In the poem entitled the ^Crfee'd, • of Piers- Ploughman, written about jme reign
of Richard IL, we have the-tfollow£pg'4^cription, which jmay serve to iUu&tfatfe
this cut :•—
' “His cote was oJh& eloùtëb?
-t Thjit cary was 3®feaFed ; V
His hod was
i v And his liearc out-; Ad1,
With his knoppedo shon
OTl^di M thyhké : i
His ton toteden-out, - at
As"he ,thè ldfid-trédedo*! '
His hosen over-hQpgen'hia hok-shynes •
On everich h-sydg1^ -
A1 beslomered in fen,. "
As he the glow folwede';. :
• Tweye myteynes as meter
Maad al ’of cloutes, - -
Thé iyngres weren for-weredj
, -■ "And fbtbfifen honged.
This wit wasefede in the feen
Almost to the ancle ; -
Foure rotheren hym byfbrrie,»-
That feble were worthr; ,1-
Men my ghte reknen ich a ryb,
So rentfid they weren.”
The initial letter, at the beginning of this article is taken from MS.'Reg. 2
B. VII., so well’ known , by the title of Queen Mary’s Psalterl '.The, figures
at the; foot ofothe' present, page^aïte 4aken from a no,dess splendid as well as
celebrated- manuscript_preserved in the'Bodleian Eibrary atïpxfordrcQnjtaining
the French Romance of Alexander the Great. Its shelf, mark! k \B o d i^ ^ t^
264, and i t was written in1 the year 1338, as we 'leamj foom;thc^fo|r(Mm^jL-ntry
at Romans du homjroi^Alieandre, qui fa penesciÿpt le xviij. jor de:
Décembre, Tan m. cec. xxxviij. The margins of this voltjhie^are filled t With
grotesque figures and other popular subjects. I t was from 'tras^inânusc rij>t
that -Joseph Strutts obtained his most valuable illustrations of-anciSïït- JEri^ish
games and pastimes.
m