Volume I Part 2 (1/2)

_Description in Romances of Knightly Education ... Hawking and Hunting ... Education commenced at the age of Seven ... Duties of the Page ...

Personal Service ... Love and Religion ... Martial Exercises ... The Squire ... His Duties of Personal Service ... Curious Story of a bold young Squire ... Various t.i.tles of Squires ... Duties of the Squire in Battle ... Gallantry ... Martial Exercises ... Horsemans.h.i.+p ...

Importance of Squires in the Battle Field ... Particularly at the Battle of Bovines ... Preparations for Knighthood ... The Anxiety of the Squire regarding the Character of the Knight from whom he was to receive the Accolade ... Knights made in the Battle Field ...

Inconveniences of this ... Knights of Mines ... General Ceremonies of Degradation ... Ceremonies in England._

[Sidenote: Description in Romances of knightly education.]

The romances of Chivalry, in their picturesque and expressive representation of manners, present us with many interesting glimpses of the education in knighthood of the feudal n.o.bility's children. The romance of Sir Tristrem sings thus;

”Now hath Rohant in ore[40], Tristrem, and is full blithe, The childe he set to lore, And lernd him al so swithe[41]; In bok while he was th.o.r.e He stodieth ever that st.i.the[42], Tho that bi him wore Of him weren ful blithe, That bold.

His craftes gan he kithe[43], Oyaines[44] hem when he wold.

”Fiftene yere he gan him fede, Sir Rohant the trewe; He taught him ich alede[45]

Of ich maner of glewe;[46]

And everich playing thede, Old lawes and newe.

On hunting oft he yede[47], To swich alawe he drewe, Al thus; More he couthe[48] of veneri Than couthe Manerious.”

Very similar to this picture is the description of the education of Kyng Horn, in the romance which bears his name.

”Stiward tac thou here, My fundling for to lere Of thine mestere, Of wode and of ryvere, Ant toggen o' the harpe, With is nayles sharpe; Ant tech him alle the listes That thou ever wystes Byfore me to kerven, Ant of my coupe to serven; Ant his feren devyse With ous other servise.

Horn, child, thou understand Tech him of harpe and of song.”[49]

For only one more extract from the old romances, shall I claim the indulgence of my readers in the words of the minstrel,

”Mekely, lordynges gentyll and fre, Lysten awhile and herken to me.”

The life of Sir Ipomydon is a finished picture of knightly history. His foster-father, Sir Tholomew,

----”a clerk he toke That taught the child upon the boke Bothe to synge and to rede, And after he taught him other dede.

Afterwards to serve in halle, Both to grete and to small.

Before the king meat to kerve Hye and low feyre to serve.

Both of houndis and hawkis game, After he taught him all and same, In se, in field, and eke in river, In wood to chase the wild deer; And in the field to ride a steed, That all men had joy of his deed.”

[Sidenote: Hunting and Hawking.]

The mystery of rivers and the mystery of woods were important parts of knightly education. The mystery of woods was hunting; the mystery of rivers was not fis.h.i.+ng, but hawking, an expression which requires a few words of explanation. In hawking, the pursuit of water-fowls afforded most diversion. Chaucer says that he could

”ryde on hawking by the river, With grey gos hawk on hand.”

The favourite bird of chase was the heron, whose peculiar flight is not horizontal, like that of field birds, but perpendicular. It is wont to rise to a great height on finding itself the object of pursuit, while its enemy, using equal efforts to out-tower it, at length gains the advantage, swoops upon the heron with prodigious force, and strikes it to the ground.

The amus.e.m.e.nt of hawking, therefore, could be viewed without the spectators moving far from the river's side where the game was sprung; and from that circ.u.mstance it was called the mystery of rivers.[50]

But I shall attempt no further to describe in separate portions the subjects of knightly education, and to fill up the sketches of the old romances; for those sketches, though correct, present no complete outline, and the military exercises are altogether omitted. We had better trace the cavalier, through the gradations of his course, in the castle of his lord.