Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/389

 9 th S. X. Nov. 15, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

381

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1902.

CONTENTS. -No. 255.

NOTES : Baulked Coronation of Arthur, 381 Three Un known Members of the Long Parliament, 383 Rejection of the Fittest "Busillis" First Viscount Mountjoy, 38< Dudley Bard Elihu Yale's Wife Shakespeare's Voca bulary "Not half," 385.

QUERIES : " Q. E.," Portrait Painter Nell Gwyn Buss Queries Legend on Church Plate " Thetterin " Pau sanias ' A Woman's Love Dream ' ' Punch ' : a Reference Purcell Family, 386" To the nines '* -Portraits of John Nash Reference Wanted Sir John de Oddyngesles Admiral Edwards Shaw Family in Essex Gossolt Franco : Perada, 387 ' Vilikins and his Dinah 'Gardner Barony, 388.

REPLIES: -Coleridge's 'Christabel,' 388 Comte de Paris Wealemefna Quaint Epitaph "Often have I seen "- Hawtrey's ' Nuga: ' Humorous French Poetry, 390 Evolution of a Nose" Different than " Flint : Ferrey Sedley Family ' Tower of London,' 391 Coronation Canopy" Praise is the best diet, " &c. Greek and Russian Vestments Cromwell's Daughters, 392 " Linuey " Pronunciation of "ng" Fynes Moryson's 'Itinerary' Lamb on the Ass, 393" Round Robin "Fees for search- ing Parish Registers, 394-" Divet" Lady Wbitmore, 395 Royal Arms, Elizabeth and Edward VI., 398 Linguistic Curiosities Reliquary found at Anstey, 397 Monument to General Cureton Wordsworth and Keats Knurr and Spell, 398.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'The Encyclopedia Britannica' 'Book-Prices Current' Wiedemann's 'Popular Litera- ture in Ancient Egypt ' Skeat's ' Lay of Havelok the Dane.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE BAULKED CORONATION OF

ARTHUR IN 'MORTE ARTHURE.'

(See ante, p. 161.)

WHEN dealing with the allusions to the war of Brittany contained in the Metz epi- sodes of 'Morte Arthure,' our studies left undisposed of the problem why Metz should have been selected as the dramatic centre of action, and why there is the march through Italy. Once more appeal to history can be made, and not in vain. What we seek is a reason for the place assigned to Metz in the poem ; and we must start with the fact that Arthur "ettells to bee overlynge of the empyre of Rome" (11. 520, 643). After vanquishing Lucius the army of Arthur loses little time in setting off towards Metz, the capital of Lorraine and city of the sovereign lord. Nowe they spede at the spurres, withouttyn speche

more,

To the marche of Meyes theis manliche knyghtez : That es Lorrayne alosede, as London es here, Cet of that seynzowre that soveraynge es holden.

'M. A.,' 11. 2416-9,

Description here could scarcely have been bettered. The march of Metz was.a current name in the fourteenth century for its frontier posts in any given direction. Metz has, of course, a wonderful mediaeval history, connecting it with the. classical epoch of

Eome, and bringing it down with stateliness and progress as a self-governing community, jealous of its freedoms against any encroach- ment either by the Archbishop of Treves or the adjacent feudal kings, dukes, and lords. "Les Messins," writes an eloquent and patriotic representative of the city, " etaient eminemment formalistes." Hence in their quarrels with external persons and powers they were sticklers for mediaeval punctilio, which required formal conference and con- ciliatory meeting before resort to the rigour of the law or to the arbitrament of the sword. There were stated places for these march tribunals.

" Les lieux oil se passaient ces essais de concilia- tion pr&iminaire nommes des journees aimables etaient fixes par 1'usage et par les trace's. Ces 'Marches d'Estault' (tel e"tait le nom qu'on leur donnait) etaient au nombre de onze, gneralement placees sur la frontiere merne qui separait le terri- toire de la cite de celui de Pautre puissance."

So in 1875 wrote M. de Bouteiller, "ancien depute de Metz," in editing 'La Guerre de Metz en 1324,' a remarkable poem concerning the campaign called by chroniclers of the period the war of the four kings. On p. 473 there is quoted from a MS. 'Cartulaire de Metz' a statement of the position of these marches "les marches d'estaultoufrontieres de la republique messine au XI V e siecle." For present objects all one need quote is the general heading, and the definition of the march towards the side from which Arthur's idvance is represented by our poet to have aeen made. In the ' Cartulaire de Metz ' we

read: "Les Marches centre les signeurs

Marche contre la duchie [sic] de Luxem- Dourch : a Kechiefmont en mey le pont."

Whether this was a usual feature of such
 * ree towns on the border of the Khineland

and Burgundy in the fourteenth century I cannot tell. It perhaps makes a little more precise than ordinarily was the case with the lense of such a term as "la marche de jorrein" ('Scalacronica,' 188). It at least establishes the local correctness of the term he poet of l Mprte Arthure ' employed in this special connexion.

Metz, with its ancient history arid its mediaeval enterprise and prosperity, was not nly the chief commercial community of jorraine. but was also at that time German, ,nd so situated within the empire. More- ver it was the city of its sovereign that is, ,n imperial city of Charles IV., Emperor rom 1346 until 1378. It will be remembered hat this potentate was the son of John of juxembourg, King of Bohemia, who fell at Jrecy, that he was himself a combatant on he field when his father fell, and that,