[A] Flageolet.[B] Battlement.
[A] Flageolet.
[B] Battlement.
[358]Was offended.
[359]Repent.
[360]Give.
[361]Travel.
[362]Praise.
[363]Introduction to his “Reliques of Early English Poetry.”
[364]The close-fitting outer garment worn in the fourteenth century, shown in the engravings on p. 350.
[365]Which Percy supposes to mean “tonsure-wise,” like priests and monks.
[366]Percy supposes from this expression that there were inferior orders, as yeomen-minstrels. May we not also infer that there were superior orders, as knight-minstrels, over whom was the king-minstrel? for we are told “he was but a batchelor (whose chivalric signification has no reference to matrimony) yet.” We are disposed to believe that this was a real minstrel. Langham tells us that he was dressed “partly as he would himself:” probably, the only things which were not according to his wont, were that my Lord of Leicester may have given him a new coat; that he had a little more capon’s grease than usual in his hair; and that he was set to sing “a solemn song, warranted for story, out of King Arthur’s Acts,” instead of more modern minstrel ware.
[367]Heralds in the fourteenth century bore the arms of their lord on a small scutcheon fastened at the side of their girdle.
[368]“Annales Archæologiques,” vii. p. 323.
[369]“Eoten,” a giant; “Eotenish,” made by or descended from the giants.
[370]The Harl. MS. 603, of the close of the eleventh century, contains a number of military subjects rudely drawn, but conveying suggestions which the artist will be able to interpret and profit by. In the Add. MS. 28,107, of dateA.D.1096, at f. 25 v., is a Goliath; and at f. 1,630 v., a group of soldiers.
[371]Didde—did on next his white skin.
[372]Debate—contend.
[373]Cuirbouly—stamped leather.
[374]Latoun—brass.
[375]Compare Tennyson’s description of Sir Lancelot, in the “Lady of Shalot.”
“His gemmy bridle glittered free,Like to some branch of stars we see;Hung in the golden galaxy,As he rode down to Camelot.”
[376]In the MS. Royal, 1,699, is a picture in which are represented a sword and hunting-horn hung over a tomb. The helmet, sword, and shield of Edward the Black Prince still hang over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral; Henry IV.’s saddle and helmet over his tomb in Westminster Abbey; and in hundreds of parish churches helmets, swords, gauntlets, spurs, &c., still hang over the tombs of mediæval knights.
[377]Probably a bridge with a tower to defend the approach to it.
[378]Couch.
[379]Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour,” i. p. 349.
[380]The album of Villars de Honnecourt, of the thirteenth century, contains directions for constructing the trebuchet.
[381]Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour,” i. 361.
[382]For much curious detail on this subject see “The Babee’s Book,” published by the Early English Text Society.
[383]A cover for a bench.
[384]In illustration of the way in which actual warfare was sometimes treated as if it were a chivalrous trial of skill, take the following anecdote from Froissart; on the occasion when the French had bribed Amery de Puy, the governor, to betray Calais, and fell into the ambush which Edward III. set for them, and the king himself fought under the banner of Sir Walter Murray:—“The Kyng lyht on the Lord Eustace of Rybemount, who was a strong and a hardy knyht; there was a long fyht bytwene hym and the kyng that it was joy to beholde them.... The knight strake the kyng the same day two tymes on his knees; but finally the kynge himself toke hym prisoner, and so he yelded his sword to the kyng and sayd, Sir Knyght, I yeled me as your prisoner, he knewe not as then that it was the kyng.” In the evening the king gave a supper in the castle, at which the French prisoners sat as guests; and, “when supper was done and the tables take away, the kyng taryed styll in the hall with his knyghtes and with the Frenchmen, and he was bare-heeded, savyng a chapelet of fyne perles that he ware on his heed. Than the kyng went fro one to another of the Frenchmen.... Than the kyng come to Sir Eustace of Rybamont, and joyously to hym he said, ‘Sir Eustace, ye are the knyht in the worlde that I have sene moost valyant assayle his ennemyes and defende hymselfe, nor I never founde knyght that ever gave me so moche ado, body to body, as ye have done this day; wherefore I give you the price above all the knyghtes of my court by ryht sentence.’ Then the kyng took the chapelet that was upon his heed, beying bothe faire, goodly, and ryche, and sayd, ‘Sir Eustace, I gyve you this chapelet for the best doar in armes in this journey past of either party, and I desire you to bere it this yere for the love of me; say whersover ye come that I dyd give it you; and I quyte you your prison and ransom, and ye shall depart to-morowe if it please you.’”
[385]2 Samuel ii.
[386]Such as that which took place at Windsor Park in the sixth year of Edward I., for which, according to a document in the Record Office at the Tower (printed in the “Archælogia,” vol. xvii. p. 297), it appears that the knights were armed in a tunic and surcoat, a helmet of leather gilt or silvered, with crests of parchment, a wooden shield, and a sword of parchment, silvered and strengthened with whalebone, with gilded hilts.
[387]i.e., of the strangers. The challengers are afterwards called the gentlemen within.
[388]For other forms of challenge, and some very romantic challenges at full length, see the Lansdowne MS. 285.
[389]Probably the tilt-house (the shed or tent which they have in the field at one end of the lists).
[390]The Lansdowne MS. says “gentlewomen,” an obvious error; it is correctly given as above in the Hastings MS.
[391]Dugdale, in his “History of Warwickshire,” gives a curious series of pictures of the famous combat between John Astle and Piers de Massie in the year 1438, showing the various incidents of the combat.
[392]The Harleian MS. No. 69, is a book of certain triumphs, containing proclamations of tournaments, statutes of arms for their regulation, and numerous other documents relating to the subject. From folio 20 and onwards are given pictures of combats; folio 22 v. represents spear-play at the barriers; folio 23, sword-play at the barriers, &c.
[393]In the picture given by Dugdale of the combat between John Astle and Piers de Massie, the combatants are represented each sitting in his chair—a great carvad chair, something like the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey.
[394]Tremouille.
[395]“Oyez!” or perhaps “Ho!”
[396]From Mr. Wright’s “Domestic Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages.”
[397]“Ancient Cannon in Europe,” by Lieut. Brackenbury.
[398]See also Viollet le Duc’s “Dictionary of Architecture.”
[399]The British Museum does not possess this fine work, but a copy of it is accessible to the public in the Library of the South Kensington Museum.
[400]Afterwards cardinal.
[401]Dun Cow.
[402]“He is so hung round,” says Truewit, in Ben Jonson’sEpicœne, “with pikes, halberds, petronels, calivers, and muskets, that he looks like a justice of peace’s hall.” Clement Sysley, of Eastbury House, near Barking, bequeathed in his will the “gonnes, pikes, cross-bows, and other weapons, to Thomas Sysley, to go with the house, and remain as standards for ever in Eastbury Hall.”
[403]A sketch illustrating their construction may be found in Witsen’s “Sheeps Bouw.” Appendix, Plate 10.
[404]“History of Commerce.”
[405]Sir Harris Nicholas’ “History of the British Navy,” vol. i. p. 21.
[406]In our own day we see the scorn of trade being rapidly softened down. Many of our commercial houses are almost as important as a department of State, and are conducted in much the same way. The principals of these houses are often considerable landholders besides, have been educated at the public schools and universities, and are frankly received as equals in all societies. On the other hand, the nobility are putting their younger sons into trade. At this moment, we believe, the brother-in-law of a princess of England is in a mercantile house.
[407]Avarice, in “Piers Ploughman’s Vision,” v. 255, says:—
“I have ymade many a knyht both mercer and draperThat payed nevere for his prentishode not a paire of gloves.”
[408]Neatly, properly.
[409]Shields,i.e.écus, French crowns.
[410]Agreement for borrowing money.
[411]Know not his name.
[412]From Mr. Wright’s “Domestic Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages.”
[413]If.
[414]Boxes.
[415]Sweet ointments.
[416]To give relief.
[417]Engraved in Fisher’s Bedfordshire Collections, and in the London and Middlesex Archæological Society’s Proceedings for 1870, p. 66.
[418]Take the woodcut on p. 531, from MS. Royal, 15 E. I., f. 436.
[419]Taken.
[420]Like.
[421]N’et,i.e.does not eat.
[422]N’is,i.e.is not.