Chapter XII: Book III: c. 6 (2)

[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.