[The following notes are abridged from the notes in Sir F. Madden's
excellent edition, the abridgement being effected almost entirely by
occasional omissions, and with but very slight unimportant changes of a
few words, chiefly in the case of references to later editions of
various works than were existing in 1828. I have added one or two short
notes upon difficult constructions, but these are distinguished by being
enclosed within square brackets. --W. W. S.]
9.
_He was the wicteste man at nede
That thurte riden on ani stede._
This appears to have been a favourite expression of the poet, and to
have comprehended, in his idea, the perfection of those qualifications
required in a knight and hero. He repeats it, with some slight
variation, no less than five times, viz. in ll. 25, 87, 345, 1757, and
1970. The lines, however, are by no means original, but the common
property of all our early poetical writers. We find them in La[gh]amon:
þis wes þe feiruste mon
þe æuere æhte ær þusne kinedom,
þa he mihte beren wepnen,
& his hors wel awilden.
_La[gh]amon_, vol. i. p. 174.
So also in the Romance of _Guy of Warwick_:
He was the best knight at neede
That euer bestrode any stede.
Coll. Garrick, K. 9. sign. Ll. ii.
Again, in the _Continuation of Sir Gy_, in the Auchinleck MS., (ed. for
the Abbotsford Club, 1840, 4to; p. 266),
The best bodi he was at nede
That ever might bistriden stede,
And freest founde in fight.
And again, in the _Chronicle of England_, published by Ritson from a
copy in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 12. C. XII.
After him his sone Arthur
Hevede this lond thourh and thourh.
He was the beste kyng at nede
That ever mihte ride on stede,
Other wepne welde, other folk out-lede,
Of mon he hede he never drede. --l. 261.
The very close resemblance of these lines to those in Havelok, ll.
87-90, would induce a belief that the writer of the _Chronicle_ had
certainly read, and perhaps copied from, the Romance. The MS. followed
by Ritson was undoubtedly written soon after the death of Piers
Gaveston, in 1313, with the mention of which event it concludes; but in
the Auchinleck copy it is continued, by a later hand, to the minority of
Edward III. It only remains to be observed, that the poem in MS. Reg.
12. C. XII. is written by the same identical hand as the MS. Harl. 2253
(containing _Kyng Horn_, &c.), whence some additional light is thrown on
the real age of the latter, respecting which our antiquaries so long
differed.
[15. "And I will drink ere I tell my tale." _Her_ = ere.
19. _And wite, &c._, i.e. And ordain that it may be so; cf. ll. 517,
1316. Both metre and grammar require the final _e_.]
31. _Erl and barun, _dreng_ and kayn._ The appellation of _Dreng_, and,
in the plural, _Drenges_, which repeatedly occurs in the course of this
poem, is uniformly bestowed on a class of men who hold a situation
between the rank of _Baron_ and _Thayn_. We meet with the term more than
once in Doomsday Book, as, for instance, in Tit. Cestresc: "Hujus
manerii [Neuton] aliam terram xv. hom. quos _Drenches_ vocabant, pro xv.
maneriis tenebant." And in a Charter of that period we read: "Alger
Prior, et totus Conventus Ecclesiæ S. Cuthberti, Edwino, et omnibus
Teignis et _Drengis_, &c." Hence Spelman infers, that the Drengs were
military vassals, and held land by knight's service, which was called
_Drengagium_. This is confirmed by a document from the Chartulary of
Welbeck, printed in Dugdale, _Mon. Angl._ V. II. p. 598, and in Blount,
_Jocular Tenures_, p. 177, where it is stated, "In eadem villa [Cukeney,
co. Nottingh.] manebat quidam homo qui vocabatur Gamelbere, et fuit
vetus _Dreyinghe_ ante Conquestum." It appears from the same document,
that this person held two carucates of land of the King _in capite_, and
was bound to perform military service for the same, whenever the army
went into Wales. In the Epistle also from the Monks of Canterbury to
Henry II. printed by Somner, in his Treatise on Gavelkind, p. 123, we
find: "Quia vero non erant adhuc tempore Regis Willelmi Milites in
Anglia, sed _Threnges_, præcepit Rex, ut de eis Milites fierent, ad
terram defendendam." In La[gh]amon's translation of Wace the term is
frequently used in the acceptation of thayn, and spelt either
_dringches_, _drenches_, _dranches_, or _dringes_. [Cf. Sw. _dräng_, a
man, servant; Dan. _dreng_, a boy.] In the Isl. and Su. Goth. _Dreng_
originally signified _vir fortis_, _miles strenuus_, and hence Olaf,
King of Norway, received the epithet of _Goddreng_. See Wormii Lex. Run.
p. 26. Ihre, Vet. Cat. Reg. p. 109. Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic. V. I.
p. 156. The term subsequently was applied to persons in a servile
condition, and is so instanced by Spelman, as used in Denmark. In this
latter sense it may be found in Hickes, Diction. Isl., and in Sir David
Lyndsay's Poems,
Quhilk is not ordanit for _dringis_
But for Duikis, Empriouris, and Kingis.