11. Sire, n'est entree en jugement encontre ton sergent. Non entres in judicium cum servo tuo, Domine. Serm. de St. Bernard, 12. fol. 145. Uns Fevres manoit á Crèeil, Qui, per vatre le fer vermeil, Le Fevre de Crèeil. On reviewing the fifteen examples of old Romance French here given, we find that the general idea of Servant pervades all, and that in at least eight instances, from the 11th century onwards, the meaning is Servant, pure and simple; in two instances belonging to the period of about 1150-1300, we have the additional meaning of Vice-gerent engrafted; whereas in five instances, mostly from Villehardouin (about 1207 A.D.) the word is used in that specially medieval sense of a certain kind of soldier, certainly one below the rank of knight, but apparently to be clearly distinguished from another, and probably lower, rank, styled, in the Latin passages which I have quoted, milites. In my opinion these were a species of stipendiary troops, who were ready to sell their swords and services to any country or commander that might require them and be willing to pay a fair remuneration. With regard to the different ways of spelling the word in French, I have found at least nine. Roquefort in his Glossary gives the following forms :-Sergent, Sergant, Sergeant, Sergient, Serjans, Serjant, Serjanz, Serjens. To these we may add Siergans (E.) - IV. As to its entrance into our own literature, the two earliest works in which I have found it occurring are the romance of Havelok the Dane, and the Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Beket, by Robert of Gloucester, a work published by the Percy Society (50-54, p. 33.) The latter book was first published in Edward the First's reign, and Havelok the Dane was probably first published in English in or about 1280, so that these two works were probably not much sepa rated from one another in point of time. The English version is a translation from the French of Geoffrey Gaimar, an Anglo-Norman poet of the first half of the 12th century, flourishing from 1141 to 1151. In these two works the word occurs at least nine times, once in "Beket" and eight times in "Havelok." It is spelt in five different ways, Serjantz, Serganz, Sergaunz, Sergeans, and Seriaunz. Of these, the first occurs in "Beket," 1. 681, and it is the only one of the four methods which corresponds exactly to either of the nine French methods of spelling already quoted. It runs thus :1. On of his serjantz sat anigh, the while that mene woke In his in at Canterbury: the chambre for to loke. The second method of spelling occurs in "Havelok the "Dane," lines 2088, 2091: 2. His wife, and his serganz pre. 4. 1. 2088. 2091. Knithes and serganz swipe sleir. i.e., Knights and sergeants very expert. In each of the three quotations just given the word appears to mean soldiers, probably not of noble blood, and evidently, as appears in the last passage, not of knightly rank, but still having the honour to render personal service to their captain or commander. The third and fourth methods of spelling are interesting, as evident attempts to express the French method of pronunciation in English characters. The third, Sergaunz, occurs as follows : Here the word seems to have the simple meaning of servant. The fifth form occurs in the compound word Grith-sergeans. 9. Grith sergeans wit lenge gleyues (lances). 1. 1267 The word Grith means "protection," "peace." Halliwell, in his Archaic Dictionary, explains the word to mean “grace,” "protection," and says it is Anglo-Saxon; but of this he gives no proof. It is identical with the Icelandic word given above. The following are a few examples of its occurrence : 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. The other aungels that fel him with, ́. Cursu Mundi, MS. Coll. Trin. Cantab. f. 4. I gaf hem grith, seid oure kyng, Thorow out alle mery Inglond. MS. Cantab. Ff. 48, f. 132. And gif thou have do any trespas And he wille gif the grith. MS. ibid. f. 55. So seyth to us the prophete Davyd. MS. Harl. 1701, f. 80. And that y may wynde him with [Skeat in his List of English Words-Icelandic, calls Grith a Middle-English word. In his edition of Havelok the Dane, note on p. 124, he says-" Grith-sergeans, legal "officers to preserve the peace. These must not be confounded "with the Justiciarii Pacis established in the beginning of "Edward III's reign, and called Gardiani Pacis."- Vide Spelman in v.] Here is one more ancient example, from the Romance of King Alexander, the author of which is not certainly known, but it must have been written before 1300 A.D., so that it cannot be much, if at all, later than the examples already quoted. It is spelt Sergeaune, a method differing from either that has been already quoted, either in French or English, whence it results that we had, in English, including ancient and modern methods, eleven different ways, only one of which precisely agrees in orthography with one of the ten varying French forms. 5. Hy ben the altherbest [e]; That ben from est into west [e]; For hy connen shete the gripes fleigheyng Hy ben in wode gode hunteres To cacche bores and wilde beres And ek lyouns and olyfaunz. The kyng of these sergeaunz Two thousand knighttes saunz faille, And seven hundreth olifaunz And fourty thousande redy sergeanz. From the Rev. Mr. Morris' Specimens of Early English, p. 54 (top). See also Weber-Metrical Romances, (3 vols. M. 235). They are the best of all That are from east to west; For they can shoot the flying griffins Two thousand knights without fail, And forty thousand ready serjeants. V. I have not met with many examples of the word under consideration between those of the early date already adduced and the Elizabethan era. The following are the principal. It occurs, spelt in two different ways, Sergont and Serjont, in Dan Michel's Ayenbite of Inwyt, (Remorse of Conscience,) bearing date of 1340 (Kent.) Edit. R. Morris, Lond., 1860. We also meet with it several times in works of the commencement of the 16th century, as in the Pricks of Conscience, written by R. Rolle de Hampole, of which we have an edition by Dr. Morris, prepared by him for the Philological Society. Hampole lived in Yorkshire, it is supposed, as a hermit. We also find it in the Morte d'Arthure, edited by Edmund, Brock, in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Be sckere of this sergeaunt, he has me sore grevede; Here the word evidently means soldier. Coming now to the Elizabethan era, which for convenience we may consider as extending from the commencement of Elizabeth's reign to about the year 1630, we shall find that the spelling of the word has assumed the form in which it at present appears, that from the eleven different ways in which we have met with it in the earlier period of the language we have the modern form as resultant, and I think we shall also find that the meaning, or rather meanings, of it then in vogue, correspond almost exactly with those in which we find it now. In Cotgrave's Dictionary we find the French word sergant rendered "a sergeant, officer (by "which he evidently means sheriff's officer,) catchpole, pursuy"vant, apparitor; also (in old French) a footman, a souldier "that serves on foot." Then he gives a long catalogue, showing, apparently with more fulness than order, the different species existing of these in France, such as "Sergent d'armes," Sergent Caftonnier," &c. From what he says, we gather that in the French of that time the word was never employed as a military term. It was, however, so used in England when we find it employed in this era to denote—(i) a sheriff's officer (ii) a serjeant-at-arms; (iii) by a figure this is applied to death, as in Hamlet, 66 Had I but time-as this fell sergeant death Hamlet, act v, scene ii, 1. 320. See also in this sense Sylvester, |