The trew sodiers both day and nythe
Lay on the walles in harnes brighe,
Hit was ther howss and kirk.
The burges and men wer full bown
For to defend the possession,

Hit longith to them off ryzth;

The merchanttes wer ful redy
At all tymes and every skry;

Hyt was a full good syzth.

And so did the good comyns,
That had stuffed well the town.

With the good and vitayle,
In town and feld to rid and go,
And all odur werkes to doo,

In all that myth avayle.

The women, both yung and old,

Wyth stones stuffed every scaffold,

The spared not to swet ne swynk;

With boylyng cawdrens, both grett and smalle, Yf they wold assaute the walle,

All hote to gev them drynk.

The furst day ther enmys prowd
Gan to skirmysch with schowtes lowd,
But countred they wer anon.

Gonners, to schew ther arte,
Into the town in many a parte

Schote many a fulle gret stone.
Thankyd be God and Mary myld,
The hurt nothir man, woman, ne chyld,
To the howsis thow they did harm.
Sent Barbara! than was the cry,
When the stone in the stone did fly;
They cowd non other charm.

And for the duk lay them no nere,
At the sowth-west corner

Off gonnes he had a song;

That anon he left that place,

And to the west end he mad a chace;
Hym thowth he bod to long.
Ther men my3th se archerys good
Cast from them both gown and hood,
The better for to schote;

That Frensch and Flemysch was ful fayn
To ther tentes to retorn ogayn,
They saw non othir boote.

And one amang, an Iyrysch man,
Uppone his hoby swyftly ran;

Hyt was a sportfulle sygthe,

How hys darttes he did schak ;
And when him lyst to leve or tak,
They had fulle gret dispite.

Allso a hownd that did hyeghe go by,
That longid to the water-bayly,

Fulle swyftly wold he ren;
And every skyrmysch to travayle,
Man and hors he wold assayle,

Fulle welle he coude them kenne. And so hit byfelle upon a Thyrsday, The erle of Morteyn made a fray

At seynt Peturs on the playne; And drove them to there tentys nere, And toke many a prisonere,

And many off them wer slayn. And after they com with gret navi, With bolgit schipis ful craftly,

The havyn for to han schent, At Friday; but on the morow, Than began the dukes sorow,

Hys schypis when he saw brent. And so after, within a whyle, Drawyn adown was hys castell

With many a hardy man;

His men of armes were layd to grownd,
And sum askapid with dethys wond,
And few off them were tan.
The next morow, or yt was day,
Erly the duk fled oway,

And with hym they off Gant.
And after Bruges and Apres both
To folow after they wer not loth;
Thus kept they ther avaunt.
For they had very knowyng
Off the duk off Gloceturs cumyng,
Caleys to rescue.

Bycaus they bod not ther,

In Flanders he soght hem fer and ner,

That ever may they yt rew.

Only God, in whom ys all.
Sav Caleys that ryall towne,

That ever yt mot wel cheve

Unto the crown of mery Yngland,
Whils that this world wyll stand,

That neany enmys ytt greve.
Lytelle wote the fool,

Who myth ches,

What harm yt wer

God Caleys to lese. Amen.

THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY.1

Here beginneth the prologe of the processe of the Libelle of Englyshe Polycye, exhortynge alle Englande to kepe the see enviroun, and namelye the narowe see, shewynge whate profete commeth thereof, and also worshype and salvacioun to Englande and to alle Englyshe menne.

a The trewe processe of Englysh polycye,

Of utterwarde to kepe thys regne in rest

Of oure England, that no man may denye,

Incipit liber de custodia maris, præsertim arcta inter Dovoream et Caliseam.

1 The date of this very important poem is fixed by internal evidence, for it was written after the siege of Calais by the duke of Burgundy, and the invasion of his territory by the duke of Gloucester, which latter event occupied the first half of the month of August 1436, and while the emperor Sigismond was still living, and therefore before his death in 1437. From the tone in which the defeat of the Flemings is spoken of we are justified in supposing that it was written soon after that event; and if we may take the marginal note in the MS. we follow (see further on, p. 183) as referring to the time at which the poem was written, its date would be fixed very nearly, for the 14th year of Henry VI. ended on the 31st Aug. 1436. It is here printed from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, MS. Laud. No. 704, fol. 1, ro (A.), collated with other copies, MS. Harl. No. 4011, fol. 120, ro (B.), MS. Harl. No. 271, fol. 1, ro (C.), and MS. Cotton. Vitel. E. x. fol. 192, ro (D.) The

first of these manuscripts has the
appearance, by the care and style in
which it is written, of having been
an original copy, intended to be sent
by the author to one of the states-
men of the day, perhaps to the lord
Hungerford, whose name is inserted
in the Envoy at the end. In MS.
D. the title has been changed to
"The Bible of Englische Polycé," an
evident mistake. It is hardly ne-
cessary to state that Libel (libellus)
means a little book. There are two
classes of the MSS., one of which
has the name of lord Hungerford at
the end, the other is addressed to a
high ecclesiastic, no doubt cardinal
Beaufort. In this respect Hakluyt's
copy agreed with the text now
printed, while the three other
manuscripts belong to the second
class. I have not attempted to give
all the verbal variations in the texts,
but the readings of MS. D. are
generally the most interesting.

Nere say of soth but1 one of the best

Is thys, that who seith southe, northe, est, and 2 west, Cheryshe marchandyse, kepe thamyralté,

4

That we bee maysteres of the narowe see.

b Ffor Sigesmonde the grete emperoure,

5

Whyche yet regneth, whan he was in this londe
Wyth kynge Herry the vte, prince of honoure,

Here moche glorye as hym thought he founde;
A myghty londe, whyche hadde take on honde
To werre in Ffraunce and make mortalité,
And evere welle kept rounde aboute the see."

6

8

And to the kynge thus he seyde, "My brothere," Whan he perceyved too townes Calys and Dovere, "Of alle youre townes to chese of one and othere,

To kepe the see and sone to come overe

"To werre oughtwardes and youre regne to recovere, Kepe these too townes, sire, and 10 youre magesté, "As youre tweyne eyne to kepe the narowe see."

Ffor if this see be kepte in tyme of werre,

Who cane here 11 passe withought daungere and woo? Who may eschape, who may myschef dyfferre?

What marchaundye may for by be agoo?

12

Ffor nedes hem muste take truse
every ffoo,
Fflaundres, and Spayne, and othere, trust to me,
Or ellis hyndered alle for thys narowe see.

b Videns imperator Sigismundus duas villas inter cæteras Angliæ, scilicet Caliseam et Dovoream, ponens suos duos digitos super duos suos oculos, ait regi, "Frater, custodite istas duas villas sicut "duos vestros oculos."