The Knight in History (45 page)
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Authors: Frances Gies
20.
The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser
, London, 1932, p. 142 (Book III, Canto 1, Stanza 13).
21.
Ludovico Ariosto,
Orlando Furioso
, trans. by William Stewart Rose, Indianapolis, 1968, p. 95 (Canto XI, Stanzas LXIV–LXXVII).
22.
George Fenwick Jones, “The Tournaments of Tottenham and Lappenhausen,”
Proceedings of the Modern Language Association
46 (1951), pp. 1123–1140.
23.
Roger Ascham,
The Scholemaster
, in
English Works of Roger Ascham
, ed. by W. A. Wright, Cambridge, 1904, pp. 230–231.
24.
Miguel de Cervantes,
Don Quixote de la Mancha
, trans. by Walter Starkie, London, 1957, pp. 1045, 1048, 1050.
25.
Lionel Gossman,
Medievalism and the Ideologies of the Enlightenment, the World and Work of La Curne de Sainte-Palaye
, Baltimore, 1968.
26.
Mark Girouard,
The Return to Camelot, Chivalry and the English Gentleman
, New Haven, Conn., 1981.
27.
Sir Walter Scott, “Chivalry,”
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, 1823 Supplement, Vol. III.
28.
“Guinevere,” in
The Idylls of the King, The Works of Tennyson
, New York, 1918, p. 454.
29.
“Gareth and Lynette,”
The Idylls of the King, The Works of Tennyson
, p. 313.
30.
Ian Anstruther,
The Knight and the Umbrella, An Account of the Eglinton Tournament
, 1839, London, 1959.
31.
Edward FitzGerald, “Euphranor, a Dialogue on Youth,” (1851), in
The Variorum and Definitive Edition of the Poetical and Prose Writings of Edward FitzGerald
, ed. by George Bentham, 7 vols., New York, 1967, Vol. I, p. 147.
32.
William Cory,
Extracts from the Letters and Journal
, ed. by Francis Warre Cornish, London, 1897, pp. 459–460.
*
Another source of income, the
fief-rente
, which appeared early in the twelfth century, was a feudal arrangement that substituted a money payment for a grant of land but unlike mercenary hire, involved homage and fealty and was passed from father to son.
37
*
Scholar Meg Bogin presents the poems of seventeen in her
The Women Troubadours
(1976).
12
*
Some scholars question Arnaut’s authorship.
*
In Provençal poetry, words are often combined, with letters omitted, the omission indicated by a dot:
fa · ls
is a contraction for
fa los
.
*
In this translation by Anthony Bonner no attempt has been made to reproduce the rhyme scheme.
*
Brutus the Trojan, legendary great-grandson of Aeneas, was supposed to have journeyed to England, where he founded New Troy (London) and gave his name to the British race.
*
John d’Erley is first mentioned in connection with William Marshal in 1186, and the anonymous trouvère seems to have joined him in 1180; the poem was completed in 1226.
*
The chronology of the
History
, particularly in early episodes, is confused. In 1216, according to the
History
(verse 15510), William said that he was “over 80,” i.e., born before 1136. However, the marriage of John Marshal and Sibile took place no earlier than 1141, and William, the second son, seems to have been six to eight years old in the episode that follows.
*
Paul Meyer, the editor of the
History
, believed that the authors had misplaced the order of events and that William was knighted either in 1164 or in 1167, but that the battle which the
History
names as its occasion actually occurred in 1173. Other considerations make this unlikely, however; the
History
makes no mention of Henry II’s eldest son in the battle, although Meyer thought it must be part of his struggle against his father.
12
*
This passage indicates that William left the Holy Land after the coronation of Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, in mid-September 1186; other evidence suggests that he departed before the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, probably at the end of 1186 or the beginning of 1187.
*
In Genoa, in the first half of the thirteenth century, a helmet cost from 16 to 32 shillings, a hauberk from 120 to 152; with accessories, a total of about 200 shillings, or 800 grams of gold.
70
*
The word “brigand” itself originally carried no pejorative connotation, merely designating certain Italian mercenaries (from their brigandine armor).
*
A mark was two thirds of a pound.
*
Economic historian M. M. Postan believes that “in spite of these rules most fruits of soldierly pillage stuck to the fingers of lesser folk, the men-at-arms and the common soldiers of every kind.”
13
*
Fastolf’s memorandum is in English, here modernized, as are later quotations from the Paston letters.
*
Or Bonet.
*
Clement Paston was thus described by a hostile source, but this status seems to be confirmed by what documents have survived.
62
*
An English antiquarian of the early twentieth century reported that in his researches he had discovered the earliest use of the word “gentleman” to have occurred in 1413 when one Robert Erdeswyke of Stafford so described himself in defending himself against an indictment for housebreaking, wounding with intent to kill, and procuring murder.
1
*
Fastolf was a character in this
roman à clef
under the name of “Messire Jehan Helphy, a notable knight, and wise and rich” (II, p. 236); Bedford and Joan of Arc’s companion-in-arms La Hire are also represented.
*
Scott’s article appeared in one of the half-volumes of the
Supplement to the Sixth Edition
issued from 1815 to 1820.
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