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His buckler scarce in breadth a span,
No larger fence had he;
He never counted him a man,
Would strike below the knee.—St. XVII. p. 78.
No larger fence had he;
He never counted him a man,
Would strike below the knee.—St. XVII. p. 78.
Imitated from Drayton's account of Robin Hood and his followers.
A hundred valiant men had this brave Robin Hood,
Still ready at his call, that bowmen were right good;
All clad in Lincoln green, with caps of red and blue,
His fellow's winded horn not one of them but knew.
When setting to their lips there little bugles shrill,
The warbling echoes waked from every dale and hill;
Their bauldrics set with studs athwart their shoulders cast,
To which under their arms their sheafs were buckled fast.
A short sword at their belt, a buckler scarce a span,
Who struck below the knee not counted then a man.
All made of Spanish yew, their bows were wondrous strong,
They not an arrow drew but was a clothyard long;
Of archery they had the very perfect craft,
With broad arrow, or but, or prick, or roving shaft.
Poly-Olbion, Song 26.
Still ready at his call, that bowmen were right good;
All clad in Lincoln green, with caps of red and blue,
His fellow's winded horn not one of them but knew.
When setting to their lips there little bugles shrill,
The warbling echoes waked from every dale and hill;
Their bauldrics set with studs athwart their shoulders cast,
To which under their arms their sheafs were buckled fast.
A short sword at their belt, a buckler scarce a span,
Who struck below the knee not counted then a man.
All made of Spanish yew, their bows were wondrous strong,
They not an arrow drew but was a clothyard long;
Of archery they had the very perfect craft,
With broad arrow, or but, or prick, or roving shaft.
Poly-Olbion, Song 26.
To wound an antagonist in the thigh, or leg, was reckoned contrary to the law of arms. In a tilt betwixt Gawain Michael, an English squire, and Joachim Cathore, a Frenchman, "they met at the speare poyntes rudely: the French squyer justed right plesantly; the Englyshman ran too lowe, for he strake the Frenchman depe into the thygh. Wherwith the Erle of Buckingham was ryght sore displeased, and so were all the other lordes, and sayde how it was shamefully rone."
