18

RICHARD CŒUR DE LION.

milder qualities of which his character, half-barbarous halfchivalric, was composed. He could make stanzas on the eyes of gentle ladies,' even whilst fresh from the Crusades; and in the delicious South he learned to sing his compositions to the harp. The old story of his imprisonment on his way back from the Holy Land, and the incident of his deliverance, is curious and picturesque, if not true, and rests on the authority of French chroniclers. The gallant monarch was incarcerated during a whole year in a castle belonging to the Duke of Austria. Here Blondell de Nesle, his favourite minstrel, traced him; and placing himself before a window of the chamber in which the King was confined, he struck up a French chanson, which in happier days Richard and he had composed and sung together. The troubadour paused as he finished one half of the song. To his delight, a voice which he recognized sang the remainder. Certain that no other captive than Richard could know that air, Blondell hastened to England, and informed the despairing islanders where their hero was imprisoned. The King's deliverance was the result.

Of Richard's compositions only one fragment remains, and that is a remonstrance to his barons of England, of Poitou, Gascony, and Guienne, for suffering him to remain in bondage-a composition touching, if not for its merits, from the circumstances in which it was written. The bondage, like many apparently adverse events in life, had not only its alleviations, but its advantages. Its alleviations were those of music and poetry. Richard, languishing in prison, learned to sing, to play, and to compose from the Provençal troubadours, in perfection. The caged bird loses ordinarily its melodious notes; but Richard, with all the iron in his great nature, gained in durance the gay science. He came home in love with fair Provence, and was followed by many of her minstrels and poets, who introduced into England tales and songs, many of which were translated into what the

THE MINSTREL FAYDITT.

19

Provençals called 'quaint English.' Of these the tale of Richard Coeur de Lion was one of the most famous.

'King Richard is the beste
That is found in any geste.'

It was translated, as appears by the prologue.

'In Fraunce these rymes were wroht,

Every Englyshe ne knew it not,'

And not only were music and poetry, but the pleasures of society, in other ways, enhanced by the accomplished Provençals who thronged around the court. Fayditt, a minstrel from Avignon, had such a ready wit that his countrymen used to describe his poetry 'de bons mots e de bon son.' Petrarch said of him that his tongue was 'shield, helmet, sword, and spear.' Dante gave him a place in his Paradise. Like many of his class Fayditt was extravagant and voluptuous. After the death of Richard he travelled on foot for twenty years, accompanied by a young and accomplished nun of Aix in Provence, whom he had induced to accompany him as his wife-and they sang and played, despite her broken vows, at old baronial halls together. Then there was the handsome Fouquet de Marseilles, who, wherever he went, "fit les délices de la Cour;' and who fell in love with the wife of one of his patrons, repented, turned monk, and became Archbishop of Toulouse. These gay Frenchmen, with Blondell de Nesle at their head, made the court of Richard ring with delight. But, at Richard's death, all true chivalry expired: the Muses dropped and hung their heads; yet one revolution had been accomplished: the English had learned to love the songs of Provence: the poetry of the South, and the customs of Normandy had heightened the chivalric tendencies of the people. Even in Wales, Norman fashions crept in-and Rhees a Gryffyth, king of South Wales, made a feast at the castle of Cardigan, in which not only deeds of arms

20

CŒUR DE LION IN BATTLE.

were exhibited, but trials of skill in verse and music were held among the Bards of Wales, who were seated with honour on chairs in his great hall.

Richard was the last of our monarchs whose achievements

were the subject of fiction. After his romantic career was ended, history assumes a sterner aspect. True or false, we part with the legends that have Richard for their hero, with regret. His magnificence, his taste, his chivalric exploits, his courtesy, are rudely but expressively summed up by Robert de Brunne.

"The Romans tellis gret pas of his doughty dede,
Soudan so curteys never drank no wyne,

The same the Romans sais that is of Richardyn;

In prisoun was he bounden as the Romance sais ;

In chaynes and lede wounden that hevy was of heis.'

Courteous as he was, Richard was so formidable in combat that the Saracens used to quiet their children when peevish by repeating his name-a word of fear; and when riding, if their horses started, they spurred on the restive steeds with this exclamation: Et cuides tu que ce soit le Roy Richart ?'

No wonder, when the appearance of Cœur de Lion in battle is thus described:

COEUR DE LION IN BATTLE.

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'Upon his creste a dove whyte Sygnyfycane of the Holy Spirite, Upon a cross the dove stode

Of gold unwrought, ryche and gode.'

'King Richarde to his sadele dyd lepe,
Certes, who that wolde take kepe,
To see that fyte it were fayre :
All so harde as they might dyre:
After theys fete sprang out fyre:
Tabours and trumpeters gan blowe :
There men myght se in a throwe
How Kynge Richarde that noble man
Encountered with the Soudan.'