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,