poet, known as Ribald the Rhymer, who, it appears, was also a knight and a gentleman, went mad, and stealing into the King's bud-chamber, secreted himself beneath the bed, amongst the rushes, till midnight. Fortunate it was for Henry that he passed that night in the Queen's chamber, as Ribald rose up in the dead of the night, stabbed the bed in several places, and finding his victim absent, roared out, " Where is he who has robbed me of my crown ? the usurper Henry ! Tear out his heart ! kill him, lads ! kill him!" The noise disturbed the royal household, Ribald was seized, and for the offence executed at Coventry, and drawn asunder by horses, From the name of this rhyming lunatic, the expression of ribald rhymes was probably derived