Please rewrite the poem with plain English

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Dight = ? A noun?

Context:
He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Gray-Steel has made his bed.

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He that supper for is dight, [dight = a mans name?] It also means (according to google) equip (for battle).
He lyes full cold [dead}, I trow, this night!
Yestreen {yesterday] to chamber [bedroom] I him led,
This night Gray-Steel [sword] has made his bed.

"trow" can have several meanings: truth, believe, think. In this instance it expresses or reinforces the speakers belief of the statement "he lyes full cold".
This may be a maidens lament that her man has gone off to war and how she is scared that he has died.
she slept ("had sex" is implied) with him yesterday and now she believes he is dead. Perhaps he did not come home for his supper and that is why she believes him dead.

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Dight = ? A noun?

Context:
He that supper for is dight,
He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!
Yestreen to chamber I him led,
This night Gray-Steel has made his bed.

He who is adorned/dressed for supper
I swear lies very cold tonight
(I assume he is dead)
Last night I led him to his bedroom
Tonight Gray-Steel has made his bed.

I assumed Gray-Steel was a sword, and the person referred to had been killed by a sword...but it seems Gray-Steel is a character.

I still think the person is dead.

Here is the Washington Irving story the verse is quoted in:

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/i/irving/washington/i72s/spectre.html

Presumably there is some explication of the meaning in there?

Here is the History of Sir Gray-Steel

http://www.archive.org/stream/earlymetricalta00laingoog/earlymetricalta00laingoog_djvu.txt

Definition of dight:

dight [ dīt ] (past and past participle dight·ed or dight, present participle dight·ing, 3rd person present singular dights)

transitive verb

Definition:

equip: to equip, dress, or adorn somebody ( archaic )

[ Old English dihtan, via Germanic < Latin dictare "say often," (see dictate)]

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@dlowan,

Here is another version:

http://www.elfinspell.com/EER2Gray-steel.html

1 Reply

Thank you all

1 Reply

@oristarA,

You'll be happy to know Gray-Steel hadn't killed him after all!!

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@dlowan,

A bit more information and the whole story:

Quote:

1819-20

THE SKETCH BOOK

THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM

A TRAVELLER'S TALE*

by Washington Irving

* The erudite reader, well versed in good-for-nothing lore, will
perceive that the above Tale must have been suggested to the old Swiss
by a little French anecdote, a circumstance said to have taken place
at Paris.

He that supper for is dight,

He lyes full cold, I trow, this night!

Yestreen to chamber I him led,

This night Gray-Steel has made his bed.

SIR EGER, SIR GRAHAME, AND SIR GRAY-STEEL.

1 Reply

@Francis,

I'd already posted that, oh inattentive one.

That'll teach you to look at everything with one ear.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

Doing other stuff, while posting, sorry..

I'll hear you in the year to come, if I ever come back here...

1 Reply

@Francis,

Don't (schniff) think twice (sob), it's all right.

If I ever come back?

Methinks you're taking something too seriously.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

No, no, you are taking it too seriously. You missed the "here", which was part of the alliteration.

Don't worry, my heart is tender but my skin is thick...

1 Reply

@Francis,

Cool!

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Please rewrite the poem with plain English

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