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,