Chapter XI: Book III: c. 6 (1)

[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.