[P. 187]. Song on the Flemish Insurrection.—This Song was printed by Ritson, in his Ancient Songs.
[P. 188], l. 16, Peter Conyng.—Peter Coning (in English, Peter King,) was a weaver of Bruges. A brief account of this insurrection is given in Matthew of Westminster, p. 444. See, for a more complete narrative, Michelet’s Histoire de France, vol. iii. p. 76.
[P. 189], l. 8, avowerie.—This is the low Latin advocaria. See Ducange, in voce.
—— l. 11, hou.—The MS. has hout.
[P. 189], l. 17, to clynken huere basyns of bras.—This circumstance occurred on the 21st March, 1302, at the beginning of the insurrection. In the towns of Flanders, as in the boroughs in England, the people were called up in an insurrection by the sound of the church bell. There was a famous distich on the bell of Roland, at Bruges—
Roelandt, Roelandt, als ick kleppe dan ist brandt,
Als ick luye, dan ist storm in Vlaenderlandt.
On the present occasion, the people dared not go to their bell, on account of their French governors, so they beat their brass basins:—cumque ad campanam civitatis non auderent accedere, pelves suas pulsantes ... omnem multitudinem concitarent. Meyer, Annal. in a. 1301, p. 90.
[P. 191], l. 9, Conyng.—This word, in English, meant a rabbit, and is here made the subject of a pun. In Flemish, it signified king.