72 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"'<« S. X. July 28. 'CO. 



and further on, 



" Ho sayd, 'To that blys bring the that birne that bogt 

 us with his blode, 

 As he was clarifiet on crosse and crounet with thorne.'" 



p. 9. 



In " Sir Amadace," tbat knight very often calls 

 out in such words as these : " Be God, that me 

 dere bogte," p. 34., &c.; and in his distress this is 

 his prayer : — 



" Ihesu, as thou deet on the rode 

 And for me ached thi precius blode 

 And alle this word thou wanne. 

 Ihesu, as thou deut on tre, 

 Summe of thi solcur send thou me 

 Speedlj' in this place," &c. — p. 41 . 



And the White Knight, who happened to come 

 riding by the wood at the moment, thus tries to 

 comfort him : — 



" For God may bothe mon falle and rise 

 For his helpe is evyr more nere — 

 Now thenke on him, that deut on rode 

 That for us sched his precius blode, 



For the and raonkj'nd alle ! " — p. 42. 



Of the Thornton Romances printed by the Cam- 

 den Society, one is called " Sir Eglamour of Ar- 

 tois," which begins thus : — 



" Ihesu Lorde cure hevyn Kjmge, 

 Graunt us alle ihy dere bless3'nge. 

 And bylde us in thy bpwre !" p. 120., 



and ends in these lines : 



" Ihesu brj-nge us to that blys 

 That lastvth withouten ende ! Amen." ■ 



•p. 176. 



Very soon, we are told of Sir Eglamour how 

 " Bothe hys handj-s he caste up sone, 

 To Ihesu Cryste he made a boone. 

 That Lorde that us hath boght," &c.— p. 125. 



And of the Earl's daughter, " Crystyabello," we 

 hear that 



" The lady seyde, ' For Goddes pete' 



Where ys myn owne knyght? " — p. 125. 



" Goddes pete," it should be observed, is our 

 Lord just taken down from the cross, and lying 

 dead in the lap of the B. V. Mary. 



Even our popular stories, nay political old 

 songs, bear witness to custom of referring to the 

 Atonement, as we find in those printed by the 

 Camden Society : — 



" Love we God, and he us alle 

 That was born in an oxe stalle, 



And for us done on rode, 

 His swete herte-blod he let 

 For us, and us faire het 

 That we sholde be gode," &c. — p. 257. 



Robin Hood, too, who was the favourite hero of 

 many an ancient English ballad, did not forget 

 his boyhood's religious teachings, for it was sung 

 of him : — • 



" Qp then sterte good Robyn, 

 As a man that had be wode ; 

 ' Buske yon, my mery younge men. 

 For hym that dyed on a rode,' " &c. 



Robin Hood, ed. Ritson, i. p. 60. ; 



and his biographer says for him this prayer : — 



" Cryst have merc}' on his soule, 



Tliat dyed on the rode ! " — lb. p. 80. 



The proverbs of Hending were once in great 

 repute, but they begin with this supplication : — 



" Ihesu Crist, all this worldes red 

 That for cure sunnes wolde be ded, 

 On that holi rode tre. 

 He lete ous alle to ben wise, 

 And enden in his servise, 

 Amen, per seinte charite." 



Reliq. Antiq., i. 256. 



Moreover; to get back his book should he lose 

 it, the owner sometimes wrote in it : — 



" Who-so-ever th3-s booke fynde 

 I praj' hym have thys in hys mynde : 

 For Hys love that dyed on tre 

 Save thvs booke and brvng yt to me ! " &c. 



lb. ii. 164. 



And the unlettered man, who could not scrawl 

 his own name, when he had to witness any instru- 

 ment, put his mark, the sign of the cross, to it ; 

 as much as to say, that as he hoped for forgive- 

 ness and salvation hereafter through the death of 

 Him who died for all men upon the rood, what he 

 had testified, was true. 



But it was at the closing hour of life that this 

 all-pervading belief in the Atonement .showed it- 

 self in olden times after such a striking manner. 

 As his last struggle was beginning, the Passion of 

 our Lord, from the evangelists, was read to the 

 dying man, and a crucifix was put to his lips to 

 be kissed. Upon the floor was spread a sheet of 

 sack-cloth, overstrewed with ashes ; and thereon 

 was he laid, that death might find him not in a 

 soft bed, but clothed as it were in the garb of a 

 sorrow-stricken wretch — hoping and craving for- 

 giveness of Him only who died naked for sinning 

 man upon the rough hard cross. From numbers 

 of such English death-bed .scenes, I will choose 

 but one — that of Kobert Betun, Bishop of Here- 

 ford, who died a.d. 1148 : — 



" Successit feria sexta, quie de passionis. Domini pia 

 recordatione annua devotione fidelium recolitur. — In hac 

 die factus est in agonia tanquam raptus extra se : totus po- 

 situs in passione Christi. Tantam recolens et mentc revol- 

 vens divina) pietatis dignationem, quas sic redimeve delegerit 

 genus humanum — postulat sibi crucem afTerri — extensis 

 manibus apprehendit earn deosculans veneranter, et lacry- 

 mis rigans uberrimis. Et adjecit, crux, ave spcs 

 imica post passionis temporn, te adoro in Domino lesu 

 meo ; sed in te adoro speciale illud crucis signaculum, in 

 quo Christus pependit ; et morte sua de mortis auctore 

 triumphavit. In honore ejus ac tuo lesu Christe in me- 

 moria beata3 passionis tuaj adoro crucis tuae signaculum, 

 non tanquam opus manuum hominum, nee eo puro adora- 

 tionis inteliectu quo Tu solus Deus adorandus es, sed tan- 

 quam passionis tiise patibulum, mortis tuas instrumentum, 

 redemptionis nostrse adminiculum, conversationis novae 

 ministeriuni, quo scilicet mortificantes et crucifigentes 

 tecum membra nostra quae sunt supra terram cum viciis 

 et concupiscentiis, nobis absit ultra gloriari nisi in cruce 

 tua Domine. Te igitur, Cliriste, te principaliter, te sin- 

 gnlariter adoro, te benedico ; quia per crucem tuam re- 



