S60 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2n<i S. VIII. Oct, 29, '59. 



for began. Syr Tryamoure having charitably re- 

 lieved a palmer, the pahner " for him began to 

 weep ;" — foreseeing the dangers which the knight 

 would have to encounter in the road which he was 

 pursuing. 



9. "And let us sinalle go wyth thee." 



Burlond and Tryamoure being both dismounted 

 in combat, Tryamoure smites off Burlond's legs, 

 so that " Burlonde on hys stompus stode;" and 

 Tryamoure appears to imply in his speech that by 

 this chivalrous operation he had reduced his anta- 

 gonist to an equality with himself. 



" ' A lytulle lower, syr,' sej'de bee, 

 ' And let us smalle go wyth thee. 

 Now are we both at one assyze.' " 



What is smalle ? The last line, be it observed, 

 evidently intimates that the two parties were now 

 on an equality. " Now are we both on a par " 

 (assyse, position, situation) ; which may be ex- 

 plained by supposing that Burlond, previous to 

 the loss of his legs, was of extraordinary stature, 

 as well as of unusual bulk, which his name seems 

 to imply. Now as, in the preceding line, the 

 word smalle, taken in its ordinary sense, hardly 

 makes a clear meaning, I would venture to sug- 

 gest that it is here a contracted form of the A.-S. 

 sammcele, similar, consentient. " A little lower. 

 Sir, said he ; let us go snmmcele with thee;" i. e. 

 let us be on an equality. Cf. in Romance, semle, 

 similar, equal. So in Chaucer : — 



" Witnesse on Mida ; wol ye here the tale ? 

 Ovide, amonges other thinges smale. 

 Said, Mida had under his long heres 

 Growing upon his hed two asses eres." 



Ovid said not this " amongst (other) things 

 small," but amongst other things sammcele, i. e. 

 amongst other things of the same kind. 



10. " And the knyglit be there assente 



Schulde wayne wyth the lyynde." 



Your correspondent asks, " Does wayne = 

 swing?" Probably so. " Waine, to move; to 

 shake or wag." (Wright.) If the queue were 

 found, she should be " takyn and brente ;" and 

 [if] the knight was found agreeing or consenting 

 (" assente "), he should swing on a gallows. 



11. " To mete as they were sett in halle, 



Syr IMarrok was there far withynney-ivys." 



Your correspondent suggests " n-ithin y wis." 

 This is a very possible reading; for we find y-wys 

 in lines 210 and 956. But might we not take 

 withynney-wys as it stands ? So the learned editor 

 has left it ; and so, we may infer, he understands 

 it. Sir Marrok was far within-wise (quasi A.-S. 

 withinnan wise. Cf. the old Engl, withynne 

 forth, withynneforth). 



In like manner, in line 496., " The hound ren- 

 nyth evyr y-wys, Tylle he come there hys mayster 

 ys, He fonde not that he soght," we might perhaps 

 read, " The hound renneth evyry-ioys" that is. 



every-ivise, or in every direction (A.-S. aelce wise, 

 seghlwilce wise) ; just what a dog would do, in 

 order to find " that he soght." Thomas Boys. 



SALE OF A MAN AND HIS PROGENY. 



(2'>^ S. vi. 90. ; viii. 278.) 



There were anciently villeyns in gross who be- 

 longed absolutely to their lord, and were saleable 

 in like manner as his cattle or his horses. And 

 there were villeyns regardant, or belonging to a 

 manor or estate, and saleable with it. The former 

 seem to have been simply slaves ; the latter serfs, 

 attached to the soil. 



Then there was also a tenure in villenage; by 

 which it is said that more than one half of the 

 land in England was once held. Tenants in vil- 

 lenage were such as held land by the condition of 

 performing some base service ; but were not them- 

 selves the property of the lord, nor saleable with 

 the land. The lord could sell only his seigniory 

 of the land, with their conditioned services. This 

 would seem to have been a step from the more 

 ancient state of pure villenage. 



Edward III. issued a commission for effecting 

 the manumission of his villeyns on payment of cer- 

 tain fines. This indicates a progressive improve- 

 ment in their condition, and seems to have aroused 

 a general movement: for in the 1st year of 

 Richard II. a statute was made to repress the 

 efforts of the villeyns to obtain their freedom. The 

 extreme severity of this statute is stated to have 

 been a main exciting cause of the insurrection 

 under Jack Straw and Wat Tyler. 



In 1514 Henry VIII. manumitted some of his 

 villeyns, with all their issue born or to be born. 

 The form of the manumission ran : — 



" Whereas God created all men free ; but afterwards 

 the laws and customs of nations subjected some under the 

 j-oke of servitude; ice think it pious and meritorious 

 with God to manumit," &c. 



Hence we may perceive that a vast alteration 

 must have taken place in the condition and con- 

 sideration of the villeyn class. 



In 1574 Queen Elizabeth issued a Commission 

 of Inquiry into the lands, tenements, and other 

 goods, of all her bondmen and bondwomen in cer- 

 tain counties, such as were by blood in a slavish 

 condition by being born in any of her manors ; 

 and to compound with them for their manumis- 

 sion and freedom. Herein we have distinct evi- 

 dence of the existence at that time of villeyns 

 regardant. 



And in this way, no doubt, — viz., by composi- 

 tion either for a specific sum of money at once, or 

 for yearly fixed money-payments out of villenage 

 land — have villenage in gross, villenage regard- 

 ant, and villenage tenure, gradually been extir- 

 pated. They died out gradually. So lately as 



