" is a species of falcon, of which the male bird
is one-third smaller than the female.]

[Footnote 17: A "vavasor" (from "vassus vassallorum") was a low order
of vassal, but a freeman. The vavasors are spoken of with respect in
the old French romances, as being of honourable character, though not of
high birth.]

[Footnote 18: The numerous references to the story of King Mark,
Tristan, and Iseut in the extant poems of Chretien support his own
statement, made at the outset of "Cliges", that he himself composed a
poem on the nephew and wife of the King of Cornwall. We have fragments
of poems on Tristan by the Anglo-Norman poets Beroul and Thomas, who
were contemporaries of Chretien. Foerster's hypothesis that the lost
"Tristan" of Chretien antedated "Erec" is doubtless correct. That
the poet later treated of the love of Cliges and Fenice as a sort of
literary atonement for the inevitable moral laxity of Tristan and Iseut
has been held by some, and the theory is acceptable in view of the
references to be met later in "Cliges". For the contrary opinion of
Gaston Paris see "Journal des Savants" (1902), p. 297 f.]

[Footnote 19: In the Mabinogi "Geraint the Son of Erbin", the host
explains that he had wrongfully deprived his nephew of his possessions,
and that in revenge the nephew had later taken all his uncle's property,
including an earldom and this town. See Guest, "The Mabinogion".]

[Footnote 110: The hauberk was a long shirt of mail reaching to the
knees, worn by knights in combat. The helmet, and the "coiffe" beneath
it, protected the head; the "ventail" of linked meshes was worn across
the lower part of the face, and was attached on each side of the neck to
the "coiffe", so that it protected the throat; the greaves covered the
legs. The body of the knight was thus well protected against blow of
sword or lance. Cf. Vv.711 f.]

[Footnote 111: This passage seems to imply that charms and enchantments
were sometimes used when a knight was armed (F.).]

[Footnote 112: The "loges", so often mentioned in old French romances,
were either window-balconies or architectural points of vantage
commanding some pleasing prospect. The conventional translation in the
old English romances is "bower".]

[Footnote 113: Tristan killed Morholt, the uncle of Iseut, when he came
to claim tribute form King Mark (cf. Bedier, "Le Roman de Tristan",
etc., i. 85 f., 2 vols., Paris, 1902). The combat took place on an
island, unnamed in the