Sir Simon de Montfort hath swore by his chin, Hadde he now here the Erl of Warin Sholde he never more come to his inn With shelde, ne with spere, ne with other gin To helpe of Windesore! _Richard! thah thou be ever trichard,_ _Trichen shalt thou never more!_
This very spirited song is preserved together with some others dealing with later events in the life of Edward. One of them is a long poem of exultation over the death of the King’s Scottish rebels, Sir William Wallace and Sir Simon Fraser; the author takes great pleasure in the treatment of Wallace by the King and the hangman—
Sir Edward oure King, that full is of pité The Waleis’ quarters sende to his owne countré On four half to honge, here mirour to be Ther upon to thenche, that monie mihten see And drede: Why nolden hie be war, Of the bataile of Donbar How evele hem con spede?
The same poet gibes at a Scottish rebel who was then still living and calls him a ‘king of summer’ and ‘King Hob’—
This King Hob of the moors was Robert the Bruce, wandering, as Barbour describes him, over the land. There is another very vigorous and rather long piece on a recent defeat of the French by the Flemings at Courtrai—
The Frenshe came to Flaundres so light so the hare Er hit were midnight, hit fell hem to care Hie were caught by the net, so bird is in snare With rouncin and with stede: The Flemishe hem dabbeth on the hed bare, Hie nolden take for hem raunsoun ne ware Hie doddeth off here hevedes, fare so hit fare, And thare to haveth hie nede.
This style of political journalism in rhyme was carried on later with much spirit, and one author is well known by name and has had his poems often edited—Lawrence Minot, a good workman who is sometimes undervalued. Lawrence Minot has command of various lyrical measures; he has the clear sharp phrasing which belongs generally to his northern dialect, and he can put contempt into his voice with no recourse to bad language. After describing the threats and boasting of the French, when Minot remarks
the effect is just where it ought to be, between wind and water; the enemy is done for. It is like Prior’s observation to Boileau, in the _Ode_ on the taking of Namur, and the surrender of the French garrison—