British Library Add. MS 74,255, one page, on verso of last leaf of The Long Land. This draft contains a stanza not published in The Defence of Guenevere.

British Library Add. MS 74,255

Ho! is there any will ride with me,
Sir Giles, le bon des barrières.

The clink of arms is good to hear,
The flap of pennons fair to see;

Ho! is there any will ride with me,
Sir Giles, le bon des barrières.

The leopards and lilies are fair to see,
"St. George Guienne" right good to hear;
Ho! is there any will ride with me,

Sir Giles, le bon des barrières.

I stood by the barrier,
My coat being blazon’d fair to see;
Ho! is there any will ride with me,
Sir Giles, le bon des barrières.

Clisson put out his head to see,
And lifted his basnet up to hear;
I pull’d him through the bars to ME,
Sir Giles, le bon des barrières.

Notes Defence of Guenevere version:

The hero of "Sir Giles' War-song," like Sir Peter Harpdon, is a French knight in the English service during the early decades of the Hundred Years' War. He once bested the renowned French knight Oliver Clisson (see note to lines 31-32 of "Sir Peter Harpdon's End") in a barrier skirmish and thus merits the epithet "Ze bon des barrires."

Into this Froissartian setting Morris introduces the aura and form of Browning's "Cavalier Tunes" from the Dramatic Lyrics of 1842. Although Browning writes of the English during their civil wars instead of their earlier forays into France, both he and Morris maintain an inspiriting martial measure. Both singers rely on their battle cries (Browning's "God for King Charles" and Morris' "St. George Guienne") to urge upon their companions the exhilaration of battle. And both poets begin their songs with a refrain which is repeated after every stanza. There may have been a note of self-recognition in what Browning wrote to Morris after reading the first volume of The Earthly Paradise: "It is a double delight to me to read such poetry, and know you of all the world wrote it,--you whose songs I used to sing while galloping by Fiesole in old days,--'Ho, is there any will ride  [p. 253]  with me?'" (quoted in Mackail I, p. 133).

7. Before Edward III of England initiated his campaign in France, he bore the three gold leopards (or lions) of his predecessors. But Edward had invaded France to regain what he considered his due inheritance and, thus, in 1339 quartered the English leopards with the French fleur-de-lys to represent his claim to both kingdoms (Froissart I, Ch. XLIII).

8. See note for line 243 of "Sir Peter Harpdon's End."