Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages / Third Edition

by Edward Lewes Cutts

“And right so ferden they with Palamon,
With him ther wenten knights many one,
Som wol ben armed in an habergeon,
And in a brestplate and in a gipon;
And some wol have a pair of plates large;
And some wol have a Pruce shield or a targe;
And some wol ben armed on his legge’s wele,
And have an axe, and some a mace of stele,
Ther was no newe guise that it was old,
Armed they weren, as I have you told,
Everich after his opinion.”

The illustration here given and that on p. 350 are from a MS. which we cannot quote for the first time without calling special attention to it. It is a MS. of one of the numerous romances of the King Arthur cycle, the Romance of the King Meliadus, who was one of the Companions of the Round Table. The book is profusely illustrated with pictures which are invaluable to the student of military costume and chivalric customs. They are by different hands, and not all of the same date, the earlier series being probably about 1350, the later perhaps as late as near the end of the century. In both these dates the MS. gives page after page of large-sized pictures drawn with great spirit, and illustrating every variety of incident which could take place in single combat and in tournament, with many scenes of civil and domestic life besides. Especially there is page after page in which, along the lower portion of the pages, across the whole width of the book, there are pictures of tournaments. There is a gallery of spectators along the top, and in some of these—especially in those at folio 151 v. and 152, which are sketched in with pen and ink, and left uncoloured—there are more of character and artistic drawing than the artists of the time are usually believed to have possessed. Beneath this gallery is a confused mêlée of knights in the very thickest throng and most energetic action of a tournament. The wood-cut on p. 348 represents one out of many incidents of a single combat. It does not do justice to the drawing, and looks tame for want of the colouring of the original; but it will serve to show the armour and equipment of the time. The victor knight is habited in a hauberk of banded mail, with gauntlets of plate, and the legs are cased entirely in plate. The body armour is covered by a jupon; the tilting helmet has a knight’s chapeau and drapery carrying the lion crest. The armour in the illumination is silvered to represent metal. The knight’s jupon is red, and the trappings of his helmet red, with a golden lion; his shield bears gules, a lion rampant argent; the conquered knight’s jupon is blue, his shield argent, two bandlets gules. We see here the way in which the shield was carried, and the long slender spear couched, in the charge.

Jousting.

The next wood-cut hardly does credit to the charming original. It represents the royal knight-errant himself sitting by a fountain, talking with his squire. The suit of armour is beautiful, and the face of the knight has much character, but very different from the modern conventional type of a mediæval knight-errant. His armour deserves particular examination. He wears a hauberk of banded mail; whether he wears a breastplate, or pair of plates, we are unable to see for the jupon, but we can see the hauberk which protects the throat above the jupon, and the skirt of it where the attitude of the wearer throws the skirt of the jupon open at the side. It will be seen that the sleeves of the hauberk are not continued, as in most examples, over the hands, or even down to the wrist; but the forearm is defended by studded armour, and the hands by gauntlets which are probably of plate. The leg defences are admirably exhibited; the hose of banded mail, the knee cap, and shin pieces of plate, and the boots of overlapping plates. The helmet also, with its royal crown and curious double crest, is worth notice. In the original drawing the whole suit of armour is brilliantly executed. The armour is all silvered to represent steel, the jupon is green, the military belt gold, the helmet silvered, with its drapery blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis, and its crown, and the fleur-de-lis which terminate its crest, gold. The whole dress and armour of a knight of the latter half of the fourteenth century are described for us by Chaucer in a few stanzas of his Rime of Sire Thopas:—

“He didde[371] next his white lere
Of cloth of lake fine and clere
A breche and eke a sherte;
And next his shert an haketon,
And over that an habergeon,
For percing of his herte.
And over that a fine hauberk,
Was all ye wrought of Jewes werk,
Full strong it was of plate;
And over that his coat armoure,
As white as is the lily floure,
In which he could debate.[372]
His jambeux were of cuirbouly,[373]
His swerde’s sheth of ivory,
His helm of latoun[374] bright,
His sadel was of rewel bone,
His bridle as the sonne shone,
Or as the mone-light[375]
His sheld was all of gold so red,
And therein was a bore’s hed,
A charboncle beside;
And then he swore on ale and bred,
How that the geaunt shuld be ded,
Betide what so betide.
His spere was of fine cypres,
That bodeth warre and nothing pees,
The hed ful sharpe yground.
His stede was all of dapper gray.
It goth an amble in the way,
Ful softely in londe.”

A Knight-Errant.

There is so much of character in his squire’s face in the same picture, and that character so different from our conventional idea of a squire, that we are tempted to give a sketch of it on p. 352, as he leans over the horse’s back talking to his master. This MS. affords us a whole gallery of squires attendant upon their knights. At folio 66 v. is one carrying his master’s spear and shield, who has a round cap with a long feather, like that in the woodcut. In several other instances the squire rides bareheaded, but has his hood hanging behind on his shoulders ready for a cold day or a shower of rain. In another place the knight is attended by two squires, one bearing his master’s tilting helmet on his shoulder, the other carrying his spear and shield. In all cases the squires are unarmed, and mature men of rather heavy type, different from the gay and gallant youths whom we are apt to picture to ourselves as the squires of the days of chivalry attendant on noble knights adventurous. In other cases we see the squires looking on very phlegmatically while their masters are in the height of a single combat; perhaps a knight adventurous was not a hero to his squire. But again we see the squire starting into activity to catch his master’s steed, from which he has been unhorsed by an antagonist of greater strength or skill, or good fortune. We see him also in the lists at a tournament, handing his master a new spear when he has splintered his own on an opponent’s shield; or helping him to his feet when he has been overthrown, horse and man, under the hoofs of prancing horses.