plateis: et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in orbe."-- For other particulars
relating to this Chancellor, see T. Warton's Hist. vol. ii. Addit. to p. 113 of vol. i.
(U3)Both the Norman and English languages would be heard at the houses of the
great.] A remarkable proof of this is, that the most diligent inquirers after ancient
English rhymes, find the earliest they can discover in the mouths of the Norman
nobles. Such as that of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and his Flemings in 1173, temp.
Hen. II. (little more than a century after the Conquest) recorded by Lambarde in his
Dictionary of England, p. 36.
"Hoppe Wyliken, hoppe Wyliken,
Ingland is thine and myne."
And that noted boast of Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, in the same reign of
King Henry II., vide Camden's Britannia (art. Suffolk), 1607, folio:
"Were I in my castle of Bungey
Upon the riuer of Waueney
I would ne care for the king of Cockeney."
Indeed many of our old metrical romances, whether originally English, or
translated from the French to be sung to an English audience, are addressed to persons
of high rank, as appears from their beginning thus,--"Listen, Lordings;" and the like.
These were prior to the time of Chaucer, as appears from vol. ii.Metrical Romances
Note 8., et seqq. And yet to his time our Norman nobles are supposed to have adhered
to their French language.
(V)That intercommunity, &c. between the French and English Minstrels, &c.] This
might, perhaps, in a great measure, be referred even to the Norman Conquest, when
the victors brought with them all their original opinions and fables; which could not
fail to be adopted by the English Minstrels and others, who solicited their favour. This
interchange, &c., between the Minstrels of the two nations, would be aferwards
promoted by the great intercourse produced among all the nations of Christendom in
the general crusades, and by that spirit of chivalry which led knights and their
attendants, the Heralds and Minstrels, &c., to ramble about continually, from one
court to another, in order to he present at solemn turnaments and other feats of arms.
(V2)Is not the only instance, &c.] The constant admission granted to Minstrels was
so established a privilege, that it became a ready expedient to writers of fiction. Thus,
in the old romance ofHorn-Child, the Princess Rymenyld being confined in an
inaccessible castle, the prince, her lover, and some assistant knights, with concealed
tools, assume the minstrel character; and approaching the castle with their
"Gleyinge"or Minstrelsy, are heard by the lord of it, who being informed they were
"harpeirs, jogelers, and fythelers,[24]" has them admitted, when
"Horn set him abenche [i.e. on a bench]
Is [i.e. his] harpe he yet gan clenche
He made Rymenild a lay "
This sets the princess a-weeping, and leads to the catastrophe; for he
immediately advances to "the Borde" or table, kills the ravisher, and releases the lady.
(V3).. .assumed the dress and character of a Harper, &c.] We have this curious
Histiorettein the records of Lacock Nunnery, in Wiltshire, which had been founded
by this Countess of Salisbury.-- See Vincent's Discovery of Errors in Brooke's
Catalogue of Nobility, &c., folio, pp. 445, 446, &c. Take the following extract (and
see Dugdale'sBaron. i. p. 175):