“D’ardimen vail Rotlan et Olivier
E de domnei Berart de Mondesdier.”
i. e.—“In prowess I am equal to Rolland and to Oliver, in matters of love to Berart of M.” says the troubadour Peire Vidal in his poem Dragoman seiner; cf. also Fierabras, ll. 2125–7:
“Je ne sai cui vous estes, car ne vous puis viser,
Mais je cuit c’as pucieles sivés moult bien juer,
En cambre sous cortine baisier et acoler.”
See, besides, Syr Ferumbras, ll. 422, 1297, 1305, 1354. This Bryer of Mountes must be the same as the one slain in a sally of the twelve peers, ll. 2604, 2622, because, according to l. 1723, it was he who was among the peers sent on a mission to the Soudan. There is one Bryer of Brytaine occurring in l. 886, whom one might be inclined to think identical with Bryer of Mountes, as in l. 886 he is cited together with the other peers. But since we find him again as the treasurer of Charlemagne (l. 3205), this is impossible, unless we suppose the mention of Bryer in l. 3205 to be owing to the [‹p123›] absent-mindedness of the author, who may be accused of a similar inadvertency with regard to Rychard of Normandy; cf. note to l. 2797, and Index of Names, s. v. Flagot.
p. 50, l. [1743]. Bronland. The true reading is Brouland, as shewn by Fierabras, ll. 1549, 5174, &c.; Destruction, ll. 1240–159, 441, and Sowdan, ll. 1759, 2456. The Ashmole MS. has Bruyllant.
p. 51, l. [1751]. thane = “thane that.” See Zupitza’s note to Guy, 992, p. 363.
p. 51, l. [1778]. charke hardly makes sense here. It is perhaps a clerical error for charge, “to command, to order.” The sense would then be, “and to tell him the Soudan’s strict orders which by peril of death (= upon life and lithe) Laban recommended him to obey.”