Note 551 — BOOK I. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The common epithet for a sword or other offensive weapon, in the old metrical romances is Brown, as "brown brand," or "brown sword," "brown bill," &c., and sometimes even "bright brown sword." Chaucer applies the word rustie in the same sense; thus he describes the reve:—
"And by his side he bare a rusty blade." Prol. ver. 620.
And even thus the God Mars:—
"And in his hand he had a rousty sword." Test. of Cressid. 188
Spenser has sometimes used the same epithet. See Warton's Observ. vol. ii. p. 62. It should seem, from this particularity, that our ancestors did not pique themselves upon keeping their weapons bright: perhaps they deemed it more honourable to carry them stained with the blood of their enemies. [As the swords are here said to be bright as well as brown, they could not have been rusty. The expression nut-brown sword was used to designate a Damascus blade.]