Hevede this lond thourh and thourh.
He was the beste kyng at nede
That ever mihte ride on stede,
Other wepne welde, other folk out-lede,
Of mon he hede he never drede.
—l. 261.
The very close resemblance of these lines to those in Havelok, ll. 87-90, would induce a belief that the writer of the Chronicle had certainly read, and perhaps copied from, the Romance. The MS. followed by Ritson was undoubtedly written soon after the death of Piers Gaveston, in 1313, with the mention of which event it concludes; but in the Auchinleck copy it is continued, by a later hand, to the minority of Edward III. It only remains to be observed, that the poem in MS. Reg. 12. C. XII. is written by the same identical hand as the MS. Harl. 2253 (containing Kyng Horn, &c.), whence some additional light is thrown on the real age of the latter, respecting which our antiquaries so long differed.
[[15.] “And I will drink ere I tell my tale.” Her = ere.
[19.] And wite, &c., i.e. And ordain that it may be so; cf. ll. 517, 1316. Both metre and grammar require the final e.]
[31.] Erl and barun, dreng and kayn. The appellation of Dreng, and, in the plural, Drenges, which repeatedly occurs in the course of this poem, is uniformly bestowed on a class of men who hold a situation between the rank of Baron and Thayn. We meet with the term more than once in Doomsday Book, as, for instance, in Tit. Cestresc: “Hujus manerii [Neuton] aliam terram xv. hom. quos Drenches vocabant, pro xv. maneriis tenebant.” And in a Charter of that period we read: “Alger Prior, et totus Conventus Ecclesiæ S. Cuthberti, Edwino, et omnibus Teignis et Drengis, &c.” Hence Spelman infers, that the Drengs were military vassals, and held land by knight’s service, which was called Drengagium. This is confirmed by a document from the Chartulary of Welbeck, printed in Dugdale, Mon. Angl. V. II. p. 598, and in Blount, Jocular Tenures, p. 177, where it is stated, “In eadem villa [Cukeney, co. Nottingh.] manebat quidam homo qui vocabatur Gamelbere, et fuit vetus Dreyinghe ante Conquestum.” It appears from the same document, that this person held two carucates of land of the King in capite, and was bound to perform military service for the same, whenever the army went into Wales. In the Epistle also from the Monks of Canterbury to Henry II. printed by Somner, in his Treatise on Gavelkind, p. 123, we find: “Quia vero non erant adhuc tempore Regis Willelmi Milites in Anglia, sed Threnges, præcepit Rex, ut de eis Milites fierent, ad terram defendendam.” In Laȝamon’s translation of Wace the term is frequently used in the acceptation of thayn, and spelt either dringches, drenches, dranches, or dringes. [Cf. Sw. dräng, a man, servant; Dan. dreng, a boy.] In the Isl. and Su. Goth. Dreng originally signified vir fortis, miles strenuus, and hence Olaf, King of Norway, received the epithet of Goddreng. See Wormii Lex. Run. p. 26. Ihre, Vet. Cat. Reg. p. 109. Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic. V. I. p. 156. The term subsequently was applied to persons in a servile condition, and is so instanced by Spelman, as used in Denmark. In this latter sense it may be found in Hickes, Diction. Isl., and in Sir David Lyndsay’s Poems,