His skirts be very shorte, with pleates set thick about, And Irish trouzes moe to put their strange protactours out." DERRICK'S Image of Ireland, apud SOMERS' Tracts. Some curious wooden engravings accompany this poem, from which it would seem, that the ancient Irish dress was (the bonnet excepted) very similar to that of the Scottish High-· landers. The want of a covering on the head was supplied by the mode of plaiting and arranging the hair, which was called the glibbe. These glibbes, according to Spenser, were fit marks for a thief, since, when he wished to disguise himself, he could either cut it off entirely, or so pull it over his eyes as to render it very hard to recognise him. This, however, is nothing to the reprobation with which the same poet regards that favourite part of the Irish dress, the mantle. "It is a fit house for an outlaw, a meet bed for a rebel, and an apt cloke for a thief. First, the outlaw being for his many crimes and villanyes banished from the townes and houses of honest men, and wandring in waste places far from danger of law, maketh his mantle his house, and under it covereth himself from the wrath of heaven, from the offence of the earth, and from the sight of men. When it raineth, it is his pent-house; when it bloweth, it is his tent; when it freezeth, it is his tabernacle. In summer he can wear it loose, in winter he can wrap it close; at all times he can use it; never heavy, never cumbersome. Likewise for a rebel it is as serviceable; for in his warre that he maketh, (if at least it deserve the name of warre,) when he still flyeth from his foe, and lurketh in the thicke woods and straite passages, waiting for advantages, it is his bed, yea, and almost his household stuff. For the wood is his house against all weathers, and his mantle is his couch to sleep in. Therein he wrappeth himself round, and coucheth himself strongly against the gnats, which, in that country, doe more annoy the naked rebels while they keep the woods, and doe more sharply wound them, than all their enemies swords or speares, which can seldom come nigh them: yea, and oftentimes their mantle serveth them when they are neere driven, being wrapped about their left arme, instead of a target, for it is hard to cut thorough with a sword; besides, it is light to beare, light to throw away, and being (as they commonly are) naked, it is to them all in all. Lastly, for a thiefe it is so handsome as it may seem it was first invented for him; for under it he may cleanly convey any fit pillage that cometh handsomely in his way, and when he goeth abroad in the night in freebooting, it is his best and surest friend; for lying, as they often do, two or three nights together abroad to watch for their booty, with that they can prettily shroud themselves under a bush or bankside till they may conveniently do their errand; and when all is over, he can in his mantle passe through any town or company, being close hooded over his head, as he useth, from knowledge of any to whom he is indangered. Besides this, he or any man els that is disposed to mischief or villany, may, under his mantle, goe privily armed without suspicion of any, carry his head-piece, his skean, or pistol, if he please, to be always in readiness."-SPENSER's View of the State of Ireland, apud Works, ut supra, viii. 367. The javelins, or darts, of the Irish, which they threw with great dexterity, appear, from one of the prints already mentioned, to have been about four feet long, with a strong steel head and thick knotted shaft. NOTE I. Shane-Dymas wild.-P. 270. This Shane-Dymas, or John the Wanton, held the title and power of O'Neale in the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, against whom he rebelled repeatedly. "This chieftain is handed down to us as the most proud and profligate man on earth. He was immoderately addicted to women and wine. He is said to have had 200 tuns of wine at once in his cellar at Dandram, but usquebaugh was his favourite liquor. He spared neither age nor condition of the fair sex, Altho' so illiterate that he could not write, he was not destitute of address; his understanding was strong, and his courage daring. He had 600 men for his guard; 4000 foot, 1000 horse for the field. He claimed superiority over all the lords of Ulster, and called himself king thereof. When commissioners were sent to treat with him, he said, "That, tho' the Queen were his sovereign lady, he never made peace with her but at her lodging; that she had made a wise Earl of Macartymore, but that he kept as good a man as he; "that he cared not for so mean a title as Earl; that his blood and power were better than the best; that his ancestors were Kings of Ulster; and that he would give place to none. His kinsman, the Earl of Kildare, having per suaded him of the folly of contending with the crown of England, he resolved to attend the Queen, but in a style suited to his princely dignity. He appeared in London with a magnificent train of Irish Galloglasses, arrayed in the richest habiliments of their country, their heads bare, their hair flowing on their shoulders, with their long and open sleeves dyed with saffron. Thus dressed, and surcharged with military harness, and arined with battle-axes, they afforded an astonishing spectacle to the citizens, who regarded them as the intruders of some very distant part of the globe. But at Court his versatility now prevailed; his title to the sovereignty of Tyrone was pleaded from English laws and Irish institutions, and his allegations were so specious, that the Queen dismissed him with presents and assurances of favour. In England this transaction was looked on as the humiliation of a repenting rebel; in Tyrone it was considered as a treaty of peace between two potentates."-CAMDEN'S Britannia, by Gongh, Lond. 1806, fol. vol. iv. p. 442. When reduced to extremity by the English, and forsaken by hi allies, this Shane-Dymas fled to Clandeboy, then occupied by a colony of Scottish Highlanders of the family of Mac Donnell. He was at first courteously received; but by degrees they began to quarrel about the slaughter of some of their friends whom Shane-Dymas had put to death, and advancing from words to deeds, fell upon him with their broadswords, and cut him to pieces. After his death a law was made that none should presume to take the name and title of O'Neale. NOTE K. -his page, the next degree In that old time to chivalry.-P. 274. Originally, the order of chivalry embraced three ranks :-1. The Page; 2. The Squire ; 3. The Knight;-a gradation which seems to have been imitated in the mystery of freemasonry. But, before the reign of Charles I., the custom of serving as a squire had fallen into disuse, though the order of the page was still, to a certain degree, in observance. This state of servitude was so far from inferring any thing degrading, that it was considered as the regular school for acquiring every quality necessary for future distinction. The proper nature, and the decay of the institution, are pointed out by old Ben Jonson, with his own forcible moral colouring. The dialogue occurs between Lovell, "a compleat gentleman, a soldier, and a scholar, known to have been page to the old Lord Beaufort, and so to have followed him in the French wars, after companion of his studies, and left 'guardian to his son," and the facetious Goodstock, host of the Light Heart. Lovel had offered to take Goodstock's son for his page, which the latter, in reference to the recent abuse of the establishment, declares as "a desperate course of life: "— His language purer; or to tune his mind, Or manners, more to the harmony of nature, Than in the nurseries of nobility? "Host. Ay, that was when the nursery's self was noble, And only virtue made it, not the market, That titles were not vented at the drum, Or common outcry. Goodness gave the greatness, And greatness worship: every house became An academy of honour; and those parts We see departed, in the practice, now, Quite from the institution. "Lovell. Why do you say so? Or think so enviously? Do they not still Learn there the Centaur's skill, the art of Thrace, To ride? or, Pollux'mystery, to fence? The Pyrrhic gestures, both to dance and spring In armour, to be active in the wars? To study figures, numbers, and proportions, May yield them great in counsels, and the arts Host. Sir, you mistake; To play Sir Pandarus, my copy hath it, And carry messages to Madame Cressida; Instead of backing the brave steed o' mornings, To court the chambermaid; and for a leap O' the vaulting horse, to ply the vaulting house: Or two or three packs of cards to show the cheat, Of an odd stone or so; twinge two or three buttons of pagery, or rather paganism, As the tides run; to which if he apply him, BEN JONSON's New Inn, Act I. Scene III. NOTE L. Rokeby's lords of martial fame, I can count them name by name.-P. 278. The following brief pedigree of this very ancient and once powerful family, was kindly supplied to the author by Mr. Rokeby of Northamptonshire, descended of the ancient Barons of Rokeby : "Pedigree of the House of Rokeby. 1. Sir Alex. Rokeby, Knt. married to Sir Hump. Liftle's daughter. 2. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Tho. Lumley's daughter. 3. Sir Tho. Bokeby, Knt. to Tho. Hubborn's daughter. 4. Sir Ralph Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Ralph Biggot's daughter, 5. Sir Thos. Rokeby, Knt, to Sir John de Melsass' daughter of Bennet-Hall in Holderness. 6. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Sir Brian Stapleton's daughter of Weighill. 7. Sir Thos. Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Ralph Ury's daughter. * 8. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to daughter of Mansfield, heir of Morton. 3 9. Sir Tho. Rokeby, Knt. to Stroode's daughter and heir. 40. Sir Ralph Rokeby, Knt, to Sir Jas. Strangwayes' daughter. 41. Sir Thos. Rokeby, Knt. to Sir John Hotham's daughter. 12. Ralph Rokeby, Esq. to Danby of Yafforth's daughter and heir. 4 5 43. Tho. Rokeby, Esq. to Rob. Constable's daughter of Cliff, serjt, at law, 14. Christopher Rokeby, Esq. to Lasscells of Brackenburgh's daughter. 15. Thos. Rokeby, Esq. to the daughter of Thweng. 46. Sir Thomas Rokeby, Knt. to Sir Ralph Lawson's daughter of Brough. 47. Frans. Rokeby, Esq. to Faucett's daughter, citizen of London. 48. Thos. Rokeby, Esq. to the daughter of Wickliffe of Gales. High Sheriffs of Yorkshire. 1337. 11 Edw. 3. Ralph Hastings and Thos. de Rokeby. 1343. 17 Edw. 3. Thos. de Rokeby, pro sept. annis. 1358. 25 Edw. 2. Sir Thomas Rokeby, Justiciary of Ireland for six years; died at the castle of Kilka. I Lisle. 2 Temp. Edw. 2di. 3 Temp. Edw. 3tii. 4 5 From him is the house of Hotham, and of the second brother that had issue. Temp. Henr. 7mi, and from him is the house of Skyers, of a fourth brother. 1407. 8 Hen. 4. Thos. Rokeby Miles, defeated and siew the Duke of Northumberland at the Battle of Bramham Moor. -1414. 12 Hen. 4. Thos. Rokeby Miles. 4486. 4539. 1564. 6 Eliz. 39 Hen. 4572. 41 Eliz." Thomas Rokeby, Esq. . Robert Holgate, Bish. of Landaff, afterwards P. of York, Ld. President of the Council for the Preservation of Peace in the North. Thomas Younge, Archbishop of Yorke, Ld. President. 8. Tho. Rokeby, LL.D one of the Council. 1574. 17 Eliz. 7 Will. 3. Jn. Rokeby LL.D. one of the Council. Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, Ld. President. Jo. Rokeby, LL.D. ditto Ralph Rokeby, Esq. one of the Secretaries. Jo. Rokeby, Precentor of York. Sir J. Rokeby, Knt. one of the Justices of the King's Bench. The family of De Rokeby came over with the Conqueror. There is somewhat more to be found in our family in the Scottish History about the affairs of DunBretton town, but what it is, and in what time, I know not, nor can have convenient leisure to search. But Parson Blackwood, the Scottish chaplain to the Lord of Shrewsbury, recited to me once a piece of a Scottish song, wherein was mentioned, that William Wallis, the great deliverer of the Scots from the English bondage, should, at Dun-Bretton, have been brought up under a Rokeby, captain then of the place; and as he walked on a cliff, should thrust him on a sudden into the sea, and thereby have gotten that hold, which. I think, was about the 33d of Edw. I. or before. Thus, leaving our ancestors of record, we must also with them leave the Chronicle of Malmesbury Abbey, called Eulogium Historiarum, out of which Mr. Leland reporteth this history, and coppy down unwritten story, the which have yet the testimony of later times, and the fresh memory of men yet alive, for their warrant and creditt, of whom I have learned it, that in K. Henry the 7th's reign, one Ralph Rokeby, Esq. was owner of Morton, and I guess that this was he that deceived the fryars of Richmond with his felon swine, on which a jargon was made." The above is a quotation from a manuscript written by Ralph Rokeby; when he lived is uncertain. To what metrical Scottish tradition Parson Blackwood alluded, it would be now in vain to enquire. But in Blind Harry's History of Sir William Wallace, we find a legend of one Rukbie, whom he makes keeper of Stirling Castle under the English usurpation, and whom Wallace slays with his own hand : "In the great press Wallace and Rukbie met, These sons, according to the romantic Minstrel, surrendered the castle on conditions, and went back to England, but returned to Scotland in the days of Bruce, when one of them became again keeper of Stirling Castle. Immediately after this achievement follows another engagement, between Wallace and those Western Highlanders who embraced the English interest, at a pass in Glendonchart, where many were precipitated into the lake over a precipice. These circumstances may have been confused in the narrative of Parson Blackwood, or in the recollection of Mr. Rokeby. In the old ballad of Chevy Chase, there is mentioned, among the English warriors, "Sir Raff the ryche Rugbe," which may apply to Sir Ralph Rokeby, the tenth baron in the pedigree. The more modern copy of the balla prūns thus : "Good Sir Ralph Raby ther was slain, Whose prowess did surmount." This would rather seem to relate to one of the Nevilles of Raby. But, as the whole ballad is romantic, accuracy is not to be looked for. NOTE M. -The Felon Sow.-P. 287. The ancient minstrels had a comic as well as a serious strain of romance; and although the examples of the latter are by far the most numerous, they are, perhaps, the less va luable. The comic romance was a sort of parody upon the usual subjects of minstrel poetry. If the latter described deeds of heroic achievement, and the events of the battle, the tourney and the chase, the former, as in the Tournament of Tottenham, introduced a set of clowns debating in the field, with all the assumed circumstances of chivalry; or, as in the Hunting of the Hare, (see Weber's Metrical Romances, vol. iii.,) persons of the same description following the chase, with all the grievous mistakes and blunders incident to such unpractised sportsmen. The idea, therefore, of Don Quixote's frenzy, although inimitably embodied and brought out, was not, perhaps, in the abstract, altogether original. One of the very best of these mock romances, and which has no small portion of comic humour, is the Hunting of the Felon Sow of Rokeby by the Friars of Richmond. Ralph Rokeby, who (for the jest's sake apparently) bestowed this intractable animal on the convent of Richmond, seems to have flourished in the time of Henry VII., which, since we know not the date of Friar Theobald's Wardenship, to which the poem refers us, may indicate that of the composition itself. Morton, the Mortham of the text, is mentioned as being this facetious baron's place of residence; accordingly, Leland notices, that "Mr. Rokeby hath a place called Mortham, a little beneath Grentey-bridge, almost on the mouth of Grentey." That no information may be lacking which is in my power to supply, I have to notice, that the Mistress Rokeby of the romance, who so charitably refreshed the sow after she had discomfited Friar Middleton and his auxiliaries, was, as appears from the pedigree of the Rokeby family, daughter and heir of Danby of Yafforth. This curious poem was first published in Mr. Whitaker's History of Craven, but, from an inaccurate manuscript, not corrected very happily. It was transferred by Mr. Evans to the new edition of his Ballads, with some well-judged conjectural improvements. I have been induced to give a more authentic and full, though still an imperfect, edition of this humorous composition, from being furnished with a copy from a manuscript in the possession of Mr. Rokeby, to whom I have acknowledged my obligations in the last Note. It has three or four stanzas more than that of Mr. Whitaker, and the language seems, where they differ, to have the more ancient readings. Her walk was endlong 9 Greta side; There was no bren 10 that durst ber bide, That was froe I heaven to hell; Nor never man that bad that might, Ralph of Rokeby, with good will, Fryar Middleton by his name, That rued him sine 14 full sare. With him tooke he wicht men two, That ever was brim as beare; 15 Both the MS. and Mr. Whitaker's copy read ancestors, evidently a corruption of aunters, adventures as corrected by Mr.Evans.- Sow, according to provincial pronunciation.-3 So; Yorkshire dialect.-4 Fell, many; Sax. A corruption of quell, to kill.-6 More, greater.-7 Went.-8 Alive.-9 Along the side of Greta.-10 Barn, child, man in general.- From.-12 To.-13 Make.-14 Since.-15 Fierce as a bear. Mr. Whitaker's copy reads, perhaps in consequence of mistaking the MS." Tother was Bryan of Bear." |