to the
celebrated Sir Tristrem, famous for his tragic intrigue with the beautiful
Ysolte. As the Normans reserved the amusement of hunting strictly to themselves,
the terms of this formal jargon were all taken from the French language.
 
15 In those days the Jews were subjected to an Exchequer specially dedicated to
that purpose, and which laid them under the most exorbitant impositions. - L. T.
 
16 This sort of masquerade is supposed to have occasioned the introduction of
supporters into the science of heraldry.
 
17 These lines are part of an unpublished poem by Coleridge, whose Muse so often
tantalises with fragments which indicate her powers, while the manner in which
she flings them from her betrays her caprice, yet whose unfinished sketches
display more talent than the laboured masterpieces of others.
 
18 This term of chivalry, transferred to the law, gives the phrase of being
attainted of treason.
 
19 Presumption, insolence.
 
20 Beau-seant was the name of the Templars' banner, which was half black, half
white, to intimate, it is said, that they were candid and fair towards
Christians, but black and terrible towards infidels.
 
21 There was nothing accounted so ignominious among the Saxons as to merit this
disgraceful epithet. Even William the Conqueror, hated as he was by them,
continued to draw a considerable army of Anglo-Saxons to his standard, by
threatening to stigmatise those who stayed at home, as nidering. Bartholinus, I
think, mentions a similar phrase which had like influence on the Danes. - L. T.
 
22 THE JOLLY HERMIT. - All readers, however slightly acquainted with black
letter, must recognise in the Clerk of Copmanhurst Friar Tuck, the buxom
Confessor of Robin Hood's gang, the Curtal Friar of Fountains Abbey.
 
23 The realm of France, it is well known, was divided betwixt the Norman and
Teutonic race, who spoke the language in which the word Yes is pronounced as
oui, and the inhabitants of the southern regions, whose speech, bearing some
affinity to the Italian, pronounced the same word oc. The
poets of the former race were called Minstrels, and their poems Lays: those of
the latter were termed Troubadours, and their compositions called sirventes, and
other names. Richard, a professed admirer of the joyous science in all its
branches, could imitate either the minstrel or troubadour. It is less likely
that he should have been able to compose or sing an English ballad; yet so much
do we wish to assimilate Him of the Lion Heart to the band of warriors whom he
led, that the anachronism, if there be one, may readily