Bring thou the master to the citadel;
He is a good one, and his worthiness
Does challenge much respect.

King Henry.

Act 2 Scene 1.

Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me, and stick it in thy cap: When Alençon and myself were down together, I plucked this glove from his helm: if any man challenge this, he is a friend in Alençon and an enemy to our person; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost love me.

Henry V. Act 4 Scene 7.

Desdemona.

My noble father,

I do perceive here a divided duty:

Το you, I am bound for life, and education;
My life, and education, both do learn me
How to respect you; you are the lord of duty,

I am hitherto your daughter: But here's my husband;
And so much duty as my mother shew'd

To you, preferring you before her father,

So much I challenge, that I may profess
Due to the Moor, my lord.

Othello Act 1 Scene 3.

Bolingbroke.
I am a subject

And challenge law.

Richard II. Act 2 Scene 5.

King Henry.

Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,

And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow;

And wear it for an honour in thy cap,

Till I do challenge it.

Know the glove? I know, the glove is a glove.

Will.

I know this; and thus I challenge it.

[Strikes him.

King Henry.

I have not been desirous of their wealth,

Nor much oppress'd them with great subsidies,
Nor forward of revenge, though they much err'd;
Then why should they love Edward more than me?
No, Exeter, these graces challenge grace;
And, when the lion fawns upon the lamb,

The lamb will never cease to follow him.

This will I also wear in my cap; if ever thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, This is my glove, by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear.

King Henry.

If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

And this peculiar sense of the word "challenge", in these passages, has been well preserved in Schlegel and Tieck's translation, generally by the use of „fordern" or „zurückfordern".

Enter Sir John Fastolfe,

Fastolfe.

My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais,
To haste unto your coronation,

A letter was deliver'd to my hands,

Writ to your grace from the duke of Burgundy.

Talbot.

Shame to the duke of Burgundy, and thee!

I vow'd, base knight, when I did meet thee next,
To tear the garter from thy craven's leg.

Like to a trusty squire, did run away;

In which assault we lost twelve hundred men;
Myself, and divers gentlemen beside,

Were there surprised, and taken prisoners.
Then judge, great lords, if I have done amiss;
Or whether that such cowards ought to wear
This ornament of knighthood, yea, or no.

Gloster.

To say the truth, this fact was infamous,
And ill beseeming any common man;
Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader.

Talbot.

When first this order was ordain'd, my lords,
Knights of the garter were of noble birth;
Valiant, and virtuous, full of haughty courage,
Such as were grown to credit by the wars;
Not fearing death, nor shrinking for distress,
But always resolute in most extremes.
He then, that is not furnish'd in this sort,
Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,
Profaning this most honourable order;
And should (if I were worthy to be judge,)
Be quite degraded, like a hedge-born swain
That doth presume to boast of gentle blood.

1. Henry VI. Act 4 Scene 1.

By the 13. Charles II. cap. 15 William Lord Monson, Sir Henry Mildmay, Sir James Harrington and others were degraded from all titles of Honour, dignities, and preheminences, and none of them to bear or use the title of Lord, knight, Esquire or gentleman, or any coat of arms for ever after. But in this passage, Shakspeare refers to the ancient ceremony of degradation, which is thus explained by Selden.

„For the honour due to knighthood in general, some examples are, that when judgment of treason hath been given against one that had formerly received the order, he hath been first degraded from his knight-hood, lest so much ignominy, as accompanied the pidgment for such an offence, should be on any that were a knight when he suffered it. As by the canonlaws, the ceremony of degradation from any degree of order is by a solemn taking away those things from the clerk wherewith he was so invested, at his taking the order from which he

is to be degraded, so the ceremonies of degradation of a knight were, in antient times, such as that the sword with which he was girt at the knight, and the spurs that were put on him were to be publickly taken off from him, and some other solemnities were sometimes in it. When judgment was to be given against Sir Andrew Harcley earl of Carlisle under king Edward the second, for treason, before the court (which was held by special commission) would give that judgment, it first awarded that he should be deceint del espee (as the record of his attainder says) et que vous esperouns d'orres soient coupez de talouns, and then they gave the judgment of that time for treason against him, all which was the same in substance which Thomas of Walsingham says of him, saving that he adds (as some others also) that his shoes and gloves were took off in the degradation. Quadrifario judicio (saith he) condemnatus est. Nempe primo degradatus est amputatis securi ad talos suos calcaribus, et sic vicissim discinctus est baltheo militari, abeatis calceis et chirothecis. Deinde tractus, suspensus et in quartas divisus est. But in our stories, this of the degradation is variously delivered. Some say that he was led to the bar in manner of an earle" (as the words are in an old history called the fruit of times") „,nobely arrayed with a sword igurde, and ihosid, and isporid." And that Sir Anthony Lacy (whom the author of this relation supposes to have been a judge at his arraignment; but that is directly contrary to the record, where the judges are Edmund earl of Kent, John lord Hastings, and others, and Sir Anthony Lacy only as Sheriff of Cumberland, attended them where they sate at Carlisle) used these words to him; Sir Andrew, the king dede unto you much honor, and made you erle of Cardoil, and thou, as a traytor to thi lord the king, laddest his people of this countrie, that should have holpe him at the battaile of Beighland, away by the country of Copeland, and through the erledome of Lancaster, wherfore our lord the king was scomfited there of the Scottis, thorough thy treasoun and falsenes, and if thou haddest come betimes, he had hed the maistrie. And all that treasoun thou dedest for the somme of gold and silver, that thou under

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teng of James Douglasse a Scotte, the king's enemie. And our lord the king is will is that the ordre of knighthood, by the which thou underfeng all in honor and in wurshippe oppon thi body, ben all brought and nought, and thi stat undon, that other knights of lower degree, now after thee beware, the which lord hath thee advanced hengely in divers countries of England. And all now take ensample by thee, there lord afterward for to serve. Tho commanded hee a knave anoon to hew of his spores of his heles, And after hee be let breke the swerd over his heed, the which to king him gafe to keepe and defende his land therwith, when he made erle of Cardoil. And after he lete him unclothe of his taberd and his hood, and of his furred cotes, and of his grydell; and when this was done, Sir Antony said to him: Andrew, quoth hee, now ert thou no knight, but thou art a knave" (Selden. Tit. Hon.) ,,That honorary title of knight," says Selden, is with us of four kinds. The first is knights bachelors, or of the spur, which are indifferently stiled knights, milites, and chivalers, and sometimes milites simplices, for distinction from bannerets in the elder times. The second is, knights bannerets. The third, knights of the garter., And the fourth knights of the bath." Talbot plucks the garter from Sir John Fastolfe's leg. And in the ceremony of degrading a knight of the garter, the garter was taken from the knight's knee.

Somerset.

What are they that fly there?

Warwick.

Richard and Hastings: let them go, here's the duke,

King Edward.

The duke! why, Warwick, when we parted last,
Thou call'dst me king?

Warwick.

Ay, but the case is alter'd:
When you disgraced me in my embassade,
Then I degraded you from being king,
And come now to create you duke of York.
Alas! how should you govern any kingdom,
That know not how to use ambassadors;
Nor how to be contented with one wife;
Archiv f. n. Sprachen. XXXII.