Grigge rapit, dum Davve strepit, comes est quibus Hobbe,
Larkin et in medio non minor esse putat,
Hudde ferit, quos Judde terit, dum Tebbe juvatur,
Jakke domos virosque vellit, et ense necat.
Some of the chroniclers represent “Jack Straw” as only an alias of Wat Tyler, but they were evidently two different persons.
[9] “Vir versutus et magno sensu præditus.”—Walsingham, i. 463.
[10] “It was said that the insurgents as they went along were killing all the lawyers and jurymen; that every criminal who feared punishment for his offences had joined himself to them; that masters of grammar-schools had been compelled to forswear their profession, and that even the possession of an inkhorn was dangerous to its owner. Most of the rumors were, no doubt, the mere inventions of the excited imaginations of the chroniclers or their informants. The orderly conduct of the army of Tyler when it was first admitted into London, and the definiteness of the demands which formed the basis of the charter granted by Richard, make the atrocities and absurdities of these acts alike improbable.”—C. E. Maurice, p. 164.
[11] It is possible that some of the points above mentioned were among these reserved demands. If so, the king conceded them to Tyler, verbally, before the catastrophe. But this is uncertain. The concessions are enumerated in Rymer’s “Fœdera,” vol. vii. p. 317.
[12] Green’s “History of the English People,” vol. 1. p. 475.
[13] For this information we are indebted to Mr. Overall, the courteous Librarian of the Guildhall Library.