each man to know his own.
V. We may compare all these with the Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard the Second, p. 23, to which, as it is one of the Publications of the Camden Society, I need do no more than refer.
[P. 120], l. 947.—This line cannot be construed as it stands, and is evidently corrupt.
[P. 121]. William de Rishanger was a monk of St. Alban’s, and is said to have been the King’s historiographer (historiographus regius) after Matthew Paris’s death. He died in 1312. He tells us that this song was written before, and not after, the battle of Lewes; and that it was the defection of some of the Barons mentioned in the song at [p. 59], which gave rise to it. It is, therefore, probably placed wrongly after the battle of Lewes.
[P. 122], l. 19, O Comes Gloverniæ.—This was Gilbert de Clare, who was extremely active in the cause of the Barons, and distinguished himself at the battle of Lewes.
[P. 123], l. 3.—The second line of this tetrastich seems to be lost.
—— l. 10, Comes le Bygot.—This was Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, whom the Barons made Governor of Orford in Suffolk, after the battle of Lewes.
[P. 124], l. 3, nobis.—A mere error of the press for vobis.
[P. 125]. The Lament of Simon de Montfort.—This song was printed privately, with some other Anglo-Norman poems from the same MS., by Sir Francis Palgrave, in 1818, in a collection which is now extremely rare. It was also inserted in the second edition of Ritson’s Ancient Songs (1829), where it is accompanied with a translation in English verse by George Ellis.
—— l. 8, Tot à cheval.—The Barons were surprised at Evesham before they were joined by their foot soldiers, and when therefore they were unprepared for this decisive conflict.