FOOTNOTES:

[1] The History of Italy, from the Fall of the Western Empire to the

Commencement of the Wars of the French Revolution. By George Perceval,

Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. 1825.

[2] A third volume was added in the year 1781, which also bears the title

"Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie;" though more than half of the volume

relates to the sport of hunting, which is a baronial or feudal rather than

a chivalric subject.

[3] The Troubadour, &c. By L. E. L., author of The Improvisatrice. 12mo.

[4] Jean Froissart, called Sir Jean Froissart, (the title, Sir, being in

the middle ages common to all who were either in the holy orders of the

church or in the holy order of knighthood,) was born at Valenciennes in

the year 1337, and died in 1397.

[5] The Prologue of Froissart--Lord Berners' translation.

[6] I subjoin Schultens' Latin version of the Arabic passage in Bohadin,

vita et res gestæ Saladini, c. 127. p. 209. "Cupere Anglum ut Almalichus

Aladilus sororem ipsius in matrimonium duceret (eam e Sicilia cujus functo

domino nupta fuerat, secum avexerat frater, quum insulam illam

trajiceret)."

[7] Reiske's Latin version of Abulfeda is this:--"Illuc commeabant

Francorum pacis causa legati, eam offerentes conditionem, ut

Malec-al-Adel, frater Sultani sororem Regis Angliæ in matrimonium, et

Hierosolymas in regnum acciperet." Abulfeda, vol. iv. p. 111.

[8] Tacitus Germania, sec. 6. Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. i. s. 48.

[9] Tacitus Germania, s. 13. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p.

197.

[10] Tacitus Germania. Cæsar, lib. 6. s. 14.

[11] Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 16. c. 13.

[12] Chron. Saxon, 57, &c. Florence, ad an. 784. William of Malmsbury, 7.

[13] Athenæus, lib. iv. c. 36.

[14] Treatise on the Virtue of the Female Sex.

[15] Tacitus Germania, s. 18. c. 19.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Strabo, lib. iv. Tacitus Historia, lib. iv. c. 61. 65. Pomponius

Mela, lib. iii. c. 6.

[18] Tacitus, Hist. lib. iv. c. 18. Life of Agricola, s. 32. Germania, s.

7.

[19] Barthol. p. 54. as cited by Warton, Dissert. I. Of the Origin of

Romantic Fiction in Europe, in the first volume of the late admirable

edition of his History of English Poetry.

[20] It is also curious that this blow was said to have been

customary.--"Dato eisdem, sicut consuetudinis est, manu colapho."

[21] Not exactly according to the form, for by this time a belt with a

sword inserted was girded round the military candidate, instead of

delivering a javelin to him. See the preceding page.

[22] William of Malmsbury, lib. ii. c. 6.

[23] Ingulph, p. 512.

[24] Caxton, Fayts of Arms and Chivalry, chapter entitled "Of the Honor

that ought to be done to a Knight."

[25] Spencer's Fairy Queen, book v. canto 5. st. 37. The romance of the

Morte D'Arthur says, that in early times there were no hermits, but who

had been men of worship and prowess; "and the hermits held great

household, and refreshed people that were in distress." Lib. 18. c. 10.

[26] The reader will find in Johnson's Dictionary the etymology of _sir_.

When this word, acknowledging power and superiority, was first used as the

title of chivalry, I do not know. Instances exist as high as the reign of

Henry II.

[27] Coke, Instit. 4. In the Reports of the Lords' Committees respecting

the Peerage, (printed 2d July 1821), doubts are often expressed regarding

the meaning of the word Banneret. A little attention to the difference

between the personal nobility of chivalry, and the nobility which arose as

a franchise appurtenant to land, would have prevented the entertaining of

such doubts, and the conclusion might have been drawn from principles,

instead of being guessed from precedent, that the title of banneret had no

relation to the dignity of Lord of Parliament. The Lords' Committees seem

surprised that barons should sometimes have had the addition of knights,

and at other times of bannerets but in truth chevalier was the title which

comprehended all others, and, like the word 'Lord,' was used in a general

sense.

[28] See Du Cange, Dissertation 9. on Joinville. This learned commentator

seems inclined to confound knights-banneret with barons, chivalry with

nobility; and a herd of subsequent writers, refining on his error, have

gravely placed knights-banneret as an order or class of society mediate

between Nobility and Knighthood.

[29] Some fortune was, however, always thought necessary for the support

of the dignity of knight-banneret. In the 28th of Edward III. John de

Cobham was made a banneret, and had a grant of an annuity of 100 marks,

out of the issues of the county of Norfolk, expressly for the better

support of that dignity. Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 66. Many similar

instances are mentioned in the Parliamentary Rolls.

[30] A note of Waterhouse on Fortescue will illustrate this. "The title of

franklein is 'good man;' and yet they have oft knights' estates. Many are

called by courtesy 'masters,' and even 'gentlemen;' and their sons are

educated in the inns of court, and adopted into the orders of knights and

squires."

[31] Illegitimacy seems not to have been a matter of the slightest

consequence. Froissart. ii. 26.

[32] Favyn. i. 6.

[33] When Don Quixote was dubbed a knight, the landlord asked him whether

he had any money. "Not a cross," replied the knight; "for I never read in

any history of chivalry, that any knight-errant ever carried money about

him."--"Respondio Don Quixote que no traia blanca, porque él nunca habia

leido en las historias de los caballeros andantes, que ninguno los hubiese

traido." This was a very singular error in Cervantes, for in Amadis de

Gaul, which he characterizes as the best work of its class, and which is

evidently one of his textbooks, we read that the queen gave Adrian the

Dwarf enough money to last Amadis de Gaul his master for a whole year.

Book III. c. 6.

[34] Froissart, i. c. 448.

[35] Froissart, ii. c. 49.

[36] Thus, as Bracton observes, if a villain be made a knight, he is

thereby immediately enfranchised, and consequently accounted a gentleman,

l. iv. f. 198. b.

[37] Froissart, i. 384.

[38] Du Cange says, the third order of Chivalry consisted of the Esquires;

but he evidently thinks they were the personal attendants of knights, for

he calls them infancons or damoiseaux. He does not seem to have thought

that a grave old squire ever existed.

[39] ----"Mais le dit escuyer s'excusa; et dit qu'il ne pouvoit trouver

son bacinet."--Froissart, i. 211.

[40] favour.

[41] soon.

[42] diligently.

[43] attempted.

[44] against.

[45] rule.

[46] the minstrelsy art.

[47] went.

[48] knew.

[49] Geste of Kyng Horn, v. 233.

[50] Mr Rose's note on the Romance of Partenopex of Blois, p. 51.

[51] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and of Chyvalrye, c. 9., Mémoires du bon

Messire Jean le Maingre, dit Boucicaut, Maréchal de France, c. 5, 9. in

the sixth volume of the large collection of French Memoirs.

[52] L'Histoire de Guerin de Montglaive.

[53] L'Histoire et plaisante Cronicque du petit Jehan de Saintré, vol. 1.

c. 3-6. I have the authority of Sir Walter Scott and other able writers on

chivalry, to cite this romance as good evidence for the laws and manners

of knighthood. It was written in 1459; the first edition was printed in

Gothic characters in 1523, and it was reprinted in three volumes, 12mo. in

1724.

[54] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chevalrye, c. 9.

[55] _Damoisel_ et Eescuyer sont arrivés à Novandel demandant chivalarie,

lequel layant reçu n'est plus appellé de tels tiltres, ains seulement des

tiltre de chevalier.--Amadis de Gaul, liv. 3. c. 3.

[56] Fauchet de l'Origine des Chevaliers, liv. 1. ch. 1. Monstrelet, vol.

1. c. 138. L'histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin, c. 1.

[57] Paulus Warnefridus, lib. 1. c. 23.

[58] Eximinus Petri Salonava Justitia Arragonum. Lib. de privilegiis

baronum et riccorum hominum.

[59] Froissart, vol. 2. c. 31.

[60] Froissart, vol. 2. c. 92. The Earl of Oxenford had reason to repent

of his arrogance. Sir John Chandos, observes Froissart, marked well all

the matter between his squire and the earl, and remained quiet till the

prince was gone from them, and then coming to the earl, he said, "Sir

Thomas, are you displeased that I drank before you? I am constable of this

country; I may well drink before you, since my lord the prince, and other

lords here, are content therewith. It is of truth that you were at the

battle of Poictiers; but all who were there do not know so well as I what

you did. I shall declare it. When my lord the prince had made his voyage

in Languedock and Carcassone to Narbonne, and was returned hither to his

town of Bourdeaux, you chose to go to England. What the king said to you

on your arrival I know right well, though I was not present. He demanded

of you whether you had finished your voyage, and what you had done with

his son the prince. You answered, that you had left him in good health at

Bourdeaux. Then the king said, 'How durst you be so bold as to return

without him? I commanded you and all others when ye departed, that you

should not return without him, and you thus presume to come again to

England. I straitly command you, that within four days you avoid my realm

and return again to him, and if I find you within this my realm on the

fifth day, you shall lose your life, and all your heritage for ever.' And

you feared the king's words, as it was reason, and left the realm, and so

your fortune was good, for truly you were with my lord the prince four

days before the battle of Poictiers. On the day of the battle you had

forty spears under your charge, and I had fourscore. Now you may see

whether I ought to drink before you or not, since I am constable of

Acquitain." The Earl of Oxenford was ashamed, and would gladly have been

thence at the time; but he was obliged to remain and hear this reproof

from that right noble knight, Sir John Chandos.

[61] Fairy Queen, book 1. canto 10. st. 7.

[62] Froissart, 1. c. 269. M. Paris, 873.

[63]

"Les prisons firent arreter,

Et en lieu seur tourner,

A leurs escuyers les liverent

Et à garder les commandement."

[64] Ulrich von Lichtenstein, p. 70. Ulrich was a German knight, who lived

in the fourteenth century, and wrote his own memoirs. They often give us

curious glimpses into ancient chivalry.

[65] Chaucer, in drawing his squire, had certainly in mind a passage from

his favourite poem, "The Romaunt of the Rose:"--

"Si avoient bien a Bachalier,

Que il sache de vieler,

De fleuter et de danser."

I do not notice this circumstance on account of the literary coincidence,

but to shew that the squire of France and the squire of England were in

Chaucer's view the same character.

[66] Du Cange, Dissert. 7. au Joinville, and Menage, Dict. Et. in verb.

[67] Fairy Queen, book 2. canto 3. st. 46.

"So to his steed he got, and 'gan to ride,

As one unfit therefore, that all might see

He had not trained been in chivalry;

Which well that valiant courser did discern;

For he despised to tread in dew degree,

But chaf'd and foam'd with courage fierce and stern,

And to be eas'd of that base burthen still did erne."

In the old poem called the Siege of Karvalerock, a knight is praised for

not appearing on horseback like a man asleep.

"Ki kant seroit sur le cheval,

Ne sembloit home ki someille."

[68] Chaucer, Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Selden, Titles of Honour,

part 2. c. 3, 6.

[69] Froissart, vol. 1. c. 321. 'The lord Langurant did that day marvels

in arms, so that his own men and also strangers had marvels of his deeds.

He advanced himself so much forward that he put his life in great

jeopardy, for they within the town (against whose walls he was standing on

a ladder,) by clean force raised his helm from his head, and so had been

dead without remedy, if a squire of his had not been there, who followed

him so near that he covered him with his target, and the lord and he

together descended down the ladder by little and little, and in their

descending they, received on their target many a great stroke. They were

greatly praised by all that saw them.'--Berner's Froissart.

[70] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 24.

[71] Rigordus in Du Chesne, vol. 5. p. 59. Mr. Maturin, in that powerful

and magnificent romance, the Albigenses, has made a very fine use of the

instance related above of the squirehood of Philip Augustus.

[72] This strange practice prevailed, says Mr. Ellis, (Specimens of early

English Poetry, vol. i. p. 325.) at a time when the day-dress of both

sexes was much warmer than at present, it being generally bordered, and

often lined with furs; insomuch that numberless warrens were established

in the neighbourhood of London for the purpose of supplying its

inhabitants with rabbit skins. "Perhaps," continues Mr. Ellis, in his

usual style of pleasantry, "it was this warmth of clothing that enabled

our ancestors, in defiance of a northern climate, to serenade their

mistresses with as much perseverance as if they had lived under the torrid

zone."

[73] This circumstance was satirised, as the reader must remember, by

Cervantes, who did not always spare chivalry itself in his good humoured

satire of the romances of chivalry.

[74] Du Cange, articles Barbani radere, and Capilli. The complete shaving

of the head was not often submitted to by knights. It was generally

thought sufficient if a lock of hair was cut off.

[75] In the Fabliau of the order of knighthood the exhortation is somewhat

different, and necessarily so, for the candidate was a Saracen. It was not

to be expected that he would vow to destroy his erring brethren. The

exhortation deserves to be extracted, for it contains some particulars not

noticed in the one which I have inserted in the text. Whether specially

mentioned or not, attendance at church and serving the ladies were always

regarded as essentials of a knight's duty.

"Still to the truth direct thy strong desire,

And flee the very air where dwells a liar:

Fail not the mass, there still with reverend feet

Each morn be found, nor scant thy offering meet:

Each week's sixth day with fast subdue thy mind,

For 'twas the day of PASSION for mankind:

Else let some pious work, some deed of grace,

With substituted worth fulfil the place:

Haste thee, in fine, where dames complain of wrong,

Maintain their right, and in their cause be strong.

For not a wight there lives, if right I deem,

Who holds fair hope of well-deserv'd esteem,

But to the dames by strong devotion bound,

Their cause sustains, nor faints for toil or wound."

WAY'S _Fabliaux_, vol. i. p. 94.

The expressive conciseness of the exhortation to the duties of knighthood

in the romance of Ysaie le Triste is admirable. "Chevalier soies cruel a

tes ennemys, debonnaire a tes amys, humble a non puissans, et aidez

toujours le droit a soustenir, et confons celluy qui tort a vefves dames,

poures pucelles et orphelins, et poures gens aymes toujours a ton pouvir,

et avec ce aime toujours Saincte Eglise."

[76] The more distinguished the rank of the aspirant, the more

distinguished were those who put themselves forward to arm him. The

romances often state that the shield was given to a knight by a king of

Spain, the sword by a king of England, the helmet from a French sovereign,

&c.

[77] The word dub is of pure Saxon origin. The French word adouber is

similar to the Latin adoptare, not adaptare, for knights were not made by

adapting the habiliments of chivalry to them, but by receiving them, or

being adopted into the order. Many writers have imagined that the accolade

was the last blow which the soldier might receive with impunity: but this

interpretation is not correct, for the squire was as jealous of his honour

as the knight. The origin of the accolade it is impossible to trace, but

it was clearly considered symbolical of the religious and moral duties of

knighthood, and was the only ceremony used when knights were made in

places (the field of battle, for instance,) where time and circumstances

did not allow of many ceremonies.

[78] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chivalry, c. 49. Favyn Theatre of Honour,

liv. i. c. 6. Daniel, Hist. de la Milice Francaise, liv. i. c. 4.

[79] Froissart, vol. i. c. 364. The romance writers made strange work of

this disposition of candidates for chivalry to receive the wished for

honours from the hands of redoubted heroes. In one of them a man wanted to

be knighted by the famous Sir Lancelot of the Lake. He however happened to

be dead, but that circumstance was of no consequence, for a sword was

placed in the right hand of the skeleton, and made to drop upon the neck

of the kneeling squire, who immediately rose a knight.

[80] Pinkerton's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 71.

[81] Favyn, liv. iii. c. 12. Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 82. Honoré,

Dissertations Historiques et Critiques sur la Chevaliere. 4to. Paris.

1718. p. 55.

[82] Selden likens the degradation of a knight to the degradation of a

clergyman by the canon law, previously to his being delivered over to the

secular magistrate for punishment. The order of the clergy and the order

of knighthood were supposed to be saved from disgrace by this expulsion of

an unworthy member. Selden, Titles of Honour, p. 787.

[83] Segar, Of Honour, lib. ii. c. 5.

[84] Stow's Chronicle.

[85] The iron of Poictou was particularly famous for making admirable

lance-heads; nor was it disliked as a shield. Thus an old French poet

says,--

"Et fu armé sor le cheval de pris,

D'Aubere, et d'iaume, d'escu Poitevin."

Du Cange, art. Ferrum Pictavense.

The iron of Bourdeaux is frequently mentioned by Froissart as of excellent

use in armour. liv. 2. c. 117. 4. 6. And the old chronicle of Bertrand du

Guesclin says,--

"Un escuier y vint qui au comte lanca

D'une espée de Bourdeaux, qui moult chier li cousta."

[86] Menage, Diction. Etym. in verb.

[87] It is not worth while to say much about mere words. I shall only add

that the banner was sometimes called the Gonfanon.

"Li Barons aurent gonfanons

Li chevaliers aurent penons."

[88] This battle-axe is very amusingly described in the metrical romance

of Richard Coeur de Lion:--

"King Richard I understond,

Or he went out of Englond,

Let him make an axe for the nones,

To break therewith the Sarasyns bones.

The head was wrought right wele,

Therein was twenty pounds of steel,

And when he came into Cyprus land,

The ax he took in his hand.

All that he hit he all to-frapped,

The Griffons away fast rapped

Natheless many he cleaved,

And their unthanks there by lived,

And the prison when he came to,

With his ax he smot right thro,

Dores, barres, and iron-chains,

And delivered his men out of pains."

Line 2197, &c.

[89] Monstrelet. Johnes' edit. vol. 5. p. 294.

[90] Thus Pandaro the giant in Palmerin of England carried a huge

mallet:--but I need not multiply instances.

[91] En loyal amour tout mon coeur, was a favourite motto on the shank of

a spur.

[92] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 193.

[93] Chronicle of the Cid. p. 46.

[94] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. 1. p. 201.

[95] Hoveden.

[96] Pellicer's note on Don Quixote, edit. Madrid, 1798. Dillon's Travels

in Spain, p. 143.

[97] Robert of Brune.

[98] Wormius, Lit. Run. p. 110. Hickes Thes. vol. 1. p. 193.

[99] The notion of applying the word jocosé to a sword is thus pleasantly

dilated on by St. Palaye. "Ils ont continuellement repandu sur toutes les

images de la guerre un air d'enjouement, qui leur est propre: ils n'ont

jamais parlé que comme d'une fête, d'un jeu, et d'un passe-temps. _Jouer

leur jeu_, ont-ils dit, les arbalétriers qui faisoient pleuvoir une grêle

de traits. _Jouer gros jeu_, pour donner battaile. _Jouer des mains_, et

une infinité d'autres façons de parler semblables se recontrent souvent

dans la lecture de recits militaires nos écrivains."

[100] Ellis' Metrical Romances. 2. 362.

[101] The shield therefore was fitted by its shape to bear a wounded

knight from the field, and to that use it was frequently applied. Another

purpose is alluded to in the spirited opening to the Lay of the Gentle

Bachelor.

"What gentle Bachelor is he

Sword-begot in fighting field,

Rock'd and cradled in a shield,

Whose infant food a helm did yield."

[102] Malmsbury, p. 170.

[103] Dr. Meyrick, in his huge work on armour, divides the sorts of this

early mail into the rustred, the scaled, the trellissed, the purpointed,

and the tegulated. The grave precision of this enumeration will amuse the

curious enquirer into the infinite divisibility of matter.

[104] In a masterly dissertation upon Ancient Armour, in the sixtieth

number of the Quarterly Review, it is said, that "though chain-mail was

impervious to a sword-cut, yet it afforded no defence against the bruising

stroke of the ponderous battle-axe and martel; it did not always resist

the shaft of the long or cross bow, and still less could it repel the

thrust of the lance or the long-pointed sword."--There is a slight mistake

here. All good coats of mail were formed of duplicated rings, and their

impenetrability to a lance thrust was an essential quality. "Induitur

lorica incomparabili, quæ maculis duplicibus intexta, nullius lanceæ

ictibus transforabilis haberetur." Mon. l. 1. ann. 1127.

[105] Froissart describes Sir John Chandos as dressed in a long robe,

which fell to the ground, blazoned with his arms on white sarcenet, argent

a field gules, one on his breast, and another on his back.

[106] Du Cange, Dissert. the first on Joinville. The extravagance of

people in the middle ages on the subject of furs is the theme of perpetual

complaint with contemporary authors. By two statutes of the English

parliament, holden at London in 1334 and 1363, all persons who could not

expend one hundred pounds a-year were forbidden to wear furs.

[107] Du Cange, ubi supra.

[108] Montfaucon, Pl. 2. xiv. 7. and Gough i. 137.

[109] Fairy Queen, Book i. canto vii. st. 31, 32.

[110] Shakspeare, Henry V. Act iii. sc. 7.

[111] Fairy Queen, Book i. c. 7. st. 29.

[112] Lay of the Knight and the Sword.

[113] Froissart, livre i. c. 342.

[114] Ellis's Specimens of Metrical Romances, i. 328. 366.

[115] Monstrelet, Johnes's edition, vol. v. p. 121. 126., et prestement un

nommé Olivier Layet à l'ayde de Pierre Frotier lui bouta une espée par

dessoules son haulbergeon tout dedans le ventre, &c.--En apres le

dessusdit duc mis à mort, comme dit est fut tantost par les gens du

Daulphin desuestu de sa robbe, de son haulbergeon, &c. Monstrelet, vol. i.

c. 212, 213.

[116] Books of military costume may illustrate the truth, how important

every man's occupation is in his own eyes. The old French writer, Fauchet,

has devoted some pages to a description of the regular process of

dressing, and his example has been followed by some of our English

antiquarians.

[117] In Dr. Meyrick's three ponderous quartos on Armour there is one

interesting point: he shews that the celebrated title of the Black Prince,

which the Prince of Wales gained for his achievements at the battle of

Cressy, did not arise, as is generally supposed, from his wearing black

armour on that day, nor does it appear that he ever wore black armour at

all. Plain steel armour was his usual wear, and the surcoat was emblazoned

with the arms of England labelled. When he attended tournaments in France

or England he appeared in a surcoat with a shield, and his horse in a

caparison all black with the white feathers on them; so that the colour of

the covering of the armour, and not of the armour itself, gave him his

title. Dr. Meyrick thinks the common story an erroneous one, that the

ostrich feathers in the crest of our princes of Wales arose from young

Edward's taking that ornament from the helmet of the King of Bohemia, who

was slain by him at the battle of Cressy. He contends that the feathers

formed a _device_ on the banner of the monarch, and were not worn on the

helmet, because plumes of feathers were not used as crests till the

fifteenth century. That Dr. Meyrick has not been able to find any instance

of their being thus worn goes but very little way to prove the negative.

On the other hand, we know that the swan's neck, the feathers of favourite

birds, such as the peacock and pheasant, were devices on shields, and also

at the same time continually surmounted the helmet, and the ostrich

feathers, which ever since the crusades the western world had been

familiar with, might in all probability have been used in this twofold

manner. How the King of Bohemia wore his we do not know with historic

certainty, but it is very difficult to believe that he, or our chivalric

ancestors, with their love of splendid ornament, would have been contented

with placing the ostrich feathers as a mere device on a shield, and not

have also fixed it where they set every thing peculiarly graceful, on the

summit of the helm.

[118] A very singular instance of the inconvenience of heavy armour

occurred in the year 1427, during a war between the Milanese and the

Venetians. Carmagnola, the Venetian General, had skilfully posted his army

behind a morass, the surface of which, from the dryness of the season, was

capable of bearing the weight of infantry. He irritated the enemy (the

Milanese) to attack him, by capturing the village of Macalo before their

eyes, but their heavy cavalry had no sooner charged along the causeway

intersecting the marshy ground, which he purposely left unguarded, than

his infantry assailed them with missiles on both flanks. In attempting to

repulse them the Milanese cuirassiers sank into the morass: their column

was crowded on the narrow passage, and thrown into confusion, and the

infantry of Carmagnola then venturing among them on the causeway, and

stabbing their horses, made prisoners of the dismounted cuirassiers to the

number of eight thousand, as they lay helpless under the enormous weight

of their own impervious armour. Perceval's History of Italy, vol. ii. p.

77.

[119] Quarterly Review, No. lx. p. 351.

[120] In marking the progress of chivalry through Italy I shall again have

occasion to notice the excellence of the Milanese armour.

[121] Note 8. on Marmion, canto 5.

[122] Grose, ii. 246.

[123] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and of Chyvalrye, c. 62, &c. If the reader be

curious for information on the subject of the allegories which were formed

from the armour and dress of the Knights of the Garter and the Bath, he

will find it in Anstis's Register of the Garter, p. 119, 120, and his

History of the Knighthood of the Bath, p. 77-80.

[124]

Asturco dextrarius est, Astur caput ejus

Nam prius Astur equum dextrandi repperit usum.

Ebrardus Betuniensis in Græcismo, c. 7.

[125] An Arabian horse.

[126] Weak.

[127] Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, p. 66.

[128] William of Newbridge, c. 11. lib. ii. Brunetus in Thesauro, MS. part

1. c. 155, says "Il y a chevaus de plusieurs manieres, à ce que li un sont

déstreir quant pour li combat, li auter sont palefroy pour chevaucher à

l'aise de son cors pour li autres son roueis pour sommes porter," &c. and

the continuator of Nangis says, "Et apres venoient les grans chevaux et

palefrois du roy tres rechement ensellez, et les valets les menaient en

dextre sur autres roussins."

[129] History of the Crusades, vol. i. p. 357. note.

[130] Lest the reader's mind should wander in conjecture regarding the

purpose of barding a horse, I will transcribe, for his instruction and

illumination, a few lines from Dr. Meyrick's Chronological Inquiry into

Ancient Armour, vol. ii. p. 126. "The principal reason for arming the

horse in plate as well as his rider was to preserve his life, on which

depended the life or liberty of the man-at-arms himself; for when he was

unhorsed, the weight of his own armour prevented him from speedily

recovering himself or getting out of the way, when under the animal.

Besides this, by thus preserving the horse, the expence of another was

saved." Wonderful!

[131] Statutes of the Templars, c. 37.

[132] Vincent de Beauvais, Hist. lib. 30. c. 85.

[133] From the Loka Lenna, or Strife of Loc, cited in the notes on Sir

Tristrem, p. 350.; St. Palaye, "Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevaliere,"

partie 3.; Du Cange, Twenty-first Dissertation on Joinville; Glossary,

Arma Mutare, Companionship in weal and woe sanctioned by religious

solemnities, still exists among the Albanians and other people of the

eastern shore of the Adriatic. The custom is wrought into a very

interesting story in the tale of Anastasius, vol. i. c. 7.

[134] Juv. des Ursins anno 1411. Vraye fraternité et compagnie d'armes, is

the frequent expression in old writers for this chivalric union.

[135] Kennet's Parochial Antiquities, p. 57. cited in Henry's History of

England, vol. iii. p. 360. 4to.

[136] The romance of Amys and Amylion. It is abridged by Mr. Ellis in the

third volume of his Specimens of early English Metrical Romances, and

inserted at length by Mr. Weber in the second volume of his collection.

The reader may be amused to learn that the mother of the children was so

complaisant to her husband as to approve of his having cut their little

throats.

"O lef lief! she said tho,

God may send us children mo!

Of them have thou no care.

And if it were at my heart's root,

For to bring thy brother boot,

My life I would not spare.

There shall no man our children sene,

For to morrow they shall buried ben,

As they fairly dead were.

Thus that lady, fair and bright,

Comforted her lord with her might,

As ye may understand

Sin[A] they went both right

To Sir Amylion, that gentle knight,

That ever was fre to fonde[B]

When Sir Amylion awaked tho,

All his foulehead away was go

Through grace of God's Son.

Then was he as fair a man

As ever he was ere than

Since he was been in londe."

The conclusion of the story shows the belief of the writer that heaven

approved of such sacrifices to friendship.

"Then were they all blithe,

Their joy could no man kithe,

They thanked God that day.

As ye may at me liste and lythe.[C]

Into the chamber they went swythe.[D]

Ther as the children lay.

Without wern[E], without wound,

All whole the children there they found,

And lay together in play.

For joy they went there, they stood

And thanked God with mild mode

Their care was all away."

[A] After.

[B] That ever could be met with.

[C] Now you must listen to me.

[D] Quickly.

[E] Scar.

[137] It may be as well to notice that the barriers of a town, or its

outer fortification, are described by Froissart as being grated

pallisades, the grates being about half a foot wide.

[138] The remainder of this knight's story should be told, although it

does not relate to the matter of the text. "In the suburbs he had a sore

encounter, for, as he passed on the pavement, he found before him a

bocher, a big man, who had well seen this knight pass by, and he held in

his hands a sharp heavy axe, with a long point; and as the knight

returned, and took no heed, this bocher came on his side and gave him such

a stroke between the neck and shoulders, that he fell upon his horse, and

yet he recovered; and then the bocher struck him again, so that the axe

entered into his body, so that, for pain, the knight fell to the earth,

and his horse ran away, and came to the squire who abode for his master at

the streets; and so the squire took the horse, and had great marvel what

was become of his master, for he had seen him ride to the barriers, and

strike thereat with his glaive, and return again. Then he rode a little

forth thitherward, and anon he saw his master laying upon the earth

between four men, who were striking him as they would strike an anvil. And

then the squire was so affrighted he durst not go farther, for he saw he

could not help his master. Therefore he returned as fast as he might; so

there the said knight was slain. And the knights that were at the gate

caused him to be buried in holy ground." Lord Berners's Froissart, c. 281.

[139] Froissart, vol. i. c. 278.

[140] Froissart, c. 281.; Gray's Descent of Odin.; Herbert's Icelandic

Translations, p. 39; Scott's Minstrelsy, vol. 1. p. 45.

[141] Froissart c. 384.

[142] Froissart, c. 28. "Et si avoit entre eux plusieurs jeunes

bacheliers, qui avoient chacun un oeil couvert de drap, à fin qu'ils n'en

puissent veoir; et disoit on que ceux là avoient voué, entre dames de leur

pais, que jamais ne verroient que d'un oeil jusques à ce qu'ils auroient

fait aucunes prouesses de leur corps en royaume de France." The

disposition of knights to make vows was an excellent subject for

Cervantes' raillery. "Tell her," continued I, (Don Quixote) "when she

least expects it, she will come to hear how I made an oath, as the Marquis

of Mantua did, when he found his nephew Baldwin ready to expire on the

mountains, never to eat upon a table-cloth, and several other particulars,

which he swore to observe, till he had revenged his death. So in the like

solemn manner will I swear, never to desist from traversing the habitable

globe, and ranging through all the seven parts of the world, more

indefatigably than ever was done by Prince Pedro of Portugal, till I have

freed her from her enchantment." Don Quixote, part 2. c. 23.

[143] Every true knight said like him in the Morte d'Arthur, "Though the

knight be never so false, I will never slay him sleeping; for I will never

destroy the high order of knighthood." And again, "Well, I can deem that I

shall give him a fall. For it is no mastery, for my horse and I be both

fresh, and so are not his horse and he, and weet ye well that he will take

it for great unkindness, for every one good is loth to take another at

disadvantage."

[144] The true son of chivalry was like Banquo, of whom Macbeth says,

"'Tis much he dares;

And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour

To act in safety."

Sir Philip Sidney excellently well describes the nature of chivalric

courage. "Their courage was guided with skill, and their skill was armed

with courage; neither did their hardiness darken their wit, nor their wit

cool their hardiness: both valiant as men despising death, and both

confident as unwonted to be overcome. Their feet steady, their hands

diligent, their eyes watchful, and their hearts resolute." Arcadia, p. 28.

Edit. 1590.

[145] Morte d'Arthur. 1. 7.

[146] Argentré, Histoire de la Bretagne, p. 391.

[147] Limoges had revolted on account of a tax which had been imposed on

the English dominions in France, to pay the expences of the war, which had

had for its object the restoration of Peter the Cruel.

[148] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 283. "Then the Prince, the Duke of Lancaster,

the Earl of Cambridge, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir Guiscard Dangle, and all

the others, with their companies, entered into the city, and all other

footmen ready apparelled, to do evil, and to pillage and rob the city, and

to slay men, women, and children; for so it was commanded them to do. It

was great pity to see the men, women and children that kneeled down on

their knees to the Prince for mercy, but he was so inflamed with ire, that

he took no heed to them, so that none was heard; but all put to death as

they were met withal, and such as were nothing culpable. There was no pity

taken of the poor people who wrought never no manner of treason; yet they

bought it dearer than the great personages, such as had done the evil and

trespass. There was not so hard a heart within the city of Limoges, and if

he had any remembrance of God, but that wept piteously for the great

mischief that they saw before their eyes: for more than three thousand

men, women and children were slain that day. God have mercy on their

souls, for I trow they were martyrs." Lord Berners' Translation.

[149] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[150] Romance of Sir Otuel. And in the Morte d'Arthur it is said, "and

thus by assent of them both, they granted either other to rest, and so

they set them down upon two mole hills there beside the fighting place,

and either of them unlaced his helmet, and took the cold wind, for either

of their pages was fast by them to come when they called to lace their

harness, and to set them on again at their commandment." Morte d'Arthur.

lib. 8. c. 17.

[151] Romance of Sir Ferumbras.

[152] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 24. This story of Froissart reminds one of

Mortimer,

"When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,

In single opposition, hand to hand,

He did confound the best part of an hour

In changing hardiment with great Glendower:

Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,

Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;

Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,

Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,

And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,

Blood-stain'd with these valiant combatants."

Henry IV. Part 1. Act 1. Sc. iii.

[153] Froissart liv. 1. c. 107.

[154] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 145.

[155] Froissart, liv. 2. c. 146.

[156] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 149. 233.

[157] Froissart, liv. 1. c. 235. 371. liv. 2. c. 152.

[158] Thus Don Quixote pleasantly says in his enumeration of chivalric

qualities, "whoever possesses the science of knight errantry ought to be

learned in the laws, and understand distributive and commutative justice,

in order to right all mankind."

[159] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 1. st. 3.; and Tasso, with equal

attention to truth, thus describes the duty of a knight.

Premer gli alteri, e sollevar gli imbelli,

Defender gli innocenti, e punir gli empi,

Fian l'arti lor.

La Ger. lib. 10. 76.

[160] Piers Ploughman, first vision.

[161] M. Paris. 45.

[162] Matthew of Westminster, p. 353.

[163] Froissart, 1. c. 361. 2. 124. 202. 203.

[164] Froissart, 1. 46.

[165] Fairy Queen, book ii. canto c. st. 41.

[166] Even so judicious a writer as Mr. Dunlop says, (Hist. of Fiction,

vol. ii. p. 144.) that vigor of discipline was broken by want of unity of

command. St. Palaye, in whom want of acquaintance with the subject is less

excusable, says, "Si le pouvoir absolu, si l'unité du commandement est le

seul moyen d'entretenir la vigueur de la discipline, jamais elle ne dut

être moins solidement établie, et plus souvent ébranlée que du temps de

nos chevaliers. Quelle confusion, en effet, ne devoient point apporter

tant d'especes de chefs, dont les principes, les motifs et les interêts

n'etoient pas toujours d'accord, et qui ne tiroient point d'une même

source le droit de se faire obeir?" Memoires sur l'Ancienne Chevalerie,

partie 5.

[167] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26.

[168]

"Then said the gud Erl of Derby,

Lo! here a fair sight sykkyrly.

A fairer sight how may man see,

Than knight or squire which ever he be,

In-til his helm him thus got schryive?

When I shall pass out of this life,

I would God of his grace would send

To me a like manner to end."

Wyntown's Cronykil of Scotland, book viii. c. 35.

[169] Caxton, Fayt of Armes and Chevalrie, fol. 40.

[170] Ibid. c. 48.

[171] Malmsbury, p. 186.

[172] Lai of Aucassin and Nicolette.

[173] Froissart, livre 1. c. 87. The romances of chivalry are full of

tales expressive of this feature of the knightly character. As amusing a

story as any is to be found in the Morte d'Arthur. "There came into the

court a lady that hight the lady of the lake. And she came on horseback,

richly bysene, and saluted King Arthur, and asked him a gift that he

promised her when she gave him the sword. 'That is sooth,' said Arthur, 'a

gift I promised you. Ask what ye will, and ye shall have it, an it be in

my power to give it.'--'Well,' saith the lady, 'I ask the head of the

knight that hath wore the sword, or the damsel's head that brought it. I

take no force though I have both their heads, for he slew my brother, a

good knight and a true, and that gentlewoman was causer of my father's

death.'--'Truly,' said King Arthur, 'I may not grant either of their heads

with my worship, therefore ask what ye will else, and I shall fulfill your

desire.'--'I will ask none other thing,' said the lady. When Balyn was

ready to depart, he saw the lady of the lake, that by her means had slain

Balyn's mother, and he had sought her three years; and when it was told

him that she asked his head of King Arthur, he went to her streyte, and

said, 'Evil be you found, you would have my head, and therefore shall lose

yours,' and with his sword lightly he smote off her head before King

Arthur. 'Alas! for shame,' said Arthur, 'why have you done so? you have

shamed me and all my court; for this was a lady that I was beholden to,

and hither she came under my safe-conduct. I shall never forgive you that

trespass.'--'Sir,' said Balyn, 'me forthinketh of your displeasure; for

this same lady was the untruest lady living, and by enchantment and

sorcery she hath been the destroyer of many good knights, and she was

causer that my mother was burnt through her falsehood and

treachery.'--'What cause soever ye had,' said Arthur, 'you should have

forborne her in my presence; therefore, think not the contrary, you shall

repent it, for such another despite had I never in my court, therefore

withdraw you out of my court in all haste that you may.'" Morte d'Arthur,

lib. ii. c. 3.

[174] Malmsbury, p. 184. Quem cuilibet, quamvis infestissimo inimico

negare, laudabilium militum mos non est.

[175] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 162.

[176] Froissart, ii. 26.

[177] This was part of the exhortation of a king of Portugal, on knighting

his son, according to a Portuguese historian, cited in Lord Lyttleton's

History of Henry II., vol. ii. p. 233. 4to.

[178] Morte d'Arthur; first book of Sir Tristram, c. 34.

[179] Caxton, c. 66.

[180] The necessity of courtesy of manner was so important in the minds of

the old poets that they ascribed it not only to every favourite hero, but

even to animals, whether real or imaginary. Our moral poet Gower thus

gravely sets forth the politeness of a dragon.

"With all the cheer that he may,

Toward the bed there as she lay,

Till he came to her the beddes side,

And she lay still and nothing cried;

For he did all his things fair,

And was courteous and debonair."

Confessio Amantis, lib. 6. fol. 138.

[181] Extrait de l'Histoire de Du Gueslin, par P. H. Du Chastelet, p. 39,

&c.

[182] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 47. It is difficult to fancy the extravagant

degree of estimation in which hawks were held during the chivalric ages.

As Mr. Rose says in one of his notes to the Romance of Partenopex of

Blois, they were considered as symbols of high estate, and as such were

constantly carried about by the nobility of both sexes. Barclay, in his

translation from Brandt, complains of the indecent usage of bringing them

into places appropriated to public worship; a practice which, in the case

of some individuals, appears to have been recognized as a right. The

treasurer of the church of Auxerre enjoyed the distinction of assisting at

divine service on solemn days, with a falcon on his fist; and the Lord of

Sassai held the privilege of perching his upon the altar. Nothing was

thought more dishonorable to a man of rank, than to give up his hawks, and

if he were taken prisoner, he would not resign them even as the price of

liberty.

[183] Romance of Ipomydon.

[184] Froissart, vol. i. c. 177; and Sir Walter Scott's note to the

Romance of Sir Tristrem, p. 274.

[185] This statement of the objects of the minstrelsy art, is taken from a

manuscript cited by Tyrwhitt, Chaucer ii. 483. It is the railing of a sour

fanatic, who wished to destroy all the harmless pleasures of life. But we

may profit by his communication, while we despise his gloom.

I shall add another description of the various subjects of minstrelsy from

the Lay le Fraine.

"Some beth of war and some of woe,

And some of joy and mirth also;

And some of treachery and of guile,

Of old adventures that fell while;

And some of jests and ribaudy;

And many there beth of fairy;

Of all things that men see,

Most of love, forsooth, there be."

[186] Sir Orpheo.

[187] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26. 52. 163. In Dr. Henderson's History of

Wines, p. 283, it is stated that our ancestors mixed honey and spices with

their wine, in order to correct its harshness and acidity, and to give it

an agreeable flavour. True, but it should also have been remarked that the

spices were not always mixed with the wine, but that they were served up

on a plate by themselves. This custom is proved from an amusing passage in

Froissart, which involves also another point of manners. Describing a

dinner at the castle of Tholouse, at which the king of France was present,

our chronicler says, "This was a great dinner and well stuffed of all

things; and after dinner and grace said, they took other pastimes in a

great chamber, and hearing of instruments, wherein the Earl of Foix

greatly delighted. Then wine and spices were brought, the Earl of Harcourt

served the king of his spice plate, and Sir Gerrard de la Pyen served the

Duke of Bourbon, and Sir Monnaut of Nouailles served the Earl of Foix."

Vol. ii. c. 264. Another passage is equally expressive: "The king alighted

at his palace, which was ready apparelled for him. There the king drank

and took spices, and his uncles also; and other prelates, lords, and

knights." Thus too, at a celebration of the order of the Golden Fleece, at

Ghent, in 1445, Olivier de la Marche, describing the dinner, says,

"Longuement dura le disner et le service. Là jouerent et sonnerent

menestries et trompettes; et herauts eurent grans dons, et crierent

largesse; et tables levées furent les espices aportées, et furent les

princes et les chevaliers servis d'espices et de vins, &c." Memoires,

d'Olivier de la Marche, in the vol. ix. c. 15. of the great collection of

French Memoirs: and in the Morte d'Arthur it is said they went unto Sir

Persauntes pavilion, and drank the wine and ate the spices.

[188] He was a great personage, if wealth could confer dignity. The

hospital and priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, London, were founded

by Royer or Raherus, the king's minstrel, in the third year of the reign

of Henry I. A. D. 1102. Percy, Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 32. The

SERJEANT of the minstrels was another title for the head of the royal

minstrelsy. A circumstance that occurred in the reign of Edward IV. shews

the confidential character of this officer, and his facility of access to

the king at all hours and on all occasions. "And as he (king Edward IV.)

was in the north country in the month of September, as he lay in his bed,

one, named Alexander Carlisle, that was _serjeant of the minstrels_, came

to him in great haste, and bade him arise, for he had enemies coming."

This fact is mentioned by Warton, on the authority of an historical

fragment. ad calc. Sportti Chron. ed. Hearne, Oxon, 1729.

[189] Wordsworth's Excursion, book ii.

[190] Wood, Hist. Antiq. Un. Oxon. 1. 67. sub anno 1224; and Percy, Notes

on his Essay on the Ancient Minstrels, p. 64.

[191] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 31. Writers on chivalry have too often

affirmed, that the minstrels besides singing, reciting, and playing on

musical instruments, added the entertainments of vaulting over ropes,

playing with the pendent sword, and practising various other feats of

juggling and buffoonery. That this was sometimes the case during all the

ages of the minstrelsy art, is probable enough, for the inferior minstrels

were in a dreadful state of indigence. But the disgraceful union of poetry

and juggling was not common in the best ages of chivalry. Chaucer

expressly separates the minstrel from the juggler.

"There mightest thou karols seen,

And folk dance, and merry ben,

And made many a fair tourning

Upon the green grass springing.

There mightest thou see these flouters.

Minstrallis and eke jugelours."

Romaunt of the Rose, l. 759, &c.

Other passages to the same effect are collected in Anstis Order of the

Garter, vol. i. p. 304; and Warton, History of English poetry, vol. ii. p.

55. As chivalry declined, minstrelsy was discountenanced, and its

professors, fallen in public esteem, were obliged to cultivate other arts

besides those of poetry and music.

[192] Dunlop, History of Fiction, vol. i. p. 142.

[193] Wace, a canon of Bayeux, and one of the most prolific rhimers that

ever practised the art of poetry, continually reminded the great of the

benefits which accrued to themselves from patronising poets.

"Bien entend conuis e sai

Que tuit morrunt, e clerc, e lai;

E que mult ad curte decrée,

En pres la mort lur renumee;

Si per clerc ne est mis en livre,

Ne poet par el dureement vivre.

* * * *

Suvent aveient des barruns,

E des nobles dames beaus duns,

Pur mettre lur nuns en estroire,

Que tuz tens mais fust de eus memoire."

MS. Bib. Reg. iv. c. 11. cited by Mr. Turner, History of England, vol. i.

p. 442. 4to.

[194] This description (Spenser's) of chivalric manners, has sadly puzzled

his commentators. They are quite agreed, however, on one point, namely,

that to kiss the hand of a fair lady (which the word basciomani signified)

was not a custom indigenous to England, but that it was imported hither

from Italy or Spain. A preux chevalier of the olden time would have been

indignant at this insult to the originality of his gallantry.

[195] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 26.

[196] The Life of Ipomydon, Fytte, 1.

[197] Thus in the Romance of Perceforest (cited by Ellis, Notes to Way's

Fabliaux, vol. i. p. 220) it is said, "There were eight hundred knights

all seated at table, and yet there was not one who had not a dame or

damsel at his plate!"

In the tale of the Mule without a Bridle, it is said,

"Fill'd with these views the attendant dwarf she sends:

Before the knight the dwarf respectful bends;

Kind greetings bears as to his lady's guest,

And prays his presence to adorn her feast.

The knight delays not; on a bed design'd

With gay magnificence the fair reclin'd

High o'er her head, on silver columns rais'd,

With broidering gems her proud pavilion blaz'd.

Herself, a paragon in every part,

Seem'd sovereign beauty deck'd with comeliest art.

With a sweet smile of condescending pride

She seats the courteous Gawaine by her side,

Scans with assiduous glance each rising wish,

Feeds from her food the partner of her dish!"

[198] M. le Grand, in his valuable Histoire de la Vie Privée des Français,

has given us some very curious information regarding the mode of dressing

this distinguished bird. "It was generally," he says, "served up roasted.

Instead of plucking the bird (observes the Complete Housekeeper of former

times) skin it carefully so as not to damage the feathers; then cut off

the feet, stuff the body with spices and sweet herbs; roll a cloth round

the head, and then spit your bird. Sprinkle the cloth, all the time it is

roasting, to preserve its crest. When it is roasted enough, tie the feet

on again; remove the cloth; set up the crest; replace the skin; spread out

the tail, and so serve it up. Some people, instead of serving up the bird

in the feathers, carry their magnificence so far as to cover their peacock

with leaf gold: others have a very pleasant way of regaling their guests.

Just before they serve up, they cram the beak of their peacock with wool,

rubbed with camphor: then, when the dish is placed upon the table, they

set fire to the wool, and the bird instantly vomits out flames like a

little volcano."

[199] Du Chesne, House of Montmorencí, liv. i. p. 29, &c. M. de Couci, (c.

7.) 664, &c. Olivier de la Marche, p. 412. Hist. de Boucicaut, ed. de

Godefroi.

[200] Like Sir Guiscard Dangle, Earl of Huntingdon, who, according to

Froissart, possessed all the noble virtues that a knight ought to have,

for "he was merry, true, amourous, sage, sweet, liberal, preux, hardy,

adventurous, and chivalrous," vol. i. c. 384.

[201] See the verses of Des Escas, a Troubadour at the court of the King

of Arragon.

[202] Knight of the Tower, chap. "How goodly women ought to maintain

themselves courteously."

[203] Sir Tristram, Fytte second, st. 13. and Scott's note.

[204] Squire of Low Degree.

[205] Sir Degore.

[206] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[207] Knight of the Tower, chap. "How young maidens ought not lightly to

turn their heads here and there."

[208] Knight of the Tower, chap. intitled, "Of them that will not wear

their good clothes on high feasts and holy-days," and, "How the daughter

of a knight lost her marriage." Memoires de Louis de la Tremouille, cap.

xii. p. 169, &c. in the 14th vol. of the great collection of French

Memoires.

[209] Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 11. st. 49.

[210] The manners of his times might, perhaps, have been the origin of

this picture, for even so late as the reign of Elizabeth, it is mentioned

among the accomplishments of the ladies of her court, that the eldest of

them are skilful surgeons. Harrison's Description of England, prefixed to

Holinshed.

[211] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 5. st. 31. 33.

[212] Before the year 1680, when coaches were first used in England, as

Percy observes, ladies rode chiefly on horseback, either single on their

palfreys, or double behind some person on a pillion. Not but in case of

sickness, or bad weather, they had horse-litters, and even vehicles called

chairs, and carrs or charres. Note on the Northumberland Household Book.

[213] It is evident that the good King of Hungary was a boon companion,

and we will fancy that it was from a very common and natural feeling, that

he supposed his daughter's inclinations similar to his own. Of the

formidable list of wines which he gives, some names declare their growths

very clearly; of the rest, I believe, that Rumney wine means the wine from

La Romanée, a vineyard of Burgundy. Dr. Henderson, however, suggests that

it was an Andalusian growth. Malmesyne was a Greek wine, from Malvagia in

the Morea, the original seat of the Malmsey grape. Vernage was perhaps a

Tuscan wine. Osey was Alsatian wine. Respice, (vin rapé) was the produce

of unbruised grapes, and Bastard was a sweet Spanish wine.

[214] Baked meats were the usual food of our ancestors. Thus Chaucer says

of his Frankelein (the modern country squire),

"Withoutin bake-mete never was his house."

[215] Station.

[216] Two species of hawks.

[217] Sewed or quilted.

[218] Rennes in Brittany was highly famous for its manufacture of linen.

[219] Inlaid with jewels.

[220] A modern princess, as Mr. Ellis says (Specimens of the early English

Poets, vol. i. p. 344), might possibly object to breathe the smoke of

pepper, cloves, and frankincense during her sleep; but the fondness of our

ancestors for those, and indeed for perfumes of all kinds was excessive.

Mr. Ellis adds, that in the foregoing description of diversions, the good

King of Hungary has forgotten one, which seems to have been as great a

favorite with the English and French as ever it was with the Turkish

ladies; this is the bath. It was considered, and with great reason, as the

best of all cosmetics; and Mr. Strutt has extracted from an old MS. of

prognostications, written in the time of Richard II., a medical caution to

the women, against "going to the bath _for beauty_" during the months of

March and November. Women also often bathed together for purposes of

conversation. The reader knows that the public baths were not always used

for such healthful and innocent purposes.

[221]

"Vos, modo venando, modo rus geniale colendo

Ponitis in varia tempora longa mora.

Aut fora vos retinent, aut unctæ dona palæstræ;

Flectitis aut fræno colla sequaris equi.

Nunc volucrem laqueo, nunc piscem ducitis hamo.

Diluitur posito serior hora mero.

His mihi submotæ, vel si minus acriter utar,

Quod faciam, superest, præter amare, nihil.

Quod superest, facio; teque, o mi sola voluptas,

Plus quoque, quam reddi quod mihi possit, amo."

Ovid. Ep. Hero Leandro.

[222] Don Quixote affirmed, that no history ever made mention of any

knight errant that was not a lover; for were any knight free from the

impulses of that generous passion, he would not be allowed to be a lawful

knight, but a misborn intruder, and one who was not admitted within the

pale of knighthood at the door, but leaped the fence, and stole in like a

thief and a robber. Vivaldo, who was talking with the Don, asserted in

opposition to this opinion and statement, that Don Galaor, the brother of

Amadis de Gaul, never had any mistress in particular to recommend himself

to, and yet for all that he was not the less esteemed. Don Quixote, after

borrowing one of Sancho's proverbs, that one swallow never makes a summer,

replied that he knew Don Galaor was privately very much in love; and as

for his paying his addresses wherever he met with beauty, this was an

effect of his natural inclination, which he could not easily restrain. It

was an undeniable truth, concluded the Don, that Galaor had a favourite

lady whom he had crowned empress of his will; and to her he frequently

recommended himself in private, for he did not a little value himself upon

his discretion and secrecy in love. This defence of Galaor is very

amusing, and Vivaldo submitted to it. But he ought to have adduced the

opinions of that mad knight and merry talker of the Round Table, Sir

Dynadan, who marvelled what could ail Sir Tristram and many others of his

companions, that they were always sighing after women. "Why," said la

belle Isaud, "are you a knight and no lover? you cannot be called a good

knight, except you make a quarrel for a lady." "God defend me!" replied

Dynadan, "for the joy of love is so short, and the sorrow thereof and what

cometh thereof endureth so long."

Morte d'Arthur, lib. i. c. 56.

[223] Fairy Queen, book iv. canto 9. st. 21.

[224] Gower's Confessio Amantis, book iv. p. 103, &c.

[225] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 117 and 118.

[226] Essais Histor. sur Paris, by St. Foix, vol. iii. p. 263, cited by

Strutt. Sports and Pastimes, &c. "As it happened, Sir Palomydis looked up

towards her (la belle Isaud) where she lay in the window, and he espied

how she laughed, and therewith he took such a rejoicing that he smote down

what with his spear and with his sword all that ever he met, for through

the sight of her he was so enamoured of her love, that he seemed at that

time, that had Sir Tristrem and Sir Launcelot been both against him, they

would have won no worship of him." Morte d'Arthur, book x. c. 70.

[227] Lovelier.

[228] Lived.

[229] Romance of Ywaine and Gawin.

[230] Froissart, c. 249. "Le duc de Lancastre avoit de son heritage en

Champaigne: c'estassavoir un chastel entre Troye et Chalons, qui

s'appelait Beaufort, et duquel un escuyer Anglais (qui se nommoit le

poursuivant d'amour) estait capitaine."

[231] Froissart, liv. i. c. 7.

[232] Barbour's Bruce, book vi. Hume's (of Godscroft) History of the House

of Douglas, p. 29, &c.

The description of the good Lord James of Douglas, in Barbour's Bruce, is

not uninteresting.

"In visage was he some deal gray,

And had black hair, as I heard say,

But then he was of limbs well made,

With bones great and shoulders braid.

His body well made and lenzie,

As they that saw him said to me.

When he was blyth he was lovely

And meek and sweet in company.

But who in battle might him see

Another countenance had he.

And in his speech he lispt some deal,

But that set him right wonder well."

The Bruce, p. 13.

[233] Spenser's Fairy Queen, book i. canto 4. st. 1.

[234]

"E se la us fa gelos

E us en dona razo,

E us ditz c'ancre no fo

De so que dels huelhs vis,

Diguatz Don. En suy fiz

Que vos disetz vertat,

Mas yeu vay simiat."

The name of the gentleman who thus consented to distrust the evidence of

his senses was Amanieu des Escas, a favourite troubadour in Spain during

the thirteenth century. One of the "statutes" in the Court of Love is,

according to Chaucer's report of it, pretty much in the same strain:

"But think that she, so bounteous and fair,

Could not be false, imagine this algate,

And think that tongues wicked would her appair,

Slandering her name, and worshipful estate,

And lovers true to settin at debate,

And though thou seest a fault, right at thine eye,

Excuse it blith, and gloss it prettily."

Chaucer, Urry's edit. fol. 563.

[235] Mr. Skottowe, in his Essays on Shakspeare (essays which have done

more for the right understanding of the great dramatist than all the works

of his commentators from Theobald to Malone), observes that, in the play

of Troilus and Cressida, a courtly knight of chivalry is often seen under

the name of a Trojan hero. The following challenge of Hector is conceived

and executed in the true chivalric spirit.

"Kings, princes, lords,

If there be one, among the fair'st of Greece,

That holds his honour higher than his ease;

That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril;

That knows his valour, and knows not his fear;

That loves his mistress more than in confession,

(With truant vows to her own lips he loves,)

And dare avow her beauty and her worth,

In other arms than hers,--to him this challenge.

Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks,

Shall make it good, or do his best to do it.

He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer,

Than ever Greek did compass in his arms;

And will to-morrow with his trumpet call,

Midway between yon tents and walls of Troy,

To rouse a Grecian that is true in love:

If any come, Hector shall honour him;

If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires,

The Grecian dames are sun-burn'd, and not worth

The splinter of a lance."

Troilus and Cressida, act i. sc. 3.

[236] Cronique de Saintré, vol. iii. c. 65.

[237] This society of the Penitents of Love is mentioned by the Chevalier

of the Tower, whose book I have so often quoted in illustration of the

chivalric character.

[238] The Lai of Sir Gruélan.

[239] Way's Fabliaux, vol. ii. p. 170. The _moral_ of the Lay of Aristotle

brings to mind Voltaire's two celebrated lines under a statue of Cupid:--

"Qui que tu sois, tu vois ton maitre,

Il l'est, le fut, ou le doit être."

[240] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 8, &c.

[241] Ibid. p. 41.

[242] Lai of the Canonesses and the Gray Nuns.

[243] L'Histoire et plaisante Cronicque du petit Jehan de Saintré, vol. i.

c. 7.

[244] Lai of the Countess of Vergy.

[245] Romance of Guy of Warwick.

[246] Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 104.

[247] Romance of Sir Bevis. In Ariosto, the heroine Bradamante wishes

Rugiero to be baptized; and he replies, with great gallantry, that he

would put his head not only into water, but into fire, for the sake of her

love.

Non che nell' acqua, disse, ma nel foco

Per tuo amor porre il capo mi fia poco.

Orlando Furioso, canto xxii. st. 36.

[248] Don Quixote himself was not a greater idolater of the ladies, than

was the valiant Marshal Boucicaut, who, however, carried his fear of

impertinent intrusion to a more romantic pitch than perhaps the ladies

liked, for he would not even permit the knights of his banner to look a

second time at a window where a handsome woman was seated. Mémoires,

partie 3. c. 7.

[249] Boucicaut, Mémoires, partie i. c. 38, 39. The commencement of the

letters of those knights of the lady in the green field is worthy of

insertion on account of its chivalric tone. "A toutes haultes et nobles

dames and damoiselles, et à tous seigneurs, chevaliers, et escuyers, apres

tous recommendations, font á sçavoir les treize chevaliers compagnons,

portans en leur devise l'escu verd à la dame blanche. Premièrement pour ce

que tout chevalier est tenu de droict de vouloir garder et deffendre

l'honneur, l'estat, les biens, la renommée, et la louange de toutes dames

et damoiselles de noble lignée, et que iceulx entre les autres sont tres

desirans de le vouloir faire, les prient et requierent que il leur plaise

que si aulcune ou aulcunes est ou sont par oultraige, ou force, contre

raison diminuées ou amoindries des choses dessus dictes, que celle ou

celles à qui le tort ou force en sera faicte veuille ou veuillent venir ou

envoyer requerir l'un des dicts chevaliers, tous ou partie d'iceulx, selon

ce que le cas le requerra, et le requis de par la dicte dame ou

damoiselle, soit un, tous ou partie, sont et veulent estre tenus de mettre

leurs corps pour leur droict garder et deffendre encontre tout autre

seigneur, chevalier, ou escuyer, en tout ce que chevalier se peut et doibt

employer au mestier d'armes, de tout leur pouvoir, de personne à personne,

jusques au nombre dessus dicts et au dessoutes, tant pour tant. Et en

breifs jours après la requeste à l'un, tous ou partie d'iceulx, faicte de

par les dictes dames ou damoiselles, ils veulent presentement eulx mettre

en tout debovir d'accomplir les choses dessus dictes, et si brief que

faire se pourra. Et s'il advenoit, que Dieu ne veuille que celuy au ceulx

qui par les dictes dames ou damoiselles seroient requis, eussent essoine

raisonnable; a fin que leur service et besongne ne se puisse en rien

retarder qu'il ne prist conclusion, le requis ou les requis seront tenus

de bailler prestement de leurs compaignons, par qui le dict faict seroit

et pouvoit estre mené à chef et accomply."

[250] The Knight's Tale, l. 2108, &c. The following is Dryden's version of

the above lines. The spirit of the last two lines of Chaucer is entirely

lost.

"Beside the champions, all of high degree,

Who knighthood lov'd and deeds of chivalry,

Throng'd to the lists, and envy'd to behold

The names of others, not their own, enroll'd.

Nor seems it strange, for every noble knight

Who loves the fair, and is endu'd with might,

In such a quarrel would be proud to fight."

[251] Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 167. Boucicaut, Memoirs, c. 382.

[252] Froissart, liv. i. c. 389.

[253] Froissart, liv. ii. c. 6.; liv. i. c. 124, 125. "Puis passerent

oultre destruisans le pais d'entour et vindrent ainsi jusques au chastel

de Poys: ou il y avoit bonne ville, et deux beaux chasteaux: mais nul des

seigneurs n'y estait, fors deux belles damoiselles, filles au Seigneur de

Poys: qui tost eussent esté violees, si n'eussent esté deux chevaliers

d'Angleterre; messire Jehan Chandos, et le sire de Basset: qui les

deffendirent: et pour les garder les menerent au roy: qui pour honneur

leur fit bonne chere, et leur demanda ou elles voudroyent estre, si disent

à Corbie. Là les fit le roi conduire sans pareil."

[254] I have taken this story from Gibbon, (Antiquities of the House of

Brunswick, Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii. p. 530,) who says it is told (if

he is not mistaken) by the Spectator, and may certainly be supported by

ancient evidence.

[255] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 1. st. 49.

[256] Ibid. book iii. canto 7. st. 60.

[257] Another writer says,

"Ah! well was he that he forebore to blame;

Misfortune be his lot and worldly shame,

Nor, dying, let him taste of heavenly bliss

Whoe'er of dame or damsel speaks amiss;

And sure no gentle clerk did ever vex

With foul discourtesy the gentle sex,

But churl or villain, of degenerate mind,

Brutal and base, the scandal of his kind."

S. Rose's Partenopex of Blois, canto ii.

And in a similar strain of courtesy is the beginning of the Fabliau of

Constant du Hamel, as translated by M. Le Grand. "Je ne pardonne pas qu'on

se moque des dames. On doit toute sa vie les honorer et les servir et ne

leur parler jamais que pour leur dire choses courtoises. Qui agit

autrement est un vilain."

[258] As the romance of the Rose says,

"Les chevaliers mieux en valoient,

Les dames meilleures etoient

Et plus chastement en vivoient."

[259] Caxton's Chevalier of the Tower, cap. "How every good woman ought to

keep her renommèe."

[260] Ord. Vit. p. 687, &c.

[261] Harleian MS. No. 166. 2087. p. 23. cited in Retrospective Review.

No. 19. p. 95.

[262] Froissart, liv. i. c. 138. Lord Hailes is not pleased that the queen

should have shared in the honour of the battle, and wishes to doubt her

presence, because Froissart is the _only_ writer who states it. Upon which

Mr. Turner (History of England, vol. 2. p. 204, 8vo.) very judiciously

observes, that, if we disbelieve all the facts of this reign, for which we

have _only_ Froissart's authority, our scepticism must take a large sweep.

[263] Wyntown's Cronykil of Scotland, book viii. c. 32. Lord Hailes, vol.

2. p. 218, 221. Border Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 170.

[264] Avesbury, p. 97. Froissart, liv. i. c. 69.

[265] La Comtesse de Montfort avoit courage d'homme et coeur de lion. Elle

estoit en la cité de Rénes, quand elle entendit que son seigneur fut

prins; et, combien qu'elle eust grand dueil au coeur, elle reconfortoit

tous ses amis vaillamment, et tous ses soudoyers: et leur monstroit un

petit fils (qu'elle avoit appelé Jehan, comme son pere) et leur disoit,

Haa, seigneurs, ne vous ébahissez mie de monseigneur, que nous avons

perdu. Ce n'estoit qu'un homme. Veez cy mon petit enfant, qui sera (si

Dieu plaist) son restorier, et vous sera des biens assez et j'ai de savoir

à planté; si vous en donneraz assez, et vous pourchaceray tel capitaine,

parquoy vous serez tous reconfortes. Froissart, liv. i. c. 73.

[266] Mrs. Charles Stothard, in her interesting Tour through Normandy and

Brittany, observes (p. 231.) that the massive walls which once surrounded

the town of Hennebon, remain in many places entire, and must have been

impregnable in their strength and construction.

[267] Froissart, c. 82. Lors descendit la Comtesse du Chastel, à joyeuse

chere, et vint baiser messiu Gautier de Manny et ses compaignons, les uns

apres les autre, deux fois ou trois, comme vaillante Dame.

[268] Spenser, Vision of the World's Vanity, st. 9.

[269] Like Gonzalo in the Tempest. "Now would I give a thousand furlongs

of sea for an acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing.

The wills above be done; but I would fain die a dry death." Act i. sc. 1.

[270] The principal facts in the heroic life of the Countess of Mountfort

are recorded by Froissart, c. 68, 72, 80, 91, &c. Lobineau, Histoire de

Bretagne, vol. i. p. 320, &c. Argentré, Histoire de Bretagne, liv. vii. c.

9, 10.

[271] Hist. Gen. de la France, l. 452.

[272] See the chronicle of M. Villani in the 14th vol. of Muratori, Rerum

Scrip. Ital.; and Sismondi, Histoire des Rep. Ital. tom. vi. c. 45. Italy

has not many romantic associations, and there are now no remains of Cesena

to awaken the admiration of the traveller to the heroism of Marzia.

Forsyth, Remarks on Italy, vol. ii. p. 266.

[273] Fairy Queen, book iii. canto 4, st. 1.

[274] Ibid, book iii. canto ii. st. 27.

[275]

"The lady's heart was on him cast,

And she beheld him wonder fast;

Ever on him she cast her eye,

Ipomydon full well it seye[F];

Anon it gave him in his thought,

To loke again let would be not.

Nor no more coward thought he to be

Of his looking than was she.

The lady perceived it full well,

Of all his looking every dell,

And therewith began to shame,

For she might lightly fall in blame,

If men perceived it any thing,

Betwixt them two such looking,

Then would they say all bydene[G],

That some love were them between;

Then should she fall in slander,

And lose much of her honour.

She thought to warn him privily,

By her cousin that set him by.

'Jason,' she said, 'thou art to blame,

And therewith the ought to shame,

To behold my maid in vain;

Every man to other will sayne,

That betwixt you is some sin,

Of thy looking, I rede[H], thou blynne[I].'

Ipomydon him bethought anon,

Then that she blamed Jason,

Without deserving every dell:

But the encheson[J] he perceived well.

Down he looked and thought great shame,

That Jason bore for him the blame.

Still he sat, and said no more,

He thought to dwell no longer there."

Romance of Sir Ipomydon.

[F] Saw.

[G] Together.

[H] Council.

[I] Cease.

[J] Occasion.

[276] Full of frowardness, each mis-saying or reviling, as Ellis renders

the passage.

[277] Lai le Fraine.

[278] Du Cange gravely quotes Saint Isidore for this truth; and it is

credible even upon less solemn authority.

[279] Thus Holingshed, speaking of a royal joust and martial tournament,

held at Smithfield in 1389, says, "And so many a noble course and other

martial feats were achieved in those four days, to the great contentation

and pleasure of many a young bachelor desirous to win fame." P. 474. edit.

1587.

[280] The objects and tendencies of tournaments are extremely well

expressed by Jeffry of Monmouth:--"Many knights famous for feats of

chivalry were present, with apparel and arms of the same colour and

fashion. They formed a species of diversion, in imitation of a fight on

horseback; and the ladies being placed on the walls of the castles, darted

amorous glances on the combatants. None of these ladies esteemed any

knight worthy of her love but such as had given proof of his gallantry in

three several encounters. Thus the valour of the men encouraged chastity

in the women, and the attention of the women proved an incentive to the

soldier's bravery." Lib. ix. c. 12.

[281] Holingshed, vol. ii. p. 252. reprint.

[282] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 175.

[283] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 311. 323.

[284] The German nation, as it may be easily supposed, were more strict

than other people regarding the nature of the birth-right which authorised

a man to tourney. If any person be curious enough to enquire into the

fantastic subtleties of German heraldry about this matter, I refer him to

the Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 293. 300.

[285] M. Westm. p. 300.

[286] Segar of Honor, lib. ii. c. 26. Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i.

p. 302. There was a singular law in Germany, prohibiting from the

tournament those who had been the cause of imposing taxes or duties, or

had used their endeavours to get them imposed. Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen,

vol. i. p. 304.

[287] Croneca del Conde D. Pero Nino, p. 203., cited in the notes to the

preface to the reprint of the Morte d'Arthur, p. 61.

[288] Monstrelet, vol. vi. p. 333.

[289] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 323.

[290] Chaucer, Knight's Tale, l. 2493, &c. So Froissart says, "On the next

day you might have seen in divers places of the city of London squires and

varlettes going about with harness, and doing other business of their

masters." Vol. ii. p. 273.

[291] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 173.

[292] Smithfield was famous many years earlier, both as the place of

sports and the horse-market of London. Fitzstephen, who wrote in the time

of Henry II., says, "Without one of the gates is a certain field[K], plain

(or smooth) both in name and situation. Every Friday, except some greater

festival come in the way, there is a brave sight of gallant horses to be

sold: many come out of the city to buy or look on, to wit, earls, barons,

knights, citizens, all resorting thither."

[K] Smethfield, as it were Smoothfield.

[293] Du Cange, Dissertation 6. on Joinville.

[294] Memoires d'Olivier de la Marche, liv. i. c. 14.

[295] This feeling is exceedingly well expressed in a challenge given by

some foreign knights in England to the English chivalry. "Ever in courts

of great kings are wont to come knights of divers nations, and more to

this court of England, where are maintained knighthood and feats of arms

valiantly for the service of ladies in higher degrees and estates than in

any realm of the world: it beseemeth well to Don Francisco de Mendoza, and

Carflast De la Vega, that here, better than in any place, they may shew

their great desire that they have to serve their ladies." Antiquarian

Repertory, vol. i. p. 148.

[296] elegant.

[297] embroidery.

[298] head-pieces.

[299] ornamented dresses.

[300] rubbing.

[301] straps.

[302] brazen drums.

[303] Chaucer, The Knight's Tale, line 2498, &c. Chaucer must have had in

his imagination one of the splendid tournaments of the days of Edward III.

when he wrote these spirited lines; for there is much more circumstance in

his description than could have belonged to a simple joust between the two

knights, Palamon and Arcite.

[304] Du Cange (Diss. 6. on Joinville) on the authority of an ancient MS.

regarding tournaments; and Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 325.

[305] Harleian MSS. No. 69.

[306] Hist. de Charles VI. vol. ii. p. 120. fol. 1663. As every thing

regarding the ladies of chivalric as well as of other times is

interesting, no apology will be required for my hazarding a conjecture,

that the colour of the ribbon mentioned in the text was blue, the emblem

of constancy.

"Lo, yonder folk, quoth she, that kneel in blue!

They wear the colour ay and ever shall,

In sign they were and ever will be true,

Withouten change."

Chaucer's Court of Love, l. 248, &c.

The author of the Romance of Perceforest has made a strange exaggeration

of the custom of ladies sending favours to knights during the heat of a

tournament. He says, that at the end of one of those martial games, "Les

dames étoient si dénues de leur atours, que la plus grande partie étoit en

pur chef (mie tête) car elles s'en alloient les cheveux sur leurs epaules

gisans, plus jaunes que fin or, en plus leurs cottes sans manches, car

tous avoient donné aux chevaliers pour eux parer et guimples et chaperons,

manteaux et camises, manches et habits: mais quand elles se virent à tel

point, elles en furent ainsi comme toutes honteuses; mais sitost qu'elles

veirent que chacune étoit en tel point, elles se prirent toutes a rire de

leur adventure, car elles avoient donné leurs joyaux et leurs habits de si

grand coeur aux chevaliers, qu'elles ne s'appercevoient de leur dénuement

et devestemens."

[307] The reader may wonder at this form of expression; but it proceeded

from the very noble principle of teaching young knights to emulate the

glories of their ancestors, and from the peculiar refinement and delicacy

of chivalry which argued that there was no knight so perfect, but who

might commit a fault, and so great a one as to efface the merit of all his

former good deeds. Heralds, therefore, observes Monstrelet, do not at

jousts and battles cry out, "Honour to the brave!" but they exclaim,

"Honour to the sons of the brave!" No knight can be deemed perfect, until

death has removed the possibility of his committing an offence against his

knighthood. "Il n'est nul si bon chevalier au monde qu'il ne puisse bien

faire une faute, voire si grande que tous les biens qu'il aura faits

devant seront adnihillez; et pour ce on ne crie aux joustes ne aux

batailles, aux preux, mais on crie bien aux fils des preux après la mort

de leur pere car nul chevalier ne peut estre jugé preux se ce n'est après

le trépassement." Monstrelet, vol. i. p. 29.

[308] "To break across," the phrase for bad chivalry, did not die with the

lance. It was used by the writers of the Elizabethan age to express any

failure of wit or argument. To the same purpose, Celia, in "As You Like

it," says of Orlando, tauntingly, "O that's a brave man. He writes brave

verses, speaks brave words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely,

quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover, as a puny tilter, that

spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble goose."

[309] The old English ordinances, fortunately, have been preserved, and

are exceedingly curious.

The ordinances, statutes, and rules, made and enacted by John Earl of

Worcester, constable of England, by the kinge's commandement, at Windsor,

the 14th day of May, in the seventh year of his noble reign (Edward IV.),

to be observed and kept in all manner of justes of peace royal, within

this realm of England, before his highness or lieutenant, by his

commandment or licence, had from this time forth, reserving always to the

queen's highness and to the ladies there present, the attribution and gift

of the price, after the manner and form accustomed, the merits and

demerits attribute according to the articles following:--

First, whoso breaketh most spears, as they ought to be broken, shall have

the price.

Item, whoso hitteth three times in the helm shall have the price.

Item, whoso meteth two times coronel to coronel, shall have the price.

Item, whoso beareth a man down with stroke of spear shall have the price.

How the Price should be lost.

First, whoso striketh a horse shall have no price.

Item, whoso striketh a man, his back turned, or disarmed of his spear,

shall have no price.

Item, whoso hitteth the toil or tilt thrice shall have no price.

Item, whoso unhelms himself twice shall have no price without his horse

fail him.

How Spears broken shall be allowed.

First, whoso breaketh a spear between the saddle and the charnel of the

helm shall be allowed for one.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear from the charnel upwards shall be allowed for

two.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear so as he strike him down or put him out of

his saddle, or disarm him in such wise as he may not run the next course,

shall be allowed for three spears broken.

How Spears broken shall be disallowed.

First, whoso breaketh on the saddle shall be disallowed for a spear

breaking.

Item, whoso hits the toil or tilt over shall be disallowed for two.

Item, whoso hitteth the toil twice, for the second time shall be abased

three.

Item, whoso breaketh a spear within a foot of the coronall, shall be

judged as no spear broken, but a good attempt.

For the Price.

First, whoso beareth a man down out of the saddle, or putteth him to the

earth, horse and man, shall have the price before him that striketh

coronall to coronall two times.

Item, he that striketh coronall to coronall two times shall have the price

before him that striketh the sight three times.

Item, he that striketh the sight three times shall have the price before

him that breaketh the most spears.

Item, if there be any man that fortunately in this wise shall be deemed he

bode longest in the field helmed, and ran the fairest course, and gave the

greatest strokes, helping himself best with his spear.

Antiquarian Repertory, l. 145, &c.

[310] Olivier de la Marche, a hero of Burgundy in the fifteenth century,

thus describes a warder:--"Et tenoit le Duc de Bourgogne un petit blanc

baton en sa main pour jetter et faire séparer les champions, leurs armes

achivees, comme il est de coustume en tel cas." Memoires, p. 71.

[311] Walsingham, p. 8. In early times, in England, those tournament

festivals were held about a round table, and therefore the tournaments

themselves were often called round tables. Walter Hemingford, vol. i. p.

7. ed. Hearne.

[312] This was the address of the heralds after a tournament in the days

of Edward IV.:--

"Oyez, oyez, oyez, we let to understand to all princes and princesses,

lords, ladies, and gentlewomen of this noble court, and to all others to

whom it appertaineth, that the nobles that this day have exercised the

feats of arms at the tilt, tourney, and barriers, have every one behaved

themselves most valiantly, in shewing their prowess and valour worthy of

great praise.

"And to begin, as touching the brave entry of the Lord ----, made by him

very gallantly, the King's Majesty more brave than he, and above all, the

Earl ----, unto whom the price of a very rich ring is given by the Queen's

Majesty, by the advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen of

this noble court.

"And as touching the valiantness of the piques, the Duke of M. hath very

valiantly behaved himself, the Earl of P. better than he, and above all

others, the Earl of D., unto whom the price of a ring of gold with a ruby

is given, by the most high and mighty Princess the Queen of England, by

the advice aforesaid.

"And as touching the valiantness of the sword, ---- knight hath very well

behaved himself, the Earl of N. better than he, and Sir J. P., knight,

above all the rest, unto whom is given the price of a ring of gold with a

diamond, by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by the advice of other

princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen.

"And as touching the valiantness of the sword at the foil, Sir. W. R.,

knight, hath very valiantly behaved himself, the Marquis of C. better than

he, and above all others, the King's Majesty, unto whom was given the

price of a ring of gold with a diamond, by the Queen's Majesty, by the

advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen.

"Finally, touching the valiancy of the pique, the point abated, Thomas P.

hath well and valiantly behaved himself, Charles C. better than he, and

above all others, Z. S., unto whom was given by the Queen's Majesty a ring

of gold, by the advice of other princesses, ladies, and gentlewomen."

[313] Knights are always mentioned as good or unskilful tilters, according

to the judgment of the ladies. Froissart, vol. ii. c. 234. Monstrelet,

vol. i. c. 10.; and see the last note.

[314] The account of every tournament in our grave old chronicles warrants

the sentence in the Romance of Perceforest, "Pris ne doit ne peult estre

donne sans les _dames_; car pour elles sont toutes les prouesses fautes."

[315] This form of thanks prevailed also at the joust, as we learn from an

account of one in the days of Edward IV. See Lansdowne MSS., British

Museum, No. 285. art. 7.

[316] Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, vol. i. p. 346.

[317] A tournament of this three-fold description took place at St. Denys,

in the year 1389.

[318] The love of our ancestors for tournaments is evident in a curious

passage of an ancient satirical poem, which Strutt has thus rendered:

"If wealth, Sir Knight, perchance be thine,

In tournaments you're bound to shine;

Refuse--and all the world will swear,

You die not worth a rotten pear."

[319] Mr. Sharon Turner (History of England, vol. i. p. 144. 4to. edit.)

says, that nothing could break the custom (of holding tournaments) but the

increased civilisation of the age. This is a mistake, for tournaments

increased in number as the world became more civilised. There were more

tournaments in the fourteenth century than in the thirteenth, and even so

late as the reign of Henry VIII. the whole of England seems to have been

parcelled out into tilting grounds.

[320] "De his vero qui in torneamentis cadunt, nulla quæstio est, quin

vadant ad inferos, si non fuerint adjuti beneficio contritionis." Du Cange

on Joinville, Dissert. 6.

[321] Still more absurd is the story of Matthew Paris, that Roger de

Toeny, a valiant knight, appeared after death to his brother Raoul, and

thus addressed him: "Jam et pænas vidi malorum, et gaudio beatorum; nec

non supplicia magna, quibus miser deputatus sum, oculis meis conspexi. Væ,

væ mihi, quare unquam torneamenta exercui, et ea tanto studio dilexi?"

[322] Thus Lambert d'Ardres writes: "Cum omnino tunc temporis propter

Dominici sepulchri peregrinationem in toto orbe, interdicta fuissent

torneamenta." Du Cange, Diss. 6. on Joinville.

[323] Du Cange calls any combat between two knights preliminary to a

general battle, a joust to the utterance. He might as well have called the

battle itself a joust.

[324] The agreement was made in legal form, as we learn from Wyntown. Sir

David de Lindsay had a safe-conduct for his purpose, and came to London

with a retinue of twenty-eight persons,--

"Where he and all his company

Was well arrayed, and daintily,

And all purveyed at device.

There was his purpose to win prize:

With the Lord of the Wellis he

Thought til have done there a _journée_ (day's battle),

For both they were by _certane taillé_

Obliged to do there that deed, _sauf faillie_ (without fail)."

Macpherson says, that challenges of this sort were called taillés

indentures, because they were bonds of which duplicates were made having

indentures taillés answering to each other.

[325] Holingshed, History of Scotland, p. 252. ed. 1587. Wyntown's

Cronykil of Scotland, book ix. c. 11. The Sir David de Lindsay, mentioned

above is the knight of whom Sir Walter Scott tells an amusing story in his

notes to Marmion, canto i. note 8.

[326] "Or verra l'on s'il y a nul d'entre vous Anglois, qui soit

amoureux." Froissart, vol. ii. c. 55. Lyons's edit.

[327] Froissart, i. 345.

[328] Berners' Froissart, vol. i. c. 374.

[329] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 78.

[330] Some writers, confounding the joust with the duel, have said that

bearded darts, poisoned needles, razors, and similar weapons, were lawful

in the jousts. The instance to support this assertion is the challenge of

the Duke of Orleans to Henry IV. of England, recorded by Monstrelet, vol.

i. c. 9., where the Duke declined to use them. But Orleans challenged

Lancaster to a duel, and not to a chivalric joust.

[331] Segar, of Honor, lib. iii. c. 13.

[332] I do not know when exactly this truly chivalric circumstance

occurred. The story is told in a manuscript, in the Lansdowne Collection,

British Museum, No. 285. It is described as the challenge of an ancestor

of the Earl of Warwick, and the MS. bears date in the days of Edward IV.

[333] Vous savez, et bien l'avez oui dire et recorder plusieurs fois, que

les ebatemens des dames et damoiselles encouragent voulontiers les coeurs

des jeunes gentils-hommes, et les elevent, en requerant et desirant tous

honneur. Froissart, vol. iv. c. 6. ed. Lyons, 1560.

[334] "Ye may know well that Charles the French King was sore desirous to

be at those jousts: he was young and light of spirit, and glad to see new

things. It was shewed me that from the beginning to the ending he was

there present, disguised as unknown, so that none knew him but the Lord of

Garansyers, who came also with him as unknown, and every day returned to

Marquise." Froissart, vol. i. c. 168.

[335] As the weather was bright, according to Froissart, I wonder he did

not, in his fondness for detail, mention the number of barrels of water

that were every evening poured on the dusty plain. On one occasion he

says, "The knights complained of the dust, so that some of them said they

lost their deeds by reason thereof. The King made provision for it: he

ordained more than two hundred barrels of water that watered the place,

whereby the ground was well amended, and yet the next day they had dust

enough, and too much." vol. ii. p. 157.

[336] Du Cange (Dissertation 7. on Joinville) is incorrect in saying that

a joust seldom terminated without some knights being slain, or very

grievously wounded. The jousts at St. Ingilberte were on the most

extensive scale, and nothing worse than a flesh-wound or a bruise from

falling was felt, even by the most unskilful or unlucky knight. Froissart

perpetually describes jousts of three courses with lances, three strokes

with axes, three encounters both with swords and daggers; and generally

concludes with saying, "And when all was done, there was none of them

hurt." "You should have jousted more courteously," was the reproach of the

spectators to a knight, when his lance had pierced the shoulder of the

other jouster. Froissart, vol. ii. c. 161. Du Cange preserved no clear

idea in his mind of the difference between the joust _à la plaisance_ and

the joust _à l'outrance_, and most subsequent writers have only blindly

followed him. I shall notice in this place another popular error on the

subject of jousts. Mr. Strutt, (Sports and Pastimes of the People of

England, book iii. c. 1.) and an hundred writers after him, assert that

the authority of the ladies was more extensive in the joust than in the

tournament. Mr. Strutt says, that "in the days of chivalry jousts were

made in honor of the ladies, who presided as judges paramount over the

sports." Now there are many jousts mentioned in Froissart and other

chivalric historians that were held only in the presence of knights. But I

can find no instance of a tournament being held without ladies. The joust

was a martial exercise; but the tournament was connected with all the

circumstances of domestic life.

[337] "Et si aimoit, par amour, jeune dame: dont en tous estats son

affaire en valoit grandement mieux." Froissart, vol. iii. c. 12. edit.

Lyons, 1560.

[338] Froissart, vol. ii. c. 160. 162. 168. Memoires du Mareschal de

Boucicaut, partie i. c. 17. The writer of those memoirs, a contemporary of

Boucicaut's, in his zeal for his hero, gives all the honor to the French

knights. Juvenal des Ursins (p. 83, &c.) is more modest, and he makes

certain judges of the court compliment many of the knights for their

valiancy.

[339] Most of these circumstances are unnoticed by our historians. I can

pardon their unacquaintance with the Lansdowne manuscripts, for those are

but recently acquired national treasures: but every scholar is supposed to

know the Biographia Britannica,--and in the article Caxton, some of the

chivalric features of the joust in question are mentioned.

[340] A very amusing little volume might be made on the romance of

flowers, on the tales which poetry and fancy have invented to associate

the affections and the mind with plants, thus adding the pleasures of the

feelings and the imagination to those of the eye. The reader remembers the

Love in Idleness, in Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. The Floure of

Souvenance, the Forget-me-not, is an equally pleasing instance. The

application of this name to the Myosotis Scorpioidis of botanists is of

considerable antiquity: the story in the text proves that the plant with

its romantic associations was known in England as early as the days of our

Edward IV. The following tale of the origin of the fanciful name has been

communicated to me by my friend Anthony Todd Thomson, whose Lectures on

the Elements of Botany, at once scientific and popular, profound and

elegant, take a high place in the class of our most valuable works.

"Two lovers were loitering on the margin of a lake, on a fine summer's

evening, when the maiden espied some of the flowers of Myosotis growing on

the water, close to the bank of an island, at some distance from the

shore. She expressed a desire to possess them, when her knight, in the

true spirit of chivalry, plunged into the water, and, swimming to the

spot, cropped the wished-for plant, but his strength was unable to fulfil

the object of his achievement, and feeling that he could not regain the

shore, although very near it, he threw the flowers upon the bank, and

casting a last affectionate look upon his lady-love, he cried,

'Forget-me-not,' and was buried in the waters."

"There are three varieties of the plant," Mr. Thomson adds; "the one to

which the tradition of the name is attached is perennial, and grows in

marshes and on the margins of lakes."

[341] The Lord Scales was a right good knight of worship, in spite of the

reflections on his courage which Edward IV. once threw out against him.

"The kyng hathe sayd of hym that even wyr he hathe most to do, then the

Lord Scalys wyll soonest axe leve to depart, and the kyng weenyth that it

is mist because of kowardyese." Paston Letters, vol. iv. p. 116.

[342] Rymer, Foedera, tom. ii. p. 573.

[343] Besides Holingshed, Stow, and other chroniclers, I have consulted

for this very interesting joust a curious collection of contemporary

documents, among the Lansdowne manuscripts (No. 285.) in the British

Museum. The Chevalier de la Marche accompanied the Bastard of Burgundy to

England, and his Memoirs furnish a few particulars not noticed by English

writers. His account of the joust itself differs from that of our

chroniclers, (whom I have followed,) for he makes all the advantage lie

with his own knight. It is neither possible nor important to discover the

truth. The spirit of the age which gave birth to the challenge and the

general interest excited by the joust are the points that deserve to be

marked. There is also much confusion regarding the dates of most of the

circumstances, and I hold my readers in too much respect to enter into any

arguments touching such trifling matters. Such few dates as are undoubted

I have mentioned. Let me add Hawkins's conjecture (Origin of the English

Drama, vol. iii. p. 91.), that the word _Burgullian_ or Burgonian meaning

a bully, a braggadochio, was derived from this joust. This is by no means

unlikely, observes Mr. Gifford, (note on Every Man in his Humour, act iv.

sc. 2.) for our ancestors, who were not over delicate, nor, generally

speaking, much overburdened with respect for the feelings of foreigners,

had a number of vituperative appellations derived from their real or

supposed ill qualities, of many of which the precise import cannot now be

ascertained.

[344] Prendergast mistook Orris for a French knight. Orris afterwards

refused the honor intended him, expressing, however, very high compliments

to the chivalry of France, and merely stating his Arragonese descent, on

the ground, that no honest man ought to deny his country.

[345] "Si prie au dieu d'amour qu'ainsi comme vous desirez l'amour de ma

dame la vostre, il ne vous l'ait de vostre dicte venue." Monstrelet, vol.

i. p. 3. ed. 1573.

[346] Lest it should be thought that I am drawing from a romance, I

subjoin part of the original letter from the grave old chronicler

Monstrelet. "Je ne scay se le dieu d'amours qui vous enhorta et meit en

couraige de vosdictes, lettres quand les envoyes, ait en aucune chose esté

si despleu: parquoy il ait changé ses conditions anciennes, qui souloient

estre telles que pour esbaudir armes et à cognoistre chevalerie. Il tenoit

les nobles de sa court en si royalle gouvernance, que pour accroissement

de leur honneur, apres ce qu'ils avoient fait leur dicte emprise, jusques

à tant que fin en fut faicte: ne aussi ne faisoient leurs compagnons

frayer, travailler, ne despendre leurs biens en vain. Non pourtant que n'y

voudroye pas qu'il trouvast celle deffaute en moy, si qu'il eut cause de

moy bannir de sa court. Je vueil encores demourer par deça jusques au

huictiesme jour de ce present mois de May preste a l'ayde de Dieu, de St.

George, et de St. Anthoine à vous deliverir, ainsi que ma dame et la

vostre le puissent scavoir que pour reverence d'icelles j'ai voulenté de

vous aiser de vostre griefue: qui par long temps vous a desaisié comme

vosdictes lettres contiennent: pourquoy aussi vous avez cause de desirer

vostre allegeance. Apres le quel temps se venir ne voulez, je pense au

plaisir de Dieu de m'enretourner en Angleterre par devers nos dames:

ausquelles j'ai espai en Dieu que sera tesgmoigné par chevaliers et

escuyers que je n'ai en riens mesprins envers le dit dieu d'amours: le

quel vueille avoir lesdits madame et la vostre pour recommandées, sans

avoir desplaisir envers elles pour quelque course qui soit advenue."

[347] Monstrelet, vol. i. c. 1.

[348] The phrase, the passage of arms, is used in the romance of Ivanhoe

as a general expression for chivalric games. But this is incorrect; for

the defence of a particular spot was the essential and distinguishing

quality of the exercise in question. Now there was no such circumstance in

the affair near Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Five knights challengers undertook to

answer all comers, but it was not expected that those comers should

attempt to pass any particular place. The encounters which were the

consequences of the challenges were simple jousts, and constituted the

first day's sport, on the second day there was a general tourney or mélée

of knights, and as in chivalric times the tournament was always regarded

as the chief military exercise, the amusements at Ashby-de-la-Zouch were a

tournament, and by that name, indeed, the author of Ivanhoe has sometimes

called them.

[349] The challenge of the Lord of Chargny is contained in Monstrelet,

vol. viii. c. 60, 61. The description of the passage of arms is given by

Olivier de la Marche in his Mémoires, c. 9. There are many other passages

of arms recorded in the histories of the middle ages, but there is only

one of them of interest, and it will find a place in my description of the

progress of chivalry in Spain.

[350] Nicetas, Hist. Byzant. 1. iii. c. 3. Johannes Cantacuzenus, 1. i. c.

42.

[351] Wordsworth.

[352] I may observe, however, that the ancient Templars were so dreadfully

afraid of their virtue, that they forbad themselves the pleasure of

looking in a fair woman's face; at least the statutes attempted to put

down this instinct of nature. No brother of the Temple was permitted to

kiss maid, wife, or widow, his sister, mother, or any relation whatever.

The statute gravely adds, that it behoves the knights of Jesus Christ to

avoid the kisses of women, in order that they may always walk with a pure

conscience before the Lord. I shall transcribe the statute in the original

Latin, and I hope that it will not be perused with that levity which an

allusion to it during Rebecca's trial at Temple-stowe excited in the

younger members of the valiant and venerable order of the Temple. The

title is sufficiently ascetic,--Ut omnium mulierum oscula fugiantur. It

proceeds thus:--"Periculosum esse credimus omni religioni, vultum mulierum

nimis attendere, et ideo nec viduam, nec virginem, nec matrem, nec

sororem, nec amitam, nec ullam aliam foeminam aliquis frater osculari

præsumat. Fugiat ergo foeminea oscula Christi Militia, per quæ solent

homines sæpe periclitari, ut pura conscientia, et secura vita, in

conspectu Domini perenniter valeat conversare." Cap. 72.

[353] Statutes, c. 51. 55.

[354] "I was a Scotsman ere I was a Templar," is the assertion of Vipont

in the dramatic sketch of Halidon Hill,--a sentiment confessedly borrowed

from the story of the Venetian General, who, observing that his soldiers

testified some unwillingness to fight against those of the Pope whom they

regarded as father of the church, addressed them in terms of similar

encouragement:--"Fight on--we were Venetians before we were Christians."

[355] The Templars find no favour in the eyes of the author of Ivanhoe,

and Tales of the Crusaders. He has imbibed all the vulgar prejudices

against the order; and when he wants a villain to form the shadow of his

scene, he as regularly and unscrupulously resorts to the fraternity of the

Temple, as other novelists refer to the church, or to Italy, for a similar

purpose.

[356] The Pope (Clement V.) committed the glaring absurdity of making a

provisional decree to be executed in perpetuity. The bull which he issued

at the council of Vienne, without asking the judgment of the assembled

bishops and others, declares, that although he cannot of right,

consistently with the Inquisition and proceedings, pronounce a definitive

sentence, yet by way of apostolical provision and regulation, he

perpetually prohibited people from entering into the order and calling

themselves Templars. The penalty of the greater excommunication was held

out as a punishment for offending.

[357] I add a complete list of the grand masters of the Temple, from the

time of Jacques de Molai to these days. (Manuel des Chevaliers de l'Order

du Temple. Paris. 1817.)

A.D.

Johannes Marcus Larmenius, Hierosolymetanus 1314

Thomas Theobaldus, Alexandrinus 1324

Arnaldus de Braque 1340

Johannes Claromontanus 1349

Bertrandus Du Guesclin 1357

Johannes Arminiacus 1381

Bernardus Arminiacus 1392

Johannes Arminiacus 1419

Johannes Croyus 1451

Bernardus Imbaultius, Vic. Mag. Afric. (Regens.) 1472

Robertus Lenoncurtius 1478

Galeatius de Salazar 1497

Philippus Chabotius 1516

Gaspardus de Salceaco, Tavannensis 1544

Henricus de Montmorenciaco 1574

Carolus Valesius 1615

Jacobus Ruxellius de Granceio 1651

Jacobus Henricus de Duroforti, Dux de Duras 1681

Philippus, Dux de Aurelianensis 1705

Ludovicus-Augustus Borbonius, Dux de Maine 1724

Ludovicus-Henricus Borbonius, Condæus 1737

Ludovicus-Franciscus Borbonius, Conty 1741

Ludovicus-Henricus Timoleo de Cossé Brissac 1776

Claudius Mathæus Radix de Chevillon, Vic. Mag. Europ. (Regens.) 1792

Bernardus-Raymundus Fabré Palaprat 1804

[358] "I would fain know," quoth Sancho, "why the Spaniards call upon that

same St. James, the destroyer of the Moors: just when they are going to

give battle, they cry, St. Jago and close Spain. Pray is Spain open, that

it wants to be closed up? What do you make of that ceremony?"--"Thou art a

very simple fellow, Sancho," answered Don Quixote. "Thou must know, that

heaven gave to Spain this mighty champion of the Red Cross, for its patron

and protector, especially in the desperate engagements which the Spaniards

had with the Moors; and therefore they invoke him, in all their martial

encounters, as their protector; and many times he has been personally seen

cutting and slaying, overthrowing, trampling, and destroying the Moorish

squadrons; of which I could give thee many examples deduced from authentic

Spanish histories." Don Quixote, part ii. c. 58.

[359] The words are these:--Y asi mesmo hago voto, detener, voto defender,

y guardar en publico, y en secreto, que la Vergen Maria Madre de Dios, y

senora nuestra, fue concebida sin mancha de peccato original.

[360] Favyne. Theat. d'Honneur, l. 6. c. 5. Carode Torres, Hist. de las

Ordines Militares, l. 1. Mariana, l. 7. c. 10.

[361] Mennenius, Delic. Equest. p. 99, &c. Marquez Tesoro Milit. de

Cavale., p. 286. Favyn, Theat. de l'Honneur, lib. 6.

[362] Mennen. Delic. Equest. p. 102, &c. Miræus, and Fr. Caro de Torres,

in locis.

[363] Without rule.

[364] Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

[365] Reman, Hist. Gen. de la Ordere de la Mercie, passim. Mennen. Del.

Eq. p. 107.

[366] Marquez, Tesoro Milit. 35, &c.

[367] Caligula. D. 6. in Bib. Cott. (cited in Anstis, Register of the Most

Noble Order of the Garter, vol. i. p. 66.) "Que le Roy ne povoit avec son

honneur bailler aide et assistence a icelluy son bon frere et cousin a

l'encontre du Roy de Naples, qui estoit son confrere et allye, veu et

considere qu'il avoit prins et receu l'ordre de la Jarretiere. Et si le

roi autrement faisoit ce seroit contrevenir au serment, qu'il a fait par

les statuz du dit ordre," &c.

[368] This assertion may be supported by some lines in a poem which

Chaucer addressed to the Lords and Knights of the Garter. He says to them,

"Do forth, do forth, continue your succour,

Hold up Christ's banner, let it not fall."

And again:

"Ye Lordis eke, shining in noble fame,

To which appropred is the maintenance

Of Christ 'is cause; in honour of his name,

Shove on, and put his foes to utterance."

[369] Ashmole on the Garter, c. iv. s. 5.

[370] This rule did not escape Cervantes. "If I do not complain of the

pain," says Don Quixote, after the disastrous chance of the windmills, "it

is because a knight-errant must never complain of his wounds, though his

bowels were dropping out through them."--"Then I have no more to say,"

quoth Sancho; "and yet, heaven knows my heart, I should be glad to hear

your worship hone a little now and then when something ails you; for my

part, I shall not fail to bemoan myself when I suffer the smallest pain,

unless, indeed, it can be proved, that the rule of not complaining extends

to the squires as well as knights." Don Quixote, part i. book 1. c. 8.

[371] Favyn, lib. vi. Mariana, lib. xvi. c. 2.

[372] Favyn, lib. iii. c. 12.

[373] Giraldus says, that the leg-bone of Arthur was three fingers longer

than that of the tallest man present at the opening. Selden, in his

Illustrations of Drayton, gives a very interesting account of the

discovery of Great Arthur's tomb. "Henry II., in his expedition towards

Ireland, was entertained by the way, in Wales, with bardish songs, wherein

he heard it affirmed, that in Glastonbury (made almost an isle by the

river's embracements) Arthur was buried betwixt two pillars; he gave

commandment to Henry of Blois, then abbot, to make search for the corpse;

which was found in a wooden coffin some sixteen foote deepe; but, after

they had digged nine foot, they found a stone, on whose lower side was

fixt a leaden cross with his name inscribed, and the letter-side of it

turned to the stone. He was then honored with a sumptuous monument; and,

afterwards, the skulls of him and his wife Guinever were taken out (to

remain as separate reliques and spectacles) by Edward Longshanks and

Eleanor. The bards sang, that, after the battle of Camlan, in Cornwall,

where traitorous Mordred was slain, and Arthur wounded, Morgan le Fay

conveyed the body hither to cure it; which done, Arthur is to return (yet

expected) to the rule of his country."

[374] At the high feast, evermore, there should be fulfilled the hole

number of an hundred and fifty, for then was the Round Table fully

accomplished. Morte d'Arthur, lib. vii. c. 1.

[375] The general objects of the knights of the Round Table are

exceedingly well stated in the following fine passage of genuine,

expressive old English:--"Then King Arthur stablished all his knights, and

to them that were of lands not rich he gave them lands, and charged them

never to do outrageouste, nor murder, and always to flee treason. Also by

no means to be cruel, but to give mercy unto him that asketh mercy, upon

pain of forfeiture of their worship and lordships to King Arthur, for

evermore; and always to do ladies, damsels, and gentlewomen, succour, upon

pain of death. Also, that no man take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for

no law, nor for no world's goods. Unto this were all the knights sworn of

the table round, both old and young. And every year were they sworn at the

high feast of Pentecost." Morte d'Arthur, lib. iv. c. last.

[376] Morte d'Arthur, lib. ult. cap. ult.

[377] Ashmole, p. 105.

[378] Pp. 5. 9. 11. ante.

[379] The exact degree of this influence it is impossible to ascertain

now. The author of the romance of Ivanhoe appears to deny it altogether;

and while he represents the Normans as perfectly chivalric, he describes,

for the sake of contrast, the Anglo-Saxons as totally unadorned with the

graces of knighthood. This is a sacrifice of historic truth to dramatic

effect, and materially detracts from the merit of Ivanhoe as a faithful

picture of ancient manners.

[380] Glaber Rod. c. 5.

[381] Snorre. Malmsbury, p. 174.

[382] Ingulf, p. 512. Order. Vit. p. 460. 463, &c. Malmsbury, passim.

Dudo, p. 82.

[383] Magna Charta, cl. xiv.

[384] Lord Lyttleton gives no higher date to this compulsory knighthood

than the reign of Henry III. But it surely must have existed earlier, as

it seems the natural consequence of the change of constitution, effected

by William I., by his uniting chivalry to feudalism.

[385] Wace tells us that William Rufus never could hear a knight of

prowess spoken of without endeavouring to engage his services.

"Li reis ros fu de grant noblesce

Proz, et de mult grant largesce.

N'oist de chevalier parler,

Qui de proesse oist loer,

Qui en son breif escrit ne fust,

Et qui par an del soen n'eust."

[386] H. Huntingdon, p. 381. Order. Vit. 854, &c.

[387] Stephan. Descrip. Lond. p. 7.

[388] Malmsbury, p. 121.

[389] Vinesauf, p. 338.

[390] Hoveden, p. 673. This principle of chivalric pride did not escape

the good-humoured ridicule of Cervantes. "As for myself," answered the

bruised Don Quixote, after his battle with the Yanguesian carriers, "I

must own I cannot set a term to the days of our recovery; but it is I who

am the fatal cause of all this mischief; for I ought not to have drawn my

sword upon a company of fellows, upon whom the honor of knighthood was

never conferred; and I do not doubt, but that the Lord of Hosts suffered

this punishment to befall me for thus transgressing the laws of chivalry.

Therefore, friend Sancho, observe what I am going to tell thee, for it is

a thing that highly concerns the welfare of us both: it is, that, for the

future, whenever thou perceivest us to be any ways abused by such inferior

fellows, thou art not to expect I should offer to draw my sword against

them, for I will not do it in the least; no, do thou then draw, and

chastise them as thou thinkest fit; but if any knights come to take their

parts, then will I be sure to step between thee and danger, and assault

them with the utmost vigour and intrepidity." Don Quixote, part i. book 3.

c. 1.

[391] Hoveden, p. 687.

[392] William of Newbridge, lib. v. c. 4.

[393] M. of Westminster, p. 300.

[394] Walsingham, p. 13.

[395] Matthew of Westminster, p. 402. Hemingford, p. 592.

[396] Walsingham, p. 8. Leland's Collectanea, p. 177.

[397] He sent the head up to London, adorned in derision with a silver

crown, that it might be exhibited to the populace in Cheapside, and fixed

upon the Tower. Knyghton, p. 2465. Mr. Sharon Turner (History of England,

vol. ii. p. 44.) judiciously contrasts the conduct of Edward with the

reprimand of William the Conqueror, to the knight who had wounded the dead

body of Harold.

[398] Matthew of Westminster, p. 460.

[399] The chamberlain of Scotland was directed by Edward I., A. D. 1306,

to fit up one of the turrets of the castle of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and

therein to build a strong cage of lattice-work, constructed with stout

posts and bars, and well strengthened with iron. The Countess was

prohibited from speaking with any person, Scotch or English, except the

keeper of the castle and a woman or two of the town of Berwick, appointed

by him to deliver her food. The sister of Robert Bruce was prisoner at the

same time, and treated in the same manner. Lord Hailes's observation on

this passage is amusing. "To those who have no notion of any cage but one

for a parrot or a squirrel, hung out at a window, I despair of rendering

this mandate intelligible."

[400] Matthew of Westminster, p. 457, &c. Trevet, p. 343.

[401] This was the good Lord James of Douglas, of whom see p. 205 ante.

[402] many.

[403] displayed.

[404] many.

[405] battalions.

[406] alarmed.

[407] gleamed.

[408] flame of fire.

[409] flowing.

[410] waving.

[411] Sir Walter Scott has made King Edward the author of this unknightly

conduct

"'Knows't thou,' he said, 'De Argentine,

Yon knight who marshals thus their line?'--

'The tokens on his helmet tell

The Bruce my liege: I know him well.'--

'And shall the audacious traitor brave

The presence where our banners wave?'--

'So please my liege,' said Argentine,

'Were he but hors'd on steed like mine,

To give him fair and knightly chance,

I would adventure forth my lance.'--

'In battle-day,' the King replied,

'Nice tourney rules are set aside.

--Still must the rebel dare our wrath?

Set on--sweep him from our path.'

And at King Edward's signal, soon

Dash'd from the ranks Sir Henry Boune."

The Lord of the Isles, canto vi. st. 14.

[412] companions.

[413] haste.

[414] without shrinking.

[415] haste.

[416] spurred.

[417] line.

[418] moan.

[419] heavy clash.

[420] broken.

[421] flat.

[422]

"For the king had said him rudely,

That a rose off his chaplet

Has fallen; for quhar[L] he was set

To kep the way these men were past."

Barbour, vol. ii p. 545-548.

[L] where.

[423] Mon. Malms., p. 149, &c. Moor, p. 594. Fordun, vol. xii. p. 20.

Scala Chronica, p. 547. Dalrymple, vol. ii. p. 45, &c.

[424] Trokelowe in Hearne, p. 52. Moor in Camden, Angl. Norm. p. 595.