Chaucer and Henry's Relatives 185 



For it so heigh was, and so brood and long, 

 So well proporcioned for to ben strong. 

 Right as it were a stede of Lumbardye. 



This might possibly be a reminiscence of the present made to 

 Lionel, at his wedding-feast, of six great coursers with saddles 

 and equipments wrought in gold with the arms of Galeazzo and 

 himself; or of the six great tilting-horses, with gilded bridles, 

 and reins and caparisons of crimson velvet; or of the two 

 splendid coursers, Lion and Abbot, presented to Lionel by his 

 brother-in-law, Gian Galeazzo; or of the seventy-seven fine 

 horses presented to the barons and gentlemen of the duke's 

 retinue/ 



^If it were not too fanciful, one might suggest that the feast in the 

 Squire's Tale had borrowed other features from the banquet offered to 

 Lionel and his train; that Cambinskan stands for Galeazzo II, who also 

 had two sons (though the youngest, if then alive, must have been an 

 infant, since he could not have beenr born before 1366; cf. Magenta, 

 / Visconti e gli Sforza i. 68, note 2), and one daughter, Violante (Maria 

 having died in 1362 ; cf . Mon. Hist. Pair. 3. 1336) ; that Elpheta is 

 Blanche, Algarsyf is Gian Galeazzo, and Canacee is Violante ; that 

 'twenty winter' (1. 43) is a round number; that the solemn and rich 

 feast (1. 61) corresponds to the wedding-banquet, with its eighteen 

 courses and elaborate dishes, the fifth course including herons (cf. 1. 68; 

 the 'strange sewes' of 1. 67 perhaps representing the garlic-sauce of the 

 sixth course) ; that the strange knight, 'al armed, save his heed,' (1. 90) 

 suggests the knights that accompany 'the king of Inde' (K. T. 1322; 

 cf. p. 167, above) ; that Gawain (1. 95) reminds us of Sir Gawain and 

 the Green Knight, which (11. 552-3) mentions Lionel and the Duke of 

 Clarence (if we follow Mr. Isaac Jackson, Angl. 37. 395-6; but both 

 names are already found in the French poem Lancelot, of the early 

 thirteenth century, so that Lionel may owe both name and title to 

 romance) ; that the Green Knight, in turn, suggests the Green Count, 

 Amedeus VI (see p. 183, above), uncle of Violante, who had arranged 

 for the marriage (Cordey, Les Comtes de Savoie et les Rois de France 

 pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans,^. 183), entertained Lionel at Chambery, 

 convoyed him to Milan, and was present at the banquet; that as the 

 Green Knight enters 'at the halle-dor' {Gaw. 136) on his green charger, 

 to the sound of pipers and trumpets, so 'at the halle-dore' (1. 80) comes 

 in the knight upon a steed of brass, while the king is 'herkninge his 

 minstralles hir thinges pleye' (1. 78), and while no word is spoken, 

 but all gaze in wonder {Gaw. 232. 242-4; S. T. 86, 88, 189-90); that 

 the Green Knight drives (but this is found in other romances as well) 

 to the 'heye dece' {Gaw. 222), as the other rides to the 'heighe bord' 

 (85, 98), and there each addresses the king {Gaw. 256 ff.; S. T. 99); 



