Lionel's Name and Title 121 



One day in the September of 1388, Robert Artois, who was at the 

 court of King Edward at London, took his falcon, and went hunting 

 on the banks of the river, till he caught a heron. Robert returned 

 to the palace, where he went direct to the kitchen, and caused the 

 bird to be immediately cooked and prepared for the table. Now that 

 day King Edward sat at dinner with his courtiers, occupied only with 

 thoughts of love and gallantry, and harboring only peaceful and 

 indulgent feelings towards all his neighbors, not excepting the king 

 of France. Robert of Artois suddenly presented himself in the hall, 

 followed by three minstrels and two noble maidens, the latter of 

 whom carried the heron ceremoniously laid between two dishes. 

 Robert proclaimed that, as the heron had the reputation of being the 

 most cowardly of birds, it was now destined for the greatest coward 

 at the table, and that, he said, was King Edward, who submitted 

 tamely to be deprived of the kingdom and crown of France, although 

 he knew that they belonged to him by right. Having thus proclaimed 

 his design, he presented the heron to the king, and, as was customary 

 on such occasions, asked him to make a vow upon it. Edward, 

 deeply stung by this reproach, made a vow that before the end of the 

 year he would invade France with fire and sword, and that, if Philippe 

 of Valois ventured to resist him, he would fight him, though he came 

 with an army which was ten times the number of his own. Robert 

 was overjoyed at the king's vow, and repeated to himself in under- 

 tones the hopes he had of revenging his own quarrel with King 

 Philippe in the war which was about to commence; and then, after 

 making his own vow, carrying the heron in the same ceremony, he 

 proceeded to collect the vows of the other guests. . . . Robert of 

 Artois presented himself in the last place before the queen of 

 England. She first excused herself on the ground of being a married 

 woman, but, on receiving permission from the king to do so, she 

 uttered a vow which was not very remarkable for its feminine 

 delicacy. . . . The heron was now carved, and shared among the 

 guests ; and soon afterwards the king made his preparations for his 

 first campaign on the Continent. . . . The allusion to the cap- 

 tivity of the earl of Suffolk proves that it cannot have been composed 

 before the year 1340.^" 



The following lines are those which refer more immediately to 

 LioneP^ : 



Adonc dist la roine : 'Je sais bien que piecha 

 Que sui grosse d'enfant, que mon corps senti la, 

 Encore n'a il gaires qu'en mon corps se tourna ; 

 Et je voue et prometh a Dieu qui me crea, 



'■ The T^ows of the Heron is modeled upon the Vociix du Paoii (1310- 

 1315), for which see Gaston Paris, Litt. Fr. an Moyen Age, 3d ed., p. 80. 

 '' Op. cit., pp. 23-25. 



