“And he hadde ben somtyme in chivachie,
In Flaundres, in Artoys, and in Picardie,
And born him wel, as of so litel space,
In hope to stonden in his lady grace.
Embrowdid was he, as it were a mede
Al ful of fressh floures, white and reede,
Syngynge he was, or flowtynge al the day;
He was as fressh as is the moneth of May.”
From the Ellesmere MS. of the “Canterbury Tales.” The Ellesmere cuts are used by the kind permission of Dr. Furnivall • 100
[20]. Travelling in a horse-litter; a lady and a wounded knight are carried in the litter; squires escort them. From the MS. 118 Français, fol. 285, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris; “Romance of Lancelot,” late fourteenth century, French. A good example of a State horse-litter is to be found in the MS. 18 E. II, in the British Museum, fol. 7; “Chronicles of Froissart,” French, fifteenth century • 101