interspersed remarks, but also from the repeated change of scene in the narration. This would enable us to break the whole into portions, each of which would contain a distinct subject; and a division of this kind is accordingly made here. It is unquestionable that at some of these divisions the singer paused, as if a "Fytte" were completed; but the original, on vellum, makes no division in the lines, not even associating those that rhyme to each other. At the end of part III., the 30th verse is evidently a repetition intended to finish the narrative for a time; analogous to a "repeat" at the close of an ordinary air, or like the actual repetition of the last verse, occasionally practiced by singers, ancient and modern. The 84th, 70th, and 74th verses are of a similar kind. One can easily picture to himself the scene that occurred during the subsequent pause. The listeners, turning round to each other, divided the party into groups, in which all spoke at once. Some delivered their opinions with energy on what they had heard; others speculated on what was coming next; while those who had heard the story before exhorted them all to be patient. In the meanwhile, the prudent minstrel buried his face in the peg tankard, and "moistened his clay" with a draught of nut-brown October. Again all were silent, when, fixing himself formally in his seat, and drawing a long breath, he resumed the tale.
I have called the English version an "Imitation" rather than a "Translation," though it will probably be found to give the spirit of the original with sufficient accuracy. In a few instances, the meaning of particular words could not be accurately ascertained, even with the assistance of a literary French gentleman. Some one who is well acquainted with the topography of the city, ancient and modern, may be able to afford a better identification of Lincoln localities than that which is suggested here.
I. THE CHILD IS STOLEN. (English Imitation)
1. You shrill heare a good song,[3] if you listen to mee
Of the Jewes of Lincolne who treacherouslie,
Did plot and practise their villanie,
And slewe the child Hugo, upon a tre.
2. In the cittie of Lincolne, riche and gay,
He was bora in the Dernestal,[4] all men say;
Now Peitevin[5] the Jewe hath stolen away
This innocent babe, at the close of the day.
3. Just as the deed had been don by the Jewe,
He was quicklie missed from his mother's view;
Then every where she ranne;—oh what colde she do?
A-crying and a-seeking for her poor little Hugh.
4. Through the eventide she cried with fear,
And still till the corfeu bell rong clere,
"Alace! alace! will no one heare?
I have lost my child thut I loved soe dear."
5. Litel did the mother slepe that night,
Or rest in her bed til morning's light;
But mickle she prayed to God allmight,
For his niercie to guide her serche aright.
6. As soon as she had made her praier
Suspicion[6] seized uppon her there,
That the infant wandering without care,
By the Jewes had been taken in som snare.
7. So earlie, by the breake of daie
To the Jewrie she hied straitwaye,
And to the Jewes she 'gan fur to say,
"Ah where is my child that was stolne away?"
8. The dore where he bad entered in,
Was shut ful fast with bolt and pin,
Ne Christen man might see within
Their deedes of privacie and sin.
9. 'Twos told in the citie speedilie.
That found this infant colde not be,
Yet none the guilt; men might see
Save themselves and Jhesas who died on a tree.
10. But for the notion she had got,
That the Jewes of Liucolne laid the plot,
Through al that night she rested nought
Bat the court[7] of the King she ran and sought.
11. No sooner had she lefte the towne
And far from Lincolne she was buunc,
Than many wer the thoughts both up and down
By whom this wicked deed was done.
12. And wel they knew her distress'd to be.
For on leaving Lincolne the truth to see
A shriek most piercing uttered shee.
Bat more yoa shal heare if you listen to me.
II. APPEAL TO THE KING.
13. Before King Henri[8] she appears,
(May God preserve him many yeares,)
At his feet she fell with sighs and teares
And praied his Grace to ease her fears.
14. "Sire[9] may it please you to heare,
my child was stolne away,
By the Jewes of Lincolne, lately, at close of day,
For charity's sake, have mercie upon me I pray.'
15. He replied to her words respecting the youth,
—They might be sclaunder or might be truth,—
"By the pitie of God, an this tale be sooth,
These Jewes of Lincolne shal die withont ruth;
16. But if the story falshode be,
The Jewes you wrong most grievouslie,
Then by Sanct Edouard men shal see,
Thyself[10] the punishment simite drie."
17. The woman answerde reverentlie
"Oh Jhesu Christ who are God most high,
Thou art the judge how the case does lie
And able to save that I may not die."
III. THE CRUCIFIXION.
18. When the child was stolne, I understand
The Jewes of Lincolne who were at hand
Invited the richest in all the land,
To a council of Jewes already planned.
19. The child was brought, of whome they knew,
Bound with a corde by Jopin the Jewe;
They stripped him nakede ful in view,
The same had been done to our Lorde Jhesu.
20. Then all the Jewes who wer in that place,
Wer much rejoyced at a dede so base;
They sawe him naked, face to face:
Alace! but it was a pitous case.
21. Then Jopin the Jewe who was craftie and bolde
This falshode to his bretheren told,—
"For thirty peeces,—like Jhesus of old,—
The child himselle has freely sold."
22. Then Agon[11] the Jewe replied straightwaye
"Come sell to me the child I pray
These thirty peeces He freely pay
Of lawful! weight, to beare away.
23. I wish that he shold judged be,
Condemned to deth and given to me,
To worke my will upon his bodie,
My lawful purchase he will bee."
24. The Jewes, his counsell to fulfill
Then answerde all designing ill,
"Let Agim have him if be wil,
Provided he the boy wil kill."
25. More ferce than all the reste beside.
The wicked Jewes of Lincolne cried,
With one consent, "Whatere betide
Come let the ladde be crucifyed."
26. These Jewes of Liucolne meanwhile spedde,
And brought a cross which thei had made
The infant trembled from fote to head
At the sight, hot never a word be saide.
27. He wept, while they much gladnes finde
As on the cross his limbes they bind,
So vilely was Jbesus himselfe confind,
Who died for the sins of al mankind.
28. But hear while now I tralie tel
What shame and sorowe next bifel;
Oh merciful God! how their rage did swell
When on the cross thei had fixt him well.
29. His litel armes apart they drewe,
And the bar of the cross have tyed them to
Then with pointed nailes one pitiless Jewe,
Has pierced his handes and feet quite through.
30. Thus, their hertes refused to spare,
Til the handes and feet of this infant faire
Were made fast to the cursed beams with care,
And al alive, he was crucifyed there!
THE MURDER.
31. But think vhat terror seezed the boye
When Agim[12] the Jewe was herd to crie,
As forward he sprang with develish joy,
"Now the hour is com when this child must die."
32. A knife wel sharpende Agim drew,
And pierced the heart of the innocente through,
Nor did he cease till he cutte it in two,—
With such the sicke are healed by the Jewe.[13]
33. No words but tbese he was herde to saye
As his soul from his bodie past away,
When be thought of her who was far awaye
"Dere mother, for me to Jhesus pray."[14]
34. The soule of the gentle Christen boy,
Was carried meanwhile to the skie,
By angells singing hymns of joy,
Where God al powerfull rules on high.
V. CONCEALMENT OP THE CORPSE.
35. As sone as life on the cross had fledde,
And they saw that the child was surely dead,
These wicked Jewes of Lincolne said,
"Tis time that the corpse awaye be led.
36. And see that the grave ye digge fui deep
Where a Christen mother's son must slepe;
Albeit our hands in hisbloud we steep,
The silent erthe shal our secret keep."
37. When the corpse was layed in clay,
A certaine Jewe did sneering say,
"Oh, I wish his mother joie to-daye
Of her prety babe that we did slay."
38. Some Jewes next morning stood agast,
As by this secret grave they past,
The erth, they found, its bonds had brast,
And the infant's bodie up was cast.
39. The Jewes of Lincolne « han they knew
This mervaille which was given to view,
Soon summoned a council of manie or few,
To see what next thei ought to doe.
40. On debateing the mater 'twas soon agreed
To fling the bodye in ihis their need,
In an odious privie place with speede,
They were fooles and wicked to do the deed.
41 For tho' to hide it they wer so fayne,
Next morning they found the body again
At their publick threshold lying plaine,
Therefore their labour was al in vaine.
42. Great was the sadnes and the fright,
Of the Jewes of Lincolne at the sight;
Thei saw that the dede must come to light,
As they could not watch both daye and night.
43. Then a Jewe stood forthe, and thus did say,
"Since the corpse of the infant begins to decay,
Let it be borne from the towiie to-day,
Out of Lincolne, far away.
44. I have found a woman to do the dede,
She was once my nurce, and 'tis all agreed,
She has promised to aide us in our neede
And for the same has received her meed.
45. But before she carries it any where
From the citie of Lincolne, I'd have you be ware.
Let waxe that is yellow be melted with care,
To cover the wounds that none lye bare."
46. When all was redy and night cam on,
The nurce with her burden forth is gone;
And deep in fountaine litel known
At the back of the castel she has it thrown.
47. She was known as a Christian in the place,
Soe, never suspected a deede so base;
She better could serve us in such a case,
And treated the bodie with litel grace.
VI. DISCOVERY OF THE BODY.
48. By chance, another woman next day,
Cam to the well[15] to drawe water away,
Shee discovered the corpse, but well-a-daye,
She might not tocbe it, wher it lave.
49. It was covered with filth from the privie place,
Wher the Jewes had throwen it for a space;
Ye mot not discerne the little face:
Then much she marvelled at such a case.
50. In her surprise she nothing thought,
Of the child that was loate and vainly sought;
Yet from the Dernestal this had been brought
In Lincolne town, to this very spot.
51. She passed a house wher as it befell
The stepfather of the child Hugh did dwell,
Said she to the man, " oh heare me tell
Of the sight I have seen at a neighbouring well.
52. The corpse of an infant, I have founde,
Neere to Lincolne, but out of the town,
By the brink of a fountaine on the ground;
Come see where the murderers laid it downe."
53. The man was astonished her tale to hear,
For now the truth began to appear;
His suspicions were right, he did not fear
That the crime of the Jews would soon appear.
54. She cried through the citie as if she wer wild,
"This morning I founde a murdered child
At the hack of the castel, naked and soild,
By the brink of a fountaine now denied."
55. As the crie of the woman rose on the ayr,
A crowd assembled from every where,
The ranue to the fountaino, and found it there:
For the soule of the child they offered a prayer.
56. Then grete was the stir, for each one thought
That the citie coroners should be broughte;
Yet scarce would they come, as we knowe they ought,
To examine by whome this murder was wrought.
VII. IT'S REMOVAL.
57. As soon as the bodie was raised to view
Most of the crowd the infant knewe;
With one consent they said " 'tis Hugh,
We'll carrie him home without more adoe."
58. The bodie was raised from wher it laye,
And home to the Dernestal borne that day,
But it smelled so ill, from tilth and decaye,
That even the priest had to holde away.
59. A woman cam forward, to notice the sight,
She had loste an eye, the left or right,
For manie a day it had seen no light
Such was the will of God Almight.
60. Being moved in her harte this scene to view,
She said, " Alas! you poor litel Hugh,
You were once so beautiful, what did you do
That here you should lie as they mordered you?"
61. She touched the hodie without any thought,
And her hande to her eye in an instant brought:
Then God by his grace a myracle wrought,
Her sight was restored[16] as if injured nought.
62. As soon as the woman the truth perceeved,
That by grace and mercie she was relieved,
She said aloud, as her heart believed,
"Glory to God! my sight is receeved."
63. Then all the people who thither did drawe
This wonderful virtue plainlie saw,
To God at once, they gave thanks with awe.
In this there was nothing opposed to law.
VIII. THE BURIAL.
64. At the moment, a convert,[17] who stood beside,
Addressing the multitude, loudlie cried;
"Methinks you would wish to be satisfyed,
Of the manner in which this infant died.
65. Let water be heted without delaye,
To wash the filth from the bodie away;
I suspect we shal shortlie be able to say
What means wer devised the child to slay."
IX. CAPTURE OF THE JEWS.
66. Then soon the bodie was clensed anew,
As the convert had counseled them to doe,
When all in a moment, 'twas plaine to view,
That the bloudy deede was done by a Jewe.
67. The very same woundes[18] which God had known,
On the corpse of the infant here were shown.
Oh, grete was the tumult with every one [town.
Whan these tidings wer spread thro Lincolne
68. When those of the mother-chirche[19] had known,
What wonderfull workings God had don,
To the holy corpse thei have come echo one,
And with reverance taken it up and gon.
69. In the mother-chirche of that grete citie,
Wher the graves of her saintes and martyrs be,
He was laid in a tombe most faire to see;
With very good reason, as seems to me.
70. There was not a canon in Lincolne I know,
But joined the procession, all a-rowe,
In front of the corpse they wer seen to go,
The requiem singing,—with musicke slow.
71. Then back from the court in a litel space,
Came the mother herself in dolorous case;
She might not beholde her darling's face
Now laid in his final resting place.
72. The report was spred from day to day
That some one had dared this child to slaye
And as on the Jewes the suspicion laye
The Jewes wer taken without delay.
73. When the Jewes of Lincolne wer captives made,
In a prison strong they were quickly laid;
Then one to the other doubting saved,
"'Tis surely by Falsim[20] we are betrayed."
X. CONFESSION OF THE MURDER.
74. And the Jewes of Lincolne every one,
In prison lay for their crime was known;
But their wives and children wer left alone,
Twas by design this pitie was shown.
75. Next daye appears King Henerie
(God grant him length of days to see,)
To Lincolne he comes with his chivalrie,
And with mercy, as God would have it be.
76. The Jewes wer bound and made to knowe
That before the King they all muste go
To examine the truth,—if it were soe
Was the infant crucifyed, yes or no.
77. A man of wisdome in the place,
Spoke to the King for a litel space;
He told what he thoughte of all the case
And challenged[21] the murtherer face to face.
78 Then Jopin the Jewe of whome they guessed,
His treacherous workings all confesst,
Said he," The scene of this dede unblest,
I will tell you straight with all the rest.
79. Twas Partenin drewe the child aside
And stole him awaye at evening tide,
He brought him to mee to let him abide
And the infant by me with cordes was tyed.
80. I kepte him within, apart from view,
Till every Jewe of England knewe;
This counsel! they gave in accents fewe,
Crucifye him without more ado.
81. There was not a Jewe in England wide,
But was with us in secrete close allied,
We chose the cross that we might deride
The mode in which Jhesus your prophete died.
82. Then Agim the Jewe wold have it soe,
That the infant to him from me should go;
For thirty peeces,—ful wel you know
Twas the price of your master long agoe.
83. With his knife he pierced the infant's side,
As hee hung on the cross wher we had him tyed,
'Twas little he struggled, but loud he cried,
As he gave up the ghost, and calmlie died.
84. Then we tried to inter him every where,
In the house and the privie place with care;
But never was known such a strange affaire,
For even the grave the corpse laid bare.
85. Then the nakede bodie was borne away
By the nurse of a Jewe whome we did pay;
She pass'd for a Christen,—soe thei say,
To a fountaine the went, I know the way.[22]
86. To the west of the Castel youle find its bed,
'Tis deepe as I know by the line and lead,
There she plunged the corpse right over the head.
Procede with your judgement, my tale is said."
87. When all was saide by Jopin the Jewe,
And written[23] in king and people's view,
King Henrie said, and his words were fewe,
"By the pitie of Jliesus Christ, I trowe,
Much ill did the infant's murder do."
XI. TRIAL AND EXECUTION.
88. Then alle the Jewes together hie,
For a council is summoned the mater to try,
Here[24] Jopin the Jewe was condemned to die
And his sentence conveyed to a sarjeant hard bye.
89 "This Jopin the Jewe as is aforesaide,
Thro the citie of Lincolne shal be led,
Dragged with strong horses, wel shoed and wel fed,
Til his bodie is dead, dead, dead!
90. Then loke that ye gather the mangled remaines,
That alle may see them hong in chains,—
As ye gibbet a robber on desolate plains,—
And know what the murderer gets for his pames."
91 As justice decrede, the deed is don,
He was dragged by strong horses,[25] more than one,
Now Jopin the Jewe to me is wel known
The place of your gibet beyond the towne.
92 On Canevict hill, which is very high,
There the gallows appears to the passers by;
Here robbers and traitors are doomed to die,
Great was the shame of the Jewes therebye.
Hic finit Passio Pueri Hugonis de Lincolnia.
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Footnotes:
1. "Fet a remembrer ke la proscyn Saraadi du comensement de Careme fut Henri de Last Counte de Nicolle."—Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 245.
2. Note at stanza 88.
3. Son style barbare et sa mesure incertaine indiquent encore plus que son premier vers quelle etoit destinee a etre chantee par le peuple."—M. Michel.
4. By some supposed to be the modern St. Dunstan's Lock, in St. Martin's.
5. He is called " Partenin" iti the 79th stanza. This may arise from the laxity of the orthography in general, or from the obscurity of the MS.
6. It is allowable to infer from this, that the traditional accusation against the Jewi was already well known.
7. Then at Reading, in Berks.
8. The name of a king is an uncertain guide to the individual; as we know that the deeds of Saint George were attributed in the popular songs to King George, and that one king was mistaken
for another, during the continuance of the name for 116 years. If this ballad was not written
during the reign of Henry III. (prior to 1277), it must have been written from 1399 to 1461, or
from 1485 to 1509, that is to say, while a king of the name Henry was on the throne. It is almost
impossible that it could have been written in the last period, and it is somewhat improbable that it
was so in (he previous one. It is highly probable that it was written by a native Englishman
familiar with the facts and localities; and he would not express himself in Anglo-Norman after the
reign of Edward III. The evidence therefore goes to show, that this is a contemporary production,
corresponding in date and importance with the narrative of Matthew Paris.
9. The uniformity of the metre is broken, in this address of the woman. A corresponding irregularity near the close, in the remarks of the King, restores the regular distribution of the lines into quatrains.
10. This alternative is of frequent occurrence in English ballad poetry; so that the position of accuser would seem to have been a very critical one.
11. Called also " Agiro."
12. It is strange that all the English popular versions of the ballad should attribute the death of the child to a female (the Jew's daughter,) who is visited by no punishment. In this Agim is the murderer, whereas Jopin alone is executed. Yet it is clear that the latter was not " aiding and abetting" much more than Peitevin or several others.
13 This is the only allusion to the part of the charge which alleged that the Jews killed the child to use some part of him for medicinal purposes. In the midiile ages mummy was a frequent ingredient in medicine, and superstition attached extraordinary ideas to parts of the human body. Shakspeare enumerates as part of the contents of the witches' cauldron " witches' mummy,"
"liver of blaspheming Jew," " nose of Turk, and Tartars' lips," and " finger of birth-strangled babe."
14. This is clearly a dramatic touch of the minstrel's own. It is in the highest degree improbable that a child of eight years old would express himself so in the circumstances.
15. The well is supposed to be identical with Grantham's Well in Newport. It may have been dedicated to the Virgin, as certain copies of the English ballad suggest; for independent of other evidence, the terms Halliwell and Holliwell (applied both to places and persons) show that the practice was common in England. In ancient times, the worship of wells or sacred fountains, was known in Chaldea, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Lybia, Greece, and Italy. In our own times, it is extensively practised in Ireland, and in a more limited degree in the Scottish Highlands. It was no doubt upon the same principle that the river Mersey (Belisama) was anciently dedicated to the queen of heaven (Belasamain). See an interesting essay on " Well Worship" in Sir William Betham's " Gael and Cymri," p. 235.
16. This statement is an admirable illustration of the spirit of the times. A popular ballad of
the length of this one, without a miracle, and referring to meilieeval events, would have looked
like a forgery. In modern times, there are sceptics even among " the spinners and the knitters in
the sun," who will wonder if the dead child really spoke to his mother from the boUom of the
well; but in the days of King Henry and his successors, there was no one so far deficient in faith.
17. We have stated, p. 21, that the only definite tacts antecedent to the conviction of Jopin,were
1st thai a child was murdered, and 2nd that the Jews were supposed to be the guilty parties. It
is charitably supposed by some that Jopin was for the time demented by fear; and that he only
replied iu a monosyllabic affirmative to the " leading questions." If the murder really came to
light as stated here, it is not unlikely that this *' convert" was himself the murderer. He seems
to have known more about the matter than was consistent with perfect innocence; and the
anxiety of such persons is well kuowu, to build their own reputation for sanctity on the ruins of
their abandoned faith. That men do commit murders for the sake of accusing others is a
fact too well known. It was only in 1841 that John Delahunt, of Dublin, was detected in a
systematic course of murder, his object being to procure the rewards offered, by prosecuting to
conviction parties wholly innocent. It is melancholy to relate, that several persons, including a
man and his wife, were actually executed on the unsupported evidence of this Irish " thug," and
that he pocketed the "blood-money," as the country people call it.
18. Commonly called the "five wounds of Our Lord." It is clear from this, as from other passages, that the accusation was well known to the populace at the time; otherwise the mere manner of the murder would not have been sufficient to bring it home to the Jews.
19. The Cathedral
20. In all probability Falsim was the convert who had counselled the washing of the body. The term may however be a descriptive epithet and not a proper name, for we find in the Fadera a pardon to John, a converted Jew, for the part which he had taken in the murder.
21. We would call this an undue interference with the formalities of justice. In modern times such is the charity of the law that every man must be treated as innocent or proved to be guilty:' formerly, every man who was suspected was treated as guilty, unless he could prove that he was innocent. The onus probandi was then thrown on the accused, it is now thrown on the accuser.
22. From the familiar allusion to localities, it is not improbable that the Anglo-Norman writer was a native of Lincoln. "A Lincoln boy, who wanders abroad and grows old in distant climes, remembers the Cathedral as a Swiss remembers his native mountains, or the beautiful lake reposing at their feet."—Chambers. From allusions of this kind, other inferences are drawn. Persons who have never learned to weigh evidence sometimes consider that the verification of an accidental reference, is a verification of their view of the question at issue. On this ground, it could only be necessary for dame Quickly to shew that she possessed "a parcel gilt goblet," " a Dolphin chamber" and "a sea-coal fire," to prove that Falstaff had promised her marriage (Shaksp. King Henry IV. parts. Act ii. sc. 1.) Mr. Pugin the celebrated architect, thinks that the truth of the whole legend is indisputable, mainly because " the body of the blessed Hugh the Less was found a few years since, adjacent to the place where the shrine formerly stood."(Storer's Cathedrals, quoted in description of Lincoln Cathedral, six. xx.) This reminds one of the attempt to demonstrate that Jack Cade was the rightful heir to the throne of England.
Staf. Villain, thy father was a plasterer;
And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not?
Cade. And Adam was a gardener.
Staf. And what of that?
Cade. Marry this:—Edward Mortimer Earl of March,
Married the Duke of Clarence's daughter, did he not?
Staf. Ay, Sir.
Cade. Bv her he had two children at one birth.
Staf. That's false.
Cade. Ay, there's the question; but I say 'tis true;
The elder of them being put to nurse,
Was by a beggar woman stolen away;
And ignorant of his birth and parentage,
Became a bricklayer, when he came to age:
His son am I; deny it, if you can.
Smith. Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive to thit day to
testify it; therefore, deny it not.—Shakspm, Henry VI. part 2, Act iv. Sc. 3.
23. This document may still exist; but it cannot affect the evidence in the case.
24. It would appear from the following that he was not condemned by Jews, but by Christians.
Eodem anno, in festo Cecilie, tune temporis die Lune, ducti sunt ad praemonasterium iiiix!t et xii Judaei de Lincolnia, qui
imprisonati fuerunt apud Turrim Londiniarum, pro morte cujusdam pueri masculi, quem debuerunt necasse apud Lincolniam, in
in despectu fidei Christiane; de quibus xviii qui voluerunt ponere se super veredictum Christianorum sine Judaeis, quando Hex fuit apud Lincolniam, de morte ilia et tune de ilia indic tati fuerunt coram Rege, eodem die fuerunt detracti, et etiam post prandium, et deficiente die de nocte swpensi. Alii vero lxxiiijor redncti sunt apud Turrim.—Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 23.
On St. Cecilia's day in the same year, which fell on a Monday, ninety-two Jews of Lincoln who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London, for the death of a boy who was said to have been slain by them at Lincoln, as an insult to the Christian faith, were brought to Westminster. Of these, eighteen, who wished to rest the issue of the murder on a verdict of Christians, without an admixture of Jews, when the King was at Lincoln, were there indicted in the King's presence, and on the same day after dinner, they were also dragged forth, and daylight failing were hanged by night. The remaining seventy-four were brought back to the Tower.
25 "Joppin, who confessed the crime, and the rest of the murderers, were condemned to be tied to the heels of young horses, and dragged to death, and afterwards hung on gibbets."—Sutler's Lives of the Saints.
26. Canwick parish, to the south of the city, is in the "Liberties of Lincoln." A hill within its bounds was formerly "the gallows hill," or place of execution.