Britain ... - Blue-Lite

420 NOTES TO THE VARANGIAN.
It is plain that the Romances written by the French and
Normans in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, received their
name from the Lingua Romana, in which they were written."
See Du Cange Gloss.
4
( )
/ can clear the moat,
Which circles yon great keep-tower, at a bound, p. 263.
See De St. Palaye's Mem. Chiv.
5
( )
And let those saddles with rich paintings decked
Be for our use to-day p. 265.
Peter de Blois, Archdeacon of Bath and Chaplain to Henry II.
acquaints us, in one of his letters, " that the great barons and
military men of his time, had their shields and saddles painted
with the representations of battles." Hist, of Gr. Brit.
"Even history-paintings, (among the Saxons,) representing
the principal actions of the lives of great princes and generals,
do not seem to have been very uncommon in England in this
period. Edelfleda, widow of the famous Brithnod, Duke of
Northumberland, in the tenth century, presented to the church
of Ely a curtain, which had the history of the great actions of
her deceased lord painted on it, to preserve the memory of his
great valour, and other virtues." Ibid.
( 6 ) The mimic players that follow still the court. . p. 265.
Religious plays, or mysteries, are of a very early date, as may
be seen in Matthew Paris 5 for he says that Geoffrey, the Abbot
of St. Alban's, when a young man at the school of Dunstable,
(about 1110,) wrote a miracle-play of St. Catharine, and borrowed
of the sacrist the holy vestments of the abbey, in which
to dress the actors who performed his play.
The secular players, whom the monks envied for their popularity,
and endeavoured to outshine in their sacred dramas, were
the constant attendants of the court, and the welcome visitors
of baronial castles, which were all courts on a smaller scale, the
household of the earl being exactly similar to those of the king.
What these players were, and how refined and pure their
exhibitions and compositions, may be gathered from the following
quotation. It is not to be wondered that priests were
at length forbidden to witness such grossness.
"Ilinc mimi, falii vel saliares, balatrones, semiliani, gladiatores,
palsestritae, gigandii, prsestigiatores, malefici quoque
multi, et tota joculatorum scsena procidit. Quorum adeo error
invaluit, ut a praeclaris dornibus non arceantur etiam illi qui