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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Das E-Book The Master of Game wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
royalty; hunting; hunt; boar; fox; england
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Seitenzahl: 198
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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THE MASTER OF GAME
Edward Duke of York
WAXKEEP PUBLISHING
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please show the author some love.
This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2015 by Edward Duke of York
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Master of Game
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.THE PROLOGUE
CHAPTER II.OF THE MARE AND HER NATURE
CHAPTER III.OF THE HART AND HIS NATURE
CHAPTER IV.OF THE BUCK AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER V.OF THE ROE AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER VI.OF THE WILD BOAR AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER VII.OF THE WOLF AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER VIII.OF THE FOX AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER IX.OF THE GREY (BADGER) AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER X.OF THE (WILD) CAT AND ITS NATURE
CHAPTER XI.THE OTTER AND HIS NATURE
CHAPTER XII.OF THE MANNER AND HABITS AND CONDITIONS OF HOUNDS
CHAPTER XIII.OF SICKNESSES OF HOUNDS AND OF THEIR CORRUPTIONS
CHAPTER XIV.OF RUNNING HOUNDS AND OF THEIR NATURE
CHAPTER XV.OF GREYHOUNDS AND OF THEIR NATURE
CHAPTER XVI.OF ALAUNTS AND OF THEIR NATURE
CHAPTER XVII.OF SPANIELS AND OF THEIR NATURE
CHAPTER XVIII.OF THE MASTIFF AND OF HIS NATURE
CHAPTER XIX.WHAT MANNER AND CONDITION A GOOD HUNTER SHOULD HAVE
CHAPTER XX.HOW THE KENNEL FOR THE HOUNDS AND THE COUPLES FOR THE RACHES AND THE ROPES FOR THE LYMER SHOULD BE MADE
CHAPTER XXI.HOW THE HOUNDS SHOULD BE LED OUT TO SCOMBRE
CHAPTER XXII.HOW A HUNTER’S HORN SHOULD BE DRIVEN
CHAPTER XXIII.HOW A MAN SHOULD LEAD HIS GROOM INQUEST FOR TO KNOW A HART BY HIS TRACE
CHAPTER XXIV.HOW A MAN SHOULD KNOW A GREAT HART BY THE FUMES
CHAPTER XXV.HOW A MAN SHOULD KNOW A GREAT HART BY THE PLACE WHERE HE HATH FRAYED HIS HEAD
CHAPTER XXVI.HOW THE ORDINANCE SHOULD BE MADE FOR THE HART HUNTING BY STRENGTH AND HOW THE HART SHOULD BE HARBORED
CHAPTER XXVII.HOW A HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST BY THE SIGHT
CHAPTER XXVIII.HOW AN HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST BETWEEN THE PLAINS AND THE WOOD
CHAPTER XXIX.HOW A HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST IN THE COPPICE AND THE YOUNG WOOD
CHAPTER XXX.HOW A HUNTER SHOULD GO IN QUEST IN GREAT COVERTS AND STRENGTHS
CHAPTER XXXI.HOW A HUNTER SHOULD QUEST IN CLEAR SPIRES AND HIGH WOOD
CHAPTER XXXII.HOW A GOOD HUNTER SHALL GO IN QUEST TO HEAR THE HARTS BELLOW
CHAPTER XXXIII.HOW THE ASSEMBLY THAT MEN CALL GATHERING SHOULD BE MADE BOTH WINTER AND SUMMER AFTER THE GUISE OF BEYOND THE SEA
CHAPTER XXXIV.HOW THE HART SHOULD BE MOVED WITH THE LYMER AND RUN TO AND SLAIN WITH STRENGTH
CHAPTER XXXV.HOW A HUNTER SHOULD SEEK AND FIND THE HARE WITH RUNNING HOUNDS AND SLAY HER WITH STRENGTH
CHAPTER XXXVI.OF THE ORDINANCE AND THE MANER OF HUNTING WHEN THE KING WILL HUNT IN FORESTS OR IN PARKS FOR THE HART WITH BOWS AND GREYHOUNDS AND STABLE
THE MASTER OF GAME
BY EDWARD DUKE OF YORK
INTRODUCTION
THE “MASTER OF GAME” IS the oldest as well as the most important work on the chase in the English language that has come down to us from the Middle Ages.
Written between the years 1406 and 1413 by Edward III.’s grandson Edward, second Duke of York, our author will be known to every reader of Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” for he is no other than the arch traitor Duke of Aumarle, previously Earl of Rutland, who, according to some historians, after having been an accomplice in the murder of his uncle Gloucester, carried in his own hand on a pole the head of his brother-in-law. The student of history, on the other hand, cannot forget that this turbulent Plantagenet was the gallant leader of England’s vanguard at Agincourt, where he was one of the great nobles who purchased with their lives what was probably the most glorious victory ever vouchsafed to English arms.
He tells us in his Prologue, in which he dedicates his “little simple book” to Henry, eldest son of his cousin Henry IV, “King of England and of France,” that he is the Master of Game at the latter’s court.
Let it at once be said that the greater part of the book before us is not the original work of Edward of York, but a careful and almost literal translation from what is indisputably the most famous hunting book of all times, i.e. Count Gaston de Foix’s Livre de Chasse’, or, as author and book are often called, Gaston Phoebus, so named because the author, who was a kinsman of the Plantagenets, and who reigned over two principalities in southern France and northern Spain, was renowned for his manly beauty and golden hair. It is he of whom Froissart has to tell us so much that is quaint and interesting in his inimitable chronicle. La Chasse, as Gaston de Foix tells us in his preface, was commenced on May 1, 1387, and as he came to his end on a bear hunt not
much more than four years later, it is very likely that his youthful Plantagenet kinsman, our author, often met him during his prolonged residence in Aquitaine, of which, later on, he became the Governor.
Fortunately for us, the enforced leisure which the Duke of York enjoyed while imprisoned in Pevensey Castle for his traitorous connection with the plots of his sister to assassinate the King and to carry off their two young kinsmen, the Mortimers, the elder of whom was the heir presumptive to the throne, was of sufficient length to permit him not only to translate La Chasse but to add five original chapters dealing with English hunting.
These chapters, as well as the numerous interpolations made by the translator, are all of the first importance to the student of venery, for they emphasize the changes—as yet but very trifling ones—that had been introduced into Britain in the three hundred and two score years that had intervened since the Conquest, when the French language and French hunting customs became established on English soil. To enable the reader to see at a glance which parts of the “Master of Game” are original, these are printed in italics.
The text, of which a modern rendering is here given, is taken from the best of the existing nineteen MSS. of the “Master of Game,” viz. the Cottonian MS. Vespasian B. XII., in the British Museum, dating from about 1420. The quaint English of Chaucer’s day, with its archaic contractions, puzzling orthography, and long, obsolete technical terms in this MS. are not always as easy to read as those who only wish to get a general insight into the contents of the “Master of Game” might wish. It was a difficult question to decide to what extent this text should be modernized. If translated completely into twentieth century English a great part of the charm and interest of the original would be lost. For this reason many of the old terms of venery and the construction of sentences have been retained where possible, so that the general reader will be able to appreciate the “feeling” of the old work without being unduly puzzled. In a few cases where, through the omission of words, the sense was left undetermined, it has been made clear after carefully consulting other English MSS. and the French parent work.
It seemed very desirable to elucidate the textual description of hunting by the reproduction of good contemporary illuminations, but unfortunately English art had not at that period reached the high state of perfection which French art had attained. As a matter of fact, only two of the nineteen English MSS. contain these pictorial aids, and they are of very inferior artistic merit. The French MSS. of La Chasse, on the other hand, are in several cases exquisitely illuminated, and MS. f. 616, which is the copy from which our reproductions—much reduced in size, alas!—are made, is not only the best of them, but is one of the most precious treasures of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. These superb miniatures are unquestionably some of the finest handiwork of French miniaturists at a period when they occupied the first rank in the world of art.
The editors have added a short Appendix, elucidating ancient hunting customs and terms of the chase. Ancient terms of venery often baffle every attempt of the student who is not intimately acquainted with the French and German literature of hunting. On one occasion I appealed in vain to Professor Max Millier and to the learned Editor of the Oxford Dictionary. “I regret to say that I know nothing about these words,” wrote Dr. Murray; “ terms of the chase are among the most difficult of words, and their investigation demands a great deal of philological and antiquarian research.” There is little doubt that but for this difficulty the “Master of Game” would long ago have emerged from its seclusion of almost five hundred years. It is hoped that our notes will assist the reader to enjoy this hitherto neglected classic of English sport. Singularly enough, as one is almost ashamed to have to acknowledge, foreign students, particularly Germans, have paid far more attention to the “Master of Game” than English students have, and there are few manuscripts of any importance about which English writers have made so many mistakes. This is all the more curious considering the precise information to the contrary so easily accessible on the shelves of the British Museum. All English writers with a single exception (Thomas Wright) who have dealt with our book have attributed it persistently to a wrong man and a wrong period. This has been going on for more than a century; for it was the learned, but by no means always accurate, Joseph Strutt who first thrust upon the world, in his often quoted “Sports and Pastimes of the English People,” certain misleading blunders concerning our work and its author. Blaine, coming next, adding thereto, was followed little more than a decade later by “Cecil,” author of an equally much quoted book, “Records of the
Chase.” In it, when speaking of the “Master of Game,” he says that he has “no doubt that it is the production of Edmund de Langley,” thus ascribing it to the father instead of to the son. Following “Cecil’s” untrustworthy lead, Jesse, Lord Wilton, Vero Shaw, Dalziel, Wynn, the author of the chapter on old hunting in the Badminton Library volume on Hunting, and many other writers copied blindly these mistakes.
Five years ago the present editors published in a large folio volume the first edition of the “Master of Game” in a limited and expensive form. It contained side by side with the ancient text a modernized version, extended biographical accounts of Edward of York and of Gaston de Foix (both personalities of singular historical and human interest), a detailed bibliography of the existing mediaeval hunting literature up to the end of the sixteenth century, a glossary, and a very much longer appendix than it was possible to insert in the present volume, which, in order to make it conform to the series of which it forms part, had to be cut down to about one-sixth of the first edition. A similar fate had to befall the illustrations, which had to be reduced materially both in number and size. We would therefore invite the reader whose interest in the subject may possibly be aroused by the present pages, to glance at the perhaps formidable-looking pages of the first edition, with its facsimile photogravure reproductions of the best French and English illuminations to be found in fifteenth century hunting literature.
In conclusion, I desire to repeat also in this place the expression of my thanks to the authorities of the British Museum—to Dr. G. F. Warner and Mr. I. H. Jeayes in particular—to the heads of the Bodleian Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale the Mazarin and the Arsenal Libraries in Paris, the Due d’Aumale’s Library at Chantilly, the Bibliothèque Royale at Brussels, the Konigliche Bibliotheken in Munich and Dresden, the Kaiserliche una Konigliche Haus, Hof and Staats Archiv, and the K. and K. Hof Bibliothek in Vienna, to Dr. F. J. Furnivall, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. T. Fitzroy Fenwick of Cheltenham, and to express my indebtedness to the late Sir Henry Dryden, Bt., of Canons Ashby, for his kind assistance in my research work.
To one person more than to any other my grateful acknowledgment is due, namely to Mr.
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, who, notwithstanding the press of official duties, has found time to write the interesting Foreword. A conscientious historian of his own great country, as well as one of its keenest sportsmen, President Roosevelt’s qualifications for this kindly office may be described as those of a modern Master of Game. No more competent writer could have been selected to introduce to his countrymen a work that illustrates the spirit which animated our common forbears five centuries ago, their characteristic devotion to the chase, no less than their intimate acquaintance with the habits and “nature” of the wild game they pursued all attributes worthy of some study by the reading sportsmen of the twentieth century, who, as I show, have hitherto neglected the study of English Venery. It was at first intended to
print this Foreword only in the American Edition but it soon became evident that this would give to it an advantage which readers in this country would have some reason to complain of, so it was inserted also in the English Edition, and from it taken over into the present one.
CHAPTER I.THE PROLOGUE
TO THE HONOR AND REVERENCE of you my right worshipful and dread Lord Henry by the grace of God eldest son and heir unto the high excellent and Christian Prince Henry IV by the aforesaid grace King of England and of France, Prince of Wales, Duke of Guienne of Lancaster and of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester.
I your own in every humble wise have me ventured to make this little simple book which I recommend and submit to your noble and wise correction, which book if it please your aforesaid Lordship shall be named and called MASTER OF GAME. And for this cause for the matter that this book treat of what in every season of the year is most durable, and to my thinking to every gentle heart most disportful of all games, that is to say hunting. For though it be that hawking with gentle hounds and hawks for the heron and the river be noble and commendable, it last seldom at the most more than half a year. For though men find from. May unto Lammas (August 1st) game enough to hawk at, no one will find hawks to hawk with. But as of hunting there is no season of all the year, that game may not he found in every good country, also hounds
ready to chase it. And since this hook shall he all of hunting, which is so noble a game, and lasting through all the year of divers beasts that grow according to the season for the gladdening of man, I think I may well call it MASTER OF GAME.
And though it be so my dear Lord, that many could better have meddled with this matter and also more ably than I, yet there be two things that have principally emboldened and caused me to take this work in hand. The first is trust of your noble correction, to which as before is said, I submit this little and simple book. The second is that though I be unworthy, I am Master of this Game with that noble prince your Father our all dear sovereign and liege Lord aforesaid. And as I would not that his hunters nor yours that now be or that should come hereafter did not know the perfection of this art, I shall leave for these this simple memorial, for as Chaucer said in his prologue of “The 25 Good Women”: “By writing have men mind of things passed, for writing is the key of all good remembrance”
And first I will begin by describing the nature of the hare, secondly of the nature of the hart, thirdly of the buck and of his nature, fourthly of the roe and of his nature, fifthly of the wild boar and of his nature, sixthly of the wolf and of his nature, seventhly of the fox and of his nature, eighthly of the badger and of his nature, ninthly of the cat and of his nature, tenthly of the marten and his nature, eleventh of the otter and of his nature. Now have I rehearsed how I will in this little book describe the nature of these aforesaid beasts of venery and of chance, and therefore will I name the hounds the which I will describe hereafter, both of their nature and conditions. And first I will begin with raches (running hounds) and their nature, and then greyhounds and their nature, and then alaunts and their nature, and then spaniels and their nature, and then mastiffs that men call curs and their nature, and then of small curs that come to be terriers and their nature, and then I shall devise and tell the sicknesses of hounds and their diseases. And furthermore I will describe what qualities and manners a good hunter should have, and of what parts he should be, and after that I will describe the manner and shape of the kennel, and how it should be environed and arrayed. Also I will describe of what fashion a hunter’s horn should be driven, and how the couplings should be made for the raches and of what length. Furthermore I will prove by sundry reasons in this little prologue, that the life of no man that use gentle game and disport be less displeasable unto God than the life of a perfect and skillful hunter, or from which more good cometh. The first reason is that hunting cause a man to eschew the seven deadly sins. Secondly men are better when riding, more just and more understanding, and more alert and more at ease and more undertaking, and better knowing of all countries and all passages; in short and long all good customs and manners cometh thereof, and the health of man and of his soul. For he that fleet the seven deadly sins as we believe, he shall be saved, therefore a good hunter shall be saved, and in this world have joy enough and of gladness and of solace, so that he keep himself from two things. One is that he leave not the knowledge nor the service of God, from whom all good cometh, for his hunting. The second that he lose not the service of his master for his hunting, nor his own duties which might profit him most. Now shall I prove how a hunter may not fall into any of the seven deadly sins. When a man is idle and reckless without work, and be not occupied in doing something, he abides in his bed or in his chamber, a thing which draw men to imaginations of fleshly lust and pleasure. For such men have no wish but always to abide in one place, and think in pride, or in avarice, or in wrath, or in sloth, or in gluttony, or in lechery, or in envy. For the imagination of men rather turns to evil than to good, for the three enemies which mankind hath, are the devil, the world and the flesh, and this is proved enough.
Nevertheless there be many other reasons which are too long to tell, and also every man that hath good reason know well that idleness is the foundation of all evil imaginations. Now shall I prove how imagination is lord and master of all works, good or evil, that man’s body or his limbs do. You know well, good or evil works small or great never were done but that beforehand they were imagined or thought of. Now shall you prove how imagination is the mistress of all deeds, for imagination bid a man do good or evil works, whichever it be, as before is said. And if a man notwithstanding that he were wise should imagine always that he were a fool, or that he hath other sickness, it would be so, for since he would think steadfastly that he were a fool, he would do foolish deeds as his imagination would command, and he would believe it steadfastly. Wherefore methinks I have proved enough of imagination, notwithstanding that there be many other reasons the which I leave to avoid long writing. Every man that hath good sense know well that this is the truth.
