passed to the Dymokes, through marriage, in the reign of Edward III.'—'Notes and Queries,' 7th S. III. 37.
Stanza VII. l. 95. 'The principal distinction between the independent esquire (terming him such who was attached to no knight's service) and the knight was the spurs, which the esquire might wear of silver, but by no means gilded.'—Scott's 'Essay on Chivalry,' p. 64.
With the squire's 'courteous precepts' compare those of Chaucer's squire in the Prologue,—
Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.
•••••••
Curteys he was, lowely, and servysable,
And carf byforn his fader at the table.'
Stanza VIII. l. 108. Him listed is an Early English form. Cp. Chaucer's Prologue, 583,—
'Or lyve as scarsly as hym list desire.'
In Elizabethan English, which retains many impersonal forms, list is mainly used as a personal verb, as in Much Ado, iii. 4,—
'I am not such a fool to think what I list,'
and in John iii. 8, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth.' Even then, however, it was sometimes used impersonally, as in Surrey's translation of Æneid ii. 1064,—
'By sliding seas me listed them to lede.'
l. 116. Hosen=hose, tight trousers reaching to the knees. The form hosen is archaic, though it lingered provincially in Scotland till modern times. For a standard use of the word, see in A. V., Daniel iii. 21, 'Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments.'
l. 121. The English archers under the Tudors were famous. Holinshed specially mentions that at the battle of Blackheath, in 1496, Dartford bridge was defended by archers 'whose arrows were in length a full cloth yard.'
Stanza IX. l. 130. morion (Sp. morra, the crown of the head), a kind of helmet without a visor, frequently surmounted with a crest, introduced into England about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
l. 134. linstock (lont, a match, and stok, a stick ), 'a gunner's forked staff to hold a match of lint dipped in saltpetre.'
yare, ready; common as a nautical term. Cp. Tempest, i. 1. 6, 'Cheerly, my hearts! Yare, yare!' and see note to Clarendon Press edition of the play.
