Garnier: Postscript, on Becket's Sister

Epiloge

L'abesse, suer saint Thomas,
Pur s'onur et pur le barun,
M 'ad doné palefrei et dras;
N'i faillent nis li esperun.
Ne getai pas mes dez sur as,
Quant jo tornai à sa meisun !
Ne ele n'i ad mespris pas :
De mei aura tel gueredun,
Et devant halz et devant bas,
Par tut eshalcerai sun nun.
Meillur femme, très k'à Patras,
En nul liu ne trouvereit-run.
Et les Dames m'unt fet tut gras,
Ghescune d'eles, de sun dun.
Or lur duinst Deus tuz dis à tas
Pain et vin et char et peisun ;
Et quant lur cors ert mus et kas
Deus face as aimes veir pardun I
Ne dirai mes dès ore at las I
Car servirai Seignur mult buen.
De ço k*ai esté sovent las
De rimeier sa passiun,
U me rent bien, ne m'a à gas;
Assez me trouve guarisun,
Or, argent et robe en mes sas ,
Chevals , autre possessiun.
Se nuls me dit : Guamiers, où vas?
Tuz li munz est miens en virun.
Ne di se bien nun de Judas
Quand il veint à confessiun.
(£de, li buens priurs de seinte Temité,
Li covenz des seignurs, Deus lur sache buen gré!
M'unt fet mult granz sueurs , de lur sovent doné.
Maintenu an et jur et entr'els govemé.
Quel part ke seit mis cuers , et de loing et de lé ,
A els est mes returs, tut pur lur grant bunté;
Rar une ne vi meillurs en la Cristienté.

Explicit vita sancti Thome archiespicopi et martiris Canturiensis.

Translation

The abbess, sister of St. Thomas, for her honour and that of  our hero, gave me a palfrey and clothes. It didnt even lack spurs. I did not throw ones [aces] on my dice, when I turned up at her house. And she did not disappoint me. She will receive from me a corresponding reward: before the great as well as the humble, everywhere [I go] I will glorify her name. In no place even as far as Patras [Eastern end of Western Christendom] is a better woman to be found. And the ladies of the abbey each has enriched me with her gift. May God always lavish upon them an abundance of bread, wine, meat, and fish. When their bodies lie silent and in their coffin, may God forgive their souls.

Henceforth I shall have no reason to complain; For I have served an excellent lord. If I have often exhausted myself in putting into verse the account of his passion, he rewards me well - and does not laugh at me - he gives me a lot of goods, gold, money, clothes packed into my sacks, horses and other riches. If someone asks me, "Guernes, where are you going?" I answer that the whole world belongs to me. I will only have good to say to Judas if he comes to confession. Odo [Eudes], the good prior of the Holy Trinity [Canterbury Cathedral], as well as master of the convent (may God thank them for their generosity!) have procured me great succour and have often given of their possessions. For years, they have kept and nurtured me amongst them. Wherever my steps lead me, whatever may be my direction, it is to them that I shall return because of their great goodness, for never in all Christendom did I see better men.

Here laid before you has been The Life of St. Thomas, Archbishop and Martyr of Canterbury.

References

La vie de saint Thomas le martyr, publ. par C. Hippeau : Garnier de Pont Sainte Maxence :  pp.206-7

La vie de Saint Thomas le martyr; par E. Walberg 1922.

Collection des poètes français du moyen âge. Aubier. 1859. pp. 206–.

Archaeologia Cantiana. Kent Archaeological Society. 1876. pp. 17–.

 Mémoires de la Société des antiquaires de Normandie. 1859. pp. 245–.

Mary Carpenter Erler; Maryanne Kowaleski (2003). Gendering the Master Narrative: Women and Power in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. pp. 75–. ISBN 0-8014-8830-3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barking_Abbey


The withheld Name of Marie in the Epilogue of Guernes' 'Vie Saint Thomas'
Rossi, Carla. (2015) - In: Studi Giuseppe Tavani (2015) S. 127-142

Barking Abbey
https://goo.gl/Rp4FsA