[P. 126], l. 4, Sire Hue le fer, ly Despencer, tresnoble justice.—Hugh Despencer, appointed justiciary of England by the Barons. He fell at Evesham.
—— l. 6, Sire Henri ... fitz le cuens de Leycestre.—The eldest son of Simon de Montfort; he fell in the battle.
—— l. 7, par le cuens de Gloucestre.—After the battle of Lewes, the Earl of Gloucester, becoming jealous of Simon de Montfort’s popularity, deserted to the King, and fought against his former associates at Evesham.
—— l. 14, une heyre.—I suppose this refers to Guy de Montfort, Simon’s second son, who was taken prisoner at Evesham, but afterwards escaped and fled to the Continent.
[P. 126], l. 15, les faus ribaus.—As this word, ribaldus, ribaus, ribaud, occurs frequently in our Songs, both in Latin, Anglo-Norman, and English, it may be worth while to say something about it.
It is one of those curious words of which the origin and primary signification are very doubtful. It was certainly applied to a particular class of people, and a class which seems to have been dependant on the household of the great. Giraldus Cambrensis, when telling his various troubles and persecutions (Wharton, Anglia Sacra, vol. iii. p. 575), speaks thus of the witnesses brought against him by his enemies:—“Archidiaconus (i. e. Giraldus himself) autem statim, productis testibus illis coram auditoribus ad jurandum, proposuit in singulorum personas se dicturum; in canonicos Menevenses tanquam perjuros et excommunicatos, in monachos tanquam trutannos et domorum suarum desertores, in ribaldos tanquam vilissimos et, sicut cæteri cuncti, mercede conductos.” And again, on the next page, “Et testium multitudinem de garcionibus et ribaldis partis adversæ, qui omnes jurare parati fuerant et testificare ... trutannus ille vilissimus id totum faciebat; qui et ribaldos suos cunctos ad hoc probandum simul cum ipso mittebat.... Videns igitur archidiaconus ribaldos illos ad nutum dominorum suorum quidlibet probare paratos.... Sciens itaque si probatio ribaldica procederet ... ribaldica multitudo, etc.” They seem to have been the lowest class of retainers, perhaps men without any certain appointment, who had no other mode of living than following the courts of the Barons, and who were employed on all kinds of disgraceful and wicked actions. One authority quoted by Ducange couples “parasitos atque ribaldos.” A story quoted from a MS. at Berne, by Sinner (Catalogus, tom. i. p. 272), shows us that a goliard belonged to the class of ribalds: now a goliard seems to have been only another name for a jongleur (joculator), or one who attended the tables of the rich to amuse the guests by jokes, buffoonery, and mountebank tricks. An ecclesiastical statute quoted in Ducange (v. Goliardus) says, “item præcipimus quod clerici non sint joculatores, goliardi, seu bufones;” and another commands, “quod clerici ribaldi, maxime vero qui dicuntur de familia goliæ, per episcopos ... tondere præcipiantur.” Matthew Paris, sub an. 1229, says, “quidam famuli, vel mancipia, vel illi quos solemus goliardenses appellare, versus ridiculos componebant.” In this last passage we find them classed with the famuli, or household retainers. This class appears, at least in France, to have enjoyed certain popular rights or privileges. In a very curious charter of the year 1380, printed in Ducange, we find one Antony de Sagiac “se gerens pro ribaldo, et se dicens de ordine seu de statu goliardorum, seu buffonum,” claiming a fine of five pence upon incontinent women, and accused of trying to extract money from a woman, whom he accused wrongfully, on this account, “de talique et alio vili questu, quem sub umbra ribaldiæ, goliardiæ, seu buffoniæ ejusmodi ... vivebat.” In the household of the King of France there was a rex ribaldorum, whose office was to judge disputes, &c. which might occur among the retainers of his class, and who had also a jurisdiction over the public stews. As the lives of this class of men were set at a small value by their masters, they were commonly exposed to the first brunt of battle in the wars, and the name is sometimes given to the body which is now called the forlorn hope in the attack of a town. The ribaldi who accompanied the army were also employed in plundering and destroying the country. As they were people of vile life and condition, the term ribald came gradually into use as a common appellation for a low and infamous person, and was used, as in the present instance, as an epithet of contempt and degradation.
[P. 128], l. 1, pepulere.—The MS. has pepulare.
[P. 130], l. 8, Plebs devicta fremit.—Alluding to the rising at Chesterfield, the occupation of the Isles of Axholme and Ely, and other insurrections.
—— l. 11, Urbs Londoniensis.—The Earl of Gloucester, dissatisfied with the King’s proceedings after the battle of Evesham, had taken up arms and established himself at London, the citizens of which joined his party readily, as they were themselves enraged against the King for having deprived them of their charter.
[P. 131], l. 2, Francorum regis germanus rex Siculorum.—Prince Edward left England in July, 1270, to join the King of France, Saint Louis, in his expedition to the Holy Land. Louis was persuaded by his brother, Charles, then King of Sicily, to turn aside, in order to make war on the Bey of Tunis, from whom he claimed a tribute. Louis died at Carthage of a disease produced by the climate; and when Prince Edward and his English army arrived, they found their ally dead, and the King of Sicily, who had made advantageous terms with the Bey, ready to return home. Charles, who hastened to take possession of the throne of France, refused to proceed in the crusade, and Edward, who was obliged to go alone, went over to Sicily, and wintered at Trapani. Here, on the night of December 23, the day after their arrival, occurred the terrible storm alluded to in the Poem. Early in the spring, Edward, with his small army, proceeded on their voyage, and landed at Acre.