114 THE DEMON STEEDS PRESENTED TO RICHARD. 'Thou sayst thy God is full of myght: 'And yf thou wylte, this same daye, 'Bydde hym sende that hors to me, 'And I shall assaye what they be, "Yf he be trusti, withoute sayle, me in batayle.' The messengers tho home wente, And told the sowdan in presente, Two strong fendes of the ayre In lykenes of two stedes fayre 1 Horses belonging to Richard, Favel of Cyprus, and Lyard of Paris.' Robert de Brunne mentions one of these horses, which he calls PHANUEL. Chron. p. 175. Sithen at Japhet was slayn PHANUEL his stede, This is our romance, viz. Sign. Q. iii. To hym gadered every chone Tho was Richard wroth This was at the siege of Jasse, as it is here called. Sign. O. ii. FAVELL of Cyprus is forth set And slewe FAVELL under hym, Favell of Cyprus is again mentioned, And in the sadell he hym sett. Robert of Brunne says that Saladin's brother sent king Richard a horse. Chron. p. 194. In the wardrobe.roll of prince Edward, afterwards king Edward II. under the year 1272, (Were the knyght1 never so bolde,) Whan the mare nye 2 wolde, (That hym sholde holde ayenst his wylle,) And kneel downe and souke his dame, Sholde kynge Rychard quelle, All this an aungell gan him telle, 'My lorde doth the to onderstonde Fayre it is, of body ipyght, To betray the if the sowdan myght; 'On hym to ryde have thou no drede "For he thee helpe shall at nede.' The angel then gives king Richard several directions about managing this infernal horse, and a general engagement ensuing, between the Christian and Saracen armies, He lepte on hors whan it was lyght; Or he in his sadel did lepe He was covered wondersly wele All with splentes of good stele. A shafte he had of trusty werke, Upon his shoulders a shelde of stele, Upon his creste a dove whyte Sygnyfycaune of the holy sprite, The spere hed forgat he nauht, Now herken what othe he sware, 'At our wylle everychone 'He and his shold gone 4 Suck. 5 God. miles in length, and 8 Leopards. 10 As he died upon the cross. So in an old Brunne p. 634 Pyned under Ponce Pilat, For blyght armure and speres kene. So were fulfylled hylles and playnes Of trompettes and tabourere. 9 Our Saviour. fragment cited by Hearne, Gloss. Rob. Don on the rod after that. 116 ENCOUNTER OF RICHARD WITH THE SOWDAN. 'He sholde have under his honde " Myght slee Rycharde in the felde 'That Crysten men sholde go 'And yf the sowdan of that londe To se that fyght it were fayre; Ther stedes ranne with grete ayre1 And tharfor, as the boke us telles1, A faucon brodes in honde he bare, For he thoght he wolde thare Whan his colte sholde knele downe As a colte sholde souk his dame, And he was ware of that shame, In his shelde verament 1 Ire. His eres with waxe were stopped faste, 2 Dare. 3 I do not understand this. He seems to mean the Sultan of Damas, or Damascus. See Du Cange, Joinv. p. 87. 4 The French romance. 5 Anciently no person seems to have been gallantly equipped on horseback, unless the horse's bridle or some other part of the furniture, was stuck full of small bells. Vincent of Beauvais, who wrote about 1264, censures this piece of pride in the knights templars. They have, he says, bridles embroidered, or gilded, or adorned with silver, Atique in pectoralibus CAMPANULAS INFIXAS MAGNUM emittentes SONITUM, ad gloriam eorum et decorem.' Hist. lib. xxx. cap. 85. Wicliffe, in his TRIALOGE, inveighs against the priests for their fair hors, and jolly and gay sadeles, and bridles ringing by the way, &c.' Lewis's WICKLIFFE. p. 121. And hence Chaucer may be illustrated, who thus describes the state of a monk on horseback. Prol. Cant. v. 170. Aud when he rode, men might his bridel here That is, because his horse's bridle or trappings were strung with bells. 6 The breast-plate, or breast-band of a horse. Poitral, Fr. Pectorale, Lat. Thus Chaucer of the Chanon YEMAN'S horse. Chan. Yon. Proll. v. 575. Urr. 2 The saddle-bow. About the PAYNTRELL stoode the some ful hie. 'Arcenarium extencellatum cum argento,' occurs in the wardrobe rolls, ab. an. 21 ad an. 25 Edw. iii. Membr. xi. This word is not in Du Cange or his supplement. 8 F. bird. 9 Ears. Maugre her heed, he made her seche Hys feete towarde the fyrmament, Bihynde hym the spere outwent Ther he fell dede on the grene, And as sone as he was come, Whan the kyng of Fraunce and hys men wyste They waxed bold, and gode herte toke Richard arming himself is a curious Gothic picture. It is certainly a genuine picture, and drawn with some spirit; as is the shock of the two necromantic steeds, and other parts of this description. The combat of Richard and the Soldan, on the event of which the christian army got possession of the city of Babylon, is probably the DUEL OF KING RICHARD, painted on the wall of a chamber in the royal palace of Clarendon. The Soldan is represented as meeting Richard with a hawk on his fist, to shew indifference, or a contempt of his adversary; and that he came rather prepared for the chace, than the combat. Indeed in the feudal times, and long afterwards, no gentleman appeared on horseback, unless going to battle, without a hawk on his fist. In the Tapestry of the Norman Conquest, Harold is exhibited on horseback, with a hawk on his fist, and his dogs running before him, going on an embassy from king Edward the Confessor to William Duke of Normandys. Tabour, a drum, a common accompaniment of war, is mentioned as one of the instruments of martial music in this battle with characteristical propriety. It was imported into the European armies from the Saracens in the holy war. The word is constantly written tabour, not tambour, in Joinville's HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS, and all the elder French romances. Joinville describes a superb bark or galley belonging to a Saracen chief, which he says was filled with cymbals, tabours, and Saracen horns. Jean d'Orronville, an old French 1 Spurs. Schiltron. I believe soldiers drawn up in a circle. Rob. de Brunne uses it in describing the battle of Fowkirke, Chron. p. 305. Thar SCHELTRON Sone was shad with Inglis that wer gode. 4 See supr. p. 114. Shadis separated. Signat. M. ii. The hawk on the fist was a mark of great nobility. We frequently find it, upon antique seals and miniatures, attributed to persons of both sexes. So sacred was this bird esteemed, that it was forbidden in a code of Charlemagne's laws, for any one to give his hawk or his sword as part of his ransom. In compositionem Wirigildi volumus ut ea denter que in lege continentur excepto accipitre et spatha.' Lindebrog. Cod. Leg. Antiq. p. 895. In the year 1337, the bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for stealing a hawk, sitting on her perch, in the cloisters of the abbey of Bermondsey in Southwark. This piece of sacrilege, indeed, was committed during service-time in the choir: and the hawk was the property of the bihop. Registr. Adami Orleton. Episc. Winton. fol. 56. b. In Archiv. Winton. In DOMES DEI-BOOK, a Hawk's Airy, Aira Accipitris, is sometimes returned amongst the most valuable articles of property. Histoir. de S. Loys, p. 30. The original has 'Cors Sarazinois.' Also p. 52. 56. And Du Cange's Notes, p. 61. 118 IGNORANCE OF GEOGRAPHY FATAL TO CRUSADING ARMIES. chronicler of the life of Louis duke of Bourbon, relates, that the king of France, the king of Thrasimere, and the king of Bugie landed in Africa, according to their custom, with cymbals, kettle drums, tabours1, and whistles. Babylon, here said to be besieged by king Richard, and so frequently mentioned by the romance writers and the chroniclers of the crusades, is Cairo or Bagdat. Cairo and Bagdat, cities of recent foundation, were perpetually confounded with Babylon, which had been destroyed many centuries before, and was situated at a considerable distance from either. Not the least enquiry was made in the dark ages concerning the true situation of places, or the disposition of the country in Palestine, although the theatre of so important a war; and to this neglect was owing, in a great measure, the signal defeats and calamitous distresses of the christian adventurers, whose numerous armies, destitute of information, and cut off from every resource, perished amidst unknown mountains, and impracticable wastes. Geography at this time had been but little cultivated. It had been studied only from the ancients: as if the face of the earth, and the political state of nations, had not, since the time of those writers, undergone any changes or revolutions. So formidable a champion was king Richard against the infidels, and so terrible the remembrance of his valour in the holy war, that the Saracens and Turks used to quiet their froward children only by repeating his name. Joinville is the only writer who records this anecdote. He adds another of the same sort. When the Saracens were riding, and their horses started at any unusual object, 'ils disoient 'a leurs chevaulx en les picquent de l' esperon, et cuides tu que ce soit le ROY RICHARTS ?' It is extraordinary, that these circumstances should have escaped Malmesbury, Matthew Paris, Benedict, Longtoft, and the rest of our old historians, who have exaggerated the character of this redoubted hero, by relating many particulars more likely to be fabulous, and certainly less expressive of his prowess. SECTION V. THE romance of SIR GUY, which is enumerated by Chaucer among the 'Romances of Pris,' affords the following fiction, not uncommon indeed in pieces of this sort, concerning the redemption of a knight 1 I cannot find Glais, the word that follows, in the French dictionaries. But perhaps it answers to our old English Gice. Du Cange, Gl. Lat. V. CLASSICUM. 2 Cap. 76. Nacaires, is here the word for kettle-drums. Du Cange, ubi supr. p. 59. Who also from an old roll de la chambre des COMPTES de Paris recites, among the houshold musicians of a French nobleman, Menestrel du Cor Sarazinois,' ib. p. 6o. This instrument is not uncommon in the French romances. 3 Hist. de S. Loyis, p. 16. 104. Who had it from a French MSS. chronicle of the holy Du Cange's Notes, p. 45. war. |