Note 520 — Chapter III
Reading edition
There is more than one passage in Orderic setting forth the wretched state of things in Normandy under Robert. See 664 B; 672 B, C; 675 A, B; 677 B. In the first passage he gives a personal description, not unlike that quoted in N. C. vol. iv. p. 633; “Omnes ducem Robertum mollem esse desidemque cognoscebant, et idcirco facinorosi eum despiciebant et pro libitu suo dolosas factiones agitabant. Erat quippe idem dux audax et validus, multaque laude dignus, eloquio facundus, sed in regimine sui suorumque inconsideratus, in erogando prodigus, in promittendo diffusus, ad mentiendum levis et incautus, misericors supplicibus, ad justitiam super iniquo faciendam mollis et mansuetus, in definitione mutabilis, in conversatione omnibus nimis blandus et tractabilis, ideoque perversis et insipientibus despicabilis. Corpore autem brevis et grossus, ideoque Brevis-ocrea a patre est cognominatus.” Cf. Roman de Rou, 14470.
The words about Robert’s tendency to falsehood would seem to imply, not so much deliberate lying as that kind of carelessness of truth which is quite of a piece with the rest of his character.
On the technical use of the word justice, see N. C. vol. v. pp. 157, 253, 320, 520; cf. ii. 33, 40, 173.