[15. “And I will drink ere I tell my tale.” _Her_ = ere. 19. _And wite, &c._, i.e. And ordain that it may be so; cf. ll. 517, 1316. Both metre and grammar require the final _e_.] 31. _Erl and barun, _dreng_ and kayn._ The appellation of _Dreng_, and, in the plural, _Drenges_, which repeatedly occurs in the course of this poem, is uniformly bestowed on a class of men who hold a situation between the rank of _Baron_ and _Thayn_. We meet with the term more than once in Doomsday Book, as, for instance, in Tit. Cestresc: “Hujus manerii [Neuton] aliam terram xv. hom. quos _Drenches_ vocabant, pro xv. maneriis tenebant.” And in a Charter of that period we read: “Alger Prior, et totus Conventus Ecclesiæ S. Cuthberti, Edwino, et omnibus Teignis et _Drengis_, &c.” Hence Spelman infers, that the Drengs were military vassals, and held land by knight’s service, which was called _Drengagium_. This is confirmed by a document from the Chartulary of Welbeck, printed in Dugdale, _Mon. Angl._ V. II. p. 598, and in Blount, _Jocular Tenures_, p. 177, where it is stated, “In eadem villa [Cukeney, co. Nottingh.] manebat quidam homo qui vocabatur Gamelbere, et fuit vetus _Dreyinghe_ ante Conquestum.” It appears from the same document, that this person held two carucates of land of the King _in capite_, and was bound to perform military service for the same, whenever the army went into Wales. In the Epistle also from the Monks of Canterbury to Henry II. printed by Somner, in his Treatise on Gavelkind, p. 123, we find: “Quia vero non erant adhuc tempore Regis Willelmi Milites in Anglia, sed _Threnges_, præcepit Rex, ut de eis Milites fierent, ad terram defendendam.” In Laȝamon’s translation of Wace the term is frequently used in the acceptation of thayn, and spelt either _dringches_, _drenches_, _dranches_, or _dringes_. [Cf. Sw. _dräng_, a man, servant; Dan. _dreng_, a boy.] In the Isl. and Su. Goth. _Dreng_ originally signified _vir fortis_, _miles strenuus_, and hence Olaf, King of Norway, received the epithet of _Goddreng_. See Wormii Lex. Run. p. 26. Ihre, Vet. Cat. Reg. p. 109. Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic. V. I. p. 156. The term subsequently was applied to persons in a servile condition, and is so instanced by Spelman, as used in Denmark. In this latter sense it may be found in Hickes, Diction. Isl., and in Sir David Lyndsay’s Poems, Quhilk is not ordanit for _dringis_ But for Duikis, Empriouris, and Kingis. V. Pinkerton’s Scotish Poems Reprinted, ii. 97. V. Jamieson, Dict. _in voce_. 45. _In that time a man that bore (Wel fyfty pund, y woth, or more.)_ This insertion receives additional authority from a similar passage in the Romance of _Guy of Warwick_, where it is mentioned as a proof of the rigorous system of justice pursued by Earl Sigard, Though a man bore an hundred pound, Upon him of gold so round, There n’as man in all this land That durst him do shame no schonde. Ellis, _Metr. Rom._ V. II. p. 9. Ed. 1811.