Ralph Rokeby with full good will, The fryers of Richmond he gave her till, This sew to mend their fare: Fryer Middleton by his name, Would needs bring the fat sew hame That rued him since full sare. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 59: Both the MS. and Dr. Whitaker's copy read _ancestors_, evidently a corruption of _aunters_, adventures, as corrected by Mr. Evans.] [Footnote 60: A Saxon word for many. See _fell_ in Glossary.] [Footnote 61: A corruption of quell, to kill.] [Footnote 62: Alive.] [Footnote 63: Along the side of the river Greta.] [Footnote 64: Dr. Whitaker reads Raphe, which is undoubtedly the ancient form.] [Footnote 65: To.] [Footnote 66: Make.] [Footnote 67: Fierce as a bear. Dr. Whitaker's copy reads, perhaps in consequence of mistaking the MS., "T'other was Bryan of Bear."] [Footnote 68: Need were. Whitaker reads _musters_.] [Footnote 69: A fierce countenance or manner.] [Footnote 70: Brave. The Rokeby MS. reads _incounters_, and Dr. Whitaker, _auncestors_.] [Footnote 71: Watling-street, the Roman way from Catterick to Bowes.] [Footnote 72: Dare.] [Footnote 73: Rushed.] [Footnote 74: Leave it.] [Footnote 75: Pulls.] [Footnote 76: This line is wanting in Dr. Whitaker's copy, whence it has been conjectured that something is wanting after this stanza, which now there is no occasion to suppose.] [Footnote 77: Evil device.] [Footnote 78: Blessed.] [Footnote 79: Lost his colour.] [Footnote 80: Some copies have the letters I.H.S., but both Whitaker and Scott write Jesus.] [Footnote 81: Sheltered himself.] [Footnote 82: The MS. reads, _to labour weere_. The text seems to mean that all their labour to obtain their intended meat was of no use to them. Dr. Whitaker reads:-- "She was brim as any boar. And gave a grisly hideous roar, To them it was no boot." Besides the want of connection between the last line and the two former, the second has a very modern sound, and the reading in the Rokeby MS., with the slight alteration in the text, is much better.] [Footnote 83: Mad.] [Footnote 84: Torn, pulled.] [Footnote 85: Combat, perilous fight.] [Footnote 86: This stanza, with the two following, and a fragment of a fourth, are not in Dr. Whitaker's edition.] [Footnote 87: The residence of this facetious baron. Leland says, that "Mr. Rokeby hath a place called Mortham, a little beneath Grentey-bridge, almost on the mouth of Grentey." "This place and Rokeby," says Hutchinson, "were, in very distant ages, in the possession of the Rokebies; Robert de Rokeby lived in the time of the Conqueror. By the arms and date on Mortham tower, it appears that it was built in 1166 by the Rokebies."] [Footnote 88: The rope about the sow's neck.] [Footnote 89: Ralph Rokeby married Margery, eldest daughter and co-heir of Robert Danby, esq., of Yafforth near Northallerton, by a daughter of sir Richard Conyers, knt. Her will is dated 27 Sep. 1540.--See Richmond Wills by Surtees Soc.]