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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
page 5 note 1 Wyghte, King's MS. weyte, P. The Harl. MS. reads mete.
page 5 note 2 Augmentum, adaugma, a-bocchement. Med. gr. ms. phill.
page 5 note 3 “Thilke tonne, that I shal abroche.” Chauc. Wif of Bathes Prol.
page 5 note 4 “And if it suffice not for asseth.” P. plouhm. See Jamieson, under Assyth, and Spelman.
page 6 note 1 Ache, or hoppe, Ort. voc. Skinner gives ache, for smallage, from Fr. l'ache, parsley. See Cotgr.
page 6 note 2 “To acloye with a nayle as an yuell smythe dothe an horse foote, enclouer. Acloyed as a horses foot, encloué.” Palsg. The more usual sense of the word is as Horman uses it, “My stomake is accloyed, fastidiosus, nauseabundus.” Florio renders inchiodare, “to clow, or pricke a horse with a naile.”
page 6 note 3 “Jo ay la mayn si estoniye, so acomeled.” Gaut. de bibelesw. Arundel MS. 220. Acomlyt. MS. Phill. In the later Wycliffite version, Isaiah xxxv. 3, is read, “Coumfort ɜe clumsid, ether comelid hondis, and make ɜe strong feble knees.” MS. Cott. Claud. E. Ii. In the earlier version the passage is rendered, “Coumforteth the hondes loosid atwynne,” MS. Douce. In the Latin, “manus dissolutas.”
page 6 note 4 “I am accombered with corrupt humours, obruor pituita. The snoffe acombreth the matche, that he can nat burn clere, fungi elychnium obsident.” Horm. Piers Ploughman uses the word in the sense of to overcome, or destroy.
“And let his shepe acomber in the mire.” Chauc.
See Depos. of Ric. II. published by the Camden Society, pp. 29, 30.
page 6 note 5 Glans, an acharne, Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. Accharne, okecorne, Ort. v. A. S. æcern. In the curious inventory of the effects of Sir Simon Burley, who was be-headed 1388, are enumerated, “deux pairs des pater nosters de aumbre blanc, l'un countrefait de Atchernes, l'autre rounde.” MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps.
page 6 note 6 “Lapis ferrum attrahens, an adamounde stone, magnes.” Whitinton gramm. Aymant. Palsg.
page 7 note 1 “Affadyll, a yelowe floure, affrodille.” Palsg.
page 7 note 2 Forby, in enumerating among the provincialisms of Norfolk the word afeard, noticed that formerly it was not, as at present, synonymous with afraid.
“This wif was not aferde ne affraide.” Chauc.
The Harl. MS. indeed, renders both aferde and afrayed by territus, but the reading of the King's MS. agreeing with the printed editions, seems preferable. Aferde or trobelid, turbatus, perturbatus. Compare Abaschyd or aferde. A.S. afered, territus.
page 7 note 3 After Affynyte, the Harl. MS. has the word A-foyste, lirida. See under the letter F.
page 7 note 4 Aforen, aforne, afore. Chauc. A.S. æt foran.
page 7 note 5 The Harl. MS. gives Agas twice, first without any corresponding Latin word, but probably it is the same as Hagas puddynge, tucelum.
page 8 note 1 “Agglet of a lace or poynt, fer. To agglet a poynt, or set on an agglet vpon a poynt or lace, ferrer. Palsg. Wyll you set none agglettes vpon your poyntes? enferrer voz esguylettes.” This word denotes properly the tag, but is often used to signify the lace to which it was attached. “Myn aglet, mon lasset, a point, la ferrure d'un lasset.” R. pynson, Good boke to lerne to speke French.
page 8 note 2 “Agreyier, supporter avec peine.” Roquef. lacombe.
page 8 note 3 Agroted, Chaucer, Legend of G. W. is explained cloyed, surfeited.
page 8 note 4 This word is still of local use to denote the commotion caused in some tidal rivers, at the flow of the tide. In the Ouse, near Downham bridge, above Lynn, the name is eager, as also in the Nene, between Wisbeach and Peterborough, and the Ouse near York, and other rivers. Camden calls the meeting of the Avon and Severn, higre. Compare Skinner, under the word eager. In Craven Dial. acker is a ripple on the water. Aker seems, however, to have had a more extended meaning, as applied to some turbulent currents, or commotions of the deep. The MS. Poem entitled Of Knyghthode and Batayle, Cott. MS. Titus A. Xxiii. f. 49, commending the skill of mariners in judging of the signs of weather, makes the following allusion to the aker.
“Wel know they the remue yf it a-ryse,
An aker is it clept, I vnderstonde,
Whos myght there may no shippe or wynd wyt stonde.
This remue in th'occian of propre kynde
Wyt oute wynde hathe his commotioun;
The maryneer therof may not be blynde,
But when and where in euery regioun
It regnethe, he moste haue inspectioun,
For in viage it may bothe haste and tary,
And vnavised thereof, al mys cary.”
Aker seems to be derived from A. S. æ, water, and cer, a turn; sæ-cir signifies the ebb of the sea. Cædm. See Nares, under Higre.
page 9 note 1 “Alebery for a sicke man, chaudeau,” Palsg.; which Cotgrave renders, caudle, warm broth.
page 9 note 2 Alcamyne, arquemie, Palsg. A mixed metal, supposed to be produced by alchymy, and which received thence the name. See Nares.
page 9 note 3 Carre, a wood of alder, or other trees in a moist boggy place, Ray. See Forby and Moore. Ducange gives kaheir, kaeyum, salictum.
page 9 note 4 Aller, the gen. plur. ealra, A.S. is used by Chaucer, both by itself, and compounded:
“Shall have a souper at your aller cost.” Prol. Cant. Tales.
There occur also, alderfirst, alderlast, alderlevest, that is dearest of all, and alderfastest.
page 9 note 5 Compare Gyylde or Gile, new ale. Celia, Orosius informs us, was the name of a Spanish drink made of wheat, and here seems to signify the sweet and unhopped wort.
page 9 note 6 “Wyll you algates do it? le voulez vous faire tout à force?” Palsg. “I damned thee, thou must algates be dead.” Chauc. Sompnour's Tale. A.S. Alʓeats, omnino.
page 10 note 1 Gerarde gives the name alexanders to the great or horse parsley, hipposelinum.
page 10 note 2 “Almariolum, a lytell almary or a cobborde. Scrinium, Anglice almery.” Ort. voc. “All my lytell bokes I putt in almeries, (scriniis chartophilaciis, forulis, vel armariis) all my greatter bokis I put in my lyberary.” Horm. A. S. Almeriʓa, scrinium.
page 10 note 3 “Almery, aumbry to put meate in, unes almoires.” Palsg.
page 10 note 4 “Ficedula, a wodewale or an alpe.” Med. gr. In Norfolk the bull-finch is called blood-olph, and the green grosbeak, green-olf, probably a corruption of alpe. Forby. Ray gives alp as generally signifying the bull-finch. See Moore.
page 10 note 5 The alure seems in its primary sense to have been the passage behind the battlements, allorium, ambulacrum, in French alleure or allée: and which, serving as a channel to collect the waters that fell upon the roof, and were carried off through the gargoilles, the term alure came to be applied to the channel itself, as it is here rendered. See Ducange, under the words Alatoria, Allorium. Alure occurs in Robert of Gloucester.
“Up the alurs of the castles the ladies then stood,
And beheld this noble game, and which knights were good.”
“The towrs to take and the torellis,
Vautes, alouris and corneris.” Kyng Alisaunder.
page 11 note 1 Ambrose, ache champestre, Palsg. Ambrosia, herba predulcis, wylde sawge, Ort. voc. “Ambrose, ambroisie, the herbe called oke of Cappadocia, or Jerusalem.” Cotgr.
page 11 note 2 The amice is the first of the sacerdotal vestments: it is a piece of fine linen, of an oblong square form, which was formerly worn on the head, until the priest arrived before the altar, and then thrown back upon the shoulders. It was ornamented with a rich parure, often set with jewels, which in ancient representations appears like a standing collar round the neck of the priest. Dugdale gives an inventory in his History of St. Paul's, taken 1295, which details the costly enrichments of the amice.
page 11 note 3 “Ammys for a channon, aumusse.” Palsg. This was the canonical vestment lined with fur, that served to cover the head and shoulders, and was perfectly distinct from the amyce. See almucium in Ducange.
page 11 note 4 The King's MS. gives Aneys herbe, anisum, and Aneyssede, anetum.
page 11 note 5 The word to anele was used in two senses, “to aneele a sicke man, anoynt hym with holy oyle. I lefte hym so farre past, that he was houseled and aneeled, communié et enhuyllé: and, to aneel a potte of erthe or suche lyke with a coloure, plommer.” Palsg. As applied to metal it signifies to enamel, and occurs in that sense. Lacombe and Roquefort give the word néellé, émaillé.
page 12 note 1 In Robert of Glouc. Wiclif and Chaucer, this word is written vnnethe, vnnethis. A. Saxon Un-eaðe, vix.
page 12 note 2 A. Sax. Anʓel, hamus. In the St. Alban's Book, 1496, is a treatyse of fysshynge with an angle; Shakespeare uses the word to signify the implement of fishing. “Angle rodde, verge à pescher.” Palsg. Angle twache, lumbricus, which occurs in Vocabula Stanbrigii, 1513, seems to be the worm serving for a bait. A. Sax. Anʓeltwecca. Elfr.
page 12 note 3 Cotgrave renders Abecé, an abcee, the crosse row.
page 12 note 4 Appeyching, accusement. Palsg. Fabyan relates that, in 1425, “many honeste men of the cytye were apeched of treason.” Apescher, to impeach. Kelham.
page 12 note 5 “A litil sourdow apeyreth al the gobet.” 1 Cor. v. Wicl. R. Brunne uses the verb to apeire, which occurs also in Chaucer, Cant. Tales:
“To apeiren any man, or him defame.”
“To appayre, or waxe worse, empirer.” Palsg.
page 13 note 1 Recipes for making this dish occur in the Form of Cury, pp. 42, 96, and other ancient books of cookery. See Harl. MS. 279, f. 16 b. Kalendare de Potages dyuers, Apple muse; and Cott. MS. Julius, D. Viii. f. 97. The following is taken from a MS. of the XV. cent. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps. “Appyl mose. Take and sethe appyllys in water, or perys, or bothe togyder, and stamp heme, and strayne heme, and put heme in a dry potte, with hony, peper, safferone, and let hit haue but a boyle, and serue hit for the as mortrewys.”
page 13 note 2 “Atriplex domestica, Arage, or medlus.” Roy. ms. 18. A. VI. f. 66 b, where its virtues are detailed. Arage, aroche. Palsg.
page 13 note 3 There seems evidently here an error of the scribe in the Harl. MS. Arayn, according to Ray, is the name given in Nottinghamshire to the larger kind of spiders. It is used also in Yorkshire. The Latin-English Dictionary in Mr. Wilbraham's library renders aranea an arayne, arantinus, an erayn webbe: the former word is in the Medulla rendered, an attercoppe. See further, under Eranye.
page 14 note 1 Arcetour, arcien. Palsg. Roquefort explains arcien as etudiant en philosophie artifex, artatus.
page 14 note 2 “I shall tell the all the story a-rewe, perpetuo tenore rem explicabo.” Horm. The monkish chronicler Dowglas relates of the miracles “the wiche God schowed for Seinte Thomas of Lancaster, that a blind priest dreamed that if he went to the place where the Earl had been slain he schulde have ayenne his sighte; and so he dremed iij nightes arewe.” Harl. MS. 4690, f. 64 b.
page 14 note 3 Among recipes of the XIV. century in a MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, is one “to sauen venesone of rastichipe (or rastischipe).” See the Roll of A.D. 1381, in Forme of Cury, p. 111, “to do away Restyng of Venisone.” Skinner derives resty from A. Sax. rust, rubigo.
page 14 note 4 “Aroume he hovyd, and withstood.” Rich. C. de Lion. The word occurs in K. Alis, 3340, Chaucer, Book of Fame, B. ii. 32. See Wilbraham's Cheshire Glossary, under the word rynt.
page 14 note 5 A. Sax. earʓ, ignavus, earʓian, torpescere pro timore. The word arwe occurs in C. de Lion, i. 3821. “Frensche men arn arwe and feynte.” In Yorkshire arfe is used in the sense of fearful. See Boucher, under the words Arew, Arf, Arghe, and Arwe; and Jamieson, under Erf, and Ergh. P. Ploughman uses the verb to arwe, to render timid.
page 15 note 1 This insect is called in Norfolk, erriwiggle. Forby. In the Suffolk dialect, arrawiggle. Moore. A. S. ear-wiʓʓa, vermis auricularis.
page 15 note 2 A. Sax. Axe, axsa, cinis. See Boucher, under the word Ass.
page 15 note 3 The reading of the Harl. MS. Askysye, is here given, although probably it is an error, by inadvertence of the scribe. The printed editions all agree with the other MSS. In giving the word Askefise. In the MS. of the Medulla Gramm. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, No. 1022, ciniflo is rendered, an aske fyse; and in another, No. 1360, “ciniphlo, a fyre blowere, an yryn hetere, an askefyce.” The word does not occur in several MSS. of the Medulla in the Brit. Mus., nor in the Ortus Vocabulorum, but in Mr. Wilbraham's curious Latin-English Dictionary, printed about the same time as the Promptuarium, ciniflo is explained to be one, “qui flat in cinere, vel qui preparat pulverem muliebrem. Anglice, aske fyste, a fyre blawer, or an yrne hotter.” The Harl. MS. 2257, a variety of the Medulla, renders the word “a heter of blode iren, or an axe wadelle;” and it appears in Ihre's Lexic. Suiogoth. V. Aska, that askefis was applied as a term of reproach to those who remained indolently at home by the fireside, as axewaddle is used in Devonshire. See Palmer's Glossary, and Boucher under the word Axewaddle.
page 16 note 1 See Schyyd. Astelle, estelle, copeau, éclat de bois, Roquef. a piece of a wooden log cleft for burning.
page 16 note 2 “Lazirium, i. e. incaustum, or asur colour,” Ort. voc. See Ducange, under the word Lazur; and directions “for to make fyn azure of lapis lazuli,” and distinguishing lapis lazuly from “lapis almaine, of whiche men maken a blew bis azure.” Sloan. MS. 73. f. 215, b.
page 16 note 3 John de Garlandia says, “Precones vini clamant gula hiante vinum attaminatum in tabernis, portando vinum temptandum, fusum in cratere,” which the gloss renders atamyd. Liber dictus Diccionarius, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 177, b.
page 16 note 4 A. Sax. Atter, venenum. “This sore is full of matter, or ater; purulentum.” Horm. Atter has the same sense in Norfolk at the present time, and Skinner mentions the word as commonly used in Lincolnshire. See Whytouwre.
page 16 note 5 A. Sax. Atter-coppa, aranea, literally a cup, or head of poison. See a curious tale of the effect of the venom of the atturcoppe at Shrewsbury, in the Preface to Langtoft's Chron. Hearne, i. p. cc. The Medulla renders aranea, an attercoppe, and the English Gloss. on the “Liber vocatus Equus,” Harl. MS. 1002, f. 114, explains the same word as addurcop. Palsgrave gives “Addircop or Spiners web, Araignée;” and Ray says that in Cumberland the word attercob signifies the web, as it does also in Yorkshire. See Boucher and Jamieson. In the Legenda Aurea, spiders are called spyn-coppes. Saynt Felyx, f. 72. In Trevisa's version of the Polychronicon, it is said that in Ireland “there ben attercoppes, bloode-soukers, and eeftes that doon none harme.” Caxton, f. 63, b.
page 17 note 1 “Atyre for a gentilwomans heed, atour.” Palsg. See hereafter under Tyre.
page 17 note 2 “Auayle, prouffit.” Palsg. See an enactment in Rot. Parl. VI. 203, regarding certain manors “with all proufites and avayles to the same perteyning.”
page 17 note 3 “Though you do neuer so many good dedes, you lese your mede if you auaunte you of them, se vanter.” Palsg. The word occurs in another sense in Elyot's Librarie, “Vendito, to sell often, to auaunt, venditatio, an auaunt.”
page 17 note 4 It is very doubtful what tree is here intended. Forby observes that in Norfolk the asp tree, populus tremula, is called ebble, which seems to be merely a variation of abele, the name given by botanists to the populus alba. In a vocabulary in Harl. MS. 1002, viburnum is rendered “a awberne.” The Promptuary gives hereafter Eban tre, ebanus. In early French writers the “bois d'aubor” is often mentioned as in esteem for making bows, but its nature has not been satisfactorily explained, and possibly it may have been identical with the awbel. In German the yew tree is called eben.
page 17 note 5 This word occurs again hereafter, Warpyn, or wex wronge or avelonge as vesselle, oblongo. In Harl. MS. 1002, f. 119, oblongo is rendered to make auelonge; and in the editor's MS. of the Medulla, oblongus is rendered auelonge. A. S. Awoh, oblique. Moore gives the word avellong, used in Suffolk, when the irregular shape of a field interferes with the equal distribution of the work.
page 17 note 6 Avens, caryophillata. Skinner. The virtues attributed, at the time the Promptorium was compiled, to auaunce, by some called harefoot, which it resembles, may be found in Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 67, b. It was used in cookery; see the Forme of Cury, p. 13. By modern botanists it is known as the geum.
page 18 note 1 “Arista, spica, an awne of corne, an ere, or a glene.” Dict. wilbr.
page 18 note 2 The avenere was an officer of the household who had the charge of supplying provender for the horses. A curious account of his duties occurs in MS. Sloane, 1986, f. 38, b. quoted in Boucher's Glossary. See Abatis in Ducange and Spelman. The Clerk Avenar occurs in the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland, 1511, his duties were “for breving daily of horssemete and liuereis of fewell.” Ant. Repert. iv. 233.
page 18 note 3 “I stand in a wer, whether I may go or turne agayne, hesito.” Horm.
page 18 note 4 The awfyn or alphyn was anciently the name of the bishop in the game of chess. Hyde derives it from the Arabic, al-fil, an elephant. The piece was called by the French fol, at an early period, and subsequently aufin. The third chap. of the seconde tractate of Caxton's game of the Chesse, 1474, “tretethe of the Alphyns, her office ande maners. The Alphyns oughte to be made ande formede in manere of Juges syttynge in a chayer withe a book open to fore their eyen. Theyr offyce is for to counceylle the Kynge.” “Alfyn, a man of the chesse borde, avlfin.” Palsg. See Ducange, Douce's Remarks on the European names of Chessmen, Archæol. xi. p. 400, and Sir F. Madden's remarks on the chess-men found in Lewis, Archæol. xxiv. p. 225. Horman, speaking of chess, says, “We shulde have 2 kyngis, and 2 quyens, 4 alfyns, 4 knyghtis, 4 rokis, and 16 paunis.” f. 282, b.
page 18 note 5 “Augrym, algorisme. To counte, reken by cyfers of agryme, enchifrer. To cast an accomptes in aulgorisme with a penne, enchifrer. To caste an accomptes with counters, after the aulgorisme maner, calculer. To caste an accomptes after the comen maner, with counters, compter par iect. I shall reken it syxe times by aulgorisme, or you can caste it ones by counters.” Palsg. It would hence appear that towards the commencement of the XVIth century the use of the Arabic numerals had in some degree superseded the ancient mode of calculating by the abacus, and counters, which, at the period when the Promptorium was compiled, were generally used. Hereafter we find the word Countinge borde as an evidence. They were not indeed wholly disused at a time long subsequent: an allusion to calculation by counters occurs in Shakespeare, and later authors prove that they had not been entirely discarded. Algorithm or algorism, a term universally used in the XIVth and XVth centuries to denote the science of calculation by 9 figures and zero, is of Arabic derivation.
page 18 note 6 “Aukwarde frowarde, peruers. Aukwar lefthanded, gauche, Auke stroke, reuers.” Palsg.
page 18 note 7 “Saynt Johan the Elemosner was mercyfull in suche wyse that he was called al-mosner, or amener.” Leg. aur. f. 83. At the inthronization of Abp. Warham, 1504, to each of the tables was appointed an almner, with sewer, panter, and other officers. Lel. coll. vi. 18. Of the duties of the “aumenere” at the table of a great lord, see a curious English poem, of the times of Henry VI. appended to the “Boke of Curtasye.” Sloan. MS. 1986, f. 43. De officiariis in curiis Dominorum.
page 19 note 1 “Amblyng horse, hacquenée.” Palsg.
page 19 note 2 Among “thingis that ben vsed after the hous,” in Caxton's Boke for Travellers, “upon the herthe belongeth woode or turues, two andyrons of yron (brandeurs), a tonge, a gredyron.” “Awndyrene, andena.” Vocab. Roy. MS. “Aundyern, chenet.” Palsg. “I lacke a fyre pan and andyars to bere up the fuel. Alaribus vel ypopyrgiis.” Horm. It appears that andyrons and dogs were not identical, as generally is understood, for in the Inventory of Sir Henry Unton's effects, 1596, printed by the Berkshire Ashmolean Society, the two are enumerated as occurring together, and both occur also singly. Cotgrave renders “chenets, and landiers, andirons; harpon de fer pour retenir et arrester un poultre, dogge of iron.”
page 19 note 3 “Aunter, adventure.” Palsg. “He bosteth his dedes of aunters.” Horm.
page 19 note 4 “To aunter, put a thyng in daunger, or aduenture, aduenturer.” Palsg.
page 19 note 5 “To auoyde as water dothe that ronneth by a gutter or synke, se vuyder. To blede, or auoyde bloode.” Palsg.
page 19 note 6 “Auowe, veu.” Palsg. This word occurs in R. de Brunne, Wiclif, and Chaucer. The phrase “perfourmed his auowe” occurs in the Legenda Aurea, f. 47.
page 19 note 7 “I have auowed my pylgrymage unto our lady of Walsyngham, j'ai aduoue.” Palsg. In the same book the word is used in a sense somewhat different. “To auowe, warrant, or make good or upholde, as in marchaundyse or such like. Take this clothe of my worde, I auowe it for good, je le pleuuys.”
page 19 note 8 “But I wol not avowen that I say.” Chauc.
page 20 note 1 “Babwyne beest, baboyn.” Palsg.
page 20 note 2 “Librilla, baculus cum corrigia plumbata ad librandum carnes. Pegma, baculus cum massa plumbi in summitate pendente, et ut dicit Cornutus tali baculo scenici ludebant.” Cath. “Librilla dicitur instrumentum librandi, idem est percutiendi lapides in castra, i. mangonus, a bable, or a dogge malyote.” Ort. voc. In the Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. f. 56, b. occur under Nomina armorum, with mase and other weapons, “Dog babulle, babrilla, Babulle, Pegma.” Palsgrave renders “Bable for a foole, marotte.” See Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, where will be found numerous representations of the bauble. Baubella, in old French babioles, trinkets, gewgaws.
page 20 note 3 Piers Ploughman describes Covetyse as “byttel browede and baberlupped.” In old French the thick lips of some animals are called babeines. Roquef.
page 20 note 4 “Bace, ung bar.” Palsg. “Lubin, a base, or sea wolfe. Bar, the fish called a base.” Cotgr. The basse, or sea perch, the lupus of the Romans, labrax lupus, Cuv. seems to be the fish here intended, and not the coal-fish, according to the explanation in Boucher's Glossary.
page 20 note 5 “Badge of a gentylman, la deuise d'ung Seigneur.” Palsg. It was a cognisance or ornament, forming part of the livery assigned by a chieftain to his followers, which led to the use of uniforms. The word is probably derived from A.S. beag, corona, armilla. See in Harl. MS. 4632, an interesting list of badges of cognisance, printed in Collect. Topogr. et Genealogica, vol. III. p. 54.
page 21 note 1 This word seems to signify shelled, and consequently prepared for the table, from bayn, ready. See Jamieson and Boucher. In Norfolk bein means pliant or limber, Forby. Compare Beyn or plyaunte, which occurs hereafter.
page 21 note 2 “Lucifuga, quedam avis lucem fugiens, a backe.” Ort. voc. “Backe, a beest that flyeth, chauvesouris.” Palsg. “Vespertilio, a reremouse or backe.” Eliot. A.S. Hrere-mus.
page 21 note 3 Bakstale may be derived from A. S. stæl, stal, locus, status. In German stellen signifies to place.
page 21 note 4
“With his owen hand than made he ladders three,
To climben by the renges and the stalkes
Unto the tubbes honging in the balkes.” Chauc. Miller's Tale.
A.S. Balc, trabs. “Trabes, a beame, or a balke of a hous.” Ort. voc. “Balke, pouste,” i. e.poutre. Palsg.
page 22 note 1
“Look how a sick man for his hele
Takith baldemoyn with the canele.” Gower.
Of the virtues attributed to this herb, see Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. “Genciana ys an herbe that me clepyth baldemoyne, or feldewort.”
page 22 note 2 The signification here given to bale is uncommon; its usual meaning is mischief, woe or calamity. Thus Hampole, in the Pricke of Conscience, calls the day of doom “the day of bale and bitterness.” A.S. Balew, exitium.
page 22 note 3 Hereafter occurs in the Promptorium ɜErde baleys, virya. Virga is rendered a ɜerde or a rodde, Med. and Ort. voc.; and such the baleys seems to have been, and not a besom, balai, in the present sense of the word. Matthew Paris relates that in 1252, a person came to perform penance at St. Alban's, “ferens in manu virgam quam vulgariter baleis appellamus,” with which he was disciplined by each of the brethren. Wats in the Glossary observes, “Ita Norfolcienses mei vocant virgam majorem, et ex pluribus longioribus viminibus; qualibus utuntur pœdagogi severiores in scholis.” Baleys occurs in Piers Ploughman in the same sense. Forby does not notice it: but the verb to balase occurs amongst the provincialisms of Shropshire; see Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua.
page 22 note 4 In the Wicliffite version Baili seems to imply the charge or office, “ɜelde reken-ynge of thi baili, for thou myght not now be baylyf.” Luc. 16. “He is my ryue and bayly, Inquilinus prediorum urbicorum et rusticorum.” Horm.
page 22 note 5 “Crebro, a balke bitwyne two furrowes. Porca vorat furfur, aratrum vult vertere porcam.” Med. harl. ms. 2257. “He hath made a balke in the lande, scannum fecit, sive crudum solum et inmotum reliquit.” Horm. “Baulke of lande, separaison.” Palsg. A.S. Balc, porca. The word is still in use in Norfolk and Suffolk.
page 22 note 6 In Gawayn and the Green Knyɜt occur the expressions “a balɜ berg,” and “balɜe hawncheɜ,” which are explained by Sir F. Madden to mean ample, swelling. Mr. Stevenson, however, in Boucher's Glossary, interprets the word as smooth or unwrinkled.
page 23 note 1 The banker was a cloth, carpet, or covering of tapestry for a form or bench, from the French “banquier, tapis pour mettre sur un banc, stragulum abaci.” Nicot. cotgr. “Amphitapa est tapetum circumfilosum, a woll loke.” Ort. “Tapes utrinque villosus.” Duc.; denoting the coverings of arras and tapestry work, wrought, perhaps, on both sides, such as are enumerated in the Inventory of Sir John Fastolfe's effects, 1459. Archæol. xxi. 257, 265. We there also find “Banker, hangyng tapestry worke,” which may mean the tapestry commonly in use for hangings, or that the Banker was in this instance the covering of a high-backed seat, over which it was hung. In an earlier Inventory of the Priory, Durham, 1446, occur “iij Bankquerez paleat' de blodio intenso et remisso; costerœ pro ornatu murorum ejusdem camerœ” these last being of the same suit as the Bankers, that is, of cloth of say, paly dark blue and light. Inventories published by the Surtees Society, i. 92. In the Teutonic, banck-werck is rendered by Kilian, “tapes, opus polymitum, vulgo bancalia, scamnalia, subsellii stragulum.” A Vocabulary of nearly the same date as the Promptorium gives “pepotasina, bachis, banquere.” Roy. ms. 17. C. XVII. This word has been in Boucher's Glossary incorrectly explained to mean a table-cloth.
page 23 note 2 Baptym is not an error of the scribes, but a singular corruption of orthography. In the other MSS. as well as the printed editions, the same spelling occurs. In the Wicliffite version it is thus written, as also baptym, and baptem, in the Legenda Aurea. The observation would be trivial, did it not afford an evidence of the predominant influence of the French language in England at the period; the word is evidently thence received, and not from the Latin.
page 23 note 3 Compare hereafter Debate maker, or barator, incentor. Feyghtare, or baratowre, pugnax, which is distinguished from Feyghtare, pugnator, showing that the word implies one of a contentious disposition, and not an actual combatant.
page 23 note 4 Spelman explains the barbacan to be “munimen à fronte castri, aliter antemurale dictum; etiam foramen in urbium castrorumque mœniis ad tragicienda missilia. Sax. burgekening. Vox Arabica.” Pennant asserts that the Saxons called the barbican to the north-west of Cripplegate, burgh-kenning; other writers have suggested a different etymology, A.S. burk-beacn, urbis specula. Bullet would derive it from the Celtic, bar, before, bach, an enclosure. Lye gives barbacan as a word adopted in the Anglo-Saxon language, and we must certainly not seek thence its derivation. The best specimens of the outworks to which this name was given were at York, and called the Bars, of which one still exists in good preservation.
page 24 note 1 Burbul, papula. Roy. ms. 17 C. XVII. de infirmitatibus. It is probably the same as “barbes, pushes or little bladders under the tongues of horses and cattell, the which they kill, if they be not speedily cured. Barbes aux veaux, the barbles.” Cotgr.
page 24 note 2 The ornaments of the girdle, which frequently were of the richest description, were termed barres, and in French cloux; they were perforated to allow the tongue of the buckle to pass through them. Originally they were attached transversely to the wide tissue of which the girdle was formed, but subsequently were round or square, or fashioned like the heads of lions, and similar devices, the name of barre being still retained, though improperly. Thus a citizen of Bristol bequeathed in 1430, “zonam harnizatam cum barris argenti rotundis.” In the description of the girdle of Richesse, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, we read,
“The barris were of gold full fine
Upon a tissue of sattin,
Full hevie, grete and nothing light,
In everiche was a besaunt wight.”
In the original, “les cloux furent d'or epuré.” The word was similarly applied to the ornaments of other parts of costume, such as the garter, worn by the Knight of the Order, or spur-leathers, as in Gawayn and the Green Knyɜt, i. 287.
—“clene spures under
Of bryɜt golde vpon silke bordes
Barred ful ryche.”
page 25 note 1 “Sporta, a bere lepe, or basket.” Ort. voc. In one MS. of the Medulla it is rendered “a berynge lep.” A.S. Bere, hordeum, leap, corbis. See Beringe lepe.
page 25 note 2 In Norfolk at the present time the season of sowing barley is termed barley-sele, in Suffolk, barsel. Forby, moore. A.S. sel, occasio.
page 25 note 3 “And in hire barme this litel child she leid.” Chauc. A.S. bearm, gremium.
page 25 note 4 Chaucer uses the word; it occurs in the Miller's Tale:
“A barme cloth as white as morrow milke
Upon her lends, full of many a gore.”
The Medulla explains limas to be “vestis que protenditur ab umbilico usque ad pedes, quâ utuntur servi coci et femine. Anglice, barm cloth.” A.S. barm-ræʓl, or barmclaʓ, mappula, Elfric.
page 25 note 5 The melotes is explained in the Catholicon to be “quedam vestis de pilis vel pellibus taxi facta, a collo pendens usque ad lumbos, quâ monachi utuntur. Et iste habitus est necessarius proprie ad operis exercitium, eadem ut pera ut dicunt.” Uguitio says, “melota ex pellibus caprinis esse dicitur, ex unâ vero parte dependens.” See Ducange. The King's MS. gives barniskyn, but the reading of the printed editions appears to be preferable, barme-skyn, implying simply an apron formed of the skin of a beast. Barm-skin is preserved in the dialect of Lancashire, where it means a leathern apron.
page 25 note 6 A barowe or crowde was a small vehicle, whether precisely similar or not to the barrow of the present times, cannot be asserted. When Sir Amiloun was worn out with leprosy, and reduced to “tvelf pans of catel,” the faithful Amoraunt expended that little sum in the purchase of a barowe, therein to carry the knight about.
“Therwith thai went ful yare
And bought hem a gode croude wain.” Amis and Amiloun, 1867.
A.S. berewe, vectula. “Cenovectorium, a berw. Instrumentum cum quo deportatur cenus.” Med. See Crowde, barowe.
page 25 note 7 The Baselard was a kind of long dagger, which was suspended to the girdle, and worn, not only by the armed knight, but by civilians, and even priests. Thus Piers Ploughman, in allusion to the neglect of clerical propriety, says,
“Sir John and Sir Jeffery hath a girdle of silver,
A baselard, or a ballocke knife, with bottons ouergilt.”
Knighton tells us that the weapon with which Sir William Walworth put Jack Straw to death was a basillard. Sir William was a member of the Fishmongers' Company, who still preserve the weapon traditionally recorded to have been used by him on this occasion, and which he presented to the Company. Among Songs and Carols edited by Thos. Wright, is a spirited poem describing the baselard. “Pugio, a dagger or a baslarde.” Ort. “A hoked baslarde (bizachius) is a perels wepon with the Turkes.” Horm. In old French bazelaire, badelaire, from balthearis, Roquef. See Ducange, basalardus.
page 26 note 1 See Leep, or baskett. “Lepe, or a basket, corbeille.” Palsg. A.S. leap, corbis.
page 26 note 2 “Bast, bâtard.” Roquef. “He was bigeten o baste, God it wot.” Artour and Merlin. Weber, iii. 360.
page 26 note 3 Fascenia is explained to be “clausibilis vallatio circa castra et civitates que solet fieri quibusdam fascibus stipularum et lignorum.” Cath. “Closture de bois, palis.” Cath. abbrev. Roquefort gives “Bastille, château de bois.” In Caxton's boke of the Fayt of armes, part ii. c. Xxiiii. of habillements that behouen to an assawte, are directions at length respecting bastylles and bolwerks of wood, formed with palebordes called penelles, with defences after the manner of towers, and other batellements. See also c. Xxxiv. Lord Berners, in his translation of Froissart, writes, “They landed lytell and lytell, and so lodged in Calays, and there about, in bastylles that they made dayly.”
page 26 note 4 “This dublet was nat well basted at the first, and that maketh it to wrinkle thus, ce pourpoynt n'estoit pas bien basty.” Palsg. Chaucer uses this word, Rom. of the Rose, “With a threde basting my slevis.” “Besten. Fris. Sicambr. leviter consuere.” Kilian.
page 26 note 5 This word occurs in the Wicliffite version, Matt. xxvi. 47, “Lo Judas, oon of the twelve, cam, and with him a greet cumpany with swordis and battis.” A.S. batt, fustis.
page 26 note 6 “Batfowlynge, la pipee.” Palsg. The Catholicon explains hamis to be “fustis aucupabilis, scil. virgula que sustinet rhete in quo capiuntur fere, vel que levat rhete in quo capiuntur aves.”
page 27 note 1 “Batyldore, battouer à lessive, betyl to bete clothes with, battoyr.” Palsg. Feritorium is explained in the Medulla to be “instrumentum cum quo mulieres verberant vesturas in lavando, a battyng staffe,” “or a betyll.” Ort. voc.
page 27 note 2 “Baudrike, carquant, baldrike for a ladyes necke, carquan.” Palsg. Thus is found in the Ort. Voc. “Anabola est ornamentum mulieris a collo dependens, a baudrik.” The word had, however, a more general signification; it is derived, probably, from baudrier, a strap or girdle of leather, but was afterwards used to denote similar appliances of any material, and of costly decoration. In Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, bauderyk is the appellation of the guige, or transverse strap by which the shield was suspended round the neck. Hall relates that “Sir Thomas Brandon wore a great baudericke of gold, greate and massy, trauerse his body;” and he further describes the Earl of South. ampton, Great Admiral of England, as “wearing baudrick-wise a chayne at the whych did hang a whistle of gold, set with ryche stones,” which was a badge of office. It would appear that the bauderyke was properly a belt worn transversely, as was the “baudre de serico, argento munitum pro cornu Regis.” Lib. garderob. edw. i. 1299. It signified also the cingulum, or military belt, and in the 16th century, the jewelled ornament worn round the neck both by ladies, and noblemen. See Hall's Chronicle, p. 508, baldrellus and baldringus in Ducange, and Boucher's Glossary.
page 27 note 3 “Bawcyn, or brok, fiber, castor, taxus, melota.” Garl. synonym. These words are in the Medulla and Ortus explained as signifying the brocke. A.S. broc, a badger. The word bauseneɜ occurs Cott. MS. Nero, A. x. f. 62: and baucines in William and the Werwolf. See Bawson in Boucher's Glossary.
page 28 note 1 In the Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. occurs “rogacio, oracio, deprecacio, a bede or prayer.” A.S. bidde, oratio, biddan, petere.
page 28 note 2 A.S. bedredda, clinicus.
page 28 note 3 The verb is used in the sense of proffering in Gawayn and the Green Knyɜt, in Robert de Brunne's Chronicle, and in Sir Tristrem. A. S. beodan, jubere.
page 28 note 4 In the will of Sir Thomas de Hemgrave, dated 1419, among the Hengrave evidences in the possession of John Gage Rokewode, Esq. is the following bequest to the bedridden poor in Norwich, “Item lego cuilibet pauperum vocatorum bedlawermen infra civitatem predictam, iiii d. ad orandum pro animâ meâ.”
page 28 note 5 See hereafter Thyggynge, mendicacio. A. S. piʓan, accipere cibum.
page 29 note 1 See Behotyn, or make a beheste. In the Wicliffite version Acts ii. 39 is rendered, “the biheeste is to ɜou and to ɜoure sones.” Horman speaks of making “behestes to God and sayntis. I haue behest a pygge to Saynt Antony, voto nuncupavi.” “Nutio, i. promissio, a promyse, or behyghtynge. Promissio, a beheste.” Ort.
page 29 note 2 “To behest or promesse, to behyght.” Palsg. A.S. behatan, vovere. The Chronicler of Glastonbury, Douglas, relates amongst the miracles of St. Thomas of Lancaster, that a certain sick man “beheten to God and to Seinte Thomas thatte iff he werre hole thatte he schulde come thider to seke him” (at Pomfret.) Harl. MS. 4690, f. 64, b. In the Wicliffite version we read, “what euere God hath bihiɜt he is miɜti to do,” Rom. iv. 21.
page 29 note 3 Bane in the dialects of Yorkshire and Somerset signifies near, or convenient.
page 29 note 4 “Torrens, aqua sordida ex inundationibus pluviarum, a beke or ryndell.” A.S. becc, rivulus. The word is commonly used in the North. See Brockett.
page 29 note 5 A passage in Gautier de Bibelesworth, where he speaks of one who has been splashed by horses in miry places, “Cy vent vn garsoun esclaté,” or esclauoté, has this gloss in the margin, “bilagged wit swirting.” Arund. MS. 220, f. 303. A. S. lagu, aqua.
page 29 note 6 “Recommaunde me to your bel-fadre, and to your beldame, à vostre tayon et à vostre taye.” Boxe for trav. caxt.
page 30 note 1 “Cheueraux cheyrist et tor torreye, kide motereth, bole belleth.” G. de bibelesw. “de naturele noyse des bestes.” This word is retained in the dialect of Shropshire, and in Somerset to belg has the same sense. See Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, and Jenning's Glossary. A.S. bellan, boare.
page 30 note 2 This word appears of rather questionable introduction: the printed editions in which it appears omit the next word Belte, or gyrdylle. It is not found in the MSS.
page 30 note 3 Campanarius is explained in the Catholicon to be a bell-founder. See hereafter ɜEtyn metel, ɜEtynge of metelle as bellys, fusio. A.S. ʓeotere, fusor.
page 30 note 4 A. Sax. bene, precatio, daʓ, dies. The word seems synonymous with A. Sax. bentiid, rogationum dies, by which name the three days preceding Ascension day were known.
page 30 note 5 “Exorcista, id est adjurator vel increpator, a benette or a conjurer.” Ort. The lesser orders in the Christian church were four, Ostiarius, Lector, Exorcista, Acolythus. The functions of the third extended to the expulsion of evil spirits by the imposition of hands upon persons possessed, recently baptized, and catechumens. The ceremony was always accompanied with aspersion, and the name benett was doubtless taken from the aqua benedicta, eau bénite, or, perhaps, from the vessel called in French bénitier, which contained the holy-water. In a will dated 1449 is a bequest of “a gret holy-water scoppe of silver, with a staff benature, the sayd benature and staff weyng Xx nobles in plate.” The staff benature was the aspersorium, termed in the Promptorium Strenkyl, halywater styc. Fox, relating the death of Hooper, states that it was part of the ceremony of degrading Bishops to “take from them the lowest vesture which they had in taking bennet and collet” (i. e. acolyte). Eccles. Hist. iii. 152, A.D. 1555. T. Becon, in the Reliques of Rome, says, “Boniface V. decreed that such as were but benet and colet should not touch the reliques of saints, but they only which are subdeacons, deacons, and priests.” Edit. 1563, f. 183.
page 31 note 1 This appears to be the wood-bine, which in Swedish is called beenwed. Linn. Flor. Suec. Verelius explains the Icelandic beinwid to be ossea pericliminis species, a bony kind of honeysuckle, beinwid signifying bone-wood. Ivy is in the North called bindwood. See Jamieson.
page 31 note 2 See Byngger and Bynge, theca, cumera, A.S. bin. In Norfolk and Suffolk still pronounced bing, as in Danish, bing, cumulus. Forby.
page 31 note 3 This is one of the number of words in which the A. S. Mæl, pars, occurs in composition. The A. S. form of these adverbs is mælum, in parts, bit-mælum, dæl-mælum, &c. We have retained piecemeal, but the rest are wholly obsolete. See in Nares, drop-meal, inch-meal, and limb-meal. P. Ploughman uses pounde-mele and percelmele. In the Liber Festivalis we read that William Tracy, after the murder of St. Thomas of Canterbury, “fylle syke and roted all his body, in somoche that himselfe with his owne hondes cast away his owne flesshe lompe-mele.” Palsgrave gives “by ynche-meale, menuement, par poulcees, and flock-meale, par troupeaux.”
“Only that point his peple bare so sore
That flockmel on a day to him they went.” Chauc. Clerke's T.
page 32 note 1 See hereafter But, or bercel.
page 32 note 2 “Bearwarde, gardeur d'ours.” Palsg. A curious representation of the bear-ward, and baiting the bear, occurs in the Louterel Psalter, illuminated in the early part of the reign of Edw. III. It has been engraved in Vetust. Monum. VI. pl. xxiv. In the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland in 1511, under the head of Rewards, is one of “6s. 8d. to the Kyngs or Queenes Barward, if they have one,” when they come to the Earl. Ant. Rep. Iv. p. 253. The Earl had also in his own family an official of the same kind, whose reward was 20s. Shakespeare uses the word, and also bearard or bear-yerd, which are synonymous.
page 32 note 3 Beryl is used by Chaucer and the authors of the XIVth and XVth centuries, to denote the precious stone so called, and also a finer description of crystal glass, which resembled it in transparency or colour. This distinction is not preserved here; but it is made by Palsgrave: “Berall, fyne glass, beril. Beryll, a precious stone, beril.” Elyot renders “Glessum, crystal or berylle.” See Whitaker's Cathedral of St. Germains, ii. 280.
page 32 note 4 One of the MSS. of the Medulla renders sporta, a berynge lep; in the Ortus, it is explained as a bere lepe, or basket. The word is perhaps synonymous with Barlylepe, to kepe yn corne, which occurs above, aud in the printed editions is spelled Barlep. A.S. bere, hordeum, leap, corbis.
page 32 note 5 A. S. beorma, fermentum. See hereafter Sporgyn, taken from the French, espurger.
page 32 note 6 Alexander Neccham, who died in 1227, gives in his treatise de naturis rerum, a curious account “de ave que vulgo dicitur bernekke,” which grew, as he asserts, from wood steeped in the sea, or trees growing on the shores. Roy. MS. 12 G.XI.f.31. The marvellous tales respecting this bird, which has been supposed to be the chenalopeces, mentioned by Pliny as a native of Britain, are to be found at length in Gesner, Olaus Magnus, and many ancient writers. Giraldus gives in his Topographia Hiberniæ, c. xi. a detailed account “de bernacis ex abiete nascentibus,” as a phenomenon of which he had been an eye-witness on the Irish shores, and states that these birds were, on account of their half-fishy extraction, eaten during Lent. This indulgence, of which the propriety was argued by Michael Meyer in his treatise de volucri arboreâ, was sanctioned by the authority of the Sorbonne. It is scarcely needful to observe that the origin of these strange statements is to be found in the multivalve shell-fish, the lepas anatifera, which attaches itself to submerged wood, or the bottoms of ships. “Ciconia, i. ibis, a bernacle, a myrdrummyll or a buture.” Ort. voc. “A barnak.” Med. gramm. Junius derives the name from the fabulous origin of the bird, A. S. bearn, filius, and ac, quercus. See Claik, in Jamieson, and barnache in Menage.
page 33 note 1 “Chamus est quoddam genus freni, vel capistrum, an halter or bernacle.” Ort. voc. Junius derives the word from the French berner, comprimere petulantiam; and Roquefort mentions a kind of torture practised by the Saracens, termed bernicles. The Wicliffite version renders 2 Kings, xix, 28, “y schal putte a sercle in þi nose þirlis, and a bernacle in þi lippis.” Cott. MS. Claud. E. Ii.
page 33 note 2 Berne is the contraction of A.S. bere, hordeum, and ern, locus. Lathe, which does not occur in its proper place in the Promptorium, is possibly a word of Danish introduction into the eastern counties, Lade, horreum, Dan. Skinner observes that it was very commonly used in Lincolnshire. It occurs in Chaucer:
“Why ne hadst thou put the capell in the lathe.” Reves Tale.
“Horreum, locus ubi reponitur annona, a barne, a lathe.” Ort. voc. “Granarium, lathe.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “A lathe, apotheca, horreum.” Cath. angl.
page 33 note 3 “Bargheame, epiphium.” Cath. angl. This word is still retained in the North of England; see Barkhaam in Brockett's Glossary, Barkham, Craven dialect, Brauchin, Cumberland, Brechame, Jamieson. It occurs in the curious marginal gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth, Arund. MS. 220, f. 302.
“Les cous de chiuaus portunt esteles, hames (hamberwes, MS. Phill.)
Coleres de quyr, et bourle hoceles.” beruhames.
page 33 note 4 A.S. bearw, berwe, nemus.
page 33 note 5 The reading of the Harl. MS. seems here to be erroneous; the word is doubtless adopted from the French, bestail, cattle.
page 33 note 6 “Bestynge, colustrum.” Cath. angl. “Colostrum, novum lac quod statim primo mulgetur post fetum, quod cito coagulatur, beestnynge. Colustrum, beestnynge or ruddys.” Ort. voc. A.S. beost, bystinʓ, colustrum.
page 34 note 1 See a curious account of the virtues attributed to betony in the XVth century, Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 68, where it is said to be “also clepyd byschuppyswort.” Horman observes that “nesynge is caused with byten (betonica) thrust in the nostril.” The powdered root of hellebore was another homely sternutatory anciently much in request.
page 34 note 2 “Merendula, a beuer after none. Merenda, comeslio in meridie, vel cibus qui declinante die sumitur.” Ort. Harrison, in his description of England, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles, i. 170, remarks that “of old we had breakefastes in the forenoone, beuerages or nuntions after dinner, and thereto reare suppers, generallie when it was time to go to rest, a toie brought into England by hardie Canutus; but nowe those are very well past, and ech one, except some yoong hungrie stomach that cannot fast till dinner time, contenteth himself with dinner and supper.” The higher classes, he observes, dine at 11 and sup at 5, merchants seldom before 12, and 6. This was written about 1579. Sherwood renders, “Bever, or drinking, un réciner, collation, gouster. To bever, réciner;” and Cotgrave explains un réciner as “an afternoones nuncheon, or collation, an Aunders-meat.” See hereafter Nunmete, which seems to have been much the same as the intermediate refection here called Beuer. The word bever still signifies in Suffolk an afternoon snack. Moore.
page 34 note 3 A.S. beofer, castor. That the beaver was anciently an inhabitant of these islands, the laws of Howel Dha, and the curious description of its habits given by Giraldus, in his Itinerary of Wales, 1. ii. c. 3, satisfactorily prove. The fur of this animal was in estimation from an early period. Piers Ploughman says,
“And yet vnder that cope, a cote hath he furred
With foyns, or with fichewes, or with fyn beuere.”
“Me fyndeth furres of beuers, of lombes, pylches of hares and of conyes. On treuue fourrures d'escurieus,” &c. Caxton, Boke for Travellers. The beuer hat is mentioned by Chaucer as a part of female attire, and by Hall as worn by the Stradiote light horsemen in 1513.
page 34 note 4 See Woode or madde. A.S. wod, furiosus.
page 35 note 1 The Medulla renders “sigillatim, fro seel to seel.” Harl. MS. 2257.
page 35 note 2 Palsgrave renders byce by azur: the word is, however, probably taken from the French couleur bise, which properly means a brownish or blackish hue. In some curious instructions respecting the production of fine azure from lapis lazuli, it is observed that to distinguish this last “from lapis almaine of whiche men maken a blewebis azure,” they should be exposed to fire, in which the inferior material turns rather black, and becomes “brokel.” Sloan. MS. 73, f. 215, b. Probably byce, or rather blue byce, as it was in ancient times usually termed, was a preparation of zaffre, of a dim and brownish cast of colour, in comparison with the brilliancy of the true azure.
page 35 note 3 A.S. biddan, orare. In the Book of Curtasye, the young child on coming to church is thus admonished,
“Rede, or synge, or byd prayeris
To Crist for all thy Cristen ferys.” Sloane MS. 1986, f. 22 b.
page 35 note 4 “Bostio, an oxe dryver.” Ort. Compare Bey or boy, scurrus.
page 35 note 5 “To byge, fundare, condere, edificare. A bygynge, construccio, structura. Bygynge vndyr erthe, subterraneus.” Cath. angl. A.S. byʓʓan, ædificare. See Big, in Boucher's Glossary, and Jamieson.
page 35 note 6 What was the precise kind of cup called byker, or beaker, it is not easy to determine. This word occurs as early as 1348, in the accounts of the Treasurer of Edward, Prince of Wales; “ii magne pecie argenti, vocate Bikers, emellate in fundo, cum cooperculis cum batellis, et ex unâ parte deauratis.” In this instance they were destined to be presented to ladies. (Beltz, Memor. of the Garter, p. 385.) Becher in German signifies a cup or goblet, as does beker in Dutch, and Teutonic; possibly we derived the vessel to which the name was originally given from Flanders or Germany. Of cognate derivation is the Italian bicchiero. In the later Latinity bacar, baccharium have the same meaning; see Ducange. The common root of these words was perhaps the Greek Βικος, vas habens ansas. Menagm.
page 35 note 7 “Beckeryng, scrimysshe, mêslée. Bicker, fyghtyng, escarmouche.” Palsg. “Anon after the fylde began to beker.” Horm. Skinner suggests the Welsh bicre, conflictus, as the etymon of this word, which, however, he inclines to think of Anglo-Saxon origin.
page 36 note 1 The curious treatise of the nature and properties of herbs, Roy. MS. A. VI. f. 69, b. gives “Billura, an herbe that me clepyth billure; he ys much worth to rype bocch.” Elyot explains lauer to be “an herbe growyng in the water, lyke to alisaunder, but hauyng lesse leaues. Some do call it bylders.”
page 36 note 2 The Catholicon explains matricula to signify carta promissionis, and cites the life of St. Silvester, which says that he inscribed the names of widows and orphans “in matriculâ.” Spelman gives A.S. bille, schedula; the word Bylet was, however, probably of French introduction, as also was scrowe or scroll, escrou.
page 36 note 3 To job signifies still in Norfolk and Suffolk to peck with a sharp and strong beak. Forby. Tusser calls the pecking of turkies jobbing.
page 36 note 4 The word is thus written, but the correct reading probably is comnawnt. See hereafter Cumnawnte, pactum.
page 36 note 5 Forby gives bing in the dialect of East Anglia, Danish, bing, cumulus. A.S. bin, præsepe. The word binna occurs in a deed of the year 1263, in Chron. W. Thorn, 1912, where it signifies a receptacle for grain. Cumera is explained by Uguitio to be “vas frumentarium de festucis,” and no doubt the bin was anciently formed of wicker-work, as in German benne crates, Belg. benn, corbis. In the Indenture of delivery of Berwick Castle, in 1539, occurs “in the pantre, a large bynge of okyn tymbar with 3 partitions.” Archæol. xi. 440.
page 37 note 1 The more ancient sense of this word, as denoting the place, and not the act of interment, is here distinctly preserved. A.S. byriʓels, sepulchrum. In the Wicliffite version biriel occurs often in this sense. “And the kyng seide, what is this biriel which I se ? And the citeseyns of that cite answeriden to him, it is the sepulcre of the man of God that cam fro Juda.” IVth Book of Kings, xxiii. 17. Harl. MS. 2249. In Mark v. 5, the demoniac is said to have “hadde an hous in birielis.” So likewise in Leg. Aur. “It happed after, that vpon the buryels grewe a ryght fayre flouredelyse.” f. cxi. The Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 145, gives “Mausoleum, a byryelle, anabatrum, a chyrchestyle.”
page 37 note 2 The Solanum dulcamara, or woody nightshade.
page 37 note 3 See hereafter Lable, or labbe, which occurs in Chaucer. This word is doubtless derived from the same source as blabbe and blaberyn. Skinner would derive the verb to blabber from the Latin, “q. d. elabiare, i. e. labiis quicquid occurrit effutire.” Compare Teut. blapperen, garrire, Belg. lapperen, blaterare.
page 37 note 4 This word signifies a person who stammers, or has any defect in his speech. The Ortus renders “traulus, a ratelare.” It appears in Ducange that balbus and blesus are synonymous with traulus; the first of these is rendered in Cooper's Thesaurus, one “that cannot well pronounce wordes, a maffler in the mouth.”
page 38 note 1 Blanket is taken from the French blanchet, woollen cloth, no doubt of a white colour; the distinction here made is not very clear, but lodix appears to have been a bed-covering, as we now use the word blanket, langellus, blanket cloth generally. “Langeul, langais, blanchet, drap de laine.” Roquef. The Medulla explains lodex to be “a blanchet or a whytil;” the latter word, which is merely a version of the French, is still retained in North Britain to denote a woollen wrapper used by females. “Lodix, quicquid in lecto supponitur, et proprie pannus villosus, Anglice, a blanket.” Ort. voc. See hereafter Daggysweyne, lodix.
page 38 note 2 In Sloan. MS. 73 f. 213 are directions for making blanc plumb, album plumbum, with “strong reed wine drestis, and brode platis of newe leed, in a great erthen pot or barel, and closed for six wokis or more in hoot horsdunge.” This MS. is of the close of the XVth century; an earlier receipt occurs in Sloan. MS. 2584, f. 6.
page 38 note 3 Lydgate mentions this among the fruits more choice than “pechis, costardes, etiam wardons.”
“Pipus, quinces, blaunderelle to disport,
And the pome-cedre corageos to recomfort.” Minor Poems, p. 15.
“Blaundrell, an apple, brandureau.” Palsg. “Blanduriau, très blanc; pommes de Caleville blanc, qui venoient d'Auvergne.” Roquef. “Blandureau, the white apple, called in some parts of England, a blaundrell.” Cotgr.
page 38 note 4 The Catholicon gives the following explanation: “Guna vel guina, vas vitreum, quod et Latinis a similitudine cucurbitœ ventosa vocatur, quœ animata spiritu per igniculum in superficiem trahit sanguinem.” Papias; see Ducange. The operation of cupping, which is one of ancient use, was doubtless well known to the Friar of Lynn, who compiled the Promptorium, as one of the means resorted to when, according to the monastic institutions, there were at stated seasons (temporibus minucionis) general blood-lettings. See Martene de Antiq. Ritibus, and Mr. Rokewode's note on Chron. Joc. de Brakelonda, p. 11. In the Chirurgica of John Arderne, surgeon to Edw. III. where he speaks of cupping, “ventosacio,” a representation is given of the bledynge boyste. Sloane MS. 65, f. 70. Compare the verb Boyston.
page 39 note 1 “Bleke, wan of colour, blesme.” Palsg. A.S. blæc, pallidus.
“Some one, for she is pale and bleche.” Gower, Conf. Am. B. v.
Bleek is still used in Norfolk to signify pale and sickly. Forby.
page 39 note 2 Teut. bleycken, excandefacere insolando. A.S. ablæcan, dealbare.
page 39 note 3 The Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1587, renders “Albatrix, candidaria, blecherre or lawnderre.” “Whitstarre, blanchisseur de toylles.” Palsg. See Whytstare.
page 39 note 4 Horman says, “Wrytters ynke shulde be fyner than blatche, atramentum scriptorium lectius esset sutorio.” “Bleche for souters, attrament noyr.” Palsg. A.S. blæc, atramentum.
page 39 note 5 “Lippus dicitur qui habet oculos lachrymantes cum palpebris euersatis, blered of the eye.” Ort. voc. In Piers Ploughman the verb to blere occurs, used metaphorically. “He blessede hem with his bulles, and blerede hure eye.” “To bleare ones eye, begyle him, enguigner.” Palsg.
page 39 note 6 “I gyue him the best counsayle I can, and the knaue bleareth his tonge at me, tirer la langue,” Palsg. See Mowe, or skorne.
page 39 note 7 See Releef, or brocaly of mete.
page 40 note 1 Hampole, in the Pricke of Conscience, terms the day of final doom, “the day of sorowe that neuer salle blyne.” Harl. MS. 6923. Fabyan, in the Prologe to vol. ii. speaks of the great devotion that occupied, without any intermission, the numerous religious houses in London,
“When one hath done, another begyn,
So that of prayer they neuer blyn.”
“To blynne, rest or cease of, cesser. He neuer felt wo or neuer sall blynne, that hath a bysshoppe to his kin.” Palsg. A.S. blinnan, cessare.
page 40 note 2 The reading of the Harl. MS. Erye may at first sight appear to be corrupt; it is, however, retained, because hereafter there occur Erye, or Erthe, and Eryyn, or of the erthe.
page 40 note 3 This word occurs in Chaucer, Test. of Creseide.
“And at his mouth a blubber stode of fome.”
“Blober upon water (or bubble) bouteillis.” Palsg. The verb to blubre occurs in an analogous sense, in Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, lin. 2174. “The borne blubred ther inne as hit boyled hade.” Blubber still signifies in Norfolk a bubble, from blob, as Forby says. See Bleb in Skinner, and Jamieson.
page 40 note 4 “Blocke of a tree, tronchet, tronc. Blocke of tynne, saumon d'estain.” Palsg.
page 40 note 5 Skinner gives blare as an English word, from Belg. blaren, mugire. Teut. blerren, clamitare. It is retained in the dialect of Norfolk, as applied to calves, sheep, asses, and children. Forby. Blore signifies a roaring wind, as in the Mirrour for Magistrates, p. 838, “hurried headlong with the south-west blore.”
page 41 note 1 “Bobet on the heed, coup de poing.” Palsg.
page 41 note 2 In the midland and Northern counties, a stall where cattle stand all night in winter, is called a boose, in Scotland, a bowe. See Craven Dialect, and Jamieson. Ang. Sax. bosʓ, prœsepe.
page 41 note 3 This word occurs in Palsgrave as a verb active. “To booce or boce out as workemen do a holowe thynge to make it seem more apparent to the eye, endocer. This broderer hath boced this pece of worke very well.”
page 41 note 4 A.S. bod, jussum.
page 41 note 5 The word suffetyn', which occurs here only, and is not found in the other MSS., or the printed editions, may be an erroneous reading, but possibly it is a corruption of the French word souffleter, to cuff on the ear. Jamieson gives the verb to souff, or strike.
page 41 note 6 Skinner gives “Buffet-stole, vox agro Linc. usitutissima, est autem sella levior portatilis, sine ullo cubitorum aut dorsi fulcro, credo parùm deflexo sensu à G. buffet, mensa; mensœ enim vicem satis commodè supplere potest.” The buffet, however, was the court-cupboard, in France termed also the credence, and under this a low stool without a back might be placed, but for what special purpose does not appear. Hickes derives the word from A.S. beod, mensa, and fæt, vas. Forby explains the buffet-stool in Norfolk to be a four-legged stool set on a frame like a table, and serving as the poor man's sideboard, stool, or table. In the History of Hawsted by Sir John Cullum, p. 25, the bequest occurs in 1553, of “a buffed stool,” which is explained to be an oval stool, without a back, and generally having a hole in the seat, for the convenience of lifting it. The Inventory of the effects of Katharine Lady Hedworth, 1568, comprises the following articles: “In my Ladyes Chamber, 2 cupbords, 6s. 8d. 2 cupbord stoulles, 3s. 4d. 3 buffett formes, 3s. one litle buffet stole, 6d.” Wills and Invent. i. 282, printed by the Surtees Society. See hereafter Buffett stole.
page 42 note 1 Palsgrave gives the verb “to botche, or bungyll a garment as he dothe that is nat a perfyte workeman, fatrouiller.” “Thou hast but bodchyd and countrefeat Latten, imaginarie umbratilisque figure.” Horm.
page 42 note 2 “A buyste, alabastrum, pixis, hostiarium pro hostiis.” Cath. angl. “Lechitus est vas olei amplum, vel ampulla ampla que auricalco solet fieri, Anglice, a boyste or kytte for oyle.” Ort. voc. This word is from the old French boiste, bostia, in late Latinity bustea, or bustula, and these are derived from pyxis, or, as Menage supposes, from buxus, the material chiefly employed. See Buist, in Jamieson.
page 42 note 3 See above Bledynge boyste.
page 42 note 4 “Bustus, rudis, rigidus. To be bustus, rudere.” Cath. angl. “Rudis, indoctus, inordinatus, quasi ruri datus, boystous. Rudo, to make boystous.” Ort. voc. “Boystous, styffe or rude, lourd, royde. Unweldy, boystouse, lourd. Boystousnesse, roydeur, impetuosité.” Chaucer uses the word thus, “I am a boistous man, right thus say I.” Manciple's Tale. The Wicliffite version renders Matt. ix. 16, “No man puttith a clout of boystous cloth into an olde clothing;” in the original the sense is raw, unwrought cloth.
page 42 note 5 “Buckeram, bougueram.” Palsg. In medieval Latinity boquerannus. Duc. If it signified a coarse-grained cloth, the name may be of French derivation, from bourre, flocks of wool, and grain, but some ancient writers describe it as telœ subtilis species, See Menage. William Thomas, in his Principal Rules of Italian Grammar, 1548, renders “bucherame, buckeramme, and some there is white, made of bombase, so thinne that a man mai see through it.”
page 42 note 6 “A bulas tre, pepulus.” Cath. angl. “Pepulus, a bolaster.” Ort. voc.
page 43 note 1 “Bulla, tumor laticum, i. aquarum, a bollynge or a bloure.” Garland. equiv.
page 43 note 2 “Ructo, to bolkyn.” Med. gr. “Bolke nat as a bene were in thy throte, ne route point.” Pynson, boke to lerne French. “To bocke, belche, roucter. Bolkyng of the stomake, routtement.” Palsg. A.S. bealcan, eructare. Skinner gives “Boke, vox agro Lincolniensi familiaris, significat nauseare, eructare.” See Boke, or Voke, Forby.
page 43 note 3 In the Wicliffite version, 1 Cor. v. 2, “Ghe ben bolnun with pride.” Chaucer speaks of “bollen hartes.” “Bollynge yes out se but febely, oculi prominentes.” Horm. “Bolnyng or swellyng of a bruise or sore. See how this tode bolneth, s'enfle.” Palsg.
page 43 note 4 “Bolstarre, trauersin, chevecel.” Palsg. A.S. bolster, cervical.
page 43 note 5 “A bande doge, Molosus.” Cath. angl. Skinner conjectures that the word bandog is derived from “band, vinculum, q. d. canis vinctus, ne scilicet noceat; vel si malis, ab A.S. bana, interfector.”
page 43 note 6 The Catholicon explains flegmen to be, “tumor sanguinis. Item flegmina sunt quando in manibus et pedibus callosi sulci sunt.” It would appear to be the same as a bunnian, the derivation of which has been traced from the French, “bigne, bosse, enflure, tumeur.” Roquef. Cotgrave renders it a bump or knob, and he gives also “Bigne, club-footed.” Sir Thos. Browne, Forby, and Moore, give the word bunny, a small swelling caused by a fall or blow; in Essex “a boine on the head.” In Cullum's Hawsted, among the words of local use, is given bunny, a swelling from a blow.
page 44 note 1 “The baneschawe, oscedo.” Cath. angl. “Oscedo, quedam infirmitas quo ora infantium exulcerantur, i. e. oscitatio, oris apertio, a boneshawe.” Ort. “De infirmitatibus. Baneschaw, cratica, i. passus.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. f. 40. John Arderne, who was surgeon to Edward III., says in his Chirurgica, “ad guttam in osse, que dicitur bonschawe, multum valet oleum de vitellis ovorum, si inde ungatur.” Sloan. MS. 56, f. 18 b. In Sloan. MS. 100, f. 7, is given the recipe for “a good medicyn for boonschawe. Take bawme and feþirfoie, þe oon deel bawme, and be bridde parte feþirfoie, and staumpe hem, and tempere hem wiþ stale ale, and lete þe sike drinke þerof.” In Devonshire the sciatica is termed bone-shave, and the same word signifies in Somerset an horny excrescence on the heel of an horse. ? A.S. sceorfa, scabies.
page 44 note 2 “A bowrde, jocus. A bowrdeword, dicerium, dictorium.” Cath. angl. “Mistilogia, a bourde, i. fabula. Nugaciter, bourdly.” Ort. voc. “Bourde or game, jeu. Bourdyng, jestyng, joncherie. To bourde or iape with one in sporte, truffler, border, iouncher.” Palsg.
page 44 note 3 “A bowrder, mimilarius, mimilogus, lusor, joculator, et cet' ubi a harlotte.” Cath. angl. “Mistilogus, a bourder, i. fabulator vel gesticulator.” Ort. voc.
page 44 note 4 “Bornysch, burnir.” Palsg. Chaucer and Gower use burned in this sense frequently, as in the Knightes tale, “wrought all of burned steele.”
“An harnois as for a lustie knight,
Which burned was as silver bright.” Conf. Am.
The word is taken from the old French word, burni, in modern orthography, bruni.
page 44 note 5 “A borgh, fidejussor, vas, sponsor, obses. To be borghe, fidejubere, spondere.” Cath. angl. “Fidejussor, a borowe, qui pro alio se obligat, a suerty.” Ort. voc. The word occurs in Piers Ploughman's Vision, line 13951.
“Ne wight noon wol ben his borugh,
Ne wed hath noon to legge.”
It is found also not infrequently in Chaucer and Spenser.
“That now nill be quitt with baile nor borow.” Sheph. Cal. May.
“Vas, i. sponsor vel fidejussor, Anglice a borowe” (borghe, in another Edition). Garland, Equiv. “Borowe, a pledge, pleige.” Palsg. A.S. borh, foenus, fidejussor.
page 45 note 1 “If thou be taken prisoner in this quarrell, I wyll nat borowe the, I promesse the, je ne te pledgeray point.” Palsg.
page 45 note 2 See Botew, and Cokyr, botew. “Boote of lether, houseau.” Palsg.
page 45 note 3 “Botelle of haye, botteau de foyn. Aske you for the hosteller, he is aboue in the haye lofte makynge botelles (or botels) of hay, boteller.” Palsg. In Norfolk it denotes the quantity of hay that may serve for one feed. Forby.
page 45 note 4 “Bottras, portant.” Palsg. “Arc boutant.” Cotgr.
page 45 note 5 “To boote in corsyng,” (horse-dealing) “or chaunging one thyng for another, gyue money or some other thynge aboue the thyng. What wyll you boote bytwene my horse and yours? mettre ou bouter dauantaige.” Palsg. A.S. betan, emendare.
page 45 note 6 The correct reading is probably Botme. “A bothome, fundus.” Cath. angl.
page 45 note 7 “A bothome of threde, filarium.” Cath. angl. “Bottome of threde, gliceaux, plotton de fil.” Palsg. Skinner derives it from the French, boteau, fasciculus.
page 46 note 1 Bouds, in the Eastern counties, are weovils in malt. Tusser, forby, moore.
page 46 note 2 Among appliances for sacred use in the Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17. C. XVII. f. 46, are “absconsa, sconsse, ventifuga, bowyt, crucibulum, cressett.” The word was no doubt taken from the French boëte, in Latin, boieta, capsula.
page 46 note 3 In the treatise of herbs and their qualities, Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 72 b. is mentioned bothume, “Consolida media is an herbe that me clepyth wyth bothume, or whyte goldys, thys herbe hath leuys that beth enelong.”
page 46 note 4 “Bragott, idromellum.” Cath. angl. “Hire mouth was swete as braket or the meth.” Chauc. Milleres Tale. Skinner explains bragget to be “species hydromelitis, vel potius cerevisiœ melle et aromatibus conditœ Lancastrensibus valde usitata.” The Welsh bragod has the same signification. Grose says bracket is in the North a drink compounded of honey and spices. See bragwort, in Jamieson and Nares. Harrison, who lived in Essex about 1575, relates in his description of England, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles, ii. c. 6, how his wife was accustomed to make brackwoort, reserving a portion of the woort unmixed with hops, which she shut up close, allowing no air to come to it till it became yellow, calling it brackwort, or charwort, to which finally she added arras, and bay-berries powdered.
page 47 note 1 “The moders of the chyldern” (slain by Constantine) “camen cryenge and brayenge for sorowe of theyr chyldern.” Legend. aur. “To bray as a deere doth, or other beest, brayre. There is a deer kylled, for I here hym bray.” Palsg.
page 47 note 2 “A brakane, filix, a brakanbuske, filicarium.” Cath. angl. “Filix, Anglice, ferne or brakans.” Ort. voc. “Brake, ferne, fusiere.” Palsg. In the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland 1511, it appears that water of braks was stilled yearly, for domestic use. Ray gives the word brakes as generally used; it is retained in Norfolk and Suffolk. See Forby and Nares.
page 47 note 3 “A brake, pinsella, vibra, rastellum.” Cath. angl.
page 47 note 4 “He wyll nat cease fro surfettynge, tyll he be reddy to parbrake.” Horm. “To parbrake, vomir. It is a shrewde turne, he parbraketh thus.” Palsg. This word does not occur again in its proper place in the Promptorium. See Braking, in Jamieson.
page 47 note 5 It is not a little singular to find so many notices as occur of Brasil-wood, considerably anterior to the discovery of Brasil, by the Portuguese Captain, Peter Alvarez Capralis, which occurred 3d May, 1500. He named it the land of the Holy Cross, “since of store of that wood, called Brasill.” Purchas's Pilgrimes, vol. i. It is probable that some wood which supplied a red dye, had been brought from the East Indies, and received the name of Brasil, long previous to the discovery of America. See Huetiana, p. 268. In the Canterbury Tales, the host, commending the Nonne's preeste for his health and vigour, says,
“Him nedeth not his colour for to dien,
With Brasil, ne with grain of Portingale.”
Among the valuable effects of Henry V. taken shortly after his decease in 1422, there occur “ii. graundes peces du Bracile, pris vi. 8. viii. d.” Rot. parl. In Sloan. MS. 2584, p. 3, will be found directions “for to make brasil to florische lettres, or to rewle wyth bookes.”
page 48 note 1 Brawne, which Tooke conjectured to be boaren, flesh being understood, was applied anciently in a more general sense than at present. The etymology of the word may be traced with much probability to the Latin, aprugnum, callum. Piers Ploughman speaks of “brawn and blod of the goos, bacon and colhopes;” and Chaucer in the Knight's Tale applies the word, as it has been here, to the muscular parts of the human frame.
“His limmes gret, his braunes hard and strong.”
The gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth gives the word in this sense,
“En la jambe est la sure, (the caalf.)
E taunt cum braoun rest ensure. (the brahun.)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 298.
“þe brawne of a man, musculus.” Cath. angl. “Lacerna, vel lacertus, proprie superior pars brachii vel musculus, brawne of the arme.” Med. Harl. MS. 2257. “He hath eate all the braune of the lopster, callum.” Horm. “Braon, le gras des fesses.” Roquef. Roman de Rou.
page 48 note 2 “Breke, bracce, femorale, perizoma, saraballa. Breke of women, feminalia.” Cath. angl. A curious illustration of the use by the fair sex of this last mentioned article of dress is supplied by the Roll of expenses of Alianore, Countess of Leicester, A.D. 1265, edited by Mr. Botfield for the Roxburghe Club. “Item, pro vi pellibus baszeni ad cruralia Comitissœ, per Hicqe Cissorem, xxi d. pro iii ulnis tarentinilli ad eadem, per eundem, xii d. pro plumá ad eadem, xii d.” page 10. “Bathini dicuntur vestes linee usque ad genua pertinentes, a breche.” Ort. voc. “Breche of hosen, braiette, braie, braies.” Palsg. Elyot gives in his Librarie, a quaint synonyme in his rendering of the word “subligaculum, a nether coyfe or breche.”
page 48 note 3 See Crakenelle, brede, and Symnel.
page 48 note 4 Juncata, which is written also juncta, juncheta, and jumentata, is explained to be “lac concretum, et juncis involutum, mattes or crudde.” Ort. voc. In French jonchée, which is “a greene cheese or fresh cheese made of milke that's curdled without any runnet, and served in a fraile of green rushes.” Cotgr. Bred in the Eastern counties signifies at the present time the board used to press curd for cheese, somewhat less in circumference than the vat; the bred-chese may have been one freshly taken from the press, or perhaps so called as being served on such a “bred,” or broad platter.
page 49 note 1 “Brede or squarenesse, croisure.” Palsg. A.S. bræd, latitudo.
page 49 note 2 “Brayde, or hastynesse of mynde, colle. At a brayde, faisant mon effort. At the first brayde, de prime face. To brayde or take a thyng sodaynly in haste, je me mets à prendre hastiuement. I breyde, I make a brayde to do a thing sodaynly, je m'efforce. I breyde out of my slepe, je tressaulx.” Palsg. See brade, in Jamieson.
page 49 note 3 “Occo, scindere, glebas j rangere, Anglice to clotte.” Ort. voc. Compare Brestyn clottys.
page 49 note 4 See Paly of bryne. “Paille, chaffe, the huske wherein corn lieth.” Cotgr. From the Latin palea.
page 49 note 5 “A brese, atelabus, brucus, vel locusta.” Cath. angl. “Atelabus, a waspe or a brese.” Ort. voc. “Brese or long flye, prester,” Palsg. A.S. briosa, tabanus.
page 49 note 6 Hampole uses this word in the Pricke of Conscience.
“Lorde, when sawe we the hafe hunger or thriste,
Or of herbar haue grete briste.” Harl. MS. 6723, f. 84.
It is perhaps taken from the Danish, “bröst, default, have bröst, to want or lack a thing.” Wolff.
page 50 note 1 “A bretasynge, propugnaculum.” Cath. angl. The Catholicon says, “dicuntur propugnacula pinne murorum sive summe partes, quia ex his propugnatur.” In the Treatise “de Utensilibus,” written by Alex. Neccham, about the year 1225, in the chapter relating to a castle, the French gloss renders propugnacula, brestaches, and pinne, karneus. Cott. MS. Titus, D. Xx. f. 196. “Bretesse, breteche, bretesque, forteresse, tour de bois mobile, parapet, creneaux, palissade.” Roquef. This word was applied rather indefinitely to denote various appliances of ancient fortification. See bretachiœ, in Ducange. It more properly signified the battlements; thus it is said of the valiant Normans,
“As berteiches monterent, et au mur guernelé.” Roman de Rou.
In Lydgate's Troy we read that,
“Every tower bretexed was so clene.”
In a contract made at Durham in 1401, is the clause, “Et supra istas fenestras faciet in utroque muro ailours, et bretissementa battellata.”
page 50 note 2
“Who saveth a thefe when the rope is knet,
With some false turne the bribour will him quite.” Lydgate.
In Piers Ploughman bribors are classed with “pilors and pikeharneis.” In Rot. Parl. 22 Edw. IV. n. 30, are mentioned persons who “have stolen and bribed signetts,” that is, young swans. “A bribur, circumforaneus, lustro, sicefanta.” Cath. angl. “To bribe, pull, pyll, briber, Romant, dérobber. He bribeth, and he polleth, and he gothe to worke.” Palsg.
page 50 note 3 This word occurs in Chaucer, T. of Melib. “min adversaries han begonne this debat and brige by his outrage.” Roquefort gives “Briga, querelle, démélé, combat. Brigueux, querelleur:” and Cotgrave “Brigue, contention, altercation.” Skinner would however trace the word to A.S. brice, ruptura. Horman says, “beware of such brygous matters (abstineas omni calumniâ), for thou oughtest nat to hold courrishly ageynst thy maister.” See Briga, in Kennett's Glossary.
page 51 note 1 “Lumbare, Anglice a breke-gyrdle, cingulum circa lumbos, et dicitur a lumbis, quia eo cinguntur et religantur, vel quia lumbis inhereat. Item dicitur et coxale, et bracharium, et renale, sed proprie renale quod renibus assignatur, sicut ventrale circa ventrem cingulum.” Ort. voc. from the Catholicon. “Braccale, braccarium, a brekegirdul. Marcipium, a brigirdele.” Med. “Perisoma, braygurdylle.” Harl. MS. 1002, f. 116. The terms brekegirdle and bygirdle are occasionally confounded together, and it may be questioned which of the two was here intended: the latter is the Anglo-Saxon biʓyrdel, zona, saccus, fiscus, which properly signifies a purse attached to the girdle. In this sense it occurs in P. Ploughman, “the bagges and the bigirdles.” Vision, lin. 5072. “A bygyrdylle, marsupium, renale.” Cath. angl. “Renale, a bygyrdyll, est zona circa renes. Brachile, i. lumbare, dicitur etiam cingulum renum, a bygyrdell. Cruma vel crumena est bursa, vel saccus pecunie, vel marsupium, a bygyrdell.” Ort. voc. On the Northern coast of Norfolk, opposite Burnham Westgate, is an island of singular shape, resembling the letter S: it is about a mile in length, following the direction of its tortuous form, and very narrow throughout. It still bears the name of Bridgirdle, evidently from its supposed similarity to the ancient article of dress called the Brygyrdyle. See No. Lxix. of the Ordnance Survey.
page 51 note 2 “To byrle, propinare, miscere.” Cath. angl. Ang. S. byrlian, haurire, byrle. pincerna. Jamieson gives the same sense of the verb to birle. See hereafter Schenkyn drynke. A.S. scencan, propinare.
page 51 note 3 This word occurs in R. Brunne, and Chaucer. See also Gawayn and Golagros. “He come lyke a breme bare.” Sir Amadas. “Brimme, feirse, fier.” Palsg. A.S. bremman, furere. In the dialects of Norfolk and Suffolk, brim is retained only in the following sense, “a brymmyng as a bore or a sowe doth, en rouyr.” Palsg. “To bryme, subare.” Cath. angl. Elyot renders “subo, to brymme as a boore doth, whan he getteth pygges.” See further in Ray, Jamieson, and Forby.
page 52 note 1 “To bryse, quatere, quarsare. Brysille, fragilis, fisilis, fracticius, fractilis.” Cath. angl. A.S. brysan, conterere. The word bryse is, however, probably taken more directly from the French. Palsgrave gives “to brise or bray herbes or suche like in a morter, briser.” In the curious treatise of the virtues of herbs, Roy. MS. 18 A. Vi. f. 72 b. is mentioned “bryse-wort, or bon-wort, or daysye, consolida minor, good to breke bocches.”
page 52 note 2 Elyot renders “Analecta, fragmentes of meate whiche falle vnder the table. Analectes, he that gadereth vp brokelettes.”
page 52 note 3 The broche was an ornament common to both sexes; of the largesse of Queen Guenever it is related, “Everych knyɜt she ɜaf broche other ryng.” Launfal miles. “Fibula, a boton, or broche, prykke, or a pynne, or a lace. Monile, ornamentum est quod solet ex feminarum pendere collo, quod alio nomine dicitur firmaculum, a broche.” Ort. voc. The jewel which it was usual about the commencement of the XVIth Century to wear in the cap, was called a broche. Palsgrave gives “Broche for ones cappe, broche, ymage, ataiche, afficquet. Make this brotche fast in your cappe. Broche with a scripture, deuise.” The beautiful designs of Holbein executed for Henry VIII. and preserved in Sloan. MS. 5308, afford the best examples of ornaments of this description. See also the Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, edited by Sir F. Madden.
page 52 note 4 Broaches are explained by Forby to be “rods of sallow, or other tough and pliant wood split, sharpened at each end, and bent in the middle; used by thatchers to pierce and fix their work. Fr. broche.”
page 52 note 5 “A soudear for lacke of a brotche or a spyt, rosteth his meate upon his wepon made lyke a broche.” Horm. Thomas, in his Principal Rules of Italian Grammar, 1548, renders “stocco, an armyng swoorde made like a broche.” In the Earl of Northumberland's Household Book, 1511, it appears that the broches were turned by a “child of the keching.” Ant. rep. iv. 233. Palsgrave alludes to the same primitive usage, “when you haue broched the meate (embroché) lette the boye tourne, and come you to churche.” See also Leland's Coll. Vi. 4.
page 52 note 6 “A sperlynge, ipimera, sperlingus.” Cath. angl. “Spurlin, a smelt. Fr. esperlan.” Skinner. The name is retained in Scotland; see sparlyng and spirling in Jamieson.
page 53 note 1 The Catholicon explains catapulta to be “sagitta cum ferro bipenni, quam sagittam barbatam vocant.” Palsgrave renders broad arrow, “raillon:” and Cotgrave gives “fer de flèche à raillon, a shoot-head, a forked or barbed head.”
page 53 note 2 See above Bawstone. “Fiber, id est castor, a brocke. Fibrina vestis que tramam de fibri lanâ habet, a clothe of brocke woll.” Ort. voc. “Brocke a best, taxe.” Palsg. The Wicliffite version renders Hebr. Xi. 37, “Thei wenten about in brok skynnes, and in skynnes of geet.” A.S. broc, grumus.
page 53 note 3 “To brooke meate, digerer, aualer. I can nat brooke this pylles. He hath eaten raw quayles, I fear me he shall neuer be able to brooke them.” Palsg. A.S. brucan, frui. Margaret Paston, writing about the sickness of her cousin Bernay, 14 Edw. IV. 1476, 7, says, “I remember yat water of mynte, or water of millefole, were good for my cosyn Bernay to drynke, for to make hym to browke.” Paston Corresp. V. 156.
page 53 note 4 Skinner explains brewse to be “panis jure intinctus,” which is the precise meaning of brewis in the North of England. Brockett. Huloet, in the reign of Edward VI. speaks of “browesse, made with bread and fat meat.”
“A proverbe sayde in ful old langage,
That tendre browyce made with a mary-boon,
For fieble stomakes is holsum in potage.”
Lydgate, Order of Fooles, Harl. MS. 2251, f. 303.The Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17. C. XVII. gives “browys, adepatum, brewett, garrus,” distinguishing these two words, as the Promptorium does. Brewes is derived from the plural of A.S. briw, jusculum, but brewett is a word adopted from the French, brouet, potage or broth. Palsgrave, however, gives “brewesse, potage of fysshe or flesshe, brouet.”
page 54 note 1 In the Forme of Cury, and other books of ancient cookery, will be found a variety of recipes for making brewets, such as brewet of Almony, or Germany, of ayrenne, or eggs, eels and other fish in bruet. In a MS. of the XVth century, in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, No. 8336, occur “Bruet seec, bruet salmene, and bruet sarazineys blanc.” The word seems to have been applied generally to any description of potage, but Roquefort defines the original meaning of brouet as “chaudeau, et ce que les nouveaux mariés donnoient à leurs compagnons pour boire, le jour de leurs noces.”
page 54 note 2 Gautier de Bibelesworth, in his Tretyz de Langage, written in the reign of Edward I. gives a detailed and curious account of malting and brewing, “de breser, et de bracer.” Arund. MS. 220. In Harrison's Description of Britaine, Book ii. ch. 6. prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles, will be found a minute description of the process of brewing, as practised in the Eastern counties in the XVIth century.
page 54 note 3 In Anglo-Saxon mere-swyn signifies a dolphin; the epithet brun, fuscus, is probably in reference to the colour of the fish. It is the porpesse, perhaps, which is in many places called sea-swine, in Italian porcopesse, that is here intended.
page 54 note 4 “Brunt, hastynesse, chavlde-colle. Brunt of a daunger, escousse, effort.” Palsg.
page 55 note 1 See above, Bofet, thre fotyd stole.
page 55 note 2 “Bugge, spectrum, larva, lemures.” Baret. This word has been derived from the Welsh bwg, larva. Higins, in his version of Junius' Nomenclator, 1585, renders “lemures nocturni, hobgoblins or night-walking spirits, blacke bugs. Terriculamentum, a scarebug, a bulbegger, a sight that frayeth and frighteth.” See Nares, and Boggarde and Bogith in Jamieson. St. Augustin and other writers mention “quosdam dœmones quos Dusios Galli nuncupant,” namely incubi. See Ducange. To this word Ducius, by which the bugge is here rendered, the origin of the vulgar term, the deuce, is evidently to be traced.
page 55 note 3 “Bugle beest, bevgle.” Palsg. “Bugle, buffle, bœuf sauvage.” Roquef. “Buffle, buffes or bugles, wild beasts like oxen, uri. Buffe leather, aluta bubalina.” Baret. “Preciouse cuppis be made of bugull hornys, urorum cornibus, non bubalorum.” Horm. The bugle was introduced into England in 1252, as a present to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III. “Missi sunt Comiti Richardo de partibus transmarinis Bubali, pars vero sexus masculini, pars feminini, ut in his partibus transmarinis Bubali, pars vero sexus masculini, pars feminini, ut in his partibus occidentalibus, ipsa animalia non prius hic visa multiplicarentur. Est autem Bubalus genus jumenti bovi consimile, ad onera portanda vel trahenda aptissimum, cocodrillo inimicissimum, undis amicum, magnis cornibus communitum.” Matt. Paris.
page 55 note 4 “Bulted, sassé, boultyng clothe or bulter, bluteau. To boulte meale, bulter.” Palsg. He gives the word also in a metaphorical sense, “to boulte out a mater, trye out the trouthe in a doubtfull thynge, saicher.” See bulter-cloth, in Kennett's Glossary.
page 55 note 5 “To bomme as a fly dothe, or husse, bruire. This waspe bommeth about myne eare, I am afrayed leste she stynge me.” Palsg.
page 55 note 6 “To bounche or pusshe one; he buncheth me and beateth me, il me pousse. Thou bunchest me so that I can nat syt in rest by the.” Palsg. “He came home with a face all to bounced, contusâ.” Horm.
page 55 note 7 The Harl. MS. appears here to be faulty, and the correct reading probably is, Bunne, kyx. See hereafter Kyx, or bunnes or drye weed. A.S. bune, fistula. In Joh. Arderne's Chirurgica, Sloane MS. 56, p. 3, in a list of French and English names of plants, occurs “chauynot, i. bunes;” the reading should probably be chenevette, which signifies the stalk of hemp. Forby and Moore give bunds or bund-weed, as the name by which in the Eastern counties weeds infesting grass land are known. Jamieson explains bune to be the inner part of the stalk of flax, or the core.
page 56 note 1 “Bulliculus, id est parvus bullio, a burble, tumor aque. Bullio, a wellynge.” Ort. voc. “Burble in the water, bubette. To boyle up or burbyll up as a water dothe in a spring, bouillonner.” Palsg.
page 56 note 2 “Gramino, to burion, or kyrnell, or sprynge.” Ort. voc. “Burryon or budde of a tree, burion. To burgen, put forthe as a tree dothe his blossomes, bourgonner.” Palsg.
page 56 note 3 This word is compounded of A.S. bur, conclave, casa, and mæden, puella, a bower-maiden, a chamber-maid: in like manner as bur-þegn signifies a chamberlain.
page 56 note 4 Burr signifies in Norfolk, according to Forby, a mistiness around the moon; and in North Britain a halo is termed brugh, brogh, or brough; Jamieson suggests from its encircling the moon like the circular fortifications which are also called brugh. Ang. S. beorʓ, munimentum. The expression, “a burre about the moone” occurs in “Whimzies, or a new cast of Characters,” p. 173. The same derivation may possibly apply to the terms, burr of a lance, which is a projecting circular ring that protected the hand; as also the burr of a stag's horn, or projecting rim by which it is surrounded close to the head.
page 56 note 5 “A buske, arbustum, dumus, frutex, rubus.” Cath. angl. Buske or boske, as bush was anciently written, occurs in R. Brunne and Chaucer. Spenser uses the word buskets, and boskie is to be found in Shakespeare, Tempest, Act IV. In old French bosc and boschet. Roquef.
page 56 note 6 Buttes are explained by Bp. Kennet to be the ends or short pieces of land in arable ridges or furrows. “Limes, buttynge or bound in fields.” Elyot. Celtic, but, limes.
page 56 note 7 Yarrell, in his History of British Fishes, observes that the flounder is called at Yarmouth a butt, which is a Northern term; the name is likewise given by Pennant, but does not occur in the Glossaries of Northern dialect.
“Ne yan sal na man be boxsome,
Ne obedyent to ye kirke of Rome.”
Hampole, Prick of Conscience, Harl. MS. 6923, f. 58, b.“And be lofande to hym and bouxsome,” namely, to God, ib. f. 101, b. “Boxome, obedient, obeissant.” Palsg. A.S. bocsum, obediens.
page 57 note 2 Cadas appears to have signified flocks of silk, cotton, tow, or wool, used for stuffing gamboised garments. In the curious poem by Hue de Tabarie, at Middle Hill, entitled, “Coment le fiz Deu fu armé en la croyz,” is this passage,
“Pur aketoun ly bayle blaunche char e pure,
Pur cadaz e cotoun de saunk fu le encusture.” MS. Heber, No. 8336.
In the petition against excess of apparel, 1463, it is thus mentioned; “No yoman, &c. to were in the aray for his body eny bolsters, nor stuffe of woole, coton, or cadas, nor other stuffer in his doubtlet, save lynyng accordyng to the same.” Rot. parl. “Cadas or crule, saijette.” Palsg. “Cadarce pour faire capiton, the tow, or coursest part of silke, whereof sleaue is made.” Cotgr. Nares explains caddis to be a sort of worsted lace.
page 57 note 3 Caddow is still the name given to the jackdaw in Norfolk, as Coles and Forby have recorded. Palsgrave gives “Caddawe a byrde, chucas,” and Withal renders “Caddow or dawe, nodulus.” “Monedula, a choughe or cadess.” Elyot. Keo is from A.S. ceo, cornix. See hereafter coo Byrde, or schowhe.
page 57 note 4 The quantity of fish contained in a cade is determined by the Accounts of the Cellarist of Berking Abbey, Mon. ang. i. 83: “a barrel of herryng shold contene 1000, and a cade of herryng six hundreth, sixscore to the hundreth.” Palsgrave renders cade, escade, but the word does not occur in the Dictionaries. In 1511 it appears by the Northumberland Household Book, that the cade of red herring was rated at 6s. 4d. the cade of “sproytts, 2s.” The spirling mentioned here was the smelt, called in French esperlan. See hereafter Spirlynge, epimera.
page 58 note 1 “He calketh (vestigat) vpon my natyuyte.” Horm. Palsgrave gives the verb “to oalkyll as an astronomer doth whan he casteth a fygure, calculer. I dare nat calkyll for your horse that is stollen, for feare of my bysshoppe.” See also Paston Letters, i. 114.
page 58 note 2 In the accounts of the Churchwardens of Walden, Essex, in 1466, 7, among the costs of making the porch, is a charge “for the foundacyon, and calyon, and sonde.” Hist. of Audley End, p. 225. Among the disbursements for the erection of Little Saxham hall in 1505, is one to the chief mason, for the foundation within the inner part of the moat, “to be wrought with calyons and breke, with foreyns and other necessaries concerning the same.” Rokewode's Hundred of Thingoe, 141. “Calyon, stone, caliou.” Palsg. In the dialect of Northern England a hard stone is termed a callierd.
page 58 note 3 “A cale stok, maguderis.” Cath. angl. “Maguderis est secundus caulis qui nascitur in tyrso absciso, vel ipse tyrsus abscisus, a koolestocke.” Ort. voc. “A calstok.” Med. In Harl. MS. 1587, occur “maguderis, wortestokk, cauletum, cawlegarthe.” “Calstocke, kalstocke, pié de chou.” Palsg. In Scotland “castook or kail-castock, the stem of the colewort,” according to Jamieson.
page 58 note 4 In the Dictionary of Synonyms of names of plants, in Latin, French and English, Sloan. MS. 5, compiled about the middle of the fifteenth century, occurs “Saliunca, spica Celtica, Gall. spike seltic, Ang. calketrappe.” A.Sax. coltræppe, rhamnus. “Caltrops, tribulus, seu carduus stellatus.” Skinner. In French chausse-trappe, according to Cotgrave, signifies both the thistle, and the caltrop used in war.
page 59 note 1 “A calle trappe, hamus, pedica.” Cath. angl. “Caltrapa, a caltrappe,” Ort. voc. The Catholicon gives the following explanation of hamus. “Dicitur et hamus asser cum clavis quo subtegitur terra in vineis sub arboribus defendendis, vel in domo circa scrinia et thesauros, ut si aliquando fur ingrediatur, ejus pedibus infigatur.” In the contemporary poem describing the Siege of Rouen by Henry V. the city is said to have been defended by a deep and wide dike, full of pitfalls, “of a spere of heyth.”
“Also fulle of caltrappys hyt was sette
As meschys beth made wythinne a nette.” Archæol. xxi. p. 51.
“They hydde pretely vnder the grounde caltroppys of yron to steke in horse or mennys fete, murices ferreos leviter condiderunt.” Horm. Chaussetrappe is explained by Cotgrave to be an “iron engine of warre made with four sharp points, whereof one, howsoever it is cast, ever stands upward.” Among the “municyons and habyllyments of warre” belonging to Berwick castle, 1539, occur “15 pece of lettes calteroopes.” Archæol. xi. 439. Caltraps are mentioned by Quintus Curtius in the Life of Alexander as having been spread over the ground by the Persians to annoy the Macedonian cavalry. This circumstance is thus described, Kyng Alisaunder, line 6070:
“And calketrappen maden ynowe,
In weyes undur wode and bowe,
Alisaundris men to aqwelle,
And synfulliche heom to spille.”
Vegetius calls them tribuli. A representation of a caltrap, from the Tower collection, will be found in Skelton's Illustrations of the Armoury at Goodrich Court, ii. pl. 132.
page 59 note 2 The recipe in the Forme of Cury, p. 48, directs for “vyande Cypre of samone, take almandus and bray hem unblaunched, take calwar samone, and seeth it in lewe water,” &c. See also p. 75, “salwar salmone ysode.” Palsgrave renders “caluer of samon, escume de saulmon.” This term appears to denote the state of the fish freshly taken, when its substance appears interspersed with white flakes like curd; thus in Lancashire the fish dressed as soon as it is caught is termed calver salmon, and in North Britain caller or callour signifies fresh, according to Jamieson. “Quhen the salmondis faillis thair loup, thay fall callour in the said caldrounis, and ar than maist delitious to the mouth.” Bellend. Descr. Alb. c. 11. Calvered salmon is mentioned by Ben Jonson and Massinger as a delicacy; and Isaac Walton applies the term to the grayling. R. Holme, however, would make it appear that calver was a term applied to fish dressed in oil, vinegar, and spices. See also Nares. The word “caleweis,” which occurs in Chaucer, Rom. of Rose, and has been by the earlier glossarists interpreted as calvured salmon, is in the original “poire de caillouel,” a sort of sweet pear, called by Roquefort caillos, or cailloel.
page 59 note 3 This word seems to be taken from the French, “camus, qui a le nez court.” Lacombe. Cotgrave renders camus, flat-nosed.
“Round was his face, and camuse was his nose.” Chauc. Reve's Tale.
Hence also the sea-gull appears to have received a name, which is given by Elyot, “Candosoccus, a sea-gull, or a camose.” See Camy, and Camow-nosed, in Jamieson's Dictionary.
page 60 note 1 Forby and Moore have given ample illustrations of the nature of the game at ball called to this day in Norfolk and Suffolk, camping: the former agrees with Ray, in deriving the word from the A. Sax. campian, prœliari. The camping-land appropriated to this game occurs, in several instances, in authorities of the fifteenth century; in Cullum's Hawsted, mention is found, in 1466, of the camping-pightle.
page 60 note 2 This word seems to be taken from the French chandelier, a candlestick: candelarius signifies properly a maker of candles. See hereafter Chawndelere.
page 60 note 3 “Canopeum, reticulum subtile factum de canabo. Canopeum, a gnate nette, rete quo culices vel musce excluduntur.” Dict. wilbr. The Canope alluded to in the Promptorium, was very probably the Umbraculum under which the Sacred Host was carried in the procession on Palm Sunday. “Canapy to be borne over the sacrament, or ouer a Kynges heed, palle, ciel.” Palsg. See the word canapeum in Ducange.
page 60 note 4 “Minutal, a lompe of brede, or cantel.” Ort. voc. “Cantel of bredde, cantel or shyuer, chanteau.” Palsg.
“Of Florentys scheld a kantell
He cleft thonryght.” Octouian, line 1113.
The term occurs also in “the Anturs of Arther at the Tarnewathelan.” Hall, in his account of the marriage of the Princess Mary to Lewis XII. at Paris, in 1514, describes the entry of the Dauphin, whose “apparell and bardes were cloth of golde, cloth of syluer, and crymsyn veluet kanteled together.” Hall's Chron. 6 Hen. VIII. Roquefort gives “Chantel, un morceau de pain,” from cantellus. See Ducange, and Mon. Angl. i. 411. In Norfolk, to cant is to set a thing up on edge; see Forby, Moore, and Nares.
page 60 note 5 The priestly vestment generally known as the cope is here intended. “Capa, a cappe or a cope; caracalla, a sclauyn or a cape.” Dict. wilbr. “A cope.” Ort. Pilleum, according to the Catholicon, signifies a garment made of skins, but in its more usual sense, a covering for the head. In early times the cappa was an ordinary upper garment worn by ecclesiastics indiscriminately, and Ecgbert, Abp. of York, ordained in the eighth century that none of the clergy should appear in the church “sine colobio vel cappâ.” Of the various modifications of this vestment, and the names by which they were distinguished, a detailed account will be found in Ducange. At a later period the cope was a vestment reserved for occasions of ceremony: when worn by prelates and dignitaries, the richest tissues were chosen, and covered with a gorgeous display of jewels, orfrays, and embroidery; but its use was not confined to them, for with the exception of the priest officiating at the altar, who was vested in the sacred garments appropriated to the service of the mass, the cope appears to have been worn by all the assisting clergy, and even the choristers. In A. Sax. the name cappa, or cæppa, was adopted from the Latin, probably as early as the mission of St. Augustine, A.D. 601; and a cappa oloserica, one of the gifts of Gregory the Great, was preserved at Canterbury until the Reformation. See hereafter Coope, capa.
page 61 note 1 The use of a small cap by the clergy as a covering of the tonsure is one of considerable antiquity, it was usually termed the coif, coypha, and this term occurs here-after in the Promptorium. This was identical, as Joh. de Athona asserts, with the tenœ or infulœ, but these appear more properly to have been lappets appended to the coif, and which occasionally were fastened under the chin. At various periods, when the clergy, disregarding strict propriety in demeanour and dress, became assimilated in externals to the laity, the coif was specially decried by the Church. Thus in the Council of London in 1267, the Legate Othobonus ordained that the clergy should never appear in public with the coif, except in travelling, because thereby the corona, or circlet of hair left by the tonsure, was concealed, and therein “prœcipue depositio terrenorum, et regalis sacerdotii dignitas designantur.” See Lyndwode, Provinciale, p. 88. Hure, howe, or howfe, are synonymous, and are derived from A. Sax. hufa, cidaris. See hereafter Howe or hure, heed hyllynge, and Hwyr, cappe.
page 61 note 2 “Cappe of a flaylle, cappa.” Cath. angl. “Cappe of a flayle, liasse d'un flaiau.” Palsg.
page 61 note 3 This word, which, as Skinner observes, is evidently a corruption of caballus, is used by Chaucer: the Cambridge Scholar exclaims, when the Miller lets his horse loose,
“Why ne hadst thou put the capell in the lathe.” Reve's Tale.
“The knyɜt kacheɜ his caple and com to the lawe.” Gawayn and the Green Knyɜt, lin. 2175.
“Capull, a horse, roussin.” Palsg. Cotgrave explains roussin to be “a curtall, a strong German horse.” Elyot gives “Caballus, a horse; yet in some partes of England they do call an horse a cable.”
page 61 note 4 This word is written by R. of Gloucester and P. Ploughman caroyne, by Chaucer careyne. In the Wicliffite version likewise, Hebr. iii. 17, is rendered, “Whether not to hem that synneden, whos careyns weren cast doun in desert?” It is taken from the French “caroigne, cadavre.” Roquef.
page 62 note 1 The Harl. MS. gives here Cartehowse, which appears wholly erroneous. The word does not occur in the MS. at King's College. Skinner derives the name of the Carfax at Oxford from the French carrefour, or possibly from quatre faces: another derivation has been proposed, from quatre voies. See an article on the Oxford Carfax, in the Antiq. Repert. iii. 267.
page 62 note 2 “Harke howe the fat carle puffeth, le gros vilain.” Palsg. A. Sax. ceorl, carlman, rusticus.
page 62 note 3 According to Gerarde, carlock, or chadlocke, or chadlocke, is a sort of wild rape or turnip, rapistrum arvorum, now known as the sinapis arvensis. In Arderne's Practica, however, aubfoyn, which is properly the corn-flower, is rendered karloke, Sloan. MS. 56. A. Sax. cerlice, rapum sylvestre. “Eruca, a coleworm or a carlok.” Ort. voc.
page 62 note 4 “A caralle, corea, chorus.” Cath. angl. “Carole a song, carolle, chanson de Noël.” Palsg. A. Sax. kyrriole, a chanting at the Nativity.
page 62 note 5 Palsgrave gives the verb, “to carpe, Lydgate, this is a farre northen verbe, cacqueter,” Gower uses it, Conf. Am. lib. vii.
“So gone thei forthe, carpende fast
On this, on that.”
page 62 note 6 The Promptorium does not give again the verb to lead, as it is here used, in the signification of to carry. Caxton says, in the Boke for Travellers, “Richer the carter shall lede dong (mettra) on my land, whan it shall be ered, and on my herber (courtil) whan it shall be doluen.”
page 63 note 1 “Casings, stercus siccum jumentorum, quod pauperes agri Lincolniensis ad usum foci colligunt; a Teut. Koth, fimus, q. d. cothings.” Skinner. In the North, according to Brockett, casings, or cassons, are cow-dung dried for fuel. It is still the usage in the neighbourhood of Lynn to employ cow-dung for this purpose. Richards' Hist. i. 80.
page 63 note 2 The Wicliffite version renders ii. Pet. 2, 22, “The hounde turnyde agen to his castyng.” In Sloan. MS. 100, f. 5, b. is given the following prescription: “For castinge, For hem that may not browke her mete. Take centorie, and sethe it in watir, and lete the sike drink it leuc warm iii daies, and he schal be hool, for this medicyn spourgith the brest, and the stomak.”
page 63 note 3 “Catyrpyllar, worme, chatte pelleuse.” Palsg.
page 63 note 4 In the middle ages a metrical system of ethics, entitled “Disticha de moribus ad filium,” attributed to Dionysius Cato, or Magnus Cato, had attained the highest degree of estimation. It was illustrated by the comments of the most learned men of several centuries, and served as a manual for the instruction of youth. It is not certain who was the author; a translation from the Latin was made about 1480, by Benedict Burgh, Archdeacon of Colchester, for the use of his pupil Lord Bourchier; and in 1483 Caxton published his translation from a French version, entitled “The Booke called Cathon.” Chaucer frequently quotes Cato: see Miller's Tale, 3227, Marchaunt's Tale, 9261. Caxton says in the Boke for Travellers, “George the booke sellar hath doctrinals, catons, oures of our Lady, Donettis, partis, accidents.” See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, ii. 166. Dibdin's Typogr. Antiq. i. 195.
page 63 note 5 Caucyon may here signify a pledge, as in Palsgrave, “causion, pledge, caution.” See hereafter Wedde, or thynge leyyd yn plegge. The Catholicon, however, explains cautio to be a simple promise, without oath, pledge, or surety, but idonea cautio, implied those additional securities. It is further interpreted to be a writing, as Papias says “cautio est breve recordationis chirographum. Unde in Evang. Luc.: Accipe cautionem iuam.” In the Wicliffite Version this passage is rendered “and he seide to him, take thy caucioun and wryte fifty,” Luke xvi. 6.
page 64 note 1 “Caldarium, a cawdell.” Ort. voc. Palsgrave render it chaudeau, which according to Roquefort was “bouillon qu'on donnoit aux époux le matin du lendemain des noces, calens jusculum.” In Caxton's Boke for Travellers, occur as “Potages. Caudell for the seke, chaudel. Growell and wortes.” Skinner and Junius interpret it to be merely a spicy drink, but in the ancient terms of cookery cawdel signifies generally anything stewed down to a purée; see in the Forme of Cury, pp. 24, 27, “chykens in cawdel, cawdell ferry;” and in Cott. MS. Julius, D. Viii. f. 100, “Caudelle of samone, caudelle of muskles.” See further calenum, in Charpentier.
page 64 note 2 Cawcewey is derived directly from the French chaussée, a word taken, as Menage and other writers have observed, from the Latin calciata, so called, as some conjecture, from its being continually trodden, via calcata, but probably rather from the mode of forming such a road, with stones imbedded in mortar, via calceata, from calx, lime. See Spelman, Ducange, and Kennet, under the word calcea. There was a causeway at Lynn leading to Gaywood, on which was situated the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, and among the benefactors to the Hospital of St. John Baptist occurs Ufketel filius sanctimonialis de Sceringes, who grants “totam terram in Linne super calcetam.” Mon. Ang. vi. 648, new edit. Palsgrave gives “Causey in a hye way, chausée.”
page 64 note 3 Cotgrave renders “cautelle, a wile, cautell, sleight, guilefull devise, subtilty.” Fabyan relates that in 1448, the town of Pont-de-l'arche was taken by the “cautele” of the Frenchmen, who introduced two men disguised as carpenters; and Hall, speaking of the same occurrence, calls it “a praty cautele and slighte imposture.” In Elyot's Librarie occurs “Offuciœ, cawtelles, crafty wayes to deceyue.”
page 64 note 4 See hereafter Kyrnel of frute, granum.
page 64 note 5 In Norfolk the basket carried by the sower, is still called a seed-lep. Forby. A. Sax. sæd-leap, seminatoris corbis. See hereafter Hopur, and Seedlep.
page 64 note 6 See hereafter Segge of the fene, or wyld gladone. A. Sax. secʓ, gladiolus. Nares explains segs to be the water flower-de-luce. “Glayeul de rivière, sedge, water flags.” Cotgr.
page 64 note 7 The name sedge is now applied indiscriminately to the genus carex, which probably from the stiffness of its growth was called also stare. In Su. G. it is denominated starr, Isl. stör, “quum herba sit perquam rigida.” Ihre. See hereafter Segge, star of the fenne, and Stare.
page 65 note 1 Ray in his East Country Words, and Forby, have recorded the use of the word seal, signifying time, or season, from A. Sax. sæl, opportunitas. Barlysele has occurred already in the Promptorium. See hereafter Seel, tyme.
page 65 note 2 The Catholicon explains celo to signify sculpere, pingere, and celamen or celatura, sculptured or painted decoration. Lydgate in the Troye Boke uses the word celature to describe vaulted work of an elaborate character. It appears doubtful whether the verb to cele, and the word ceiling, which is still in familiar use, are derivable from cœlo, or may not be traced more directly to cœlum and the French ciel, signifying not only vaulting or ceiling, but also the canopy or baldaquin over an altar; the hangings of estate over a throne, which are sometimes termed dais, from the throne being placed in the part of the apartment to which that name properly belonged; and lastly the canopy of a bed, “celler for a bedde, ciel de lit.” Palsg. Gervase of Dover uses the term in his graphic description of the conflagration of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, occasioned by sparks having been carried by the wind, and lodged between the roof and the interior vaulting of the church; “cœlum inferius egregie depictum, superius vero tabulæ plumbeœ ignem interius accensum celaverunt.” Twysden, Hist. Angl. Script. 1289. Thomas Stubbs, among the benefactions of Aldred, Archbishop of York 1061–1070, records that “totam ecclesiam à presbyterio usque ad turrim ab antecessore suo constructam, superius opere pictorio quod cœlum vocant, auro multiformiter intermixto mirabili arte construxit.” Ibid. 1704. The word had a still further signification, denoting, not merely the decoration of the vaulting or roof of a chamber, but also the wainscot-work upon the walls. Thus Horman says, “These wallys shal be celyd with cyprusse. The rofe shal be celed vautwyse and with cheker work.” See hereafter Sylure of valle, and Selyn wythe sylure.
page 66 note 1 “A seyne, sinodus, est congregacio clericorum.” Cath. angl. Ceene or a synod is from the French “senne, assemblée de gens d'Eglise; de cœnaculum, lieu d'assemblée, suivant Barbazan.” Roquef. Sené is explained by Cotgrave to be “a Synod or assembly of curates before their Ordinarie or Diocesan.” “Cene of clerkes, conuocation.” Palsg. In the Legenda Aurea mention is made of the “Ceene of Calcydone.” f. xxvi.
page 66 note 2 Tessera is rendered in the Ortus “a dyce,” and texera has the same meaning; the Catholicon, however, gives another explanation, “Texere dicuntur lapides quadrati ad modum talorum, unde pavimenta sternuntur.” There can be little doubt that the token of an inn, here referred to, is the ancient sign of the chequers, scaccarium, the chessboard or playing tables. It has been questioned whether this symbol denoted in England, as it did where it occurs at Pompeii, a house of entertainment where play was practised, or rather had its origin in the painted lattices at the doors and windows, which, as has been affirmed, were part of the external indications of an hostelry as late as 1700; the ordinary use of such lattices is mentioned by Harrison in his description of England. “Of old time our countrie houses in steed of glasse did vse much lattise, and that made either of wicker or fine rifts of oke in checker-wise.” B. ii. c. 12, in Holinshed. Among the deeds and benefactions of Thomas Chillenden, Prior of the church of Canterbury from 1390 to 1411, it is recorded in the obituary, “in civitate Cantuariœ unum Hospitium famosum, vocatum le Cheker, nobiliter œdificavit; in eadem civitate Hospitium de la Crowne.” Ang. sacra, i. 143. The “red lattice” is a term often used to signify an ale house; Shakespeare alludes to it, Hen. IV. pt. ii.; it occurs in Marston, Chapman, and other early dramatists, and Massinger speaks of the “red grates next the door” of a tavern. Of this and other inn-signs see Brand's Popular Antiqu. ii. 247, Gent. Mag. xl. 403, lxiii. 531, lxiv. 797.
page 66 note 3 The term helix was applied to denote the volute of a capital, but here it seems possible that the term relates to a spiral or newel-staircase. There was however, a military engine, a variety of the testudo, used in battering walls, to which the name of the snail is given in the curious version of Vegecius, made at the bidding of Sir Thomas of Berkeley, 1408. “The gynne that is clepede the snayle or the welke, is a frame made of goode tymber, shaped square, keuerede and hillede alle a-boute wythe rawe hides, or wythe feltes and heyres, for drede of brynnyng. This gynne hath wythe in hym a grete beme meuabely hangede wythe ropes, the whiche beme may wythe draughte of men wythe-in be drawe bacward, and let fie wythe his owene pais forewarde to the walle, and so astonye and shake the walle. This gynne is cleped þe snaile, for righte as be snaile hath his hous ouer hym where he walkethe or restethe, and oute of his hous he shetethe his hede whan he wolle, and drawethe hym inne a-yene, so doth this gynne.” B. Iv. c. xiv. Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. f. 105.
page 67 note 1 See hereafter Seware, sew, and Sewyn.
page 68 note 1 Chaffare or merchandise is a word derived by Lye from the Alamannic chauphen, emere. See Junius. Gautier de Bibelesworth says,
“La lyure (a pound) sert en marchaundye, (chaffare)
Mais le lyure (þe bok) nous aprent clergy.” Arund. MS. 220.
It occurs not unfrequently in Chaucer and Gower. In 1441 a complaint was made by the King's tenants of the forest of Knaresborough, that the Archbishop of York prevented their coming to Ripon, “so that none might utter their caffer, wherewith to pay his (the King's) farme att tearmes accustomed.” Plumpton Corresp. p. liv. “Chaffre, ware.” Palsg.
page 68 note 2 “Calenge, dispute, contradiction, contestation.” Roquef. “Chalenge or cleyme.” Palsg. In the Wicliffite version, Jerem. vii. 6 is rendered, “If ye maken not fals caleng to a comelyng, and to a faderless child, and to a widewe.”
page 68 note 3 The distinction is here clearly made between the two significations of the verb to challenge. Thus also Cotgrave explains “Chalanger, to claime, challenge, make title unto: also to accuse of, charge with an offence.” Robert of Gloucester, Brunne, and Chaucer use the word in the former sense. “To chalange, vendicare, calumpniari. A chalange, calumpnia.” Cath. angl. “Calanger, accuser, disputer, demander, être en conquerance.” Roquef. “The tribune dredde lest the iewis wolde take him bi the waie and sle him, and aftirward he myght be chalengid as he hadde take money.” Wicliffite version, Dedis, c. 23.
page 68 note 4 Chalo or chalonus is explained by Ducange to be “pars supellectilis lecti, straguli species.” In the Mon. Angl. ii. 720, chaluns are thus mentioned, “aut pannos pictos, qui vocantur chaluns, loco lectisternii.” The word occurs in Chaucer, Reves Tale.
“And in his owen chambre hem made a bedde
With shetes and with chalons faire yspredde.”
Tyrwhitt thinks they were probably so called from having been made at Chalons. “A chalone, amphitapetum.” Cath. angl. In an Inventory taken at the Hospital of St. Edmund, Gateshead, 1325, there occurs, “In Choro, Unum frontale de Chalonns.” Wills and Invent. Surtees Society, i. 22.
page 69 note 1 “Chape of a knyfe, vomellus.” Cath. angl. “Chape of a shethe, bouterolle de gayne. To chape a sword or dagger.” Palsg. The word is derived from the French chappe, which Cotgrave explains to be “the locket of a scabbard,” but Skinner more correctly “vaginœ mucro ferreus.” The chape of a sword was a badge assumed by the De la Warr family, in memorial of the part taken by Sir Roger de la Warr, at Poitiers, 1356, in the capture of John King of France, when he took possession of the royal sword.
page 69 note 2 “A chapitrye, capitulum.” Cath. angl.
page 69 note 3 “A chapman, negociator, et cetera ubi a merchande. A chapmanry, negociacio. A chapmanware, vendibilis. To chappe, mercari, nundinari, negociari.” Cath. angl. “Chapman, marchant, challant.” Palsg. Ang. S. ceapman, mercator.
page 69 note 4 The term chare seems to have been the earliest appellation in England, of vehicles used to convey persons of distinction. It has been derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyran, vertere, but probably we derived both the vehicle and its appellation from France, where, as early as 1294, the use of the char had become so prevalent that it was forbidden to the wives of citizens by an ordinance of Philippe le Bel. A description of the rich chare prepared for the Princess of Hungary, will be found in the Squyr of low degree, Ellis's Specimens, vol. i.; and is beautifully illustrated by an illumination in the Louterell Psalter, executed in the reign of Edward II. See Mr. Rokewode's valuable paper in the Vetusta Mon. vol. vi. plate xx. A variety of representations are also given by Mr. Markland, with his remarks on the early use of carriages in England, Archæol. xx. 443. The appellation chare continued in use in the 16th century. Horman says, “the quyene came in a chare, pilento. He came in a chare or a wagen.” It occurs in Hall and Fabyan; and in Strype's Memoirs, Edward VI. 1557, is mentioned a “chair drawn by six chariot horses.”
page 70 note 1 “Basterna, est theca manualis vel itineris, a carre, or a chareot, or horslytter.” Ort. voc. In the Catholicon Basterna is explained to be “vehiculus itineris, quasi vesterna, quia mollibus vestibus sternitur, et a duobus animalibus trahitur, ubi nobiles femine deferuntur.” “Charryet, chariot, branlant.” Palsg.
page 70 note 2 “To chare, ubi to chase.” Cath. angl. A. Sax. cerran, vertere.
page 70 note 3 “Parapsis, discus, sive vas ex omni parte habens latera equalia, a platter, or a dobler, or a charger. Lanx, latus discus, a charger.” Ort. voc. “Charger, a great platter, ung grant plat.” Palsg. “One swanne is ynoughe to fyll a charger. This fysshe fylleth a charger, namozanum opplet.” Horm.
page 70 note 4 Gower uses this word to express the creaking of a door, Conf. Am. lib. iv.
“There is no dore, which maie charcke.”
Compare Chyrkyn̄, sibilo, Cherkyn̄, or chorkyn̄, or fracchyn̄ as newe cartys or plowys, strideo. Ang. Sax. cearcian, stridere.
page 70 note 5 In the Forme of Cury, p. 27, will be found directions for making “charlet, and charlet yforced.” It appears to have been a kind of omelet, sometimes compounded with minced pork. Pegge derives the term from the French chair. Pepo is explained, however, in the Ortus, as “herba quedam, i. melo, or mortrews, et est similis cucurbite.”
page 70 note 6 “A chafte, a chawylle, a chekebone, maxilla, mala, faux, mandubila, mandula, mola.” Cath. angl. “Chawe bone, machovere.” Palsg. In the Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 140, occurs the word “brancus, a gole, or a chawle.”
page 71 note 1 “Subtelaris, vnder the hele.” Ort. voc. A similar explanation is given in the Catholicon, with this addition, “Sotular autem vel sotularis nihil aliud est, ut dicit Magister Bene. sed aliqui contrarium dicunt.”
page 71 note 2 The Catholicon gives the following explanation, “Parcopollex, i. tramellum,” which is properly a thimble: chauncepe appears to be a corruption of the French chaussepied.
page 71 note 3 Of the office of the chandeler in the household of a great lord, see the curious poem appended to the Boke of Curtasye, written about the time of Henry VI. Sloane MS. 1986, f. 46, b.
“Now speke I wylle a lytulle whyle
Of the chandeler wyth-outen gyle,
That torches and tortes and preketes con make,
Perchours, smale condel, I vndertake.”
Chandler signified not only the maker of candles, but the candlestick, from the French chandelier. Thus in the Legenda Aurea mention occurs of a “chaundeler or candyl-stycke,” f. vii. b. See above Candelere, and the word chandler in Jamieson.
page 71 note 4 See hereafter Rooryn̄ or chaungyn̄ on chaffare for another, cambio.
page 71 note 5 It has been stated that the usage of chanting in the English churches was introduced by Osmund, Bishop of Sarum, 1090; but we learn from Bede that Benedict, Abbot of Weremouth, brought Abbot John, the arch-chanter, from Rome to this country, about A.D. 678, at which period Archbishop Theodoric, a Greek by birth, made a visitation of the whole island, and caused instruction to be given in the art “sonos cantandi in ecclesiâ,” until then known only in Kent. Bede states even that at an earlier period in the same century Paulinus left at York James the Deacon, who was “cantandi in ecclesiâ peritissimus,” and who “magister ecclesiastice cantionis juxta morem Romanorum, seu Cantuariorum multis cœpit existere.” Bede, lib. ii. 40. See also lib. iv. 3, and v. 20, and the appendix, edit. by Smith, p. 719. The most important treatises on the subject of Church Music are those of St. Nicetus in the VIth century, and Aurelian in the IXth, subsequent to the great change introduced by St. Gregory. A curious notice of the ancient system of notation has been given among the “Instructions du Comité Historique. Collection de documents inédits.” 1839. Chanting or “deschaunt” was among the practices violently opposed by Wickliffe, as was all Church-melody by the innovators of a later period.
page 72 note 1 “A kelynge, morus, piscis est.” Cath. angl. “Morus, quidam piscis, a hadok, a kelynge, or a codlynge.” Ort. voc. At the inthronization feast of Abp. Nevill, 1464, there was served “Kelyng, codlyng, and hadocke boyled.” Leland Coll. vi. 6. According to Ray, the keeling is the same as the cod-fish.
page 72 note 2 “To chepe, taxare. Chepe, precium.” Cath. angl. In Caxton's Boke for Travellers a servant who is sent to market is thus directed, “So chepe for us of the venyson, si nous bargaigne.” Palsgrave gives the verb “To bargen, chepe, bye and sell, marchander. Go cheape a cappe for me, and I wyll come anone and bye it.” Ang. Sax. ceapian, negotiari. The following use of the substantive occurs in the Will of Sir John Lumley, 1420, “I wille þat my brothre William haue þe landes and rentys bettir chepe þen any othir man, by a reasonable some.” Wills published by the Surtees Society, i. 63. Caxton in the Boke for Travellers says, “he byeth in tyme and at hour, so that he hath not of the dere chepe, du chier marchiet.”
page 72 note 3 “Ut dicit Papias, Egones sunt sacerdotes rustici.” Cath. In the Glossary of St. Isidore of Seville, who lived in the VIIth century, occur “Econes, sacerdotes rustici. Egones, sacerdotes rusticorum.” The compiler of the Promptorium was a Friar-Preacher, and the insertion of this word may possibly be attributed to the contentious feeling which subsisted between the monastic orders and the secular clergy. The illiterate condition, however, of the rural or “uplandish” clergy brought them generally into contempt, and occasioned their receiving the nick-name “Sir John,” and other appellations of invidious obloquy.
page 73 note 1 “To cherische or dawnte, blanditractare.” Cath. ang.
page 73 note 2 See above Chekyr.
page 73 note 3 Papiever, MS. “A chesse bolle, papaver, cinolus.” Cath. ang. The Promptorium gives also Chybolle, cinollus. “Papaver est herba somnifera, anglicè a chebole.” Ort. voc. “Cheese bowls, flores papaveris hort. a similitudine aliquâ vasculorum caseaceorum sic dicti.” Skinner. See the words Chasbol and Chesbow in Jamieson.
page 73 note 4 “A chesabylle, casula, infula, planeta.” Cath. ang. “Casula, a chesuble.” Ortus. At the Reformation there was still preserved at Canterbury among the vestments supposed to have been sent by St. Gregory to Augustine A.D. 601, “casula oloserica purpurei coloris aureâ texturâ, et lapidibus superius a parte posteriori ornata.” Bede, App. p. 691.
page 73 note 5 The Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. gives in relation to suits at law, “Causa, occasio, pretextus, cheson.” See hereafter Enchesone, or cause. “Acheison, encheison, occasion heureuse, plainte, querelle.” Roquef. In low Latin “acheso, occasio, lis contra jus intentata.” Duc.
page 73 note 6 In Sloan. MS. 73, f. 211, will be found directions “for to make cheuerel lether of perchemyne,” by means of a solution of alum mixed with yolks of eggs and flour; and also “to mak of whit cheuerel, reed cheuerel,” the colour being given by a compound of brazil. “Cheuerell lether, cheverotin.” Palsg.
page 73 note 7 The verb to cheve is used by R. Gloucester and R. Brunne, and likewise in Piers Ploughman,
“The poore is but feble,
And if he chide or chatre,
Hym cheveth the worse.” Vision, line 9375.
Roquefort gives “Chevir, agir, posseder, jouir, en bas lat. cheviare.” “To cheve, brynge to an ende, aschieuer.” Palsg.
page 74 note 1 This word is used by Piers Ploughman, Chaucer, and Gower. “Schift, cheuesaunce, cheuesance.” Palsg.
page 74 note 2 In the Legenda Aurea, f. 64, b. it is related of Becket, “and the nexte nyght after he departed in thabyte of a brother of Sympryngham, and so cheuyssed yt he wente ouer see.” Fabyan states that Rufus said of the Earl of Poytiers, “I woll assaye to haue hys Erldom in morgage, for welle I knowe he must cheuyche for money to perfourme that journey” (to Jerusalem).
page 74 note 3 “Chekynwede, herbe, movron.” Palsg. In Norfolk the alsine media according to Forby is called Chickensmeat. Ang. Sax. cicena mete, alsine. Elfric.
page 74 note 4 See hereafter Flytin̄, or chydin̄. The Cath. Ang. gives “To chyde, litigare, certare, et cetera ubi to flyte.”
page 74 note 5 To chick signifies still in Norfolk and Suffolk to germinate, as seeds in the earth or leaves from the bud. Forby.
page 74 note 6 Chilindrus, in French chilandre, Palsg. was a name of Greek derivation, applied to some venomous kind of water-serpent.
page 74 note 7 The English gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth explains “gysine, childing.” “There was a woman with chylde grete vpon her delyueraunce, and at ye tyme of chyldynge she myght not be delyuered.” Leg. Aurea. “Partus, puerperium, chyldyng.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII.
page 74 note 8 “To childe, parturire, eniti, fetare, parere. Femina vult parere, sed non vult illa parere.” Cath. ang. The Wicliffite version renders Levit. xii. 2, “If a wōman childiþ a knaue child, sche schal be vncleene bi vii daies.” Cott. MS. Claud. E. 11.
page 75 note 1 Ang. Sax. cildiung-wif, a child-bearing woman.
page 75 note 2 “A chinche, tenax, &c. ubi cowatus. Chinchery, tenacitas, &c. ubi cowatyse.” Cath. ang. “Tenax, a toughe halder, or chinche.” Med. Chaucer says in the Tale of Melibeus, “men blamen an avaricious man, because of his scarcitee and chincherie.”
“Bothe he was scars and chinche.” Sevyn Sages, 1244.
R. Wimbeldon said in his Sermon at Paul's Cross, A.D. 1389, “forsoth wete ye, that euerych auouterer, or vncleane man, that is gloton, other chynch, shal neuer haue heritage in the realme of Christ and of God.” Fox, Acts and Mon. The word is occasionally written chiche, as by Chaucer, Rom. of R. In French, “chice, mesquin; chicheté, avarice, vilenie.” Roquef.
page 75 note 3 Shingles of wood, a covering both light and durable, were probably still, at the time the Promptorium was compiled, in very general use for roofing houses, although the regulations for the dimension of the various kinds of tiles are a proof of their being likewise employed to a considerable extent. See Stat. 17 Edw. IV. c. 4. A.D. 1477. The term seems derived from the French eschandole, or Latin scindula, and is occasionally written shindles. See Holland's Pliny, B. xvi. c. 10. Piers Ploughman terms Noah's ark a “shynglede shup,” an expression that seems to bear some analogy to the Ang. Sax. scide-weall, murus de scindulis congestus. Elfric. See Schyngyl.
page 75 note 4 In the Seuyn Sages, line 2625, the chirche-hawe is spoken of, Ang. Sax. haʓa, agellus, or heʓe, septum. In Cath. Ang. it is termed “a kyrke-garthe.” Ang. Sax. ʓeard, sepes.
page 75 note 5 “Encenia dicuntur nova festa, vel dedicationes ecclesiarum.” Ortus. Ang. Sax. cyric-halgung, church hallowing.
page 76 note 1 “ And kisseth hire swete, and chirketh as a sparwe with his lippes.” Sompnoures Tale. “To chyrke, make a noyse as myse do in a house.” Palsg.
page 76 note 2 See above Charkyn, as a carte. Ang. Sax. cearcian, stridere. Chaucer uses the term to express generally a disagreeable sound.
“All full of chirking was that sory place.” Knightes Tale.
page 76 note 3 Chyrrynge, ms.
page 76 note 4 Thomas, in his Italian Gramm. 1548, gives “Buffa, the dispisyng blaste of the mouthe that we call shirping.”
page 76 note 5 The Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. gives “arena, grawell, sabulum, sande, glaria, chesylle,” f. 37, and again, f. 56. “nomina lapidum, glaria, chesylle.” The etymology of the name Chesil Bank, in Dorsetshire, a singular bank of pebbles, which extends nearly seven miles S.E. from Abbotsbury, and abuts at Chesilton on the isle of Portland, is here clearly ascertained. See prefixed to Holinshed's Chron. the description of the Chesill, by Harrison, Descr. of Brit. p. 58. Harrison speaks also of the Chesill at Seaton in Devonshire, where he says “the mouth of the Axe is closed by a mightie bar of pibble stones,” p. 59, and copies the account given by Leland, ltin. iii. f. 42, “the men of Seton began of late day to stake and make a mayne waulle withyn the Haven—and ther to have trenchid thorough the chisille, and to have let out the Ax, and receyvid in the mayn se. But this purpose cam-not to effect. Me thought that nature most wrought to trench the chisil hard to Seton Town, and ther to let in the se.” In this instance the term chisel seems to accord with the explanation given in the Medulla, “Glarea, argilla, vel primum lapides quos aqua fluviatilis trahit.” Harl. MS. 2257. It implies, however, in a more general sense the pebbles on the shore; thus in the Coventry Mysteries, p. 56, is the following paraphrase of Genes. xxii. 17.
“As sond in the see dothe ebbe and flowe,
Hath cheselys many unnumerable.”
In the Wicliffite version this passage is rendered “gravel which is in þe brink of þe see.” Ang. Sax. ceosel, glarea, sabulum. Teut. kesel. In Norfolk chizzly signifies dry and harsh under the teeth, which Forby derives from Teut. kiesele, gluma. The Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 147, gives among “pertinencia pistrine, Cantabrum, anglicè chycelle.”
page 76 note 6 “Chiterlynge, hilla.” Cath. ang. “Chyterling, endoile.” Palsg. Horman says, “let us have trypis, chetterlyngis, and tryllybubbys ynough, suppedita aulicoclia ad satietatem.” Skinner derives the word from Teut. kutteln, intestina.
page 76 note 7 Chaucer writes in the Blake Knyght, “I chiver for defaut of hete,” and Gower uses the verb to chever. “Chyueryng as one dothe for colde in an axes, or otherwise, frilleux.” Palsg.
page 77 note 1 Chuffy, as Forby observes, does not in Norfolk now signify clownish, but merely fat and fleshy, particularly in the cheeks. French, jouffu. Palsgrave gives “chuffe, bouffe,” which is explained by Cotgrave as “a swollen or swelling cheek; Bouffé, puffed, blown.”
page 77 note 2 See hereafter Sybbe and Sybrede.
page 77 note 3 See hereafter Syyd, as clothys. Talaris. This term, which is retained in Norfolk, implies commonly merely the length of a garment, “syde as a gowne, defluxus.” Cath. ang. from Ang. Sax. sid, amplus, latus. The reason of its special application here to clothes that are threadbare is not apparent, unless it were, that garments in such condition, losing the swelling folds that new stuffs would form, and hanging close to the sides, give the figure a lengthly and lean appearance.
page 77 note 4 See hereafter Syynge downe.
page 77 note 5 See Ceelyn̄ with syllure, and hereafter Sylure of valle, and Selyn̄. Cotgrave gives “Draperie, a flourishing with leaves and flowers in wood or stone, used especially on the heads of pillers, and tearmed by our workmen drapery or cilery.”
page 77 note 6 See Brede twyss bakyn as krakenelle, or symnel, and hereafter Symnel.
page 77 note 7 In a curious MS. herbal of the XVth century, in the possession of Hugh Diamond, Esq. the virtues of this plant are detailed. “Grondeswyle, we clepen in latin seneceon,” p. 61. It was used as a plaster for “bolnyngs” and sores, “hit wole staunce þe hoote potagre, and alle manere greues of þe leggys.” By most leeches it was thought dangerous to use it internally, although so recommended by Pliny; however, “þis erbe algreene, if it be dipped in vynegre, and so y ete—wole abate þe fretyng of þe wombe;” and the touch of the root was accounted a specific for the tooth ache.
page 78 note 1 The drain of a lavatory seems to be here alluded to, such as that with which the lavacrum or piscina on the south side of the altar was invariably supplied, which allowed the water that had served for washing the sacred vessels, and for the ablutions during the service of the altar, to sink into the earth: or generally in reference to such provisions for cleanliness as are to be observed in most monastic establishments, as especially the lavatories in the cloisters at Chester and Worcester Cathedrals. Mergulus, however, usually signifies the sink of a lamp, wherein the wick was placed.
page 78 note 2 The citron was probably introduced into Europe with the orange by the Arab conquerors of Spain, and first received in England from that country. By a MS. in the Tower it appears that in 1290, 18 Edw. I. a large Spanish ship came to Portsmouth, and that from her cargo Queen Eleanor purchased Seville figs, dates, pomegranates, 15 citrons, and 7 poma de orenge. See the introduction to the valuable volume on Household Expenses in England, presented to the Roxburghe Club, by B. Botfield, Esq. p. xlviii.
page 79 note 1 “Colum, a mylke syhe, or a clansynge syfe.” Med. See hereafter Syynge, or clensynge.
page 79 note 2 “Clammy, as breed is not through baken, pasteux.” Palsg. See hereafter Gleymows or lymows. In Norfolk meat over-kept is said to have got a clam; and to clam signifies to stick together by viscid matter. Forby. Ang. Sax. clam, lutum, clæmian, linere.
page 79 note 3 “They that serche the ende of a mannys lyfe by nygrymanciars be payed at a clappe, clade involvuntur.” Horm.
page 79 note 4 The French term claré seems simply to have denoted a clear transparent wine, but in its most usual sense a compounded drink of wine with honey and spices, so delicious as to be comparable to the nectar of the Gods.
“For of the Goddes the vsage is,
That who so him forsweareth amis,
Shall that yeere drinke no clarre.” Chaucer, Rom. of Rose.
In the original Romance pigment, claré, and vin parée are named together, and in the Merchant's Tale Januaric is said to indulge in consoling spiced drinks, “Ipocras, clareie and vernage.” Barth. Anglicus gives a description of the mode of compounding claret, lib. 19, de propriet. rerum, c. 56; and recipes “ad faciendum claretum” occur in Sloan. MSS. 1986, f. 14, b. and 3548, f. 105. The following directions are found in Sloan. MS. 2584, f. 173. “To make Clarre. Take a galoun of honi, and skome it wel, and loke whanne it is i soden þat þer be a galoun; þanne take viii galouns of red wyn, þan take a pounde of pouder canel, and half a pounde of pouder gynger, and a quarter of a pounde of pouder peper, and medle alle þese þynges to geder, and þe wyn; and do hym in a clene barelle, and stoppe it fast, and rolle it wel ofte siþes, as men don verious, iii dayes.” Palsgrave gives “Clarry wyne, cleré.” In Norfolk at the present time any kind of foreign red wine is called claret.
page 80 note 1 “Clarine, cleron.” Palsg. Horman says that “a trumpette is streyght, but a clarion is wounde in and out with an hope.” This instrument received its name from its shrill sounds: it was called in low Latin clario, and Knyghton mentions “clarriones et tubœ,” as sounding the onset at Cressy, and speaks of them also in his account of the siege of Paris, by Edward III. A.D. 1360.
page 80 note 2 The verb to scratch, derived by Junius from the Danish, kratse, or the Flemish, kratsen, was formerly written cracche: see hereafter Cracchyn̄. Chaucer speaks of “cratchinge of chekes,” and Piers Ploughman says,
“Al the clergie under Crist
Ne myghte me cracche fro helle,
But oonliche love and leautee.” Vision, 6866.
page 80 note 3 This term is derived from the Latin, or more directly, perhaps, from the French, “closier, petit clos fermé de haies.” Roquef. Horman says, “these byrdis muste be kepte in with a rayle, or a closer latis wyse, clathro.” See Closere of bokys or oþer lyke.
page 80 note 4 Cambuca is rendered in the Medulla Grammatice, “a buschoppys cros, or a crokid staf.” See hereafter Croce of a byschope. The term Cley-staffe seems to be taken from the similarity of the head of the pastoral staff, in its simplest form, resembling the ancient lituus, to the claw of an animal, which here, as by Gower, is written cle. “Cley of a beste, ungula.” Cath. ang. In Norfolk the pronunciation cleyes is still retained.
page 80 note 5 Chaueryn may be here the same as Charyn, or geynecopyn, which occurs previously.
page 80 note 6 Clean formerly signified, not merely external, but also intrinsic purity. “He gave a senser, and a shyp of clene syluer, argento puro.” Horm.
page 81 note 1 The verb to clepe is commonly used by Robert of Gloucester, Chaucer, Gower, and other ancient writers; but as early as the commencement of the XVIth century it appears to have become obsolete, for Palsgrave gives “I clepe or call, je hysche. This terme is farre Northern.” Ang. S. cleopian, clamare. Forby gives the word as still in use in Norfolk.
page 81 note 2 “A clerge, clerus, clerimonia.” Cath. ang.
page 81 note 3 The word clergy, signifying erudition suitable to the office, in the sense given to the word in the King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium, is thus used also in Piers Ploughman's Vision,
“I asked hir the high way where that clergie dwelt.”
See the word clargie, in Jamieson. “Clergie, science, littérature, savoir.” Roquef.
page 81 note 4 Clift occurs in the gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth, to denote what is termed the fork of the human figure, in the following passage, Arund. MS. 220.
“Quisses (þeɜes) nages (bottokes) oue la fourcheure (þe clift)
Fount graunt eyse pur chiuauchure (vor ridinge).”
Clough, a deep fissure or ravine, is a name still retained at Lynn, at a spot described by Forby. Ang. Sax. clouʓh, fissura ad montis clivum. See also cleuch and cleugh in Jamieson, and Brockett's Northern words.
page 82 note 1 “A clekett, clavis.” Cath. ang. “Clyket of a dore, clicquette.” Palsg. The French term cliquet, in low Latin cliquetus, seems properly to have signified a latch, “pessulus versatilis, Gall, loquet.” Duc. Thus the gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth renders it.
“Par cliket et cerure, (lacche and lok)
Ert la mesoun le plus sure.” Arund. MS. 220, f. 302, b.
Chaucer, however, uses the word in the sense that is here given to it, “clavicula, a lytel keye.” Ortus. Thus in the Merchant's Tale,
“——— he wold suffre no wight bere the key,
Sauf he himself, for of the smal wiket
He bare alway of silver a cliket.”
page 82 note 2 “A clippynge, tonsura. A clippynge howse, tonsorium.” Cath. ang. In Norfolk to clip signifies now to shear sheep, and the great annual meeting at Holkham was commonly termed the Holkham clip, or clipping. Forby.
page 82 note 3 “þe clippys of þe sone and moyne, eclypsis. To make clippys, eclipticare.” Cath. ang. Chaucer, comparing the course of love to that of the moon, says that it is like the planet,
“Now bright, now clipsy of manere,
And whilom dimme and whilom clere.”
page 82 note 4 The verbs from Clyue, to Cowryn, are omitted in the Harleian MS. and are here given chiefly from the MS. at King's College, Cambridge, and Pynson's edition.
page 82 note 5 This term is derived from the French clocher, or the low Latin clocherium. It occurs in the accounts of the Chamberlain of Norwich, among charges for the celebration of the exequies of Henry VIII. A.D. 1547, where a payment appears “to the Clarks of Cryste Churche, for ryngyng the clocher bells.” Blomf. Hist. ii. 155.
page 83 note 1 “A clotte, cespis, occarium. To clotte, occare. A clottynge malle, occatorium.” Cath. ang. “Occo, glebas frangere, to clotte.” Ortus. In the Medulla, Harl. MS. 2257, occur “glebarius, a clotte maller. Gleba est durus cespes cum herbâ, an harde klotte.” Palsgrave gives the verb to clodde as signifying the formation, and not the breaking up of clods. “To clodde, go in to heapes, or in to peces, as the yerthe dothe, amonceler. This yerthe clotteth so faste that it must be broken. To clodde, figer, fortier, congeler.” Compare Cloteryn.
page 83 note 2 A note, copied by Hearne from a copy of the Promptorium, states that the compiler of the work was “frater Ricardus Fraunces, inter quatuor parietes pro Christo inclusus.” See Hearne's Glossary to Langtoft's Chron. under the word Nesshe. If, however, it had been true that he had belonged to the order of Anchorites, who were called inclusi, or reclusi, it seems probable that some indication of the fact would have here occurred. The dwelling of the Anchorite, domus inclusi, or clusorium, appears to have often immediately adjoined the church, and is doubtless in many instances still to be distinguished. The ritual for his benediction will be found in Martene, Antiq. Rit. lib. iii. c. 3. Palsgrave gives the verb “to close up in a wall, or bytwene walles, emmurer. Cannest thou fynde in thy herte to be an Anker, to be closed up in a wall?” See hereafter Recluse.
page 83 note 3 Compare Clausure, or clos. Jamieson gives closeris, enclosures, and closerris, which he conjectures may signify clasps. In Norfolk Forby observes that the cover of a book is called clodger, which he supposes to be derived from the French, closier, as the term codger is corrupted from cosier, a cobler.
page 84 note 1 Compare hereafter Skye, nubes. The word skye is thus used both by Chaucer and Gower, to signify a cloud. Ang. Sax. skua, umbra, Su. G. sky, nubes.
page 84 note 2 Clawys, MS. “A clowe of flodeɜate, singlocitorium, gurgustium.” Cath. ang. The term clowys appears to be taken from the French écluse. See the word clouse, in Jamieson.
page 84 note 3 “A clowte of yrne, crusta, crusta ferrea, et cetera ubi plate.” Cath. ang. In Norfolk the terms cleat and clout signify an iron plate with which a shoe is strengthened. Forby. Ang. Sax. cleot, clut, pittacium, lamina. Palsgrave gives the verb “to cloute, carreler, rateceller. I had nede go cloute my shoes, they be broken at the heles.”
page 84 note 4 “To wynde clowys, glomerare.” Cath. ang. A. Sax. cleow, glomus.
page 84 note 5 The chough or jackdaw, called in the Eastern counties a caddow. See before Cadaw, or keo, or chowghe, and hereafter Koo, bryd, or schowghe. “Monedula, coo.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1587. “A ka, monedula.” Cath. ang. “Nodulus, a kaa.” Ort. voc. Ang. Sax. ceo, cornix.
page 84 note 6 The coarse half-boot used by rustics was called a cocur, and the term cocker is still used in the North of England, but properly signifies gaiters or leggings, and even coarse stockings without feet, used as gaiters. In a MS. of the Medulla in the Editor's possession, Culponeus is rendered “a carl stoghe,” (in the Ortus “a chorles shoo,”) with this additional explanation, “vel a Cokyr, ut dicit Campus florum.” Piers Ploughman speaks of his “cokeres,” Vision, line 3915, and they may be seen in the curious drawing in a MS. of the Poem in the Library Trin. Coll. Cant. an engraving from which is given in Shaw's Dresses. Elyot gives “Carpatinœ, ploughmen's bootes made of vntanned lether, they maye be called cokers. Peronutus, he that weareth rawe lether shoen, boteux, or cokars lyke a ploughman.” Librarie, 1542.
page 85 note 1 Junius compares this word with the Dutch, kokerillen, celebrare hilaria, but Lye is inclined to trace its etymology to the Welsh, cocr, indulgens. The use of the term is fully illustrated by Palsgrave. “To coker, cherysshe to moche, mignotter. This boye canne never thriue, he is cokered so moche. To coker, bring up with daynty meates, affriander, affrioller. Coker hym up thus in his youthe, and you shall haue a fayre caulfe of hym shortly.” See below, Cookerynge mete.
page 85 note 2 This singular term was given most erroneously in the printed editions of the Promptorium; Pynson printed it Ckyrmete, Julian Notary Chyimete, and W. de Worde Chymette. It appears to relate to the kind of rustic boot called here a cocur, and cokyr; but the whimsical application of such a term to clay is wholly unaccountable.
page 85 note 3 Among numerous substances, resin, grease, and herbs, mentioned in the curious directions for making a good “entreet,” or plaster to heal wounds, occurs “Spaynisch code.” Sloan. MS. 100, f. 17.
page 85 note 4 Elyot renders “Sepia, a fyshe called a cuttell. Loligo, a fyshe whiche hath his head betwene his feete and his bealy, and hath also two bones, oone lyke a knyfe, the other lyke a penne.” The Sepia officinalis, which is found commonly on the coasts of Britain, is not properly a fish, but belongs to Cuvier's great division of Molluscous animals, and the class of Céphalopodes. Ang. Sax. cudele, sepia. See hereafter, Cotull.
page 85 note 5 The primary meaning of the word cofyn seems to have been, as in Latin and French, a basket, and is thus used in the Wicliffite version, which renders Matt. xiv. 20, “Thei token the relifis of broken gobetis, twelve cofyns full.” Elyot renders “Tibin, a baskette or coffyn made of wyckers or bull rushes, or barke of a tree; such oone was Moyses put in to by the daughter of Pharao.” The term also implied a raised crust, as for a pie, or a custard, and occurs in this sense in Shakespeare. See also the Forme of Cury, pp. 72, 83, 89. Palsgrave gives “Coffyn, grant boiste.”
page 86 note 1 “A coyfe, pillius, pilleolus, apex, galerus. Versus, Pillius est juvenum, peregrinumque galerum.” Cath. ang. See above, the note on Cappe, or hure.
page 86 note 2 Chaucer uses the verb to “acoie,” in the sense of making quiet; in Spenser it signifies to caress, and also to daunt. Palsgrave gives “to coye, styll, or apayse, acquoyser.” The derivation is evidently from the French quoi, quietus, now written coi.
page 86 note 3 “A coknay, ambro, mammotrophus, delicius. Versus, Delicius qui deliciis a matre nutritur.” Cath. ang. The term coknay appears in the Promptorium to imply simply a child spoiled by too much indulgence; thus likewise in the Medulla, “Mammotrophus, qui diu sugit. Mammotrophus mammam longo qui tempore servat, Kokenay dicatur, noster sic sermo notatur.” There can be little doubt that the word is to be traced to the imaginary region “ihote Cokaygne,” described in the curious poem given by Hickes, Gramm. A. Sax. p. 231, and apparently translated from the French. Compare “le Fabliaus de Coquaigne.” Fabl. Barbazan et Méon. iv. 175. Palsgrave gives the verb “To bring up lyke a cocknaye, mignotter;” and Elyot renders “delicias facere, to play the cockney.” “Dodeliner, to bring vp wantonly, as a cockney.” Hollyband's Treasurie. See also Baret's Alvearie. Chaucer uses the word as a term of contempt, and it occasionally signifies a little cook, coquinator. See further in Douce's Illustrations, King Lear; and Brand's Popular Antiquities, notes on Shrove Tuesday.
page 86 note 4 This word occurs here as a substantive. See above, Cokerynge.
page 86 note 5 “Cokylle, quedam aborigo, zazannia.” Cath. ang. It would seem that Chaucer considered the term Lollard as derived from lollium. See hereafter, Lollarde.
page 86 note 6 Colder in the dialect of Norfolk signifies “broken ears of corn mixed with fragments of straw, beaten off by the flail;” and in Suffolk the “light ears and chaff left in the caving sieve, after dressing corn, “are termed colder, or cosh.” See Forby, and Moore. Petro signifies the clippings of stone. “Petrones sunt particule que abscinduntur de petris.” Cath.
page 87 note 1 The usage of distributing year by year a robe, or some external token of adherence to the service or interests of the personage by whom such general retainer was granted, appears to have commenced during the XIIIth century. The gift, whether a robe, a hood, or other outward sign, was termed a livery, liberata, and the practice was carried to so pernicious an extent, that various statutes passed in the reigns of Edward III. Richard II. and Henry IV. by which the use of liveries was restricted or regulated. Mr. Beltz, in his curious article on the Collars of the King's Livery, Retrosp. Review, N. S. ii. 500, states that the first instance on record of conferring such marks of distinction in England is in 1390, when Richard II. distributed his cognisance of the white hart, but the assertion copied from Anstis, that it was pendant from a collar of broom-cods, does not appear to rest on any authority. This collar was, however, presented in 1393 to Richard II. and his three uncles by Charles VI. King of France, whose cognisance it was. Such a “colare del livere du Roi de Fraunce” is mentioned in the Inventories of the Exchequer Treasury, vol. iii. 357. See Mr. J. G. Nichols's interesting observations on the Effigies of Richard II. and his Queen, Archæol. xxix. 46. The earliest notice of collars of livery, that has been observed, occurs in Rot. Parl. iii. 313, where it appears that when John of Gaunt returned in 1389 from the wars in Spain and Gascony, Richard took his uncle's “livere de coler” from his neck, and wore it himself; that it was also worn by some of the King's retinue; and that Richard declared in Parliament that he wore it in token of affection, as likewise he wore the liveries of his other uncles. It is not improbable that this livery of the Duke of Lancaster's was the collar of letters of SS, subsequently adopted by Henry IV. as his livery, the origin of which is still involved in obscurity. This device had been in use many years before his accession, and as early as 1378 Sir John de Foxle, whose will is preserved in Bishop Wykeham's Register at Winchester, bequeathed “Monile auri, cum S literâ sculptâ et amelitâ in eodem.” The livery of Henry V. during the life-time of his father, was a swan, adopted doubtless in token of his descent from the Bohun family; the Stat. 2 Hen. IV. c. 21, contains a clause “que Monseigneur le Prince purra doner sa honorable liveree del Cigne as seigneurs et a ses meignalx gentilx;” and such were probably the “Colers d'argent de la livere du Roy,” which are enumerated in the Inventories of the effects of Henry V. taken at his decease, 1423. Rot. Parl. iv. 214. Henry VI. used a collar formed of broom-cods and the letter S alternately, and Edward IV. adopted as his livery a collar of suns and roses, to which a white lion was appended. There is no evidence that collars of livery were ever distributed by subjects, excepting the Princes of the blood.
page 88 note 1 “A culice, morticium.” Cath. ang. In the collection of Recipes, dated 1381, printed with the Forme of Cury, will be found one “for to make a Colys,” which was a sort of invigorating chicken broth. See p. 94, and Preface, p. xvii. where will be found references for further information on the subject. The term is French. Cotgrave gives “Coulis, a cullis or broth of boiled meat strained, fit for a sick body.” See the words collice in Junius, and cullis in Nares' Glossary.
page 88 note 2 Of the minor orders in the Christian church, the fourth is that of acolyte, succeeded immediately by that of subdeacon, the first of the greater orders. The functions of the acolyte, consisting chiefly in attendance on the services of the altar, will be found detailed by Martene, or Ducange. By the writers of the XVIth century the orders of “benet and colet” are mentioned not infrequently together. See above Benett, ordyr, Exorcista. “Accolitus, serviens in missâ habens ordinem, a collect. Acholitus Grece, ceroferarius Latine, a colet.” Ortus.
page 88 note 3 “A collemase, alcedo.” Cath. ang. “Alcedo est quedam avis que ceteris avibus sedulius alit pullos. Anglice, a seemewe.” Ortus. Ang. Sax. colmase, parula.
page 88 note 4 “A colrake, trulla, verriculum.” Cath. ang. Elyot gives “Rutabulum, a coole rake to make cleane an oven.” See Comenius, orbis sensualium, by Hoole, p. 113.
page 88 note 5 “To colowe, make blacke with a cole, charbonner.” Palsg. Forby gives the verb to collar, as used in Norfolk in the same sense. In other parts of England the expression to collowe or colly is retained. Shakespeare in Mids. Night's Dream applies the epithet “colly'd” to the night. See Nares.
page 88 note 6 See above the note on A-comelyd for coulde. Cumbled still signifies in Norfolk cramped or stiffened with cold; cumbly-cold denotes great severity of weather. See Forby, and the word cumber, or benumbed with cold, in Jamieson. In the Wicliffite version a-clumsid occurs in the same sense: “We herden þe fame þerof, our hondis ben a-clumsid, tribulacioun haþ take us,” Jerem. vi. 24; and the expression “thou clomsest for cold” is found in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, line 9010. “Clumsyd, eviratus. Cumbyrd, ubi clumsyd.” Cath. ang. In the curious translation of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said that a fleet should not venture to sea after the autumnal equinox, when “the see is looke and shit up, and men bethe combered and clommed with colde.” B. Iv. c. 39.
page 89 note 1 In the Wicliffite version the following passages occur: “A comelynge which is a pilgrim at ɜou.” Levit. xviii. 26; “Most dere I biseche you as comelingis and pilgryms.” 1 Pet. ii. 11. The following expression occurs in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, in reference to the use of the French language in Britain; “the langage of Normandie is a comlynge of another lande,” in the original “adventitia.” “Accida, Anglice a comlynge.” Ortus. “Accola, advena, a comelinge.” Med. gramm. “A cumlynge, advena.” Cath. ang. Ang. Sax. cumling, advena.
page 89 note 2 “Cummynge as malte, germinatus.” Cath. ang.
page 89 note 3 “A commontye, vulgus, populus, gens, plebs.” Cath. ang.
page 89 note 4 Jamieson derives the word from the Latin conabilis, what may be attempted with prospect of success.
page 90 note 1 “To cone, to cunne, scire.” Cath. ang. “Cognoscere, scientiam habere, to conne.” Ortus. To conne is used in this sense by Chaucer, and in the Wicliffite version, 1 Cor. ii. 2, is rendered thus, “I deeme not me to kunne ony thing.” Caxton remarks in the Boke for Travellers, “It is a good thyng to conne a good craft, scavoir.” So likewise in the Legenda Aurea, f. 92, b. “O who sholde conne shewe hereupon the secretes of thyne herte!” Palsgrave gives “to konne, learne or knowe, scavoir. I can konne more by herte in a day, than he can in a weke;” and “to conne thanke, or can one good thanke, scavoir bon gré.” “Thou shalt kun me thanke.” Horm. See Jamieson. Ang. Sax. connan, scire.
page 90 note 2 “A connynge, scientia, facultas.” Cath. ang. “Connynge is of that thou haste lerned the memory or mynde, and reteyneth that thou sholdest forgete.” Legenda Aurea, f. 53. Ang. Sax. cunning, experientia.
page 90 note 3 This word is used by Lydgate in the Concords of Company, Minor Poems, p. 174.
“With them that ferett robbe conyngerys.”
Among the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII. is a payment in 1493, “for making of the Conyngerthe pale.” Horman observes that “warens and conygers and parkis palydde occupie moche grounde nat inhabitaunt, leporaria sive lagotrophia.” Elyot gives “Vivarium, a counnyngar, a parke;” and Thomas, in his Italian Grammar, 1548, uses the word to denote a pleasance, or enclosed garden, “Horti di Venere, the womans secrete connyngers.” “Cony garthe, garenne. Cony hole or clapar, taisniere, terrier, clappier.” Palsg. In the Paston Letters, iv. 426, the term “konyne closse” occurs in the same sense. In almost every county in England, near to ancient dwelling places, the name Coneygare, Conigree, or Coneygarth occurs, and various conjectures have been made respecting its derivation, which, however, is sufficiently obvious. See Mr. Hartshorne's observations on names of places, Salopia Antiqua, p. 258.
page 90 note 4 Coinoun, or konioun, occurs in Kyng Alisaunder, and is explained by Weber as signifying coward, or scoundrel, from the French coion, which has that meaning.
“Alisaundre! thou coinoun wode.” line 1718.
“Pes! quoth Candace, thou konioun!” line 7748.
Here, however, the word seems merely to signify a dwarf. See hereafter Dwerowe.
page 90 note 5 The first record of a mint at Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, occurs in 9th John, 1208, but there was possibly one in earlier times, and the name occurs on the coins of Edgar. Parkins supposes that it fell into disuse about 1344,18 Edw. III.; and he states that the Bishop of Norwich had also a mint there, but the fact is questionable. See Blomefield's Hist. Norf. iv. p. 582, and Ruding's Annals of the Coinage, ii. 198.
page 91 note 1 The Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1587, gives “summitas, coppe,” namely, of a steeple. In the Wicliffite version, Luke iv. 29 is thus rendered, “And they ledden him to the coppe of the hil, on which her cytee was bildid, to cast him down.” The crest on a bird's head likewise was thus termed, “Cop, cirrus, crista, est avium ut galli vel alaude.” Cath. ang. The gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth explains “geline hupée, coppede hen;” and Elyot gives “Stymphalide, a coppe of fethers, whiche standeth on the head of a byrde.” In Norfolk, the term copple-crown still has this meaning. Horman says, “Somtyme men were coppid cappis like a sugarlofe,” and uses the term “a cop heedyd felowe, cilo,” which is explained by Elyot as having a great round forehead; and again, “Homer declaryng a very folysshe and an haskard felowe under the person of Thersyte, sayth that he was copheeded lyke a gygge, vertice acuminato.” Cotgrave renders “pignon, a finiall, cop, or small pinnacle on the ridge of a house.” The epithet is applied to the pointed shoe, or poleyn, in fashion in the XVth century. “Milleus, a copped shoo.” Ortus. Ang. Sax. cop, apex.
page 91 note 2 See above Cappe, capa; this sacred vestment commonly called a cope, the wearing of which has fallen into disuse, excepting at coronations, is by the Canons of the Reformed Church directed to be worn at the celebration of the communion in cathedral and collegiate churches. See Queen Elizabeth's Advertisements, A.D. 1564, Wilkins' Conc. IV. p. 248, and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions, or Canons, A. D. 1604, ibid. p. 383.
page 91 note 3 The Catholicon explains capitellum as signifying merely the capital of a column, but in the Medulla it is rendered “summa pars capitis;” and in this sense, coporne signifying the apex or pinnacle, the work with which a tower, or any ornamental construction, is crowned, may perhaps be regarded as a diminutive of coppe. The term occurs in a curious description of a castle, written about the time of Richard II.
“Fayre fylyoleɜ that fyɜed, and ferlyly long,
With coruon coprounes craftyly sleɜe.”
Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, line 797.A round tower appears to have had the appellation of a fyell, a phioll, or fylyole, not as Ruddiman conjectures, from fiola, a vial, but from phala. “Fala, a tour of tre.” Med. gramm. In the description of Belshazzar's feast, in another poem of the same time, cited by Sir F. Madden in his notes on Sir Gawayn, it is said of the covered cups which were fashioned like embattled castles,
“The coperounes of the canacles, that on the cuppe reres,
Wer fetysely formed out in fylyoles longe.”
Cott. MS. Nero, A. x. f. 77.page 92 note 1 See hereafter Craske, or fryke of fatte, a word which seems to be derivable as a corruption from crassus, or the French cras. Crank, which occurs here in the printed editions of the Promptorium, usually signifies sickly or feeble, but in Kent and Sussex it has the sense of merry or brisk; the reading is, however, questionable, as the word crank does not occur in these editions subsequently, but craske, as in the MSS.
page 92 note 2 “Acus, coralle.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1587. “Curailles de maisons, the dust, filth, sweepings, or cleansing of houses.” Cotg. See Draffe hereafter.
page 92 note 3 “Corsy, corpulentus.” Cath. ang. “Corcyfe, corpsu. Corsyfe, to full of fatnesse, corsu, corpulent.” Palsg. Elyot gives “Pinguis, he that is fat, corsye, unweldye.”
page 92 note 4 Chaucer, in the Rime of Sir Thopas, mentions “his shoon of cordewane;” and in the Boke for Travellers Caxton speaks of “hydes of kyen whereof men make lether; of fellis of gheet, or of the bukke make men good cordewan; of shepes fellis may be made the basenne.” The kind of leather to which this name was applied was originally prepared at Corduba, and thence, according to Junius and Menage, received the appellation.
page 92 note 5 The Medulla gives “Nicetrum, tokene of overcomynge.” Harl. MS. 2257. The Catholicon gives the following explanation, “dicuntur Niceteria filateria, quœ gestabant athletœ, facta de summitatibus armorum, quœ a victis acceperant.” See Ducange.
page 93 note 1 In N. Britain a temporary building or shed is called a corf, or corf-house, signifying, as Jamieson observes, a hole or hiding place, Ang. Sax. cruft, crypta, or perhaps approaching most nearly to Isl. korbae, tuguriolum. The floating basket used on the Suffolk coast to keep lobsters, is called, as Forby states, a corf or coy; and it seems possible that this appellation may have been given to the shepherd's hut, from its being formed with wattles, like a rudely-fashioned basket. Caxton, in the Boke for Travellers, calls a basket a “corffe, or mande.”
page 93 note 2 A distinction seems to be made in the Promptorium between the Cormuse and the Bagge-pype, panduca, a word which has occurred previously. Chaucer speaks of the great multitude that he saw in the House of Fame,
“That made loud Minstralcies
In cornmuse and shalmies.” Book iii.
In the Romance of the Rose he describes the discordant sounds produced by Wicked Tongue “with hornepipes of cornewaile,” evidently identical with the cornmuse. Palsgrave renders “Bagge-pype, cornemuse,” in low Latin, “cornemusa, vox ab Italis et Hispanis usurpata, uter symphoniacus.” Duc. Hawkins has given in the Hist. of Music, vol. ii. 453, a representation of the cornamusa or bagpipe, copied from the Musurgia of Luscinius, published at Strasburg, 1536. Dr. Burney observes that “the cornmuse was the name of a horn or Cornish pipe, blown like our bagpipe.” Vol. ii. 270. This instrument appears to have been in favour as an accompaniment of the dance. Roquefort gives it another appellation, estive; and in the list of Minstrels who played before Edward I. in 1306, when Prince Edward was knighted, are found Hamond Lestivour, and Geffrai le Estivour. See the volume presented to the Roxburghe Club by Mr. Botfield, on Manners and Household Expenses in England, p. 142.
page 93 note 3 The term corporas, corporalis palla, denotes a consecrated linen cloth, folded and placed upon the altar in the service of the mass, beneath the sacred elements. Its symbolical import, allusive to the fine linen in which the body of Christ was wrapped, is fully explained by Durandus. See Lyndwood's Observations on the Constitutions of Abp. Walter Reynold, 1322, p. 235. The Constit. of the Bishops of Worcester in 1229 and 1240, required that in every Church should be provided “duo paria corporalium,” and the Synod of Exeter in 1287, ordained that in every Church should be “duo corporalia cum repositoriis.” Wilkins, Conc. i. 623, 666, ii. 139. The repositorium, or case wherein the corporas was enclosed, when not in use, was richly embroidered, or adorned with precious stones; it was termed likewise theca, capsa, or bursa corporalium. See the inventories of the gorgeous vestments and ornaments at St. Paul's, 1295, Mon. Angl. iii. 321. “Corporale, alba palla in altari, Anglice, a corporalle.” Ortus. “A corparax, corporale.” Cath. ang. “Corporas for a chales, corporeau.” Palsg.
page 94 note 1 “Corse of a gyrdell, tissu. Corse weauer, tissutier.” Palsg. See hereafter Seynt, or cors of a gyrdylle.
page 94 note 2 “A coyseyr of hors, mango. To coyse, alterare, et cetera ubi to chawnge.” Cath. ang. To cose signifies in N. Britain, according to Jamieson, to exchange or barter. In Octovian a dealer in horses is termed a “corsere.” See Weber's Metr. Rom. iii. 191. Horman says, “Corsers of horses (mangones) by false menys make them loke fresshe.” “He can horse you as well as all the corsers in the towne, courtiers de chevaulx.” Palsg.
page 94 note 3 As Coote occurs hereafter in its proper place, the reading of the Harl. MS. appears here to be corrupt. “Cosshe, a sorie house, caverne.” Palsg. In the Craven dialect cosh still has this signification.
page 94 note 4 Of the various virtues of coste, which is the root of an Indian plant, the early writers on drugs give long details, and Parkinson has represented it at p. 1582 of his Herbal. In Mr. Diamond's curious MS. on the qualities of plants and spices, two kinds of coste are described, both brought from India: “þe oone ys heuy and rede, þe toþer is liɜt and noɜt bittere, and somedel white in colour;” and it is recommended to make an ointment of coste ground small with honey, excellent to cleanse the face of the freckles, and “a suffreyn remedie for sciatica, and to þe membris þat ben a-stonyed.”
page 94 note 5 The Catholicon explains auleum as “cortina, quia in aulis extendi solet.” The hangings with which the side-walls of a hall were garnished, previously to the more general use of wainscot, appear to have been termed costers. The name was applied likewise to hangings, either in a church at the sides of the choir, or in a hall near the high table, as a kind of screen, or even to the curtains of a bed. In the Register of the ornaments of the Royal Chapel at Windsor, taken 1385, 8 Ric. II. under the head of “Panni,” several are enumerated. “Duo costers panni magni de Velvetto, pro principalibus diebus, rubei et viridis coloris, cum magnis imaginibus stantibus in tabernaculo.” Mon. Ang. T. iii. part 2, p. 81. Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland, bequeathed in 1424 to his wife a third part of his estate, “cum uno lecto de Arras operato cum auro, cum costeris eidem pertinentibus et concordantibus;” and to his son Richard another bed of Arras, “cum costeris paled de colore rubeo viridi et albo, qui solebant pendere in magnâ camerâ infra castrum de Sherifhoton.” Madox, Formul. p. 432.
page 95 note 1 Chaucer, in the Persones Tale, makes great complaint of the “sinneful costlewe array of clothing,” occasioned by the extravagant fashions of the time of Richard II. In the Stat. 3 Henry VII. c. 2, against murderers, it is stated that “he that will sue eny appell must sue in propre persone, which sute ys long and costlowe (costeouz, Fr.) that yt makyth the partie appellant wery to sue.” The Cath. Ang. gives “costy, sumptuosus,” and Palsgrave, “costyouse, sumptueux.”
page 95 note 2 Chaucer uses the verb to costeie in the sense of the French costoier, to pass alongside; as in the complaint of the Black Knight, line 36.
“And by a riuer forth I gan costeie.”
Palsgrave gives the verb “to coste a countrey or place, ryde, go, or sayle about it, costier or costoyer. To hym that coulde coste the countray, there is a nerer way by syxe myle.”
page 95 note 3 Chaucer, in the Legend of Hypermestre, relates that her father Danao gave her “a costrell” filled with a narcotic, in order to poison her husband Lino. “A costrelle, oneferum, et cetera ubi a flakett. A flakett, flacta, obba, uter, et cetera ubi a potte.” Cath. ang. A MS. of the XIVth century, which gives the explanation of words that occur in the Missal, contains the following interpretation: “Uter, Anglice a botel, sed collateralis, Anglice, a costrelle. De cute dicis utres, de ligno collaterales.” M. Paris gives a curious relation of poison discovered in the year 1258, concealed in certain vessels, “quœ costrelli vocantur.” Costerellum or costeretum, in old French costeret, signified a certain measure of wine, or other liquids; and a costrell seems to have been properly a small wooden barrel, so called because it might be carried at the side, such as is carried by a labourer as his provision for the day, still termed a costril in the Craven dialect.
page 95 note 4 Baltheus, which properly implies the girdle or mark of knightly dignity, the cingulum militare, is here used as signifying a kind of military garment. Compare hereafter Dobbelet, garment, baltheus. The Cath. Ang. gives “a cotearmour, insignium.” The usage of wearing an upper garment, or surcote, charged with armorial bearings, as a personal distinction in conflict, when the features were concealed by the aventaille, commenced possibly in the reign of John, but was not generally adopted before the time of Henry III. A portion of the armorial surcote of William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle, who died 1260, still exists, and an engraving of it is given in the Vetusta Monum. VI. plate 18. Among the earliest representations may be mentioned the effigies at Salisbury of William Longespee, who died 1266, and of a knight of the De l'Isle family at Rampton, Cambridgeshire. See Stothard's Monumental Effigies. Sir Thomas de la More relates that the Earl of Gloucester was slain at Bannockburn, 1314, in consequence of his neglecting to put on his insignia, termed in the Latin translation “togam propriœ armaturœ.” Chaucer relates that the heralds after the conflict distinguished Arcita and Palamon by their “cote armure,” as they lay in the “tas” severely wounded. Knight's Tale, 1018. An early instance of the use of the term coat-armour occurs in the Close Roll, 2 Edw. III. 1328, where the King commands the keeper of his wardrobe to render up “omnes armaturas, tam cotearmurs quam alias,” which had belonged to Bartholomew de Badlesmere, deceased, for the use of Giles his son, to whom the King had given them. Rymer, iv. 371. During the reign of Edward III. the surcote gave place to the jupon, and this was succeeded, about the time that the Promptorium was compiled, by the tabard, the latest fashion of a garment armorially decorated, and the prototype of that which is still worn by the heralds and pursuivants.
page 96 note 1 The inferior tenants, or occupiers of cottages, are termed in the Domesday Book cotarii or coscets, in Ang. Sax. cotsæta, casœ habitator, in French cotarel, or costerel. Ducange and Spelman make no distinction between cotarelli and cotarii, but Bp. Kennett thinks there was an essential difference, and that the coterelle held in absolute villenage. See his Glossary, Paroch. Ant.
page 96 note 2 Sir Thomas Browne mentions cothish among words peculiar to Norfolk, and Forby gives cothy as the word still used, signifying faint or sickly. In Bishop Kennett's Glossarial Collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, is given “cothish, morose. Norf.” Ang. Sax. cothe, morbus.
page 96 note 3 See above Codulle, fysche. Sepia.
page 96 note 4 This word appears to signify a piece or a lump of meat; congiarium is in the Catholicon explained to be “frustum carnis undique equatum.” Minsheu states that “cowde is an old English word, signifying a gobbet, morcell, or peece of any thing cut out,” but he appears to have taken it from the Promptorium, and Skinner gives it on his authority. Possibly Cowde may have some analogy with cud, which in the Promptorium is written cood. See above Chew the cood. Ang. Sax. cud, rumen.
page 97 note 1 “ A couent, conventus, conventiculus.” Cath. ang. The derivation of the word is here evidently from the French, couvent, and not from the Latin: and the orthography of the name Covent Garden thus appears to have the sanction of ancient authority.
page 97 note 2 Among the virtues of “horhowne,” as stated in a translation of Macer's Treatise on Plants, MS. XVth Cent. belonging to Hugh W. Diamond, Esq. is the following: “þis erbe y-dronke in olde wyne helpiþ þe kynges hoste, and þe comone coghe eke.” In another place a decoction of roots of “skyrewhite” is recommended to heal “þe chynke and þe olde coghe.” Skinner says the hooping-cough was termed in Lincolnshire kin-cough, and derives the word from the Belg. kicnkhost, and the verb kinchen, difficulter spirare. See hereafter Hoose, or cowghe, and Hostyn̄.
page 97 note 3 “Coupe or coule for capons, or other poultrie ware, caige aux chappons.” Palsg. The name was probably assigned in consequence of a supposed similarity to a monk's cowl, whence likewise the name has been given to the covering of a chimney. Ang. Sax. cuhle, cuculla. Elyot gives “scirpea, a dounge potte, or colne made with roddes.”
page 97 note 4 The cope was originally worn with a hood, which at a subsequent time was represented only by embroidery on the back. Hence, probably, this garment was sometimes termed a cowle. Chaucer repeatedly terms the monastic habit a cope. See the description of Huberd the Frere, who was not like a “cloisterere,”
“With thredbare cope as is a poure scolere.
Of double worsted was his semicope,
That round was as a belle, out of the presse.”
page 97 note 5 “Tina, vas vinarium amplissimum.” Ortus. In the accounts of the churchwardens of Walden, in Essex, occurs a charge in 27 Hen. VI. 1448, for a “cowle pro aquâ benedictâ, x.d.” Hist. of Audley End, by Lord Braybrooke. In Essex the term cowl is applied at the present time to any description of tub. See Kennett's Glossary, under the word cowele; he supposes it to be derived from cucula, a vessel shaped like a boat.
page 97 note 6 “Phalanga est hasta, vel quidam baculus ad portandas cupas, Anglice a stang, or a Cam. soc. culstaffe.” Ortus. “Courge, a stang, pale-staffe, or cole-staffe, carried on the shoulder, and notched for the hanging of a pale, at both ends.” Cotgr. In Caxton's Mirrour of the World, c. 10, A.D. 1481, it is related that in Ynde “the clustres of grapes ben so grete and so fulle of muste, that two men ben gretly charged to bere one of them only vpon a colestaff.” In Hoole's translation of the Orbis sensualium by Comenius, 1658, is given a representation of the cole-staff (œrumna) used for bearing a burden between two persons, p. 135; and again at p. 113, where it appears as used by brewers to carry to the cellar the newly-made beer in “soes,” or tubs with two handles (labra), called also cowls. In Brand's Popular Antiquities, ii. 107, will be found an account of the local custom of riding the cowl-staff, or stang.
page 98 note 1 At the period when the Promptorium was compiled, calculations were usually made by means of the abacus, or counting-board, and counters, which were chiefly the pieces of base metal to which the name of Nuremburgh tokens has commonly been given. The “augrim stones” mentioned by Chaucer in the Miller's Tale, where he describes the clerk of Oxford's study, probably served the same purpose. Palsgrave gives “counters to cast a count with, iect, iecton.” The science of calculation termed algorism had, however, been partially introduced. See above Awgrym. The term counter signified also the table on which such accounts were cast, and even the counting-house, in which last sense it occurs in Chaucer, where it is related that the Merchant's wife went to call her husband,
“And knocketh at his countour boldely.” Shipman's Tale.
A curious representation of the counter-table occurs in drawings of the time of Edward II. in Sloane MS. 3983. In a letter from Margaret Paston to her husband, about 1459, regarding some alterations in his house, is the following passage: “I have take the measure in the draute cham'yr, as ye wold yor cofors and yor cowntewery shuld be sette for the whyle, and yr is no space besyde the bedd, thow the bedd wer remevyd to the dore, for to sette bothe yor bord and yor kofors ther, and to have space to go and sytte besyde.” Paston Letters, iii. 324. At a later time there appears to have been a piece of ordinary furniture in the hall of a mansion termed a counter, probably from its resemblance to the table properly so called. In the Inventories printed by the Surtees Society, mention frequently occurs of the counter and the counter-cloths; as likewise of “doble counters, counters of the myddell bynde, Flanders counters with their carpets.” Wills and Invent. i. 133, 154, 158.
page 99 note 1 “A cowntynge place, libratorium.” Cath. ang.
page 99 note 2 “A cownter, anticopa.” Cath. ang.
page 99 note 3 See above Clerke of cowntys. The appellation which occurs in Chaucer's description of the Frankelein was placed by Tyrwhitt among his words not understood.
“A shereve had he ben, and a countour.” Cant. Tales, Prol.
A countour appears to have been one retained to defend a cause or plead for another, in old French, conter. See the Stat. 3 Edw. I. c. 24, against deceit or collusion by pleaders, “serjaunt, contour, ou autre,” who being convicted, should suffer imprisonment, and never again be heard “en la Court le Rey, a conter pur nulluy.” It may, however, be questionable whether Chaucer used the term in this sense, and it seems possible that escheator may be meant; the office like that of sheriff was held for a limited time, and was served only by the gentry of name and station in their county.
page 99 note 4 See hereafter Pece, cuppe.
page 99 note 5 See above Awke, or angry, and hereafter Wraw, froward.
page 99 note 6 See above the note on Clawyn̄', or cracchyn̄'. In the history of St. Eutrope it is related that “she ran to hym yt had slayne her broder, and wolde haue cratched his eyen out of his heed.” Legend. Aur. f. 51, b. Palsgrave gives the verb “to cratche violently with ones nayles, gratigner.” “He crached me cursedly about the chekis, unguibus laceravit.” The Promptorium gives also Cramzyn̄’ in the same sense.
page 100 note 1 The kind of biscuit which still bears this name was in France called craquelin; Skinner gives also Belg. craeckelinck. “Pastilla, a cake, craknel or wygge.” Ortus. See above Brede twyys bakyn, as krakenelle, or symnel.
page 100 note 2 “Jacto, id est gloriari, erogare. Anglice, to boost, or crake. Jactor, a craker.” Ortus. “Craker, a boster, bobancier. To make auaunte, boste or crake. When he is well whyttelled, he wyll crake goodly of his manhode; quand il a bien beu, il se vante gorgiasement.” Palsg. Forby gives this word as still in use in Norfolk. See Jamieson's Dictionary.
page 100 note 3 Cransynge, supra in Crecchynge, ms.
page 100 note 4 Girgillus signifies a kind of reel for winding thread. “Girgillum, Anglice, a haspe, or a payre of yerne wyndle blades.” Ortus. Ang. Sax. cranc-stæf, a weaver's instrument.
page 100 note 5 In low Latin the word crappœ is used in this sense, “abjectio bladi, ut crappœ—recolligatur.” Fleta, lib. ii. c. 82. Ducange gives also crapinum, which he derives from Belg. krappen, excidere. “Crappes, acus.” Cath. ang. “Crapin, criblure, le bled qui tombe du van.” Roquef.
page 100 note 6 “To crasshe with my tethe togyther, grincher. To crasshe, as a thynge dothe that is cryspe or britell bytwene ones tethe, cresper.” Palsg.
page 100 note 7 This word is given by Skinner among the ancient words, “Crask, Authori Dict. Angl. apud quem solum occurrit, exp. pinguis, obesus, q. d. crassius, a Lat. crassus.” It is perhaps more directly corrupted from the old French word cras, which has the same signification.
page 101 note 1 In a MS. of the Medulla in the Editor's possession cremium is rendered “a craconum of grece or talwhe.” “Extrema crematio cepi, vel illud quod relinquitur ustum in frixorio.” Ortus. “A crakane, cremium.” Cath. ang. The term cracklings, which occurs in the Scotch Acts, James VI. is explained by Jamieson as signifying the refuse of melted tallow; Su. G. and Isl. krak, quisquiliœ, from krekia, to throw away. Tallow craps has a like meaning in the Craven dialect.
page 101 note 2 Creel is given by Moore as a word not frequently used in Suffolk; Forby does not mention it, but it occurs in the Craven dialect, and signifies an ozier basket, or crate. See Jamieson's Dictionary. Roquefort explains creil as signifying a hurdle, craticula. Lepe occurs hereafter.
page 101 note 3 See hereafter Remyn̄, as ale, or other lycoure.
page 101 note 4 Precyoustone, Ms. “Crapaude, a precious stone, crapaudine.” Palsg. Cotgrave explains crapaudine as signifying the stone chelonitis, or the toad-stone. The precious stone found, as it was asserted, in the head of a toad, was supposed to possess many virtues, and especially as a preservative against poison. On some of these stones, according to Albertus Magnus, the figure of the animal was imprinted; these were of a green colour, and termed crapaudina, being possibly the kind here called smaragdus, a name which properly denotes the emerald. These stones were known also by the appellations borax, brontia, chelonitis, nise, batrachites, or ceraunia. In the Metrical Romance entitled Emare is described a rich vesture, thickly set with gems, rubies, topaze, “crapowtes and nakette;” the word is also written “crapawtes.” More detailed information on this subject will be found in Gesner, de quadrup. ovip. ii. G. See also Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, As you like it, Act 2, Sc. I.; and the word toad-stone in Nares' Glossary.
page 102 note 1 “A cressent a-bowte ye nek, torques, torquis, lunula.” Cath. ang. Lunula is explained in the Ortus to be an ornament for a woman's neck, shaped like the moon. “Anglice, an ouche, or barre.”
page 102 note 2 “Batulus, a cressed, quoddam vas in quo ponuntur prune.” Ortus. “A cressett, batillus, crucibulum, lucubrum. A crosser, crucibulum, lucubrum.” Cath. ang. A curious representation of the cresset of the time of Henry III. occurs in one of the subjects from the Painted Chamber, engraved in the Monum. Vetusta, vol. vi. where Abimelech is pourtrayed attempting to set fire to the tower of Thebes. Gower relates that in Gideon's little troop every man had
“A potte of erthe, in which he tath
A light brennyng in a cresset.” Conf. Am. lib. viii.
This word is derived from the French, “crasset, lampe de nuit.” Roquef. See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, and the representations of ancient cressets there given. Hen. IV. Part I. In Queen Elizabeth's Armoury at the Tower, there is one affixed on a long spear-headed pole. “Cresset, a lyght, flambeau, fallot.” Palsg. “Falot, a cresset light (such as they use in Playhouses) made of ropes wreathed, pitched, and put in small and open cages of iron.” Cotgr.
page 102 note 3 “Anaglypha dicuntur eminentes picturœ, sicut sunt in frontispiciis ecclesiarum, et in aliis altis locis. Anglice, borde of painters.” Ortus. The finishing which surmounts a screen, roof, or other ornamented part of a structure, was called a crest, such as is seen at Exeter Cathedral on the high-ridged roof. The Stat. 17 Edw. IV. c. 4, comprises an enactment respecting the manufacture and dimensions “de tewle, appellez pleintile, autrement nosmez thaktile, roftile, ou crestile,” the prescribed length of the last being 13 in. the thickness five-eighths, with convenient deepness accordyng. Crest-tiles, pierced with an ornamental open pattern, were to be seen on the roof of the ancient hall of the Templars, at Temple Balsall, Warwickshire. In Hall's Chron. are described “crestes karued wyth vinettes and trailes of sauage woorke,” which ornamented the Banqueting-house prepared at Greenwich in 1527. Reprint, pp. 606, 722. “Crest of a house, coypeau de la maison.” Palsg. The Glossary of Architecture cites several authorities, in which the use of the term crest occurs.
page 102 note 4 See above Balke of a londe eryd. “Porca est terra illa que eminet inter duos sulcos.” Ortus.
page 102 note 5 In the Medulla polipus is rendered “a schrympe,” and in the Ortus “a lepeste,” or lobster; but the fish here intended is probably the craw-fish, Cancer Astacus, Linn, which still bears the name in the North of England, and Jamieson gives it the appellation crevish. “Creues, a fysshe, escreuice.” Palsg.
page 103 note 1 “Celeuma est clamor nauticus, vel cantus, ut heuylaw romylawe.” Ortus. See hereafter Halow, schypmannys crye.
page 103 note 2 In the Legenda Aurea the manger in which our Saviour was laid is termed a crybbe or racke; in the Wicliffite version it is called a cratche, Luke xi. 7. “Cratche for horse or oxen, créche.” Palsg. “Creiche, a cratch, rack, oxe-stall, or crib.” Cotg. See Nares's Glossary. Booc, or boos, occurs previously.
page 103 note 3 “Cryspe as ones heer is that curleth, crespe, crespeleux.” Palsg. In the Cath. Angl. is given “A cryspyngeyrene, acus, calamistrum.”
page 103 note 4 Horman uses this word in the sense of the common term Christening; “I was called Wyllyam at my Christendome, die lustrico.” So likewise in the Cath. Angl. “A crystendame, baptismus, baptisma, Christianitas.”
page 103 note 5 The pastoral staff with a curved head, to which the appellation Cleystaffe has been given previously in the Promptorium, was called croce, crosse, croche, or crutch, words derived from the French croce or croche. “Croce, lituus, ce nom vient de croc, pource qu'une croce est crochue.” Nicot. In Piers Ploughman's Vision, line 5089, it is said that Do-best “bereth a bisshopes crosse,” with one extremity hooked: and at the consecration of a church, according to the Legenda Aurea, “the bysshop gooth all aboute thre tymes, and at euery tyme that he cometh to that dore, he knocketh with his crosse,” in the Latin original, “baculo pastorali.” Chaucer uses the word croce. “Crosse for a bysshoppe, crosse.” Palsg. “Pedum, croche.” Vocab. Roy. ms. 17 C. Xvii. “Cambuca, a crutche.” Ortus. “A cruche, cambuca, pedum.” Cath. angl. A costly “cruche” occurs in the Inventory taken at Fountains Abbey, and published by Burton. In Ang. Sax. cruce signifies both a cross and a crook, and from similarity of sound between cross and croce, words perfectly distinct in their derivation, some confusion of terms has arisen, especially as regards the usual acceptance of the word crosier, which has been supposed to be incorrect. Crosier, however, properly signifies the pastoral staff, or croce, the incurved head of which was termed in French crosseron, part of the insignia of Bishops: thus in Brooke's Book of Precedents it appears, that at the marriage of Philip and Mary in 1554, the Bishops present had their “crosiers carried before them.” Lel. Coll. Iv. 398. Fox says that Bonner, who was then Bishop of London, at the degradation of Dr. Taylor in 1555, would not strike him with his “crosier-staff” upon the breast, lest he should strike again. Minsheu says that “croce is a shepherd's crooke in our old English; hence the staffe of a Bishop is called the crocier or crosier.”
page 104 note 1 “A croser, cruciferarius, crucifer,” Cath. ang. In the relation of the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury it is said that “one Syr Edward Gryme, that was his croyser, put forthe his arme with the crosse to bere of the stroke, and the stroke smote the crosse on sonder.” Legenda Aur. At the first progress of Henry VII. after his coronation, during the solemnities at York, the Archbishop's “suffragan was croyser, and bar the Archebisshops crosse.” Lel. Coll. Iii. 192. It appears, however, by the Promptorium, that the appellation Crocere denoted also the bearer of a pastoral staff, or crosier. In this sense Higins, in the version of Junius' Nomenclator, 1585, renders “lituus, a crosier's staffe, or a Bishop's staffe.”
page 104 note 2 This word, signifying a staff with an hooked end, is still retained among the provincialisms of Norfolk and Suffolk, and is traced by Forby to the Belg. crom, uncus. Tusser speaks of a “dung-crome,” and Jamieson gives crummock, or crummie-staff, a stick with a crooked head. Ang. Sax. crumb, curvus.
page 104 note 3 Forby gives crop, as the name applied to the craw of a bird, Teut. krop, stomachus; according to Jamieson it signifies the same in N. Britain, and also the human stomach. Ang. Sax. cropp, gutturis vesicula.
page 104 note 4 “A croppe, cima.” Cath. angl. Chaucer uses this word repeatedly, signifying the topmost boughs; so likewise Gower, alluding to the confused state of affairs in the latter part of the reign of Richard II. says,
“Nowe stante the croppe vnder the rote,
The world is chaunged ouerall.” Conf. Am. Prologue.
Crap has the same signification in the North, as given by Jamieson. Ang. Sax. crop, cima.
page 105 note 1 The crowde appears to have been a six-stringed instrument resembling a fiddle, called in Wales crwth, and in Scotland cruit. Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, who wrote at the close of the VIth century, enumerating the kinds of music peculiar to different countries, uses this expression, “Chrotta Britanna placet.” Carm. lib. vii. c. 8. In the Wicliffite version, Judges xi. 34 is thus rendered, “Forsoþe whanne Iepte turnede aɜen—his oon gendrid douɜter cam to him wiþ tympans and croudis.” The word occurs again, Luke xv. 25. “Coralla, a crowde. Coraldus, a crowdere.” Vocab. Roy. MS.17 C. XVII. “A crowde, corus, lira; Corista, qui vel que canit in eo.” Cath. angl. “Croude, an instrument, rebecq. Croudar, iouevr de rebecq.” Palsg. The English interpretation of the Equivoca of Joh. de Garlandia gives “chorus, crouthe.”
page 105 note 2 Of the barrow, called in the Romance of Sir Amiloun a “croude wain,” and still called in the Eastern Counties a crud-barrow, some notice has been taken under the word Barowe. The use of the verb occurs in the following passage, after the description of the leprous knight being placed in the barrow,
“ Then Amoraunt crud Sir Amiloun
Thurch mani a cuntre vp and down.” Amis and Amiloun.
Moore gives the verb to crowd as signifying in Suffolk to push or shove.
page 105 note 3 This term, as well as several others of synonymous meaning, appear to be onoma-topeias, and to be traced to their similarity of sound to the noise which they express. The Medulla explains coax to be “vox ranarum, croudynge of padokys.” Palsgrave gives “to crowle, crouiller. My bely crowleth, I wene there be some padokes in it.” Horman says, “his bely maketh a great crowlynge, patitur bothorygmon.” In N. Britain to croud, according to Ruddiman, signifies the noise of frogs. See Jamieson.
page 105 note 4 “A crudde, bulducta, coagillium.” Cath. angl. “Cruddes of mylke, mattes.” Palsg.
page 105 note 5 The vessels which contained the wine and water for the service of the altar were called cruets, in Latin phialœ, urceoli, amululæ, in French burettes, chennettes, &c. The Constitutions of Walter de Cantilupe in 1240 require that in every church there should be “duœ phialœ, una vinaria, altera aquaria;” and at the Synod of Exeter in 1287 it was ordained that there should be “tres phialœ.” Wilkins, Concil. i. 666, ii. 139. Among the costly bequests of the Black Prince in 1376 to our Lady's altar at Canterbury, are mentioned “deux cruetz taillez come deux angeles, pur servir à mesme l'autier perpetuelement.” Horman, under the head of things sacred, says, “Have pure wyne and water in the cruettes, amulis.”
page 106 note 1 In Norfolk, according to Forby, crish or crush signifies cartilage, or soft bones, and in Suffolk crussel or skrussel has a similar meaning. Ang. Sax. gristl-ban.
page 106 note 2 This term is derived from the old French word creusequin, which signifies a drinking cup. In a MS. Inventory, dated 1378, 1 Ric. II. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, are enumerated “Un petit cruskyn oue le pee et le couercle d'argent enorre et eym'. Un cruskyn de terre garnis d'argent, &c. Un pot d'argent blanc au guyse d'un cruskyn, oue le couercle sanz pomelle. Un cruskyn de terre couere de quir bende en la sumete d'or et le couercle d'or.” Among the “pertinencia promptuario,” in Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002, occur “cornua, horne cuppe, picarius, cruskyn.”
page 106 note 3 The smallest Anglo-Saxon coin was the styca, of which two were equal to a farthing. Ruding observes that the stycas appear identical with the “minuta,” Domesd. i. f. 268, and the passage rendered in the Saxon Gospels, “tweʓen stycas,” is in the Wickliffite version, “tweie mynutis, that is a farthing.” Mark, xii. 42. See Mynute hereafter. In Duncombe's Hist. of Reculver is given a mortmayn grant, dated 13 Henry VI. 1435, in which half a farthing is named as a portion of rent paid to the Hospital of Herbaldowne, namely, “xxv schelynges, and the halfin dell of an fferdyng of rente, and rente ɜeldynge of a quat' of berr', and an henne and a half, a certell (sarcella) and þe iij parte of a certell,” &c. Bibl. Top. i. 151. At the time however that the Promptorium was compiled it does not appear that there was actually a coin of this value; the mite, as well as its equivalent, called here a Cu, were merely terms retained in calculation, and the latter was commonly used at Oxford at a much later period. It is thus explained by Minsheu, who completed his first edition in that University. “A cue, i. halfe a farthing, so called because they set down in the Battling or Butterie bookes in Oxford and Cambridge the letter q. for halfe a farthing, and in Oxford when they make that cue or q. a farthing, they say, Cap my q. and make it a farthing, thus qa. But in Cambridge they use this letter, a little s. for a farthing, and when they demand a farthing bread or beare, they say a seize of bread or beare. Latin, calcus, a cue of bread.” The abbreviation q. did not, it plainly appears, always stand as at present for quadrans, a farthing, but denoted a value of only half that amount; and it seems possible that cue or q. may have been an abbreviation of “calcus, quarta pars oboli.” Ortus. The term cue occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher. See Nares's Glossary.
page 107 note 1 “Terbichetum, a cokstole.” Ortus. “Cokestole, cuckestole, selle a ricaldes.” Palsg. The earliest mention of this mode of punishing female offenders occurs in the laws of Chester in the time of Edward the Confessor, as stated in Domesd. i. f. 262, b. The fine for using false measures was fixed at 4 shillings; “similiter malam cervisiam faciens, aut in cathedrâ ponebatur stercoris, aut iiij sol. dabat prepositis.” It was called in Ang. Sax. “scealfinʓ-stol, sella urinatoria, in quâ rixosœ mulieres sedentes aquis demergebantur.” Somner. The pillory for male offenders, and cucking-stool for females, were essentially appendant to the view of frank-pledge, or Leet: inquest was ordered to be made respecting the sufficient provision of both, by the Stat. assigned to 51 Hen. III. c. 6; and among the “Capitula Escaetrie,” one of the duties of the Escheator is declared to be inquiry “de pilloriis et tumbrellis sine licentiâ Regis levatis.” Stat. of Realm, i. 201, 240. It was termed, perhaps from its resemblance to a warlike engine so called, trebuchet, or trebuchetum. See hereafter Trebget for werre. By Bracton it is spoken of as tymborella, and in the Statutes tumbrellus, appellations likewise derived from its construction. An instance of the jealousy with which any unauthorized assumption of this manorial right of punishment was repressed, occurs in the Chron. of Jocelin de Brakelond, p. 38, where it is related that about 1190 certain encroachments were made on the privileges of the Abbot of St. Edmund's Bury, in the manor of Illegh; “levaverunt homines de Illega quoddam trebuchet ad faciendam justiciam pro falsis mensuris panis vel bladi mensurandi, unde conquestus est abbas.” This punishment was chiefly inflicted in early times on brewers, who are spoken of always as females, for any transgression of the assize of ale, “Braciatrix (paciatur) trebuchetum vel castigatorium;” in Scotland it was used in like manner. Stat. of Realm, i. 201, and Skene's Reg. Majest. It became subsequently the punishment of scolds, and women of immoral or disorderly life; thus in the town of Montgomery such offenders were adjudged to suffer the penalty “de la Goging-stoole,” as appears by a MS. cited in Blount's Tenures; in the Leet Book of Coventry mention occurs in 1423, of the “cokestowle made apon Chelsmore grene to punysche skolders and chidders, as ye law wyll:” and items of account are found so late as 1623, which show that the punishment still continued to be used in that city. Of the “coke-stool” at Norwich, which was to be provided by the gild of St. George, see Blomf. Hist. ii. 739; an account of expenses connected with another at Kingston-on-Thames is given in Lysons's Env. i. 233; and in Lord Braybrooke's Hist. of Audley End, p. 261, are mentioned payments so late as the year 1613, at Saffron Walden, where the scene of such punishments at the end of the High Street is spoken of in 1484 as the “cokstul hend.” In 1555 Mary Queen of Scots enacted that itinerant singing women should be put on the cuckstoles of every burgh or town; and the first Homily against contention, part 3, published in 1562, sets forth that “in all well ordred cities common brawlers and scolders be punished with a notable kind of paine, as to be set on the cucking-stole, pillory, or such like.” An original cucking-stool, of ancient and rude construction, was preserved in the crypt under the chancel of St. Mary's, Warwick, where may still be seen the three-wheeled carriage upon which was suspended by a long balanced pole a chair which could readily be lowered into the water, when the cumbrous vehicle had been rolled into a convenient situation. This chair is still in existence at Warwick. Another cucking-stool, differently contrived, may be seen at Ipswich in the Custom House; it appears to have been used by means of a sort of a crane, whereby the victim was slung into the river, and is represented in the Hist. of Ipswich, published 1830, and Gent. Mag. Jan. 1831. More detailed information on this curious subject will be found in the Glossaries of Ducange, Spelman, Blount, and Cowel; as also in Brand's Popular Antiqu. ii. 441. The term flyterys, here applied to contentious persons, does not occur again in the Promptorium, but only the verb Flytin̄ or chydin̄. See hereafter Kukstole.
page 108 note 1 Culpon, derived from the Latin colpo, or the French coupon, a shred, or any portion cut off, is a term not uncommon in the early romances.
“Al to peces thai hewed thair sheldes,
The culpons flegh out in the feldes.” Ywaine and Gawin, 641.
Hoveden, speaking of the livery allowed to the King of Scotland at the court of King Richard in 1194, says he had “40 grossos longos colpones de dominicâ candelâ Regis.” Chaucer says of the long hair of the Pardoner, which hung “by vnces” on his shoulders,
“Full thinne it laie, by culpons one and one.” Cant. Tales, Prologue.
“Culpon that troute” is given as the proper term of the art, in the “Boke of Kerving,” 1508. “Culpit, a large lump of any thing.” Forby.
page 108 note 2 The Persicaria hydropiper, Linn. was called culrage, from the French, “curage, culrage, the hearbe water-pepper, arse-smart, killridge or culerage.” Cotgr. Its aphrodisiac properties are thus alluded to by Piers of Fulham,
“An erbe is cause of all this rage
In our tongue called culrage.” Hartshorne, Metr. Tales, 133.
page 108 note 3 See Comelynge. Sir Ywaine, when he had long time left the lady whom he had espoused in a foreign land, is called by her messenger, “an unkind cumlyng.” Ywaine and Gawin, 1627. “Komelynge” occurs in Rob. of Gloucester; “comlyng,” R. Brunne.
page 108 note 4 Cumnawnte or comenaunt are perhaps corruptions of the French convenant. In Sir John Howard's Household Book, entries frequently occur of agreements made with domestics or artificers, always expressed by the term comenaunt. In 1464 his steward made the following note: “My master made comenaunt at Fressefeld with. … Carpenter, yt he schalle be wyth hym this xii monyth, and he shalle have in mony xxxs. and a gowne, and his comenaunt begynnith the iiii. yer of the Kynge, and the next Monday before myhelmesse.” Household Expenses in England, presented to the Rox-burghe Club by B. Botfield, Esq. Palsgrave gives “comnant, appoyntment, conuenant. To comnaunt, conuenancer; that that I comnaunt with you shall be parfourmed.” Compare Breke cōuenant above, p. 50, in which instance, if the correct reading be conuenant, it will accord perfectly with the French word. In the Romance of Sir Amadas, “conande” occurs in the sense of a covenant:
“The conande was gud and fynne.” Weber, Metr. Rom. line 700.
In Mr. Robson's edition the word is printed “couand,” possibly a contraction of “couenand,” which is found in the context. See stanzas 63, 64, the Anturs of Arther, st. 16, and Avowynge of King Arther, s. 38, where occurs the same word “couand.”
page 109 note 1 Compline, called in Latin Completorium, completa, or complenda, “quod cœtera diurna officia complet et claudit,” Duc. is the service with which in monastic establishments the day closed, after which, by the rule of St. Benedict, all converse was forbidden. It was called in Ang. Sax. niht-sanʓ, vespertina cantio, completorium, and Abbot Ælfric speaks of it in his pastoral Epistle translated from Latin into the language of England, by order, as he states, of Abp. Wulstan. The seven canonical hours, that the four synods had appointed for daily services of praise to God, are in this epistle stated to be matins with the after song appertaining thereto, prime, tierce, sext, none, vespers and compline (niht-sanʓ). Ancient Laws and Institutes, ii. 377. See also the Regularis concordia Angl. nationis monachorum. Amalarius says, “completorium ideo dicitur quia in eo completur quotidianus usus cibi vel potus, seu locutio communis.” De Eccl. Offic. lib. iv. c. 8. The hour of compline is stated by Fuller, in his Church History, B. vi. 278, to have been at 7 o'clock, but in Davies' rites of the Church of Durham, it is fixed at an earlier hour.
page 109 note 2 Cunte, ms. The verb cungyn̄ is evidently derived from the low Latin congeare, and French congéer, signifying to send away, to give license to depart.
page 109 note 3 In the Commentary on the Equiv. Vocab. Interpret. of Joh. de Garlandia abacus is explained to be the marble table whereon, in the feasts of the ancients, the cups were placed, “apud modernos fit de aliis lapidibus, sive de lignis artificiose conjunctis, et vocatur a cupborde.” The cupboard was, in the more common sense of the word, an open buffet, whereon a rich display of plate was made, such as Hall and other chroniclers describe frequently. It was also sometimes closed with doors, as usual at the present time; such as in the will of Elizabeth Drury, in 1475, is called a “cupbord with two almeries.” Rokewode's Hund. of Thingoe, 284. The livery cupboard, often mentioned in accounts and ordinances of household, was open, and furnished with shelves, whereon the ration called a livery, allowed to each member of the household was placed; and in well ordered families every dormitory appears to have been supplied nightly with a substantial provision. In the contract for building Hengrave Hall, in 1538, is the following clause; “the hall to have ii. coberds, one benethe at the sper (screen) with a tremor, and another at the hygher tables ende without doors.” Palsgrave gives “cupborde of plate, or to sette plate upon, buffet: cupborde to putte meate in, dressouer. Methinke my cupborde is ungarnysshed, nowe I wante my salte celler.” Cotgrave renders “Buffet, a court-cupboard, or high standing cupboard; also a cupboard of plate. Dressoir, a court cupboord (without box or drawer).”
page 110 note 1 The origin of the curfew in England is generally ascribed to the Conqueror, by whom it was imposed in token of servitude, but the assertion seems to rest on no sufficient authority, and no mention of the usage occurs in the Stat. de nocturnis custodiis. Ancient Laws and Instit. i. 491. Dr. Henry observes that the custom prevailed, at the time of the Conquest, in France, and probably in all the countries of Europe, and was intended merely as a precaution against fires, at a time when cities were constructed chiefly of wood. It has been stated also that the custom was abolished by Henry II. The Statutes of the City of London, 13 Edw. I. enjoin that no one shall be found in the streets “apres coeverfu personé ù Seint Martyn le graunt.” Stat. of Realm, i. 102. Couvre feu, or carfou in France was rung at 7 in the evening, but in some places at a later hour in summer, and there was also a bell at daybreak. See Pasquier, iv. 18, and Menage. In England the hour of ringing the curfew was eight, Wats, however, gives nine as the hour in summer; that hour is so named in “the Merry Devil of Edmonton,” and it was the customary time in Scotland, as appears by Act Parl. 13 James I. 1419, but subsequently was altered to ten. The usage of the curfew is still retained in the Universities, and many towns and villages in England, as is likewise the custom of ringing a bell at day-break, or four o'clock. At Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, the largest bell of the principal churches is still tolled at six, both morning and evening, and serves as a signal to labourers and artizans. The salutatio angelica, commonly called the angelus, was recited daily morning and evening, “ad pulsationem ignitegii,” an institution ascribed to St. Bonaventure, but more probably, as Ducange observes, to Pope John XXII. at the Council of Sens, 1320. In the Statutes of Lichfield Cathedral, it is ordered as follows: “Est autem ignitegium quâlibet nocte per annum pulsandum horâ septimâ post meridiem, exceptis illis festis quibus matutinœ dicuntur post completorium.” In the Institutions of Guarin, Abbot of St. Alban's, who died 1195, the curfew is called pyritegium. Matt. Paris. The Medulla renders “ignitegium, a coure feu,” in the Ortus “a fyrepanne,” alluding perhaps to such an implement for extinguishing the fire, as is represented in Antiqu. Repert. i. 89, and which was afterwards in the possession of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. “Courefewe, a ryngyng of belles towarde euenyng, couurefev.” Palsg. In the Romance of the Seuyn Sages the word is repeatedly written “corfour bell.” VIth Tale. “Curfur, ignitegium.” Cath. angl. See curfure in Jamieson. Spelman gives the Ang. Sax. curfu-bell, but it is not found in Lye. See further on this subject Brand's Popular Antiqu. ii. 136, and Barrington on the Anc. Stat. 133.
page 111 note 1 This term of reproach occurs in Piers Ploughman and Chaucer,
“Thou dotest daffe, quod she, dulle are thy wittes.”
Chaucer uses the expressions, “a daffe, or a cokenay,” in a similar sense, and “bedaffed,” made a fool of,
“Beth not bedaffed for your innocence.” Clerkes Tale.
In the “seconde fyt of curtasie” occurs the following advice:
“Let not þe post be-cum þy staf,
Lest þou be callet a dotet daf.” Sloane MS. 1986, f. 28, b.
page 111 note 2 Draggyde, ms. daggyd, K. p. Chaucer, among the costly fashions of the reign of Richard II. which are satirized in the Parson's Tale, speaks of “pounsed and dagged clothing;” this custom of jagging or foliating the edge of a garment had commenced in the previous reign, and is curiously represented in the History of the Deposition of Richard, Harl. MS. 1319. Archæologia, vol. xx. Chaucer uses also the diminutive dagon; thus in the Sompnoures Tale the importunate Friar, who went from house to house to collect anything he could lay hands upon, craves “a dagon of your blanket, leve dame.” Ang. Sax. “daʓ, anything that is loose, dagling, dangling.” Somn.
page 112 note 1 A bed-covering, or a garment formed of frize, or some material with long thrums like a carpet, was termed a daggysweyne; lodix is explained in the Ortus to be “quic-quid in lecto supponitur, et proprie pannus villosus, Anglice a blanket.” Horman says, “my bed is covered with a daggeswaine and a quylte (gausape et centone) some dags-waynys haue longe thrumys (fractillos) and iaggɜ on bothe sydes, some but on one.” So likewise Elyot gives “Gausape, a mantell to caste on a bed, also a carpet to lay on a table, some cal it a dagswayne.” Andrew Borde, in the Introduction of Knowledge, 1542, puts the following speech in the mouths of the Frycelanders:
“And symple rayment doth serue us full well,
With dagswaynes and roudges we be content.”
Harrison relates in the description of England, written in Essex during the reign of Elizabeth, that the old men in his village used to say, “our fathers (yea and we our selues also) haue lien full oft vpon straw pallets, on rough mats couered onelie with a sheet under couerlets made of dagswain, or hopharlots (I vse their owne termes) and a good round log vnder their heads insteed of a bolster.” Holinshed, Chron. i. 188.
page 112 note 2 “The dayng of day,” Anturs of Arther, edited by Mr. Robson, st. 37. See Dawyn̄.
page 112 note 3 The Council of Worcester, in 1240, ordained regarding the Clergy, “nec ludant ad aleas vel taxillos;” the latter game was probably the same which is here termed Dayly, but in what respect it differed from ordinary dice-play has not been ascertained. Ducange supposes it may have been the same as the French “trictrac, ludus scrupulorum.” Horman says that “men pley with 3 dice, and children with 4 dalies, astragulis vel talis. Wolde God I coude nat playe at the dalys, aleam. Cutte this flesshe into daleys, tessellas.”
page 112 note 4 Delk, according to Forby, signifies in Norfolk a small cavity either in the soil, or the flesh of the body. In this last sense the gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth interprets the expression “au cool troueret la fosset, a dalke in þe nekke.” Arund. MS. 220, f. 297, b.
page 112 note 5 The dalmatic is a sacred vestment, so named, according to St. Isidore, from its having originated in Dalmatia, and was introduced into the Christian church by St. Silvester, P.P. in the 4th century, as stated by Alcuin, who describes it as “vestimentum in modum crucis, habens in sinistrâ suâ parte fimbrias, dextrâ iis carente, inconsutile, et cum largis manicis.” It was specially appropriated to the deacon, who was vested therewith at the time of his ordination, and therefore St. Stephen and St. Laurence, who were deacons of the Church, are always represented as wearing this vesture. A very interesting portraiture of the former will be found in a MS. of XIth cent. Calig. A. Xiv. In early times the dalmatic was ornamented with longitudinal bands, called clavi, which were either of gold, as in the illumination just mentioned, or purple; “Dalmata, vestis sacerdotalis candida cum clavis purpureis.” Gloss. S. Isid. Orig. Hence the epithets auroclavus, chrysoclavus, and purpurâ clavatus. To these bands were attached at intervals the plagulœ, as exhibited in the illumination of the Bible of Charles the Bald at Paris, executed in the IXth century, engraved in Montfaucon Mon. Franc. tom. i, and the splendid work published by the Comte Bastard. See also the curious German Missal, Xth cent. Harl. MS. 2908, and the illumination in Cott. MS. Claud. A. Iii. supposed to represent St. Dunstan. In the Ang. Sax. Inventory of sacred ornaments given by Bp. Leofric to the church of Exeter about A.D. 1050, occur “2 dalmatica, 3 pistel roccas.” Mon. Angl. i. 222. These last were probably tunicles, vestments appropriated to the order of subdeacon, as was the dalmatic to that of deacon; in effigies and representations that exist in England of ecclesiastics in pontificalibus, both vestments are almost invariably exhibited. The Legate Ottoboni ordained, A.D. 1268, that if any Prelate neglected to punish the immoral conduct of his clergy, “Episcopus a dalmaticœ, tunicœ, et sandaliorum usu sit suspensus donec duxerit quœ statuta sunt exequenda.” Wilkins, Conc. xi. 5.
page 113 note 1 Drapyr, or party, MS. dapyr, or praty, K. p. Palsgrave gives “daper, proper, mignon, godin; dapyrnesse, propernesse, mignotterie.”
page 113 note 2 A very usual sense of the verb to dare, in the old writers, is to gaze about, or stare; Palsgrave gives “to dare, prye or loke about me, je advise alentour. What darest thou on this facyon, me thynketh thou woldest catche larkes ?”
“With woodecokkys lerne for to dare.” Lydgate, Minor Poems, 174.
The same signification has been assigned, by Tyrwhitt and the commentators on Chaucer, to an expression occurring in the Shipman's Tale, the true import of which appears above to be made clear. Dan John rallies the old merchant's wife on the sluggishness of her spouse:
“an olde appalled wight,
As ben thise wedded men, that lie and darc.
As in a fourme sitteth a wery hare.”
Chaucer appears evidently here to use dare in the sense given to the word in the Promptorium of lying concealed, as an animal in its den, which is termed hereafter Dwere, or dowere. “Dilatesco, to biginne to dare. Lateo, to lurk.” Med. Cotgrave gives “blotir, to squat, ly close to the ground, like a daring larke, or affrighted fowle.”
page 114 note 1 The derivation of this word appears, according to Skinner and Junius, to be from Ang. Sax. dwæs, hebes, stultus; the Teut. daesen, insanire, phantasmate turbari is more closely assimilated to it. In the Wicliffite version Gen. xxvii. 1 is rendered thus: “Foresothe Isaac wax eld, and hise iɜen dasewiden.” The word is repeatedly used by Chaucer.
“Thin eyen dasen, sothly as me thinketh.” Manciple's Prol.
page 114 note 2 “Duribuccus, þatn euer openeþ his mouþ, a dasiberde.” Med. “A daysyberd, duribuccus.” Cath. angl. “Dasturde, estourdy, butarin.” Palsg. See Daffe and Dullarde.
page 114 note 3 Palsgrave gives the verbs “to dawbe with clay onely; to daube with lime, plaster, or lome, that is tempered with heare or straw. Dauber, placqueur.” Forby states that a dauber in Norfolk is a builder of walls with clay or mud, mixed with stubble or short straw well beaten and incorporated, and so becoming pretty durable; it is now difficult to find a good dauber. This mode of constructing fences for farm-yards and cottage walls is much used in Suffolk, as appears by Sir John Cullum's account of the process, Hist. of Hawsted, 195, and Moore's explanation of the term “daabing.” The proverb given by Ray, “there's craft in dawbing” would make it appear that this mode of construction was once more generally known; in the western counties it is still in continual use, being known by the appellations cob, or rad and dab, a curious article on which, and on the use of concrete in building generally, will be found in Quart. Rev. vol. lviii., 524.
page 114 note 4 “To dawe, diere, diescere, diet, impersonale.” Cath. angl. This verb is used by Chaucer:
“Thus laboureth he, till that the day gan dawe.” Marchant's Tale.
Palsgrave gives “to dawe as the day dothe, adjourner, l'aube se crieve. To dawe from swounyng; when a dronken man swouneth, there is no better medecyne to dawe hym with, than to throwe maluesy in hys face. To dawne or get lyfe in one that is fallen in a swoune; I can nat dawne hym, get me a kaye to open his chawes.” Compare Dayyn̄, or wexyn day. Ang. Sax. daʓian, lucescere.
page 115 note 1 Dawncyn', MS. “To dawnte, blanditractare.” Cath. angl. In N. Britain to dawt has the same signification. See Jamieson. In the vision of Piers Ploughman to daunt appears to mean to tame by kind treatment; the allusion is to the dove which was trained by Mahomet to come to his ear for her food.
“Thorugh his sotile wittes
He daunted a dowve.” Vision, line 1042.
In Norfolk to daunt is used in the sense of knocking down, Fr. dompter, as by Palsgrave, “To dawnte, mate, overcome, je matte. Lydgat. This terme is yet scarsly admitted in our comen spetche.”
page 115 note 2 See Baratowre. In “the Charge of the Quest of Warmot in euery Warde,” given by Arnold, in the Customs of London, p. 90, inquiry is ordered to be made “yf ther be ony comon ryator, barratur, &c. dwelling wythin the warde.” The term is taken from the French, barateur, in low Latin, baraterius, which have the same meaning.
page 115 note 3 “To defy, degere, degerere. A defiynge, digestio.” Cath. ang. This word occurs in Piers Ploughman, where repenting Gluttony makes a vow to fast, and that
“Shal never fyssh on Fryday
Defyen in my wombe.” line 3253.
See also line 457. In the same sense it is used in the Wicliffite version, and by Gower. To defy has also the signification of dissolve; thus Master Langfrank of Meleyne in one of his prescriptions, directs certain substances to be compounded, and “make pelotes, and defy one of heme in water of rewe.” MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps. See Fyin̄, or defyin̄ mete and drynke.
page 116 note 1 Drynge, Ms.
page 116 note 2 Jamieson observes that deaf signifies properly stupid, and the term is transferred in a more limited sense to the ear. It is also applied to that which has lost its germinating power: thus in the North, as in Devonshire, a rotten nut is called deaf, and barren corn is called deaf corn, an expression literally Ang.-Saxon. An unproductive soil is likewise termed deaf. The plant lamium, or archangel, known by the common names dead or blind nettle, in the Promptorium, has the epithet Deffe, evidently because it does not possess the stinging property of the true nettle.
page 116 note 3 “Androchia, a deye.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. “A deye, Androchius, androchea, genatarius, genetharia. A derye, androchiarium, bestiarium, genetheum.” Cath. ang. The daia is mentioned in Domesday, among assistants in husbandry, and the 2d Stat. 25 Edw. III., A.D. 1351, occasioned by the exorbitant demand for wages made by servants after the pestilence, enacts that “chescum charetter, caruer, ckaceour des carues, bercher, porcher, deye et tous autres servantz” should be content with such rate of wages as had been previously usual, and serve not by the day, but the year, or other usual term. The term is again found in Stat. 37 Edw. III., A.D. 1363, c. 14, “de victu et vestitu,” which defines the homely provision and attire suitable to the estate of “charetters, &c. bovers, vachers, berchers, porchers, deyes, et touz autres gardeinz des bestes, batours des bleez, et toutes maneres des gentz d'estate de garson, entendantz à husbandrie,” not having goods or chattels of 40s. value. The word is rendered here in the translations “deyars,” and “dairymen,” and by Kelham is explained to signify drivers of geese. The Stat. 12 Ric. II. c. 4, A.D. 1388, fixes the wages of all servants for husbandry, and rates the porcher, femme laborer, and deye at vjs. each by the year. The word is here translated “deye” and “deyrie woman.” In the Stat. 23 Hen. VI. c. 12, by which the wages of such servants were assessed at double the previous rate, the term deye is no longer used. It appears by Fleta, 1. ii c. 87, de caseatrice, that the androchia was a female servant who had the charge of all that pertained to the “daëria,” and of making cheese and butter. A more detailed account of her duties is given by Alex. Neccham, Abbot of Cirencester, A.D. 1213, in his Summa de nominibus utensilium. “Assit et androgia (vne baesse) que gallinis ova supponat pullificancia, et anseribus acera substernat; que agnellos morbidos, non dico anniculos, in suâ teneritate lacte foveat alieno. Vitulos autem et subrumos (sevlement dentez) ablactatos inclusos teneat in pargulo juxta fenile. Cujus indumenta in festivis diebus sint matronales serapelline (pelysains) recinium (riueroket) teristrum. Hujus (androgie) autem usus, subulcis colustrum et bubulcis et armentariis, Domino autem et suis collateralibus in obsoniis (supers) oxigallum sive quactum in cimbiis ministrare, et catulis in abditorio repositis pingue serum cum pane fulfureo porrigere.” Cott. MS. Titus, D. xx. f. 15 b. The French interlinear gloss which gives here baesse, signifying a female servant of an inferior class, is not contemporary with the MS. This account satisfactorily illustrates Chaucer's description of the poor widow who lived on the produce of her little farm, her three sows and kine, and one sheep; her fare was milk and brown bread in plenty,
“Seinde bacon, and sometime an ey or twey,
For she was as it were a maner dey.” Nonnes Priest's Tale.
The deye was sometimes a male servant; thus in the commentary on Neccham it is stated that “androgia dicitur ab andros, vir, et genet, mulier, quia id officium exercetur a viro et muliere,” and Bp. Kennett cites the “compotus Henrici Deye et uxoris de exitibus et provenentibus de dayri.” A.D. 1407. See the word kevere in his Glossary. Palsgrave gives “dey wyfe, meterie,” i. e. métayère, and Shakespeare speaks of the “day woman,” Love's Labour's Lost, i. sc. 2. See Douce's Illustrations. Jamieson has discussed the obscure etymology of the word dey. In Gloucestershire and the neighbouring counties day-house signifies dairy house, and many instances are met with among names of places. See Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua.
page 117 note 1 See hereafter Eyɜtyndele, mesure, and Halvundel. In the Rot. Parl. A.D. 1423, mention is made of a “thredendels, or tercyan,” 84 gallons of wine, or the third part of a “tonel.” The Ortus gives “sepile, somdele ofte; sobriolus, somdele sober.” In the Legenda Aur. occurs the word “euerydeale,” which is rendered by Palsgrave “tout tant qu'il y a.” He gives also “by the halfe deale, la moitié; any deale, goutte; neuer a deale, riens qui soyt; somdele grete, small wyse, quelque peu.” Ang. Sax. dæl, pars.
page 117 note 2 In the Legenda Aur. it is related of St. Genevieve, that “in her refeccyon she had no thynge but barly bread, and somtyme benes, ye whiche soden after xiiij dayes, or thre wekes she ete for all delyces.”
page 117 note 3 “To dele, distribuere, dispergere, erogare.” Cath. ang. This verb in its primary use has the sense of division or separation. Thus the Gloss on Gautier de Bibeles-worth,
“Car par bolenger (baker) est seueree (to deled)
La flur, en fourfere (bran) ainz demoree.” Arund. MS. 220.
page 118 note 1 This word appears to be taken from the French, delivre, and is very frequently used in old writers. “Industris, sleyghe, bisy, or deliuur.” Med. gramm.
“Deliuerly he dressed vp, er the day sprenged.”
Gawayn and Grene Knyɜt, 2009.Palsgrave gives “delyuer of ones lymmes, as they that prove mastryes, souple; delyver, redy, quicke to do anything, agile, delivre; delyuernesse of body, souplesse.” Thomas, in his Italian Grammar, renders “snello, quicke, deliuer.” Beyn, or plyaunte, has already occurred, and bain is still used in Norfolk in the same sense; the word has also, as shown by Jamieson, the sense of alert, lively, active, or of prepared, made ready, as has been observed above in the note on Baynyd, as benys or pesyn.
page 118 note 2 The verb to delve, Ang. Sax. delfan, appears to have become obsolete in Norfolk, and is now rarely used in Suffolk, but the substantive delf, a deep ditch or drain, is still retained. The verb occurs frequently in early writers. In the Legenda Aur. occurs this expression, “I have dolphen in the depe erthe;” and it is related that when St. Donate conjured his wife, after her death, to reveal where she had concealed some treasure, “she answered out of the sepulcre, and sayd, at the entre of the hous, where I dalue it.” In the Wicliffite version, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 10, the expression occurs, “stonys hewid out of þe delues (eþer quarreris).” Cott. MS. Claud. E. Ii. “Aurifedella, a gold delfe.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. Delph and delf occur not infrequently as names of places in the fenny districts of the Eastern counties.
page 118 note 3 “To departe, abrogare, disjungere, separare. Departiabylle, divisibilis. To departe membres. To departe herytage, herecescere. Departyd (or abrogate) abrogatus, displosus, phariseus, scismaticus. A departynge, hœresis, divisio, scisma,” &c. Cath. ang. In the will of Lady Fitzhugh, A.D. 1427, is the bequest, “I wyl yat myn howsehold s'uantz haue departed emāg theym a C. marc.” Wills and Inv. Surtees Soc. i, 75. So it is said of Christ in the Legenda Aur. “he shall departe the heete of the fyre fro the resplendour and bryghtnesse.” Palsgrave gives the verb, “to departe, deuyde thynges asonder that were myxed or medled together; departe this skayne of threde, désmesler. Departe or distribute the partes of a thynge to dyuers persons, mespartir.” Fr. départir, to separate or distribute, in low Latin, dispertire.
page 119 note 1 The verb to dere, or hurt, is commonly used by Chaucer, and most writers, until the XVIth century.
“Fyr ne schal hym nevyr dere.” Coer de Lion, 1638.
Fabyan observes, under the year 1194, “so fast besyed this good Kyng Rycharde to vex and dere the infydelys of Sury.” Palsgrave gives “to dere, or hurte, or noye, nuire; I wyll never dere you by my good wyll. To dere, grieve, blecer; a lytell thynge wyll dere hym.” Sir Thomas Browne mentions dere among words peculiar to Norfolk, in which county it still has the sense of sad or dire. See Jamieson. Ang. Sax. derian, nocere, derung, lœsio. Noyynge occurs hereafter.
page 119 note 2 The term dese, Fr. deis or daix, Lat. dasium, is used to denote the raised platform which was always found at the upper end of an hall, the table, or, as here in the Promptorium, the seat of distinction placed thereon, and finally the hanging drapery, called also seler, cloth of estate, and in French ciel, suspended over it. With regard to its etymology, various conjectures have been offered by Ducange, Menage, and others. See also Jamieson's Dictionary. Matt. Paris, in his account of the election of John de Hertford, Abbot of St. Alban's, A.D. 1235, and the customary usages on the occasion, says, “solus in refectorio prandebit (electus) supremus, habens vastellum, Priore prandente ad magnam mensam quam Dais vulgariter appellamus.” Ducange suggests that vastellum may here mean a canopy or hanging dais, from Ang. Sax. vatel, tegmen, umbraculum. Chaucer, in his Prologue, describes the haberdasher and his companions, members of a fraternity, and having the appearance of fair burgesses, such as sit “at a yeld hal, on the hie deys.” Gower speaks of a king at his coronation feast, “sittend upon his hie deis.” In the Boke of Curtasye, Sloane MS. 1986, f. 17, written about the time of Henry VI. a person coming into the hall of a lord, at the time of first meat, is advised not to forget
“þe stuard, countroller, and tresurere
Sittand at de deshe þou haylse in fere.”
In the ceremonial of the inthronization of Abp. Nevill, A.D. 1464, after the Lord and the strangers had entered, the marshal and other officers were to go towards the “hygh table, and make obeisance, first in the midst of the hall, “and agayne before the hygh dease.” Leland, Coll. vi. 8.
page 120 note 1 This verb is directly taken from the old French descrier, and is by some writers used to denote the enuntiation, or distinction generally of the combatants by their coat armour, either previously to entering the lists, or at other times, duties which devolved upon the heralds.
“Herawdes goode descoverours
Har strokes gon descrye.” Lybeaus disconus, line 926.
In the Vision of Piers Ploughman occurs an allusion to the usage that heralds of arms “discryued lordes.” Palsgrave gives “to descryue or descrybe or declare ye facyons or maners of a thynge, blasonner; Ptolemye hath discryued ye worlde.”
page 120 note 2 Deseeit, ms. desert, h. deserte, P.
page 121 note 1 “To dadir, frigucio, et cetera ubi to whake.” Cath. angl. “Barboter de froid, to chatter or didder for cold, to say an ape's Paternoster.” Cotgr. Skinner gives this word as commonly used in Lincolnshire, “a Belg. sitteren, prœ frigore tremere.” The Medulla renders “frigucio, romb for cold.” In the Avowynge of King Arther, edited by Mr. Robson, to “dedur” has the sense of shaking, as one who is soundly beaten; and in the Towneley Mysteries, Noah's wife, hearing his relation of the approaching deluge, says,
“I dase and I dedir
For ferd of that taylle.” p. 28.
“Didder, to have a quivering of the chin through cold.” Forby. See Brockett's Glossary, the verb dither in the Dialect of Craven, and Hartshorne's Salopian Glossary.
page 121 note 2 Dymyn̄', MS.
page 121 note 3 This verb is given in a somewhat different sense, namely, of suffering acutely, “to dindylle, condolere.” Cath. angl. Brockett gives to dinnel, or dindle, to be affected with a pricking pain, such as arises from a blow, or is felt by exposure to the fire after frost. In the Craven dialect to dinnle has a similar signification. Langham, in the Garden of Health, 1579, recommends the juice of feverfew as a remedy for the “eares ache, and dindling.” Dutch, tintelen, to tingle.
page 121 note 4 The office for the dead received the name of Dyryge, or dirge from the Antiphon with which the first nocturne in the mattens commenced, taken from Psalm 5, v. 8, “Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam.” In 1421, Joanna, relict of Sir Thos. de Hemgrave, directed daily mass to be said for his and her own souls, and the anniversaries to be kept with a solemn mass, “cum placebo et dirige.” Among the “coosts laid out at the monthes mynde” of Sir Thos. Kytson at Hengrave, 1540, occur payments “to Mr p'sson for dirige and masse, ijs.; to iiij prists for dirige and masse, xijd.; to the clark for dirige and masse, xijd.” Rokewode's History of Hengrave, 92, 112. The name is retained in the Primer set forth in English by injunction from Henry VIII. in 1546; and this Dirige, from which portions have been retained in the burial service of the Reformed Church, appears to have been only a service of memorial, to be used even on occasion of “the yeres mynde” of the deceased, and comprises a prayer for departed souls in general. “Dirige, seruyce, vigiles.” Palsg. Horman says, “he must go to the dirige feste, ad silicernium,” which is mentioned by Harrison in his description of England, written in the reign of Elizabeth, where he alludes to the changes that had taken place in religious observances; “the superfluous numbers of idle waks, guilds, fraternities, church-ales, helpe-ales, and soule-ales, called also dirge-ales, with the heathnish rioting at bride-ales, are well diminished and laid aside.” B. ii. c. i. Holinsh. vol. i. There occur items in the Hengrave accounts, already cited, which shew the feasting that took place on that occasion.
page 122 note 1 By Gower and other writers dysour is used as signifying a tale teller, a convivial jester;
“Dysours dalye, reisons craken.” K. Alisaunder, 6991.
Palsgrave renders “dissar, a scoffar, saigefol,” and Horman says, “he can play the desard with a contrefet face proprely, morionem representat.” Elyot gives “Pantomimus, a dyssard which can fayne and counterfayte euery mannes gesture. Sannio, a dysarde in a playe or disguysynge; also he whiche in countenaunce, gesture, and maners is a fole.” Ang. Sax. dysian, ineptire.
page 123 note 1 In the Wicliffite version, disperplid, disperpriled, disparplid, and disparpoylid, occur in the sense of dispersed. In the curious version of Vegecius, attributed to Trevisa, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. the danger is set forth of surprise by an ambush, while the host is unprepared, some employed in eating, “and somme disperbled and departede in oþer besynes.” B. Iii. c. 8. In a sermon by R. Wimbeldon, as given by Fox, A.D. 1389, it is said that “by Titus and Vespasianus Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people of the Jewes were disparkled into all the world.” Palsgrave gives “to disparpyll, Lydgate, same as disparke, escarter, disparser. They be disparkled nowe many a mile asonder.” See hereafter Sparplyn̄.
page 123 note 2 This verb is used by Chaucer, and occurs in the Wicliffite version. “And they seynge him walkinge on the see weren disturblid.” Matt. xiv. 26. So also in the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said that a young soldier should be taught “that he destrowble nat the ordre of ordenaunce.” The Mayor of Norwich, on being sworn, made proclamation “that iche man kepe the pees, and that no man disturble, ne breke the forseid pees, ne go armed.” A.D. 1424, Blomf. Hist. ii. 100.
page 123 note 3 In the Household Book of Sir John Howard, A.D. 1467, among expenses incurred for one of his retinue, is entered this item, “My Lady paid a surgeone for dytenge of hym, whan he was hurte, 12d.” Palsgrave gives the verb in its more usual sense, “to dyght, or dresse a thynge, habiller. A foule woman rychly dyght, semeth fayre by candell lyght.” Ang. Sax. dihtan, disponere.
page 123 note 4 The place in which this word is found in the alphabetical arrangement seems to indicate that it was originally written dywere, or divere, which may be derived from the old French, “divers, inconstant, bizarre, incommode.” Roquef. It occurs, however, written as above, in a poem by Humphrey Brereton, who lived in the reign of Hen. VII. which has been printed under the title of “the most pleasant song of Lady Bessy, eldest daughter of King Edw. IV.”
“That time you promised my father dear,
To him to be both true and just,
And now you stand in a disweare,
Oh Jesu Christ, who may men trust!”
page 124 note 1 “A dubler, dualis, et cetera ubi a dische.” Cath. ang. The Medulla gives the following explanation of Parapsis, “proprie est discus sive vas quadrangulum, ex omni parte habens latera equalia, a dobuler.” The term is derived from the French doublier, a dish; it occurs in Piers Ploughman, and is still retained in the Cumberland and Northern dialects. See Ray and Brockett.
page 124 note 2 It appears that the compiler of the Promptorium assigned to baltheus, which properly signifies the cingulum militare, the unusual meaning of a garment of defence. Thus Cote armure previously is rendered baltheus. The Catholicon explains “diplois, duplex vestis, et est vestis militaris,” but it does not appear to have been originally, as it subsequently became on the disuse of the gambeson, a garment of defence. The dublectus mentioned in the Constitutions of Fred. II. King of Sicily, in the XIVth century, was a garment of ordinary use by nobles and knights, as were also, it is probable, the rich garments provided for John II. of France, in 1352, when Stephen de Fontaine, his goldsmith, accounts for the delivery of “un fin drap d'or de damas, et un fin camocas d'outremer, pour faire deux doublés.” At this period wadded defences were made in Paris by the armuriers, and the tailors were divided into two crafts, pourpointiers and doubletiers; it was only in 1358 that the Regent Charles, on account of the use of the doublet becoming general, permitted the tailors to exercise also the craft of doubletiers. See the Reglemens sur les Métiers, edited by Depping, p. 414. Shortly after, however, the doublet appears as a military defence; “25 doublettes, 24 jakkes,” and other armours, are enumerated among the munitions of Hadlegh Castle granted in 1405 by Henry IV. to his son Humfrey. Rymer, viii. 384. The importance at this time attached to the manufacture of this kind of armour appears by the privileges conceded in 1407 to the “armurariis linearum armaturarum civitatis Londonie.” Pat. 9 Hen. IV. confirmed 18 Hen. VI. and 5 Edw. IV. It is related that the Duke of Suffolk, when murdered at sea in 1450, was attired in a “gown of russette, and doblette of velvet mayled;” Paston Letters, i. 40; and in the curious inventories of the effects of Sir John Fastolf, at Caistor, in Norfolk, 1459, occur “j dowblettis of red felwet uppon felwet; j dowbelet of rede felwet, lynyd with lynen clothe.” Archæol. xxi. 253. See further Sir Samuel Meyrick's valuable observations on military garments worn in England, Archæol. xix. 228. At a later time the doublet seems again to have become a vestment of ordinary use, the military garment which resembled it being termed a coat of fence. “I wyll were a cote of defence for my surete, loricâ lintheâ.” Horm. Caxton says “Donaas the doblet maker hath performed my doublet and my jaquet, mon pourpainte, et mon paltocque.” Book for Travellers.
page 125 note 1 Dorcere, ms.; but this reading is evidently erroneous, and the word is derived from the French, dossier, or Latin, dosserium. See Dosse, and Dorcere, which occurs afterwards in its proper place. In a Latin-English Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 144, occur “auleum, scannarium, a dosure;” and another makes the following distinction: “anabatum, hedosour, dorsorium, syd-dosour.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. The term occurs in the Awntyrs of Arthure, 431, where a costly pavilion is described;
“Pighte was it prowdely, withe purpure and paulle,
And dossours, and qweschyns, and bankowres fulle bryghte.”
Sir F. Madden explains it as signifying here a cushion for the back, but in its usual sense it seems to denote the hangings or “hallyngs” of tapestry, which, before the use of wainscot, were generally used to cover and adorn the lower part of the wall of a chamber. Chaucer uses the word “dosser” in a different sense, speaking of sallow twigs, which men turn to various uses,
“Or maken of these paniers,
Or else hutches and dossers.” H. of Fame, iii. 850.
Panniers are still called, in many parts, dosses, dorsels, or dorsers. See Ray and Moore. Hollyband renders “hotte, a basket, a dosser.”
page 125 note 2 Dodded is used in the North in this sense; see Brockett, and the Craven Dialect. Jamieson gives doddy and dottit with a similar signification. In Norfolk doddy still means low in stature. Phillips has dodded, lopped as a tree, and in Suffolk scathed or withered trees are called dooted, in the North, doddered, words which appear to be derivable from the same source. Skinner suggests “Belg. dodde, caulis, fustis, paxillus.”
page 125 note 3 This word does not occur in the other MSS.; the reading is probably corrupt, and from the place in which it occurs, Dogon’ may be suggested as a correction. This term of contempt seems to be derived from the French “Doguin, brutal, hargneux.” Roquef. See Dugon in Jamieson's Dictionary.
page 126 note 1 Agnes Paston writes to her son Edmund, the lawyer, respecting the dispute as to a right of way, between his father and the Vicar of Paston, who had been “acordidde, and doolis sette howe broode the weye schuld ben, and nowe he hath pullid uppe the doolis, and seithe he wolle makyn a dyche ryght over the weye.” Paston Letters, iii. 32. Forby gives this word as still used in Norfolk, the mark being often a low post, called a dool-post; it occurs also in Tusser. Bp. Kennett states that landmarks, or boundary-stones, are in some parts of Kent called “dowle-stones,” and explains dole or doul as signifying “a bulk, or green narrow slip of ground left unplowed in arable land.” See his Glossarial Collections, Lansd. MS. 1033. Queen Elizabeth, in her Injunctions, 1559, directs that at the customary perambulations on the Rogation days, the admonition shall be given, “Cursed be he which translateth the bounds and dolles of his neighbor.” Wilkins, Conc. IV. 184. Ang. Sax. dælan, dividere.
page 126 note 2 “Dollyd, defrutus.” Cath. ang. The Medulla renders “tepefacio, to make leuke.”
page 126 note 3 The grammar most universally used in the middle ages was that composed by Ælius Donatus in the IVth century, and the term Donet became generally expressive of a system of grammar. See Warton's Eng. Poet. i. 281, Clarke's Bibl. Dict. iii. 144. It was printed among Gramm. Vet. Putsch. p. 1735. The rich hall prepared for the education of the son of the Emperor was decorated with symbols of grammar, musick, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, rhetoric, and physic.
“Therinne was paint of Donet thre pars,
And eke alle the seven ars.” Seuyn Sages, 181.
Allusions to Donet occur in Chaucer, and Piers Ploughman. In Sir John Howard's Household Book is a payment, 1466, “fore a donet for master Gorge, 12d.” and Caxton mentions it as one of the books in greatest demand, “George the booke-sellar hath doctrinals, catons, oures of our lady, Donettis, partis, accidents.” Book for Travellers. “Donett, Donatus, a Donett lerner, Donatista.” Cath. ang.
page 127 note 1 In the Inventory of Effects of Sir John Fastolfe, at Caistor, 1459, there appear the following items in his own chamber: “j fedderbedde, j donge of fyne blewe, i bolster, ij blankettys of fustians; j purpeynt,” &c. Archæol. xxi. 268. A previous entry mentions a “donge of purle sylke.”
page 127 note 2 The little Grebe is still known by the names didapper, dipper, or dobchick, the Mergulus fluviatilis of the older naturalists, Podiceps minor of Temminc. Ang. Sax. dop fugel, mergus, dufedoppa, pelicanus, according to the sense in which the word occurs Ps. ci. 7, in the Lambeth Psalter; but its derivation from dufian, immergere, would make the appellation inappropriate to that bird.
page 127 note 3 Forby and Moore mention the word dop, as used in East Anglia at the present day to denote a short quick curtsy. Ang. Sax. doppetan, mersare.
page 127 note 4 “Auleum, dorsarium, cortina, anabatrum, anastrum, dosure or curtayne; colaterale, syd-dosour.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “A dorsure, dorsorium.” Cath. ang. “Anabatrum, a cortyne. Auleum, an hangyn, i. indumentum aule, cortina, or a cortyne.” Ortus. M. Paris speaks of the “dossale, sive tapesium in quo passio S. Albani figuratur,” given to St. Alban's by Abbot Richard, who died 1119. Among the cloths of arras and tapestry work belonging to Sir John Fastolfe, at Caistor, enumerated in the curious inventories taken about the year 1459, occur several “hallyngs” of tapestry and worsted, a term probably synonymous with dorsure. Archæol. xxi. 259. See above, Docere.
page 127 note 5 Dorlott is taken from the French dorelot, which signifies an ornament of female attire generally, but here seems to denote particularly the elegant network, frequently enriched with jewels, in which the hair was enclosed, termed a kelle, caul, or crepine; or the head dress called a volipere, which is mentioned by Chaucer. “Trica, plicatura vel nexus capillorum.” Ortus. “Caliendrum, a voliper.” Med. gramm. In 1394 Johanna Laburn of York bequeaths “j kyngll, j dorlot, j armari … best volet yat se hat, and a red hude singill.” Testam. Ebor. i. 196. Cotgrave gives “dorlot, a jewel or pretty trinket, as a chain, brooche, aglet, button, billement, &c. wherwith a woman sets out her apparel;” and by the Statutes of the trades of Paris in 1403 it appears that the craft of doreloterie consisted in making fringes and ribbons both of silk and thread. See Roquefort and Charpentier.
page 127 note 6 A dormant or sleeper is a main beam that, resting upon the side walls, serves to support the joists, or the rafters of the roof. It is called in Norfolk a dormer. “Treine, a dorman or great beame.” Cotgr.
page 127 note 7 Doss is at the present time the name given in Norfolk and Suffolk to a hassock, such as is used in church, and panniers are in some places called dosses. See Docere.
page 128 note 1 This name for a faucet appears to be a corruption of ductulus, which in the Latin-English Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. is rendered “dosselle,” as the word is more commonly written, from the French dosil, doucil, or according to Cotgrave, “doisil, a faucet.” Among the pertinencia promptuario, in another Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, is given “clipsidra, a doselpyn.” In the Seuyn Sages, it is related how Ypocras pierced a tun in a thousand places:
“And tho he hadde mad holes so fele,
In ech he pelt a dosele.” line 1150.
See dottle in Jamieson's Dictionary, dossel, Craven Dialect.
page 128 note 2 This word appears here to signify a foolish person, not the stupid bird common in Lincolnshire and the neighbouring counties, the Charadrius morinellus, and the repetition caused by the word “fowle” is probably here an error. “A dotrelle, desipa.” Cath. ang.
page 128 note 3 In the Forme of Cury doucets are not named, but “daryols,” p. 82, seem almost the same; directions are given in the following recipe, which is taken from Harl. MS. 279, f. 41, b. under the head of “Bake metis, vyaunde furnéz. Doucetez. Take creme a gode cupfulle, and put it on a straynoure, þanne take ɜolkys of eyroun, and put þer-to, and a lytel mylke; þen strayne it þorw a straynoure in-to a bolle; þen take sugre y-now and put þer-to, or ellys hony for defaute of sugre; þan coloure it wit safroun; þan take þin cofyns, and put in þe ovynne lere, and lat hem ben hardyd; þan take a dyssche y-fastened on þe pelys ende, and pore þin comade in-to þe dyssche, and fro þe dyssche in-to þe cofyns, and whan þey don a-ryse wel, take hem out, and serue hem forthe.” Among the election expenses of Sir John Howard at Ipswich, 1467, appears the item in his household book, “viij boshelles of flour for dowsetes;” and in the first course at dinner in Sir John Nevile's account of the marriage of his daughter to Roger Rockley, in 1526, appear “dulcets, ten of dish.” Palsgrave gives “dousette, a lytell flawne, dariolle.”
page 128 note 4 Downe, MS. and K. downe, P.
page 129 note 1 A rybbe is an household implement, which probably received its name from its form, a kind of scraper or rasp used in making bread; thus Palsgrave renders “dowrybbe, ratisseur à paste.” The term occurs in the gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth.
“Vostre paste dount pestrez, (kned þi douw)
De vn rastuer (a douw ribbe) le auge (a trow) moundez,
Le rastel (a rake) e le raster
Sount diuerses en lour mester.” Arund. MS. 220, f. 299, b.
Hence it appears to have served for scraping and cleansing the kneading trough. Another implement, termed likewise a rybbe, was used in the preparation of flax. See hereafter Rybbe, and Rybbyn̄ flax.
page 129 note 2 In the Forme of Cury, p. 20, will be found recipes for egurdouce, a compound of the flesh of rabbits or kids with currants, onions, wine and spices; and for egurdouce of fysshe, pp. 63, 113. Directions are also given for concocting “an egge dows,” which seems more to resemble the mixture alluded to in the Promptorium, being composed of almonds, milk, vinegar, and raisins. Mulsus signifies a kind of mead, and dowce egyr was probably much the same as oximel.
page 129 note 3 “ Dughty, ubi worthy.” Cath. ang. A. Saxon, dohtiʓ, instructus.
page 129 note 4 This word is still used in Norfolk, in the sense of to draggle, and a slattern is called a drabble-tail. Ang. Sax. drabbe, fœces.
page 129 note 5 Draffe, or chaffe, is a word that occurs in Chaucer:
“ Why shuld I sowen draf out of my fist,
Whan I may sowen whete, if that me list.” Persone's Prol.
In the Reve's Tale the scholar John complains of being left to lie in his bed “like a draf sak.” So likewise in Piers Ploughman's Vision, where allusion is made to casting pearls to swine, it is said that
“Draf were hem levere,
Than al the precious perree.” line 5617.
In the Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. occurs under the head “ad brasorium pertinencia, dragium, draf;” and in the Cath. Ang. “draf, segisterium, acinatum, brasipurgium.” “Segisterium, Anglice, droffe.” Ortus. “Draffe, dracque.” Palsg. Ang. Sax. drof, sordidus. Matt. Paris has given a charter of Guarin, Abbot of St. Alban's, dated 1194, in which the word drascum occurs, which appears to signify the grains that remain after brewing, called in French drasche, or drague. Compare Coralle, or drasse of corne, and Drosse.
page 130 note 1 Numerous virtues are ascribed by Macer and other writers to the herb dragaunce or nedder's tongue, called also dragon wort, addyrwort, or serpentine, arum or aron. See Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 73. Macer says that “water of dragaunce ys gode to wasshe venome soris,” and it appears to have been yearly distilled in the household of the Earl of Northumberland, 1511. See Antiqu. Rep. iv., 284. “Dragence, or nedder gryffe, dragancia, basilisca, herba serpenlina.” Cath. ang.
page 130 note 2 This word is taken from the French dragée, a kind of digestive and stomachic comfits anciently much esteemed. Chaucer says of the Doctor of Phisike,
“Ful redy hadde he his apothecaries,
To send him dragges, and his lettuaries.” Cant. Tales, Prol.
page 130 note 3 In the XIIIth century the grains chiefly cultivated in England, as appears by the accounts of the bailiff of the royal manor of Marlborough, Rot. Pip. 1 Edw. I., were wheat, “berecorn, dragg,” or a mixture of vetches and oats, beans and pease. The regulations for the brewers of Paris, in 1254, prescribe that they shall brew only “de grains, c'est à savoir, d'orge, de mestuel, et de dragée;” Réglemens sur les Arts, ed. by Depping. Tusser speaks of dredge as commonly grown in the Eastern counties.
“Sow barly and dredge with a plentiful hand.”
“Thy dredge and thy barlie goe thresh out to malt.”
Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, mentions “dredge mault, malt made of oats mixed with barley malt, of which they make an excellent fresh quick sort of drink,” used in Staffordshire. “Dragée aux chevaux, provender of divers sorts of pulse mixed together.” Cotgr. See Mestlyone, or monge corne.
page 130 note 4 “ Drake, or darnylle, zizannia.” Cath. ang. The gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth makes a distinction between these two weeds:
“Le yueray (darnel) i crest, et le betel (drauke).”
Gerard assigns the name to a species of bromus sterilis, which he calls small wild oats, in Brabant called drauich, and Skinner suggests that the name may be derived “a Belg. droogh, siccus, quia et actu et potentiâ siccum est.” Drawke or drake is well known in Norfolk and Suffolk, and Forby says it is the common darnel grass, lolium perenne.
page 131 note 1 The Medulla renders “fecula, a little traist, feculentus, fulle of traiste,” (Harl. MS. 2257); in the Ortus, “dregges.” Amurca is explained by Elyot to mean “the mother or fome of all oyles,” in Harl. MS. 1002, “drastus.” Palsgrave gives “dresty, full of drest, lieux.” Horman says “the drastys (floces) of the wyne be medicynable.” Ang. Sax. dresten, fæces.
page 131 note 2 This verb is used by Chaucer, and other writers, in the sense of being disturbed by dreams.
“This chaunteclere gan gronen in his throte,
As man that in his dreams is dretched sore.” Nonne's Priest's Tale.
“And if it so bytide this nyght,
That the in slepe dreche ani wight,
Or any dremis make the rad,
Turn ogayn, and say I bad.” Ywaine and Gawin, line 480.
It has also the sense of to delay or hinder, in several passages of Chaucer and Gower. See also Piers Ploughman's Crede, where the baneful conduct of the Friars is exposed, who desert the rule of their order and “dreccheth the puple,” lin. 924, 1004. Ang. Sax. dreccan, turbare. See Jamieson.
page 132 note 1 The drift of the forest, agitatio animalium in forestâ, is a legal term which implied a view taken of the cattle feeding in the chase, forest, or waste, at certain seasons when they were driven into an enclosure, in order to ascertain whose they were, and whether legally commonable. The Stat. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 13, among various clauses, devised for the improvement of the breed of horses, directs the drift to be made at Michaelmas, and other convenient times, and under-sized horses to be destroyed. The word is used by Horman metaphorically, in its more ordinary acceptation, “subtyle dryftis (callida consilia) ought nat to sette a iudge out of the ryght wey.” Elyot renders “adpulsus, the dryfte of shepe to the water.”
page 132 note 2 “To dryte, cacare, egerere.” Cath. ang. In the Wicliffite version, Phil. iii., 8, is thus rendered; “I deme alle thingis as drit;” and the word occurs also in Wicliffe's “Objections of Freres. Freres setten more by stinking dritt of worldly goods, then they don by virtues, and goods of bliss.” See Jamieson's observations on the etymology of the verb to drite, exonerare ventrem. Ang. Sax. ʓedritan, cacare.
page 132 note 3 Horman speaks of “a dryuyl or a drudge: he is a very dryuell, sterquilinium.” Junius gives in this sense “drivell or droile, mastigia, qui ubique expulsus abactusque est. Belg. drevel.” See droile in Jamieson's Dictionary. Tusser, in his Points of Huswifery, speaks of an under servant in the dairy termed a droy, or droie, whose duties appear to have been similar to those of the Deye, described in the note on that word.
“Good droy to serve hog, to help wash, and to milk,
More needfull is truly, than some in their silk.”
page 132 note 4 Chaucer, in the Persone's Tale, says, “he is like to an hors, that seeketh rather to drink drovy or troubled water, then for to drink water of the clere well.” “Drovy, turbidus, turbulentus.” Cath. ang. “Turbidus, troubli, drobli, or dark.” Med. gramm. “Turbulentus, i. non lucidus, drouy.” Ortus. Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial Collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, gives “dravy or druvy, Bor. druvy, Northumb. drevy, thick, muddy as the water is. Sax. drefend, turbidus.” Forby mentions drovy, used in Norfolk as an epithet of loathing, on account of filthiness of the person. Ang. Sax. drof, cœnosus.
page 133 note 1 Higins, in his version of Junius's Nomenclator, renders “vannus, a van wherwith corne is clensed from chaffe and drosse against the wind.” Ang. Sax. dros, fœx, sordes. At Hengrave Hall, in Suffolk, in 1604, is entered in account a delivery “for the swine, of dross wheat.” Hist. of Hengrave, 207.
page 133 note 2 This term, implying difficulty of speech, or stuttering, has not been met with elsewhere. The Ortus renders “traulus, a ratelere,” a word equally unnoticed by Glossarists, which occurs also in Cath. Ang. “To ratylle, traulare; a ratyller, traulus.”
page 133 note 3 In the Anturs of Arther, where a description occurs of the King and his court going forth to the chace, it is said,
“The dere in the dellun,
Thay droupun and daren.” Ed. by Mr. Robson, p. 3.
page 133 note 4 “Turbidus, troubli, drubli, or darke.” Med. In the Ortus and Cath. Angl. drouy occurs in the same sense; Jamieson gives droubly and drumbly; and the verb to drumble, signifying to be confused, is used by Shakespeare. See Nares.
page 133 note 5 This word is used repeatedly by Chaucer, and occurs in Piers Ploughman and the Wicliffite version.
“Irous Cambises was eke dronkelew,
And ay delighted him to ben a shrew.” Sompnoure's Tale.
Horman uses the word “dronkleu, dronkeleu.” In a curious treatise on Obstetrics of the later part of the XVth century, Add. MS. 12,195, are particular instructions for the selection of a nurse, among whose recommendations are “þat sche be wysse and well a-vyssyd, and þat sche lof þe chylde, and þat sche be not dronkeleche.”
page 134 note 1 Gower, speaking of the vices that spring from original sin, says,
“Wherof the first is dronkeship,
Whiche beareth the cuppe felauship.” Conf. Am. lib. vii.
“Drunkechepe, ebrietas, vinolencia, &c.” Harl. MS. 1002, f. 173, b.
page 134 note 2 Chaucer makes repeated allusion to the somniferous qualities of the night-shade, or dwale, the Atropa belladonna.
“Arise (quod she) what haue ye dronken dwale?
Why slepen ye? it is no nitertale.” Court of Love.
A strange effect is attributed to this plant in a volume of miscellaneous collections, once belonging to William Worcestre, Sloane MS. 4, p. 2. “For to take alle maner of byrdys. Take whete, or other corne, and take guse of dwale, and menche þe corne þer yn, and ley yt þer þe byrdys hawntene, and when they have eten þer of, þey shalle slepe, þat ye may take þem with yowre handys.” Higins, in the Version of Junius's Nomenclator, gives “Solanum letale, banewoort, dwall, or great nightshade.”
page 134 note 3 “Amphibalus, a sclaveyn, a faldynge, or a dudd.” Med. gramm. “Lacerna est pallium fimbriatum, a coule, or a dudde, or a gowne.” Harl. MS. 2257. According to the explanation given of birrus, the garment called a Dudde seems to have been a coarse wrapper or dread nought, probably the same as the Irish mantle made of raw wool, which was in request in England as late as the time of Charles 1., as appears by the Customhouse rates. “Birrum, vestis pilosa seu grossa, a schypper's mauntel.” Ortus. Forby gives to duddle up, or wrap up with clothes; in the North, as well as other parts of England, rags or clothes in general are called dudds; and Grose mentions a square in Stourbridge fair, where linen cloth was sold, called the duddery. See Jamieson.
page 134 note 4 By early writers this word is written very variously, but approaching more or less to the Ang. Sax. dweorg, dweorh, nanus, which in the valuable fragment of Ælfric's Glossary, discovered by Sir Thomas Phillipps, in the Chapter Library, Worcester, is written “dwæruh.” Thus the gloss on G. de Bibelesworth, “Ieo vey ester un petit neym (dwerouh).” Arund. MS. 220. In Lybeaus Disconus “dwerk” occurs repeatedly, and in King Alisaunder we read of “durwes, the leynth of an elne.” In Synonym. Harl. MS. 1002, f. 173, occurs the word “dwarof,” and in Cath. Ang. “a dwarghe, tantillus.” See duergh and droich in Jamieson's Dictionary. In the Catholicon is given the following explanation: “Sessillus, i. parvus staturâ, quia non videtur stare, sed sedere;” and the Ortus gives “Nanus, a dwarfe, or a lytell Turke.” Compare Coonyone, or drowtly. Bp. Kennett gives the word “dwerowe” as of local use, but in the Eastern counties it appears to be no longer known; in his Glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, is the term “durgan, of short or low stature, as, he is a durgan, a meer durgan, a durganly fellow. Isl. duergur, Kiliano, dwergh. West-m(orland) a dwarwh.”
page 135 note 1 The Medulla explains bigermen to be the mixed grain called in the Promptorium Mestlyone, but it seems here to signify after-grass, or after-math, still called edgrow in some parts of England. Bp. Kennett mentions the word in his Glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033. “Eddish, roughings or after-math in meadows, but more properly the stubble or gratten in corn-fields, from Sax. edisc, quod post messem in campis relinquitur. This word is in some southern parts corrupted into ersh, and in Surrey into esh, as a wheat esh, a barley esh. In Cheshire eddgrew, eddgrow, eddgrouth, from the Saxon preposition ed (which in composition denotes allwaie again, as re in the Latin,) and ʓrowan, germinare, crescere.” This word is not noticed by Mr. Wilbraham, and it does not appear in the East Anglian Glossaries; in Shropshire, according to Holloway's Provincial Dictionary, the after-grass is called “edgrew,” or as stated by Mr. Hartshorne, “headgrove, or headgrow.” Salopia Antiqua. The common appellation both in Norfolk and Suffolk is eddish, Ang. Sax. edisc, gramen serotinum, but it is also termed rawings, roughings, or rowen, a word used by Tusser and noticed by Ray, which may be a corruption of the older appellation edgrow. See Forby and Moore. Tusser uses the words eddish and etch to signify a stubble, or land that has produced a crop. In a copy of the Practica of John Arderne, Sloane MS. 56, p. 3, are some names of plants in French and English, among which occurs “weldillone, i. edgrowe,” possibly some herb of autumnal growth, abounding in the after-grass. The Medulla gives “frutex, a styke, a yerde, and buske, vnderwode, or eddysche.”
page 136 note 1 Horman says, “my tethe edge with eating of these codlynges.”
page 136 note 2 The verb to egg, from Ang. Sax. eggian, incitare, occurs in this signification in R. Brunne, Piers Ploughman, and Chaucer, who uses also the substantive;
“Soth is it, that thurgh womannes eggement
Mankind was lorne, and damned ay to die.” Man of Lawe's Tale.
page 136 note 3 The old writers give to the word eager the significations of sour, and of fierce; the first from the French “aigre, eager, sharp, tart, biting.” Cotgr. “Exacerbo, to make eygre.” Ortus. Palsgrave gives “Egernesse, bytternesse. Egar, fiers or mody as a wild beest is, fel.”
“He hente a spere with egre mode.” Octovian, line 1653.
“And sclendre wives, feble as in bataille,
Beth egre as is a tigre yond in Inde.” Clerke's Tale.
page 136 note 4 In the dialects of the North, as observed by Ray, any kind of fuel is called eldin, and the term is applied to the brush-wood of which fences are made. See Brockett, the Craven Glossary, and Jamieson. Ang. Sax. æld, ignis, ælan, accendere. The word is given by Bp. Kennett among his valuable glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 137 note 1 Half a bushel is given hereafter as the same measure which is here intended; and the term Eyɜtyndele seems to be derived from its being the eighth part of a coom, or half quarter, which has already occurred, Cowme of corn̄e, cumba. Compare Dele, and Halvundel. Ang. Sax. dæl, pars. Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, mentions another local name for the same measure, “a tofet, the measure of half a bushel, Kent; some say two fats. Sax. fat, or fæt was the same measure as our peck.”
page 137 note 2 Agn̄, Ms. The word elde, still retained in the Northern dialect, occurs often as a substantive in old writers. Thus in the Wicliffite version, 3 Kings, Xv., 23 is thus rendered, “Asa hadde ache in feet in þe tyme of his eelde;” and it is commonly used in Piers Ploughman. See Chaucer's description of “Elde” personified, Rom. of Rose. “Senectus, helde; senex, haldman.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “Elde, senecta, senium, annositas.” Cath. ang. In the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII., it is said that military exercises “must be vsede before in yongthe, or the body be made slewthefulle by age and elde.” B. i, c. 4. Ang. Sax. eld, seneclus.
page 137 note 3 In Norfolk, according to Forby, the elder tree is still called eldern; “sambucus, an eldrun,” Harl. MS. 1002. Gautier de Bibelesworth says,
“Mes de sueau (of ellern, MS. Phill. hildertre, Arund. MS.) lem fet suheaus,
Vn manger ke est bons et beaus (wiþ milke.)”
In Worcestershire the elder is termed ellern, and Piers Ploughman speaks of it thus:
“Impe on an ellere,
And if thy appul be swete,
Muchel merveille me thinketh.” Vision, line 5471.
“Un sehu, an ellir tree.” Harl. MS. 219. Ang. Sax. ellarn, ellen, sambucus. In the North the alder is called an eller, whence several names of places, as Ellerbeck, Ellerburn, &c. in Yorkshire, are derived. Ang. Sax. alr, alnus. “An ellyrtre, alnus; alnetum est locus ubi crescunt.” Cath. ang. In the Ortus is given another name of the elder, “sambucus, burtre, or hydul tre.”
page 137 note 4 “An elfadyr, socer; an eldmoder, socrus.” Cath. ang. In the North an ell-mother, or eld-moder, signifies a mother in law, or step-mother, but, as Jamieson observes, must have properly denoted a grandmother, from Ang.-Sax. ealde-moder, avia. John Heworth of Gateshead bequeathed, in 1571, his best horse to his father in law, and adds, “Item, I gyve vnto my eldmoder, his wyffe, my wyffes froke, and a read petticote.” Wills and Inv. published by the Surtees Soc. i. 352.
page 138 note 1 The Catholicon explains lamia to be a creature with a human face, and the body of a beast, or, according to a gloss on Isai. xxxiv, 14, a sort of female centaur, which entered houses when the doors were closed, as old wives’ tales went, and cruelly used the children, whence the name, “quasi lania, a laniando pueros.” The ancient leeches have given in their books numerous charms and nostrums for the relief of children “taken with elvys;” among which may be cited the following from a curious medical MS. of XVth cent. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps. “For a chylde that ys elfe y-take, and may nat broke hys mete, that hys mouthe ys donne (sic.) Sey iij tymes thys verse, Beata mater munere, &c. In the worchyppe of God, and of our Ladi, sey iij pater noster, and iij aueys, and a crede; and he schal be hole.” In Sloane MS. 73, f. 125, it is directed to “take þe roote of gladen and make poudre þerof, and ɜeue þe sike boþe in his metes, and in hise drynkis, and he schal be hool wiþinne ix dayes and ix nyɜtis, or be deed, for certeyn.” William Langham, practitioner in physic, recommends this same remedy in his Garden of Health, 1579; and orders the root and seeds of the peony to be hung about children's necks, as a charm against the haunting of the fairies and goblins. The term elf is not, however, applied exclusively to mischievous spirits, but to fairies generally. See in Brand's Popular Antiquities detailed observations on the Fairy Mythology. “An elfe, lamia, eumenis, dicta ab en, quod est bonum, et mene, defectus. Elfe lande,” (no Latin word) Cath. ang. Horman seems to speak of elves as a sort of vampires: “No man stryueth with deed men but elfis, laruœ;” and Palsgrave give “elfe, or dwarfe, nain.” Ang.-Sax. elf, lamia.
page 138 note 2 This instrument seems to be the same which in East Sussex and Kent is known by the appellation of an eel-shear, but in other parts better known as an eel-spear.
page 138 note 3 This word occurs in the gloss on Gautier de Bibelesworth, Arund. MS. 220, where a buckled girdle is described:
“Een isy doyt le hardiloun (þe tunnge)
Passer par tru de subiloun (a bore of an alsene).”
“An elsyne, acus, subula.” Cath. ang. “Sibula, an elsyn, an alle, or a bodkyn.” Ortus. In the Inventory of the goods of a merchant at Newcastle, A.D. 1571, occur “vj doss’ elsen heftes, 12d. j clowte and ½ a c elson blades, viijs. viijd. xiij clowtes of talier nedles,” &c. Wills and Inv. published by the Surtees Society, i., 361. The term is derived from the French alène; “elson for cordwayners, alesne.” Palsg. In Yorkshire, and some other parts of England, an awl is still called an elsen.
page 139 note 1 The Anglo-Saxon word eam, avunculus, is commonly used by Chaucer, Gower, and all the earlier writers, and is not yet obsolete in the North of England. It is related in the life of St. Peter of Melane, that “one his eme whiche was an heretyke de-maunded of his lesson, and the chylde sayd to hym, credo;—his uncle sayd to hym that he sholde no more say so.” Legenda Aur. “An eme, avunculus, patruus. Versus, Patruus a patre pendet, avunculus ex genitrice. An eme son or doghter, patruelis, ex parte patris; consobrinus, ex parte matris.” Cath. ang. Bp. Kennett gives in his Glossarial collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, the following use of the word eam, noticed likewise by Grose: “Eam, an unkle, Bor. This term in the North is familiarly applied to a gossip, and indeed to any friend or neighbour; so is the word unkle in Worcestershire, and adjoining parts, where mine unkle or my nunkle is a common appellation, as mine eam in the North. Ex ore viri doctissimi G. H.”
page 139 note 2 This word is derived from the French “acheison, encheison; occasion heureuse, loisir, cause de bonheur, dessein,” &c. Roquef. “Enchesun, causa, occasio, accio, eventus, casus, racio.” Synonym. Harl. MS. 1002. See Chesun, and Cawse, or enchesone. It is used by Wicliffe, and many early writers. Occleve says of St. Margaret,
“But understandeth this, I onely commend her nought,
By encheson of her virginitie.” Letter of Cupide.
page 139 note 3 This appellation of a duck, which now seems to be quite obsolete, is the Ang. Saxon ened, anas, in Dutch, eend; it occurs in the glosses on Gautier de Bibelesworth.
“Zlusi a il ane (enede) et plounczoun, (douke)
Qen riuere ont lour mansioun (woning.)” MS. at Middle Hill.
And in another passage, “de naturell noyse des oyseaus, it is said,
“En marreis ane iaroille (enede queketh.)”
page 139 note 4 Endytyd, or yid..…Ms. The scribe has left a blank on account of a defect in the MS. from which his transcript was made; this appears to be supplied by the reading of the King's MS.
page 140 note 1 The verb to ean or yean, which is commonly applied only to the bringing forth of lambs, here appears to have had anciently the more general signification of the word from which it is derived, Ang. Sax. eanian, eniti, parturire. See Somner, Nares, and Richardson.
page 140 note 2 In the Latin-English Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. occurs among “nomina vermium, aranea, nerane;” the Medulla gives “muscaraneus, a litelle beste that sleethe the flye, the erayne;” and the Catholicon Angl. “Erane, a spyder or an attercopp, aranea.” Ray mentions arayn as the name given to the larger sorts of spiders in Nottinghamshire, and the word aran, or arain, is still in use in Yorkshire. See Araynye and Spynnare.
page 140 note 3 A garden was termed an Erbare, or herber, from the French herbier, and the appellation must not be here confounded with arbour, the derivation of which is probably from Ang.-Sax. herberga, mansio. Chaucer, however, seems to use the word herber in both significations. “Viretum, locus pascualis virens, a gresɜerd, or an herber.” Med. “An herber, herbarium.” Cath. ang. “Herbarium, an herber, ubi crescunt herbe, vel ubi habundant, or a gardyn.” Ortus. Caxton says, “Richer the carter shall lede dong on my land whan it shall be ered, and on my herber (courtil) whan it shall be doluen.” Book for Travellers. Hall describes a curious pageant exhibited at the entry of the Emperor Charles Vth into London, A.D. 1522, part of which was “a quadrant stage where on was an herber full of roses, lyllies, and all other flowers curiously wrought, and byrdes, beastes, and all other thynges of pleasure.” Chron. 14 Hen. VIII.
page 141 note 1 It has been observed under the word Blo erye, that the reading of the MS. may perhaps be considered as corrupt, by an error of the scribe, who wrote y for þ; but it must be observed that similar errors are of very rare occurrence in this MS. and that the words are here placed in their proper order, as written with a y, whilst Erthely will be found in its place afterwards, the letter þ being in the Anglo-Saxon alphabet usually placed at the end, and in the Promptorium next after W. In an early MS. of the Medulla Grammatice, in the Editor's possession, which is equally free from the use of the character y instead of þ, which towards the later part of the XVth century became very general, occurs the word “gliteus, eryen.”
page 141 note 2 “An erthe dyne, terremotus, or an erthe qvake.” Cath. ang. Mention occurs of “erthequaues” in the Legenda Aur. f. Xxv. Ang.-Sax. eorð-dyn, terrœ motus, cwacung, tremor. Robert of Gloucester uses the words erþgryþe, and erthegrine, signifying an earthquake.
page 141 note 3 “To ere, ubi to plughe.” Cath. ang. Palsgrave gives the verbs to ere, or to erye land, in the sense of ploughing; “he hath eared his lande, God send hym good innyng. To erye the yerthe, labourer.” Harrison, in his description of Britain, B. ii., c. 24, speaking of the numerous antiquities turned up by the plough, says that “in the beginning of the same Kings daies (Henry VIII.) also at Killeie a man found as he eared, an arming girdle harnessed with pure gold,” with spurs of gold, and other precious things, of which part were in the possession of one Dr. Ruthall. Holinsh. Chron. i., 217. Ang.-Sax. erian, arare.
page 141 note 4 From the Anglo-Saxon times until the Reformation, hermits, as well as anchorites or recluses, were a numerous class in England; many curious particulars regarding them have been brought together by Fosbroke, in his British Monachism, p. 503. The essential difference between the hermit and the Ankyr, or recluse, the terms occurring in the Promptorium, appears to be defined by Giraldus in his epistle to Abp. Langton, where he makes use of the following expression: “Heremitœ solivagi—Anachoritœ conclusi.” Ang. Sacra, ii., 436. They had both, however, a fixed dwelling-place, although differing in certain conditions; the establishment of an hermitage was among those acts which in former times served to testify, in a signal manner, of the piety of the founder, or his gratitude for divine protection. Thus it appears by Pat. I Hen. IV. that, having landed in Holderness, on his return after many years of banishment, and been seated on the throne, one of the first acts of that sovereign was the precept “de heremitagio œdificando apud quendam locum vocatum Ravenescrosbourne, in quo Rex ultimo suo adventu applicuit.” A curious evidence of the high respect and estimation in which recluses and hermits were held at this period, is afforded by the will of Henry, Lord de Scrop, A.D. 1415, whose bequests in their favour are singularly numerous and detailed. Rymer, ix, 275.
page 142 note 1 The verb to erne or yerne, signifying to hasten, or run as an animal, Ang.-Sax. yrnan, currere, has not been sufficiently distinguished from the verb to yearn, Ang.-Sax. ʓeornian, desiderare, expressive of anxious longing or deep affection. The former occurs in several of the old romances; thus it is related of the wonderful long-legged race that Alexander found running bare-foot in the Indian forest,
“Every wilde dere astore,
Hy mowen by cours ernen tofore.” K. Alis. line 5003.
So also of the King of Navarre, when he charged forward to meet the Soudan's champion,
“Vpon a stede he gan yerne
With sper and scheld.” Octouian, line 965.
See also line 1934, where it is written “erne.” It expresses also the strenuous movement of the sailor.
“The maryners awey gonne skylle,
And yorne awey, with good wylle
Well hastily.” Ibid. line 561.
In Piers Ploughman's Vision it is used to signify the flow of water, or running of tears.
“And then welled water for wicked workes,
Egrely ernyng out of men's eyen.” Passus 20.
Laneham, in his curious account of the reception of Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle, in 1575, uses the word in describing the eager course of the stag-hound; “the earning of the hoounds in continuauns of their crie, ye swiftnes of the deer, the running of footmen, the galloping of horsez … mooued pastyme delectabyl.” Bishop Kennett, in his Glossarial Coll. notices the sense of the word to earn, as used in the North, which is given also by Brockett and Jamieson; “to earn, to run as chees doth. Earning, chees rennet, Bor. from Sax. yrnen, currere.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 143 note 1 The earwig is still, according to Forby, called eriwiggle in Norfolk, but it appears to be only a local corruption, as the word is usually written more conformably to its Ang. Saxon original, ear-wiʓʓa, vermis auricularis. Thus in a Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002, is found “auriolus, Anglice a ɜerwygge;” and Palsgrave gives “Erwygge, a worme.” See Arwygyll.
page 143 note 2 This curious word appears to be a Latinism; but is, perhaps, more directly taken from the old French, “Esche; appât, amorce; esca.” Roquef.
page 143 note 3 This word is used by Chaucer and Lydgate, who in the Troy Book speaks
“Of bitter eysell, and of eager wine.”
“Acetum, ayselle or bytter wyne.” Med. gramm. “Acetum, aysyl, or vinegre.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “Acetum, ayesell; Oxigalus, aysell menged.” Ortus. It occurs also in the Forme of Cury. Ang.-Sax. eisile, aisil, acetum.
page 143 note 4 This word usally signifies a vessel for water; “ewer to wasshe with, aiguier,” Palsg.; its meaning seems here to be transferred from the ewer to the person by whom it is carried. The Medulla gives “aquarius, aquaria, a waturberere.” Ang. Sax. hwer, huer, cacabus. Among the domestics of the Earl of Essex, mentioned in his will, 1361, occurs “Davy, q'est Barber et Ewer.” Nichols' Roy. Wills, 53.
page 143 note 5 “Evyn eldes, coetaneus, coevus, colectaneus, equevus.” Cath. ang. “Coetaneus, unius et ejusdem etatis, euen olde.” Ortus. Horman says, “lyke as I se my son do for his frende and euenɜelde (equalis) and help hym in his maters, so it is right that we olde men shuld help and do eche for oder.” Ang.-Sax. efen-eald, coevus.
page 144 note 1 The term evesynge, from the Ang.-Sax. evesung, tonsura, evese, margo, occurs in the Gloss on G. de Bibelesworth; MS. at Middle Hill.
“Et ceueroundel (sparewe net) à la ceuerounde (at þe euesinge)
Prent le musshoun et le arounde (swalewe).”
“Seuerunder à la severunde (a serundel at þe eueses)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 301, b. It would seem hence that it was usual to take small birds, as the muskeron, or sparrow, and the swallow, by means of a net adjusted to the house eaves; they probably served, as they do still in Italy and Southern Europe, as articles of food. In Piers Ploughman's Vision are mentioned “Isykles in evesynges;” and in the Creed “Orcheyarde and erbers evesed wel clene;” in which instance the word seems to be used precisely in the sense of the Ang.-Saxon verb efesian, tondere, unless it may signify that the erber, or garden of herbs, was neatly hedged in. The Medulla renders “intonsus, vnevesed. Antipophara, an evesynge.” In the North of England the eaves are called easings. “Severonde, the eaue, eauing, or easing of a house.” Cotgr.
page 144 note 2 The word chefe, signifying chance or fortune, has occurred already, but in the MS. is written, as it would seem erroneously, Chep. It appears to be taken from the French, chef, chief, which, according to Roquefort, implies not only the head, or the commencement of a thing, but the end, issue, or extremity. Chaucer, in the Merchant's second Tale, speaks of “the boncheff and the myscheff;” and in the account of William Thorpe's examination by Abp. Arundel in 1407, published by Fox from a contemporary authority, it is related that he said, “if I consented to you to doo heere after your will for bonchefe or mischefe that may befall me in this life, I deme in my conscience that I were worthy herefore to be cursed of God.”
page 144 note 3 The verb apposyn̄', which does not occur in the Harl. MS. in its proper place alphabetically, has here the same signification as that in which it is used by Chaucer, and many of the old writers, namely, of putting to the question, or examining judicially.
“May I not axe a libel, Sire Sompnour,
And answere ther by my procuratour,
To swiche thing as men wold apposen me ?” Frere's Tale.
“I appose one, make a tryall of his lernyng, or laye a thyng to his charge. I am nat to lerne nowe to appose a felow, aposer.” Palsg.
page 145 note 1 Chaucer, in the Assembly of Fowls, uses the word facond both as a substantive and an adjective, as in French, “Facond, éloquent; faconde, éloquence.” Roquef. So also he says of Virginia,
“Tho she were wise as Pallas, dare I saine,
(Her facond eke full womanly and plaine)
No counterfeited termes at all had shee
To seeme wise.” Doctor of Physic's Tale.
In the Golden Legend it is said that “Martha was ryght faconde of speche, and curteys.”
page 145 note 2 The ancient Anglo-Saxon measure of six feet, fæðem, ulna, the space of both arms extended, was, at the time the Promptorium was compiled, still used as a measure of length, and subsequently more exclusively applied to depth. Horman says, that “in a man that is of laufull stature, the lengthe fro the toppe of his heed to his hele, and fro the both toppys of his myddell fyngers, whan he makethe a vadome, is all one.”
page 146 note 1 “To fage, adulari, assentari, blandiri, blandificare, delinire, palpare. A fagynge, blandicia. Fagynge, blandus.” Cath. ang. This word is derived from the Ang.-Sax. fæʓnian, fæʓenian, gaudere, which has also the signification of flattering. Hardyng, relating the guileful practices of Vortigern on the weak King Constaunce, says,
“Such subtyle meane to fage the Kyng he fande.” Chron. c. lxvi.
Coles gives “fage, a merry tale.” Palsgrave gives the verb “I fagge from the trouthe (Lydgate); this terme is nat in our comen use.” It may be questioned whether Drayton does not use the verb to fadge in this sense; but it is explained by the Glossarists as signifying only to agree, or accord; Ang.-Sax. feʓan, jungere.
“With flattery my muse could neuer fadge.” Pastorals, Ecl. 3.
page 146 note 2 It would at first sight appear from this reading of the MS. as also from a word that occurs subsequently, Forɜetyn̄, or forɜetyn̄, that the initial ff must have some special power of its own, and not merely represent the capital F. None such, however, can be assigned, and the readings are, probably, in both instances corrupted by the scribe. In the present case the correction appears to be Fayne, or fawne, and in the second the true reading may be Forɜetyn̄, or forgetyn̄. “Fayne, ubi mery. Alacer, apricus, dilectabilis, hilaris, letus.” Cath. ang. Ang.-Sax. fæʓen, lœtus. See Fawn'.
page 146 note 3 The appellation fair child, bel fils, or Befyce, which has occurred previously, was one of endearment or courtesy, afterwards used only to signify a son-in-law. Instances of its use are not infrequent; thus in Piers Ploughman's Vision, when Joseph relates to his father his dream that the sun, moon, and stars “hailsed hym all,”
“Beau fitz, quod his fader,
For defaute we shullen,
I myself and my sones,
Seche thee for neede.” line 4819.
page 146 note 4 A Faytowre was, as it seems, a conjuror, or a quack-salver, so called from the French faiteor, or faiturier, a sorcerer; and thence the name was applied to itinerant pretenders to such skill, to mendicants, and generally to idle livers. “Faitard, faiteor, un parresseux.” Lacombe. The plant called quack-salver's turbith or spurge, the Tithymalus or Esula of the old botanists, Euphorbia, Linn. was much employed in homely physic, as also by the empirics in former times. Its virtues are detailed by Gerarde and Parkinson. See Titymalle. The MS. has similator, as also similacio.
page 147 note 1 Compare Row clothe, as faldynge and other lyke, which occurs hereafter. The term faldyng, signifying a kind of frieze, or rough-napped cloth, is derived by Skinner from Ang.-Sax. feald, plica, because coarse wrappers or mantles were usually made of it. Chaucer describes the West Country shipman as clad
“In a goune of falding to the knee.” Cant. Tales, Prol.
Nicholas, the Oxford clerk, had his books, and appliances of science,
“On shelues all couched at his bed's hed;
His presse icouered with a faldyng red,
And all aboue there lay a gay Sautrie.” Miller's Tale.
Nich. de Schirburn, an ecclesiastic of York, bequeathed, in 1392, “tunicam de nigro faldyng lineatam;” and Ric. Bridesall, merchant of the same city, makes this devise; “lego patri meo meam armilausam, videlicet faldyng clok.” Testam. Ebor. i. 173, 174. “Amphibalus, a sclaveyn, a faldynge or a dudd.” Med. gramm. “A faldynge, amphibalus. A faldynge. plicacio, convolucio.” Cath. ang. This kind of cloth was supplied, probably, from the North of Europe, and identical with the woollen wrappers of which Hermoldus speaks, “quos nos appellamus Faldones;” Chron. Slav. i. c. 1; called by Adam Bremensis “Puldones.” Frieze received its name from Friesland, and the rough garments of that country are called by Andrew Borde “dagswaynes,” as has been noticed above in the note on that word. The Polonie of Scotland may have received its name from its Polish origin; see the curious observations on that word in the Supplement to Jamieson's Dictionary. These garments, as also the Irish mantles, much in request so late as the reign of Charles I. as appears by the Custom-house rates, were, probably, the same as the faldyng; the last were usually imported in pairs, upon which the duty, as rated in 1553, was 5s. and by the Kytson Household Book it appears that in 1573 the price of “a coople of Irish mantells” was 43s. History of Hengrave. “Endromis, vestis villosa de arietis pellibus facta, vel pallium forte villosum, &c. an yrysshe mantell.” Ortus. “Bracca, that kynde of a mantell whiche nowe commeth out of Ireland, or a longe garment made of roughe frise.” Elyot, 1542. Fallin signifies in Irish, according to Lluyd, a mantle, and the term appears to be identical with that used by Giraldus Camb. in his description of the Irish, composed in 1185; “caputiis modicis assueti sunt et arctis, trans humeros deorsum, cubito tenus protensis, …. sub quibus phalingis laneis quoque, palliorum vice, utuntur.” Topog. Hibern. 1. iii. c. 10. The fashion of the phalingus is exhibited in marginal drawings in a valuable contemporary MS. of Giraldus, in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps; and it is described by the appellation coccula in the Life of St. Cadoc, MS. Landav. Eccl. as cited by Spelman, under that word. See further Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, and Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, 267.
page 147 note 2 See hereafter Mowsfalle. “A felle for myse, decipula. A mowse felle, muscipula.” Cath. ang. Ang.-Sax. mus-fealle, muscipula.
page 148 note 1 “þe falland euylle, epilencia, comicius vel comicialis, morbus caducus, noxa, gerenoxa.” Cath. ang. Epilepsy, or the falling sickness, appears to have been in former times a very prevalent disorder, and had numerous appellations; Cotgrave and Sherwood give the following, in French, “le mal caduque, mal de terre, le mal S. Jean, le gros mal, le haut mal, mal d'Alcide, mal des comices, mal de Mahomet, mat de S. Valentin, maladie de S. Jean, maulubec, malubec.” See Londe ivyl.
page 148 note 2 Mawther, in the East Anglian dialect, still signifies a girl, according to Forby and Moore; the explanation of the word carisia given in the Catholicon, has been adopted in the Ortus, “Carisia dicitur lena vetus et litigiosa, unde et fallaces ancille, quia veritate carent, Anglice, false seruauntes.” See Moder, servaunte.
page 148 note 3 See Loos, or fame.
page 148 note 4 “A fanne, capisterium, pala, vannus, ventilabrum.” Cath. ang. Ang.-Sax. fann, ventilabrum. The ancient form of this implement, explained in the Catholicon to be “instrumentum de vimine factum, in modum scuti, cribrum,” has undergone little change during several centuries, as exhibited on the sepulchral brass at Chartham, in Kent, representing Sir Robert de Setvans, or de Septem Vannis, who died in 1306. The fan, or van, here appears both on the armorial surcoat, and the ailettes; the bearing, which is a curious example of the arma cantantia, or armes parlantes, appears to have been, not seven vans, but three, as given in the Roll of Arms, t. Edw. II. Cott. MS. Calig. A. Xviii. A faithful representation of this curious memorial has been given by Messrs. Waller in their valuable Series of Monumental Brasses.
page 148 note 5 “A fayne of a schipe, cheruchus, et cetera ubi a wedercoke.” Cath. ang. Ang. Sax. fana, vexillum. Chaucer uses this word repeatedly,
“O stormy peple, unsad and euer untrewe,
And undiscrete, and changing as a fane!” Clerke's Tale.
Among the costs of the construction of a dormitory, at Burcester Priory, in 1424, is a charge for “truncis de ferro, cum ij ventilogiis, viz. Vanys de tyn, ponendis super utrumque finem dormitorii;” Kennett's Paroch. Ant. ii., 254; and in the accounts of Thomas Lucas, Solicitor-Gen. to Henry VII. for the building of Little Saxham Hall, in 1507, is the entry, “a vane for my vise (winding stairs); iv vanys for my bruge.” Rokewode's Hist of Suff. 151. Chaucer, in the Manciple's Prologue, alludes to the rural sport of justing “at the fan,” in some MSS. “van;” which has been explained as signifying a kind of quintain, so termed from its revolving like the fane of a weather-cock. In the curious version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. a passage occurs, however, which would lead to the supposition that Chaucer's allusion refers to a rural conflict, with the winnowing fan, by way of shield; it declares “how olde werriours were wont to iuste with fannes, and pley with the pil, or the pale;” and that tyros or young soldiers ought to have “a shelde made of twigges sum what rounde, in maner of a gredryn, the whiche is clepede a fanne—and therwith they sholde haue maces of tree.” B. 1, c. xi. See Quyntyne hereafter.
page 149 note 1 To fang or seize, Ang.-Sax. fang, captura, fangen, captus, is a verb used by R. Brunne, and various writers, as late as Shakespeare. See Underfongyn̄, and Latchyn̄ hereafter.
page 149 note 2 The etymology of this appellation of the sacred vestment, termed also the maniple, is uncertain; the Latin pannus has been suggested, the German Fahne, or the Ang. Saxon word of the like signification, fana, vexillum. The resemblance of the maniple to the penon on the lance, called in France fanon, or phanon, is obvious. The word can hardly, however, be of Ang.-Saxon derivation, as in Ælfric's Glossary, written towards the close of the Xth cent. the maniple is termed “manualis, handlin;” and among the gifts of Bishop Leofric to Exeter Cathedral, about 1050, are mentioned “iv subdiacones handlin.” MS. Bodl. Auct. D. 2, 16. Leo IV. P.P. towards the middle of the IXth cent, ordained thus, “nullus cantet sine amictu, sine albâ, stolâ, fanone et casulâ;” and a contemporary writer, Rabanus Maurus, says, “quartum sacerdotis indumentum mappula sive mantile est, quod vulgo fanonem vocant.” Inst. Cler. c. 18. The original intention and use of the maniple is explained by Alcuin and Amalarius, writers of the same period, as follows: “Mappula, que in sinistrâ parte gestatur, quâ pituitam oculorum et narium detergimus.” Shortly after, however, the rich and massy ornament bestowed upon the fanon rendered it unsuitable for its original purpose. A specimen discovered at Durham, in the tomb attributed to St. Cuthbert, is still preserved there; it is elaborately ornamented with needle-work, on a ground woven with gold, and was wrought, as appears by inscriptions upon it, by direction of Ælfleda, Queen of Edward the Elder, for Frithelstan, consecrated Bp. Winchester A.D. 905. It was probably brought to Durham, with other precious gifts, by Athelstan, the successor of Edward, in 934. This fanon measures 32¼ in. exclusively of a fringe at the ends, 1¾ in. deep; and its breadth is 2¼ in. Elaborate drawings of this interesting relic, and of the stole discovered with it in 1827, are in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. They are both ornamented with figures of saints, by which, and other representations, it appears that the fanon was at that period worn loosely thrown over the back of the hand, as on the Bayeux Tapestry in the representation of Abp. Stigant; but subsequently it was attached closely round the wrist. In a few instances the fanon appears carried on the right, instead of the left hand, an example of which occurs in the Bible of Charles the Bald, MS. of the IXth cent. See Montf. Mon. Franc. 1, pl. xxvi. The fanon was usually of the same suit, de eâdem sectâ, as the stole, and the parures of the amice and the alb; the material of which they were formed was most costly. Among the gifts of Will. de Elintune to Rochester, it is recorded, “dedit stolam et fanum de nigrâ purpurâ—de viride ciclade—de albâ purpurâ,” &c. Reg. Roff. 119. They were ornamented with gems, pearls, and goldsmith's work, as appears by the inventories of the treasuries at Old St. Paul's and Lincoln, printed by Dugdale. It must be observed that some distinction seems to have been made in Italy in the XIth cent. between the fanon and the maniple, but its precise nature has not been ascertained. See the account of the gifts of Abbot Desiderius, Chron. Monast. Casin. Murat. iv. 429, 487. “Fannell for a preeste's arme, fanon.” Palsg. “Fanon, a fannell or maniple, a scarfe-like ornament worne on the left arme of a sacrificing Priest.” Cotg.
page 150 note 1 To fare, Ang.-Sax. faran, ire, is a verb frequently used by the earlier writers, as R. Brunne, Rob. of Gloucester, Langtoft, and Chaucer.
“Ten thousand prest and yare,
Into batail for to fare.” K. Alisaunder, line 1188.
Sir Thomas de la More, in his Life of Edward II. relates that at Bristol, on the way to Berkeley Castle, Thomas de Gorney put upon his head a crown made of hay, and the soldiers “ironiâ nimis acerbâ dixerunt, fare forth Syr Kynge.” Ed. Camden, p. 602. Minot, speaking of the journey of Edward III. into Brabant, in 1338, says,
“Unto France fast will he fare,
To confort hym with grapes.”
Various significations of this verb are given by Palsgrave, “I fare, I go a iournay. I fare with one, or entreate hym well or yuell. I fare, I playe at a game so named at the dyse. I fare, I resemble another thyng in my dealing. I fare, I take on, as one doth yt is in sorowe.” Occasionally it is used in the sense of compelling to go; thus, in the Towneley Mysteries, Herod, enraged at the birth of Christ, declares,
“Under my feete I shalle thaym fare,
Those ladys that wille (not) lere my lare.” p. 120.
page 150 note 2 Palsgrave gives the verb “I fasyll out, as sylke or veluet dothe, Ie raule; my sleve is fasylled, rauelée. Fasyll of clothe, cassure.” ? Ang.-Sax. fæs, fimbria. The term to ravel, now generally used in this sense, thus appears to be derived, not from the verb to reave, or tear away, as it has been supposed, but from the French.
page 151 note 1 “Fastyngange, carniprivium.” Cath. ang. Palsgrave gives “at fastyns, at Fastyngonge, à Quaresme prenant.” Blount, in his Dictionary of Hard Words, 1680, gives “fasguntide” as a Norfolk word, which Forby considers as now obsolete. In the statement made by the citizens of Norwich respecting a riot that occurred in 1441, termed Gladman's Insurrection, they declare that it originated in the circumstance that the said Thomas Gladman “on Tuesday, in the last ende of Cristemesse, viz. Fastyngonge Tuesday, made a disport with his neyghbours, coronned as Kyng of Cristemesse.” Blomf. Hist. ii. 111. A detailed account of such local usages at Shrove-tide will be found in Brand's Popular Antiqu. vol. i. Hardyng, relating the conflict between the Yorkists and Queen Margaret, which closed with the battle of St. Alban's, Shrove Tuesday, Febr. 17, 1461, says,
“And southward came thei then therfore
To Sainct Albones, vpon the fastyngange eue (al. fastirne.)” Chron. c. 237.
The term is compounded from Ang.-Sax. fæsten, jejunium, and ʓonʓ, iter, or going, the commencement of Lent. “Caresme prenant, Fastnes, or Shrove Tuesday.” Cotg.
page 151 note 2 “A fatte, cupa, cuva. A fattmaker, cuparius.” Cath. ang. “Cupa, a coupe, or a fatte, or stope.” Ortus. “Fatte, a vessel, quevue. Fatte to dye in, cvuier à taindre.” Palsg. “Cuve, an open tub, a fat, or vat.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. fæt, fat, vas. Caxton, in the Book for Travellers, enumerates “thinges that ben vsed after the hous,—platers, disshes, saussers, sallyers, trenchours; these thinges shall ye fynde of tree, and of erthe. Now after, a disshe fat (esculier) where me leyeth therin the forsaid thinges, and the spones of tree.” There was a local measure of grain, called a fat, identical with the cupa, cupus, or cuva, and which contained a quarter, or 8 bushels. The Stat. 1 Hen. V. c. 10, recites that it had been ordained that there should be only one measure, namely 8 bushels to the quarter; but that the purveyors of the Crown were accustomed to take 9, and the merchants and citizens of London take of all sellers the same quantity, as a quarter of wheat, “par un mesure usé deins la dicte Citée, appellé le faat, ove un bussell mys sur le dit faat.” The word coupe does not occur in the Promptorium, in the same sense as Fate, but is so given in the Ortus and the Cath. Ang. “A cowpe, cupa. A cowper, cuparius.” Caxton says in the Book for Travellers, “Paule the couper maketh and formaketh the keupis (refaict les cuues.)”
page 151 note 3 See Mastyn̄ beestys, hereafter. Ang.-Sax. mæstan, saginare.
page 152 note 1 Clepsidra is explained in the Ortus to be the same as “docillus, Anglice a perser or a spygote.” See Dottell, dossell, above. “Faucet, to drawe wyne, faucet, broche à estovper le vin.” Palsg. This word is derived from the French, faulcet.
page 152 note 2 “A fawchone, rumphea, framea, spata.” Cath. ang. This appellation of a sword with a curved blade is taken from the French fauchon, a diminutive of faux, from the Latin falx. The fauchon is frequently mentioned by Guiart, who wrote at the close of the XIIIth cent. and seems to have been identical with the falso, often named at that period, and the falcio, which is included among weapons that monks were forbidden to bear by the Stat. Cistert. Ord. A.D. 1202. An early instance of the use of this weapon occurs in the curious designs of t. Edward I. discovered in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, given in the Vetusta Monumenta. When Launfal is assailed by the lords of Lombardy, in unequal conflict,
“Sir Launfal brayde out hys fochon,
And, as lyɜt as dewe, he layde hem donne.”
Launfal Miles. Cott. MS. Calig. A. Ii.It must be observed, however, that the fauchon and falso seem occasionally to be named with long-handled weapons, and that the falchion may occasionally have been a kind of bill, with the curved or scythe-shaped blade, whence the name was taken. Chaucer uses the word as signifying a sword, and in Piers Ploughman's Vision allusion occurs to St. Paul, keeping the gate of heaven with his “fawchon.” Palsgrave gives “Fawchyon, a wepen, marguy baston de ivif;” and Cotgrave, “Malcus, a faulchion, hangar, wood-knife.”
page 153 note 1 The word Feyar, introduced here on the authority of Pynson's edition, is derived from the verb to fie or fey, used by Tusser, and still known in the East Anglian dialect. “Escureur, a scowrer, cleanser, feyer.” Cotg. See Fyin̄, and Fowar.
page 153 note 2 Palsgrave says, “I feyne in syngyng, Ie chante à basse voyx. We may nat synge out, we are to nere my lorde, but lette us fayne this songe.”
page 153 note 3 In the version of Vegecius attributed to Trevisa, it is recommended that the host in marches “be not highely fayntede with iourneyeng of weyes in the hete of the day,” but in summer should rest from “vndren' to myde ouernone.” B. iii. c. 2.
page 153 note 4 “Felle, acer, acerbus, asper, atrox, austerus, ferox, &c. To be felle, barbarizare, sevire. To make felle, ferare. Felly, acriter. A fellnes, atrocitas, rigor, &c.” Cath. ang. “Fell or fierse, as a person is for modynesse. Fyers, fell, rigoreux, fier. Fell, or felonyshe, felonneux. Felnesse, despiterie.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. fell, crudelis, felnys, crudelitas.
page 154 note 1 “Carbunculus, the felone.” Ortus. “Felon, a sore, entracq.” Palsg. “Furunculus, a soore called a felon; also a soore called a cattes hear, whiche breketh out in the fingers with great wheales and moche peyne. Tagax, a felon, whiche happeneth on a mann's fynger.” Elyot. Baret gives “A fellon, vncomme, or catte's haire; a bile or sore that riseth in man's bodie, furunculus; Bossette dure, ou froncle, vng clou. A fellon, or impostumation vnder the rootes of the nailes, paronychia;” and Cotgrave, “Furuncule, a fellon, or whitlaw; Panary, a felon, or whitlaw, at the end of a finger.” Gerard recommends as a remedy the Persicaria hydropiper, or arsmart, which, “bruised and bound upon an imposthume in the ioynts of the fingers (called among the vulgar sort a fellon or vncome,) taketh away the paine.” Elyot explains the term uncome as follows: “adventitius morbus, syckenes that cometh without our defaute, and of some men is callyd an vncome.”
page 154 note 2 The Catholicon explains filtrum to be so called “quia ex filis, i. pilis animalium fiat;” and the Ortus renders “fultrum, illud quod ornat lectum, sive lecti apodiamentum.” The term felt appears to have signified, at a very early period, a material formed of wool, not woven, but compacted together, suitable even for a garment of defence, so that the gambeson is sometimes termed feltrum. “Centrum vel filtrum, felt.” Gloss. Ælfrici. In Norfolk a thickly matted growth of weeds spreading by their roots, as couch-grass, is termed a felt.
page 154 note 3 This herb is the small centaury, which was called fel terre, and in Dutch Eerdegall, from the excessive bitterness, and possibly the deep yellow colour of its juice, which in some countries was used by women to dye their hair, when yellow hair was the pre-valent fashion. By modern botanists it is known as the Erythrœa centaurium. Feltryke appears to be merely a corruption of the Latin name; Cotgrave gives “Sacotin, feaver-wort, earth-gall, common centory.”
page 154 note 4 Fenne has occasionally, as the Ang.-Sax. fenn, the abstract signification of mire. Thus in the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is related that Scipio bid his Spanish prisoners cleanse and dig ditches, “with this reprouable scorne; ye ben worthy, he saide, to be blottede and spottede, foulede and defoulede with fenne and with drit of water (luto inquinari) and of blode, bat in tyme of werre ne were not, ne wolde nat be bespreynt ne be wette with ennemyes blode.” B. iii. c. 10.
page 155 note 1 Before the general introduction of glazed windows, their place was supplied by framed blinds of cloth or canvas, termed fenestralls, which are mentioned in the accounts of the executors of Queen Eleanor, A.D. 1291, as follows: “pro canabo ad fenestrallas, ad scaccarium Reginœ apud Westmonasterium, iijd.” Household Expenses, presented to the Roxburghe Club by B. Botfield, Esq. p. 135. “Fenestrall, chassis de toille, ou de paupier (papier.)” Palsg. Horman says that “glasen wyndowis let in the lyght, and kepe out the winde; paper or lyn clothe straked acrosse with losyngys make fenestrals in stede of glasen wyndowes. I wyll have a latesse (clathrum) before the glasse for brekynge. I have many prety wyndowes shette with leuys goynge up and downe (canestellœ quœ attolli et demitti possunt).” Not long subsequently to the time when Horman wrote, glazed windows became so generally in use that the fenestrall was laid aside. Harrison, who wrote his description of England about 1579, speaks of “lattise made of wicker, or fine rifts of oke in chekerwise,” formerly much used in country houses instead of glass, as being then obsolete. He speaks of the use of horn, selenite, and berill, for glazing windows, observing that of the last “an example is yet to be seene in Sudleie castell;” and states that glass had become so cheap and plentiful, being imported from Burgundy, Normandy, and Flanders, as well as made in England, of good quality, that every one who chose might have abundance. B. ii. c. 12. Holinsh. Chron. i. 187. Leland noticed “the Hawle of Sudley Castle glased with rownd Beralls.” Itin. iv. f. 170, a; viii. f. 74, b.
page 155 note 2 “Fenelle, or fenkelle, feniculum, maratrum.” Cath. ang. The numerous virtues of this herb are thus summed up in the King's Coll. MS. of the Promptorium:
“Bis duo dat maratrum, febres fugat atque venenum,
Et purgat stomacum, sic reddit lumen acutum.”
Macer gives a detailed account, in which the following remarkable passages occur: “þe edderes wole ete fenel, when her yen dasnyþ, and so she getiþ a-yene her clere sighte; and þer þoroghe it is founde and preved þat fenel doþ profit to mannis yene: þe yen þat ben dusked, and dasniþ, shul be anoynted wit þe ius of fenelle rotis medeled wit hony; and þis oynement shalle put a-way alle þe dasewenesse of hem, and make hem bryɜt.” The virtue of fennel, in restoring youth, was a discovery attributed likewise by Macer to serpents; “þis prouiþ auctours and filisoferis, for serpentis whan men (sic) olde, and willeth to wexe stronge, myghty, and yongly a-yean, þei gon and eten ofte fenel, and þei become yongliche and myghty.” MS. in the possession of H. W. Diamond, Esq. Fenkylle is obviously a corruption of the Latin name; this herb is still called in German Fenchel, and in Dutch Venckel. In Piers Ploughman's Vision mention occurs of
“A ferthing worth of fynkel-sede for fastynge daies.”
page 156 note 1 In the Assembly of Ladies, a poem attributed to Chaucer, Attemperaunce is described as arrayed in a blue gown of cloth of gold, in tabard-wise, purfled, or trimmed with fur, and set with pearls and diamonds.
“After a sort, the coller and the vent,
Like as armine is made in purfeling,
With great pearles full fine and orient,
They were couched all after one worching.”
The glossarist interprets vent as signifying “the fore-part;” but this does not sufficiently explain the term. In the XIIIth Cent. the fent or vent appears at the collar of the robe, both in male and female costume, being a short slit closed by a brooch, and which served for greater convenience in putting on a dress so fashioned as to fit closely round the throat. This is shown by the effigies at Fontevrault, engraved by Stothard, and especially by those of Queen Berengaria, at the abbey of l'Espan, and of Richard I., recently discovered at Rouen. Archæol. xxix. pl. xxi. In these instances it is sufficiently apparent why the fent should be termed, as in the Promptorium, fibulatorium; but at a later period being considerably prolonged, the opening of the robe in front extending often much below the waist, a brooch was no longer sufficient to close it. At the period when Chaueer wrote, the fent was trimmed with rich furs, and the fastenings were ornaments of chased work, jewelled, of a very splendid description. They are termed in inventories “attaches,” and exhibited on the effigies of Lady Mohun, and of Joan of Navarre, Queen of Henry IV., at Canterbury. The less richly decorated effigy of Queen Philippa, at Westminster, presents an example of the fent, simply closed by a lace; and the combination of furs and jewels in this part of costume appears in many MSS. which have furnished Strutt with examples, among which may particularly be mentioned Roy. MS. 16 G. V. See Strutt's Dresses, pl. xciv. The propriety of applying to the fent thus purfled and adorned, the term fimbria, as in the Promptorium, is evident, as likewise limbus, which is given by Ducange, on an ancient authority, as synonymous with fibulatorium. In the Wardrobe of Sir John Fastolf, A.D. 1459, there was “j jakket of red felwet, the ventis bounde with red lether.” Archæol. xxi. 253. “Fente of a gowne, fente.” Palsg.
page 156 note 2 The use of the verb to fear, in an active sense, is not uncommon.
“That rybaude fered me with his loke,
That confort to me coude I none take.” Castell of Labour, 1506.
“Absterrere, i. penitus terrere, Anglice, to fayr. Terreo, i. terrorem inferre, to feere.” Ortus. “I feare one, I make hym afrayde. I feare awaye, skarre away, as we do beestes or byrdes, dechasser.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. færan, terrere. See Fesyn̄'.
page 157 note 1 In the will of the Earl of Essex, 1361, occur bequests “à Mestre Thomas le ferour, v. marcs; à un garson pur le ferour, xxs.; à un garson feurer, i. marc.” Royal Wills, p. 50. Elyot renders “veterinarius medicus, a horseleche, or ferror,” now called corruptedly a farrier. In the version of Pliny, by Holland, it is related that the Empress Poppæa “was knowne to cause her ferrers ordinarily to shoe her coach horses, and other palfries, &c. with cleane gold.” B. xxxiij. c. 11. In the order of the Pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi, at York, 1415, are enumerated among the various trades, “smythes, fevers.” Sharpe's Coventry Mysteries, p. 137. This last appellation is taken directly from the old French, fèvre, febvre, or ferre, a blacksmith.
page 157 note 2 Among the appliances of a sacred nature, there were feretra of two kinds; first, the bier for carrying the corpse to the grave, “feretrum, bære,” Gloss. Ælfric., thus mentioned in the laws of Henry I., “amici extrahant mortuum, deferentes in feretrum, et portantes eum ad ecclesiam.” By the Constitutions of Will, de Bleys, 1229, and Walter de Cantilupe, 1240, Bishops of Worcester, as also of Abp. Peckham, 1280, among the ornaments and requisites to be provided in every church, at the charge of the parishioners, was included “feretrum competens ad sepulturam mortuorum.” Wilkins, i. 623, 666; ii. 49. In its secondary sense feretrum signified a portable shrine, containing the relics of saints, and carried in processions on a frame similar to the ordinary bier; and also stationary shrines of similar fashion, but which it was not customary to display as gestatory ornaments, such as those of St. Cuthbert at Durham, or St. Thomas of Hereford, in the cathedral there. It is recorded in Reg. Roff. 120, that “Willielmus Rex Anglie magnus, in articulo mortis (1087) dedit—feretrum, cum altari gestatorio deargentato, et pallium cum leonibus.” In 1355, Elizabeth de Clare, daughter of Gilbert Earl of Gloucester, made the following bequest: “Je devise à Seint Thomas de Hereford un ymage de n're dame, d'argent surorré, d'estre taché sur son fiertre.” Roy. Wills, p. 31. In the ancient documents relating to the shrine of St. Cuthbert the term feretrum implies, as Mr. Raine states, not the shrine itself, but the quadrangular space or oratory wherein it stood: the keeper had the title of feretrarius. See Raine's Saint Cuthbert. Amongst numerous representations of the feretrum may be mentioned the procession of St. Alban's shrine, in the MS. of M. Paris, with drawings, supposed to be by his own hand, Cott. MS. Nero, D. I.; Strutt's Manners and Customs, i. pl. lxiv. One occasion on which it was customary to carry the feretra in procession, was at the parochial perambulations in Rogation week, a full account of which will be found in Brand's Popular Antiqu. vol. i. Horman, in his chapter of sacred matters, says, “We two muste beare the feretrum (tensam gestare) a procession in the gange dayes.” The term “fertre” occurs in Langtoft's Chronicle; and in the Golden Legend mention is made of the “fyerte,” or shrine of St. Alphey, f. 117, b. “Fierte, fiertre, fietre: Châsse, reliquaire, brancard.” Roquef. The term feretrum in the MS. Ordinar. Ecc. Rotom. signifies the pyxis, wherein the consecrated Eucharist is deposited.
page 158 note 1 The pheasant was brought into Europe from the banks of the Phasis, in Colchis, according to Martial, by the Argonauts; it was highly esteemed by the Romans, and possibly introduced by them into England. In default of positive evidence as to its existence here in early times, it can only be stated that about the time when the Promptorium was compiled, it had become sufficiently abundant in East Anglia. Thus in the Howard Household Book, amongst the costs incurred at Ipswich, in 1467, “whane Syr John Howard and Mastyr Thomas Brewse were chosen knyghtes of the shyre,” occurs the item, “xij fesawntes, pryse xijs.” Household Expenses, presented to the Roxburghe Club by B. Botfield, Esq. p. 399. “Ornix est gallus vel gallina silvestris, Anglice a fesande or a werkok.” Ortus. “A fesande, fasianus.” Cath. ang.
page 158 note 2 R. Brunne uses the word “fesid,” which Hearne explains as meaning whipped or beaten (p. 192.) Ang.-Sax. fesian, fugare.
page 158 note 3 The love-feasts, or ảγάπαι of the primitive Christians, were held in the churches; but this usage was suppressed by the Council of Constantinople, A.D. 691, and discountenanced by Gregory the Great, in his Letter to the British converts. It is probable that the author here refers solely to the primitive custom. There is no evidence that the practice of feasting in churches had been retained in any part of England; but it appears probable that the agape of the earlier times gave rise to the church-ale, of which, and of wakes, frequently celebrated near the precinct of the church, a full account will be found in Brand's Popular Antiqu. See the Hierolexicon D. Macri, Ducange, and Spelman, v. Agape.
page 158 note 4 In Piers Ploughman's Vision, line 6183, where allusion is made to Matth. vii. 3, the mote in the eye, festuca, is termed “festu.” The Medulla likewise renders “festuca, a festu, or a lytul mote.” The name was applied to the straw, or stick used for pointing, in the early instruction of children: thus Palsgrave gives “festue to spell with, festev.” Occasionally the word is written with c or k, instead of t, but it is apparently a corruption. “Festu, a feskue, a straw, rush, little stalk, or stick, used for a fescue. Touche, a fescue; also, a pen, or a pin for a pair of writing tables.” Cotg.
page 159 note 1 Chaucer uses the word fetise, and fetisely, in this sense; it is apparently derived from the old French fetis, or faiteis. Palsgrave gives “featysshnesse, propernesse, feactise;” as also the synonymous word “feate, or proper of makyng, godin, godinet, coint, mignon; fetly, nycely, coyntement. I haue apted them together the fetlyest (le plus gentiment) that euer you sawe. Feted, fetered, or well shapen of the lymmes, aligné. It is as well fetered a chylde as euer you sawe. You neuer set your eye upon a fayrer fetered woman, mieulx alignée.” Horman likewise speaks of “the feat conueyans of a speche that soundeth well to the eare, argutia plausibilis sermonis. She wereth corked slippers to make hir tal and feet.”
page 159 note 2 “Homagium, idem est quod fidelitas, a feaute.” Ortus. William Paston writes, in 1454, of Thomas Bourchier, Bp. of Ely, who was translated in that year to Canterbury, “My lord of Ely hathe do hys fewthe.” Paston Lett. iii. 222. The word is taken from the French “féaulté, féauté; fidélité, foi, constance.” Roquef. It is commonly taken for the oath of allegiance in the feudal system:
“When thise Bretons tuo were fled out of this lond,
Ine toke his feaute of alle that lond helde.” R. Brunne.
page 159 note 3 In the Wicliffite version occur the following passages: “he that seith to his brother, Fy (al. fugh) schal be gilty to the counsell.” Matt. v. 22. “And as thei passiden forth, thei blasfemeden him, movynge her heddis, and seiynge, Vath, thou that distriest the temple,” &c. Mark xv. 29.
page 159 note 4 This word, in the MSS. and in Pynson's edition, occurs among the verbs between Fyistyn̄ and Flappyn, which is perhaps an indication that it had been originally written Fyɜin. To fie or fey now signifies in East Anglia, as in Craven and Hallamshire, to clean out, as ponds or ditches; it is thus used by Tusser, and also to express the cleansing of grain.
“Choiced seed to be picked, and trimly well fy'd,
For seed may no longer from threshing abide.” August's Husbandry.
“Escurer, to scowre, fey, rinse, cleanse.” Cotg. Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial Coll. gives “to fea, fey, feigh or fow, to cleanse or empty, as to fea a pond, a privy, &c. Dunelm. Isl. fægia, mundare, eluere; whence to feag, by metaphor, applied to whipping or correcting, as, He feag'd him off.” Lansd. MS. 1033. In the Wicliffite version, Deut. xxiii. 13 is thus rendered, “þou schalt bere a litil stake in þe girdil, and whanne þou hast sete, þou schalt digge bi cumpas, and þou schalt hile wiþ erþe þingis defied out, where þou art releuyd;” in the Vulgate, “egesta humo operies.” See Defyyn', and Feyar.
page 160 note 1 Johanna domina de Roos bequeaths, in 1394, “unam longam feletam de rosis de per', ” Testam. Ebor. i. 203. “Nimbus, fasciola transversa ex auro insuta in lintheo, quod est in fronte feminarum, a felet.” Ortus. “Fyllet for a mayden's heed, fronteau.” Palsg. “Fronteau, a fillet, frontlet, forehead cloth.” Cotg. In a letter written about 1465 to Sir John Paston occurs the request of a lady, who “wuld fayne have a new felet.” Paston Lett. Iv. 176.
page 160 note 2 Fylowre, or barbowrs crafte. Ms. “A filoure, affilatorium; to filoure, affilare.” Cath. ang. The term affilatorium occurs with the signification of a hone, in the Usus Ant. Ord. Cisterc. c. 85. The implement so called seems to have been identical with that now called a steel, in French fusil, which is rendered by Cotgrave “the steele, wherewith a butcher whets his knives.” A resemblance in form to the spindle or spoole used in spinning was probably the origin of the appellations Fylowre, filarium, and fusil. In the Boke of Curtasye a “fylour” appears to signify a rod, as that upon which a curtain may be hung, moveably, by means of rings. The word occurs in the directions for the grooms of the chambers, regarding making the pallets, and two beds of greater state, for lords,
“That henget shalle be with hole sylour,
With crochettes and loupys sett on lyour,
Tho valance on fylour shalle henge with wyn,
iij curteyns streɜt drawen withinne.” Sloane MS. 1986.
page 161 note 1 The Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII. comprise an entry in 1493, “to Dr. May for th' exebucon of Thos. Phepo,” who appears to have been King's scholar at Oxford; and the allowance is subsequently termed “the finding, 2 li.” Exc. Hist. The term exhibition, or allowance of money, taken from the Latin, which in medieval times had the same signification, is used in this sense by Shakespeare and B. Jonson. as likewise still retained at the Universities.
page 161 note 2 The Medulla renders “Falernum, wyn alþurbest.” MS. in the Editor's possession.
page 161 note 3 The practice of maintaining beacons, to give warning of approaching invasion, is one that may be traced in Britain to the most remote times. The term itself is Anglo-Saxon, beacen, signum, beacne torr, specula. The right of erecting beacons was one of the exclusive privileges of the Crown; and a tax for their maintenance, termed beconagium, was levied upon every hundred. At an early time, as Coke observes, the beacon was merely a stack of combustibles prepared on an elevated spot, or a rock; Ang.-Sax. beacenstan, pharus; subsequently to the time of Edward III. as he states, “pitch-boxes, as now they be, were, instead of those stacks, set up;” that is, a kind of large cresset, raised on an upright pole or beam: hence the appellation Firbome, Ang.-Sax. beom, trabs. Blount cites the “Ordinatio pro vigiliis observandis a Lynne usque Yarmouth, t. Edw. II. Quod levari et reparari faciatis signa et firebares super montes altiores in quolibet hundredo, ita quod tota patria, per illa signa, quotiescumque necesse fuerit, premuniri potest;” which is rendered by Stowe, “He ordained bikenings or beacons to be set up.” A.D. 1326. The care with which these signals were at all periods provided, appears by numerous evidences in the public records. In 1415 Henry V. on his departure for France, provides for the safety of the realm, and directs the provision of “signa vocata bekyns in locis consuetis.” Rymer, ix. 255. Hall relates that when Richard III. with false confidence, disbanded his forces, he issued strict commands that on the coast, and the frontiers of Wales, strong ward should be kept according to usage; “for the custome of the countreyes adjoyning nere to ye see is (especially in the tyme of war) on euery hill or high place to erect a bekon with a greate lanterne in the toppe, whyche maie be sene and discerned a great space of. And when the noyes is once bruted that the enemies approche nere ye land, they so-deinly put fyer in the lanthornes, and make showtes and outrages from toune to toune, and from village to village.” 3 Rich. III. This kind of signal, of which representations will be found in Archæol. I. pl. i. xv. pl. xii. was likewise termed a standard: “A bekyn or a standarde, statela.” Cath. ang. It was taken by Hen. V. as a badge, and appears among the sculptures of his chantry at Westminster. “Beakyn, feu au guet.” Palsg. The elevation whereon it was placed was sometimes termed a tote-hill; see that word hereafter.
page 162 note 1 Ruscus is properly the plant with sharply-pointed leaves, called butcher's-broom, but that which is here intended appears to be the Ulex Europœus, Linn. called commonly furze or gorse. In the Wicliffite version, Isai. lv. 13 is thus rendered: “A fir tre schal stie for a gorst (eþer firse) and a myrte tre schal wexe for a nettil.” Claud. E. Ii. In 15 Hen. VI. 1436, licence was given to Humfrey Duke of Gloucester to inclose 200 acres of land, “pasture, wode, hethe, virses, and gorste (bruere et jampnorum),” and to form thereof a park at Greenwich. Rot. Parl. iv. 498. “Ruscus, Anglice, firsun.” Harl. MS. 1002. “Fyrsbusshe, ionmarin.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. fyrs, genista, rhamnus.
page 162 note 2 Saliunca has occurred already, as the name of an herb called Caltrap. Cotgrave renders “chaussetrape, the starre thistle, called also the calthrop;” but although the name may have occasionally been so assigned, from its being hurtful to the foot, yet according to Parkinson the herb called land caltrops, tribulus terrestris, was not of the thistle species. The saliunca again is, according to the same author, a kind of spikenard, whereas in the Medulla it is stated, “Saliunca dicitur vulgariter in Gallico carrkerepe, (? carchiofe, an artichoke,) a qwynne.” Harl. MS. 2257. In the Ortus it is rendered “a wynne or grost.”
page 162 note 3 This word does not appear, by the East-Anglican Glossaries, to be still in use; it occurs, however, in Tusser's lessons for waiting servants.
“Such serviture, also, deserveth a check,
That runneth out fisking with meat in his beck.”
“I fyske, ie fretille. I praye you se howe she fysketh aboute.” Palsg. “Trotière, a raumpe, fisgig, fisking huswife, raunging damsell.” Cotg. Compare Fykin̄ a-bowte, and see Jamieson's remarks on that word. It occurs in R. Coer de Lion, 4749.
page 163 note 1 According to the Medulla the term Fyschelle is synonymous with Fysch leep; “Nassa, quoddam instrumentum ex viminibus et cirpis, tanquam rhete, contextum, ad capiendos pisces, a pyche or a fysshelle.” So also it is related in the Golden Legend, “Than they put hym in to a lytell fysshell or basket well pytched, and set it in ye see, and abandouned hym to dryue wyder it wolde.” f. 99, b. “Fiscelle, petit panier de jonc, fiscella.” Roquef. Fyschew signifies a reed, or supple rod, as osiers, &c.
page 163 note 2 See hereafter Leep for fysche kepynge. Ang.-Sax. leap, corbis.
page 163 note 3 “Fytten, mensonge.” Palsg. In Wiltshire fitten signifies a pretence.
page 163 note 4 Feve, ms.
page 163 note 5 In Norfolk, according to Kennett, Ray, and Forby, the upper turf pared off to serve as fuel, is termed flaks or flags. The repetition of this word below, Flagge, drye wythe þe gresse, is apparently a corrupt reading. In the North such sods of turf are called also flags, or flaws, or flaughter. See Jamieson and Brockett. “A flaghte, ubi a turfe. A flaghte (or flyghte) of snawe, floccus.” Cath. ang. Dan. flager, Teut. vlaeghen, deglubere; Isl. flaga, exscindere glebam.
page 163 note 6 This word, as also Ang.-Sax. flaxe, the French flac, or flache, &c. appear to be directly taken from the low Latin flacta, adopted probably from the Greek. In William and the Werwolf a certain clerk is mentioned who came to Rome “wiþ tvo flaketes of ful fine wynes,” written also “flagetes,” p. 68. “Flacta, a flakette. Obba, genus calicis, a bottell, a flaket.” Ortus. “A costrelle, oneferum, &c. ubi a flakett. A flaket, flacta, obba, uter, &c. ubi a potte.” Cath. ang. “A flaget, flacon.” Palsg. The term does not appear to be retained in Norfolk, as in the North. “A flacket, flasket, or flask; bottle made in fashion of a barrel. Bor. Flaskin, a wooden bottle, or little barrel which labourers use for beer. Yorkshire.” Kennett's Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 164 note 1 The term flash, signifying a shallow pool, does not appear to be now retained in Norfolk; but it occurs in names of places, as Flash-pit, near Aylsham. In low Latin flachia, flasca, and flaco, in old French flache or flesque, have the like signification. A supply of water from the locks on the Thames, to assist the barge⋅, is termed a flash, and in Sussex loose water-soaked ground is called flashy. Plot speaks of the “flashy over-watery taste” of some white fruits. Hist. Oxf. 156. See Plasche, or flasche where reyne watyr stondythe, and Pyt, or flasche.
page 164 note 2 This word, placed here out of its proper alphabetical order, whereas Flagge of þe erthe has occurred already, has been retained as found in the MS., on account of the uncertainty whether it is an interpolation, or a vitiated reading. Possibly the correct reading may be flawe, a term synonymous with flagge, a sod of turf. Blount, in his Law. Dict. v. Turbary, cites a charter in which “turbaria bruaria—a flaw-turf, or heath-turf,” is mentioned. In the North the words flaw and flaughter are still commonly used in this sense. See Jamieson and Brockett.
page 164 note 3 “A flawne, opacum.” Cath. ang. “Flaton, a flawne. Artocira, a flawne, i. cibus factus ex pastâ et caseo. Laganum est latus panis et tenuis oleo linitus, quasi oleo frixus, a pancake, a flawne.” Ortus. “Flaune meate, flanet, flan, flaon. I loue well a flawne, but and it be well sugred I loue it the better.” Palsg. Caxton says in the Boke for Travellers, “Of mylke and of egges men make flawnes (flans), of mylke soden with the flour men make printed cakes (rastons).” Recipes for making flawnes will be found in the Forme of Cury; “Flawnes for Lentyn,” Harl. MS. 5401, f. 193, 202; and “flathons,” under the head of “Vyaunde furnez,” Harl. MS. 279, f. 42, b. The following directions “for flaunes” are found in the poem entitled “the slyɜtes of cure.”
“Take new chese, and grynde hyt fayre
In morter wyth egges, wyth out dyswayre;
Put powder þerto of suger I say,
Coloure hyt wyth safrone ful wele þou may;
Put hyt in cofyns þat bene fayre,
And bake hyt forthe y the pray.” Sloane MS. 1986, f. 87.
In the North the word is still in use, as Bp. Kennett noticed in his Glossarial Collections, Lansd. MS. 1033. “Flaun or flawn, a custard. Bor. As flat as a flawn, prov. Sax. flyna, flæna, artologanum.”
page 164 note 4 This must not be confounded with the general appellation of flat fish; the ray or scate was formerly called Flathe, or, according to Willughby and Ray, flaire, still retained in the name of the sting-ray, called in some places the fire-flaire. In N. Britain it is known as the fire-flaw, according to Jamieson. Harrison, in his description of England, uses the name flath, evidently as denoting the ray or scate. In the account of fish usually taken upon our coasts, he observes that “the flat are divided into the smooth, the scaled, and the tailed.—Of the third (are) our chaits, maidens, kingsons, flath, and thornbacke;” and the larger species, as he states, were dried, and formed a kind of export into other countries. B. iii. c. 8, Holinsh. i. 224. The correct reading of the word above is probably Flaþe, or flaye, fysche.
page 165 note 1 “Crates est instrumentum ex virgis, a fleke.” Med. “A fleke, cratis, craticula.” Cath. ang. This word is used by R. Brunne, as also the verb to fleke, or cover with hurdles, which occurs in his account of the construction of a temporary bridge.
“Botes he toke and barges, þe sides togidere knytte,—
þei fleked þam ouerthuert, justely for to ligge.” p. 241.
“Botes and barges ilkon, with flekes mak þam tighte.” p. 321.
Hardyng relates the singular escape of Sir James Douglas, who had been hemmed in by Edward III. in Stanhope Park, and by means of hurdles, which, to prevent pursuit, his men drew after them as they went, passed over a quaking and miry moss.
“But James Douglas their flekes fell dyd make,
Which ouer the mosse, echeone at others ende,
He layde anon, with fagottes fell ouer the lake.” Chron. c. 178.
In a satirical poem, put forth in 1550 against the liberty of religious discussion, the services and preachers of the Reformed Church, entitled “An old Song of John Nobody,” printed in the Appendix to Strype's Mem. of Cranmer, it is said of those who with ignorant assurance set themselves up as expounders of the Gospel,
“More meet it were for them to mylk kye at a fleyke.” p. 138.
Horman says, “Ley this meate in trayes and flekis, conchas sive aludos,” (? alucos) where the term may signify a shallow wicker basket, in some parts termed a flasket. “Alucus, vas factum ad modum alvei, a troughe.” Ortus. In the North hurdles are still called flaiks; see Jamieson.
page 165 note 1 Swyngyl fleyle, Ms. “A flayle, flagellum, tribulus, tribulum. Versus. Tres tribulo partes, manutentum, cappa, flagellum. Manutentum, a hand staffe, cappa, a cape, flagellum, a swewelle. A swevylle, tribulum.” Cath. ang. See hereafter Swengyl.
page 166 note 1 To fleet, or skim the cream, is a verb still commonly used in East Anglia, and the utensil which serves for the purpose is termed a fleeting-dish. “I flete mylke, take away the creame that lyeth above it whan it hath rested.” Palsg. “Esburrer, to fleet the creame potte; laict esburré, fleeted milke; maigne, fleeted milke, or whaye.” Hollyband's Treasurie. “Escremé, fleeted, as milke, uncreamed.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. flet, flos lactis. A celebrated Suffolk cheese, made of skimmed milk, is called flet-cheese. Tusser, in his lesson for the dairy maid Cisley, on bad qualities of cheese, says,
“Gehazi his sickness was whitish and dry,
Such cheeses, good Cisley, ye floted too nigh.”
page 166 note 2 The term fleet, signifying a channel, an arm of the sea, or water-course, occurs not infrequently in several parts of England, as Northfleet and Southfleet on the Thames, the Fleet-ditch, London, Holt-Fleet on the Severn, near Worcester, Fladbury, anciently Fleotbury, and Twining Fleet, on the Avon. On the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk the name is common, and properly, according to Forby, though not invariably, implies a channel filled by the tide, and left at low water very shallow and narrow. At Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, there are several channels so called, as White Friars' Fleet, and Purfleet. The grant of the possessions of the Gild of the Holy Trinity, Lynn, by Edward VI. A.D. 1548, alludes to rents laid out in “repairing of banks, walls, fletes, and water-courses in Lenn.” Blomf. IV. 598. “Flete where water cometh, breche.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. fleot, sinus. In the North, as Bishop Kennett notices in his Glossarial Collections, fleet signifies water, as in the ancient song over a corpse.
“This ean night, this ean night,
Every night and awle,
Fire and fleet, and candle light,
And Christ receive thy sawl.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 166 note 3 “To flete above ye water; his cappe fleteth aboue the water yonder a farre hence.” Palsg. “Naviger, to saile, to fleete.” Hollyband's Treasurie. Harrison, in his description of England, speaking of Lyme Regis, Dorset, says, “the Lime water, which the townsmen call the Buddle, commeth … from the hils, fleting upon rockie soil, and so falleth into the sea.” Holinsh. Chron. i. 58. Ang.-Sax. fleotan, fluctuare. See Hovyn, which has a like signification.
page 167 note 1 According to Forby, flue, as well as fleet, has in Norfolk the signification of shallow, as a dish, or a pond. In the North, a flaw peat or flow signifies a watery moss; Isl. flaa, palus. See Schold, or schalowe.
page 167 note 2 Margaret Paston in a letter to her husband in 1460, describing the vain hopes excited amongst the partizans of Henry VI. says, “Now he and alle his olde felaweship put owt their fynnes, and arn ryght flygge and mery, hoping alle thyng is and schalbe as they wole haue it.” Paston Letters, iv. 412. “Flyggenesse of byrdes, plumevseté.” Palsg. In Norfolk birds ready to fly are still said to be fligged, and in some parts of England are called fliggurs. Ang.-Sax. fliogan, volare, flyge, fuga.
page 167 note 3 “To flytte, altercari, certare, litigare, abjurgare, catazizare.” Cath. ang. “Litigo, Anglice to stryff or flyte.” Ortus. Ang.-Sax. flitan, certare.
“In peese thou ete, and ever eschewe
To flyte at borde, that may the rewe.”
Boke of Curtasye, Sloane MS. 1986.page 168 note 1 Gerard describes the Gramen fluviatile, flote-grasse, or floter-grasse, which grows in waters; and Skinner supposes the name to be derived, “q. d. flood grass.” It appears to have been also called wreke, or reke. See Wrek of a dyke, or a fenne, or stondyng watyr, ulva.
page 168 note 2 The Catholicon explains tragum to be “genus retis piscatorii, quod aliter verriculum a verrendo dicitur;” according to the Ortus, “tragum, a draught nette.” In 1391 Robert de Ryllyngton, of Scarborough, bequeathed to his servant “j flew, cum warrap et flot,” directing his two boats to be sóld, and the price bestowed for the welfare of his soul. Testam. Ebor. i. 157. “Flewe, a nette, retz à pecher.” Palsg. See Tramayle, grete nette for fyschynge. Tragum.
page 168 note 3 The Fooyne appears to have been the same as the polecat or fitchet, or according to Ray the martin was sometimes so called. “Fowyng, beest, foyne. Foyns, a furre, foynnes.” Palsg. “Fouinne, foyenne, a foyne or polecat.” Cotg. Loero is the name of a small animal, called in old French lairon or lerot, the fur of which was highly esteemed. John de Garlandiâ says in his Dictionary, “Pelliparii—carius vendunt urlas de sabellino et laierone,” rendered in the gloss “laierone, Gallice lairons.” In the Inventory of the wardrobe and jewels of Henry V. taken in 1423, at his decease, are mentioned “gounes de noier damask furrez de sides de foynes et marterons,” and the value of this kind of fur is ascertained by the following entry: “iij panes de foynes, chascun cont' c. bestes, pris le pec' xd. xij li. x s.;” the marteron being more costly, “pris le beste xij d.” Rot. Parl. iv. 236.
page 169 note 1 “A folte, blas, baburrus, blatus, bardus, nugator, garro, ineptus, morio.” Cath. ang. Roquefort gives “foleté, foleton, &c. extravagant, fou, sot, étourdi; volaticus.” Totte occurs hereafter as synonymous with Folte. See also Amsotte, and Sotte.
page 169 note 2 In the Medulla fumarium is rendered “a chymene or fymrel.” The term is derived from the Latin, “Fumerale, Anglice a fumerell. Fumeralis, idem est.” Ortus. “A chymney, caminus, epicasterium, fumerium, fumerale.” Cath. ang. The term chimney seems, however, not to have been originally synonymous with fomerel, but to have signified an open fire-place, or chafer, such as the “chymneye with charecole” in the pavilion prepared for the conflict of Syr Galleroune with Gawayne. See the Awntyrs of Arthure. Thus also in the will of Cecilia de Homeldon, 1407, is the bequest, “lego unum magnum caminum de ferro Abbathiœ de Durham.” Wills and Invent. Surtees Soc. i. 45. In Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, however, composed about the same period, “chalk whyt chymnees” are described as appearing upon the roof of the castle. The Fomerel was a kind of lantern, or turret open at the sides, which rose out of the roof of the hall, and permitted the escape of the smoke; it had sometimes the appellation of the lover, a word which occurs hereafter; thus Withal, in his Dictionary, mentions the “lovir or fomerill, where the smoake passeth out.” Among the disbursements of Thomas Lucas, Solicitor-General to Henry VII., for the erection of Little Saxham Hall, in 1507, occurs a payment “to the plommer for casting and working my fummerel of lede;” and it appears to have been glazed like a lantern, for there is a payment to the glazier “for 50 fete glas in my fummerelle.” Rokewode's Hist. of Suff. pp. 149, 150. In the Book of Wolsey's Expenses at Christ Church, Oxford, is an entry relating to the “femerell of the new kitchen.” Gutch, Coll. Cur. i. 204.
page 169 note 3 The Medulla gives “Conor, to streyne or fonde,” rendered in the Ortus, “to constrayne or fande.” “To fande, conari, niti, et cetera ubi to be a-bowte warde.” Cath. ang. Minot relates that David Bruce
“Said he sulde fonde
To ride thurgh all Ingland.” Poems, viii. p. 39.
The word is used by Rob. Brunne and Rob. of Gloucester in the same sense. Ang.-Sax. fandian, tentare.
page 170 note 1 Conowre, Ms. See hereafter Tonowre of fonel. In Norfolk, according to Forby, the term in ordinary use is tunnel, Ang.-Sax. tænel, canistrum. The word funnel appears to be derived from fundulus, “quasi fundle,” as Junius observes. “Infusorium est quoddam vasculum per quod liquor infunditur in aliud vas; vel est vas in quo est oleum quod ponitur in lucernis, a fonell dyshe (al. tonnell dysshe.)” Ortus.
page 170 note 2 Junius thinks that this term was borrowed from the Italian forciere, which is rendered by W. Thomas, in his Italian Grammar, 1548, “a forsette, or a little coafer;” and by Florio, “a forcet, a coffin, a casket, a cabinet, &c.” It may be remarked that the most elegant caskets of the Middle Ages, usually of bone or ivory, curiously carved and painted, are, with few exceptions, of Italian workmanship; but as Flanders also furnished these and numerous other ornamental appliances, the origin of the name forcere may perhaps be sought in the Belg. fortsier, a banded coffer. The importation of “ascune manere ware depeinte, forcers, caskettes, &c.” was forbidden by stat. 3 Edw. IV. c. 4, A.D. 1463. In William and the Werwolf it is related that the Queen sought by means of a ring to charm the monster.
“Seþe feiþli of a forcer a fair bok sche rauɜt,
And radde þer on redli riɜt a long while.”
Chaucer says in “La belle Dame sans Mercie,”
“Fortune by strength the forcer hath vnshete,
Wherein was sperde all my worldly richesse.” v. 65.
Caxton, in the Book for Travellers, says, “The joyner made a forcer for my loue, her cheste, her scyrne, un forcier, sa luysel, son escrin. Set your jewellis in your forcier, that they be not stolen.” Palsgrave gives “fo(r)sar, or casket, escrain; fo(r)cer, a little cofer, cofret,” and coffret is rendered by Cotgrave “a casket, cabinet, forset, (sic) &c.”
page 170 note 3 This word is taken from the French forces, shears for clipping wool or cloth. Fourceler, to clip or shear. See Roquef. The stat. 8 Henry VI. c. 20, forbids the fraudulent practice termed forcing wool, reciting the loss in the customs arising from those who “clakkent et forcent les bones lains du roialme, pur eux carier dehors dicelle en estraunges paiis; ordinez est que nulle estraunger ne faee forcer clakker ne barder nulle maner des leins, pur carier hors du roialme,” upon pain of forfeiture, with a penalty of double the value, and imprisonment. Stat. of Realm, ii. 256.
page 171 note 1 This verb, Ang.-Sax. for-don, perdere, occurs in the Vision of P. Ploughman.
“Allas! that drynke shal for-do
That God deere boughte.” line 5284.
In the Golden Legend it is said in the Life of Becket, that Henry II. “wolde fordoo suche lawes as his oldres hadde vsed to-fore hym.” Palsgrave says, “What so euer he do on the one day, on the morowe I wyll fordo it, defaire.”
page 171 note 2 Jocelyn de Brakelonda relates in his Chronicle, p. 84, that Abbot Samson examined the relics of St. Edmund in 1198, and when the shrine was closed up, “positus est super loculum forulus quidam sericus, in quo deposita fuit scedula Anglice scripta, continens quasdam salutaciones Ailwini Monachi,” with a memorial of the opening of the shrine, which was subscribed by all who had been present. Foruli, according to Papias, are “thecœ vel cistœ librorum, tabularum, vel aliarum rerum, ut spatœ; dictœ, quod de foris tegant;” in French, fourreau, or fourel, has the like meaning. Horman says, “I hadde leuer haue my boke sowed in a forel (consuatur in cuculli involucro) than bounde in bourdis, and couerede, and clapsed, and garnysshed with bolyens.” Jennings, in his Observations on the Dialects of the West, states that the cover of a book is still termed a forrel. Palsgrave gives “coueryng for a book, chemisette,” a term which appears to be synonymous with forelle, and which has been explained by Charpentier, v. Camisia libri. In an Inventory taken at Notre Dame, Paris, in 1492, is mentioned “ung petit messel, couvert de cuir rouge, garni d'une chemisette de chevrotin rouge.” Two of the mourners, whose figures are seen around the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, at Warwick, hold each a book, wrapped in the forelle, or chemisette; see Stothard's Monumental Effigies. Its fashion is more clearly exhibited in a picture at Munich, by Schorel, which has furnished the subject of a plate in Shaw's Dresses and Decorations.
page 171 note 3 This verb is derived from the Ang.-Sax. for, which often gives in composition the sense of privation or deterioration, and fandian, tentare. “God forfende it!” Palsg. To forhinder, signifying to prevent, is retained in the East-Anglian dialect, according to Forby. Many other words similarly compounded have become wholly obsolete, several of which are given by Palsgrave, as the following; “To forbreake, Lydgate; to forderke, make derke; to fordewe, sprinkle with dewe; to fordreynt, Lydgate, drowne; to fordull, make one dull of wyt; to forlye, as a nouryce dothe her chylde whan she kylleth it in the nyght; to forwaye, go out of the waye, Lydgate; to forwery, &c.”
page 172 note 1 Chaucer, Gower, and the early writers generally, use the verb to forfeit in its primary sense of committing a transgression; in French forfaire has the same signification. “Forisfacio, id est offendere vel nocere, to forfeyte.” Ortus. “What have I forfayted against you?” Palsg.
page 172 note 2 Ang.-Sax. forhelan, celare. See Hyllyn̄.
page 172 note 3 Hardyng relates the honours that were falsely paid to the remains of Richard II.
“Fro Poumfret brought with great solempnyte,
(Men sayde forhungered he was) and lapped in lede,
At Poules his masse was done and diryge.” Chron. c. 200.
page 172 note 4 The Catholicon gives the following explanation: “A scrobs dicitur scrofina, quoddam instrumentum carpentarii, quia herendo scrobem faciat.” “Runcina est quoddam artificium fabri lignarii gracile et recurvum, quo cavantur tabule ut una altera alteri connectatur; Anglice, a gryppynge yron.” Ortus. Palsgrave gives the term “formowr, or grublyng yron,” which appears to signify a gouge. See Growpyn̄' wythe an yryn, as gravowrys, runco.
page 173 note 1 “Facina, a forspekere, or a tylstere (al. tylyere). Fascina, to forspeke or ouersee.” Med. gramm. “To forspeke, fascinare, incantare: a forspekynge, fascinacio, facinus.” Cath. ang. Palsgrave says, “I forspeake a thyng by enchauntementes. Some witche hath forspoken hym, quelque vaudoyse la enchanté.” W. Turner, in his Herbal, 1562, says that “there are sum date trees in whose fruite is a stone bowyng after ye fasshon of an half moon, and thys sum polyshe with a toothe, with a certayn religion agaynst forspekyng and bewitchyng.” The Ang.-Sax. for-spæc has merely the signification of a preface, fore-speca, prolocutor; by Shakespeare and other writers to forespeak is used with the sense of forbidding. The use of the word in the sense of fascinating or charming arose probably from a superstitious belief, which is not extinct at the present time in North Britain, that certain persons had the power of injuring or bewitching others by immoderate praise. See Jamieson's observations upon this word.
page 173 note 2 Richard Earl of Arundel, having made in Parliament certain complaints against John of Gaunt, which were answered by Richard II., the Earl was obliged to make before the House an apology which was enrolled, wherein he thus expresses himself: “Hit forthynketh me, and byseche yowe of your gode Lordship to remyt me your mau-talent.” Rot. Parl. Iii. 314, A.D. 1393. “To rewe, penitere, &c. ubi to forthynke. A forthynkynge, compunccio, contricio, penitencia.” Cath. ang.
page 173 note 3 In the romance of Richard Coer de Lion it is related that Saladin made a treaty with him that for three years pilgrims should have free access to the holy city.
“The next day he made forewarde
Of trewes to the Kyng Richard.” line 7115.
In Sir Amadace the White Knight makes an agreement in these terms;
“Butte a forwart make I with the, or that thou goe,
That euyn to part be-twene vs toe,
The godus thou hase wonun and spedde.” Stanza 42.
See also the Avowynge of King Arther, stanza 35; Cant. Tales, Prologue, 831, 854. Ang.-Sax. fore-weard, pactum.
page 173 note 4 “For ye naynste, abintento.” Cath. ang. Various are the conjectures that have been made with regard to the derivation of this phrase. See Tyrwhitt's note on Cant. Tales, v. 381; Jamieson's Dict. v. Nanes; and Sir Frederick Madden's glossaries appended to William and the Werwolf, and Syr Gawayn. In the last he retracts the opinion previously expressed, and is disposed to conclude that the original form of the phrase was the Saxon “for than anes.” It implies occasion, purpose, or use; thus Palsgrave gives “for the nonest, de mesmes; for the nones, à propos, à escient. C'est un gallant de mesmes, et de fait apence. This dagger is sharpenned for the nones, affillé tout à esciant.” Horman says, “he fayned or made hymselfe sicke for the nonis, deditâ operâ. He delayeth the matter for the nonys, de industriâ. It is a false mater deuysed for the nonys, deditâ operâ conficta.” Occasionally, as in the following instance, it is used ironically: “You are a cooke for the nones, wyll you sethe these roches, or you haue scaled them ? vous estes ung cuisinier de mesmes,” &c. Palsg. “He is a popte fole, or a starke fole, for the nonys, homo fatuitate monstrabilis.” Horm.
page 174 note 1 The word fretefulle seems here evidently a corrupt reading, which is corrected by Pynson. For letenus should probably be read letheus, “i. obliviosus.” Ortus.
page 174 note 2 The correct reading, probably, is here either Foryetyn̄, or forɜetyn̄; or possibly forgetyn̄. See the note on the word Fayne.
page 174 note 3 See Eyldynge, or fowayle. In the Romance of Richard Coer de Lion this word seems to have the more general sense of provisions, or needful supplies. When Richard arrived at Cologne the heads of the city issued the command,
“No man selle hem no fowayle.” line 1471.
page 174 note 4 See Feyar, fyin̄, and Goonge fyrmar. The appellation Fowar occurs as a surname in the Issue Roll of the Exch. 44 Edw. III. “Will. Fowar, falconer.”
page 174 note 5 “Focarius, a fuelere, or makere of fyre.” Medulla. See Nares, v. fueler.
page 175 note 1 “I fowe a gonge, ie cure un retraict, or ortrait. Thou shalte eate no buttered fysshe with me, tyll thou wasshe thy handes, for thou hast fowed a gonge late.” Palsg. Forby gives the verb to fie, fey or fay, as still used in Norfolk in this sense. See Fyin̄.
page 175 note 2 Palsgrave gives the verb “to fownder as a horse, trébucher.” Dr. Turner, in his Herbal, 1562, makes use of the term in allusion to ailments of the human body, where he says that Pyrethrum “is excellently good for any parte of the body yɜ is fundied or foundered.” In his treatise of baths and mineral waters, he says that the baths of Baden, in High Germany, “heate muche membres that are foundre or fretished wyth cold, and bringe them to theyr naturall heate agayne;” and that the Pepper bath has virtues to restore “limbs fretished, foundered and made numme wyth colde.”
page 175 note 3 This word appears to be now only retained in the North Country expression to fratch, signifying to scold or quarrel. It seems to be derived from A.S. freoðan, fricare. Compare Jamieson, v. Frate.
page 175 note 4 The Catholicon gives the following explanation: “A palus dicitur palata, quia fit de palis, et palate sunt masse que de recentibus ficubus compingi solent, quas inter palas ad solem siccant;” and carica properly signifies dates preserved in a similar manner. In the Romance of Coer de Lion are mentioned, among provision for the army,
“Fyggys, raysyns in frayel.” line 1549.
“A frayle of fygys, palata.” Cath. ang. “Frayle for fygges, cabas, cabache.” Palsg. Minsheu would derive the term “a fragilitate,” and Skinner from the Italian fragli; but it more closely resembles the old French “Fraiaus, frayel; cabas, panier de jonc.” Roquef. In Suffolk, according to Moore, a flexible mat-basket is called a frail. See Bp. Kennett's and Nares' Glossaries.
page 176 note 1 Chaucer makes use of this word in his description of the King of Inde.
“A fewe fraknes in his face y-sprent,
Betwixen yelwe and blake somdel y-meint.” Knight's Tale.
In the gloss on the Equivoca of Joh. de Garlandia it is said, “lenticula est quedam macula in facie hominis, Anglice a spotte or frecon: lenticulosus, fraconed.” “Frecken, or freccles in one's face, lentile, brand de Judas.” Palsg. Forby observes that the word freckens is still used in Norfolk. A. S. fræcn, turpitudo.
page 176 note 2 Previously to the XVIth cent. the ordinary mode of constructing houses in the eastern counties, as likewise in other parts of England, was by forming a frame of wood, or skeleton structure, the intervals or panels being afterwards filled up with brickwork, lath and plaster, or indurated earth, by the process called in Norfolk dawbing. Such constructions are usually termed timbered houses, or, in Shropshire, Cheshire, and neighbouring counties, where they are found highly ornamented, black and white houses. Harrison, who wrote his description of England about A.D. 1579, being resident in Essex, observes that “the ancient manours and houses of our gentlemen are yet and for the most part of strong timber, in framing whereof our carpenters haue been, and are, worthilie preferred before those of like science among all other nations. Howbeit, such as be latelie builded are comonlie either of bricke or hard stone, or both.” B. ii. c. 12, Holinsh. Chron. i. 188. It is from this period that a marked change in the costly and ornamental character of domestic architecture in England is to be dated; previously, with the exception of some parts where the abundant supply of stone occasioned a more frequent use of such solid materials, houses were ordinarily of framed work. Palsgrave says, “My house is framed all redye (charpenté), it wanteth but setting up.” Among the disbursements for building Little Saxham Hall, A.D. 1507, by Thomas Lucas, Sol. General to Henry VII. occur payments “to the joynours for framyng of 6 chambres, 25s. For framyng of my great parlour and great chambre, 10s.” Rokewode's Hist. Suff. 147. The stat. 37 Hen. VIII. c. 6, 1545, recites that certain novel outrages had of late been practised, such as “the secret burnynge of frames of tymber prepared and made, by the owners therof, redy to be sett up, and edified for houses.” This misdemeanour was made felony.
page 176 note 3 Forby gives the verb to frame, as meaning in Norfolk to shape the demeanour to an occasion of ceremony. In N. Britain it has the signification of succeeding, and is derived by Jamieson from A. S. fremian, valere, prodesse. In the Craven dialect it implies making an attempt.
page 177 note 1 The word frank appears to be derived from the old French. Cotgrave gives “Franc, a franke or stie to feed and fatten hogs in;” and Florio renders Saginario, “a franke, or coupe, or penne; a place where beasts or birds are fatned.” Ital. Dict. Harrison, in his description of England, speaking of the mode of making brawn, says, “it is made commonlie of the fore part of a tame bore, set vp for the purpose by the space of a whole yere or two, especiallie in gentlemen's houses (for the husband men and farmers neuer franke them for their owne vse aboue three or foure moneths), in which time he is dieted with otes and peason,” &c. B. iii. c. i. Holinsh. Chron. i. 222. This verb is used by Shakespeare, and repeatedly by Holland, in his translation of Pliny. See Nares' Glossary.
page 177 note 2 Lutanca, Ms. “A franchemole, lucanica.” Cath. ang. The Catholicon observes, “Lucanica—quoddam genus cibi, et ut dicunt salsucia, quia primo in Lucaniâ est facta.” It is a term of French derivation; Cotgrave gives “Franchemulle d'un mouton, a sheepes call or kell,” and it seems to have signified a viand much the same as the haggis. Directions for compounding it will be found in the “Kalendare de leche metys,” Harl. MS. 279, f. 32. “Nym eyroun with þe whyte, and gratid brede, and chepis talow. Also grete as dyse nym pepir, safroun, and grynd alle to-gederys, and do in þe wombe of þe chepe, þat is þe mawe, and sethe hem wyl, and serue forth.” See also the Forme of Cury, p. 95. The following metrical recipe “for fraunche mele” occurs in the “Crafte of Cure,” Sloane MS. 1986, f. 85.
“Take swongene eyrene in bassyne clene,
And kreme of mylke þat is so schene,
And myyd bred þou put þer to,
And powder of peper þou more do.
Coloure hyt with safrone in hast,
And kremelyd sewet of schepe on last;
And fylle þy bagge þat is so gode,
And sew hyt fast, sir, for þo rode.
Whenne hyt is soþun þou schalt hyt leche,
And broyle hyt on gredel as I the teche.”
page 178 note 1 Fremyde is a word used by most of the older writers.
“Sal neuer freik on fold, fremmyt nor freynde,
Gar me lurk for ane luke lawit nor lerd.” Golagros and Gawane, 1079.
“Mony klyf he ouer clambe in contrayeɜ straunge,
Fer floten fro his frendeɜ fremedly he rydes.”
Gawayn and G. Knyɜt, 714.It occurs in Rob. of Glouc. and Chaucer; and signifies both strange, as regards country, and alien, as to kindred.
“Whether he be fremd, or of his blod,
The child, he seyd, is trewe and gode.” Amis and Amiloun, 1999.
“Those children that are nursed by frembde men's fires are, for the most part, more harde and strong then they be which are daintily brought up in their owne fathers houses.” Precious Pearle, translated by Coverdale, A.D. 1560. “Fremmyd, exterus, externus. To make fremmyd, exterminare.” Cath. ang. “Exter, the last, fremmede, or strange.” Medulla. “Estrangé, separated from, growne fremme or out of knowledge, and acquaintance. Estrangier, a stranger, alien, outlander, a fremme bodie, that is neither a dweller with, nor of kinne vnto us.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. fremed, alienus.
page 178 note 2 Compare Brokdol, or frees, where possibly the correct reading should be brokyl; and Spere, or fres.
page 178 note 3 Chaucer and Gower use the word fresh in the sense of handsome, or ornamented; Horman says, “the buyldynge is more fresshe than profitable, majoris ostentationis est quam usus. Our churche hath a sharpe steple with a fresshe top, cum ornato fastigio.” So likewise Palsgrave gives “fresshe, gorgyouse, gay, or well besene, frisque, gaillart.”
page 179 note 1 Ray gives among his N. Country words “to frist, to trust for a time.” A.S. fyrstan, inducias facere. Jamieson explains it as signifying in the primary sense to delay, or postpone, and thence to give on credit, to grant delay as to payment. Germ. fristen, prorogare tempus agendi. “To friste, induciare.” Cath. ang.
page 179 note 2 “A froke, cucullus.” Cath. ang. There is much ambiguity in the use of the term froccus, the monastic frock, which occasionally appears to have been confounded with the cuculla, although properly a distinct garment. At the General Council at Vienna, 1312, Clement V. defined the cuculla to be a long, full, and sleeveless garment; the floccus, considered identical with froccus, to be a long habit, with long and wide sleeves. They are evidently distinguished by Ingulph, who states among the ordinances of Egelric, Abbot of Croyland from 975 to 992, “Induit omni anno totum conventum cum sectâ suâ de tunicis, omni altero anno de cucullis, et omni tertio anno de froccis.” Rerum Angl. Script. i. 54. The distinction appears likewise to be made by M. Paris, where he speaks of the unbecoming changes in monastic attire, introduced at St. Alban's during the time of Abbot Wulnoth, towards the close of the Xth cent. So also in the enumeration of garments allowed by custom to each monk of Glastonbury, at the latter part of the XIth cent, it is stated, “unusquisque fratrum ij cucullas, et ij froccos, et ij stamina, et ij femoralia habere debet, et iv caligas, et peliciam novam per singulos annos.” G. de Malmsb. de Antiqu. Glast. Hearne, ed. Domerham, i. 119. At an early period the cowl appears to have been portion of a sleeveless garment which sometimes was a mere cape, but occassionally reached quite to the heels, and was worn over the long, full, and sleeved habit termed a frock. See the illustrative plates in Murat. Script. Ital. i. part 2, Chron. Vulturnense; Mabill. Ann. Bened. i. 121. At a subsequent time it seems that these garments ceased to be distinct, and the long dress of the monk, having the cowl attached to it, was termed indifferently froccus, frocca, and floccus, or cuculla. Further information on this subject will be found in Ducange.
page 180 note 1 A satisfactory interpretation of this word has in vain been sought. The practice of buying up woollen yarn for exportation was carried to a great extent in Norfolk, and other parts of England. It was highly injurious to the interests of the cloth-workers, and occasioned loss to the revenue. Many enactments appear in the statutes to protect both the weavers of Norfolk, and the customs, against the crafty proceedings of merchants, both strangers and denizens, “regrators and gatherers of woll.” See particularly stat. 23 Hen. VI. c. 2; 7 Edw. IV. c. 3; 4 Hen. VII. c. 11; 33 Hen. VIII. c. 16. Perhaps froyd may imply the artful diligence with which covetous traders persisted in eluding the statutes, and robbing the staple manufacturers of Norfolk. Jamieson explains “frody” as signifying cunning; Teut. vroed, industrius, attentus ad rem. In the North, according to Brockett, froating means anxious unremitting industry.
page 180 note 2 A pancake is called in the Eastern counties a froyse, a term derived, as Skinner conjectures, either from frixare, or the French froisser, because the substances of which it is compounded are beaten up together. Forby gives, as a Norfolk proverb, the following phrase: “If it won't pudding, it will froize;” if it won't do for one purpose, it will for another. See ancient recipes in the Forme of Cury, p. 96; and the “Kalendare de Leche metys. Froyse out of Lentyn.” Harl. MS. 299, f. 36. “Froyse of egges, uovte d'œvfz.” Palsg. Voulte d'œufs is the ancient appellation of an omelet. “Fritilla, a froyse or pancake.” Elyot.
page 180 note 3 A small frog, according to Forby, is called in Norfolk a fresher. The distinction which appears to be here made between Frogge, tode, and Froke, or frosche, is possibly dialectical; they seem properly, however, to be synonymous, the former derived from A.S. frogga, rana, while the latter assimilates more nearly to the Germ. frosch, Dan. frosk, a frog. Toode, fowle wyrme, occurs hereafter. “Rana, a froske, or frogge.” Ortus. “A froske, agredula, rana, rubeta, ranula.” Cath. ang. In the Golden Legend, in the Life of St. Peter, is a relation of the deceit practised upon Nero by his physicians, when he ordered them, “Make ye me wt chylde, and after to be delyuered, yt I may know what payne my moder suffred: which by craft they gaue to hym a yonge frosshe to drynke, and it grewe in his bely.”
page 180 note 4 This term appears to signify the kind of ornament which in modern goldsmith's work is called gadrooned, from the French “goderonné, a fashion of imbossement used by goldsmiths, and termed knurling.” Cotg. Fronce implies a wrinkle, crumple, or gather, generally in allusion to dress, as in the Vis. of Piers Ploughm. 8657. “Frounsyng, froncement.” Palsg. Frontinella is not explained by Duc. and in the Ortus is rendered “the pyt in the necke;” it seems, therefore, to mean a wrinkled or irregular depression of surface. Possibly the correct reading may be froncinella. Fronciatus, i. rugatus, Duc.
page 181 note 1 “A fruntalle, frontale.” Cath. ang. The frontal of an altar is defined by Lyndwood to be “apparatus pendens in fronte altaris, qui apparatus alias dicitur Palla.” Provinc. 252. The synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287, ordained that in every church the parishioners should provide “frontellum ad quodlibet altare.” Wilkins, ii. 139. Abp. Winchelsey, in his Constitutions, A.D. 1305, prescribes that provision be made of “frontale ad magnum altare, cum tribus tuellis.” Lyndw. 252. The frontal must not be confounded with the permanent decoration of the fore-part of the altar, properly termed tabula, or tablementum, which was formed either of sculptured or painted work, and sometimes of the most precious metals, chased, enamelled, and set with gems, as was that in Winchester cathedral, described in the Inventory given by Strype, Life of Abp. Parker, App. 187. The frontal was formed of the most costly stuffs, and often, if not properly by prescribed usage, was of the same suit or colour as the vestments used at the same time in the service of the altar. As there were both the tabula frontalis, and superfrontalis, which last seems to have been identical with the retro-tabula, or post-tabula, so likewise there were the pannus frontalis, and superfrontalis, the second being in both cases the decoration placed above the altar, and attached or appended to the wall or screen against which it was placed. The inventory of sacred ornaments in the Wardrobe Book of 29 Edw. I. A.D. 1300, enumerates “Duo frontalia broudata majora et minora, de unâ sectâ,” p. 350; identical, probably, in purpose with those termed “frontella ij pro altare, unum videlicet superius, et aliud inferius pro eodem,” which were purchased by John de Ombresley, Abbot of Evesham, from the executors of Will. de Lynne, Bp. of Worcester, who died in 1373. Harl. MS. 3763. In Pat. 3 Hen. VI. these ornaments are again differently termed. Among various gifts to churches in France delivered by the executors of Henry V. it appears that they sent to St. Denis “unam altam frontellam, et unam bassam frontellam de velvet, rubeas, cum foliis aureis brouderatas.” Rym. x. 346. In the inventory of the gifts of Abp. Chicheley to All Souls' Coll. A.D. 1437, there appears to be a distinction between the terms frontale and frontellum, as it enumerates, among many others, “j frontale et suffrontale de blodio velvet operatum cum stellis, patibulo, et salutatione; j frontellum de blodio velvet cum foliis quercinis aureis; vj frontys, et vj suffrontys unius sectœ, steynid, pro secundis altaribus,” &c. Gutch, Coll. Cur. ii. 262. The precise difference is not apparent, but each secta, or totus apparatus for an altar, comprised, according to this document, the “frontale, suffrontale, frontellum, ij curtinœ, j des-cloth, j teca,” or corporas case: possibly frontellum may be only a diminutive of the other term. Ducange gives the term “refrontale, apparatus altaris,” the same, probably, as the pannus superfrontalis; as likewise the tabula suprafrontalis was, as has been observed termed also retro-tabula.
page 182 note 1 “A fulmerd, fetoncrus.” Cath. ang. The polecat is commonly called in the North a foumart. See Jamieson, Brockett, &c. The Acts of James II. King of Scots, A.D. 1424, regulate the export of “fowmartis skinnis, callit fithowis.” The foumart appears, however, to be distinct from the fitchew: in the Boke of St. Alban's, among “bestys of the chace of the stynkynge fewte,” are named “the fulmarde, the fyches, &c. and the pulcatte.” Harrison, speaking of indigenous animals, and the hunting of foxes and badgers, observes, “I might here intreat largelie of other vermine, as the polcat, the miniuer, the weasell, stote, fulmart, squirrill, fitchew, and such like.” Descr. of Eng. B. iii. c. 4. Isaac Walton mentions “the fitchet, the fulimart, the polecat,” &c. Compl. Angler, i. c. 1. See hereafter Polkat (pulkat, Ms.) idem quod fulmere.
page 182 note 2 Forby gives funk as signifying touchwood. The word may be derived from Germ. funk, Dan. funke, scintilla. R. Brunne uses the phrase “not worth a fonk,” seeming to imply a brief existence, evanescent as a spark; Langt. Chron. p. 171. In another passage he relates that King John vowed vengeance upon Stephen Langton, and the monks who had chosen him Archbishop, against the royal pleasure.
“Be beten alle fonkes, or in prison þam binde.” p. 211.
Gower describes the amorous Perithous and Ipotasie as having drunk
“Of lust that ilke firie fonke.” Conf. Am. lib. vi.
page 182 note 3 “Furgone for an ouyn, uavldree.” Palsg. Cotgrave gives “Fourgon, an ovenforke, tearmed in Lincolnshire, a fruggin,” &c. This word is still in use in the North. See Brockett, v. fruggan. “A frugon, vertibulum, pala, furca ferrea.” Cath. ang.
page 183 note 1 The fute is the scent of a fox or beast of chace. Compare Fewte, vestigium, which occurs previously. In Will. and Werwolf, when the monster returns to his den and discovers that the shepherd has carried the child away, he is sore grieved,
“And as þe best in his bale þer a-boute wente,
He found þe feute al fresh where forþ þe herde
Had bore þan barn beter it to ɜeme.
Wiɜtly þe werwolf þan went bi nose,
Evene to þe herdes house, and hastely was þare.” p. 4.
See also pp. 2, 79; Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, 1425; the Boke of St. Alban's, and Malory's Morte d'Arthur, B. 18, c. xxi. It seems probable that the term feuterer may be hence derived; but the Glossarists have supposed it to be a corruption of vaultrier, a keeper of the dog called in French “vaultre, a mongrel between a hound and a maistiffe; fit for the chase of wild bears and boars.” Cotgr. Bp. Kennett notices the term in his Glossarial Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “A feuterer, a dog-keeper; the word is corrupted from vautrier, Fr. vaultrier, Lat. veltrarius, one that leads a lime-hound, or grey-hound for the chace.” In a vocabulary written in the latter part of the XVth cent. Harl. MS. 1002, f. 142, after “haywarde, parcare,” &c. occurs “Federarius, a fewterer.” Nares cites several passages in which this term is used.
page 183 note 2 Sir John Maundevile, speaking of false diamonds, says, “I schal speke a litille more of the dyamandes, alle thoughe I tarye my matere for a tyme, to the ende that thei that knowen hem not be not disceyved be gabberes (Fr. barratours) that gon be the contree, that sellen hem.”
page 183 note 3 “A gavelle of a howse, frontispicium.” Cath. ang. Rob. of Glouc. uses the word gable in the sense of high. See Bp. Kennett's Glossary, v. Gabulum.
page 183 note 4 In Wickliffe's Confession given by Knyghton, he declared respecting the real presence, that “before the fende fader of lesyngus was lowside, was never this gabbyng contryvede.” Decem Script. col. 2650. Ang.-Sax. ʓabbunʓ, derisio, or delusion by way of mockery and jesting.
page 184 note 1 Sunt obstringilli qui per plantas consutí sunt, et ex superiori parte corrigiâ contrahuntur.” Cath. The galache was a sort of patten fastened to the foot by cross latchets, and worn by men as early as the time of Edw. III. Allusion is made to it by Chaucer.
“Ne were worthy to unbocle his galoche.” Squire's Tale, 10,869.
In the inventory of the effects of Hen. V. taken A.D. 1423, mention occurs of “j peir de galages faitz d'estreyn, iv d.;” but it is not easy to understand how straw should be a proper material for the purpose. See Rot. Parl. Iv. 329. In Sir John Howard's Household Book, A.D. 1465, p. 314, are named both galaches and pynsons, which last are in the Promptorium explained to be socks. See Household Expenses in England. This kind of shoe was occasionally an article of luxury and ostentatious display, which probably suggested the allusion that occurs in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, where one is described as coming eagerly, as if to be dubbed a knight,
“To geten hym gilte spores,
Or galoches y-couped.” line 12,099.
The term “y-couped” seems to imply the extravagant fashion of the long-peaked toe: “Milleus, a coppid shoo.” Ortus. In the reign of Edward IV. a statute was passed, by which the higher classes alone were permitted to wear shoes, “galoges,” or boots, with a peak longer than 2 inches (Rot. Parl. v. 505, 566; Stat. of Realm, Ii. 415); but, from certain allusions in ancient romance, it would seem that the fashion was, by the usage of a much earlier period, permitted to none under the degree of a knight. See Sir Degore, 700; Torrent of Portugal, 1193, &c. The curious drawings in Cott. MS. Julius, E. Iv. (t. Hen. VI.), one of which, representing King John, has been given in Shaw's Dresses, exhibit the galache in its most extravagant form. “Solea, a shoe called a galage or paten, whiche hathe nothynge on the fete, but onely lachettes.” Elyot. “Gallozza, a kind of wooden patins, startops, gallages, or stilts. Cospi, wooden pattins, or pantofles, shoes with wooden soles, startops or galages,” &c. Florio. “Galoche, a woodden shoe or patten made all of a peece, without any latchet or ty of leather, and worne by the poore clowne in winter.” Cotg. See Spenser, Sheph. Cal. Febr. and Sept. In the Wardrobe Book of Prince Henry, A.D. 1607, are mentioned “1 pair of golossians, 6s. 16 gold buckles with pendants and toungs to buckle a pair of golosses.” Archæol. xi. 93.
page 185 note 1 This word occurs in the Harl. MS. alone, and possibly the correct reading may be Galawnte. “Gallaunt, a man fresshe in appareyle.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. ʓal, libidinosus. For lessivus should probably be read lascivus, i. e. “petulans, luxurians, vel superbe se agens, ioly or wanton.” Ortus.
page 185 note 2 By Chaucer the nightingale is said to “cry and gale,” Court of Love, 1357; in which sense the word may be derived from the Ang.-Sax. ʓalan, canere. Jamieson gives to gale, or gail, to cry with a harsh note, a term applied to the cuckoo; and to galyie, to roar or brawl. According to Forby, to yawl signifies, in Norfolk, to scream harshly, as the cry of a peacock; and Moore gives yalen, to cry as a fretful child. “Japper, to bark or baye like a dog, to yawle, to bawle. Hoüaller, to yawl, wawl, to cry out aloud. Moüaner, to mawle, yawle, or cry like a little child.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. ʓyllan, ʓiellan, stridere.
page 185 note 3 “To gane, fatiscere, hiare, inhiscere. To gayne, oscitare.” Cath. ang. “I gane, or gape, I yane, ie baille. He ganeth as he had not slepte ynoughe.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. ʓanung, oscitatio. In the gloss on G. de Bibelesworth the verb to galp occurs, “Par trop veiller hom baille, galpeþ.” See also the Vis. of P. Ploughm. 8,214; Cant. Tales, 10,664, 16,984. Horman renders “he that galpeth, oscitans.”
page 185 note 4 Among the spices used in ancient cookery, the powder of galingale is frequently named, as may be seen in the Forme of Cury. It was the chief ingredient in galentine, which, as Pegge supposes, derived thence its name. It was also employed in medicine, as a cardiac and cephalic. In the version of Macer's Treatise on Spices, MS. in the possession of Hugh W. Diamond, Esq. it is stated that “Galyngale resolueþ þe fleume of þe stomak; hit helpiþ þe deiestione; it doþ amende þe sauour and odour of þe mouthe if it be eten.” He further attributes to it virtues of a carminative and aphrodisiac nature. It occurs among spices mentioned in the Household Roll of the Countess of Leicester, A.D. 1265; “pro vj lib. Galingalium, ix.s.” (Manners and Expenses of England, p. 14.) Chaucer makes allusion to its culinary use, Cant. Tales, 383. The annual provision of spices for the household of the Earl of Northumberland, A.D. 1512, comprised “Galyngga, j quarteron.” According to Parkinson, the real galingale was the root of a Chinese plant, of which he gives a representation; but it appears that the root of the rush called English galingale, Cyperus longus, Linn, was much used in place of it, both as a drug and a condiment.
page 185 note 5 Ganeo is explained by Ducange to signify “gulosus, popinator, tabernio;” in French, “ganeon; ivrogne, debauché.” Roquef. The Proclamation of the Mayor of Norwich, on coming into office, set forth “that all Brewsters and Gannokers selle a gallon ale, of the best, be measure a-selyd, for 1d. ob. and a galon of the next for 1d.” A.D. 1424. Blomf. ii. 100.
page 186 note 1 The bird now called gannet, or Solan goose, sula alba, abounds only on the Bass Island, in the Firth of Forth. In the Exch. Roll of Normandy, A.D. 1180, p. 57, an entry occurs “pro pastu gantarum que venerunt de Angliâ, et pro lx. de illis ducendis ad Argentomum, et lx. ad Burum, vi li. iij so. et ix d.” Giraldus mentions the Gante among the birds of Ireland; “Aucœ minores albœ (quœ et gantes dicuntur) et gregatim in multitudine magnâ, et garrulâ venire solent, in hos terrarum fines rarius adveniunt, et tunc valde rare.” Top. Hib. i. c. 18. Ang.-Sax. ʓanot, fulica.
page 186 note 2 The reading of the Winchester MS. is probably here correct. In Norfolk a gage is, according to Forby, a bowl or tub to receive the cream, as it is successively skimmed off; so called, as he observes, from its use as a gauge, to show when a sufficient quantity has been collected to be churned. The word does not occur in the other MSS.
page 186 note 3 In a treatise of the seasons, printed with Arnold's Chron. p. 172, it is recommended that in winter “men shulde lete them bloode in ther bodys by garsinge, but not on veynes, but if it be the more nede;” meaning the operation of cupping, called in the Promptorium Boyston'. “To garse, scarificare.” Cath. ang. “Cœsura, a cut, a garse, an incision.” Elyot.
page 186 note 4 The term Angylle, to take wythe fysche, meaning a fishing rod, has occurred already, as also Elyer, or elger, which appears to be an eel-spear. “Contus, an algere, a shaft, a dartt, a polloure. Fuscina, a hoke for fysshe, an algere.” Med. ms. cant. The word Garfangyl seems wholly obsolete; possibly the first syllable may be traced to Ang.-Sax. ʓar, jaculum, or the implement may be a kind of spear used in taking the Garfysche.
page 186 note 5 Sir T. Brown, in his account of the fishes of the Norfolk coast, mentions the garfish, or greenback (Esox belone, Linn.) Harrison mentions it among fish usually taken; “Of the long sort are congers, eeles, garefish, and such other of that forme.” Descr. of Eng. Holinsh. Chron. i. 224. “Trompette, the needle-fish, garre-fish, horne-beake, horne-fish, or piper-fish. Aiguille, a horne-backe, piper-fish, or gane-fish. Esguille, a small fish called a horne-beake, snacot-fish, gane-fish. Orphie, the horne-kecke, piper-fish, garre-fish.” Cotg. The appellation is doubtless taken from its peculiar form; Ang.-Sax. ʓar, jaculum. Jamieson states that at Dundee the porpoise is called gairfish.
page 186 note 6 Will. of Worc. uses the term gargyle; Itin. p. 282. This appellation of the quaintly-fashioned water-spouts in the forms of men or monsters with yawning mouths, of which medieval architecture presents so endless a variety, is taken from the French. “Gargyle in a wall, gargoille.” Palsg. See also Roquefort, v. Gargoile. Horman says, “Make me a trusse standing out upon gargellys, that I may se about: podium, suggestum, vel pulpitum, quod mutulis innitatur. I wyll haue gargyllis under the beamys heedis: mutulos, sive proceres, &c.” Elyot renders “frumen, the vppermoste parte of the throte, the gargyll.” A remarkable application of the gargoyle in architecture occurs on the south side of Notre Dame, at Paris; all the piscinas of the apsidal chapels surrounding the choir on that side being furnished with external gargoyles, which are fashioned like the upper parts of a lion, or dragon, and answer the purpose of the ordinary interior drains, which served to allow the water used in ablutions at the altar to pass into the earth. Their date is of the XIIIth cent. and nothing of a similar kind has been noticed in this country.
page 187 note 1 In the Creed of Piers Ploughman is a curious and graphic description of a monastery, with its numerous and stately buildings,
“With gaye garites and grete,
And iche hole y-glased.” line 425.
A Garytte was, in the original sense of the term, a watch tower, or look-out, on the roof of a house, or castle wall, called garita, in French guerite. In the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. Xii. it is said of the defence of a camp, and keeping watch by night, “it is nat possible algate to haue highe garettes, or toures, or highe places for watche men, therfor it nedethe to haue out watche.” B. iii. c. 8. Caxton, in the Book for Travellers, says “of thinges that ben vsed after the hous,—hit behoueth to the chambres, loftes, and garettis, solliers, greniers.” Cotgrave explains garitte, or guerite, to be a place of refuge from surprise, made in a rampart; a sentry, or watch-tower; and “tourel à cul de lampe, a small out-juttyng garret, or tower like a garret, on the top of a walle.” See Solere hereafter.
page 187 note 2 A garnish signified commonly the set or service of pewter, and likewise, in more stately establishments, of more precious material. Previously to the introduction of fictile ware of an ornamental description in the later part of the XVIth cent. the ordinary service of the tables of our ancestors was on vessels of pewter, the silver plate being for the most part reserved to decorate the cup-board, or buffet. Harrison, in his description of Eng. written about 1580, speaking of the great skill to which English pewterers had attained, says, “Such furniture of household of this mettall, as we commonlie call by the name of vessell, is sold usuallie by the garnish, which dooth conteine 12 platters, 12 dishes, 12 saucers, and those are either of siluer fashion, or else with brode or narrow brims, and bought by the pound, which is now valued at six or seuen pence, or peraduenture at eight pence. In some places beyond the sea a garnish of good flat English pewter of an ordinarie making, … is esteemed almost so pretious, as the like number of vessels that are made of fine siluer, and in maner no lesse desired amongst the great estates, whose workmen are nothing so skillful in that trade as ours.” Holinsh. Chron. i. 237. In the inventory of the college of Bishop's Auckland, A.D. 1498, the silver plate having been described, there are enumerated “Xx pewder platers, xij pewder dishes, viij salsers, j garnishe of vessell.” Wills and Inv. Surt. Soc. i. 101.
page 188 note 1 “A gyrus dicitur gyrgillus, instrumentum femineum, quod alio nomine dicitur volutorium, quia vertendo in gyrum inde fila devolvuntur. Filum de colo ducitur in fusum; a fuso in alabrum, vel traductorium; ab alabro in gyrgillum vel devolutorium; a gyrgillo in glomicellum.” Cath. “Girgillum, Anglice a haspe, or a payre of yerne wyndle blades.” Ortus. “A garwyndelle, devolutorium, girgillus.” Cath. ang. “Yarne wyndell, tornette.” Palsg. “Tournette, a rice, or yarwingle to wind yarne on. Travouil, a rice or a turning reele.” Cotg. See ɜArne wyndel.
page 188 note 2 Palsgrave gives “At the sonne gate downe, sur le soleil couchant.”
page 188 note 3 “A gateschadylle, bivium, diversiclivium, compitum.” Cath. ang. From the Ang.-Sax. sceadan, separare, is derived the obsolete verb to shed; “Discrimino, to shedde and departe.” Med. ms. cant. “To shede one's heed, parte the heares euyn from the crowne to the myddes of the foreheed.” Palsg. Chaucer says of the Clerk Absolon,
“Full straight and euyn lay his jolly shode.” Miller's Tale.
Hence also seems to be taken the term Gate schadylle, the division of a road into two or more directions. It appears to be wholly obsolete, and unnoticed by the Glossarists. See Carfax (cartehouse, Ms.) above, p. 62.
page 188 note 4 In the Romance of the Seuyn Sages, the Emperor had given ear to the false accusation brought against Florentine by his step-mother; but the truth was at length made known.
“A! Dame, said the Emperowre,
Thou haues ben a fals gilowre,
For thi gaudes, and thy gilry,
I gif this dome that thou sal dy.” line 3957.
Mr. Weber has printed the word here gande, to which he gives the sense of a wile or mischievous design. Minot, in his poem on the Battle of Halidon Hill, says,
“The Scottes gaudes might nothing gain.”
Chaucer uses the word in the signification of a trick, or joke. See Pardonere's Tale, 12,323, and Troil. B. ii. It implies also an ornament or toy of little value. Sherwood gives “a gaude, babiole,” which Cotgrave renders “a trifle, whimwham, guigaw, or small toy for a child to play withal.” See Jamieson, and Nares, v. Gaud.
page 189 note 1 To gavel signifies in Norfolk, according to Forby, to collect mown corn into heaps, in order to its being loaded. “Iaveler, to swathe, or gavell corn; to make it into sheaves, or gavels.” Cotg. Moore gives the word likewise as used in Suffolk.
page 189 note 2 The Myrica gale, Linn. sweet gale, or bog myrtle, grows in boggy places in many parts of England, and before drainage had been carried to any extent in the fenny Eastern counties, it was probably found in sufficient abundance to be commonly used as fuel. Gerarde says that the Myrtus Brabanticus, gaule, sweet willow, or Dutch myrtle, grows plentifully in sundry places, as in the Isle of Ely, and the fenny places thereabouts; “whereof there is such store in that countrey, that they make fagots of it, and sheaues, which they call Gaule sheaues, to burn and heat their ovens.” He mentions also that it was used to give an intoxicating quality to beer or ale, as it is still employed in Sweden.
page 189 note 3 “Gaunselle, applauda.” Cath. ang. The composition of this sauce is thus given in Arund. MS. 344; printed in Household Ordin. 441; and Warner's Cookery, 65. “Gaunsell for gese. Take floure, and tempur hit with gode cowe mylke, and make hit thynne, and colour hit with saffron; and take garlek, and stamp hit, and do therto, and boyle hit, and sew hit forthe.” Caxton says, in the Book for Travellers, “Nycholas the mustard maker hath good vynegre, good gauselyn, gausailliede.” The term is evidently derived from “gausse d'ail, a clove of garlick.” Cotg. The Ortus explains “applauda vel appluda, dicitur sorbitiuncula ex paleis facta, (a gaunselle,” Med.) This Latin word properly means chaff of corn, or husks, but here is taken in reference to the gousses, or husk-like covering of the garlic.
page 189 note 4 Ray mentions gant, slim or slender, among South and East country words. Forby gives ganty-gutted, lean and lanky; and Moore says that gant signifies scanty in Suffolk. Ang.-Sax. ʓewant, part. of the verb ʓewanian, tabescere. See Swonge hereafter.
page 189 note 5 In the Eastern counties gain signifies handy, convenient or desirable, and in the North near, as “the gainest road,” which seems most nearly to resemble the sense here given to the word. See Brockett, Jamieson, and Hartshorne's Glossary.
page 189 note 6 In the later Wicliffite version Exod. vi. 6 is thus rendered; “y am þe lord þat schal lede out ɜou of þe prisoun of Egipcians, and y schal delyuere fro seruage, and y schal a-ɜen bie in an hiɜ arm;” in the earlier, “forbigge in an ouerpassynge arme;” “redimam in brachio excelso.” Vulg. In the Golden Legend it is said, “We have grete nede of a doctour, or techer, of ayenbyer, of a delyuerer,” &c. Compare A-gayn-byer, or a raumsomere, and Byyn' a-ɜen'.
page 190 note 1 Compare Charyn, or geynecowpyn'. Ray gives among South and East country words, “to gaincope, to go cross a field the nearest way to meet with something.” In the Promptorium it signifies opposition, in both instances from Ang.-Sax. ʓean, obviam, adversus, and ceapian, negotiari.
page 190 note 2 Gentyl, or awncetrye, Ms. of auncetry, K. p. So also, Gentry, or awncetrye, Ms.
page 191 note 1 It would hence appear that the recital of gests, the deeds of conflict or gallantry, which was the proper business of the gestour, was accompanied by appropriate action, or gesticulation. “Gestire, i. gestus facere, scilicet diversis modis agitare, gaudere, luxuriari, &c.” Cath. Hearne stated erroneously that gests were opposed to romance, Chron. Langt. pref. p. 37; a mistake which Warton has properly corrected. Chaucer uses “to geste,” to relate gests; and “to tell in geste;” Cant. T. 17,354, 13,861; and these passages apparently imply that gests were chiefly written in alliterative verse. He calls the Gesta Romanorum, “the Romain gestes.” See Tyrwhitt's notes on Cant. T. 17,354, 13,775, and Warton's Eng. Poetry. “Gest, a tale. Gestyng, bourde, bourde.” Palsg.
page 191 note 2 Palsgrave gives “gette, a custome; newe iette, guise nouvelle.” This phrase occurs often in the old writers. In a poem on the dissolute lives of the clergy, in the reign of Edw. II. Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, p. 329, some, it is said,
“Adihteth him a gay wenche of the newe jet.” line 118.
“Yit a poynte of the new gett to telle wille I not blyn,
Of prankyd gownes, and shulders up set, mos and flokkes sewyd wyth in.”
Towneley Myst. 312.Chaucer says the gay pardoner thought he rode “al of the newe get,” or fashion; and he also uses the word in the sense of crafty contrivance, where he relates the deceit practised by the Alchemist, by means of a stick filled with silver filings.
“And with his stikke above the crosselet,
That was ordained with that false get,
He stirreth the coles.” Chan. Yem. T. 16,745.
page 191 note 3 It appears that in former times great virtues were attributed to jet. Alex. Neccham, Abbot of Cirencester, who died A.D. 1217, says in his work De Rerum Naturâ, “Gagates … aquâ ardet, oleo restinguitur: attritu calefactus applicata detinet, atque succinum: ydropicis illum portantibus beneficium prestat.” lib. ii. c. 97, Roy. MS. 12 G. Xi. f. 53. The observation of the electric properties of this mineral led him in the succeeding chapter to make some detailed remarks “de vi attractivâ,” among which will be found a notice of the use of the magnet by mariners. In Trevisa's version of Barth. de propr. rerum, are the following observations: “Gette hyght gagates, and is a boystous stone, and neuer the less it is precious.” It is best and most abundant in Britain, of two kinds, yellow and black, both of which have by friction the power of attracting light substances. It drives away adders, relieves fantasies, and has virtues against the visits of fiends by night. “And so if so boystus a stone dothe so greate wonders, none shuld be dispisid for foule colour without, while the vertu that is hid within is vnknowe.” lib. xvi. c. 49. It was also regarded as a test of virginity, and rendering signal aid in parturition; these, and other properties, are noticed in Caxton's “Boke callid Caton,” sign. e, viij. Even in the XVIth cent. it was valued for certain medicinal qualities; for Dr. Turner, Dean of Wells, says in his Herbal, 1562, “Miscel burde lyme melteth a swelled milt, if it be sodden, and layd to wyth a gete stone, or the Asiane stone.” Beads, used for the repetition of prayers, were frequently formed of this material; thus among the gifts of Philip le Hardi to his daughter, on her marriage with the King of Bohemia, A.D. 1393, occurs, “Item, j paternostres de perles et de jayet, ou il y a xxxvj grosses perles, et ix enseignaulx d'or.” Hist. de Bourg. iii. Alianor Duchess of Gloucester bequeaths, A.D. 1399, “un pare de paternostres d'ore, cont' xxx aviez, et iiij gaudes de get, qe fuerent à mon seignour et mari.” Royal Wills. See also Testam. Ebor. i. 381. There is evidence that by some persons such beads were superstitiously regarded as gifted with extraordinary virtue; and to this belief Bp. Bale appears to make allusion, Kynge Johan, p. 39.
“Holy water and bredde shall dryve awaye the devyll;
Blessynges with blacke bedes wyll helpe in every evyll.”
page 192 note 1 Palsgrave gives “Gettar, a braggar, fringuereau. Iettar, a facer, facer, braggart. Iettar of nyght season, brigveur;” and Cotgrave, “Fringuereau, a ietter, spruce minion, gay fellow, compt youth.” Compare hereafter Schakere, or gettare: lascivus.
page 192 note 2 This term denotes the singular projection of the solars or upper stories in old timbered houses, of which most picturesque specimens are still seen at Chester, and other towns. “Proceres dicuntur capita trabium que eminent extra parietes. Hecteca dicitur solarium dependens parietibus cenaculi.” Ortus. The Catholicon explains menianum to be the same as solarium, so named from Menianus, who made in the Forum certain convenient places for beholding public spectacles. “Meniana, buildings outward in prospectes and galeries, especially when they be so builded that the edifice iutteth out in length from the piller or other part of the house, wherin the building especially resteth; buildings of pleasure hanging and iutting out.” Cooper. Horman says that “buyldynge chargydde with iotyes (mœniana œdificia) is parellous whan it is very olde.” In Macbeth, act I. sc. vi. Shakespeare makes use of the term “jutty” in this sense, where Banquo commends the position of Macbeth's castle. Florio, in his Ital. Dict. 1598, gives “Barbacane, an outnooke, or corner standing out of a house, a jettie. Sporto, a porch, bay-window, or out-butting, or jettie of a house, that jetties out farther than anie other part of the house.” Cotgrave renders “surpendue, a iettie, an outiutting roome. Soupendue, soupente, a pent-house, iuttie, or part of a building that iuttieth or leaneth ouer the rest.” Steevens cites an agreement made by P. Henslowe for building a theatre in 1599, with “a juttey forwards in eyther of the two upper stories.”
page 192 note 3 See Iettyñ, hereafter.
page 192 note 4 Festus and Papias state that certain monstrous images that were exhibited in the games of the circus, or on the stage, were termed by the Romans, manduci. Cooper gives “Manduces, images carried in pageantes with great cheekes, wide mouthes, and making a great noyse with their iawes.” The Ortus renders “Mandicus, a gaye horse,” and Forby gives the following explanation of the term; “Jibby-horse, a showman's horse decorated with particoloured trappings, plumes, streamers, &c. It is sometimes transferred to a human subject.” In the MS. the word mandicum is placed under Gybelet; but its proper place is here. See Uguc. Vocab. Arund. MS. 508, f. 141, b.
page 193 note 1 This word seems to be taken from the Lat. gibbus. “Gibbe, a bunch or swelling, a hulch, anything that stands poking out.” Cotg.
page 193 note 2 Compare Gygelo(T) in the next page. The words are retained as found in the MS. and the reading seems here to be an error, which is corrected by the Winch. MS.
page 193 note 3 Forby gives “gyle, wort. Ang.-Sax. ʓylla, stridere, or Teut. ghijl, cremor cerevisii.” Ray has gail or guile-fat, among N. Country words, and it is given also by Brockett and Jamieson. “A gilefatte, acromellarium.” Cath. ang. In 1341, Thos. Harpham, of York, bequeaths “unam cunam, quœ vocatur maske-fat, et ij parvas cunas quœ vocantur gyle-fatts.” Testam. Ebor. ii. 2. The term occurs repeatedly in the Wills and Invent. printed by the Surtees Soc.; and in the Invent. of Jane Hall, Durham, 1567, a distinction is apparent between the “gile-howse,” and the brew-house, the former being perhaps the chamber where the wort was set to cool. See vol. i. 279. In the accounts of the building of Little Saxham Hall, 1507, it is called the “yele house.” Rokewode's Suff. 146. See Invent. of Sir John Fastolfe's effects, 1459, Archæol. xxi. 277; Unton Invent. pp. 3, 13; and Hartshorne's Shropshire Gloss. v. Illfit.
page 193 note 4 In medieval Latin guiare signifies to lead or conduct in safety, to instruct, “quasi viare,” according to Ducange. In the Ward. Book of 28 Edw. I. there is a payment “pro vadiis unius Lodmanni conducti pro navi guiandâ inter Kircudbrith et Karlaverok.” p. 273. Roquefort gives “guier: mener, guider, conduire à la guerre, gouverner,” &c. Chaucer uses the verb to gie, Cant. T. 15,604, 15,627. Gower says of the education of Alexander by Aristotle,
“But yet he set an examplayre,
His body so to guye and rule,
That he ne passe mot the rule.” Conf. Am. lib. vii.
See also the Vis. of P. Ploughm. 1257. R. Brunne uses both the verb, and the noun “gyour,” a leader; and in the Romance of K. Alis. 6023, “divers gyours, and sumpteri” are mentioned as attending on his Eastern expedition. “Commino, to lede, or to gye.” Med. Palsgrave gives the verb, “I gye, or gyde, Lydgate.”
page 194 note 1 The explanation of the word Melotes given in the Catholicon will be found in the note on the word Barnyskyn, which seems to signify a coarse apron.
page 194 note 2 Forby derives the East-Anglian appellation gig, a trifling, flighty fellow, from Ang.-Sax. ʓeʓas, nuyœ. In the North giglet still signifies a laughing girl; the word occurs in “the Northern Mother's blessing,” in admonition to her daughter,
“Go not to the wrastling, ne shoting the cock,
As it were a strumpet or a giglot.”
“Quo magis fetosa mulier magis luxuriosa, ye fayrare woman ye more gyglott.” De Reg. Gramm. Sloane MS. 1210, f. 134. See Junius, v. Giglet. Compare Gybelot above, a word occurring in the Harl. MS. alone, and probably an erroneous reading.
page 194 note 3 “A gilte, suella.” Cath. ang. A gilt, or gaut, signifies in the North a female pig that has been spayed; see Grose, Brockett, and Jamieson. Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial coll. gives “galts and gilts, boar-pigs and sow-pigs, Bor. from old Dan. gallte, porcus. Sax. ʓilte, suilla.” See Yorksh. Dial. p. 39. Any female swine is called a gilt in Staff. Lansd. MS. 1033. See Hartshorne's Shropshire Glossary.
page 194 note 4 This word is still used in Norfolk, precisely in the sense that it has here. Forby gives “Gimmers, small binges, as those of a box or cabinet, or even of the parlour door.” A sperynge here denotes that by which a place is closed up, as a door or window, the lid of a chest, &c. The derivation of the word is doubtless from the French, gémeaux, twins; and the term applies properly not only to a hinge, composed of two portions, of exactly similar form and size, jointed together, but to anything else which is formed of twin-pieces of like dimension, united in any manner, either as a hinge or otherwise. In the version of Vegecius attributed to Trevisa, an expedient is described, to be used in a besieged fortress, against the battering ram: “Somm hathe an iren, made as it were a peire tonges, i-iemewde as tonges in the myddes,” by which the head of the ram is seized, and turned aside. B. Iv. c. 23. Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. Among the disbursements for building Little Saxham Hall, A.D. 1507, under smith's work are mentioned “iij pair of jemews for almerys,” or cupboards, as many for portal doors, and a pair for the buttery windows. Rokewode's History of Suff. pp. 146, 149. Ray, among N. country words, gives “Jimmers, jointed hinges, in other parts called wing-hinges;” and the term occurs in the Craven dialect, with the observation, that “being often formed like the letter H, they are called H. jimmers.” In the Ortus the term denotes a pair of forceps, “Vertinella est forceps medici, a sclyce, or a gemowe;” and it frequently occurs as the name of a kind of ring formed of two interlinked portions, which could be united into one connected ring, and frequently used as a token of betrothal. See Nares, Brand's Popular Ant. and Archæol. xiv. 7. Palsgrave has “Gymewe of a gyrdell, crochet d'une troussure. Gymell song, jumeau;” and Higgins, in his edition of Huloet's Dict. gives “Gimow (or gemoll) a little rynge to weare on the fynger. Gimmow (or gemoll) or rynge to hange at one's eare, as the Egyptians have, Stalognium, inauris. Gimmow of a door, Vertibulum, cardo; le gond d'un huis.” “Quin-quaillerie, all kinds of small yron worke, as padlockes, snuffers, gimmers, or hindges for doors, &c. Alliances, gimmoules, or gimmoule rings. Souvenance, a ring with many hoops, whereof a man lets one hang down, when he would be put in mind of a thing. Verge, a plain hoope, or gimmall, ring. Membre d'esperon, the gimmew or ioynt of a spurre.” Cotg. “Gemmew ring, souvenance.” Sherw. “Annulus purus, an hoope ring, a gimmall, a plaine ring without a stone.” Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming.
page 195 note 1 A gin signifies, according to the old writers, a cunning or deceitful device, and thence an ingeniously constructed machine of any kind. Chaucer uses the word in both senses; thus the crafty trick of the Alchemist, which is termed “a false get,” as has been observed in the note on the word Get, is called also “a false gin.” In the Squire's T. it is related that the magical steed of brass would bear its rider at pleasure,
“And turne again with writhing of a pin;
He that it wrought, he coude many a gin.”
In the Golden Legend, the wiles of Satan are termed “gynnes of temptacyon.” Life of St. Bernard. In the Romance of Coer de Lion warlike machines are termed gins; as they are continually in Trevisa's version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. “Troclea, the gyn, whyche is called a crane.” Elyot. See Hartshorne's Shropshire Glossary. “Exostra, a vice or gin of wood, wherewith such things as are done within, out of sight, are shewed to the beholders, by the turning about of wheeles.” Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming.
page 195 note 2 This word is a corruption of the French “Gibbecière, a pouch, bag, poake, budget,” Cotg. properly such as was used in hawking, &c. but commonly worn by the merchant, or with any secular attire. Chaucer says of the Frankelein, or country gentleman,
“An anelace and gipsere all of silke
Hing at his girdle, white as morow milke.”
In the Invent. of valuables, the property of Henry V. A.D. 1423, is enumerated “j gipcer de noier velvet, garniz d'or, pris, 66s. 8d.” Rot. Parl. Iv. 215.
page 195 note 3 “A gesarne, gesa.” Cath. ang. “Gesa, gysserne.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. Gesa is, according to the Catholicon, “genus armorum quod Gallice dicitur gisarma, a gero, vel cesa, a cœdendo: et sunt gese vel cese Galloruin, pila Romanorum.” In the curious Dictionary of John de Garlandiâ, printed in the Collection of documents relating to French history, Paris, 1837, there is an enumeration of weapons and engines of war, used at the siege of Toulouse, in 1218: the writer says that he saw “secures, bipennes, cathagesa Gallicorum, catheias et pugiones, cum dolonibus, avelancias Anglieorum (anelacias, al. Ms.) pila Romanorum, ” The MS. at Rouen gives the following reading, “secures Dachos, jesa Gallicorum.” But, although the gisarme seems in these passages to be appropriated as a Gaulish weapon, Wace, in the Roman de Rou, written about 1160, repeatedly describes the English in Harold's army as armed with sharp gisarmes and hatchets, whereas their opponents fought with long lances and swords. See lin. 12,908, 12,928, 13,437. It may be observed, however, that on the Bayeux tapestry the Saxons are represented as combating with the heavy axe, but no weapon appears which resembles the gisarme. In the Royal mandate, 36 Hen. III. 1252, printed by Wats at the end of his edition of M. Paris, the sheriffs are commanded to assemble all persons from the age of 15 to 60, and cause them “jurare ad arma,” according to the amount of their lands and chattels; those who were rated under 40 shillings land, or from 40 shillings to 10 marks chattels, “jurati sunt ad falces, gisarmas, cultellos et alia arma minuta.” From this document, and the stat. Wint. 13 Edw. I. c. 6, 1285, it is apparent that the gisarme was one of the weapons in ordinary use among the inferior ranks of the English army. See Stat. of Realm, i. 97. A curious description of the conflict of the King of Niniveh, armed with “gysarme and sweord bothe,” occurs in the Romance of Kyng Alis. line 2302. See also Havelok, 2553; Ritson's Metr. Rom.; Chaucer, R. of Rose, 5978. The gisarme was used in England as late as the battle of Flodden, 1513; it was of two kinds, according to Sir S. Meyrick, namely, the glaive gisarme, and the bill gisarme; the distinctive mark of the weapon being a spike rising at the back, as may be seen in Grose's Armour, pl. 28, and Skelton's Illustr. of the Armoury at Goodrich Court, ii. pl. 84, 85.
page 196 note 1 This seems to be the same word which is now written joist, derived from the French giste, and denoting a beam, so called from gisir, to rest, to lie along. “Gyst that gothe over the florthe, solive, giste.” Palsg. “Trabes, a traho, quia de unâ parte parietis ad aliam trahitur, a beme, or balke of a house.” Ortus.
page 196 note 2 The gyterne, getron, or cittern, Fr. guilerne, was a stringed instrument, which seems, from the repeated mention that is made of it by Chaucer, to have been much in favour, probably as an accompaniment to the voice. In the Lat. Eng. vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. are given “giga, getyrne: gigator, getyrner.” f. 43, b. Amongst the curious representations of musical instruments in Sloane MS. 3983, t. Edw. II. f. 13, the harp is called “giga vel lira,” but the same is named “arpes,” f. 4, b.; with the former there is seen an instrument with five strings, and the head recurved, which perhaps exhibits the form of the gyterne at that early period. In default of any positive information on the obscure subject of the early history of music, it may be stated, conjecturally, that the gyterne is the instrument which was held in an horizontal position, and played either by hand or with a plectrum, as may be seen in almost every representation of the angelic choir, whether in sculpture, painted glass, or illuminated MSS. The minstrels gallery on the N. side of the nave, at Exeter Cath., sculptured in the reign of Edw. III. may be noticed as a remarkable instance. In Hawkins' Hist. of Music, iv. 113, a figure is given of the cittern, from Mersennus, Harmonie Universelle, 1636, which represents an instrument with six strings, differing from the Spanish guitar in the pear-shaped form of the belly. It was little esteemed, and chiefly used in places of lewd resort, or barbers' shops. See Nares, v. Cittern. Elyot renders “fidicula, a rebecke, or a gytterne;” and Fleming, in his version of Junius, gives “lyricus, lyricen, fidicen lyrœ, a player vpon the lute or cyterne.” “A gitterne, cistre, quiterne, giterne, guiterre. A small gitterne, mandore.” Sherw.
page 197 note 1 A Gytone, or guidon, is the name of a sort of banner, or streamer, called in Latin guido, which Ducange derives from guida, a guide. Guidon has been supposed to be a corruption of guide-homme; and is written “guydhome” in Harl. MS. 2258, where it is stated that its length was to be 2½ or 3 yards: “euery standard and guydhome to have in the chief the crosse of St. George, to be slitte at the ende, and to conteyne the creste or supporter, with the posey, worde, and device of the owner.” From Harl. MS. 838, it appears that every baronet or superior estate should display a banner, if he were chief captain; every knight a pennon, and “euery squier or gentleman his getoun or standard.” It is also directed that both the last should be slit at the extremity, whence probably the getoun was called conscisorium, as given above. In the contemporary poem descriptive of the siege of Rouen, A.D. 1415, it is said,
“There was many a getoun gay,
With mychille and great array.” line 1214.
See Sir Fred. Madden's note on this line, Archæol. xxii. 396; and Retrosp. Rev. i. 511, N.S. It appears that a gytone was not only carried in the field, but attached to the mast of a ship; thus, in a bill of expenses for the Earl of Warwick, A.D. 1437, is a charge, “Item, a gyton for the shippe, of viij yardis longe, poudrid full of raggid staves, for the lymmyng and workmanship ij s.” Dugd. Warw. In the Will of John, Baron de Graystok, A.D. 1436, is this bequest: “lego pro mortuario meo optimum equum cum totâ armaturâ meâ, cotearmour, penon, et gyton', &c.”. Wills and Inv. i. 85, Surtees Soc. Palsgrave gives “Guyderne, a baner in a felde, guidon: Gyderne, guidon:” and Cotgrave has “guidon, a standard, ensigne, or banner, under which a troop of men of arms do serve; also he that bears it.”
page 197 note 2 This word seems to have implied not only to furbish arms, or armour, but, by means of some kind of varnish, to preserve the polish from rust. Sir John Paston gives the following direction; “As for my byll that is gylt, I wolde it were taken head to; there is von in the town can glaser weel I nowe, and ellys late it be weel oylyd.” Palsgrave gives the verb “I glase a knyfe to make it bright; ie fourbis.”
page 197 note 3 Bleyely, Ms.
page 197 note 4 “Gladyne, gladiolus, quedam herba.” Cath. ang. The name gladwyn now denotes only the Iris fœtidissima, Linn., but probably the more common species, Iris Pseud-acorus, may be here intended. In Mr. Diamond's MS. version of Macer, it is said, “Gladen is y-clepid in Englisshe, iris in Latin, for his floure haþ a colour like þe raynebowe.. Take þe rootis of þis erbe, and kyt hem in rounde gobetis, and ryfe hem vpon a þrede, so þat none of hem touche oþer, if þou wilt drye hem.” The virtues of this root are numerous, taken with wine, mead, or vinegar; the following is curious, as a cosmetic. “Do take ij parties of þis pouder of gladen rotys, and þe iij part of þe poudre of ellebre, þat some men clepen cloffynnge, and medele boþe þise poudres to-gider in hony. A plaster of þis wole purge and clense þe face of frekelis, also it wole resolue the pockys, and whelkys of þe face.” Elyot renders “Xyphium, an herbe lyke the blade of a sworde, gladen; it is also called Xyris;” and Cotgrave gives “Glayeul, corne-sedge, corn-gladen, right gladen, gladen, glader, sword-grasse.”
page 198 note 1 In a medical treatise, Cott. MS. Jul. D. Viii. f. 119, b. a pottage composed of gentian, tormentil, fennel, and honey, is directed to be given “for a gleymede stomak, þat may noɜt kepe mete.”
page 198 note 2 Byy(n) dynge to-gedyys, Ms. “Viscus, gleme, or lyme.” Ortus. Compare Clam', or cleymows; where the other MSS. read gleymous. “Visqueux, clammy, cleaving, bird lime-like. Iotteux, claggy, clammy, cleaving. Glazeux, clammy, fat, clayish.” Cotg.
page 198 note 3 “La glaire d'un œuf, the white of an egge. Aubin d'un œuf, the white or gleare of an egge.” Cotg. In the Cant. Tales, the Chanon's yeoman, enumerating the numberless requisites employed in alchemy, mentions
“Unsleked lime, chalke, and gleire of an eye.”
In a curious MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, concerning the craft of limning, is the following recipe. “To couche gold: take gleyere, and safferoun grounde, and couche on thy golde, whyle hit is moyste.” Fox relates that one Margery Backster, being accused of heresy, thus declared her opinion of images; “lewd wrights of stocks hew and forme such crosses and images, and after that, lewd painters gleere them with colours.” The French word glaire has also, according to Cotgrave, the signification of “gravell, sand, and small pible stones, or sand mingled with stones; also a whitish and slimy soil,” in Latin glarea; hence it is said in Caxton's Mirrour of the World, part ii. c. 85, that “by Acres the cyte is founden a maner of sande, and there is founden also of the glayre of the see, whiche ben medled to gydre, and of thyse two myxtyons is made good glasse and clere.” Bosworth derives glare from A.-S. ʓlære, pellucidum quidvis.
page 199 note 1 “Arista est spica, an ere of corne or a glene.” Ortus. “An evene of corne.” Med. “A glene, arista, conspica. Gloy, spicamentum.” Cath. ang. A glene seems to be here put for that which is gleaned, from the Fr. glane, the corn left for the gleaner. “A glean, a handfull of corne gleaned and tied up by the gleaner, or reaper. Kent.” Bp. Kennett's Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033. The Medulla gives, “Conspico, to glene, or els to gadyre songles. Aristor, i. colligere spicas, to glene, or to gadre songles.” MS. Cant. Mr. Wilbraham gives songow, used in this sense in Cheshire.
page 199 note 2 Gogyrleye, Ms. “A gleer, limus, strabo, obliquus.” Cath. ang. Skinner gives the verb to gly as used in Lincolnshire, signifying to squint, or look askance, possibly, he observes, from Ang.-Sax. ʓlowan, candescere, “q. d. incensis et prœ irâ flammantibus oculis conspicere.” See Jamieson, v. Gley. Compare Goguleye, hereafter.
page 199 note 3 In the Vision of Piers Ploughman the word “glubbere” occurs in this sense, line 5274; “y-glubbed,” line 3165, meaning gorged with liquor; and in the Crede, “gloppynge of drynke,” line 184.
page 199 note 4 “To glosse, ubi to fage. To glose, glosare, glosulare.” Cath. ang. The verb to glose occurs in this sense in the later Wicliffite version, in which Judges xiv. 15 is rendered “glose thin hosebonde (blandire viro tuo.” Vulg.) In the earlier version this verse is thus given, “faage to thi man, and meue hym that he shewe to thee what bitokeneth the probleme.” This signification of Fagyn̄' has been noticed above.
page 200 note 1 Glu, or glee, denotes properly, as Sir W. Scott observes, the joyous science of the minstrel, which was called in Ang.-Sax. ʓhʓ, and the musician ʓliʓman, an appellation that denoted also the player, or joculator. See Bp. Percy's Essay on Minstrels, Sir Tristrem, Havelok the Dane, Jamieson, &c. In the vision of Piers Ploughman a singular comparison occurs, doubtless used proverbially, as an analogous expression is at the present time. Gloton, having drank deep, till his legs totter, is said to go
“Lik a gle-mannes bicche,
Som tyme aside,
And som tyme arere.” line 3180.
page 200 note 2 Glustare, ms. Forby explains glusky as signifying sulky in aspect.
page 200 note 3 “Strideo, fortiter sonare, horribilem sonum facere, to gnayste. Stridor, gnastynge.” Ort.- “To gnaste, fremere, est furorem mentis usque ad vocis tumultum excitare; frendere, est proprie dentes concutere. A gnastynge, fremor, est hominum, fremitus bestiarum.” Cath. ang. “To gnaste or gnasshe with the tethe, grincer. Gnastyng of the tethe, strideur, grincement.” Palsg. In the Wicliffite version this word is of frequent occurrence.
page 200 note 4 The word gobbet formerly implied not only a lump, but generally a piece or portion of anything. In the Wicliffite version, iv. Kings, 20, 7, is thus rendered; “And Isaie seide, bringe ɜe to me a gobet of figis (massam ficorum, Vulg.); and whan þei hadden brouɜt it, and hadden putte it on his bocche, he was heelid.” Among the curious relics that were carried about by the Pardoner,
“He saied, he had a gobbet of the saile
That Sainct Peter had, when that he went
Upon the sea, till Jesu Christ him hent.” Cant. T. Prol.
Sir John Maundevile says of the apples of Paradise, growing in Egypt, “and thoghe ɜee kutte hem in never so many gobettes or parties, overthwart, or end-longes, everemore ɜee schulle fynden in the myddes the figure of the Holy Cros.” p. 60. “Gleba, a gobet of erthe.” Med. “Gobbet, a lumpe, or a pece, monceau, lopin, chanteau.” Palsg. The derivation appears to be from “Gobeau, a bit, gobbet, or morsell.” Cotg.
page 201 note 1 “A goffe, ubi a godefader. A gome, ubi a godmoder.” Cath. ang. In the North goff signifies a fool, according to Brockett and Jamieson. Cotgrave gives “commère, a she-gossip, or godmother, a gomme,” but the term appears to be now obsolete.
page 201 note 2 The interjection Goddot, Goddoth, occurs frequently in Havelok the Dane: Sir F. Madden, in his Glossary appended to that curious poem, supposes it to be a corruption of God wot! formed in the same manner as Goddil for God's will, in Yorkshire and Lancashire; a conjecture which appeared to be confirmed by the following passage, where it is related that Havelok made a vow to found a priory,
“And therof held he wel his oth,
For he it made, God it woth!”. line 2527.
The word, it is further observed, appears to have been limited to Lincolnshire or Lancashire, and a single instance of its occurrence is cited from a poem written in the former county, t. Edw. I. From the form, however, of the word, as it occurs in the Promptorium, the derivation appears to be more obviously from A.-S. ʓeatan, concedere.
page 201 note 3 This term occurs in the Wicliffite version, Mark ix. 46; “If thin yghe sclaundre thee, caste it out; it is bettre to thee to entre gogil-yghed (luscum, Vulg.) into the rewme of God, than have tweyne yghen,” &c. Palsgrave gives among the adverbs, “a goggell, en louchet. Goggle-eyed man, louche.” Junius thinks it may be derived from A.-S. sceʓl eʓede, strabo.
page 201 note 4 In some parts of England a piece of projecting iron at each end of a roller, which connects it with the frame, is still called a gudgeon, from the Fr. “goujon, the pin which the truckle of a pulley runneth on; also the gudgeon of the spindle of a wheele.” Cotg. Among the expenses of Thos. Lucas, Sol. Gen. to Hen. VII. in building Little Saxham Hall, A.D. 1507, are these items among smiths' work; “for goions and colars, with ij stireppis for my bruge, weiyng 36½ lb.” These were probably for suspending a drawbridge. Rokewode's Suff. p. 150.
page 202 note 1 The plant here intended is perhaps the corn marigold, Chrysanthemum segetum, Linn. called in the North, goulans, guilde, or goles, and in the South golds. See Ray and Jamieson. The virtues of “gowlde” are detailed in the curious metrical treatise of herbs, Sloane MS. 1571, f. 26, b. Dr. Turner says that “Ranunculus is called in English crowfoot or kingeux, or in some places a gollande.” Herbal, part ii. Nares states that gold is the cudweed, or mothwort, Gnaphalium Germanicum, Linn.
page 202 note 2 A rick of corn in the straw laid up in a barn is called in Norfolk, according to Forby, a goaf; every division of the barn being termed a goaf-stede: to goave signifies to stow corn therein. See also Ray and Moore. Tusser uses the verb to gove, to make a mow or rick; see August's Husbandry, st. 23. In a short Latin-Eng. Vocabulary of XVth cent. written apparently at Creak, in Norfolk, Add. MS. 12,195, occur “Gelimo, to golue. Ingelimum, golfe.” Palsgrave gives “goulfe of corne, so moche as may lye bytwene two postes, otherwyse a baye.”
page 202 note 3 Roquefort gives “goléon, sorte d'habit de guerre;” but in the Promptorium golyon and gown seem to be almost synonymous, both being rendered by the Latin gunellus. a diminutive of gunna. The term is used by Gower, where he relates the exchange of garments made by Hercules and Iole, in order to deceive Faunus.
“He hath hir in his clothes clad,
And cast on hir his golion,
Whiche of the skin of a lion
Was made.” Conf. Am. lib. v.
page 203 note 1 This word occurs in the glosses on G. de Bibelesworth, Arund. MS. 220, as the rendering of foreyn, a place retired, a “withdraught,” as it was called,
“Vn maueys vint en ma forere (an heuedlond,)
Ou par despit fist foreyn hier (gonge.)”
Hence the term “chambre forene,” which is used by Robert of Glouc. In the Seuyn Sages it is related that a father and son went together to commit a robbery, and the father falling into a pit, bid his son cut off his head, that he might not be recognized. He carried the head away to conceal it,
“But als he com bi a gong,
Amidde the pit he hit slong.” line 1315.
Fabyan gives the following tale, 43 Hen. III. “In this yere fell that happe of the Jewe of Tewkysbury, whiche fell into a gonge vppon the Saterdaye, and wolde not for reuerence of his sabbot day be plucked out; wherof heryng the Erle of Glouceter, that the Jewe dyd so great reuerence to hys sabbot daye, thought he wolde do as myche to his holydaye, whych was Sondaye, and so kept hym there tyll Monday, at which season he was found dede.” The Medulla gives “Birsa, cloaca, a gonge;” and Palsgrave “Gonge, a draught, ortrait.” A.-S. ʓonʓ, ʓanʓ-settl, ʓanʓ-pytte, ʓanʓ-tun, latrina.
page 203 note 2 “Gonge farmer, maister de basses œvures, guigueron, curevr d'ortraitz. I ferme a siege, or priuy, i'escure. Neuer come to your newe house, tyll your seges or priuyes be fermed, tant que vous ayez curé les orttrays.” Palsg. Thomas, in his Ital. Gramm. 1548, gives “Piombino, a certein instrument of leade, that the gongfermours use.” “Gadouard, a gould-finder, jakes-farmer, feyer of priuies. Maistre phy phy, a jakes feyer, who hath often occasion enough to say, phy.” Cotg. Bp. Kennett gives the following note in his Glossarial Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “To farm, to cleanse or empty, Bor. Oxfordshire; as, to farm kine, to farm a stable or cow-house; from Sax. feormian, purgare, whence the cleansers of jakes or privies are in some places called jakes-farmers.” Compare Fowar, fowyn̄, and Fyin̄.
page 203 note 3 Flory, Ms. Slush and gore are generally mentioned together in Norfolk, as Forby observes, the former expressing the thin, the latter the thick part of the mire. Ang.-Sax. ʓor, lutum. Brockett gives gor, in the Northern Dialect.
“For gore and fen, and full wast,
That was out y-kast,
Togydere they gadered, Y wys.” Lybeaus disconus, line 1471.
page 203 note 4 Lacinia is explained in the Catholicon to be “vestis lacerata, vel ora sive extre-mitas vestimenti;” to which the following addition is made in the Ortus, “vel nodus clamidis, a hemme of clothe, or a gore, or a trayne.” G. de Bibelesworth says,
“Car par deuaunt avez eskours (lappes,)
Et d'encosté sont vos girouns (sidgoren.)”
This word is used repeatedly by Chaucer, and Tyrwhitt observes that its meaning was not intelligible. It seems, however, to imply a slit in a garment, whereby a piece is either inserted or taken away, so as to widen or contract it; thus the attire of the Carpenter's young wife is described, who wore
“A barm-cloth, as white as morwe milk,
Upon her lendes, ful of many a gore.” Miller's T. 3237.
Here it doubtless signifies that her apron was gathered in with numerous plaits, in girding it about her hips. Sir Thopas says, where he relates his dream,
“An elf-quene shall my lemman be,
And slepe under my gore.” Cant. T. line 13,719.
Here the expression seems to be one of those conventional phrases of romance of which the meaning cannot be closely defined, and implying ample coverings, garments full and rich. In Emare, the Queen of Galys is said to be “goodly unther gore,—wordy unther wede,—comely unther kelle.” Rits. Metr. R. ii. 243. “Goore of a smocke, poynte de chemise.” Palsg. “Gheroni, the gores of a woman's smocke, or other lyke garment.” W. Thomas, Ital. Gramm.
page 204 note 1 In the North, and other parts of England, the Ulex Europœus, Linn. or common furze, is called gorse. Ang.-Sax. ʓorst, erica, rubus. See the note on the word Fyrrys, above. “Ruscus, a gorst, or a furse.” Med. ms. cant. In the margin is the addition in Somner's hand, of the Ang.-Sax. words, “cneoholen, fyres.” Cotgrave gives “genest espineux, furres, whinnes, gorse, thorne-broom.”
page 204 note 2 The Potentilla anserina, Linn. or wild tansy, is called in the North, according to Ray, goose-grass, because eaten by geese. The plant, however, most commonly known by the name, is the Galium aparine, or cleavers, which, as Moore observes, is called in Suffolk “guse-grass.” Dr. Turner, in his Herbal, 1561, speaks of “Gooshareth or clyuer.” Cotgrave gives “Grateron, the small bur called goose-share, goose-grasse, love-man, cleaver, and claver. Riéble, cleaver, goose-grasse, &c.” Huloet calls the same plant “goslingweede, rueba (sic, rubea?) minor.”
page 204 note 3 Gossypmann, ms. The Baptismal sponsors were formerly called gossips, a term which Skinner derives from Ang.-Sax. God, Deus, and syb, affinitas, as it were “cognati in Deo;” and by the Canon law marriage was forbidden between persons thus allied, as much as between relatives by blood. In the Lay le Freine, it is related that the knight, to whom two sons were born, sent to greet a knight who was his neighbour,
“And pray him that he com to me,
And say he schal mi gossibbe be.”
It would hence seem that the term comprised not only the co-sponsors, but the parents of the child baptized. Verstegan, in his explanations of ancient words, observes upon “Godsip, now pronounced gossip. Our Christian ancestors understanding a spiritual affinity to grow between the parents and such as undertook for the child at baptism, called each other by the name of Godsib, which is as much to say, as that they were sib together, that is, of kin together through God.” p. 175, edit. 1655. Fabyan says of the repudiation of Ingebert of Denmark by Philip Augustus, king of France, “yt was not longe or she were from hym deuorced for cause of alyaunce of gossypred, or otherwise.” Part vii. c. 242.
page 205 note 1 “Lanugo, i. lana super poma, vel flos tribuli qui postquam bene siccatus est levi flatu effertur in aerem.” Cath. In the Promptorium an allusion is made to another and strange supposition regarding the production of gossamer, noticed by Skinner, namely, that it was formed from the dew scorched by the morning sun, and thence, as it seems, termed here corruption. It is evident from Chaucer that this phenomenon had exercised the ingenuity of curious observers in ancient times.
“As sore wondren som on cause of thonder,
On ebbe and floud, on gossomer, and on mist,
And on all thing, til that the cause is wist.” Squiere's T. 10,572.
An allusion to the anciently received notion occurs in Spenser, who speaks of
——“the fine nets which oft we woven see
Of scorched dew.”
“As light and thin as cobwebs that do fly
In the blew air, caus'd by the autumnal sun,
That boils the dew that on the earth doth lie;
May seem this whitish rug then in the scum,
Unless that wiser men make't the field spider's loom.” H. More.
Even Dr. Hooke advances a conjecture that the great white clouds seen in summer might consist of gossamer. Microgr. 202. Dr. Hulse and Martin Lister first observed the real mode of its production by a species of spider. See Ray's Letters, 36, 69; Lister de Araneis; and the interesting relation in White's Hist. Selb. The etymology of the word is very obscure; Skinner suggests gossampine, Fr. gossipium, Lat. the cotton plant. The derivation proposed in the Craven Glossary, from its appellation “summer-gauze, hence gauze o' th' summer, gauzamer, alias gossamer,” is hardly tenable, when it is considered that the term was probably received in our language long before the introduction of the tissue called gauze. An early instance of its occurrence is in the gloss on G. de Bibelesworth, whose treatise was composed in the time of Edw. 1.
“Regardet cy la filaundre (gosesomer.)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 301.
“Filiandra, Anglice, gossomer.” Lat. Eng. Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. “Gossommer, thynges that flye in sommar lyke copwebbes.” Palsg. “Couvrailles, gossymeare, or the white and cobweb-like exhalations which flye abroad in hot sunnie weather.” Cotg. In N. Brit. according to Jamieson, it is called also sun-dew webs, or moosewebs. In German, unser Frawen Haar, the Blessed Virgin's hair. See Jamieson, v. Garsummer; and Nares.
page 205 note 2 The stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 33, after setting forth the decayed state of the fortifications of Hull, grants certain duties levied on the importation of fish, to repair and maintain the walls, ditches, and banks, as also “other clowes, getties, gutters, goottes, and other fortresses there,” for the defence of the town and haven. Stat. of Realm, iii. 872. The stat. 2 and 3 Edw. VI. c. 30, states that the channel of the Camber, near Rye, had become choked up, in part by casting ballast into it, “and partely bycause dyuers mershes inned take in no water to scower the channel, but lett oute ther freshe water at guttes;” so that the road for shipping was much injured. Vol. iv. 72. This word is retained in use in several parts of England; Skinner and Ray give gowts, a word signifying in Somersetshire channels or drains under-ground. Bp. Kennett has the following notes in his Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “A wide ditch, or water-course that empties itself into the sea, is called in Romney Marsh a gut, from old Dan. giota, scrobs: thence gutter, dim. a mill gut, a gote, i. a floud-gate, Northumb. Ang.-Sax. ʓeotan, fundere.” In the Craven Dialect gote denotes a channel of water from a milldam, as does goyt in Hallamshire. Jamieson gives goat and got, a small trench or drain. A similar word occurs in old French; “Goute: gouttière, égout.” Roquef.
page 206 note 1 Gootys herde, ms. berde, S.h.p. “Stirillum, barba capre, et dicitur a stiriâ, quia pendens ad modum stirie, i. gutte.” Cath.
page 206 note 2 “Danista, Danus, a gowlere, an vserere.” Med. ms. cant. The derivation appears obviously to be from gula, in French goule or gole, significative of his rapacious avidity.
page 206 note 3 Skinner gives the word gound as used very commonly in Lincolnshire, signifying the running or impure secretion of the eyes. It occurs in the glosses on G. de Bibelesworth, Arund. MS. 220, f. 297, b.
“Vostre regardz est gracious (louelik,)
Mes vos oeyz sunt saciouz (gundy;)
Des oeez outez la sacye (þe gunde,)
E de nees la rupye (þe maldrope.)”
Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033, has the following note: “Gunded eyes, Westm. Goundy, filthy like running sores, Gower. Gunny eyes, Yorksh. Dial.” Ang.-Sax. ʓund, pus, sanies. Skelton describes the “eyen gowndye” of Elynour Rumming.
page 207 note 1 A grayle is a service book containing the responses, or gradalia, so called because they are sung in gradibus, or by course. It is thus described by Lyndwood: “Gradale—ponitur pro libro integro, in quo contineri debent officium aspersionis aquœ benedictœ, missarum inchoationes, sive officia, Kyrie, cum versibus Gloria in excelsis, gradalia, Halleluja, et tractus, sequentiœ, symbolum cantandum in Missâ, Offertorium, Sanctus, Agnus, Communio, &c. quœ ad chorum spectant in Missœ solennis decantatione.” Provinc. iii. tit. 27. At the synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287, it was ordained that certain books should be provided in every parish, at the charge of the parishioners, among which is named the gradale. Wilkins, Conc. ii. 139. It is likewise included in the constitution of Abp. Winchelsey, to the same effect, A.D. 1305. Lyndw. The stat. 3 and 4 Edw. VI. for abolishing divers books and images, enacts “that all books called antiphoners, missals, grails, processionals, &c. heeretofore used for service of the church, shall be cleerelie and vtterlie abolished, and forbidden for euer to be vsed or kept in this realme.”
page 207 note 2 This word, which is found in the Winchester MS. only, is frequently used by the old writers.
“Bithenk hou oft rape wil rewe,
And turn to grame wel grille.” Amis and Amiloun, 657.
“Lordynges, he saide, y am aschamed,
And sore anoyed, and agramed.” K. Alis. 3310.
In Havelok the verb to greme occurs, line 442, and the adjective gram, meaning angry or incensed, line 214. See also Seuyn Sages, 2703; Cant. Tales, 16,871; and Jamieson, v. Gram. Ang.-Sax. ʓrama, molestia, ʓremian, irritare.
page 207 note 3 It may be observed in the Forme of Cury, and all books of ancient cookery, that “myyd,” or grated bread, was continually employed in the composition of a variety of dishes. Palsgrave says, “I holde a penny that I shall grate this lofe, or you can grate a rasyn of gynger;” that is, a root, racine.
page 208 note 1 “To grave, ubi to bery. To grave, cespitare, fodere, percolere, foditare, pastinare. A graver, cespitator, cultor, fossor. A gravynge, cultura.” Cath. ang. The verb to grave is used by most of the old writers in the signification of digging, and thence of depositing in the grave. Ang.-Sax. ʓrafan, fodere. Sir John Maundevile gives a relation of the legend regarding the origin of the trees of which the cross was formed; that when Adam sent Seth to crave oil of mercy of the angel that kept Paradise, the angel refused to give it, “but he toke him three graynes of the same tree that his fadre eet the appelle offe, and bad hym, als sone as his fadre was ded, that he scholde putte theise three greynes undre his tonge, and grave him so. And of theise three greynes sprong a tree—and bare a fruyt, thorghe the whiche fruyt Adam scholde be saved.” p. 14. To grave still signifies, in the North, to break up ground with the spade.
page 208 note 2 The primary meaning of the word grangia, in French grange, or grance, seems to have been a repository for grain, or, according to Ducange, a threshing floor; and thence it implied the farming establishment generally, with its various buildings and appliances, as it is accurately defined by Lyndwood, in his annotations on the Constit. of Abp. Mepham, Provinc. lib. ii. tit. i. Spelman cites a MS. in which the name Thomas Atelaþe, that is, at the lathe, or barn, is said to be in French, Thomas de la Graunge. The term has even the more extended sense of a hamlet; that is, probably, the assemblage of dwellings occupied by the dependants of the farm, which, doubtless, forming a nucleus, gave rise to the greater number of villages in ancient times. Palsgrave gives “graunge, or a lytell thorpe, hameau. Graunge, petit village.” Huloet makes the following distinctions: “Graunge, or manour place without the walls of a citie, suburbanum. Graunge, or little thorpe, viculus. Graunge, where husbandry is exercised, colonia.”
page 208 note 3 Grawnte, or grawnte. Confessio, Ms. grawntynge, K. s. p.
page 208 note 4 Gravyn̄', or a grawowre, Ms. off a gravowre, s.
page 208 note 5 Gre is here given only in the sense of promotion to honour or distinction, in which also the term degree is now used at the Universities. In N. Britain gree has still this signification. So likewise in Chaucer, Rom. of the Rose:
“In thanke thy seruice wol I take,
And high of gree I wol thee make.”
It occurs frequently in the primary sense of a step, gré, Fr. “Climatum, a goynge fro gre to gre.” Ortus.
page 209 note 1 The term Grece seems to be derived from the plural of gre, a step. It is thus used in the Wicliffite version; “þou schalt not stye bi grees (per gradus, Vulg.) to myn auter, lest þi filþe be schewid.” Exod. xx. 26. “Forsoþe Esdras þe writere stood on þe grees of tree (super gradum ligneum, Vulg.) whiche he hadde maad to speke þeron.” Esd. viii. 4. Compare iv Kings, xxiii. 3, and Dedis, xxi. 35. Sir John Maundevile says, in his relation of the state of the great Chan of Chatay, “the grees, that he gothe up to the table, ben of precyous stones, medled with gold.” p. 259. And again, “Vesselle of sylver is there non, for thei telle no prys there of, to make no vesselle offe, but thei maken ther of grecynges, and pileres, and pawmentes to halles and chambres.” p. 263. In the version of Vegecius, which is attributed to Trevisa, among directions how a strong place should be fortified by double walls, the intervening space being filled with earth, it is said that there should be “in the making of the inner walle, at euery fourty or fifty fote of lengthe, esy gresinges fro the playn grounde of the citie up to the walls.” Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. f. 100. “Gradus, a grece, a steppe. Grado, to leede, or greys.” Med. ms. cant. “A grece, gradus; gradare, i. gradus facere, vel per gradus ducere.” Cath. ang. “Coclea, turnegrece. “Lat. Eng. Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “Scamnum, a steppe or grice, whereby a manne gothe vppe into a hygh bedde. Anabathrum, a pulpit or other lyke place, whiche standeth on hyghe, wherunto a man must go vp by a ladder or grises.” Elyot. “Grece to go vp at, or a stayre, degré.” Palsg. “Degré, a staire, step, greese.” Cotg. See Forby's observations on the word grissens, which still signifies stairs in Norfolk; Craven Glossary, v. Grees; and Nares.
page 209 note 2 This name of the badger, which was taken, probably, from its colour, has previously occurred as synonymous with Bawstone. The gloss on the Equivoca of John de Garlandiâ gives the following explanation: “Taxus, quoddam animal, a brocke or a grey.” “Graye, a beest, taxe.” Palsg. “Grisard, a badger, boason, brocke, or gray.” Cotg. “Graio, a gray, a brocke, a badger.” Florio. See Holland's Pliny, viii. c. 38.
page 209 note 3 Croppe or corne, Ms. “Annona est seges unius anni, corne of one yere.” Ortus.
page 209 note 4 “Grayns, granellum, quoddam species est.” Cath. ang. The aromatic qualities of cardamoms, and grains of Paradise, were anciently much esteemed. Chaucer says of the amorous Absolon, when he prepares to court the carpenter's wife,
“But first he cheweth grein and licorise,
To smellen sote, or he had spoke with here.” Miller's Tale.
They are again mentioned in Rom. of the Rose. Gerarde and Parkinson give representations of the Meliguette, greatest sort of cardamoms, Grana Paradisi, or Guinea grains; a pod shaped like a fig, and full of red seed. The true grains of Paradise were brought from the East Indies, but the ordinary larger cardamoms seem to have been likewise so named. “Cardamome, graines, or graine of Paradise; also Ethiopian pepper. Maniguet, melegette, the spice called grains, or grains of Paradise.” Cotg.
page 210 note 1 The fish here intended seems to be the cod or keeling, Morhua vulgaris, Cuv. which is called the green fish, probably from its colour, but as stated in Willughby's Hist. Pisc. p. 166, from its being taken on the coast of Greenland. It abounds in the Northern seas: a multitude of British and Dutch fishermen are occupied in taking and preparing it for transport to all parts of Europe. It is called also habberdeen, Island fish, or stock-fish. “Moruë, the cod, or green fish. Moruē verte, green fish.” Cotg. This green variety, called the Scotch cod, is most common towards the North.
page 210 note 2 In the Golden Legend, Life of St. Paul, there is a relation that the head of the saint was found by a shepherd, who “set it up by the place where his shepe greased.” Palsgrave gives “to grease, or grase, as a horse dothe.” The word, as usually written, is more in accordance with the derivation, Ang.-Sax. ʓrasian, gramine vesci. Forby gives another signification of the verb to graze, as used in Norfolk, namely, to become covered with the growth of grass; in this sense it is given likewise in the Cath. ang. “to gresse, herbere, herbescere.”
page 210 note 3 “To grete, plorare, et cetera ubi to wepe.” Cath. ang.
“There was mad muche gredyng,
Much weoping, much waylyng.” K. Alis. 7882.
Hampole in the Prick of Conscience terms the day of final doom
“þe day of greteyng, and of gouleyng,
þe day of sorowe þat neuer salle blyne.” Harl. MS. 6923, f. 83.
See also R. Brunne, p. 148; the Vision of P. Ploughm. 1029, 1497; Chaucer, Rom. of Rose; and Jamieson, v. Greit. Ang.-Sax. ʓrædan, ʓrætan, clamare.
page 211 note 1 “A grise, porcellus, et cetera ubi a swyne.” Cath. ang. “Marcassin, a young wild boare, a shoot, or grice.” Cotg. Grys occurs repeatedly in this sense, in the Vision of P. Ploughman, 450, 2182, 4353: in the glossary, Mr. Wright refers to the story of Will Gris in the Lanercost Chron. Skinner cites Gouldman's Dict. as the sole authority for the word grice, and proposes as an etymon Belg. griis, cinereus. The word appears to be now obsolete, or retained only in the diminutive griskin. Bp. Kennett in his Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033, gives “grice, a pig; Island. griis, vel grys, succula;” and cites the Yorkshire Dial. p. 42, and Douglas's Virgil. See Jamieson.
page 211 note 2 Neccham, in his treatise de nominibus utensilium, writes as follows respecting female costume: “Camisia sindonis, vel serici, vel bissi, materiam sorciatur (i. capiat.) Penula (pane) mantelli sit ex scisimis (gris), vel experiolis (ekureus), sive scurellis, vel ex cuniculis, vel ex laeronibus (leeruns); cujus urla (penule) sit ex sabilino, &c.” Cott. MS. Titus, D. Xx. with an interlinear French gloss. This kind of fur is mentioned by John de Garlandiâ, in his Dictionary, among the more costly kinds: “Pelliparii—carius vendunt cisimum (al. scimum) et urlas de sabellino;” upon which the following gloss is given, “cisimus est illud quod dicitur Gallice vare, et gris.” Docum. Inédits, Paris sous Philip le Bel, App. 591. The esteem in which it was held appears from M. Paris, who states in his account of the honourable reception of the Tartar envoys by Innocent IV. A.D. 1248, “dedit eis vestes pretiosissimas, quas robas vulgariter appellamus, de escarleto prœelecto, cum penulis et fururiis de pellibus variis cisimorum.” It is not easy to ascertain with precision what is the animal that supplied this fur; it appears to be described by Gesner as the Mus Ponticus, or Venetus, commonly called varius, and the fur of which was termed by the Germans Grauwerck. The terms gris and vair seem, indeed, to be frequently used as synonymous, but many authorities may be cited from which a distinction is apparent. Much curious information on this subject, and on the use of costly furs in general, has been given by Ducange, in the first dissertation appended to Joinville. Chaucer describes the sleeve of the monk as “purfiled at the hond with gris” of the finest quality. Cant. Tales, Prol. 194. Mention occurs of “grey and grys” in Vis. of P. Ploughm. 10,065. See Jamieson, v. Griece. In the Invent. of the Wardrobe of Hen. V. taken 1423, are enumerated various garments “furrez de cristigrey;” probably a variety of gris.
page 212 note 1 An engrafted scion is called in Norfolk a greft, or grift, according to Forby, who proposes as an etymon Ang.-Sax. ʓræft, sculptile. “Grafte, or gryffe of a tree, ente. I gryffe a gryffe, je ente.” Palsg.
page 212 note 2 This fabulous animal is particularly described by Sir John Maundevile, in his account of Bacharie. “In that contree ben many griffounes, more plentee than in ony other contree. Sum men seyn that thei han the body upward as an eagle, and benethe as a lyoune, and treuly thei seyn sothe that thei ben of that schapp. But o griffoun hathe the body more gret, and is more strong thanne viij. lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half, and more gret and strongere than an c. egles, suche as we han amonges us.” He further states that a griffin would bear to its nest a horse, or a couple of oxen yoked to the plough; its talons being like horns of great oxen, and serving as drinking-cups; and of the ribs and wing feathers strong bows were made. See p. 325. Casley observes that in the Cotton Library there was such a cup, 4 ft. in length, silver-hooped, and inscribed “Griphi unguis divo Cuthberto Dunelmensi sacer;” another curiously mounted as a standing cup, on an eagle's leg of silver, is still preserved in the cabinet of antiquities at Paris, in the King's Library, having been brought, at the Revolution, with the spoils of the treasury of St. Denis. A curious account of it is given by Doublet, in his history of that abbey, p. 343. From an ancient MS. Invent. of the treasury of Bayeux Cathedral, it appears that three such talons were there preserved, and on solemn occasions appended to the altar, as precious rarities. A “corne de griffoun” is mentioned in the Kalend. of Exch. iii. 176. The egg was likewise preserved as a valuable curiosity, and used as a goblet; see the lists of the jewels and plate of Edw. III. 1338, ibid. pp.171, 172. “Item, j oef de griffon garnis d'argent, od pie et covercle.” The griffin was assumed by the Le Despenser family, and the upper part appears as the crest on the helm of Hugh le Despenser, who died 1349, exhibited on his tomb at Tewkesbury. Another strikingly designed representation of this curious animal is seen at Warwick, at the feet of Richard Beauchamp, who died 1439.
page 212 note 3 R. Brunne uses this word in the sense of stern, or cruel. He says of Rufus,
“To riche men was he grille, of pouer held no tales.” Langt. Chron. p. 92.
It is thus used by Chaucer. See also Amis and Amiloun, 1275, 1802; Towneley Myst. p. 137; Covent. Myst. p. 230; Reliqu. Ant. ii. 166; Jamieson, v. Grylle.
page 212 note 4 “A gripe, griphes, vultur.” Cath. ang. This obsolete appellation of the vulture has been derived from Ang.-Sax. ʓripan, rapere, but more probably from the Lat. gryps, or the French. “Grype, a beest, egripe.” Palsg. It must, however, be observed that the grype and the griffon are frequently confounded. “Gripho, nomen avis, a grype. Griphes vel gripe, genus animalis, a grype. Vultur est avis magna et rapax: ut dicunt, de aere et non de concubitu concipit, a grype.” Ortus. “Vaultour, a vulture, geire, gripe, or grap; a ravenous bird. Griffon, a gripe or griffon.” Cotg. Holinshed says in the Hist. of the Conquest of Ireland. B. ii. c. 18, that the “griph or geire is a kind of eagle, but such as is ravenous, and feedeth more vpon carren than upon anie foule of his owne preieng; and for his cowardnesse carieth neither the name nor praise apperteining to the true eagle.” The egg of the grype, frequently mentioned as a rarity much valued, and used as a drinking-cup, is probably to be referred to the fabulous animal, the griffon, and may have been merely the egg of the ostrich. Gower relates that Albinus kept the skull of Gurmund, which was fashioned as a goblet,
“And polysshed was eke so clene,
That no sygne of the sculle was sene,
But, as it were, a grype's eye.” Conf. Am. lib. i.
“Item, un coupe fait d'un gripesei garnisez d'argent endorrez, steant sur un pee de iij. kenettes, et le coverkel enaymellez dedeinz et dehors oveij. kenetts, pois ij. lb. vj. unc. di.” List of crown jewels, &c. delivered 1 Hen. IV. 1399. In the same inventory are named six “hanaps,” or drinking cups called “gryppeshey.” Kalend. of Exch. iii. 319, 330. In the will of William Gascoigne, Lord Chief Justice, dated 1419, is mentioned “ciphus, vocatus a gryp ey, ligatus cum argento, et deaurato.” Testam. Ebor. i. 393. In the Invent. of Fountains Abbey, taken at the dissolution, and given by Burton, occurs the item, “A grype schill, with a covering gilt, 27 oz.”
page 213 note 1 “Aratiuncula, fossa parva que instar sulci aratur.” Cath. The term grype occurs in an award, dated 1424, relating to the bounds of lands of the Prior of Bodmin, as follows: “The bounde that comyth thurgh the doune—goyng don to another stone stondynge of olde tyme in the bank of a grype,—and so the diche (called Kenediche) and the gripe, &c.” Mon. Ang. new ed. from Harl. Cart. 57 A. 35. This word is still used in Sussex, and many parts of England. In Norfolk, Forby states that a trench, not amounting to a ditch, is called a grup; if narrower still, a grip; and if extremely narrow, a gripple. See Ray, Brockett, Craven Dial. and Jamieson. A.-S. ʓrep, sulcus.
page 213 note 2 The Winch. MS. agrees here in giving rimolo, a word not found in the Catholicon. Involo is there rendered “in volâ aliquid continere, a volâ quod est media pars manus.”
page 213 note 3 Marchanwte, Ms. The original meaning of the term grocer is defined in the stat. 37 Edw. III. 1363, respecting “Marchauntz nomez grossers,” so called because they “engrossent totes maners des marchandises vendables,” and kept them back in order to sell at an improved price. Stat. of Realm, i. 379. In the following century they were established as a distinct trade; see the “Incorporatio Groceriorum Lond.” Pat. 7 Hen. VI. and another patent in the year following, “pro custod' misterœ Groceriœ.” Before the early part of the XVIth cent. their dealings seem to have become limited to grocery, as now understood: thus Palsgrave gives “grocer, grossier, espicier.” Seplassarius is explained as meaning “negotiator, qui multa venundat.” See Ducange.
page 213 note 4 “Grumelle, milium, gramen solis.” Cath. ang. The common gromwell, or grey millet, Lithospermum officinale, Linn. was formerly esteemed as a remedy for the stone, and other diseases; according to the observations of Gerard, Parkinson, Langham, and similar writers. Tusser enumerates “gromwell seed, for the stone,” among herbs which ought to be found in the farmer's garden. See March's Abstract. See also a treatise on the virtues of plants, written in XVth cent. Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 76, b. where the following description is given: “Granum solis ys an herbe þat me clepyþ gromel, or lyþewale; thys herbe haþ leuys þat be euelong, and a lytyl white flour, and he haþ whyte seede ischape as a ston that me clepyþ a margery perl.” Cotgrave gives “Gremil, grenil, the hearb gromill, grummell, or graymill, peare-plant, lichewall;” and lithospermum is thus rendered by Elyot: “an herb which hath sedes like stones, and groweth in corn, some do suppose it to be grummell.” The word is derived by Skinner “a granis, sc. lapideis, quœ pro seminibus habet, q. d. granile.”
page 214 note 1 Chaucer says, in the Persone's Tale, that “the Proverbe of Solomon likeneth a faire woman that is a fool of hire body, to a ring of gold that is worne in the groine of a sowe.” See also the Towneley Mysteries, p. 89. In Norfolk, according to Forby, a hog's snout is called the grunny. Compare the Craven Glossary, v. Groon, and Brockett, v. Groin. “Groyne of a swyne, groyng.” Palsg. Skinner derives this word from Fr. “Groin de porceau, the snowt of a hog.” Cotg. Bp. Kennett gives “grun, the upper lip of a beast, Bor. Island. gron, bovis labrum superius.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 214 note 2 See the note on Grunton̄', as swyne, hereafter.
page 214 note 3 “Palpo, i. manibus contrectare, to groope. Palpalis, gropeable.” Med.
“Thise curates ben so negligent, and slow
To gropen tendrely a conscience.” Sompnoure's Tale.
“He gropeth unclenly (contractat) children and maydens.” Horm. “I grope a thyng that I do nat se, or proue a thynge, ie taste. I grope, as one dothe the wall or place whan he gothe darkelyng, ie vas à taston.” Palsg. “Tastonner, to feel, grope, touch, handle, stroke. Fouiller, to grope, search, feele all over.” Cotg. Thomas, in his Italian Grammar, gives “tentone, gropyngly, as he that goeth in the derke.” Ang.-Sax. gropian, palpare.
page 214 note 4 The word Gropys is given as it is previously found in the Ms.; but the reading is possibly corrupt. The Winchester MS. instead of Crappe, or gropys, gives crap, or crappis of corn'. “Acus, chaffe, or craps.” Med. ms. cant.
page 215 note 1 “Puls est cibus ex aquâ et farinâ factus; dicitur a pello, quia pellit infirmitatem, Anglice, gruell or pappe.” Ortus. “Grewelle, puls. Growelle, ubi potage.” Cath. ang. “Grus, gruell, or water wherein any corne is boiled, corne-broth. Orgée, barly gruell.” Cotg. In Huloet's Dictionary the term is applied to food that is not farinaceous. “Grewell, Olus, pulmentum, zomas. Grewell, forcet, or stewed broth, offella, offula.
page 215 note 2 In Norfolk and Suffolk the phrase “to lie grubblings,” or with the face downwards, is still in use. See Forby and Moore; see also Jamieson, v. Grufeling. “Grufelynge, supinus. To make grufelynge, supinare.” Cath. ang. “Grouelyng, couchê à dens.” Palsg. In the Towneley Mysteries, where Isaac, about to be sacrificed, quakes for fear of the bright sword that was held over him, Abraham speaks thus:
“Therfor groflynges thou shalle be layde,
Then when I stryke thou shalle not see.” p. 40.
Horman says that “a full stomacke is digest with watche, and slepynge grouelynge (pronâ in faciem dormitione.)” Dr. Turner, in his Herbal, directs that date-stones should be planted “groveling.” In the Romance of Kyng Alis. the word “wombelyng” occurs in a like signification, line 5647. Chaucer uses “groff” repeatedly in the sense of prostrate.
“And groff he fell all platte upon the ground.” Prioresse's T. 13,605.
page 215 note 3 “A grunde, fundamentum, fundus, grunda, grundatorium.” Cath. ang. The word ground has in the old writers the sense of the bottom of anything, as the deep or abyss. Ang.-Sax. ʓrund, fundus. Gower uses the expression “a groundless pit,” and in the Golden Legend it is related that seven devils were sent to burn the ship in which the relics of St. Stephen were translated, “but the aungell of our Lorde plunged them (the devils) downe in to the grounde of the see.” Hence it also signifies the lowest part of a building, the foundation. Robert Brunne speaks of “þe groundwalle þik” of Berwick Castle (Langt. Chron. p. 210.); and in the contract for building Fotheringhay Church, A.D. 1435, the foundations are termed “the ground-werk.” Mon. Ang. iii. Sir John Maundevile gives the Greek inscription which was seen on the rock whereon the cross of the Saviour had been set, thus rendered: “Quod vides est fundamentum (βάσις) totius fidei hujus mundi, that is to seye, that thou seest is ground of alle the feythe of this world.” p. 92. Palsgrave gives “grounde, the botome of a foundation of any thyng, fondation.”
page 216 note 1 “Grounde soppe in lycoure, pain trempé. Groundes, lyse of any lycour, lie.” Palsg. The term appears to imply a sop or sippet, by which the dregs, still called the grounds, may be soaked up.
page 216 note 2 A grup or groop signifies in Norfolk a trench, narrower than a ditch, as has been observed in the note on the word Gryppe. In the North the term retains the signification assigned to it above. See Brockett, Craven Glossary, and Jamieson. Bp. Kennett likewise notes this use of the word: “groop, or grupe, a ditch or trench, especially that which runs across the length of the byer, or cow-house; Bor.” Lansd. MS. 1033. Skinner suggests the derivation from Ang.-Sax. ʓroepe, latrina, scobs. “Minsorium, a grope.” Ortus. “A grupe, minsorium.” Cath. ang. Gouldman, in his Dictionary, 1664, gives “a groope in stables and houses, minthorium,” from “minthos, dung or ordure.” Elyot. Μίνθος, stercus. Ugucio gives the same explanation which is found in the Catholicon, “minsatorium, locus ad mingendum, quod recipit urinam.” The reading of the Winchester MS. agrees with that of the Harl. text, musitatorium, but the word appears to require correction.
page 216 note 3 “Runco, to grope. Runco, a gropere. Runcina, a wedehoke, and a gropynge yrone.” Med. ms. cant. “Runcina est quoddam artificium fabri lignarii gracile et recurvum, quo cavantur tabule, ut una alteri connectatur; Anglice, a gryppynge yron.” Ortus. “A grupynge yrene, runcina.” Cath. ang. This implement, which, as it has been observed in the note on the word Formowre, was probably similar to what is now termed a gouge, called by Palsgrave “formour or grublyng yron;” and used to form grooves or incisions. Ang.-Sax. græp, sulcus. Palsgrave gives the verb “I growpe (Lydgate) sculpe, or suche as coulde graue, groupe, or carue: this word is nat vsed in comen spetche.”
page 217 note 1 In the Ortus agromellum and granomellum are rendered “growte;” and idromellum is explained thus: “potus ex aquâ et melle, Anglicè mede or growte.” “Growte, idromellum, agromellum, acromellum, granomellum.” Cath. ang. This term properly implies ground malt, or the first infusion preparatory to brewing, which is thus distinguished in Harl. MS. 1002, f. 114. “Worte, sïromellum, sed growte dicas agromellum.” Ang.-Sax. ʓrut, far, condimentum cerevisiœ. In medieval Latin it was called grutum, or grudum; see in Rokewode's Hist. Suff. pp. 31, 32, a document in which mention occurs of grudum ordei. In old French malt was called gru, or grust, according to Roquefort; but Palsgrave gives the word “grout that serueth to brewyng, in Fraunce there is none vsed.” G. de Bibelesworth, who wrote in the reign of Edw. I. gives a curious account of the mode of brewing, in which “grout” occurs as a gloss on the word “berzize,” which is not found in the Glossaries, and may possibly be a barbarous compound of bere, a drink, or ber, barley, and zithum, which, according to Borel, was the Gaulish appellation of beer. The term grout is not used in the detailed account of brewing given by Harrison in the description of England, B. ii. c. 6, Holinsh. i. 169. In the North, according to Coles, Ray, and the Craven Glossary, grout signifies wort of the last running. Bp. Kennett gives the following note: “Grout, growt: in Leicesshire the liquor with malt infused for ale and beer, before it is fully boiled, is called grout, and before it is tunned up in the vessel, is called wyrt, or wort. A.-Sax. ʓrut, nova cervisia. They have in the West a thick sort of ale, which they call grout-ale, and it is in most places a common proverb, as thick as growt. Kilian, grauwt, condimentum cerevisiœ.” Lansd. MS. 1033. The term was not, perhaps, exclusively confined to denote farinaceous mixtures for the purpose of brewing; thus land in Addington, Surrey, was held by the serjeanty of making in an earthen pot in the royal kitchen, on the day of coronation, a mess called “diligrout,” as stated by Blount, in his Jocular Tenures, p. 50. In the Plac. Cor. 39 Hen. III. it is called “le mess de gyron,” or if compounded with fat, it was termed “maupigyrnun.”
page 217 note 2 In the Wicliffite version the following use of this verb is found, Jos. x. 21: “No man was hardi to grucche (eþer to make pryuy noise, mutire, Vulg.) aɜenus þe sones of Israel.” Sir John Maundevile speaks of “the welle that Moyses made with his hond in the desertes, whan the people grucched, for thei fownden no thing to drynke.” It it said in the Golden Legend, that “when the herte is full of grace, hym oughte not grutche by impacyence.” In the Vision of Piers P. and Chaucer's works, the word occurs frequently. “Fremeo, i. murmurare, to grudge. Murmuro, to grutche. Susurrium dicitur murmuratio, a grutchynge.” Ortus. “To gruche, dedignari, murmurare, mussare, susurrare. A grucher, susurro,” &c. Cath. ang. Palsgrave gives the verb “I grutche, groudge, repyne, or murmure against a thyng; ie grommelle, &c. I haue a greater thruste than I was wonte, as sycke folkes that be grutched of an axes. I groudge, as one dothe yt hath a groudgyng of the axes, ie frilonne, and ie fremis. I groyne, I grutche, or murmure agaynst a thyng, ie grongne, ie grommelle.” Skinner would seek a derivation from the French. “Gruger, to grudge, repine, mutter.” Cotg.
page 218 note 1 “Grunnio, to groone, as a sowe. Grunnitus, gronynge.” Med. ms. cant. Ang.-Sax. ʓrunnan, grunnire. Horman says that “swyne wode for loue groyneth (subant) and let passe from them a poyson called aprine.” Compare Groynynge of swyne, above. Palsgrave gives the verb “I grunte, as a horse dothe whan he is spored, or as any beest dothe whan he complayneth, ie groigne, and ie gronce, expressed in I grudge.”
page 218 note 2 Gurte, Ms. In all the other MSS. as likewise in the printed editions, the word grut is given, which seems to be the correct reading, as appears also by its place in alphabetical order. Ang.-Sax. ʓreot, pulvis.
“The toun dykes on every syde,
They wer depe, and ful wyde,
Full of grut, no man myghte swymme.” R. Coer de Lion, 4339.
page 218 note 3 Various etymologies have been proposed of the word gugaw, in its ordinary sense; “Crepundia, toyes or gugawes for children, as rattels, clappers,” &c. Junius, by Higins. “Babiole, a trifle, whim-wham, gugaw, or small toy for a child to play withall.” Cotg. Skinner suggests Ang.-Sax. ʓeʓaf, nugœ, or heawʓas, simulachra, or the French word joyau, but gogue or gogaille seems more nearly to resemble it, and signifies, according to Roquefort, “bagatelle, plaisanterie. Gogoyer, se réjouir,” &c. It would, however, seem that the word is here given as synonymous with flute, and the inquiry suggests itself whether it had originally denoted some musical instrument, and thence been used in a more general signification. According to Roquefort there was a wind instrument called gigue, and this statement corresponds with the observation of Ferrari, that giga, Ital. may be derived from γίγρας, a kind of flute. It is singular that, according to Brockett and Jamieson, a Jew's harp is called in N. Britain a gewgaw, but in that instance, as likewise here, in the Promptorium, it seems probable that the term is used merely in reference to that with which idle disport may be taken, like trifles in childhood.
page 218 note 4 “A gunne, fundibalum, murusculum. A gunner, fundibalarius, fundibalista.” Cath. ang. written A.D. 1483. The difficulty of ascertaining with precision the period of the introduction of engines from which missiles were propelled by means of gunpowder, arises chiefly from the circumstance, to which allusion is made by Selden, that the term gun, supposed by Somner to be merely a contraction of mango, or mangona, may have been used to denote some engine of war, long before the application of gunpowder to such purpose. Mr. Douce observes that the earliest mention of “gonnes” is found in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, line 3268; but in his note on that passage he says that it must not be concluded that they were used with powder, as originally they might have been engines of the catapult kind. Weber, Metr. Rom. iii. 306. The same remark applies to the account of the siege sustained by Kynge Aragus, who
——“ordeyned hym ful well
With gonnes, and grete stones rounde
Were throwen downe to the grounde.” Syr Tryamoure, 955.
In the Avowynge of Kyng Arther, a “gunne” is mentioned, the effect of which is compared to lightning, but it is still doubtful whether the term should be understood to imply a projectile impelled by any ignited substance, or merely filled therewith.
“There came fliand a gunne,
And lemet as the leuyn.” St. 65, edit. by Mr. Robson.
It seems very probable that the missile here intended was a tube filled with Greek fire, or feu volant. In several MSS. of the Practica of John Arderne, a surgeon of eminence t. Edw. III. instructions are found for compounding “fewes Gregois” and “fewes volants:” the latter being a liquid mixture, described as of an oily nature, with which a pipe being filled, and ignited by a match, would fly in any direction. A figure is given in the margin. He proceeds to describe “fewe volant” of another kind. “Pernez j. li. de soufre vif, de charbones de saux, (i. weloghe.) ij. li., de salpetre, vj. li. si les fetez bien et sotelment moudre sur un piere de marbre, puis bultez le poudre parmy vn sotille couerchief. Cest poudre vault à gettere pelottes de fer, ou de plom, ou d'areyne, oue vn instrument qe l'em appelle gonne.” See Sloane MSS. 335, 795. A detailed account of passages in ancient documents or chronicles which throw light on this obscure subject has been given by Sir S. Meyrick, in his Crit. Enquiry, and a paper on the history of hand fire-arms, Archæol. xxii.; and likewise by Mr. Archibald, in his description of ancient artillery discovered on the coast of Lancashire, Archæol. xxviii. It may here suffice to state that gunpowder was known in Western Europe about the middle of the XIIIth cent.; and that the earliest recorded instance of its use in war, in this country, appears to have been in the first expedition of Edw. III. against the Scots, in 1327, when artillery, termed by Barbour “crakys of wer,” was employed. See Jamieson. There can be no doubt that Chaucer uses the term “gonne,” to signify an engine charged with gunpowder; as in the following comparison:
“Swift as a pellet out of a gonne,
When fire is in the pouder ronne.” House of Fame, B. iii.
The Household of Edw. III. as appears by the ordinances which commence 1344, printed by the Ant. Soc., comprised “Ingyners lvij. Artellers vj. Gonners vj.” Their daily pay in time of war was 6d. The invention of hand fire-arms is assigned by Sir S. Meyrick, on the authority of Billius, to the Lucquese, in 1430; (Archæol. xxii. 60) yet a prior use of some weapons of the sort seems to be indicated. In an Inventory of the arms and effects of Sir Simon Burley, taken apparently after his execution, 1388, and now in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, among “petites choses à Baynard Castell,” is named “j. petit gonne de feer.” In the Pell Records, 1 Hen. IV. 1400, payments appear for “quarell gunnes,” at 7s. each; for saltpetre, sulphur, and wadding; and the contemporary evidence of Monstrelet shews that “bastons à feu” were among the arms of the English sent to the relief of the siege of Orleans, in 1428. Hand-guns are named among purchases for the defence of Holy Island, 1446; and were used at the siege of Caistor, in Norfolk, about 1459. Paston Lett. iv. 316. In the version of Vegecius attributed to Trevisa, and completed 1408, in the account of military engines, allusion is made to “grete gonnes that shete now a daies stones of so grete peyse that no walle may with-stonde them; as hathe be wele shewede bothe in the Northe cuntre, and eke in the werres of Wales.” B. Iv. c. 22, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII.
page 220 note 1 The term habergeon appears properly to be a diminutive of hawberk, although here given as synonymous. Wace, in his Roman de Rou, written about 1160, describes the Conqueror as armed, at the battle of Hastings, with a “boen haubert;” but Odo, his half-brother, Bishop of Bayeux, who could not decorously assume the complete military equipment, and rode with a staff merely to stimulate the combatants, provided himself with this partial defence.
“Un haubergeon avoit vestu,
De sor une chemise blanche.” T. ii. 220, edit. by Pluquet.
The precept of Randolph III., Earl of Chester, to his barons, about the close of the XIIIth cent. requires that their knights and free tenants should have “loricas, et haubergella;” and the ordinance of Hen. III. 1252, “super juratis ad arma,” directs that every man, according to the rate of his land and chattels, should arm himself either with the lorica, the habergetum, called also in this document haubercus, or the perpunctum. The stat. of Winchester, 13 Edw. I. 1285, makes the same distinction between the hauberg', haubergeon, and parpoint, to be used by the three classes respectively, according to their assessment. Stat. of Realm, i. 97. From these authorities it is evident that the habergeon was a defence of an inferior description to the hawberk; and when the introduction of plate armour in the reign of Edw. III. had supplied more convenient and effectual defences for the legs and thighs, the long skirt of the hawberk became superfluous; from that period the habergeon alone seems to have been worn. This, in its turn, being superseded by the cuirass, was reduced to the mere apron of mail; but at the time when the Promptorium was compiled, the expensive nature of plate armour caused its use to be restricted, and combatants of the lower classes were content to arm themselves with the brigandine, or the habergeon. The value of three “hauburiounes,” in 1374, was 13 marks: See Invent. of Edw. de Appelby, Sloane Cart. xxxi. 2. Milan was celebrated for the manufacture of this defence: in a document dated 33 Hen. VI. relating to armour delivered out of the Tower, are mentioned “haberg'ons, some of Meleyn, and some of Westewale,” that is, probably, Westphalia, or the Westerwald, where the iron-works of Solingen have long been in repute. Archæol. xvi. 125. In the Inventory of Sir John Fastolfe's armoury, 1459, are likewise found “iij. harburyones of l'Milayne.” Archæol. xxi. 271. In the Wicliffite version Goliath is said to have had “a brasun basynet on his heed, and he was cloþid wiþ an haburion hokid (eþer mailid, loricâ squamatâ,” Vulg.) “He shal cloþe riɜtfulnesse for an haburioun (pro thorace, Vulg.) and he shal take certeyn doom for a basynet.” Sapiens, v. 15. “Bilix, lorica que contexitur duobus liciis accumulatis, a hawbergion; ita trilix. Pancerium est lorica, an haberyon.” Ortus. “An haberion, lorica; hec trilex est lorica ex tribus (liciis) confecta.” Cath. ang. “Haulbergyn of mayle, aulbergon, haulberion.” Palsg. See Ducange, v. Halsberga; and Jamieson, v. Awbyrchowne.
page 220 note 2 This dish, now considered as almost exclusively a Northern delicacy, seems to have been anciently in more general esteem. A curious metrical recipe is found in the Liber Cure cocorum, Sloane MS. 1986, f. 103. “Omasus, i. tripa vel ventriculus qui continet alia viscera, a trype, or a podynge, or a wesaunt, or hagges. Tucetum, hagas; tuceterius, hagas maker.” Ortus. “Haggas, a podyng, caliette de mouton.” Palsg. “Gogue, a sheep's paunch, and thence, a haggas made of good herbs, choptlard, spices, eggs, and cheese.” Cotg. “Tucetum, a meate made with chopped fleshe, lyke to a gygot, or alowe.” Elyot. See Jamieson, and Dr. Hunter's Culina famulatrix Medicinœ.
page 221 note 1 Forby explains hay-net as signifying in Norfolk “a hedge net, a long low net, to prevent hares or rabbits from escaping to covert, in or through hedges.” See also Moore. In a lease dated 1572, in the manor of Hawsted, Suffolk, the landlord reserves the right of “hawking, haying,” &c. that is, rabbit-netting. Cullum's Hawsted, p. 198. “Haye, a net for connes, bourcettes à chasser.” Palsg. “Tendere plagas, to pytche hayes, or nettes. Casses, nets which may be called haies.” Elyot. “Toiles, toils, or a hay to inclose or intangle wild beasts in. Pan, a toyle or hay wherewith wild beasts are caught.” Cotg. The word is doubtless derived from Ang.-Sax. hæʓ, or heʓe, septum. In the edition of the Ortus in Mr. Wilbraham's library, clausura is rendered “a closse, or a heye.” Haye occurs elsewhere in the sense of an enclosure; thus in the gloss on the “liber vocatus equus,” called in the Promptorium “Distigius,” written by John de Garlandiâ, occurs “Cimiterium, chyrche-haye.” Harl. MS. 1002. In the Golden Legend it is said, “he had—foule way thorugh hayes and hedges, woodes, stones, hylles and valeys.” f. 68, b.
page 221 note 2 “Harife, rubium minor, herba est.” Cath. ang. The Galium aparine is called in the North, according to Ray, “Hariff and catchweed, goose-grease;” according to Parkinson it was reckoned by the old botanists as a kind of madder; but he does not give the name hayryf, which is probably derived from the asperity of its stalks. In some places it is called hairough. Palsgrave gives “haylife, an herbe.”
page 221 note 3 “Cilicium, velamen factum de pilis caprarum, Anglicè a heere.” Ortus. “An haire, cilicium.” Cath. ang. “Hayre for parfite men, hayre.” Palsg.
“Hastily þei hent hem on heiɜresse ful rowe,
Next here bare bodi, and bare fot þei went.”
Will. and Werw. p. 172.In the version of Vegecius is a description of the military engine called the “snayle or welke (testudo), a frame of goode tymber, shaped square, keuerede and hillede alle a-boute wythe rawe hides, or with feltes, and heyres, for drede of brynnyng.” Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. f. 105. Among the trades, in the order of the pageants of the Play of Corpus Christi, at York, 1415, “hayresters” are mentioned. Drake, App. In the Golden Legend the term hayre is of frequent occurrence, signifying a garment of mortification. St. Thomas clothed himself with an “hard heyre, full of knottes, whiche was his sherte, and his breche was of the same.” And again, during grievous pestilence, “they couered the crosse and the auters with blyssed hayres; and thus we sholde take on vs clothynge of penaunce.” In medieval Latin a shaggy garment was termed haira, according to Ducange. Ang.-Sax. hæra, cilicium.
page 221 note 4 Chaucer describes a cart that had stuck in a deep way,
“The carter smote, and cryde as he were wode,
Heit Scot! Heit Brok! what, spare ye for the nones?” Frere's Tale.
In the Eastern counties, according to Forby and Moore, the ejaculation Hait-wo! or Height! is now used only to turn a cart-horse to the left; and Ree! is given by the latter as a command which causes a movement to the right. Bp. Kennett gives “to hite up and down, to run idly about, North; Hiting, gadding abroad. Sax. ytinʓ, peregre. In Yorkshire for Geè oo, the carters say Hite and reè. Height nor ree, neither go nor drive, spoken of a wilful person.” Lansd. MS. 1033. See Yorksh. Dial. p. 58. Hayht is not found in any other MS. of the Promptorium. Harry appears to be the imperative mood of the word Haryyn̄', which occurs subsequently; or possibly the out-cry, haro, haroll. Both the ejaculations above given occur in the Towneley Mystery of the death of Abel, p. 9, where Cain and his plough-boy are represented as tilling the ground, and the latter cries to the horses, “Harrer, Morelle, iofurthe, hyte!”
page 222 note 1 Among the effects of Hen. V. were “ij. tentes de bloy carde, &c. ovec j. porche, et j. aley.” 1423, Rot. Parl. iv. 240. In a letter to Sir John Paston, 7 Hen. VII. it is said respecting preparations for the expedition into France, “ye Kyng sendythe ordynaunce dayly to ye see syde, and hys tents and alys be a makynge faste;” also that great provision was made by the gentry, who were to accompany him, “for hors harnes, tentes, halys, gardyuyens, carts,” &c. Past. Lett. v. 412. Among the requisites provided for the Earl of Northumberland, in the French campaign in 1513, at the siege of Therouenne, are named “haylles, tents, and pauillions.” Ant. Rep. iv. 364. See also Hall's Chron. 12 Hen. VIII. p. 618, last edit. “Hale in a felde for men, tref. Hall, a long tent in a felde, tente.” Elyot gives “scena, a pauyllion, or haule.” The hangings of a chamber, as it has been observed in the note on the word Dorcere, were termed hallings, in Latin halœ, alœ, or aulœa. “An hallynge, auleum, anabatrum.” Cath. ang.
page 222 note 2 Compare Eyɜtyndele, and Tynte. Ray, Bp. Kennett, in his Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033, and Grose mention another name for the same measure, in use in the North, namely, “frundele, a measure of two pecks.” As it is called eyɜtyndele, because it is the eighth part of a coom, so also furundel, or frundele, a corruption of furthindele, as being the fourth part of a bushel. Ang.-Sax. feorðan, quartus. See Cowel's Interpr. v. Furundellus. The term “eytendele” occurs in the Hist. Eliensis, where it is recorded of Will. de Longchamp, Bp. of Ely, who died 1197, “ordinavit ut in die anniversarii sui dentur pauperibus xiij. eytendeles de frumento.” Angl. Sacra, i. 633.
page 222 note 3 “Halfe a fardynge, calcus, calculus, minutum.” Cath. ang. See the notes on the word Cu. Sherwood, in his Eng. French Dict. 1632, gives “a cue, la moitié d'un fardin, mot usé seulement des escoliers d'Oxford.” There is a proverbial saying of contempt, “I would kick him for half a farthing;” but the cue seems to have been as imaginary as the bodle, of like supposed value, and in the North familiarly mentioned as if it really existed. See Brockett, and the other North-country Glossarists.
page 222 note 4 Halo, halah, or healo, signifies in the Northern counties bashful, backward, or fearful. See Brockett, Craven, and Hallamshire Dialects. “Honteux, shamefull, bashfull, helo, modest,” &c. Cotg. Jamieson gives heily in the sense of proud, Ang.-Sax. healic, excelsus, and the verb to heally, to abandon, or forsake, which seems to approach towards the signification of the word given above, be-hatyd.
page 223 note 1 See Strenkyl, hereafter. “Halywater sprincle, uespillon, aspergoyr.” Palsg.
page 223 note 2 In Laɜamon, Arthur says that he would go into Avalon, to Argante the fair,
“for heo sculde mid haleweie
helen his wunden.” Vol. ii. p. 546, Madden's edit.
Compare the corresponding passage, vol. iii. p. 144, where it is said that she should make him all whole with “haleweiɜe drenchen.” “Balsamus est arbor, Gall. baumere; balsamum gummi est predicti arboris, Gall. baume, Ang. haliwey.” Sloane MS. 5, f. 3. “Balsamum, & c. haliwhey.” Arund. MS. 42, f. 93. See Treacle hereafter.
page 223 note 3 This word seems to be taken from Ang.-Sax. heal, angulus, or, as Tyrwhitt proposes, from hylca, sinus. It is used repeatedly by Chaucer.
“As yonge clerkys, that ben likerous
To reden artes that ben curious,
Seken in every halke and every herne
Particular sciences for to lerne.” Frankel. Tale, v. 11, 433.
page 223 note 4 Bp. Kennett has the following note, Lansd. MS. 1033. “Haulm, straw left in an esh, or gratten; stubble, thatch. Sax. hælme, culmus, calamus; Isl. halmur, palea.” Ray gives “haulm or helm, stubble gathered after the corn is inned.”
page 223 note 5 “Celeuma est clamor nauticus, vel cantus, vel heuylaw romylawe (ut heue and howe, rombylow,” edit. 1518.) Ortus. In the MS. of the Medulla in the Editor's possession, “heualow, rummylow.” See Ritson's Dissert. on Anc. Songs, p. li.
“They rowede hard, and sungge ther too,
With heuelow and rumbeloo.” Rich. C. de Lion, 2521.
“Your mariners shall synge arowe,
Hey how and rumbylowe.” Squyre of lowe degree.
It occurs likewise in Skelton's Bowge of Court; Cocke Lorelle's bote, &c. This cry appears not to have been exclusively nautical, for it forms the burden of a ballad on the Battle of Bannocksburn, 1314, the alternate stanzas of which, as given in Caxton's Chron. terminate thus, “with heuelogh—with rombilogh;” or, as in Fabyan, “with heue alowe—with rumbylow.” “A cor et à cry, by might and maine, with heaue and hoe.” Cotg. Hence seems to be derived the surname of Stephen Rummelowe, Constable of Nottingham Castle, 45 Edw. III. mentioned in Issue Roll of Exch. 1369. Compare Crye of schypmen, that ys clepyd haue howe.
page 224 note 1 The noun halse, the neck, and the verb to halse, to embrace, are used by most of the early writers. See R. Brunne, Chaucer, the Vision of P. Ploughman, &c. Ang.- Sax. hals, collum. “Amplexus, a clyppynge, or a halsynge.” Ortus. “An halsynge, amplexus; to halse, amplexare. An hailsynge, salutacio; to hailse, salutare.” Cath.Ang. “Halsyng, accollée. I take one in myn armes, I halse him, i'embrasse. Halse me aboute the necke, my sonne, and thou shalte haue a fygge, accollez moy, &c. I haylse or greete, ie salue.” Palsg. The verb to hailse occurs in this sense of saluting in the Vision of P. Ploughman, 4816, 4918. See Jamieson.
page 224 note 2 Compare Crokyd, or crypylle, or lame, above. “Halte, cadax, claudus. To halte, claudicare, varicare. An halter, claudicarius; duplicarius, qui ex utrâque parte claudicat.” Cath. Ang. Instances of the use of the word “crokyd” in the sense of lame may be found in Syr Gowghter, line 673; Sir Tryamoure, line 228. So likewise in the Wicliffite version “claudum” is rendered “crokid,” Matt. xviii. 8.
page 224 note 3 In the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said that “halfendele the profites (dimidia pars) of the knyghtes sowde shulde be kept vnder the principalle baner.” B. ii. c. 19. In a petition from the Commons, 1442, it is said respecting the appropriation of a penalty, that “the halvyndele” should belong to the King, and the other moiety to the party suing the offender. Rot. Parl. v. 54. See also Awntyrs of Arthure, 625; edit. by Mr. Robson; Emare, 442; Voiage of Sir John Maundevile, pp. 200, 219. Ang.-Sax. healf, dimidium, and dæl, pars.
page 224 note 4 In the relation of the deception practised upon Olympias by Neptanabus, disguised as Jupiter Ammon, it is said,
“Neptanabus his charme hath y-nome,
And takith him haums of a dragon,
From his scholdron, to his hele adoun.” K. Alis. 385.
The credulous Queen having no suspicion of deceit, the magician leaps upon her couch, and throws aside “his dragoun's hame.” Ang.-Sax. hama, cutis. “Induvie, sloghes, or the homes of adders.” Med. Ms. Cant. Compare Flake, above; where the King's Coll. MS. adds the synonym hame. Eye signifies here an egg. See Ey, ovum.
page 225 note 1 Epir hedium is in the Ortus explained to be “a whele barowe, or a rounge;” but the vehicle here intended is without wheels, and is still used in many parts of England. Tusser includes both hand-barrow and wheel-barrow among the husbandly furniture, as detailed in September's husbandry. Among the quaint riddles entitled “the Demaundes Joyous,” W. de Worde, 1511, is this “Demaunde. Whan antecryst is come in to this worlde, what thynge shall be hardest to hym to knowe? R. A hande-barowe, for of that he shall not knowe whiche ende shall goo before.” “Hande barowe, ciuiére.” Palsg.
page 225 note 2 The substantive Brede of measure has occurred already. Ang.-Sax. bræd, latitudo. Compare Wyyd, large yn brede. “Brede or squarenesse, croisure.” Palsg.
page 225 note 3 “Pinax, a hand table.” Med. Ms. Cant. Pugillaris is explained in the Ortus to be “tabula manualis. Pinax, i. pugillaris, ephimeris, tabula manualis ex pind facta.” Tablets, according to the present term, were formerly called a pair of tables, being formed like a diptych of two folding leaves; by the Réglemens sur les arts de Paris, t. Louis IX. 1254, it appears that they were usually of wood. It is there enjoined that “ceus qui font tables à escrire” shall not make them of mixed materials, that is, tables “de quoi li un fuelles soit de buis, et li autre de fanne; ni mettre avec buis autre manière de fust, qui ne soit plus chier que buis, c'est à savoir, cadre benus, brésil, et ciprès.” Documens Inédits, ed. Depping, p. 173. “Payre of writyng tables, tablettes.” Palsg.
page 225 note 4 “Hande worme, ciron.” Palsg. Nicot explains it to be a little worm “engendré d'humeur acre et aduste en diuers endroits de la personne, mais plus communément és mains, qui ronge et fait demanger ou il est concrée: creredo, acarus,” &c. See Cotgrave.
page 226 note 1 “Cophinus, hamper.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “Calatus, a basket, or a hamper, or a panyer.” Ortus. Cartallus is explained in the Catholicon to be the same as fiscella. Compare Fyschelle, above. “Hamper, panier, dosier, escrayn.” Palsg. “Banne, benne, a maund, hamper, flasket, or great banket. Calathe, a basket, pannier, or hamper of osiers.” Cotg. The term has been supposed to be a corruption of handpanier, but, as Ducange observes, v. Hanaperium, it seems to have denoted a large vessel, or place for storing up goblets, hanapi, Ang.-Sax. hnæppa, calix. The hanaper office in the Court of Chancery derives its name from the hanaperium, a large basket wherein writs were deposited. Among places of deposit, in which instruments were stored away in the Exchequer Treasury, are named “hanaperia de virgis—of twyggys.” Sir F. Palgrave has given a representation of one, date 3 Rich. II. 1380. Kalend. of Exch. i. pl. ii. See also payments to the keeper “hanaperii cancellar' pro hanaperio ligneo emp' pro lit. pat. imponendis;” and for the horse that carried it. Lib. Gard. 28 Edw. I. p. 359.
page 226 note 2 “Arrabo, i. vadimonium, an hansall; et proprie dicitur bona arra. Pars arrabo venit precii, dum res bona venit, i. venduntur. Strena est bona sors, Anglice hansell.” Ortus. “A hanselle, arabo, strena; to hanselle, strenare, arrare. Erls, arabo, arra, &c. ubi hanselle. To yife erls, arrare.” Cath. Ang. “Hansell, estrayne. I hansell one, I gyue him money in a mornyng for suche wares as he selleth, ie estrene,” Palsg. “Estreiné, handselled, that hath the handsell or first use of.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. handselen, mancipatio. It implies generally a delivery in hand, an earnest, the first use of a possession; and likewise a reward or bribe, as in Vis. of P. Ploughman, 3128; and the Poem on the deposition of Rich. II. edit. by Mr. Wright, p. 30. Sir F. Madden explains “honde-selle” to mean a gift conferred at a particular season. Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, 66. “Hansell, or a newe yeares gifte, strena.” Huloet.
page 226 note 3 Forby gives the verb to hap, to wrap up, happing, a covering, and hap-harlot, a coarse coverlit. Ang.-Sax. hæpian, cumulare. The last word is used by Harrison, in a passage which has been cited above, in the note on Daggysweyne. See also Huloet, Baret's Alvearie, and Skinner. The verb occurs in King Edward and the Shepherd.
“The schepherd keppid his staf ful warme,
And happid it euer undur his harme.” Hartshorne's Metr. Tales, 71.
John Paston writes as follows: “I pray yow ye woll send me hedir ij. elne of worsted for dobletts, to happe me thys colde wynter.” Past. Lett. iv. 91.
page 227 note 1 “Atrox, cruelle or haryous. Immanis, haraious, grete, cruelle, or dredefulle.” Med. Ms. Cant. “Harageus or gret.” Editor's MS. Compare the verb Haryyn̄'.
page 227 note 2 “Equiricia, a harasse of horse.” Med. Ms. Cant. “An haras of horse, equaricia, equicium.” Cath. Ang. See Ducange, v. Haracium. “Haras, a race; horses and mares kept only for breed.” Cotg. In the liber vocatus femina, MS. Coll. Trin. Cant. B. 14, 39, under the title of assemblies of beasts, it is said, “Haraz dit homme dez poleynez, Haras seyþ man of coltys.” In the Coventry Mystery of the Nativity, a citizen of Bethlehem directs Joseph and Mary in these words:
“ɜondyr is an hous of haras that stant be the way,
Amonge the bestys herboryd may ɜe be.” p. 147.
page 227 note 3 To harry or harr, to drag by force, is a verb frequently used by the early writers, and still used in the North. Hampole says in the Prick of Conscience,
“And deuylles salle harre hym vp evene
In the ayre als he sulde stegh to heuene.” Harl. MS. 6923, f. 62.
See Towneley Myst. p. 247. Fabyan says, in his relation of the murder of Bp. Stapylton, 1325, “the corps of ye sayde bysshop, with hys ij. servauntes, were haryed to Thamys syde, where the sayd bysshop had begonne to edyfye a toure,” &c. Part. vii. The following passage occurs in Golding's version of Beza's book of Christian questions, 1572; “Whereas the same (the will) ought to be ruled by reason, as by a wagonguider; yet, notwithstanding, how often doth it harie him headlong awaye?” Palsgrave gives the verb, “I harye, or mysse entreate, or hale one, ie harie. Why do you harye the poore fellowe on this facyon? I harry, or carry by force, ie trayne, and ie hercelle. He haryeth hym aboute, as if he were a traytour.” Ang.-Sax. hergian, vastare. Forby gives harriage, signifying confusion.
page 227 note 4 This term did not originally denote a dissolute woman, but a low fellow, a buffoon, a varlet. See Sir Cleges, line 349; Ywaine and Gawin, line 2404; Chaucer, and the Vis. of P. Ploughman. Fox speaks of a company of sectarians who were named harlots, in the reign of Hen. III. Acts and Mon. i. 305; Lambarde's Peramb. of Kent, 178. “Gerro, a tryfelour, or a harlott.” Med. Ms. Cant. “An harlott, balator, rusticus, gerro, mima, joculator, pantomima, parasitaster, histrix, nugator, scurrulus, manducus. An harlottry, lecacitas, inurbanitas, &c. To do harlottry, scurrari.” Cath. Ang.
page 228 note 1 The Campanula trachelium, Linn. is called by Parkinson throat-wort or haske-wort. Skinner gives Hask-wort, Trachelium, forte a sapore austero. Compare Dan. Sw. and Dutch, harsk, rank, or rusty. Haskard, coarse or unpolished, appears to be hence derived. Horman says that “Homer declarying a very folysshe, and an haskard felowe (ignavum) under the person of Thersyte, sayth that he was streyte in the shulders, and copheeded lyke a gygge.” Harsh is sometimes written harrish; thus Dr. Turner, in his Herbal, 1562, says that “dates, if they be eaten, they ar good for the harrishenes, or roughnes of the throte;” and of plums, “they that ar litle ones, and harde, and harrish tarte, ar sterk noughts.” “Sorbum, an harryshe peare.” Elyot.
page 228 note 2 “Ulphus, hassok.” Med. Forby states that, in Norfolk, coarse grass, which grows in rank tufts on boggy ground, is termed hassock. In the foundation charter of Sawtrey Abbey, A.D. 1147, Simon, Earl of Northampton grants certain lands adjoining Whittlesea mere, the boundaries being minutely described: in one place the limit is defined to be “indirecte per transversum marisci, usque ad tercium hassocum a firmâ terrâ inter mariscum et Higgeneiam.” The cartulary of Ramsey supplies a repetition of this statement, contained in the attestation of Alex. Maufe regarding the disputed limits of the donation made by the Earl, his lord; in this document the Latinised word hassocus twice occurs. “Pastores vero nostri super exteriores hassocos versus Walton inter pratum et mariscum debent stare, et animalia sua usque ad pedes suos venire permittere.” Mon. Angl. orig. ed. t. i. pp. 850, 852, 853. Ducange, not being acquainted with the locality, interprets the word as denoting the kind of stone called tufa. In an account relating to the castle of Guysnes, in 1465, among the miscell. records of the Queen's Rememb. A statement appears as to the clearing away of “cirparum ac arundinum, segges, soddes et hassokes,” which grew to the obstruction of a certain mill-course. The word is still used in N. Britain. See Jamieson.
page 228 note 3 Haste, yn sodence, Ms. Compare Sodeynte, hereafter.
page 228 note 4 Polbere is given hereafter as another name of a kind of barley (Ang.-Sax. bere, hordeum) termed hasty from its being early, and coming to maturity in the third month after it is sown. Gerarde refers the name Trimestre to the Amil-corn, or starch-corn, Triticum amyleum, cultivated in Germany and the Low Countries to make starch; but according to Parkinson the grain here alluded to appears to be the naked barley, Hordeum vernum, which, as he observes, “is not seene or sowne by any almost in this land,” called in Germany Zeytgerste, or Titgerste, small barley, or “one for the present.” It appears, however, that in Tusser's time the early variety was cultivated in the Eastern counties.
“Sow barley in March, in April, and May,
The latter in sand, and the sooner in clay.” March's husbandry.
page 229 note 1 The enumeration of the household of Hen. II. in the Constit. domus Regis, Liber niger Scacc. Hearne, i. 348, comprises “De magnâ coquinâ—host' (ostiarius?) hastelariœ,” his three men, and the “hastalarius.” The latter seems to be the same as the “hastator,” named in the ordinance for the household of Louis XI. 1261, called in French hasteur. See Ducange. Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Essex, among the household servants named in his will, 1361, as “potager, ferour, barber, ewer,” &c. mentions “Will. de Barton, hastiler.” Roy. Wills, p. 52. In the Liber cure cocorum, the author thus states the intention of his treatise.
“Fyrst to ɜou I wylle schawe
þo poyntes of cure al by rawe;
Of potage, hastery, and bakun mete,
And petecure I nylle forɜete.” Sloane MS. 1986, f. 47.
The chapter “de cibis assatis, of rostyd mete,” comprises a singular dish, termed “hasteletes on fysshe day,” consisting of figs, raisins, dates, and almonds, transfixed on a “broche of irne,” and roasted; f. 86, b. Compare Forme of Cury, p. 8. Among the domestic officers of the Earl of Northumberland, 1511, was a “yoman cooke for the mouth, who doith hourely attend in the kitching at the haistry for roisting of meat.” Ant. Rep. iv. 244. Bp. Percy states that in Shropshire the fireplace is called haister; and, according to Mr. Hartshorne, an hastener, or hasteler, is a kind of screen lined with tin, used for reflecting the heat in roasting. See Salopia Ant. The derivation is evidently from hasta. “Haste, a spit or broach.” Cotg. Compare Roostare, or hastelere, hereafter.
page 229 note 2 In the curious song on the Man in the Moon, printed by Ritson, it is said,
“When þe forst freseþ muche chele he byd,
þe þornes beþ kene, is hattren to tereþ.” Anc. Songs, p. 36.
When Philip Augustus fell into the river, in consequence of the breaking of the bridge of Gisors, Marcadeus, a captain in the host of King Richard, according to Langtoft's account, derided him thus;
“Sir Kyng rise vp and skip, for þou has wette þi hater,
þou fisshes not worþe a leke, rise and go thi ways,
For þou has wette þi breke, schent is þi hernays.” R. Brunne, p. 204.
So likewise in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, the word signifies garments, attire: see lines 4264, 7054; and the Brahmins are said to live in austere penance, “thinnelich y-hatered,” line 5922. Ang.-Sax. hætero, vestitus. In the Vision of P. Plough man, Haukyn makes the following excuses for his soiled garment.
“I have but oon hool hater, quod Haukyn;
I am the lasse to blame,
Though it be soiled and selde clene:
I slepe therinne o nyghtes.” line 8900.
In line 9758, the word “haterynge” occurs in the sense of clothing. The explanation, however, given in the Promptorium, may suggest the comparison of the word with the verb, still used in Norfolk, to hatter, or exhaust by fatigue. See Bp. Kennett's Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033. “To hatter, to expose to danger, to weary out, or wear out, as a horse by too much riding, or any utensil by too much lending is hattered about: Kent. Isl. hættur, periculosus.”
page 230 note 1 “I haue leuer, i'ayme myeulx, i'ai plus chier. Many men had leuer se a play, than to here a masse.” Palsg. This word is used very commonly by the old writers. Ang.-Sax. leof, carus, gratus, comp. leofra. See Lefe, and dere.
page 230 note 2 This verb occurs commonly in a composite form, to en-hance, or in-hance, as in the Vision of P. Ploughm. the Wicliffite version, and Chaucer. The lintel of a door is termed, from its position, the haunce. “Limen signifieth not only the thrashold of a doore, but also the haunse. Supercilium, the haunse whyche is ouer the doore. Hyperthyron, transumpte, or haunce.” Elyot. In the Nomenclator of Junius, translated by Higins, a distinction is made between the Vitruvian terms hyperthyrum, and supercilium, the former being rendered “the transam, or lintell,” the latter “the hanse of a door.” Cotgrave gives “contrefrontail, the brow peece, or upmost post of a doore, a haunse, or breast summer.” At first sight it may appear doubtful whether heynyn or heyuyn (to heave) be the true reading; but by considering the position in the alphabetical arrangement of the word heynynge, subsequently, the former appears to be correct. Compare Ang.-Sax. héan, evehere. Heithyn may be perhaps traced to Ang.-Sax. heaðo, culmen. In the version of Vegecius, B. iv. c. 19, it is said that the city wall, when a bastile or “somer castel” is brought against it, should be “enhaunsed” and made higher, and describes the means to be adopted by the assailants “ayenst this highething” of the wall. Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. “I haythe, I lyfte on heythe, ie haulce. Hayth this tester (haulcez ce ciel) a lytell. I heyghten, I set vp a heythe, ie exalse. This balke (tref) is heythened two foote.” Palsg.
page 231 note 1 In the Romance of Coer de Lion, Tancred says to King Richard that he had heard
“That thou art comme, with gret power,
Me to bereve my landes hower.” line 1714.
Weber interprets the word as meaning hire, possession (rythmi gratiâ.) “Havoir” occurs in Chaucer's Rom. of the Rose, line 4720, in the signification of wealth, avoir. Sir John Maundevile, describing the good dispositions of the folk of the Isle of Bragman, says that they are neither covetous nor envious, “and thei ɜive no charge of aveer, ne of ricchesse:” p. 354. In the regulations for the government of Prince Edward, son of Edw. IV. 1474, is this clause: “We wyll that the hall be ordynately served, and strangers served and cherished accordinge to their haveures.” Househ. Ordin. p. *29. In the Golden Legend mention is made of “coueytous men that sette all theyr loue in hauyour, and in solace of ye world.” See Kennett, and Spelman, v. Avera.
page 231 note 2 “Antica, a gate, or a dore, or hatche. Est antica domus ingressus ab anteriori.” Ortus. “An heke, antica.” Cath. ang. “Ostiolum, hek.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. f. 27. “Hatche of a dore, hecq.” Palsg. “Guichét, a wicket, or hatch of a doore.” Cotg. Forby gives “hack, half-hack, a hatch, a door divided across.” In the North, a heck-door is one partly latticed and partly pannelled. See Brockett.
page 231 note 3 See Hevedare, hereafter. “A hangeman or an heeder is odiose to loke vpon.” Horm.
page 231 note 4 The head-borough, borwealder, borsholder, or tithing man, was the chief of the friborgh or tithing, the subdivision of ten freemen, called hand-boroughs, or franci plegii, who were mutually bound to the king for the good conduct of each other. Ang.-Sax. heafod, caput, borh, fidejussor. In the Statute entitled Visus Franciplegii, which has been called Stat. 18 Edw. II. de tenendâ letâ, they are termed “chiefs plegges.” Stat. of Realm, i. 246. The origin of the civil division of the territory into hundreds and tithings has been confidently attributed to Alfred, but, as it seems, on no sufficient evidence. In the laws of the Confessor this system of mutual suretyship is clearly set forth. Anc. Laws and Inst. i. 450. See Spelman, v. Friborga, and Borsholder.
page 232 note 1 “þe hedewarke, cephalia, cephalargia.” Cath. ang. In the edition of the Ortus in Mr. Wilbraham's library ciphalus is rendered “the hede werke;” in the ed. 1518, “the heed ache.” In a medical treatise by “Maystere Lanfranke, of Meleyn,” MS. in the collection of Sir T. Phillipps, No. 1381, the following occurs among several prescriptions for the “hede warke. Make lie of verveyn, or of betayne, or of wormode, and there with wasshe þin hede thryse in þe weke.” See Werkynge, or heed ache, hereafter. In Norfolk, according to Forby, “in violent head-ache, the head works like a clock.” Ang. Sax. heafod-wærc, cephalalgia.
page 232 note 2 Compare Dese, of hye benche. “Orcestra dicebatur locus separatus in cenâ, ubi nobiles sedebant.” Cath.
page 232 note 3 The following explanations are supplied by the Catholicon: “Armelausa vestis est, sic dicta quia ante et retro divisa et aperta sit, in armis tantum clausa, quasi armiclausa; et est sclavina. Ab armus (humerus) secundum Rabanum dicitur armelus, vestis humeros tantum tegens, sicut scapulare monachorum. Lacerna est pallium fimbriatum quo olim soli milites utebantur, &c.—dicitur lacerna a latere et a cerno.” In Harl. MS. 1002, f. 154, levitonarius is rendered “an huke;” in the Ortus it is explained to be “collobium lineum sine manicis, i. dalmatica, quali Egyptii monachi utebantur; a tabarde.” It is scarcely possible to define the garment to which, modified by the fashions of different periods, the name of hewke was assigned; it appears from citations given by Ducange that the huca in the XIIIth cent. was furnished with a hood; it also seems to have been a military garment, and sometimes even of the number of such as were of a defensive nature, although not so accounted by Sir S. Meyrick in his paper on military garments worn in England, Archæol. xix. In the Wardrobe of Hen. V. 1423, occur “j. heuke noier, garniz d'espanges d'argent dorr', q'estoit à Count Morteyn: pois. viij lb. pris la lb. xxxij. s. en tout, xij. li. xvj. s.—j. heuke de chamelet, ovec j. chaperon de mesme.—j. heuke d'escarlet: v. hukes de damask noier, brochés d'argent,” &c. Rot. Parl. Iv. 225, 236. In an indenture of retainer preserved in the Tower, dated 1441, for military service in France under Richard Duke of York, James Skidmore, Esq. engages to serve as a man at arms with six archers, and to take for himself and his men “huk' of my seid lord the duk' liv'e.” Meyrick's Crit. Enqu. ii. 111. The Ordinance of Charles VII. dated 1448, respecting the equipment of the Francs-Archers, requires every parish to provide a man armed with “jacque, ou huque de brigandine.” Père Daniel, Mil. Franc. i. 238. In the Invent. of Sir John Fastolfe's wardrobe, 1459, under the head of togœ, is the “Item, j. jagged huke of blakke sengle, and di' of the same.” Archæol. xxi. 252. In King Ryence's chalenge the heralds are described as attired in “hewkes,” and loudly crying for largesse. Percy's Rel. iii. 26. There was also a female attire called Hewke, Belg. huycke, which covered the shoulders and head. In the Acta Sanctorum Jun. vol. IV. 632, a female is described as clothed “in habitu seculari, cum peplo Brabantico nigro, Huckam vulgo vocant.” Palsgrave gives “hewke, a garment for a woman, surquayne, froc; huke, surquanie;” and Minsheu explains huyke, huike, or huke, to be a mantle, such as women use in Spain, Germany, and the Low Countries when they go abroad. Skelton mentions the “huke of Lyncole green” worn by Elinour Rumming. See further in Ducange and Roquefort.
page 233 note 1 Chaucer describes the knight as attended by three mounted “henshmen.” Flour and the Leaf. The pages of distinguished personages were called henxmen, as Spelman supposes, from Germ. hengst, a war-horse, or, according to Bp. Percy, from their place being at the side, or haunch of their lord. In the household of Edward IV. there were “henxmen, vj enfauntes, or more as it shall please the Kinge,” who seem to have been chiefly wards of the Crown, and placed under the direction of a master of henxmen: their mode of living, and education at court, is set forth in the Household Book of Edw. IV. given among the Ordinances published by the Ant. Soc. p. 44. By the Stat. 3 Edw. IV. c. 5, “hensmen, herolds, purceyvauntez, ministrelles, et jouers en lour entreludes” were exempted from the penalties under the statute of apparel. In the household of the Earl of Northumberland, 1511, there were three haunsmen or hanshmen, who are enumerated with “yong gentlemen at their fryndes fynding, in my lord's house for the hoole yere:” the first served as cupbearer to the Earl, the second to his lady. On New-year's day they presented gloves, and had 6s. 8d. reward. Ant. Rep. iv. 199. See further in Pegge's Curialia, Lodge's Illustr. i. 359, and Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII. edit. by Sir H. Nicolas. “Henchman, paige d'honneur, enfant d'honneur.” Palsg. “Prœtextatus assecla, qui Gallice vocatur vn page d'hommes; a page of honour, or a henchman.” Junius, by Higins. “A hench-man, or bench-boy, page d'honneur qui marche devant quelque Seigneur de grand authorité.” Sherw.
page 234 note 1 The heyward was the keeper of cattle in a common field, who prevented trespass on the cultivated ground. According to the Anglo-Saxon law the hæiʓ-weard was to have his reward from the part of the crop nearest to the pastures, or, if land were allotted, it was to be adjacent to the same. See Anc. Laws and Inst. i. 441. His office is thus noticed by G. de Bibelesworth:
“Ly messiers (hayward) ad les chaumps en cure.”
“In tyme of heruest mery it is ynough;
The hayward bloweth mery his horne,
In eueryche felde ripe is corne.” K. Alis. 5756.
Bp. Kennett observes that there were two kinds of agellarii, the common herd-ward of a town or village, called bubulcus, who overlooked the common herd, and kept it within bounds; and the heyward of the lord of the manor, or religious house, who was regularly sworn at the court, took care of the tillage, paid the labourers, and looked after trespasses and encroachments: he was termed fields-man, or tithing-man, and his wages in 1425 were a noble. “Inclusarius, a heyewarde.” Med. “Inclusorius, a pynner of beestes (al. pynder.)” Ort. “Haiward, haward, qui garde au commun tout le bestiail d'un bourgade.” Sherw.
page 234 note 2 “Hetchell for flaxe, serancq, serant. I heckell (or hetchyll) flaxe, ie cerance, and ie habille du lin. Am nat I a great gentylman, my father was a hosyer, and my mother dyd heckell flaxe ?” Palsg. “Seran, a hatchell, or heach, the iron comb whereon flax is dressed.” Cotg. Forby gives hickle, a comb to dress flax, or break it into its finest fibres. Teut. hekel, pecten.
page 234 note 3 “Juvenca, a hekefeer beest.” Ortus. “Hecforde, a yong cowe, genisse.” Palsg. Caxton, in the Boke for Travellers, speaks of “flesshe of moton, of an hawgher (genise,) or of a calfe.” See Bp. Kennett's Gloss, v. Hekfore. Ang.-Sax. heahfore, vaccula. Forby notices a bequest of certain “heckfordes” in the will of a Norfolk clergyman, dated 1579, but the modern pronunciation is heifker.
page 234 note 4 “To helde, ubi to bowe.” Cath. ang. In the Northern Dialects to heald signifies to slope, as a declivity. See Brockett, Craven Dial. and Jamieson, v. Heild. Ang.-Sax. hyldan, inclinare. Palsgrave gives the verb “I hylde, I leane on the one syde, as a bote or shyp, or any other vessell, ie encline de cousté. Sytte fast, I rede you, for ye bote begynneth to hylde.”
page 234 note 5 “Salubritas, holsōnes, or heell. Saluber, helefull.” Ortus. “Prosper, helefulle, happy, withe-owte tene.” Med. ms. cant. “Sospitas, firmitas, salvacio, &c. hele.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “An hele, columitas, edia, fecunditas, valitudo. Helefulle, prosper, salutaris.” Cath. ang. “Heale of body, santé.” Palsg. In a sermon given by Fox, as delivered by R. Wimbeldon, 1389, is this passage: “Giesy was smyt with mesilry, for he sold Naaman's heale, that cam of God's grace.” Sir John Paston writes thus to his mother: “It'm it lyked yow to weet of myn heelle, I thanke God now yt I am nott greetly syke ner soor.” Past. Lett. v. 80. Ang.-Sax. hæl, salus.
page 235 note 1 “Helue of any tole, manche. Hafte of any tole, manche.” Palsg. This word is given by Forby as still used in Norfolk. See also Moore. Ang.-Sax helf, manubrium.
page 235 note 2 Forby states that in Norfolk hingle signifies either a small hinge, or a snare of wire, closing like a hinge, by means of which poachers are said to hingle hares and rabbits. “Hinge, or hingell of a gate, cardo,” &c. Baret. Horman says, “This bottell lacketh an hyngill, uter amicino caret.” See Gymewe.
page 235 note 3 See Hyntyn̄' hereafter. “I hente, I take by vyolence, or to catche, ie happe; this terme is nat vtterly comen.” Palsg. It is used by Chaucer.
page 235 note 4 See the note on the word Erbare.
page 236 note 1 “An harbar, hospicium, diversorium. An harbiriour, hospes, hospita. To harber, hospitari. Harberynge, hospitalitas.” Cath. Ang. “Herboroughe, logis. I harborowe, I lodge one in an inne, ie herberge. Herberiour, that prouydeth lodgyng, fourrier.” Palsg. A station where a marching army rested was termed in Ang.-Sax. here-berʓa, from here, exercitus, beorʓan, munire. In a more extended sense harbour denoted any place of refuge, or hospitable reception. See Vision of P. Ploughm.; Wicliffite Version, &c. In the Golden Legend it is related that St. Amphyabel “prayed Albon of herborough for the love of God; whiche Albon without faynynge, as he yt alwaye loued to do hospytalyte, graunted hym herberough, and well receyued hym.” Caxton says, in the Boke for Travellers, “Grete me the damyselle of your hous, or of your he(r)berow, vostre hostel.” The verb is used by Sir John Maundevile in the sense both of giving and receiving hospitality; he says, speaking of Bethany, “there dwelte Symon leprous, and there herberwed our Lord, and aftre he was baptised of the Apostles, and was clept Julyan, and was made Bisschoppe; and this is the same July an that men clepe to for gode herberghage, for our Lord herberwed with him in his hows.” Voiage, p. 116. The adjective herberous has the signification of hospitable. In the version prefixed to the translation of the paraphrase of Titus by Erasmus, it occurs as follows: “A bysshop must be such as no man can complaine on—not geuen to filthy lucre, but herberous,” &c. Titus, i. 8; printed by Johan Byddell, t. Hen. VIII. The remarkable name Cold-harbour, which occurs repeatedly in most counties at places adjacent to Roman roads, or lines of early communication, seems to have been derived from the station there established; but of the strange epithet thereto prefixed no satisfactory explanation has yet been suggested. See Hartshorne's Salopia Antiqua, p. 253.
page 236 note 2 This term is derived from a sort of pyramidal candlestick, or frame for supporting lights, called hercia, or herpica, from its resemblance in form to a harrow, of which mention occurs as early as the XIIth cent. It was not, at first, exclusively a part of funeral display, but was used in the solemn services of the holy week; thus by the statute of the Synod of Exeter, 1287, every parish was bound to provide the “hercia ad tenebras.” Wilkins, Conc. ii. 139. In the account of expenses at the death of Thomas, Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, 1375, occurs an item, “pro corpore ficto, cum hersiâ.” W. Thorn, X Script. 2152. See further the accounts of the obsequies of Anne the Queen of Ric. II. Gough's Sep. Mon. i. 170*, and the will of that monarch, in which he directs that for his own interment there should be prepared “iv. herciœ excellentiœ convenientis regali.” Rym. vii. 75. In the will of John de Nevill, 1386, it is termed “hercium.” Madox, Form. 429. The Pat. 1 Hen. V. 1413, recounts the orders of the King to Simon Prentout of London, “wex chaundeler,” and Thomas Gloucestre, “pictori nostro,” for the provision and transport to Canterbury of the “hercea” for the funeral of Henry IV. Rym. viii. 14. The ordinance which regulated the charges by wax-chandlers, stat. 11 Hen. VI. c. 12, comprises a clause to except “herces affaires pur lez noblez trespassantz.” Stat. of Realm, vol. ii. 287. Chaucer appears to use the term hearse to denote the decorated bier, or funeral pageant, and not exclusively the illumination, which was a part thereof; and towards the XVIth cent. it had such a general signification alone. Hardyng describes the honours falsely bestowed upon the remains of Richard II. when cloths of gold were offered “upon his hers” by the King and lords.
“At Poules his masse was done, and diryge,
In hers royall, semely to royalte.” Chron. c. 200.
A representation is given on the Roll or Brevis mortuorum of John Islyppe, Abbot of Westm. who died 1522, and whose corpse was placed “undre a goodlye Hersse wt manye lights, and maiestie, and vallaunce set wt pencells,” &c. which was left standing until “the monethes mynde.” Vet. Mon. iv. pl. xviii. “Herce for a deed corse, of silke, poille. Herse clothe, poille. Herce, a deed body, corps.” Palsg. “He lay in a noble hyrst, or herse, suggesto. There was made a noble hyrst, tumulus.” Horm. In the version of Junius' Nomencl. by Higins is given “Cenotaphium, a herse, a sepulchre of honour, a stately funeral.” “Poille, the square canopy thats borne over the sacrament, or a soveraign prince, in solemne processions; hence also a hearse, hearse-cloth, laid over the beer of a dead person.” Cotg.
page 237 note 1 This word is repeatedly used in the later Wicliffite version. “And þe herris (eþer hengis) of þe doris of þe innere hows of þe hooly of hooly þingis, and of þe doris of þe hows of þe temple weren of gold.” iii. Kings, vii. 50. “As a dore is turned on his herre (eþer heengis) so a slow man in his bedde.” Prov. xxvi. 14. See also Prov. viii. 26; Job xxii. 14. “Cardo, a here of a dore, cuneus qui in foramine vertitur.” Med. “Har, the hole in a stone on which the spindle of a door or gate resteth; Dunelm. and the harr tree is the head of the gate, in which the foot or bottom of the spindle is placed. Harrs, hinges, a door-bar; Westm.” Bp. Kennett, Lansd. MS. 1033. Ang.-Sax. heor, hearre, cardo.
page 237 note 2 “Cranium, harnepanne.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. See G. de Bibelesworth.
“Vous deuet dire moun hanapel (hernepane,)
Moun frount, e moun cervel (mi forred, ant my brayn.)”
The word occurs also in Havelok, 1991; Coer de Lion, 5293. Ang.-Sax. hærnes, cerebrum, panna, patella. Minot uses the word “hernes,” or brains; p. 10.
page 237 note 3 The MS., by an error of the scribe, gives repofocilium repeated twice; and the reading of the Winch. MS. seems still more corrupt, “reposialium, Cath. vel secundum C. f. repoficilium.” The word intended may be retrofocinium, or repofocinium. See Ducange. The Catholicon gives the following explanation: “Repofocilium, id quod tegit ignem in nocte, vel quod retro ignem ponitur; super quod a posteriori parte foci ligna ponuntur, quod vulgo lar dicitur.” In Harl. MS. 1738, it is rendered “an herthe stok, or a skrene;” in the Ortus, “a hudde or a sterne.” A stock (Ang.-Sax. stoc, truncus) may signify primarily a large log, against which, as a foundation, the fire was piled. The cellarist of St. Edmund's-bury held Hardwick under the Abbey, and was bound annually to provide “iv. Cristmesse stocke,” each of 8 feet in length. Liber Celler. Rokewode's Suff. p. 475. Hence, probably, any contrivance whereby the fire was supported, so as to facilitate combustion, an object more perfectly attained by means of andirons (Awnderne, supra), was termed the hearth-stock. In Norfolk and Suffolk the back or sides of the fire-place are termed “the stock,” and Forby derives the word from Ang.-Sax. stoc, locus. See Kynlyn̄ hereafter.
page 238 note 1 A hank of yarn is called in the North a hesp, or hasp, the fourth part of a spindle. Bp. Kennett gives “a hank of yarn or thread, when it comes off the reel, and is tied in the middle, or twisted. So the twist or rope that comes over ye saddle of the thiller horse is called the thille hanks; Dunelm. Perhaps from Sax. hanʓan, to tie or twist; but it comes much nearer to the Isl. haunk, funiculus in circulum colligatus.” Lansd. MS. 1033. Mataxa signifies the comb which serves for dressing flax, as given above under the word Hekele, but implies also a hank of spun thread. See Ducange.
page 238 note 2 “Pessellum, a lytel lok of tre, a haspe, a cospe, a sclott.” Med. ms. Cant. “Pessulum dicitur sera lignea quâ hostium pellitur cum seratur, Anglice a lyteke, or latche, or a snecke, or barre of a dore.” Ort. “Haspe of a dore, clichette.” Palsg. “Agraphe, a claspe, hook, brace, grapple, haspe.” Cotg. In this last sense the word haspa occurs in the Sherborn Cartulary, MS. in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, where, among the gifts of William the sacrist (XIIth cent.?) is mentioned “Missale cum haspâ argenteâ.” Bp. Kennett observes that in Kent, Sussex, and Oxfordshire the word is pronounced “haps, to haps a door or cupboard. Ang.-Sax. hæps, sera, fibula.” Lansd. MS. 1033. This older form is also retained in Somerset, Wilts, and in N. Britain, hasp being the corruption. See Jamieson.
page 238 note 3 Sowaly, Ms. Compare Fowayle, and Lynge of the hethe.
page 238 note 4 “Decollo, to hefdyn.” Med. “He was heeded at Towre hyll.” Palsg.
page 239 note 1 In Norfolk, according to Forby, to hitch means to change place: “a man is often desired to hitch, in order to make room; to hitch anything which happens to be in the way. Isl. hika, cedere (loco.)” To hike and to hick are used in a similar sense. To hitch is explained by Johnson as signifying “to catch, or move by jerks,” and so used by Pope. Skinner would derive the expression “hitch buttock, hitch neighbours,” or “level coyl, (levez le cul,)” used by boys in playing, who bid one another move, and make way for the next in turn, from Ang.-Sax. hicʓan, moliri, niti, or Fr. hocher. See Jamieson, v. Hatch, and Hotch. Brockett gives to bitch, hop on one foot.
page 239 note 2 See the note on the word Eldyr, or hyldyr, or hillerne tre. Ang.-Sax. ellarn, sambucus. In some parts of England the name hilder is still in use; and in Germany the tree is called Holder. It was supposed that Judas hanged himself upon an elder tree, and Sir John Maundevile, who wrote in 1356, speaks of the tree as being still shown at Jerusalem. Voiage, p. 112. Of the superstitious notions in relation to this tree, see Brand's Pop. Antiqu. under Physical charms.
page 240 note 1 The verb to hill, and the substantive hilling, appear to be in use in many parts of England, but are not noticed in the East-Anglian Glossaries. In the writings of the older authors they occur frequently. See R. Brunne, P. Ploughm. Chaucer, and Gower. “Cooperio, to hyll to-gyder. Tegmentum, a hyllynge, a couerynge.” Ortus. “Tego, to hille; tegmen, an helynge. Circumamictus, a-bowte helynge, or clothynge. Architector, an helyour of a hous. Cooperio, to hule, or keruere (sic.)” Med. Ms. Cant. “I hyll, I wrappe or lappe, ie couvre: you must hyll you wel nowe a nyghtes, the wether is colde. Hylling, a coueryng, couverture. Hyllyng of an house, couverture, tecte.” Palsg. “Paliatif, cloaking, hilling ouer, couering, hiding. Palier, to hill ouer,” &c. Cotg. Ang.-Sax. helan, celare. Sir John Maundevile, speaking of the Tartars, says that “the helynge of here houses, and the wowes, and the dores ben alle of wode.” Voiage, p. 298. Walsingham calls the rebel Wat “Walterus helier, vel tyler.” Camd. Anglica, pp. 252, 264. In the “Objections of Freres,” Wicliffe makes the observation that “Freres wollen not be apeied with food and heling,” that is, clothing. The accounts of the churchwardens of Walden comprise the item “à le klerk de Thaxstede pur byndynde, hyllynge et bosynge de tous les liveres en le vestiarye.” Hist. of Audley End, p. 220. In the version of Vegecius attributed to Trevisa, it is said, “loke thou ordenne þat the leves of the yates be keuered and hilled with raw hides.” Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. f. 100. Bp. Kennett has the following notes in Lansd. MS. 1033: “Helings, Stragula, bed-cloaths, vox in usu apud Oxonienses. Isl. hil, tego, hulde, texi; Sax. helan. Ejusdem originis videtur esse apud Septentrionales, to hull into bed; the hulls of corne, i. the husks; a swine hull, i. a swine stie. Anglis etiam mediterraneis to hele est tegere. A coverlet in Derbyshire is called a bed-healing, and in some other parts absolutely a healing, and a hylling. Thatchers in Yorkshire are called helliars, and so are the coverers with slat in London, and most parts of England. In old authors the eye-brows are called helings.” Compare Forhelyn, celo, and Hatte, hed hillynge.
page 240 note 2 This verb occurs in most of the early writers: see R. Glouc. p. 204; Vis. P. Ploughm. 14,258; Chaucer, Knight's T. 906. It is used likewise by Shakespeare. See Nares.
“Kyng Richard his ax in honde he hente.” R. Coer de Lion, 4027.
‘I hente, I take by vyolence, or to catche, ie happe: this terme is nat vtterly comen.” Palsg. In the version of Vegecius attributed to Trevisa, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said of elephants used in war, “somme ordenned ayenst thies bestes fote menne wele hillede aboue wyth plates, havyng on her shuldres and on her helmes sharp pikes, that if þe olifaunt wolde oughte henche, or catche hem (posset apprehendere), the prickes shulde lette hym.” B. iii. c. 24. Compare Cahchynge, or hentynge; Kyppyn̄, or hynton; and Revyn̄, or by vyolence take awey, or hyntyn. Ang.-Sax. hentan, rapere.
page 241 note 1 Compare the verb Ovyr hyppyn, or ouer skyppyn̄. Hyppynge occurs in the sense of hopping, Vis. of P. Ploughm. 11,488, and to hip has in the North a like signification; hipping stones are steppings at the passage of a shallow stream. The word seems here to be taken from the irregular movement or hopping of the halt person. Gower says of Vulcan,
“He had a courbe upon his backe,
And therto he was hippe halte.” Conf. Am.
Teut. hippelen, subsilire. Jamieson gives hypalt, a cripple; to hypal, or hirple, to go lame. In Norfolk to himp and to limp are synonymous.
page 241 note 2 “Stupa, hyrdes of hempe, or of flax. Stupo, to stop with hurdes.” Med. ms. cant. “Extupo, Anglice to do awaye hardes or tawe. Stupa, stub, chaf, or towe.” Ortus. Amongst the various significations of napta, given in the Catholicon, it is said “napta etiam, secundum Papiam, dicitur purgamentum lini.” The word occurs in the Wicliffite version, Judges xvi. 9: “And sche criede to him, Sampson! Felisteis ben on þee, which brak þe boondis as if a man brekith a þrede of herdis (filum de stupâ, Vulg.) wriþun wiþ spotle.” Chaucer, in the Rom. of Rose, describes the dress of Fraunchise, called a suckeny, or rokette,
“That not of hempe herdes was,
So faire was none in all Arras.”
In the original, “ne fut de bourras.” In Norfolk, according to Forby, hards signify coarse flax, otherwise tow-hards, in other parts of England called hurds; and in many places a coarse kind of linen cloth is still termed harden, or hirden. The Invent. of effects of Sir John Conyers, of Sockburne, Durham, 1567, comprises “vij. harden table clothes, iv. s.—xv. pair of harden sheats, xx. s.” Wills and Inv. Surtees Soc. i. 268. “Heerdes of hempe, tillage de chamure (? chainvre), estovpes.” Palsg. “Hirdes, or towe, of flaxe, or hempe, stupa.” Baret. “Greites de lin, the hards, or towe of flax.” Cotg. Ang.-Sax. heordas, stupœ.
page 241 note 3 “Angulus, a cornere, or a herne. Pentangulus, of fyue hirnes.” Med. “An hyrne, angulus, gonus.” Cath. ang. The gloss on Liber vocatus Equus, renders “antris, darke hernys.” Harl. MS. 1002, f. 113. Rob. Glouc. and Chaucer use this word, which has occurred previously as synonymous with Halke. Forby gives “herne, a nook of land, projecting into another district, parish, or field.” At Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, there is a street called Cold-hirne street, which traverses an angular piece of ground adjoining the confluence of the Lyn and the Ouse. Ang.-Sax. hyrn. angulus.
page 242 note 1 Hyye, Ms. The Winch. MS. agrees here in the reading “hyy,” but it is evident that hyþe is more correct. Ang.-Sax. hyð, portus. Hithe occurs in names of sea ports, and even landing places on rivers, far from the coast. See Forby's observations on this word. Examples are not wanting at Lynn, where a lazar-house is mentioned at the spot called Setchhithe, in 1432; in the grant of Edw. VI. 1548, it is called Seche-hithe, or the sedgy landing. Blomf. Norf. iv. 599. Oxburgh hithe is remote from the main; Woman hithe and Beck hithe occur near Cromer.
page 242 note 2 Hutche, Ms. By the alphabetical arrangement, the reading, as given from Sir T. Phillipps' MS. seems here to be correct. In the King's Coll. MS. the word is omitted. See Hutche, hereafter. Ang.-Sax. hwæcca, arca.
page 242 note 3 “Holle, cavus, naturâ concavus, arte cavatus, inanis. An hollnes, cavitas.” Cath. ang. In Norfolk holl is still commonly used. Ang.-Sax. hol, cavus.
page 242 note 4 In the recipe for “blaunche perreye” it is directed to “sethe the pesyn in fyne leye,” and then rub them with woollen cloth, and “þe holys wyl a-way.” Harl. MS. 279, f. 25. Skinner derives the word from Ang.-Sax. helan, tegere. “Hull of a beane or pese, escosse. Hull or barcke of a tree, escorce.” Palsg. “Gousse, the huske, swad, cod, hull of beanes, pease,” &c Cotg. Gerarde says that Avena nuda is called in Norfolk and Suffolk “unhulled otes.” In the Craven dialect, the hull is the skin of a potatoe, or the husk of a nut, and to hull signifies to peel off the husk of any seed: in Hampshire the husk of corn is termed the hull. “Follicula uvarum, the huskes, hulles, or skinnes of grapes. Pericarpium, folliculus, siliqua, the huske or hull, inclosing the seede.” Junius' Nomencl. by Higins.
page 243 note 1 “To hole, cavare, perforare, &c. ubi to thyrle.” Cath. ang. “Palare, cavare, forare, Anglice to hole, or to bore.” Equiv. Joh. de Garlandiâ. A.-S. holian, excavare.
page 243 note 2 The primary meaning of the Ang.-Sax. word Holm appears to be water or ocean; it implies also a river island, or a level meadow, especially near a stream. It is recorded in the Sax. Chron. A.D. 903, that a great fight occurred between the Kentish men and the Danes “æt þam Holme,” but the precise locality has not been ascertained. Holm signifies also an elevated spot, as in the instance of the Steep-holm, so called by way of distinction from the Flat-holm, islands in the mouth of the Severn. Leland, in his Comm. in Cygn. cant. (Itin. ix. 59,) would derive Dunolmus, Durham, from dune, a hill, and holme, which he interprets thus: “Holme vero eminentis loci, interdum et sylvosi, et aquis circumsepti verticem, aut eminentiam exprimit.” Bp. Kennett has the following remarks: “Homes, properly holms, which signified originally river-islands, or green islands surrounded by running streams; from a resemblance whereof meadows and pasture grounds are in some places called Homes. A meadow by the late Abbey of St. Austin's, Canterbury, commonly called North-homes; and a flat pasture in Romney Marsh is yet called the Holmes, &c. An Holm, an island, Westm.; hence Holme-cultram, Holmby house, &c. Mill-holms, watery places about a mill-dam, from mill, and Sax. holm, which signifies two things, as a hill or rising ground, and a green island, or place almost enclosed with water; from whence the name of many places almost surrounded with water, as Axholm, Evesholm, corruptly Evesham, &c. The howmes, a green piece of ground near Thirske in Yorkshire, lying between the river Codbeck and the brook called Sewel.” Lansd. MS. 1033. In Lincolnshire, as especially near the Trent, the name is frequent; as likewise in Norfolk, and in the vicinity of Lynn, and denotes both low pastures, and elevations of trifling magnitude, but which were perhaps insulated, before draining had been effected. Simon Earl of Huntingdon, who founded St. Andrew's Priory, Northampton, about 1084, granted “tres dalos prati, et unum hulmum;” and in the donation of H. de Pynkeneye to Canons' Ashby, in 1298, he bestowed “totam pasturam illam que vocatur le Hulles, cum duobus holmis in campis Wedone et Westone.” Mon. Ang. i. 680, iii. 292.
page 244 note 1 Parkinson gives holm, as a name of the holly: in the North it is called hollin. Ang.-Sax. holen, aquifolium. The Gloss on Gaut. de Bibelesworth renders “hous, holyn.” “Hussus est quedam arbor que semper tenet viriditatem, Anglice a holyn.” Ortus. “An holyn, hussus; an holyn bery, hussum.” Cath. ang. It is said of St. Bernard, in the Golden Legend, that after he became Abbot of Clairvaux, “he often made his pottage with leues of holm.” Sherwood gives “hollie, holme, or huluer tree, houx, housson, mesplier sauvage.” In Norfolk the holly is called hulver, according to Forby. Compare Hulwur, tre, hereafter.
page 244 note 2 “Bitalassum, a place þer two sees rennen.” Med. In the Wicliffite version, Dedis xxvii. 41 is thus rendered: “And whan we fellen into a place of gravel gon al aboute wiþ þe see (locum dithalassum, Vulg.) þei hurtleden þe ship.” Holm seems here to denote the peninsula, or accumulation of alluvial deposit formed at a confluence of waters. It is, however, remarkable that the name does not appear to be thus applied on the Norfolk coast, especially in the neighbourhood of Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, and where such deposits are made to a vast extent by the Ouse, and other streams that flow into the Wash.
page 244 note 3 This name seems to be derived from Ang.-Sax. hol, cavus, and risc, juncus; but as the Scirpus lacustris, Linn. commonly called bull-rush, has not a hollow but a spongy stem, the proper intention of the term is obscure.
page 244 note 4 “Holt, a wood. It is yet used for an orchard, or any place of trees, as a cherry-holt, an apple-holt, Dunelm. Isl. hollte, salebræ.” Bp. Kennett, Lansd. MS. 1033. Skinner says that holt denotes a grove, or multitude of trees planted thick together, and Tooke asserts that it is the p. part. of Ang.-Sax. helan, to cover, and signifies a rising ground or knoll covered with trees. The word occurs in Cant. T. Prol. line 6; Lydgate's Thebes; Launfal, &c. Among the benefactions of John Hotham, Bp. Ely, it is recorded that in 1320 he appropriated, for the distribution of alms on his anniversary, “tenementum vocatum Lythgates, et Barkeres, cum quodam alneto vocato Lythgates holt.” Hist. Elien. Ang. Sacra, i. 643. “Holte, a lytell woode, petit boys.” Palsg. “Touffe de bois, a hoult, a tuft of trees growing neere a house, and serving for a marke or grace unto the seat thereof.” Cotg. See Jamieson. In names of places it is of occasional occurrence, as the Holt, a wood near Havant, Hants; Knock-holt wood, near Tenterden, Kent; and in Norfolk, according to Forby, a small grove, or plantation, is called a holt, as nut-holt, osier-holt, gooseberry-holt, &c. Ang.-Sax holt, lucus.
page 244 note 5 In the complaint of the Ploughman, t. Edw. III., given by Fox, under the year 1360, the following version is cited of i. Tim. v. 8: “He that forsaketh the charge of thilke that ben homelich with him (suorum, et maxime domesticorum, Vulg.) hath for-saken his fayth, and is worse than a misbeleued man:” (in the Wicliffite version, “his owne, and moost of his household men.”) Here, and in Gal. v. 10, Wicl. version, the word seems to be used precisely in the sense given to it in the Promptorium; but it denotes also familiar, by acquaintance, and presuming. “Homely, famylier, through a quaynted, familier. Homelynesse, priuaulté. Homely, saucye, to perte, malapert.” Palsg. Horman says that “homelynesse (fiducia) comynge of a true harte, is a maner of vertue,” where it seems to imply familiar confidence; and he uses the word also as follows: “He was homely with her, or had to do with her.”
page 245 note 1 It should seem that the eala, or swatan of the Anglo-Saxons, were not compounded with any bitter condiment, which was essential to the concoction of beer, a drink of Flemish or German origin, and until the XVIth cent. imported from the Continent, or brewed by foreigners only in this country. The Promptorium gives Bere, cervisia hummulina, as distinguished from ale, which was not hopped; Caxton, in the Boke for Travellers, speaking of drinks, makes the distinction, “Ale of England, Byre of Alemayne;” and it appears by the Customs of London, Arnold's Chron. 87, that beer was first made in London by “byere brewars, straungers—Flemyngis, Duchemen,” &c. a recipe for making single beer with malt and hops is given, p. 247. It has been asserted that the use of hops was forbidden by Hen. VI. in consequence of a petition of the Commons, mentioned by Fuller, in his Worthies, under Essex, against “the wicked weed called hops;” but no record of the prohibition has been found, and the petition does not appear on the Rolls of Parliament. In the time of Hen. VIII. some prejudice seems to have arisen regarding their use, for among the articles for the reform of sundry misuses in the royal household, 1531, is an injunction to the brewer not to put any hops or brimstone into the ale. Archæol. iii. 157. Hops, called in Dutch Hoppe, Germ. Hopffen, were introduced into England from Artois, between 10 and 15 Hen. VIII. as affirmed in Stowe's Chron. about the time of the expedition against Tournay. Bullein, in the “Bulwarke of defence,” written about 1550, speaks of hops as growing in Suffolk. They are mentioned in the stat. 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 5, 1552, as cultivated in England; Stat. of Realm, iii. 135. Among the privileges conceded to the strangers from the Low Countries, who settled at Stamford, 1572, is a clause regarding the free exercise of husbandry, in which are specified hops, and all things necessary to gardens. Strype, Life of Parker, App. 115. The management of hops was quickly acquired, as appears by the instructions given by Tusser, in March's and June's husbandry, published 1557. See also the Treatise by Reyn. Scott, 1574; and Harrison's Descr. of Brit. Holinsh. i. 110. The remarks of Leonard Mascall, in his Art of Planting, under the head of “certeyne Dutch practises,” p. 85, edit. 1592, are detailed, and curious; and he appears to have been conversant with the method adopted in Flanders. The stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 18, against the deterioration of hops, shows that a large quantity was still supplied in 1603 from foreign parts. See Beckman's Hist. of Inventions, iv. 325, and Cullum's Hawsted, 202.
page 246 note 1 This obsolete appellation of linseed occurs in the gloss on G. de Bibelesworth.
“Du lyn aueret le boceaus (hoppen,)
De canbre auerez les cordeus (ropes.)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 299, b.
In the Liber vocatus femina, MS. Trin. Coll. Cant. this passage is given as follows.
“Ore alez à semer v're lynois,
Now goþ to sow ɜour flex.
Qar de lynois vous auez lez busceaux,
For of flex ɜe haue þyɜe hoppes.”
The Ortus gives “apium est nomen herbe, ache, or hoppe;” and in the interpretations by Master Geoffrey of Joh. de Garland. de Equiv. occur “Corna, fructus corni, hoppe: cornus, quidam arbor, hoppe tre, ut quidam dicunt.”
page 246 note 2 “An hopyr, ferricapsa, est molendini; saticulum, satum, seminarium.” Cath. ang. The proper distinction is here made between the hopper, or the trough wherein the grain is put in order to be ground, mentioned by Chaucer, Reve's T. 4009, so termed from the hopping movement given to it, and the seed-leep, which was also called a hopper. “Hopper of a myll, tremye.” Palsg. “Seminarium, vas quo ponitur semen, an hopre.” Med. It is in this last sense that Perkyn the Ploughman says that he will become a pilgrim,
“And hange myn hoper at myn hals
Instede of a scryppe.” Vis. of P. Ploughm. line 3917.
In Lincolnshire, according to Bp. Kennett, a little hand-basket is termed a hoppet; and in Yorkshire a hopper is “a seed lip, or basket wherein the sower puts his corn.” Lansd. MS. 1033. An implement of domestic use, probably for grinding grain, is mentioned among the effects of Thos. Arkyndall, of Northallerton, 1499. “A leed and yt stane, xij. d. A hoppyng tre, vj. d.” Wills and Inv. Surt. Soc. i. 104. See Tramaly of a mylle, Ceed lepe, and Seed lepp.
page 246 note 3 Palsgrave gives “horecoppe,” without any French word.
page 246 note 4 See Hullowre. Horell, Townl. Myst. “Horrell, or whoremonger, concubitor, libidinarius.” Huloet. A debauched person was called in Fr. hourieur.
page 247 note 1 The art of working in horn was one in which the English were formerly much skilled. In 1464 the horners presented a petition to Parliament against strangers, who came “to understond the konnyng, and feate of makyng of horns.” Rot. Parl. iv. 567. “Horner, a maker of hornes, cornettier; horneresser, a woman, cornettiere.” Palsg.
page 247 note 2 “Hornkecke, a fysshe lyke a mackerell.” Palsg. Esox belone, Linn. Ang.-Sax. horn, cornu, and ceac, gena. See Garfysche.
page 247 note 3 Chaucer, in the Rom. of R. speaks of the discordant sounds of “hornepipes of Cornewaile,” which, as it has been remarked in the note on the word Cormuse, seem to have been identical with that instrument, called likewise, according to Roquefort, muse, in Latin musa. The rustic dance, to which the name of hornpipe was transferred from the instrument that served as an accompaniment, seems to be described by Jean de Meung, where he relates that Pygmalion took the “instrumens de Cornouaille,” or “muse,” and danced to animate his statue. Rom. de la Rose, 21,874. The horn-pipe is mentioned as a musical instrument by Spenser and B. Jonson. No explanation has been found of the word palpista.
page 247 note 4 The plant here intended is the white horehound, Marrubium vulgare, Linn. A.-S. hara-hune, marrubium. “Horon, a herbe. Horehounde, herbe, langue de chien.” Palsg.
page 247 note 5 The horse-litter, or horse-bere, Ang.-Sax. bære, feretrum, grabatus, was used at an early period in England, and probably introduced from the South. See Mr. Mark-land's Remarks on Carriages, Archæol. xx. 445. Bede relates that Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wiremuth, pursued his journey to Rome, during which he died, A.D. 716, “cum ad hoc per infirmitatem deveniret, ut equitare non valens feretro caballario veheretur.” W. Malmsb. relates that the corpse of Rufus was conveyed by the rustics to Winchester “in rhedâ caballaria,” which in the Polychronicon is termed a “horse bere,” and by Fabian a “horse litter.” M. Westm. describes the retreat of King John from Swines-head, when, having lost his “bigas, et quasdam clitellas,” in the Wash, and falling sick, he was thus carried to Newark, “factâ lecticâ equestri, descendit de palfrido, et ipsam intravit.” G. de Bibelesworth, who wrote in the reign of Edw. I. says,
“Pur eyse en litier (on hors bere) hom chiuauche.”
“Basterna est theca manualis vel itineris, a carre, or a chareot, or horse lytter. Lectica dicitur currus in quo defertur lectus; et proprie lectus portabilis, a charet or a horslytter.” Ortus. “Horse lytter, letiere aux cheuavlx.” Palsg. Horse litters, called by Commenius arceræ or lecticœ, carried by two horses, according to the fashion in use in Holland, are represented in the Orbis Sensualium, p. 111, ed. 1659.
page 248 note 1 The reading may seem here to be questionable, but the Winch. MS. agrees in giving hoos. Chaucer writes “horse of sowne,” speaking of a hunter's horn. Wachter observes that hoarse seems to lead to Ger. hreis, hreisch, formed from Lat. raucus, but hoos, and hoosnesse, which occurs just below, resemble more nearly the Ang.-Sax. has, raucus, and hasnys, raucedo. In the Lat. Eng. Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. is given “raucedo, hasnes.” Horman says, “he hath a great haskenes, gravi asthmate implicatur.” Compare Harske, or haske, above.
page 248 note 2 The precise nature of the article of dress, to which the name hos was given by the Anglo-Saxons, it is not easy to define: it is rendered by Elfric “caliga, ocrea.” In early illuminations their legs are frequently represented as covered by bands, as it seems, wound around them, and these perhaps were termed hose-bendas, which has been supposed to denote garters. The word hose is common to the Dutch, Danish, and Icelandic languages, and the old French houses, or heuses, seem to have been identical therewith, P. Warnefridus states that the Lombards used hose (hosis), and wore over them “tubrugos birreos,” when on horseback. Gest. Longob. iv. c. 23. “Calceo, i. caligas et sotulares induere, to put on hose. Oso, i. osas calciare, to house. Caliga, hose; calicula, a lytell hose.” Ortus. “An hose, caliga. Versus: Sunt ocree calige quos tibia portat amictus. To hose, calciare, caligare.” Cath. ang. “Hose for ones legges, chausses. Hosyn and shossys, cha(u)ssure. Payre of hose from the kne vp, demy chausses. Payre of sloppe hoses, braiettes à marinier.” Palsg. In the XVIth cent. the term hose was used to denote the entire nether garment, comprising the upper stocks, or breeches, and the nether-stocks of hosen, or stockings. The directions of Queen Eliz. by proclamation in 1565 are curiously explicit as to the prescribed proprieties of this article of dress. Strype's Ann. Vol. i. App. 78.
page 248 note 3 “An hosyrer (sic) caligator, caligator.” Cath. ang. “Hosyer, that maketh hosen, chaussettier.” Palsg. Sherwood observes on the word “Hosier, chaussetier; aujourdhui (1660) à Londres on appelle ainsi les cousturiers qui vendent les habits d'homme tous faits.”
page 248 note 4 “Tussis, host.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “An host, tussis; to host, tussire.” Cath. ang. “Raucedo, hoocenesse; raucidus, hooce; raucidulus, sum dele hoce; raucus, hoost.” Med. Forby gives hoist, a cough. Ang.-Sax. hwosta, tussis.
“Yvresce fait fort home chatouner (creopen,)
Home aroee (hoos) fait haut huper (ɜellen.)” G. de Bibelesw.
Compare Cowyn or hostyn. The Craven dialect still retains the word hoste, hoarseness. See also Jamieson.
page 249 note 1 Hetyn̄', Ms. “Spondeo, to be-hoote. Sponsor et fidejussor, a heetere.” Med. ms. cant. “Promitto, Anglice, to behyght. Promissio, a beheste. Dispondeo, to be-hyght, or to plyght trouth. Nutio, a promyse, or hyghtynge.” Ortus. “To beheste, destinare, vovere, promittere, &c. A beheste, policitacio, promissum, votum.” Cath. ang. Compare Behotyn, or make a beheste, above. Ang.-Sax. hatan, jubere; behátan, vovere. In the complaint of the Ploughman, given by Fox, under the year 1360, it is said, “though we preyen thee but a litle and shortlich, thou wilt thenken on vs, and graunten vs that vs nedeth, for so thou behighted vs somtime:” and again, “thou yhightest some tyme, &c. He (the Pope) behoteth men the blisse of heauen, withouten any payne, that geuen him much money.” Hote, signifying a promise, is used by R. Brunne; it occurs in Townl. Myst. p. 46; and the verb, thou hete, het or hight, thou didst promise. By R. Glouc. and other writers to hote is used in the sense of to command, or be called.
page 249 note 2 This term, derived from Ang.-Sax. hufa, cidaris, is used to denote head-coverings of almost every description. In the satirical song on the Consistory Courts, in the time of Edward I. Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, 156, it is said,
“Furst ther sit an old cherle in a blake hure,
Of all that ther sitteth semeth best syre.”
It signifies a cap of estate, as in the bequest of John Earl of Warren, Surrey, and Strathorne, 1347: “Jeo devys à Monsr. Will. de Warenne mon filz ma hure d'argent dorré pour Strathorne, ove le cercle d'argent dorré pour ycel.” Testam. Ebor. i. 43. Margaret de Knaresburgh devises, in 1397, “flameolam de filo, cum j. calamandro, ac houfe; pannum de lak; tenam de cerico; flameolam de crispo,” &c. Ibid. p. 221. In the Vision of P. Ploughm. 418, allusion is made to the “howves of selk,” worn by serjeants-at-law; and Chaucer, in the Reve's Prol. 3909, uses the phrase “set his howve;” and speaks of “an howve above a call.” Troil. B. iii. 775. In 1482, a petition was preferred to Parliament by the craft of “hurers, cappers,” &c. against the injurious use of machinery, then introduced to supersede manual labour, by means of a fulling mill, whereby the quality of “huers, bonettes and cappes” was depreciated. See Rot. Pari. vi. 233; Stat. of Realm, 22 Edw. IV., where they are termed “hurez, huretz,” &c. Caxton says, in the Boke for Travellers, “Maulde the huue, or calle maker (huuetier) maynteneth her wisely: she selleth dere her calles, or huues (huues), she soweth them with two semes.” “Pileus, a cappe, an hatte, an hove, or a coyfe.” Med. “Tena tenet et ornat caput mulieris, Anglice a howfe, i. extrema pars vitte, quâ dependent comœ.” Ortus. “An howfe, tena.” Cath. ang. “Houe that a chylde is borne in, taye.” Palsg. Sir T. Brown, in Vulgar Errors, B. v. c. 11, alludes to the superstitious notions in regard to the caul, or membrane wherein the head of a newborn infant is occasionally wrapped, called the silly-how, Ang.-Sax. sæliʓ, beatus, hufa, cidaris; Swed. seger hufwa. In Scotland it is termed the haly, or sily-how. See Brand's Popular Ant.; Ruddiman's Gloss. to G. Douglas, v. How; and Jamieson. Compare Hwyr, cappe, hereafter.
page 250 note 1 “Huchone, Hugo, nomen proprium viri.” Cath. ang.
page 250 note 2 Ground-ivy, gill, or ale-hoof, Glechoma hederacea, Linn, was anciently esteemed both in medicine and as a condiment used in the concoction of ale. G. de Bibelesworth mentions “eyre de boys, e eyre terestre (heyhowe.)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 131. “Edera terrestris ys an herbe þat me clepyþ erth yuye, or heyoue;” its virtues are detailed, Roy. MS. 18 A. VI. f. 74, b. In John Arderne's Practica, Sloane MS. 56, f. 61, the use of “haihoue, vel halehoue, vel folfoyt, vel horshoue,” in the composition of an unguent, called Salus populi, is set forth. Gerard calls it ale-hoof, or tun-hoof, and states that “the women of our Northern parts, especially about Wales and Cheshire, do tunne the herbe ale-hoof into their ale.” Compare Tunhove, hereafter. Langham, in the Garden of Health, 1579, details the qualities of “Alehoofe, ground iuie, gilrumbith, ground or Tudnoore;” and Cotgrave gives “patte de chat, cats-foot, alehoofe, tune-hoofe, ground ivy, Gill creep by the ground.” Skinner thought that ale-hoof was derived from all, and behofe, utilitas, from its numerous medicinal properties, but the derivation of the name is possibly from hof, ungula, in allusion to the hoof-shaped leaf. In the West, the plant colt's-foot is called horse's hoof. It is possible that the read-hofe of the Anglo-Saxon herbals is the ground ivy, to which, however, the name eorðifig was assigned.
page 250 note 3 The reading here seems to require correction; the word does not occur in the other MSS. or in the printed editions. Amurca is explained by Ugutio, and in the Ortus, to be “inferior fex olei, dregs of oyle,” but Muria signifies the “superior fex olei;” and Hove here seems to be put for such impurities as float on the surface. Compare the verb Hovyn̄ yn water, or oþer lycoure.
page 250 note 4 In the curious directions to the parish priest regarding the instructions which he was bound to give his flock in the mother-tongue, at least four times in the year, it is said of the wine given to the laity, “Lewede men þat underfongeþ Godys body ne shul nowɜt by-leue þat þat drynke þat þey vnderfongeþ after here howsel, ys any oþer sacrament bute wyne and water for to brynge in þe oste þe betere.” Burney MS. 376, p. 93. Compare Add. MS. 10,053, f. 109. “Communico, to make comun, or housel. Communio, a comunynge, or a houselynge. Cena, a souper or a houslynge.” Ortus. “Oblata, howsell.” Harl. MS. 1587. “Eukaristia, howsyll.” Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “To howsylle, communicare.” Cath. ang. In the Accounts of the Churchwardens of Walden, 36 Hen. VI. a charge occurs “pro lavacione j. manutergii pro hoselynge.” Hist. of Audley End. In the Golden Legend it is said in the Life of St. John, “he said the masse, and houseled and comuned the people.” Ang.-Sax. huslian, Eucharistiam celebrare; husel, panis sacer.
page 251 note 1 “House leke, iombarde.” Palsg. W. Turner says that “Sedum magnum is called also in Latin sempervivum, in English houseleke, and of som singren, but it ought better to be called aygrene.” Herbal, 1562. See Orpyn, hereafter.
page 251 note 2 Howcyn̄, Ms. See the note on Halow, schypmannys crye.
page 251 note 3 Howntynge crye, Ms. The alphabetical arrangement indicates an error in this reading, and all the other MSS., as likewise Pynson's edition, read Howtynge, cry; howynge, W. de Worde, ed. 1516. In the curious Treatise, entitled the Master of the Game, Vesp. B. Xii. and Harl. MS. 5086, will be found a detailed account of the proper use of “so how,” and all the stimulating cries used in field sports. See also the “huntynge of the haare,” in Dame Julyana Bernes' Boke of Huntynge, sign. d. iij.
page 251 note 4 To hough, or hock the ham-strings, seems to be derivable from Ang.-Sax. hoh, poples, or possibly the etymon heawan, secare, may be preferred. In the Wicliffite version, Josh. xi. 6, it is written “thou shalt hoxe the horses, subnervabis,” Vulg. A statement in Rot. Parl. vi. 38, sets forth that in a riot in Yorkshire 1472, one Rich. Williamson was “speared, and hough synued.”
page 251 note 5 Minot, who wrote about 1350, speaks of the French fleet sent against the English coasts, composed of galleys, carectes, and galiotes,
“With grete noumber of smale botes,
Al thai hoved on the flode.” iii. p. 11.
In R. Wimbeldon's Sermon at Paul's Cross, 1389, given by Fox, it is said, “In a tonne of wyne the dreggis dwellen byneth, and the cliere wyne houeth aboue.” Compare Hove of oyle, and Fletyn̄. The verb to hove, in the various senses here given, appears to be derived from hof, the past tense of Ang.-Sax. hebban, elevare.
page 252 note 1 This word is evidently synonymous with hover. The reading “skyis” is questionable, but Skye occurs hereafter in the sense of a cloud. See the earlier Wicliffite version, Deut. xxxii. 11, “As an egle forthclepynge his bryddis to flee, and on hem houynge (super eos volitans,” Vulg.)
page 252 note 2 This verb is used in this sense by R. Glouc. p. 218; Chaucer, Troil. B. v.; Gower, and other writers. Fabyan speaks of Jack Cade, 1450, as “houynge at Blackhethe;” and states that at Bosworth, “some stode houynge a ferre of, tyl they saw to the whyche partye the victory fyll.” In the description of that conflict, as given in the song of Lady Bessy, by Humphrey Brereton, Richard says,
“I myselfe will hove on the hill, I say,
The fair battle I will see.” page 44.
page 252 note 3 See the note on Howe, or hure, heed hyllynge.
page 252 note 4 “Auccionarius, a hukstere: Auccio, ekynge: Auccionor, to merchaunt, and huk.” Med. “I hucke, as one dothe that wolde bye a thing good cheape, Ie harcelle and Ie marchande.” Palsg. Junius derives huckster from the Dutch Hoecker, a retailer, because he endeavours to hook, or draw in strangers; but it seems to be allied to the Ang.-Sax. eacan, augere, because he sells at a higher price than the first dealer. In Friar Michael's Satire on the people of Kildare, written about 1308, the huckster appears to have been a female victualler.
“Hail be ɜe, hokesters, dun bi þe lake,
Wiþ caudles and golokes and þe pottes blak,
Tripis and kine fete and schepen heuedes.” Harl. MS. 913, f. 8, b.
In the oath of the beadle of the ward, and of constables, according to the Customs of London, is the following clause: “Ye shalbe no regrater of vitale, nor none huxter of ale, nor partiner with none of theym.” Arnold's Chron. 93. “Hucster, a man, quoquetier: Hucster, a woman, quoquetiere.” Palsg. “Howkstar that sellethe meate and drynke, caupo.” Elyot. “Regrateur, an huckster, mender, dresser, trimmer up of old things for sale. Revendeur, a huckster, or regrator. Maquignon, a hucster, broker, horse-courser.” Cotg.
page 252 note 5 In the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said that warfare by sea should be suspended after the equinox, when “grete vesselles made for the nones (for aventure of merchaundise) as carickes, dromondis, hevy hulkis, grete cogges, and shippes of toure,” may venture forth; but the captain, who must lead his troops in “small and light vessels, as galeies, barges, fluynnes, and ballyngers,” is dissuaded from the attempt. B. iv. c. 39. Walsingham relates that in the engagement between the Duke of Bedford and the French, 1416, “cepit tres caricas, et unam hulkam, et quatuor balingarias.” Camd. 394. “Hulke, a shyppe, hevrcque.” Palsg. “Orque, a hulke, a huge ship.” Cotg.
page 252 note 6 This term of reproach is used by Rob. Glouc. and Chaucer, W. of Bathe's Prol. 5836; and again in the Persone's Tale, as follows: “If he repreve him uncharitably of sinne, as, thou holour! thou dronkelowe harlot! and so forth.” In the version of Vegecius, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII. it is said of the selection of soldiers, that “fishers, foulers, runnours, and gestours, lechours, and holours ne shulde not be chosen to knyghthode, ne not be suffred comme nyghe the strengthes,–for this maner of menne with her lustes shulle rather nasshe the hertes of warriours to lustes, thenne hardenne theim to fighte.” B. i. c. 7. In the Towneley Myst. the words holard and horell occur.
“Thise dysars and thise hullars,
Thise cokkers and thise bollars,
And alle purs cuttars,
Bese welle war of thise men.” Processus talentorum, p. 242.
“Holier, houlleur; débauché, luxurieux.” Roquef. See Ducange, v. Holerii.
page 253 note 1 The holly is still called in Norfolk hulver, and in Suffolk hulva; it seems to be the tree which is called by Chaucer “an hulfere,” in the Complaint of the Black Knight. Skinner supposes it may be so called from its holding or lasting long, Ang.-Sax. feor, longe, or holding fair, as being evergreen. “Houx, the holly, holme, or hulver tree. Petit houx, kneehulver, butchers broom.” Cotg. Holland, in his translation of Pliny, speaks of the “holly or hulver tree.” B. xxiv. c. 13.
page 253 note 2 In Coer de Lion “hurdys” are mentioned repeatedly, lines 6127, 3969; “hurdices,” K. Alis. 2785, but evidently signify barricades, palissades, or large shields termed pavises. See Ducange, v. Hurdicium. It may in the sense above given have been used metaphorically.
page 253 note 3 In a satire on the studies of the Dialecticians of the times of Edw. I. it is said,
“Whan menne horlith ham here and there,
Nego saveth ham fram care.” Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, 211.
“Y was hurlid, and turned upsodoun (impulsus eversus sum, Vulg.) þat y schulde falle doun, and þe lord took me up.” Ps. cxvii. 13, Wicl. version. John Payne writes to his master, John Paston, regarding the trouble that befell him in Cade's rebellion, 1450, “and a-none aftyr yt hurlyng the Byshop Rosse apechyd me to the Quene.” Past. Lett. i. 62. Horman says of troublous times, “in that whorlynge of the worlde (temporum novitate) I wiste nat what to do. Hurrelynge, murmura.” “I hurle, I make a noyse as the wynde dothe, ie bruys.” Palsg.
page 254 note 1 “Collicio, to-gidur hurtlynge. Collisus, to-gidur hurtled.” Med. The sounds produced by the minstrels at a marriage, described in William and the Werwolf, were so varied and powerful that the hearers might think
“þat heuen hastili and erþe schuld hurtel to gader,
So desgeli it denede that al þerþe quakede.” p. 180.
This word is of frequent occurrence in the Wicliffite version. “The litil children were hurtlid togidere (collidebantur, Vulg.) in her wombe.” Gen. Xxv. 22. See also Mark ix. 17; Dedis xxvii. 41. In the Golden Legend it is said of the final Judgment, “the seuenth sygne, the stones shal smyte and hurtle togyder.” It is used by Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare.
page 254 note 2 In the version of Macer's treatise of the virtues of herbs it is said of honysuckle, “if þe beehyues be anointed with þe ius of her leeues, þe been schalt not goo a-way; þe housbondes kepe her swarmes in tyme of yere by suche anoyntynge.” Hardyng says of the taxation imposed by Rufus, which sorely oppressed the commons,
“A kyng woteth not what harmeth housbandrye,
Housbande to pill and taxe outrageously.” Chron. c. 125.
“An husband, edituus, iconimus, incola, paterfamilias.” Cath. ang. “This smythe is a good housbande (mesnaigier), for I herde hym beate with his hamer to daye afore foure of ye clocke. Husbande, a thriuyng man, mesnagier. Husbandes house in the countre, or maner place, metayrie.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. hus-bonda, domus magister.
page 254 note 3 “Squarus, quidam piscis; et dicitur a squamâ, quia squamis acutus sit, unde et ejus cute lignum politur.” Cath. Pennant states that the rough skin of the Squalus squatina, Linn. or Angel shark, was used by the ancients to polish wood and ivory, according to Pliny, ix. c. 12; and that in England the skin of the greater dog-fish, catfish, or bounce, Squalus canicula, Linn. called in French roussete, is applied to the same purpose. Zool. iii. pp. 87, 99. This last appears to be the species here called the huske. Palsgrave gives “husse, a fysshe, rousette;” and Cotgrave explains rousset to be “a little ruddie dog-fish.” “Squatina, a soole fysshe with a roughe skynne, wherewith fletchers doo make theyr arrowes smoothe.” Elyot. In N. Britain the Cyclopterus lumpus, Linn. the lump, or sea-owl, is called hush-paddle, in Germ. see-haess, lepus marinus. See Jamieson. Compare Teut. hesse, catus.
page 255 note 1 To huspil, in the dialect of Shropshire, signifies to disorder, destroy, or knock about. See Hartshorne's Salopia. In old French houspouillier, or harpailleur, implies a thievish marauder, “homme qui vole les gens de la campagne, vagabond.” Roquef. “S'houspiller l'un l'autre, to tug, lug, hurry, tear one another,” &c. Cotg. Compare gaspiller, which, according to Menage, has the same origin.
page 255 note 2 “Suppellectilia, hustelment.” Med. This term is used in the original MS. by the first hand, in Bodl. Libr. of the earlier Wicliffite version; “Thou shalt anoynt of it the tabernacle, &c. and the candelstik, and the hustilmentis of it (utensilia, Vulg.)” Exod. xxx. 28. It occurs in several documents connected with the Eastern Counties. Joanna, relict of Sir T. Hemgrave, made, about 1421, a will under constraint of her second husband, devising to him personal effects and a sum of money, “1150 marcs, with other jewel and hostelment that were mine other husbands goods and mine,” as stated in her protest. Hist. of Hengrave, 93. John Hakone of Wyneton makes the following devise in 1437; “I wyll that alle necessaries and hustylments longyng to myn howsehold, that is to sey, to halle, chaumbyr, and kechene be disposed to the use of my wife.” Norwich Wills, Harl. MS. 10, f. 267. In the Paston Letters, ii. 26, are mentioned “gonnes, crossebows, and quarells, and alle other hostelments to the maneur (of Caistor) belonginge.” 1469, 9 Edw. IV. In 1492 Robert Parker bequeaths to his wife all his “hostiliaments, utenselys, and jowellys, to his house pertaining.” Cullum's Hawsted, 17. The word seems to be taken from the old Fr. oustillement, Roquef. “Outillemens, stuffe, movables, household furniture, or implements.” Cotg.
page 255 note 3 Sir John Maundevile says of the Ark of the Testimony, “that arke, or hucche, with the relikes, Tytus ledde with hym to Rome, whan he had scomfyted alle the Jewes.” Voiage, p. 102. By Chaucer the word is written “wiche.” Caxton, in the Boke for Travellers, says of household stuff, “these thinges set ye in your whutche (huche) or cheste; your jewellis in your forcier, that they be not stolen.” “Archa, a whycche, a arke and a cofyre. Archula, a lytelle whycche. Cibutum, a mete whycche. Cista, a whycche.” Med. “Hutche, a chest, cofre, huche.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. hwæcca, arca.
page 255 note 4 Fractillus is explained in the Catholicon to be “cauda vel fragmen panni fissi; cauda ornatus pendens ex inferiori parte: fractillus dicitur etiam villus in tapeto vel aliâ veste villosâ.” Horman says, “he hath a plesure in geagged clothynge, lasciniosâ veste;” and Palsgrave gives “I iagge or cutte a garment, ie chicquette, ie deschicquette, ie descouppe. I iagge nat my hosen for thrifte, but for a bragge. He is outher a landed man, or a foole yt cutteth his garments. Iagge, a cuttyng, chicqueture. If I iagge my cappe, thou hast naught to do.” This strange fashion, which, as it has been observed in the note on the word Dagge, prevailed during the reign of Rich. II. was not disused even in the XVIth cent. It is particularly noticed by Hardyng, who states that it was described to him by the clerk of Richard's household.
“Cut werke was greate both in court and tounes,
Bothe in mennes hoddis, and also in their gounes.” Chron. c. 193.
page 256 note 1 A full account of the defensive armour called a jack is given by Sir S. Meyrick, in his observations on ancient military garments worn in England, Archœol. xix. 224. Mention of it occurs as early as 1375, in the will of Thos. de Hemenhale, who devises “unum iakke de rubio worstede.” Transcripts from Norwich Registers, Harl. MS. 10. Walsingham relates that Wat Tyler's mob, in the sack of John of Gaunt's palace at the Savoy, 1381, found “vestimentum preciosissimum ipsius, quale Iacke vocamus.” Camd. p. 249. It is mentioned in the will of Henry Snayth, clericus, 1380: “Lego duas loricas ferreas, duas bacinetts cum ventall', et duas iakkys coopertas cum fust';” and in 1391, Margery, widow of Sir Will. de Aldeburgh, bequeaths to her son “unum duplum cum loricâ interius opertum cum rubeo correo caprœ. Item, unum iak defencionis opertum nigro velveto.” Test. Ebor. i. 113, 150. Sir S. Meyrick questions the authority of Nicot's definition that the jack was an habiliment stuffed with cotton; in the Catholicon Ang. however, written 1483, is given “a iakke, bombicinium.” Towards the close of the XVth cent, a less cumbersome defence of a similar nature, termed a jacket, was more in use. Palsgrave gives “iacke, harnesse, iacq, iacque: iacket, seion: iacket without sleues, hocqueton: iacket that hath but four quarters, iacquette.” Caxton says in the Boke for Travellers, “Donaas the doblet maker hath performed my doublet and my iaquet, mon pourpainte et mon paltocque.” In the accounts of the Lestrange family, 1532, are the following entries: “Item, paid for ij. pownd of twyn for the iacks. Item, paid for iij. elnes of canvas for yr iack. Item, paid to the taylour for the wurkemanshippe of iij. iacks, ix.s. iv.d. Item, paid for twyn for ɜour iacks. Item, paid to Matthew Smith (or the smith) for making of plates for the iackes, iv.s. ij. d.” The kind of jack to which this last entry relates is described in Lily's Euph. Eng. where it is said that the armour of the English consists of “corslets, Almaine rivets, shirts of male, iackes quilted, and covered over with leather, fustian, or canvas, over thick plates of yron that are sowed to ye same.” It seems to have been identical with the brigandine. The jack may even have been occasionally formed with mail; in Edw. III. i. 2, Capell's Prolus. are mentioned “jacks of gymold mail.” Thus Florio explains “Giacco, a iacke of maile, made like a corslet, a iacket or shirt of maile. Giachetta, a iacket or shirt of maile:” and Cotgrave gives “Iaque, a iacke or coat of mail, and thence a iacke for the body of an Irish greyhound, &c. made commonly of a wild boares tanned skinne, and put on him when he is to coap with that violent beast.” The sense in which baltheus is used in the Promptorium is singular; it signifies commonly a girdle, but here Cote armure, Dobbelet, and Paltok, military garments, are rendered by the term baltheus.
page 256 note 2 “Dapax, yanglynge, or spekynge of mete.” Med. “To iangylle, ubi to chater. Iangyller, fictilis, poliloquus, ” Cath. ang. “I iangyll, ie babille, ie cacquette: she iangleth lyke a iaye.” Palsg. To jangle occurs in the sense of chattering in the Vis. of Piers Ploughm.; Chaucer, Man of Lawes Tale, 5194; Gower, &c. “Iangler, to jangle, prattle, tattle saucily, or scurvily.” Cotg.
page 257 note 1 “Oggarrio, i. contra garrire.” Cath. v. Garrio. Compare Clenchyn aɜen, or chaueryn aɜen for prowde herte.
page 257 note 2 Compare Gawde, or iape, above. “Nugor, i. nugas facere, trufare, vel nugas frequenter dicere, to tryfle, or iape, or lye. Nugax, i. vanus, fatuus, ” Ortus. “To iape, nugari; iapande, nugans, nugaculus. Iapanly, nugaciter.” Cath. ang. “I iape, I tryfle, ie truffe, ie truffle, ie me bourde. I dyd but iape with hym, and he toke it in good ernest. Iape, a trifyll, truffe.” Palsg. “Il n'est pas gas, it is no iape.” Harl. MS. 219. It is said of St. Nicholas in the Golden Legend, that “in his yonge age he eschewed ye playes and iapes of other yonge chyldren.” Fabyan relates that William Rufus was warned of his approaching end, “but he set all at nought, and made of it a scoffe, or a iape.” Horman says, “he bete me cursedly with a rod, as it had ben in iape, velut per ludum. Leue thy iapys, mitte nugas. At the begynnynge I hadde wente thou haddeste iapyde, putavi te joco fecisse.” Junius has detailed the use of this word, especially by Chaucer, and seeks a derivation by comparison with Isl. geip, jactatio. Skinner derives it from Fr. gaber. It appears, moreover, from Speght's Glossary, appended to Chaucer, that, having become of ambiguous import, the word was scarcely admitted in polite parlance; and this is confirmed by Palsgrave, who gives the verb “I iape a wenche, ie fout, and ie bistocque. It is better to iape a wenche than to do worse.”
page 257 note 3 Gerarde speaks of “a large sweet almond, vulgarly termed a Jordan almond.”
page 257 note 4 Javel or jevel is a term of contempt, which signifies, according to Bp. Kennett, “a rascal or base fellow.
“Lat be, quoth Jock, and call'd him jevel,
And by the tail him tugged.” Christ Kirk, st. 7.
Forte a Sax. ʓe-full, immundus, profanus, reus, putidus; or ʓe-fyll. The Lieut. of the Tower, advising Sir Thos. More to put on worse cloaths at his execution, gave this reason, because he that is to have them is but a Javel: to which Sir Thomas replied, Shall I count him a Javel, who is to doe me so great a benefit?” Lansd. MS. 1033. In Roper's Life of More the term employed is “raskall.” Skelton uses the word javell frequently: it is one of the opprobrious epithets that are put into the mouth of Wolsey, in “Why come ye not to Court?” and occurs in a passage cited by Hearne, and attributed to Skelton, Glossary to Langt. Chron. v. Wroken.
“These be as knappishe knackes,
As ever man made,
For javells and for jackes,
A jym jam for a jade.” Nares
Nares quotes Spenser, and other writers, by whom the word is used, and thinks it may be derived from Fr. javelle, a brush-wood faggot; a name that might be applied to such fellows as Shakespeare calls “rash bavin wits.” Holland, in his version of Pliny, speaks of the “javels,” stalks, or stems of line or flax. B. xix. c. 1. See further observations in Jamieson. Compare Ioppe, or folte, Joppus, and Iaper, Gerro.
page 258 note 1 Jesses or gesses, used in falconry, are thus defined by Nicot: “Gects (gets, or giez) sont deux petites courroies courtes de peau de chien, une en chaque jambe du faulcon près la serre; au dessus desquels sont les sonnettes tenans à une autre petite courroye à part.” Latham says that “Jesses are those short straps of leather which are fastened to the hawks legges, and so to the Lease by Varvels, Anlets, or such like.” The origin of the term is evident, as signified by the Emperor Fred. II. in his treatise de arte Venandi, ii. c. 38; namely, “ob hoc jacti dicuntur, quod cum eis jaciuntur falcones, et emittuntur ad prœdam.” They are also called Getti. See Ducange and Menage. In “Dame Julyans Bernes Processe of hawkyng” it is stated that “Hawkys have abowte theyr leggys gesses made of leddyr moost comynly, some of sylke, whyche scholde be noo lenger but that the knottys of theym sholde appere in myddys of the left honde, bytwene the longe fyngre, and the leche fyngre; by cause the Lewnes sholde be fastenyd to theym wyth a payre of Tyrettys,” &c. St. Alban's Book, sign. b. iij.
page 258 note 2 This word does not appear to be retained in the East Anglian dialect. Tusser uses it both in the sense of strutting about ostentatiously, and of actively busying oneself, or bustling to and fro. In the interesting account of his own life, he says that his desire was ease and contentment, and to live uprightly,
“More than to ride with pomp and pride,
Or for to jet in others debt.” Stanza 38.
In his Epistle to the Lady Paget, prefixed to his Book of Huswifery, among the qualities of a good housewife, he says that she “should jetty from morning to night.” Palsgrave gives the following illustrations of the use of this word: “I iette, I make a countenaunce with my legges, ie me iamboye. I wotte nat what his herte is, but he ietteth horriblye in his pace. I iette wt facyon and countenaunce to set forthe myselfe, ie braggue. I get, I use a proude countenaunce and pace in my goyng. Se I praye the howe this countrefayte gentilman getteth, comment ce gentyllastre braggue en se promenant. I go a iettynge or a ryottynge, ie raude. Dothe thy father fynde the in the universyte to go a iettynge a nyghtes? te baille ton père exhibition à l'uniuersité pour aller rauder?” Cotgrave gives “Batre les rues, to iet, reuell, or swagger vp and down the streets in the night. Iamboyer, to iet, or wantonly to go in and out with the legs. Fringuer, to iet or brave it, to be fine, spruce, trimme, to wantonise it,” &c. Anchoran, in the Gate of Tongues, p. 178, says that “one made to avoide his countrey wandereth abroad, and gaddeth and ietteth up and downe, vagatur.” Ed. 1633. “To jet up and down, vagor, spatior, tolutatim incedere. To jet like a lord, incedo. To jet to and fro, volito. A jetter, gradarius.” Gouldm. Compare Gettyn̄ and Gettare.
page 259 note 1 The Gloss on Gaut. de Bibelesworth renders “esclarcyl, en ychele.” Arund. MS. 220, f. 300, b. In Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, 732, occurs the word “iisseikkles:” and by Chaucer it is written “iseickle.” “Stiria est gutta fluens, vel cadens congelata, a nykle.” Med. Ms. Cant. “Stiria est gutta frigore concreta pendens guttatimque stillans, a yokle.” Ortus. “Stirium, hysehykylle.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “An iɜokelle, stirium.” Cath. Ang. Grose gives iccles as a word used in the North; and it is given in the Craven Dialect, as likewise ice-shackles; see also Brockett, v. Ice-shoggle, and Jamieson, v. Isechokill. Ang.-Sax. ises-ʓicel, glacialis stiria. Compare Thowe of snowe, or yclys, or yce, hereafter.
page 259 note 2 An island in the Severn, about 4 miles N. of Worcester, called by Flor. Wigorn. “Beverege,” and at the present time Bevere, served as a retreat to the people of that city when it was burned by Hardicanute, A.D. 1041, on their resisting the payment of tribute. See the Sax. Chron. Langtoft gives a relation of these circumstances.
“But þo þat fled wiþ þer godes to þe ilde of Seuerne,
And þat wer in þe ilde duelled þer for drede,
Untill þe Kyng turned, and his wrath ouer ɜede.” R. Brunne, p. 56.
In another passage, p. 151, he relates that Richard Cœur de Lion took possession of two islands in the Mediterranean, one “that ilde hight Labamare,” which is described as situated in the straights of Messina; and another “ilde” called “Griffonie,” meaning, perhaps, Sicily. In Kyng Alisaunder the word “ydle,” as printed by Weber, seems to be the same word, varying by local pronunciation.
“Euerych ydle, euerych contrey,
He hath y-soughth, par ma fey;
An ydle he passeth y-hote Perfiens.” 5908.
page 259 note 3 The verb to imp, Ang.-Sax. impan, inserere, and the substantive imp, a graft. scion, or young shoot, occur in the Vis. of P. Ploughm. 2746; and are used by Chaucer.
“Of what kynd of ympe in gardein or in frith
Ymped is, in stocke fro whence it came,
It sauourith euer, and is nothyng to blame.” Hardyng's Chron. c. 98.
See also Seuyn Sages, 574. “Insicio, impynge.” Med. “An impe, ubi a grafte.” Cath. Ang. “Ympe, or graffe, insita, inscita.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1587. “Impe, a yonge springe. Impe or grasse, pasturage.” Palsg. “Empeau, an impe to graffe.” Cotg. Among the disbursements of Thos. Lucas, Sol. Gen. to Hen. VII. when Little Saxham Hall was erected, 1507, is a payment “for setting stokkes for graffes, impes of cherys, damsayns, and filberdes.” Rokewode's Hund. of Thingoe, 145. See Nares.
page 260 note 1 The application of enamel to every description of ornamental work in metal was much used in England from the Anglo-Saxon times, until the XVIth cent. The number of existing specimens is, indeed, small; owing, probably, to the precious metals having been most frequently employed for enamelled works, which have been melted down to form ornaments suited to the successive changes of fashion; but ancient wills and inventories, especially the lists of crown jewels printed in the Kalendars of the Exchequer Treasury, afford abundant evidence of the profusion of enamelled plate and jewellery in England. There may be but insufficient evidence to show that the earliest works of this kind, such as fibulæ, and minor personal ornaments, were executed by British artificers; but the character of ornament which is presented by them, the mention that is made in early records of the skill of our countrymen, and the distinctive term of Opus Anglicanum, to designate their ornamental works in metal, give to such a supposition a high degree of probability. A specimen of interest preserved in the Brit. Mus. appears by the legend to have been the ring of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, from 836 to 858, father of Alfred. See Archæol. vii. pl. xxx. It is of gold, and appears to be properly an enamelled work, the field, according to the ordinary process of the earlier period, being chiselled out to receive a vitrified metallic compound of a dark blue colour, which was fixed by fusion in the cavities formed by the tool, and set off the design produced by those parts of the metal that had been left in relief. Another mode of workmanship, in some degree analogous, appears in the jewel at the Ashmolean Museum, attributed to Alfred; a specimen recently discovered in London, Archæol. xxix. pl. x. and a few other instances. In these a semi-transparent substance, which appears to be rather a vitreous paste than a true enamel, fills the spaces in the field of the design, the outline being formed, not by chiselling the solid metal, but by means of thin fillets of gold, attached to the surface of the plate, and serving to detach the variously coloured portions of the design. At a later period the pre-eminent skill of the enamellers of Limoges caused their work to be highly esteemed in other countries. It appears that the tomb of Walter de Merton, Bp. Rochester, 1274, was made by Magister Johannes de Limogiâ, who came to England for the purpose. See the Executor's Accounts, Thorpe's Cust. Roff. 193. At the Reformation this memorial was destroyed; but the enamelled effigy in Westminster Abbey, representing Will, de Valence, who died 1296, if not the work of John of Limoges, affords an interesting specimen of the art practised at that place. The prevailing use of ornaments of this nature appears also from the Constit. of Will. de Bleys, 1229, and Walt. de Cantilupe, 1240, Bishops of Worcester, prescribing, among the sacred ornaments to be provided by the parishioners, “ij. pyxides, una argentea, vel eburnea, vel de opere Lemovitico, in quâ hostiœ reserventur.” Wilk. Conc. i. 623, 666. Several of these exist; but the most curious enamelled ornaments of this period, as connected with England, are the small shrines called cofri Lemovicenses, on which is represented the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury. One of these is in the possession of the Ant. Soc. and another at Hereford Cathedral. Enamel was likewise made available for the decoration of sepulchral brasses, to a much greater extent, probably, than might be supposed from the few examples that have been preserved. In the XVth cent. the older process of chiselling out the design was abandoned, and a mode of enamelling, wholly superficial, came into general use; it appears to have been first adopted in Italy, but was practised for more than a century, in the greatest perfection, at Limoges. Chaucer speaks of “fine enamaile” and gold “amiled.” Rom. of Rose. Spenser uses the word “aumaild,” and in some documents the word is written “anelyd.” Compare Anelyn, or enelyn metalle, above. Horman says that “goldsmithes use annuelynge, and gravynge, utuntur toreutice:” and Palsgrave gives the verb “I ammell, as a goldesmyth dothe his worke. Your broche is very well amelled, vostre deuise est fort bien esmaillée. I enamell, ib.” See Wharton's Eng. Poetry; Ducange, v. Esmaillator, Limogia, Smaltum, &c.
page 261 note 1 Imbrowdyd, Ms. “Frigia dicitur quedam vestis que alio nomine dicitur acupicta.” Cath.
page 262 note 1 Chaucer uses the word to ensure in the sense of affirming by word of mouth; it had also that of betrothing, or promising in marriage. “I ensure, I trouthe plyght, as man and a woman togyther, ie fiance. I herde saye they were maryed, or euer I knewe they were ensured togyther. I insuer by maryage, id. Howe, saye you be they maryed so sone, I wyste nat that they were insured yet. I insuer, ie promayts, ie assure.” Palsg. In Henry VIIIth's Primer, 1545, in the lesson at matins, the following verse occurs: “The aungell Gabriel was sent from God into a cytie of Galile named Nazareth, to a virgyn which was ensured to a man whose name was Joseph.” Luke i. 27.
page 262 note 2 On the subject of interludes much information has been brought together by Mr. Payne Collier, in his Hist. of Dramatic Poetry. In the XVth cent. they were much in fashion, and a special clause of exception is made in the Stat. of Apparel, 3 Edw. IV. 1463, in favor of “ministrelles, et jouers en lour entreludes.” It was only in 1542 that it was enjoined that no plays or interludes should be acted in the churches. “Interlude, moralité.” Palsg.
page 262 note 3 Chaucer speaks of one “that love most entriketh,” (Assemblie of Foules) and the word is likewise used by Gower, Conf. Am. IV. It is evidently taken from the French “Intriquer, to intricate, insnare, involve, intangle.” Cotg. “I entryke, I hynder or lette. He that is entryked (empesché) with worldly busynesse is nat mete to be a studyent.” Palsg. See Ducange, v. Intricare. Ital. “intricare, to intricate, to intangle, to inwrap, to garboile.” Florio. See Snaryn̄, or snarlyn̄.
page 263 note 1 To job signifies in the East Anglian dialect to peck with the beak, or with a mattock; and is used in the former sense by Lestrange and Tusser, who directs boughs to be stuck among runcival pease, upon which they may climb (February's husbandry.)
“So doing, more tender and greater they wex,
If peacock and turkey leave jobbing their bex.”
Holland, in his version of Pliny, B. x. c. 18, says that birds that “job and pecke holes in trees,” are of the race of spights, martins, or wood-peckers; and speaks of “wood-pecks, or jobbers,” c. 29. “Becquer, to pecke or bob with the beake. Becquade, a pecke, job, or bob with a beake. Hocher, to shake, jog, job, nod.” Cotg. “Sitta, a bird called a nutjobber.” Gouldm. Willughby, in his Ornithology, describes the nuthatch, or nut-jobber, Picus cinereus. Ash gives to job, in the sense of striking suddenly with a sharp instrument, as the word is used in Shropshire. See Hartshorne's Salopia.
page 263 note 2 In Domesday mention occurs of the joculator and the joculatrix regis, T. i. f. 38, b. and 162: Ang.-Sax. ʓeoʓelere, prestigiator. The juggler and the minstrel are, as Wharton observes, frequently confounded together. Music formed a part of the entertainments provided by both, and it was not, perhaps, until the XIVth cent, that the two denominations were properly distinguished. The juggler was called also Treget-towre, a term which occurs in the Promptorium. His performances were very varied, comprising sleight of hand, tricks of all kinds, tumbling, and buffoonery. Strutt has collected much information on this subject in his Sports, B. iii. c. iv. Chaucer, in the third Book of Fame, seems to distinguish the jugglers from the minstrels and musicians, and speaks of them as playing with magicians, “tragetours, and Phetonisses, charmeresses,” &c.; but in the Rom. of the Rose he mentions minstrels and jugglers, as if their performances were similar. He repeatedly alludes to the wonderful tricks which were exhibited by them. “Balatro, a yogelowre. Pantomimus, a iogeloure. Parascitaster, id.” Med. “To iugille, joculari. A iuguler, gesticulator, ” Cath. Ang. Horman says, “The iugler carieth clenly under his gublettis, prestigiator scite visum ludificat cum acceptabulis. A iugler with his troget castis (vaframentis) deceueth mens syght.” “Iogelour, batellevr. Iogelyng caste, passe, passe. I iogyll, ie ioue de pas pas. Mathewe iogyled ye cleanest of any man in our dayes. I iuggyll, &c. ie iougle.” Palsg. In the Northumberland Household Book, 1511, a reward of 6s. 8d. is appointed “to the Kyngs iugler, if he haue wone.” See Essay on ancient Minstrels, Percy's Reliques, i. xcii.
page 264 note 1 See Pley, hereafter.
page 264 note 2 “Brancus, a gole or a chawle.” Vocabulary, Harl. MS. 1002. Skinner gives “Jowl, caput, parum deflexo sensu ab A.S. ceole, fauces, hoc a Lat. gula; hinc a jowl of ling nobis appellatur non tantum caput sed etiam œsophagus.” The term is applied likewise to the heads of other kinds of fish, as the sturgeon. “Iolle of a fysshe, teste.” Palsg. “A jole of fish, fauces piscium. Joll, as of salmon, &c. caput.” Gouldm. Compare Chavylbone, or chawlbone. An extraordinary prescription, the chief ingredient being a fat cat, is given in Sloane MS. 1571, f. 48, b. “for bolnynge vndur þe chole.” In the Master of Game mention occurs of the “iawle bone” of a wild boar. Vesp. B. Xii. f. 34, b. “Bucca, mala inferior, &c. the cheeke, iawe, or iowll.” Junius, by Higins.
page 264 note 3 This proper name was anciently used as a term of contempt, especially as applied by the Reformers to the lower classes of the Romish priesthood. See Todd's note on Spenser, Sheph. Cal. May, 309; Dr. Wordsworth's Remarks on the Life of Lord Cobham, Eccl. Biog. i. 265. John Bradford, writing to his mother, in 1553, on the revival of Popery, says, “now let the whoremonger ioy, with the dronckard, swearer, couetous, malicious, and blynd bussard Syr Iohn, for ye masse will not bite them, neither make them to blushe as preaching woulde.” Martyrs' Letters, p. 292, orig. ed. In Reliqu. Ant. i. 1, an instance occurs where the priest is termed Sir John, early in XVth cent.? “Ian, as Iean, John, also a cuckold. “Ian de blanc, the consecrated bread, tearmed so by the Calvinists. Ian gipon, a gull, sot, ninny, fop, cokes.” Cotg.
page 265 note 1 Compare Iavel. In N. Britain a bigheaded, dull, lazy-looking fellow is called a Jupsie. See Jamieson. Coles gives “Jobelin, a sot, or fool.”
page 265 note 2 To jounce signifies in Norfolk “to bounce, thump, and jolt, as rough riders are wont to do.” Forby. Shakespeare uses “jauncing” in a similar sense. Rich. II. V. 5. “Iancer vn cheval, to stirre a horse in the stable till he swart with all; or as our to jaunt; (an old word.)” Cotg.
page 265 note 3 Neccham, in his Treatise de nominibus utensilium, written early in the XIIIth cent. describing the ordinary dress of the master of the family, when at home, says, “perhendinaturus (li asuiurner) jupam habeat penulatam (furé) et tunicam (cote) manubiis (manches) et birris (geruns) munitam et manubiatam,” &c. Titus, D. xx. f. 7, b. When mounted for the journey he was to wear the capa, with sleeves and hood. The jupa appears to have been a long garment worn by all classes, secular and religious, and both sexes. See Ducange. It was loosely made, for Chaucer uses the comparison “riueling as a gipe;” but the diminutive term jupon seems to imply that the military garment so called, which fitted the person closely, was a kind of jupa. Chaucer mentions the gipon as part of the attire of the knight, Cant. T. Prol. v. 75, and Knight's T. v. 2122. A full account of the jupon, or guippon, will be found in Sir S. Meyrick's Treatise on Military Garments worn in England, Archæol. xix. 236. In Ly beaus Disconus the garment is termed a “gypell.” In N. Britain a kind of short cloak for women, as also a wide coat, is termed a jupe.
page 265 note 4 Sir John Maundevile says of the monks of Mount Sinai, that they drink no wine, “but ɜif it be on principalle festes, and thei lyven porely and sympely, with joutes and with dates.” Voiage, p. 71. In the Vision of P. Ploughman, Wrath describes himself as having been cook in a monastery.
“I was the Prioresse potager,
And maad hem joutes of janglyng.” 2787.
Gower speaks of Diogenes gathering “ioutes” in his garden; in the context they are called “wortes.” Conf. Am. B. vii. Numerous recipes for preparing joutes occur in books of ancient cookery: in a curious collection in the possession of Sir T. Phillipps is the following: “Nou greyþe we Ioute Doré, of moni muchel y-wylned. Ye clene bete, and sclarie hokke i-boilled and wel i-bakked in an crouhhe clene y-washen. Hakke ioutes gentil and veire; do to ɜeoþen ouer þe fure grece of pork, hakke saffron, and peopur,” &c. XIVth cent. MS. Heber, 8336. The metrical recipe in the Liber cure cocorum, Sloane MS. 1986, p. 97, gives a longer list of pot-herbs for compounding joutes, “cole, borage, persyl, plumtre leues, redde nettel crop, malues grene, rede brere croppes, auans, violet and prymrol.” These were to be ground in a mortar, and boiled in broth. Compare the directions for “Eowtus of flesshe,” and “Jowtus of Almaund mylke,” Forme of Cury, pp. 13, 45. Joutes are given under the head of “Potage dyuers,” Harl. MS. 279. See also Julius, D. Viii. f. 91, 94. Sloane MS. 1571, f. 36, b. “Iowtes, hee lappates.” Cath. Ang. See Ducange, v. Jutta. Armoric, Joud, puls.
page 266 note 1 G. de Bibelesworth, in the chapter on domestic matters, lighting the fire, &c. says,
“Va quere breses en vne teske (a pot schoord.)—
Gardez vos draas de falemecches (from hiseles.)” Arund.
MS. 220, f. 302, b.The MS. in Public Library at Cambridge, according to Reliqu. Ant. ii. 84, gives the reading “flaumecches, huyssels.” “Est scintilla proprie accensa, favilla vero extincta, a ysel.” Med. “Favilla, i. scintilla, ysyle or sperkell. Versus: Ardet scintilla, non ardens esto favilla.” Ortus. “A iselle, favilla, or a sperke.” Cath. Ang. Ang.-Sax. ysle, favilla. Bp. Kennett has the following note amongst his Gloss. Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “Isles, embers, hot ashes, Lanc. Easles, in Essex. Icelandic, Eysa, cinis ignitus.” This word is still used in N. Britain: see Jamieson, v. Aizle, Eizle, or Isillis.
page 266 note 2 Eykake is a cake compounded with eggs. Compare Ey, ovum. Flamicia signifies a Flawne. See the note on that word.
page 266 note 3 In stat. 12 Ric. II. c. 13, 1338, it is ordered that the “fymes, et autres ordures des issues et entrailles sibien des bestes tuez, come des autres corrupcions,” cast into the ditches adjoining to towns, shall be removed, under a penalty of £20. In the English version the word here is rendered “garbage.” Stat. of Realm, ii. 59. In the Office of the Celleresse of Barking, the “yssues of the larder” are explained to be the hides, inwards, and tallow of oxen, &c. which were sold, and of which she was charged to render an account. Cott. MS. Nero, D. Viii. Mon. Ang. i. 81. “Les issuës d'vne beste, the head and intrals of a beast.” Cotg.
page 267 note 1 “Madula, Iordeyne or pisse-potte.” Med. “A Iordane, madula, madellum, minsarium.” Cath. Ang. Walsingham relates the appropriate punishment imposed upon a quack physician, who was compelled to ride through London with his face to the horse's tail, his neck garnished with “duœ ollœ, quas Iordanes vulgo vocamus.” A.D. 1382, ed. Camd. 288. Holinshed, who calls him “a coleprophet,” terms them “two iorden pots.” Chron. iii. p. 440. Chaucer speaks of urinals and “jordanes” (Pardonere's Prol.), and if not identical, they seem to have been similar in form. See the marginal sketch in Sloane MS. 73, f. 138, b. where it is said, in the directions for preparing vermillion, “take a good thicke Iordan of glas,” which, after being well covered with luting, was to be used as a sort of crucible. It is precisely of the same shape as the glass vessel usually held by the leech, or water-doctor, in ancient representations. The word is found in the Vision of P. Ploughman, and is used by Shakespeare. Skinner thinks it is not derived from the name of the river Jordan, but from Ang.-Sax. ʓor, sordes, and den, receptaculum; an etymology which has been adopted by the author of the Craven Glossary. The derivation from Armoric, dourden, urina, has also been suggested. Blount states that the jordan was a double urinal, but offers no explanation.
page 267 note 2 The Jewish community being regarded as the property of the Sovereign, is termed in ancient records “Judaismus Regis, Judaismus noster, or communitas Judœorum nostrorum;” and the Jews were bound to reside only in royal cities and boroughs. See “Les Estatutz de la Jeuerie,” t. Edw. I. Stat. of Realm, i. 221. They were marked by a badge, and although it does not appear that they were compelled to dwell in one part of a city, appropriated to them, as is the Ghetto in the cities of Italy, yet they seem to have congregated in a district, probably on account of the detestation in which they were held, and it is remarkable, that although more than five centuries have elapsed since they were totally expelled by Edw. I. in 1290, the memorial of their settlements in many cities in England is still preserved in the local name of Jewry. M. Paris speaks of the Judaismus at Worcester, which was ravaged by Rob. de Ferrars in 1264; and Rob. of Glouc. says of the great outrage at the accession of Richard, Cœur de Lion,
“Ther was many a wilde hine, that prest was ther to,
And wende in to the Gywerie, and woundede, and to drowe,” &c. p. 485.
R. Brunne uses “Juerie” in a like signification. See Chaucer's account of the “Jewerie” in a Christian city in Asia; Prior. T. 13,419. Besides the Old Jewry in the metropolis, there is still the Jewry at Canterbury. Leland speaks of the street at Winchester, leading from the High Street to the North Gate, “caullyd the Jury, by cause Jues did enhabite it, and had theyr synagoge there,” Itin. iii. f. 71, and says of Warwick, “The suburbe without the East-Gate is called the Smithes streete; I hard ther that the Jues some tyme dwellyd in it.” Itin. iv. f. 165, a. In ancient deeds relating to Warwick “the Jurye” is mentioned, and the Jury street still exists. At Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, the Jews had formed a numerous settlement at an early period, and there is still the Jews' street. Blomf. Norf. iv. 578. In low Latin the part of a city reserved for the Jews was called Judœaria, Juderia, Jutaria, or Judœa, in French Juierie, Juirie, or Juterie; wherein, in some countries, they were compelled exclusively to dwell. See further of the early settlements of the Jews in England in Dr. Tovey's Anglia Judaica, and Caley's Observations, Archæol. viii. 389.
page 268 note 1 Dieta, according to the Catholicon, signifies a day's journey: the term occurs in this sense in Bracton and Fleta, where it is said that “omnis rationabilis dieta constat ex xx. milliaribus.” Chaucer uses the word in this sense, Knight's T. 2740; Chaucer's Dream, 1945; and also in that of a day's work, Rom. of Rose, 579. Journey had also the signification of a day's conflict, in like manner as the expression “the day” is used at present. Thus in the Paston Letters it is said of the Battle of St. Alban's, 1455, that “alle the Lordes that dyed at the jorney arn beryed at Seynt Albanes;” and the engagement is termed “the male journey” of St. Alban's, meaning, apparently, the disastrous battle. Vol. i. 108, 110. See Jamieson, v. Jorneye. In Norfolk, Journey implies the time a man is at plough, about six hours; if he works nine, two Journeys are taken.
page 268 note 2 In the Catholicon susurro is rendered murmurator, and susurrium, murmur, latens locutio. Both the English and Latin words are here evidently onomatopeias, and in like manner the sound produced by different birds is termed jurring, or jarring. In the Liber vocatus Femina, MS. Trin. Coll. Cant., amongst the noises of animals, it is said that “Colure ierist, et cok chaunt, coluere iurrut, and cok syngeþ.” To jurre signifies also to strike harshly against any thing, in which sense it is used by Holland, Pliny, B. ix. 30; Livy, p. 963. Cotgrave gives “Bocquer, to butte or jurre. Heurter, to knock, push, jur, joult, or hit violently against.” Jamieson gives jurr as signifying the noise of water falling among loose stones.
page 268 note 3 Jusselle was a compound of eggs and grated bread, with saffron and sage, boiled in broth. The name seems to have been taken from the ancient dish called Juscellum by Apicius. See directions for making “Jusshell” in the Forme of Cury, pp. 28, 97; Harl. MS. 5401, p. 198. The Liber cure cocorum supplies, under the head de Potagiis, the following metrical recipe for “Iusselle.”
“Take myud bred and eyren þou swynge
To hom to-gedur wyth out lettyng;
Take fresshe brothe of gode befe,
Coloure hyt wyth safron þat is me lefe;
Boyle hyt softly, and in þo boylyng
Do þer to sage, and persely ɜoyng.” Sloane MS. 1986, p. 58.
Elyot gives “Minutal, a meate made with chopped herbes, a iussell.” See Ducange v. Jussellum, and Juscellum. “Jossel, an hodge-podge. North.” Grose; Craven Dial.
page 268 note 4 ppotte, Ms. “Obba, quidam vas liquidorum, Anglice a iuste.” Med. “Onophorum, a crostell, or a wyne potte. Justa, olla monachi.” Ortus. According to Ducange the term justa demesuralis occurs in the signification of a certain measure, by which wine was served to the monks. So likewise in the Consuetudinary of Evesham, printed by Dugdale from the document in the Augmentation Office, the “justa” is named as the measure by which drinks were at certain seasons to be served by the cellerer. Mon. Angl. i. 149. Roquefort states that the Juste contained about a pint, but the Juta, which Ducange considers as synonymous, is accounted to hold two quarts.
page 269 note 1 Clothynge, Ms. and s. The other MSS. and Pynson's edit. give closynge. Compare Case, of closynge.
page 269 note 2 Katchyn̄, Ms. See Cachyn’ a-way. Compare Teut. Ketsen, sectari, cursare. In Arund. MS. 42, f. 11, b. it is said that Capillus Veneris “mundefyeþ þe lunges, and þe breste, and caccheþ out wykede materes in hem;” aud that “margery perles—wastyn, and fordon, and cacchen out of þe body wykede humors;” f. 12, b.
page 269 note 3 See Campȳn'. In ancient deeds cited in the Hist. of Hengrave, p. 11, mention occurs of “le camping close,” near Fornham St. Genevieve, where Montford, Earl of Leicester, was defeated in 1173; and the name has been supposed to have some connection with that occurrence, but more probably was given to a close appropriated to camping, the favourite game of the Eastern counties. Sir Thos. Brown gives to kamp in his list of Norfolk words. Tusser speaks of the game, in December's Husbandry, as beneficial to grass land. In a publication by M. Stevenson, 1673, entitled “Norfolk drollery,” is a poem in reference to this ancient game, and it is fully described by Forby.
page 269 note 4 Loramentum is explained in the Catholicon to mean boarding or frame-work compacted together, as in the construction of a ceiling. Stathe, which here is found only in the King's Coll. MS. occurs hereafter, as follows, Stathe, waterys syde. Stacio. It signifies a landing-place for merchandise, or quay, and several instances are found at Lynn and Hull. Ducange, v. Caya, rejects Spelman's derivation of this word; “Kaia, area in littore, e compactis tabulis trabibusque, clavium instar, firmata, Sax. cæʓ,” clavis, which, however, here appears to be the correct etymology. “Key to knytte walles toguyder, clef.” Palsg.
page 269 note 5 Kebyyn̄', Ms. Compare Waytyn̄, or a-spyyn̄. Observo. Chaucer uses the verb to kyke in the sense of gazing with a fixed look. Nicholas is thus described, when, to deceive the carpenter, he pretended to be distraught, or in amazement:
“This Nicholas sat ever gaping upright,
As he had kyked on the newe mone.” Miller's Tale, 3445.
Brockett and Jamieson give to keek or keik, to look with a prying eye, to spy narrowly. Su. G. kika, intentis oculis videre. Compare Teut. kijcken, Belg. kyken, spectare.
page 270 note 1 “Reticula, a lytell nette or kalle. Reticinellum, a kalle.” Ort. “A kelle, reticulum, reticinellum. A kelle knytter, reticularius.” Cath. Ang. The fashion of confining the hair in an ornamental network, which occasionally was jewelled, seems to have obtained in England from the time of Hen. III. until that of Elizabeth, and an endless variety of examples are afforded by illuminated MSS. and monumental effigies. It was termed calle or kelle, a term directly taken, perhaps, from the French cale, Lat. calantica or callus; and it had also the appellation “creepen,” crespine, still retained in Southern Europe to denote the picturesque head-dresses of the females, formed with net-work of coloured silk, and which still present many of the fashions of ancient times. The head-attire of the lovely lady who led in Sir Galrun to the court of King Arthur is thus described (Anturs of Arther, ed. Robson, p. 14.):
“Her fax in fyne perrè was frettut and fold,
Her counter-felit and hur kelle were colurt ful clene.” St. 29.
See Kynge of Tars, 365; the Grene Knight, 261; Cant. Tales, 6600; Troil. iii. 775; Townl. Myst. p. 312, &c. In the minute description of the attire of Elizabeth, Queen of Hen. VII. as she appeared before her coronation, 1487, it is said that she wore “her faire yelow hair hanging down pleyne byhynd her bak, with a calle of pipes over it.” Lel. Coll. iv. 220. Hall mentions the “kall” worn by Anne of Cleves at her first interview with Hen. VIII. 1547. “Call for maydens, retz de soye.” Palsg. Amongst the occupations of the ancient ladies of the court of Elizabeth, Harrison mentions “caulworke.” Descr. of Eng. Holinsh. Chron. i. 196. The term caul is applied likewise in other significations. Amongst the pertinencia piscatorum, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 153, is given “Calle or pu(r)snett, reticulum.” The omentum of a slaughtered beast is called in Norfolk the kell. “Kell in a woman's belly, taye.” Palsg. The superstition respecting the membrane which sometimes covers the head of a new-born infant, termed the caul, and in the North the silly-how, noticed by Grose and Brand, has been mentioned in the note on the word Howe, p. 250. “Ang.-Sax. cylla, uter.” Skinner.
page 270 note 2 The signification of Kempe, as applied to fish, is very obscure. Kemp, from Ang.-Sax. cempa, miles, signifies a knight or champion, and thence implies excellence or superiority, as in strength, or unusual size. See the remarks of Ihre on Su. G. kaempe, athleta. “A kempe, ubi a giande.” Cath. Ang. Kempe may therefore here denote an eel of the largest size, called otherwise a fausen eel, or a spitchcock. In the version of Junius' Nomenclator, v. Anguilla, Higins observes, “prœgrandis, a fausen eele, minima, a grigge, media, a scaffling dicitur.” See Gesn. de Aquat. lib. iv. Palsgrave gives “Kempe eele,” without any French word.
page 271 note 1 The kenet is mentioned in the “Maystere of the Game; c. xiij. of rennynge houndis. There ben also rennynge houndes, some lasse and some moor; and þe lasse byn clepid kenettis, and þes houndes rennen wel to al maner game, and þei servene for al game; men clepin hem heirers, and euery hounde þat haþ þat corage wil falle to be an heirere of nature with litel makynge,” &c. Vesp. B. Xii. f. 65. From this passage it might be supposed that harriers were originally so termed as being well adapted for close pursuit, and not from their being specially used in hunting the hare. Roquefort gives “harier; presser, harceler, poursuivre.” In “Dame Julyans Bernes doctryne, in her Boke of huntynge,” it is said, “Thyse ben the names of houndes. Fyrste there is a Grehoun(de), a Bastard, a Mengrell, a Mastif, a Lemor, a Spanyel, Raches, Kenettys, Teroures, Butchers houndes, dunghyll dogges, Tryndeltaylles, and pryckeryd currys; and smalle ladyes popees that bere awaye the flees, and dyuers smale fawtes.” Sign. e. ij. vo. ed. 1496. Roquefort gives “chiennet, chenet; en bas Lat. chenetus,” as signifying a little dog; and the term occurs in the satirical Anglo-Norman poem, descriptive of the lady of the XIVth cent. and her dogs, who, as it is said, “pius ad cher un kenet ke nul vache hou tor.” Rel. Antiqu. i. 155.
“La troverez les kenez sayllaunz cum grifiloun,
E les graunz leverez raumpanz cum lyoun.” Harl. MS. 209, f. 7, b.
In the ancient romances the kenet is mentioned as used in the chace of the deer, and the wild-boar. See the descriptions of the hunting parties of King Arthur and his knights, in the Anturs of Arther, st. iv.; Avowynge of King Arther, st. vi. ed. Robson, pp. 2, 60. They here appear to have been led in couples, and used with the bounds called raches, and berselettes, besides greyhounds. It seems, therefore, that they were the smaller dogs, which served to find the beast of chace, and on that account kenet is here rendered reperarius. Venaticus is rendered in the Ortus “a spanyel.” “A kenit, caniculus.” Cath. ang. See also Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, line 1701, ed. Madden. Palsgrave gives “kenet coloure, cendré.”
page 271 note 2 In the Vision of P. Ploughman the verb to kenne repeatedly occurs in this sense. See also Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, line 1484; Towneley Myst. pp. 9, 10.
page 271 note 3 Will. Worcester uses the term kenning to denote a distance at sea, pp. 179, 313; and it appears from Leland that 20 miles was accounted as a kenning, probably, as the extreme distance within ordinary sight. “Scylley is a Kennyng, that is to say, about a xx. miles from the very Westeste pointe of Cornewaulle.” Itin. iii. f. 6. See also f. 13. In the North, according to Brockett, half a bushel is called a kenning.
page 272 note 1 In the Mayster of Game it is said of the Roe, “They hauntene in strange hattes of wood, or in stronge hethys, and somtyme in carres, and comonly in hie contrees.” Vesp. B. Xii. f. 32, b. John Crane, of Norton Subcors, Norwich, bequeathed to his wife, in 1484, “all the londs, merys, marysses, alderkars,” &c. in Norton. Transcripts from Registers at Norwich, Harl. MS. 10, f. 195, b. Camden, in his Remains, under Surnames, explains car as signifying “a low waterie place, where alders do grow, or a poole.” Car signifies in Norfolk, according to Forby, a wood or grove on a moist soil, generally of alders. Brockett gives carr, flat marshy land, or a small lake. So likewise Leland, in his description of the N. Riding, says, “there is a praty car or pole in Bishop's Dale.” Itin. v. f. 116. He speaks repeatedly of “low medowes, and morisch ground ful of carres.” Itin. i. f. 40, 66, 74. In Lord North's Household Book, 1512, a warrant is given for taking swans from the carre of Arrom, in the lordship of Lekinfield, Yorkshire. See Jamieson, v. Carse, and Kerss. Compare Aldyrkyr, in the Promptorium. Su. G. kaerr, Isl. kaer, palus.
page 272 note 2 The kerchief, derived from the French couvre chief, or creveché, a covering for the head, the heafod-clað of the Anglo-Saxons, was, until the XVIth cent., almost an in-dispensible portion of female attire. Illuminated MSS. and monumental effigies present an endless variety of the fashions of its arrangement. R. Brunne, describing the flight of the Empress Maud from Oxford across the frozen Thames, 1142, says that she wore only her smock, but her features were decently veiled. (Langt. Chron. p. 122):
“Wiþouten kirtelle or kemse, saue kouerchief alle bare vis.”
See Coer de Lion, 1031. Chaucer, in the Man of Law's Tale, calls it a “kercher,” and alludes to the usage that the widow should conceal her face with the “coverchefe,” as so frequently seen on sepulchral effigies. Wife of Bathe's Prol. 6171. The kerchief was formed of silk, crape, or any thin tissue, which, when necessary, was rendered stiff by starch. See Starche for kyrcheys. The material termed “plytes” seems to have been imported from Flanders or Germany. Isabella Belgrafe bequeaths, in 1401, “iij. peces flam', videlicet ij. de serico, et j. de kryspe;” and in 1402 the wife of a tanner at York mentions her “flameola de threde; ij. flameola de cipres, et j. lampas volet.” In the will of Isabella de Wyleby, 1415, she devises “flameolum de krespe; j. plice de lawnd; j. flameolum de Parysse; flameolum de Reyns,” &c. and to the nursery women of Raby Castle, where she died, “rotulum de flameolo de coton.” Testam. Ebor. i. 280, 289,383. The material called plites is named in the Compotus for the collection of the subsidy on importations to Hull, 1400: “M.iiijc flammeol' voc' plites val' xxj. li.” Frost's Hist. of Hull. The stat. 3 Edw. IV. c. 5, forbade the sale, after Mich. 1465, of “ascune lavne, nifels, umple, ou ascun autre manere dez couvre-chiefs dount le price d'un plite passera x.s.:” these were of foreign manufacture. “Amiculum, a bende or a kerchyff.” Med. “Multicium, vestis subtilis, a sylken cote, a kercher, factum de serico.” Ort. In Pynson's Boke to lerne French are given “a kyrcherr, ung keruuerchief; a neckyrchiar, ung collerette;” and Palsgrave has “cour-chefe, quevuerchief.” “Kerchiefe worne with a paste or rolle, tœnia. Kerchiefe worne vpon the head, chekes, or eares, focale.” Huloet. Compare Volypere, kerche.
page 273 note 1 “Cironomon (a keruere) mensis, lectis assistit aleptes (a surgyone, or a chamber-leyne.)” Distigius, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 113. The functions of the trencheator, or écuyer trenchant, at the table of the sovereign or noble, were regarded as of an honourable nature, and regulated by prescribed ceremonial. The details thereof may be learned from the Household Ordinances of the English Court, published by the Ant. Soc.; the ceremonial of the inthronization of Abp. Neville, 1466, Leland, Coll. vi.; the order for the government of a nobleman's house, 1605, Archæol. xiii. 315, and similar documents. At the coronation of Hen. IV. the office of carver was claimed by the Earl of Somerset, half-brother to the King, in right of his earldom of Lincoln; and on ordinary occasions the office was discharged by Bannerets, or Knights bachelors, who were called Knights of chamber, or, in their absence, by the Knights of household. See Liber Niger Edw. IV. Househ. Ord. 32. The Lords Henry Neville and Clinton were the Chief carvers at the court of Hen. VIII. 1526; and at all times the office seems to have been held by men of rank, and was conferred by patent. See the Treatise de scissurâ ciborum, et servicio dominorum diversis temporibus, Sloane MS. 1986, t. Hen. VI. especially the chapter de cultellis domini, in the Treatise de officiariis in curiis dominorum, which has been edited by Mr. Halliwell for the Percy Soc. Boke of Curtasye, p. 28. The minor details of the craft are given in the Boke of Kerving, W. de Worde, 1508. “Karuer afore a Prince, Escvier trenchant. I kerue as a lordes karuer dothe at his table, Ie trenche. I put the towell aboute a karuer or seruer's necke, that shall serue a greate man at his table, Ie encolle la touaille.” Palsg. The proceeding to which allusion is here made was conducted with ceremony, and was termed arming the carver; see Leland, Coll. vi. 7; Archæol. xiii. 332. At certain times both the carver and sewer performed their services kneeling on one knee, as represented in the illumination which exhibits the death of Earl Godwin at the table of Edw. the Conf. Vitell. A. Xiii. Strutt's Regal Ant. pl. 2.
page 273 note 2 Pelliris appears to have been a helm of leather, which was called also a palet, a word occurring in the Promptorium. By Uguitio it is explained to have been “galea ex corio vel pelle,” to which, in the Ortus, is added, “Anglice, a helme of lether. Galerus, a coyfe of lether.” Ib. Sir W. Langford, in 1411, bequeaths to his son a “haberion,” and a “ketill hatte,” which is considered by Sir S. Meyrick to have been identical with the visored capelline, or steel hat, represented in Crit. Enquiry, ii. pl. 48. It would appear from the Promptorium that the kettle hat was exclusively formed of leather; it is, however, probable that the name was likewise given to the chapel de fer, or capellus ferreus, used from the time of Edw. II. until the XVIth cent. the form being at all times nearly the same, and from the wide projecting brim bearing much resemblance to a caldron. It is, however, certain, that armour of leather was silvered over, to give it the appearance of metal, and it is highly probable that cuir-bouilli, which supplied defences of a very serviceable nature, and more commodious than plate armour, was extensively used. The form of the kettle hat, at the period when the Promptorium was compiled, may be seen in the drawings in Rous' Life of Rich. Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, Julius, E. Iv. Strutt's Horda, vol. ii.
page 274 note 1 The reading of the MS. is here canus, which seems to be corrupt. “Chamus, genus freni, i. capistrum, et pars freni, moleyne.” Med. “Camus, a byt, or snaffle.” Elyot. The Promptorium gives Chavylbone, mandibula, which may possibly give a clue to the derivation of the term kevyl, a bit for a horse. It has not been noticed as retained in any provincial dialect in England, but Jamieson gives “Kewl, a halter brought under the jaws of an unmanageable horse, and passed through his mouth.”
page 274 note 2 Catillare signifies to mew as a cat; but glatire properly denotes the noise of dogs; Fr. glatir. See Ducange. Palsgrave gives “Kewtyng, bringyng forthe of yonge cattes, chattement.”
page 274 note 3 “A kidde, ubi fagott.” Cath. ang. “Kydde, a fagotte, falovrde.” Palsg. Ray gives kid, a faggot, among North-country words; it is likewise noticed in the Craven and Salopian Dialects. Gouldman gives it as synonymous with faggot; and Skinner, as a word in use in Lincolnshire, as it were “fasciculus ligni cœdui.”
page 274 note 4 Kedge, brisk, budge, hale and lively. Suff. Ray and Moore. Kedgie. Caigie; Jamieson. Forby gives kick, signifying in Norfolk a novelty or a dash; and kicky, showy. Both words are given in a like sense by Jamieson. “He's in high kick,” is a proverb in the Craven Dialect. Compare Su. G. kaeck, Germ. keck, Isl. kiaekr, audax, animosus.
page 274 note 5 Cumula, Ms. In a Roll of 2–5 Edw. I. among the Miscellaneous Records of the Queen's Remembrancer, a payment occurs “Stephano le Ioignur, pro j. Kembelinâ subtus cisternam Regis, vij.d.” The Latin-Engl. Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. gives, under the head “ad brasorium pertinencia, Kymnelle, cuna; Kunlione, cunella.”
“He goth, and geteth him a kneding trough,
And after a tubbe, and a kemelin.” Miller's Tale, 3622.
Thos. Harpham of York bequeaths, in 1341, “unum plumbum, unam cunam, quœ vocatur maskefat, et duas parvas cunas quœ vocantur gylefatts, duas kymelyns, et duos parvos barellos.” Testam. Ebor. i. 3. “Kynmell, quevue, quevuette.” Palsg. Skinner gives kemeling, as signifying in Lincolnshire a brewing vessel; and Ray, among North-country words, has kimnel, or kemlin, a powdering tub. Compare Kimnal, Salopian Dialect; Kimmen, Jamieson. A killer, according to Forby, is a shallow tub, distinct from a cooler, and so called, as he states, from A.-S. kylle, cadus. Compare Kelare, Frigidarium.
page 275 note 1 Marvellous tales are given by ancient writers regarding the production of gems in Eastern countries by serpents, which, lying in the sun, have thereby conceived.
“Swich is this addres kyndlyng,
Preciouse stones withouten lesyng.” K. Alis. 5680.
The expression “genimina viperarum,” Vulg. Luke, iii. 7, is in the Wicliffite version rendered “kindelyngis of eddris.” In the Mayster of Game, Vesp. B. Xii. f. 20, b. and 21, it is said, “the hares han̄ no sesone of her loue, for in euery monthe of the yere ne shal not be þat some ne be with kyndeles,—the hare bereþ ij monthes her kyndels, and whanne þei han̄ kyndeled, þei likkene her kyndels as a biche dooth her whelpes.” Rous, Hist. Reg. Angl. ed. Hearne, p. 130, cites the lines attributed to Thos. of Ercildon.
“The hare shall kendyll on the harth-stone,
My dere son, than byld thy hows of lyme and of stone.”
In the St. Alban's Book mention is made of “a kyndyll of yonge cattes.” Palsgrave gives the verb to “kyndyll as a she hare or cony dothe, whan they bring forthe yonge. A conny kyndylleth every moneth in the yere, porte des petis.” Skinner gives the word as used in relation to rabbits, and derives it from Ang.-Sax. cennan, parere. See Craven Gloss, v. Kennle, and Jamieson, Supp. v. Kendle. Compare Belg. kinderen, to be in child-bearing; Germ. kindlein, proles.
page 276 note 1 The verb to kippe, signifying to snatch up hastily, occurs frequently in Havelok:
“And Robert kipt ut a knif long,
And smot him thoru the rith arm.” 2407.
See also lines 894, 1050; and K. Horn, 1208; R. Glouc. p. 125; R. Brunne, &c. It is still in use in the Northern dialect. See Brockett and Jamieson, v. Kep; and Bp. Kennett's Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “To kep, or cep, Bor. to catch, as, kep the ball.” “To kep, vide to catch.” Gouldm. Ang.-Sax. cepan, Teut. keppen, captare.
page 276 note 2 The Catholicon gives the following explanation: “Telonem hortulani vocant lignum quo hauriunt aquam, a longitudine dictum; hoc Hispani ciconiam dicunt, quia imitetur avem illam rostrum levantem et deponentem: hujus lignum modo saepe fit super puteos.” Horman says, “the buckette is of fro the swepe or flayle, and falled into the welle; urnula ciconie sive teloni excidit.” The term seems to be derivable from Ang.-Sax. cepan. In the North the hooks by which a pot is suspended, a contrivance somewhat similar to the telo for raising water, are termed kilps, or pot-kelps, according to Ray. “A kylpe of a caldrone, perpendiculum.” Cath. ang. See Brockett and Craven Dialect, v. Kelps.
page 276 note 3 G. de Bibelesworth says, speaking of eating an apple,
“La pépignière (the skore) vous engettez,
Si les pepignes (þe kurnelles) ne plauntez.”
Forby states that kernel signifies, in Norfolk, a grain, as “a kernel of wheat, a kernel of salt.” The archaic use of the word, as denoting grain, appears in the Ortus: “Granum, Anglice corne, a kyrnell. Granellum, graynes, or a lytel kyrnel. Gramino, to borionne or kyrnell. Grano, i. granis implere, to kyrnell.” “A kyrnelle, enuclea, granum, nucleus. To kyrnelle, granare, granescere.” Cath. ang. In Coverdale's version of the treatise by Wermulierus, entitled The precious Pearl, 1560, f. 80, it is said that “when the corn is threshed, the kernell lieth mixed among the chaffe, and afterward are they disseuered with the fanne or wendle.” Plot speaks of corn full of “kernell.” Hist. Oxf. p. 245. Compare Ceede of corne, as kyrnel. Ang.-Sax. cyrnel, nucleus.
page 276 note 4 “Glandula, nodus sub cute, a waxynge curnelle.” Med. In Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. de infirmitatibus, are mentioned “Glandulli, wax kyrnel.” “Waxyng kyrnels, glande, glanders. Kyrnell or knobbe in the necke, or other where, glandre.” Palsg. “Tolles, a waxynge kernell.” Elyot. The books of the ancient leeches contain numerous remedies; see Boorde's Breviary of Health, c. 14, 75, 165, “of carnelles in the flesh,” &c.; and Langham's Garden of Health.
page 277 note 1 It would be scarcely possible to define the garments, varied according to the fashion of the day, from the Ang.-Sax. cyrtel, tunica, to the kirtle of crimson velvet provided amongst the Parliament robes of Edw. VI., to which this appellation was successively applied. It denoted garments worn by both sexes: R. Brunne speaks of the Empress Maud as taking flight from Oxford “withouten kirtelle or kemse,” p. 122; Chaucer describes the “kirtell of a light waget” as part of the smart attire of Absolon, the parish clerk; Miller's T. 3322. Walter de Bruge, canon of York, bequeathed in 1396, “j. gounam, cum j. curtill, et j. capucio.” Test. Ebor. i. 210. The kirtle, as female attire, seems to have been a close-fitting garment, as appears in the description in Sir Launfal of the two “gentyll maydenes—ilasced smalle, jolyf, and welle;” and Rob. Henrysoun, t. Hen. VI. says, in the Garment of good Ladies,
“Her kirtle should be of clean constance,
Lacit with lesum love.”
John Payn relates in his letter to his master, John Paston, that in Cade's rebellion his wife's dwelling was attacked, and the mob “lefte her no more gode but her kyrtyll and her smook.” Paston Lett. i. 62. As worn by men, the kirtle seems generally to have been a short garment, and closely girt; but the “kirtell de rouge tartarin,” which formed part of the state robes of the Knights of the Bath, was full, and long-skirted. “A kyrtelle, ubi a cote. A cote, tunica, tunicella.” Cath. ang. “Kyrtell, a garment, corpset, surcot, cotelle.” Palsg. “Kyrtell, cottron.” Boke to lerne French, Pynson. Duwes, in the Introductory for to lerne French, written for the Princess Mary, gives “the kyrtell, le corset; the kyrtell, la cottelette.” See Strutt's Dresses, ii. 238, ed. 1842; Douce's Illust. of Shakespeare, Hen. IV. part ii.; and Nares.
page 277 note 2 In the Wicliffite version this word is written “cos, cosse,” Luke xxii. 48. R. Brunne uses the verb “cussed;” see also R. Glouc. p. 15. In the North it is still pronounced cus, or kuss; see Craven Dial. and Brockett. A.-Sax. cos, osculum. Compare Cus, p. 111.
page 277 note 3 “Cutulus, a whelpe or a kytlynge.” Ortus. “A kythynge (sic), catulus, catulaster.” Cath. ang. In the earlier Wicliffite version, Deut. xxxiii. 22 is thus rendered: “To Dan he seith, Dan, keetlyng of a lyon (catulus leonis, Vulg.) shal flowe largely fro Basan.” Palsgrave gives the verb to “kyttell as a catte dothe, chatonner. Gossyppe, whan your catte kytelleth, I praye you let me haue a kytlynge (chatton.)” “Chatonner, to kittle, or bring forth young cats. Caller, to kittle as a cat. Faire ses petits, to whelp, kittle, kindle, farrow,” &c. Cotg. See Holland's Plutarch, p. 179; Pliny, xxix. c. 4. Forby gives kitling, a young cat. See Ash, the Cheshire Glossary, and Jamieson.
page 277 note 4 This word occurs in the gloss, in the chapter on brewing by G. de Bibelesworth. “Allumet amy cele le frenole (þe kex.)” Arund. MS. 220, f. 300. In the Vision of P. Ploughman it is said that glowing embers serve not the workmen in a winter's night so well
“As dooth a kex or a candle,
That caught hath fir and blaseth.” 11,804.
In an Herbal, the date of which is perhaps contemporary with the Promptorium, it is said that there are two species of hemlock, “tame and wilde. The 2 spice is cowh ynowh, to mykel, saf fore pore mennys eldynge, and childus pleynge; þey callen it þe grete homeloc; the stalkes stonden whit and ser eueryɜere. In some contre it is called kex, in some contre wodewhistel.” Arund. MS. 42, f. 23. Eldynge here signifies fuel; see Eyldynge, above, p. 136. Allusion is made to the use of the stalks of hemlock instead of candles, in Turn. of Tottenham, 201. “Eruca, a humlocke, or a keyclogge.” Ortus. “Keckes of humblockes, tviau. Kickes, the drie stalke of humlockes or burres, tnyav. Kixe, tviau.” Palsg. “Sagaperium, a gumme or rosyn, whiche runneth out of a kyxe or tree, called ferula.” Elyot. “Canon de suls, a kex or hollow stick, or branch of elder, or a pot-gun made thereof. Segue, Hemlocke, hom-locke, herbe Bennet, Kex.” Cotg. “Kecks, i. hollow stalks and sticks, cremium.” Gouldm. Holland, in his version of Pliny, B. Xxv. c. 7, says that the stem of gentian “is hollow as a kex,” and void within; and of line or flax, B. xix. c. 1, that “the long buns of the stalkes—will serve very well to maintaine fire under kills and leads.” Shakespeare speaks of “hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs;” the proverbs, as dry as a kex, as hollow as a gun, or as a kex, are common; and the word is still used provincially. See Brockett, Craven, Hallamshire, Salopian, Wiltshire Glossaries, &c. “Kexes, kaxes, or kixes, a Fr. G. cigue, utrumque a Lat. cicuta.” Skinner. Bunne, given here as synonymous with kyx, is so given likewise previously, p. 55; where Bunkyyde, the reading of the MS., appears to be erroneous: the King's Coll. MS. gives Bunne, kyx, but possibly a kid or faggot of buns may be intended. This word occurs in the later Wicliffite version, Isai. i. 31. “And ɜoure strengthe schal be as a deed sparcle of bonys (ether of herdis of flex);” in another MS. “bones (eiþer of herdis),” where three of the MSS. give “stobil,” and the earlier Version “sparke of a flax top (favilla stupœ,” Vulg.) Ang.-Sax. bune, fistula.
page 278 note 1 —gnaste, or a kandel. Enamctura, Ms. “Emungo, id est sordes auferre de naso vel candelâ, to snuffe. Emunctorium, a snuffynge yron.” Ortus. In the earlier Wiccliffite version in the Bodl. MS. by the first hand, Isai. i. 31 is thus rendered: “And ɜoure strengthe shal ben as a gnast of a flax top (favilla stupœ, Vulg.) and ɜoure werk as a sparcle (scintilla),” where the corrected reading of the ordinary copies, instead of “gnast,” is “deed sparke,” in the later version “deed sparcle.” “Lichinum, gnaiste or knast of a candell. Lichinus, gnast of þe candyl.” Med. “Lichinus, candell weyke.” Ortus. In the Winch. MS. this word not only occurs in its proper place, but is repeated at the end of the letter K after the word Kuny, as follows: “Knaste, or gnaste off a candel. Muco. Versus; Est nasi muco, candele sit tibi muco.” This was perhaps a marginal addition, misplaced by the transcriber. Compare Dan. gnist, Swed. gnista, Icel. gneisti, scintilla.
page 278 note 2 The term knave long retained the simple meaning of the Ang.-Sax. cnafa, puer: thus, in the Wicliffite version, “peperit filium masculum,” Vulg. is rendered “sche bere a knaue child.” Apoc. xii. 5. Chaucer says of Griselde,
——“She a daughter hath ybore,
All had hire lever han borne a knaue child.” Clerk's Tale.
In Arund. MS. 42, f. 26, it is said of Carduus that it is “on of þe noblest mete þat is for þe matrice; wommen desyren it, for it disposith hem to haue cnaue children.” “A knafe, hic et hec calcula, garcio.” Cath. ang. “Knaue, quocquin, uillain.” Palsg.
page 279 note 1 Kene, Ms. kne, K. s. Palsgrave gives the following curious observation, to illustrate the use of the verb to kneel: “The men of this countray knele vpon one knee whan they here masse, but ye frenche men knele vpon bothe.”
page 279 note 2 In W. Thorpe's recital of his examination by Abp. Arundel, 1407, he states that when charged with having preached heresy at St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, he made answer, “As I stood there in the pulpit, busying me to teach the commandment of God, there knilled a sacring bell, and therefore mickle people turned away hastily, and with noise ran fro towards me;” this circumstance called forth the expression which had been construed into heresy. “I knolle a belle, Ie frappe du batant.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. cnyllan, campanâ signum dare. Bp. Kennett remarks that in Yorkshire a passing bell is called “a sawl-knill, from Ang.-Sax. sawl, anima, and cnyll, campanœ pulsatio.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 279 note 3 Tyro is explained in the Catholicon to be novus miles, noviter electus ad militiam, but implied, perhaps, more properly, the novice in arms, who sought occasions for warlike exercise at home and abroad, until his approved prowess should entitle him to the honour of knighthood. See Ducange, the Memoirs of St. Palaye, and other writers on chivalry. Scarcely any of the ancient Romances afford a more graphic and stirring picture of the education and adventure of the Tyro than the life of le petit Jehan de Saintrè, written about the period when the Promptorium was compiled. The practice of wandering on the uncertain quest of adventure was by no means laid aside when the novice had won his spurs. “Knyght of aduentures, cheualier errant.” Palsg.
page 279 note 4 The verb to knit is used by old writers in the sense of to unite. Thus in Sloane MS. 3548, f. 99, b. is given an extraordinary nostrum “for to knyt synous þat are brokyne. Take greyte wormes þat are called angeltwycthys, and lat hem dry in þe sunne, and þen beyte hem to powder, and strew þat powder in þe wounde, and yt shall knytte to-geder. Probatum est sepissime.” Palsgrave gives the following verbs: “I knytte a knotte, Ie noue; Knytte your purse faste, for their be shrewes a brode. I knyt as a matte maker knytteth, Ie tys, coniugated in I wayne. I knyt bonettes or hosen, Ie lasse. I knyt one vp, I take hym vp, I reproue hym, Ie reprouche. I knytte vp a mater, I make an ende or conclusyon of a matter, Ie determine. I knytte vp a man, I holde hym shorte, or kepe hym from his libertye, Ie tiens court.”
page 280 note 1 This term is used to denote in general any swelling in the flesh. Chaucer describes the Sompnour's visage, from which no detergent could remove the evidences of surfeit.
“That him might helpe of his whelks white,
Ne of his knobbes sitting on his chekes.” Prol. v. 636.
“Knobbe, or rysing after a stroke, bigne. Kyrnell, or knobbe in the necke, or other where, glandre.” Palsg. Andrewe Boorde, in the Breviarie of Health, 1575, gives a detailed account of the kinds, cause, and cure of nodi, or “knottes, knobbes, knorres, or burres, the which is in man's flesh or fatnesse;” c. 109.
page 280 note 2 “A knoppe of a scho, bulla. To knoppe, bullare. A knoppe of a kne, internodium.” Cath. ang. The word knop, or knob, in its various significations, seems to be derived from Ang.-Sax. cnæp, jugum, and denotes any protuberance, as a button, a bud, or the head of a sore. “Knoppe of a payre of beedes, hovppe. Knoppe of a cuppe, pomeau de covuerleque. Knoppe wede, an herbe.” Palsg.
page 280 note 3 See the note on the word coo, above, p. 84. Ang.-Sax. ceo, cornix. In the Gloss on G. de Bibelesworth, “chouwe” is rendered “a co brid.” “Koo, a byrde.” Palsg. In the nun's lament for her bird, killed by the cat, all the fowls are enumerated who are to be bidden to the funeral:
——“the churlysshe chowgh,
The route, and the kowgh:—
At this placebo,
We may not well forgo
The countrynge of the coe.” Skelton, Philip Sparrow.
page 281 note 1 “Delicius, puer in deliciis matris nutritus, a cokenay. Collibista, qui recipit munuscula pro usurd et servicio aliquâ, et qui vendit collibia, et dicitur a cokenay.” Med. ms. cant. The term seems here to signify a little cook. In the Vision of P. Ploughman, line 4371, it had been supposed to have this meaning; but Mr. Wright, in his Glossary, suggests that it implies some kind of meagre food, as a small cock, which, by comparison with Turnam. of Tottenham, Anc. Poet. ii. 24, and Heywood's Prov. pt. i. c. xi. seems highly probable. “Coquine, a cockney, simperdecockit, nice thing.” Cotg. “A cockney, niais, mignot, cailhette. A waspish cockney dame, guespine.” Sherw. “A cockney, or child tenderly brought up; mammothreptus, vinciolus, pedagium, delitiœ pueri,” &c. Gouldm. Tusser uses the word in this last sense, as given in the Promptorium: speaking of the nursery, and defects of early training, he says, in his Points of Huswifery,
“Some cockneys, with cocking, are made very fools,
Fit neither for 'prentice, for plough, nor for schools.”
See the note on the word Coknay, p. 86; and Fuller's Worthies, London.
page 281 note 2 In the Household Book of Sir John Howard, in 1466, is the item, “for yonge kokerelles to make of capons, ix.d.” “Kockerell, cochet.” Palsg.
page 281 note 3 The treatise here cited is attributed to Joh. de Garlandiâ, and has been printed. MSS. of it may be found in Harl. MS. 4967, art. 18; Arund. MS. 52, art. 14.
page 281 note 4 See the note on Cukstoke, p. 107, where the reading cukstolle, according to the other three MSS. is probably more correct. The following observation occurs amongst Bp. Kennett's Coll. Lansd. MS. 1033: “A goging stool, a ducking stool, or cucking-stool, called in Domesday cathedra stercoris, properly a gonging stool, gong stool, or gang stool. Sax. ʓonʓ stole, sella familiaris, a close stool.” That such was sometimes its form is proved by the engraving in Boys' Hist. of Sandwich, which exhibits the cucking-stool and wooden mortar used there for the punishment of scolds; see pp. 500, 785. In a satire on the evil government of the times of Edw. II. it is said, in reference to the corrupt dealings of the assisours, (Polit. Songs, ed. Wright, 345.)
“The pilory and the cucking-stol beth i-mad for noht.”
It seems also to have been called thewe, as in the Plac. in Itin. apud Cestriam, 14 Hen. VII. cited by Blount, it is recorded that George Grey. Earl of Kent, claimed in his manors of Bushton and Ayton, to punish offenders against the assize of bread and ale, “per tres vices per amerciamenta, et quartâ vice pistores per pilloriam, braciatores per tumbrellum, et rixatrices per thewe, hoc est ponere eas super scabellum vocatum a cucking stool.” In cases where fine was substituted for the cucking-stool, as a punishment, the lord became liable to the forfeiture of his manorial liberties, as in the case of the Dean of Lincoln, in 1384, who fined transgressors of the assize of bread and ale, in certain of his manors in Derbyshire, whereas “puniendi sunt per pillorium et tumbrellum, et non per amerciamenta;” for that offence, and the deficiency of pillory and tumbrel, his liberties were seized, and forfeited into the King's hands. Pat. 8 Ric. II. The tumbrel seems to be occasionally mentioned as distinct from the stool, and sometimes as the same mode of punishment, and from the examination of the stool and its carriage still preserved at Warwick, it is obvious that the two might be used either singly or together, according to local usage, and the nature of the offence. An extent of the manor of Marham, in Norfolk, taken about the commencement of the XVth cent. states that W. Beleth, who held the chief manor, claimed “habere libertatem in furch', tumbrell,' thewe, emendacionem forisfacture pistorum, brasiatorum, mensur', galone, weyf, et stray;” and that the Abbess of Marham enjoyed the like liberties. Orig. Roll, in the possession of Sir Thos. Hare, Bart. In the XVIth cent. the punishment of the cucking stool was still fully in use: by the stat. 3 Hen. VIII. c. 6, as the penalty of fraudulent practices by carders or spinners of wool, the offender was to be “sett upon the pillorie or the cukkyngstole, man or woman, as the case shall require.” Stat. of Realm, iii. 28. In Mr. Beesly's Hist. of Banbury will be found several notices regarding the pillory, “kockestoll,” and tumbrell, in use at that place as late as the reign of Elizabeth. Harrison, who wrote his description of England about 1579, says in the chapter of sundry kinds of punishments, “scolds are ducked vpon cucking stooles in the water.” “Cucke stole, selle à ribauldes.” Palsg.
page 282 note 1 Lable, Ms. labbe, H. s. p. Compare Blabbe, or labbe, wreyare of cownselle; Bewrayer of counsel, and Dyscurer of cownselle. This word is used by Chaucer:
“Quod tho this sely man, I am no labbe,
Ne, though I say it, I n'am not lefe to gabbe.” Miller's T. 3506.
Compare the Dutch labben, Belg. lapperen, to blab, or gossip. Labb, Dialect of Exmoor.
page 282 note 2 It is not obvious in what sense this word is here to be taken: the Ortus follows the explanation given in the Catholicon, “labellum, i. parvum labrum, a lytelle lyppe.” It appears from citations given by Ducange that labellus, lambellus, or lablellus, denoted a pendant ornament of dress, or the heraldic label, in which sense it occurs in the grant of a crest, 1324, Rym. vii. 763. See the observations of Upton on the differences of arms termed by him lingulœ, or labellœ; Mil. Off. iv. p. 255. Fortescue describes the habit of the Serjeant-at-law as consisting of “roba longa, ad instar sacerdotis, cum capitio penulato circa humeros ejus; et desuper collobio, cum duobus labellulis, quales uti solent doctores legum in Universitatibus quibusdam.” Laud. Legum Angl. V. 51. This hood with labells, as it is called by Dugdale, appears in illuminations copied from Roy. MS. 19 C. IV. and Harl. MS. 4379, in Strutt's Dresses, ii. pl. 80, 112; and in the latter, the hood being brought up over the head, the use of the labels, which are attached together under the chin, is apparent. There was also a furred hood with long labels, worn by ecclesiastics, representations of which are supplied by the Missal of Philippe le Bon, Harl. MS. 2897, the figure of Will. de Rothwell, Archdeacon of Essex, who died 1361, given by Messrs. Waller, in their beautiful series of Sepulchral Brasses, and other examples. Horman says, in the chapter “De fortunâ iratâ,” of misfortunes and perils, f. 129, “I wyll recompense the with a labell, reponam appendice quâdam;” and Palsgrave gives “labell, hovppe.” “Houppe, a tuft, or topping; a tassell or pretty lock. Lambeau, a labell.” Cotg. “A labell hanging on each side of a miter, infula. Labelles hanging down on garlands, or crownes, lemnisci.” Huloet.
page 283 note 1 In the Ortus laquear, laqueare, and laquearium are explained as signifying “Conjunctio trabium in summitate domus, a seelynge of a howse.”
page 283 note 2 “I laade water with a scoup, or any other thyng out of a dytche or pytte, Ie puyse de l'eaue. I lade, I take in water, as a shyp or bote that is nat staunched, Ie boy de l'eaue.” Palsg. This verb is used by Shakespeare, Hen. VI. pt. 3, Act ii. In Sussex and Hants, to lade means to take water from a vessel or pond by a scoop or pail, and in Somersetshire the utensil employed for this purpose is termed a lade. pail. Ang.-Sax. hladan, haurire.
page 283 note 3 Compare Be-laggyd. Ang.-Sax. laʓu, aqua. Horman says, “there is rysen a fray amonge the water-laggers, amphorarios.” In the Northumberland Household Book, 1511, it appears that the “laggs” of wine, when the cask ran low, were to be made into vinegar. See Jamieson, v. Laggerit.
page 283 note 4 Compare Clykett, clitorium; and Snekke. “Lache, or snecke of a dore, locquet. Latche of a dore, clicquette, locquet. Sneke latche, locquet, clicquette. I latche a doore, I shytte it by the latche, Ie ferme à la clicquette.” Palsg.
page 284 note 1 In the Vision of P. Ploughman this word signifies negligence, Fr. lachesse.
“The lord, of hus lacchese, and hus luther sleuthe,
By nom hym al that he hadde.”
See also line 4973. Chaucer says in the Persone's Tale, “Then cometh lachesse, that is, he that whan he beginneth any good werk, anon he wol forlete and stint it;” and uses the adjective “lache,” sluggish or dull; Boec. B. iv. Gower observes that the first and chief point of sloth is “lachesse,” which has this property, to leave all things in arrear. Conf. Am. B. IV. See Jamieson, v. Lasche. Palsgrave gives the verb “I latche, I lagge, I tary behynde my company, Ie tarde, and Ie targe.”
page 284 note 2 To latch, signifying to seize or catch, is a verb the use of which occurs in R. Brunne, p. 120; the Vision of P. Ploughm. 1279; Crede, 934; Cov. Myst. p. 29, &c. Chaucer speaks of a “nette or latch,” set by Love to snare birds. In Will. and the Werwolf it is used in the sense of embracing:
“Certes Sire þat is soþ, sede Will'm þanne,
And lepes liɜtli him to, and lacches him in armes.” p. 163.
See also p. 25. In Arund. MS. 42, f. 17, b. it is related how the wood of aloes is obtained, which grows on the mountain tops, near a lake beyond Babylon, and falling into the water, either from age and decay, or blown by the wind, the “folk þat dwellen in þat countre, or nere, casten nettys, or oþer sleyɜtes, and lacchyn it, and so it is had.” Palsgrave gives the verb “I latche, I catche a thyng that is throwen to me in my handes, or it fall to the grounde, Ie happe. If I had latched the potte betyme, it had nat fallen to the grounde.” Forby gives to latch as used in Norfolk in this sense; and Brockett states that it is still retained in the Northern dialect. Ang.-Sax. lœccan, prehendere.
page 284 note 3 Cithara is rendered, in the Medulla, “a harpe,” in the Ortus “a lewte;” and in the latter occurs “cithariso, to synge with a harpe.” Lay harpe seems here to denote the instrument in its use as an accompaniment to the voice. Thus Chaucer says,
“Thise old gentil Britons in hir dayes
Of diuers auentures maden layes,
Rimeyed in hire firste Breton tonge
Which layes with her instrumentys they songe.” Cant. T. 11,022.
See Tyrwhitt's observations on the derivation of the word lay. Ang.-Sax. ley, canticum. As, however, sambuca is defined by Papias, and other glossarists, to have the sense of “cithara rustica,” lay harp may, possibly, imply the instrument used by the vulgar. The instrument called symphonia, according to Uguitio, was a tamburine.
page 285 note 1 Laking, signifying a child's toy, is a word still used in the North, as Brockett observes. In the Towneley Myst. Mak tells the shepherds that his wife brings him every year “a lakan,” and some years twins. The verb to layke, Ang.-Sax. lacan, ludere, and the substantive layke, disport, occur frequently in the old writers. See Sir F. Madden's Glossaries to Will. and the Werwolf, and Gawayn; Seuyn Sages, 3310; Minot, p. 10; Vision of P. Ploughm. line 341; Townel. Myst. pp. 96, 102, 141. The local use of the verb is noticed in the Cheshire and Craven Glossaries, as likewise by Brockett. Skinner remarks that it is commonly heard throughout the North, a circumstance which he is disposed to attribute to the Danish occupation. Dan. leeger, ludo. Bp. Kennett gives “Leikin, a sweet-heart, Northumb. ab A.-Sax. lician, placere.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 285 note 2 The Gloss on G. de Bibelesworth gives “terre freche, leylond;” in the MS. in Sir Thos. Phillipps' collection, “leyɜe.” “Rus, a leylonde. Ruricola, a tyleare of leylonde.” Med. Ms. Cant. “Selio, a lee lande.” Ortus. “Novale, falowe. Sellio, Anglice leye.” Harl. Ms. 1002, f. 148. “A leylande, selio, frisca terra. Ley, iscalidus, isqualidus.” Cath. Ang. “Iscolidus, a felde untylde.” Med. “Lay lande, terre novuellement labovrée.” Palsg. “Rudetum, lande which hath leyen leye, and is newly put in tylthe.” Elyot. In the poem entitled the Hunttyng of the Hare, it is related how the hare escaped, “and feyr toke up a falow ley,” no more to be seen by her pursuers. Ed. Weber, 152. Lay-land, according to Bailey, is fallow or unploughed land, and there are many places which have thence derived the name. Ang.-Sax. ley, terra inculta, novale. Forby observes that in central Suffolk a coarse old pasture is called a lay. Compare Somyr laylond. Novale.
page 285 note 3 Compare Dyspreysyn', or lackyn̄'. “Vituperium, blame or lacke.” Ort. To lakk, depravare, &c. ubi to blame.” Cath. Ang. In the Vision of P. Ploughman, Envy says that when his neighbour met with a customer, whilst he sold nothing, he was ever ready
“To lye and to loure on my neghebore,
And to lakke his chaffare.” 2736.
Chaucer uses the word precisely in the same sense, in Rom. of Rose. Fabyan, in “Lenuoy” of his viith part, excuses himself as unable to adapt his Chronicle to the liking of every reader,
“And specyally to suche as haue theyr delyghtynge
Euer wyth dysclaunder moste wryters to lacke,
And barke whyle they maye, to sette good wryters a backe.”
“I lacke a thynge, I fynde faute at it, Ie trouue à redire. I lacke, I wante a thynge, I'ay faulte. I lacke a penne.” Palsg. Compare Dutch laecken, minuere, deterere. Lydgate uses the substantive lack in the sense of dispraise. See his poem to put in remembrance of virtue and vice, of the diligent and the indolent. (Minor Poems, p. 84.)
“Of whiche the reporte of both is thus reserved,
With lawde, or lack, liche as they haue deserved.”
page 286 note 1 Lame was formerly used in a more general sense than at present. In the Golden Legend it is related that a poor man came to St. Loye, “that hadde his honde styffe, and lame.” “Lame of one hande, manchet. Lame of all ones lymmes, perclus. Lamenesse, mehaygneté.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. lam, claudus.
page 286 note 2 On the calends, or first of August, the festival of St. Peter ad vincula, it was customary in Anglo-Saxon times to make a votive offering of the first-fruits of the harvest, and thence the feast was termed hlaf-mæsse, Lammas, from hlaf, panis, and mæsse, missa, festum. In the Sarum Manual it is called Benedictio novorum fructuum. “Lammas, a feest, la Sainct Pierre aux liens.” Palsg. See Brand's Popular Antiquities.
page 286 note 3 Compare Thownge, or lanere. “Ligula, a laynere, et fascia. Corrigia, a thong of lethur, or a layner.” Med. “Ligula, a leynerde.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. “A lanɜer, ligula, ligar. To lanɜere, ligulare.” Cath. Ang. “Lanyer of lether, lasnière.” Palsg. “Lanière, a long and narrow band, or thong of leather.” Cotg. Magister Joh. de Garlandiâ, speaking in his Dictionary of the trades of Paris in the XIIIth cent. says that the Merchants who dwelt on the great bridge sold “capistra, et lombaria, vel lombanaria, ligulas et marsupia de corio porcino vel cervino;” where the gloss is as follows: “ligulœ, lanières, vel formechaz.” In the accounts of Lucas le Borgne, tailor of Philippe de Valois, printed by Leber, is the item, in 1338, “ij. livres de soie de plusieurs couleurs, pour faire lanières pour le Roy.” Charles VI. in 1398, in consequence of a change in the fashion of nether garments, granted licence to the chausettiers of Paris to sell “chausses garnies d'aiguilettes ou lanières.” Leber, Invent. 467. Laniers, usually called points, from the tags with which they were tipped, were much used in ordinary dress, and for attaching the various portions of armour: when so employed they were termed arming points. Archæol. xvii. 296. In Chaucer's brilliant picture of the preparations for a tournament, the following duties appear to have pertained to the esquires:
“Nailing the speares, and helmes bokeling,
Gigging of shields, with laniers lacing.” Knight's Tale.
In Norfolk the lash of a whip is called the lanner, or lanyer, which in Suffolk denotes only the leathern lash. See Forby, and Moore, v. Lanna.
page 286 note 4 In the North to langel signifies to hopple, or fasten the legs with a thong. “Lanyels, side-lanyels, hopples for horses. Yorksh. Dial. p. 44.” Bp. Kennett, Lansd. MS. 1033. See Grose, Craven Dialect, and Jamieson. To langle, in Norfolk, implies to saunter slowly, as if it were difficult to advance one foot before the other.
page 286 note 5 Sesekenesse, Ms. R. Brunne says that Adelard, King of Wessex, abdicated in favour of Uttred his cousin, “and died in langoure;” p. 6. Chaucer speaks of Damian as one that “langureth for loue.” Merch. Tale, 9741. Fr. langourir, Roquef.
page 287 note 1 The word lap, according to many ancient writers, signified the skirt of a garment. Thus G. de Bibelesworth says,
“Car par deuant avez eskours (lappes,)
Et d'en costé sont vos girouns (sidgoren.)”
It denoted likewise the hinder skirt, as in Seuyn Sages, 899, where the herdsman is described as picking haws, and filling with them first his “barm,” and afterwards “his other lappe.” In Emare also, v. 652, Egarye, being cruelly exposed with her child, conceals her face “with the hynther lappes” of her large and wide surcote. See moreover Amis and Amiloun, 988; Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 8461. In the Life of St. Dominic, in the Golden Legend, it is related that on a certain occasion, when the friars had little bread, there came two young men, “whiche entred into the refectorye or fraytour, and the lappes of theyr mantells yt henge on theyr necke were full of breed,” which they gave to the Saint. “Lappe, or skyrt, gyron.” Palsg. “Gabinus, a garment with two lappes, wherof the one cast backward,” &c. Elyot. Ang.-Sax. lappa, fimbria. The word is also used, by analogy, to denote the lower part of the ear: “A lappe of ye ere, cartilagia, legia.” Cath. Ang. Horman says that “yf the lappe of the eare wax redde, there is somewhat amysse. Labo rubescente aliquod peccatum est.”
page 287 note 2 “Plico, to folde, or lappe. Volvo, to turne or lappe.” Med. “Obvolvo, to lappe about. Involutus, i. circumdatus, lapped or wrapped. Involutio, a lappynge in. Epiphio, i. equum totaliter ornare, lappynge of a horse.” Ortus. “To lappe, volvere, convolvere. To lapp in, intricare, involvere. A lappynge in,” &c. Cath. Ang. This verb is used most commonly in the sense of wrapping, as a garment. See Cheuelere Assigne, p. 101; Wicl. Version, Math. xxvii. 59; Gower, Conf. Am.; Cov. Myst. p. 125. In the Wicliffite version it is written repeatedly “wlappe,” as in Isai.xxxvii. 1, “Whanne Kyng Ezechie hadde herd, he to rent hise cloþis, and he was wlappid in a sak (obvolutus est sacco,” Vulg.) See also Job, iii. 5.; Mark, xv. 46. John Paston writes to his wife, about 1490, for a plaster of her “flos unguentorum,” to be applied to the knee of the Attorney-general, to whom he was under obligation; and bids her write “whethyr he must lape eny more clothys aboute the playster to kepe it warme, or nought.” Paston Letters, V. 346. To bi-lappe signifies to surround, or close in. Sir Amiloun in a dream saw his brother Amis “bilappid among his fon.” Amis and Amil. 1014. Hampole uses the compounded word “umbilape” (Ang.-Sax. umbe, ymb, circum), as in the Prick of Conscience, where he says amongst the pains of hell, that the “vermyne salle vmbelape þaim all abowte.” Harl. MS. 6923, f. 94. Latimer, in his Vth sermon on the Lord's Prayer, says, “Note here that our Saviour biddeth us to say, us; this us lappeth in all other men with my prayer.” Palsgrave gives the following phrases: “Lappe this chylde well, for the weather is colde, enuelopez bien, &c. Lappe this hoode aboute your head, affublez vous de ce chaperon.” “Plisser, to plait, fould, lap up, or one within another, whence also to plash.” Cotg. To lap is still used in the sense of wrapping, in Warwickshire. Compare Wappon̄, or hyllyn̄ wythe clothys: Tego; and Wappyn̄, or wyndyn a-bowte yn clothys: Involvo.
page 288 note 1 Lash, or lashy, signifies in Norfolk soft and watery, as applied to fruits. Forby derives the word from Fr. lâche. A lash egg is an egg without a fully-formed shell. Palsgrave gives only “lashe, nat fast, lache. Lasshnesse, lascheté.” In the North cold and moist weather, when it does not actually rain, is called lasche. Brockett.
page 288 note 2 “Horreum est locus ubi reponitur annona, a barne, a lathe. Grangia, lathe or grange.” Ortus. “Orreum, granarium, lathe.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. “A lathe, apotheca, horreum.” Cath. Ang. This word is used by Chaucer, Reve's Tale, 4086. Harrison, speaking of the partition of England into shires and lathes, says, “Some as it were roming or rouing at the name Lath, do saie that it is derived of a barn, which is called in Old English a lath, as they coniecture. From which speech in like sort some deriue the word Laistow, as if it should be trulie written Lathstow, a place wherein to laie vp or laie on things.” Descr. of Eng. Holinsh. Chron. i. 153. Skinner gives Lath as most commonly used in Lincolnshire, and derives it from to lade, because it is loaded with the fruits of the earth. Bp. Kennett notices it also as a Lincolnshire word, and gives the derivation Ang.-Sax. ʓelaðian, congregare fruges. Lansd. MS. 1033. It is retained in the dialect of the North. See Hallamshire Glossary.
page 288 note 3 Latchyñ, Ms. This verb occurs after Late blod; and is not found in the other MSS.
page 288 note 4 The verb to lete of, signifying to take account of or esteem, is used by R. Brunne, as in the phrases, “þer of wel he lete—þei lete of him so lite.” Langt. Chron. p. 45. In the Vision of P. Ploughm, to lete occurs repeatedly in the same sense, as in the line “all that men saine, he lete it soth.” See also v. 4132, 9595, &c. Jamieson, under the word Lat, has cited several passages where it is used by the poets of the North. Ang.-Sax. lætan, putare, admittere. Compare the provincial use of the verb to lete, or leeten, to pretend or make a show of, given by Junius and Mr. Wilbraham as retained in Cheshire. See also Jamieson, v. Lait and Leet.
page 289 note 1 Compare Haly, or behatyd, Exosus. “Huly, peevish, fretfull. When a man is not easily pleased, or seems captious and froward, he is said to be huly, and a huly man; Dunelm.” Bp. Kennett, Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 289 note 2 Selden remarks that acquaintance with the Latin tongue was considered such an attainment that Latinista, Latinator, or Latinarius, became significant of an interpreter in general. Hugo Latinarius is mentioned in Domesday. Latinier, as Roquefort explains it, signified commonly an interpreter, truchement, or dragoman. He cites the Roman de Garin, where mention occurs of a Latinier, whose attainments extended to speaking “Roman, Englois, Gallois, et Breton, et Norman.” Sir John Maundevile, speaking of the routes to the Holy Land, says of the one by way of Babylon, “And alle weys fynden men Latyneres to go with hem in the contrees and ferthere beɜonde, in to tyme that men conne the langage.” Voiage, p. 71. In R. Coer de Lion, 2473, 2491, K. Alis. 7089, the words latymer, latimeris, as printed by Weber, have the same sense.
page 289 note 3 Latten, a hard mixed metal much resembling brass, was largely used in former times, especially in the formation of sepulchral memorials. The precise nature of its composition does not appear to have been accurately ascertained. It is repeatedly mentioned as a metal of a bright and golden colour; Chaucer uses the comparison that Phœbus “hewed like latoun.” Gower speaks of it as distinct from brass, as it seems properly to have been, although occasionally confounded therewith, and even with copper. “Auricalcum, i. fex auri, laten or coper.” Ortus. “Auricalcum, Anglice goldefome; Electrinum, latyne.” Harl. MS. 1002, f. 149. “Latyn metall, Iatn.” Palsg. Latten was probably obtained from Germany. In the covenants for the workmanship of the effigy of Richard Beauchamp, 1454, by Thos. Stevyns, copper-smith of London, the metal is described as “latten,” or “Cullen plate,” (Cologne?) the value of which was 10d. a pound. The remote derivation of the word is very obscure: it was probably adopted in England from the German Letton, or French laiton. Compare Dutch lattoen, Isl. laatun, Ital. ottone, lattone, Span. alaton, laton. Plate tin had also the appellation latten. See Forby and Brockett, and the remarks of Nares and Jamieson.
page 290 note 1 This term is used by Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, Prol. 358, and is taken from the French. “Lau(e)ndre, a wassher, lauendière. Laundre that wassheth clothes,” id. Palsg. “Candidaria, lotrix pannorum, a wasshere, and a lavyndere.” Med. “Albatrix, candidaria, blecherre, or lawnderre.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1587. “A lawnder, candidaria, lotrix.” Cath. ang. Caxton says, in the Boke for Travellers, “Beatrice the lauendre shall come hethir after diner, so gyue her the lynnen clothis.” W. Thomas, in his Rules of Ital. Grammar, gives “lauandaia, a launder that wassheth cloathes.” See Jamieson, v. Layndar.
page 290 note 2 The precise nature of this weapon, as likewise the etymology of its name, is still questionable; it was probably adopted in this country from the French, but the derivation from the name of an Eastern or Moorish weapon, called zagaye, arzegaye, or assagay, seems more reasonable than that which has been proposed, lance aigüe. That it was a missile weapon is apparent from Guill. de St. Andrè, who wrote about the middle of XIVth cent. and speaks of throwing “dardes, javelots, lances-gayes;” but Guiart seems to mention the “archegaie” as a thrusting weapon, rather than a missile. Carré gives a comparison of the Lance-guaye, or archegaye, of the Franks, with the Oriental zagaye, and considers them as missiles. Armes des Français, p. 198. From “the Rime of Sire Thopas,” which describes him as going forth to ride with “a launce-gay” in his hand and long sword at his side, it appears to have been a weapon carried for occasional defence, rather than a proper part of equipment for war or the tournament.” Cant. T. 13,682. The stat. 7 Ric. III. c. 13, confirming the stat. of Northampton, 2 Edw. III. c. 3, against riding, or appearing in public assemblies, with force and arms, ordains “qe desoremes nulle homme chivache deinz el Roialme armez—ne ovesque lancegay deinz mesme de Roialme; les queux lancegayes soient de tout oustez deinz le dit Roialme, come chose defendue par nostre seigneur le Roi, sur peine de forfaiture dicelx lancegaies, armures, et autres herneys quelconqes.” Compare stat. 20 Ric. II. c. 1; Stat. of Realm, ii. 35, 92. In the Rolls of Parl. V. 212, there is a petition for vengeance by the widow of a person who had been murdered in 1450 by a gang of men “arraied in fourme of werre, with jakkes, salettez, longe swerdes, long-debeofs, boresperes, and other unmerciable forbodon wepons,” one of whom “smote him with a launcegay thorough the the body, a fote and more.” In 1459 there were found in the Great Hall of Sir John Fastolfe, at Caistor, Norfolk, cross-bows, a boar-spear, a target, “xxj. speris: Item, j. launcegay.” Archæol. xxi. 272. “Launce gay, iaueleyne.” Palsg.
page 290 note 3 Perconito, Ms. perconto, P.; a verb apparently derived from contus, a pole. “To launch, to take long strides. That long-legg'd fellow comes launching along.” Forby.
page 291 note 1 Camden, in his Remains, explains laund as signifying a plain among trees. Thus in the account of the hunting expedition, Ipomydon, 383, the Queen's pavillion was pitched at a “laund on hight,” whence she might command a view of all the game of the forest. Compare Vision of P. Ploughm. 5028, 10,248; Chaucer, Compl. of Black Knyght; Shakespeare, Hen. VI. pt. i. III. 1. In Cullum's Hawsted a rental dated 1509 makes mention of “9 acres in campo vocato le lawnde.” “Indago, a parke, a huntyng place, or a lawnde.” Ortus. “A lawnde, saltus.” Cath. ang. “Launde a playne, launde.” Palsg. “Lama, a launde or playne. Landa, id.” W. Thomas, Ital. Gr. “Lande, a land or launde, a wild untilled shrubbie or bushy plaine.” Cotg.
page 291 note 2 Compare Legge. Forty threads of hemp-yarn are termed in Norfolk a lea. The “lea” by which linen yarn was estimated at Kidderminster, contained 200 threads. Stat. 22 and 23 Car. II. c. 8.
page 291 note 3 “A lese, laxa.” Cath. ang. “Lesshe for a grehounde, lais, lesse.” Palsg. In the note on the word Fute, p. 183, it was suggested that the term feuterer might thence be derived; Sir F. Madden likewise, in his Glossary to Gawayn, had explained “Vewter,” Gawayn and Grene Knyɜt, 1146, as denoting the huntsman who tracked the deer by the fewte or odour. It seems probable, however, that the derivation given by Blount, Bp. Kennett, and other glossarists, is more correct. The Gaulish hounds, of which Martial and Ovid speak, termed vertagi, or veltres, appear to have been grey-bounds, and hence the appellations veltro, Ital. viautre, vaultre, Fr. Welter, Germ. The Promptorium gives Grehownde, veltres, p. 209; and from the practice of leading these dogs in couples, the leash appears to have received the name veltrea, here given, a word unnoticed by Ducange. The “ministerium de Veltrariâ” is mentioned in Rot. Pip. 5 Steph. In the Household Constitutions of Hen. II. Liber Niger Scacc. i. 356, amongst the stipends assigned to the different officers connected with the chace, is the statement, “Veltrarii, unusquisque iij.d. in die, et ij.d. hominibus suis; et unicuique leporario ob. in die.” Blount has cited the Tenure of Setene, in Kent, by the service of providing one veltrarius, to lead three greyhounds, when the King should go into Gascony, as appears by Esch. 34 Edw. I. and Rot. Fin. 2 Edw. II. where the word is written vautrarius. Various details regarding the duties of the “foutreres,” and their fee, or share of the produce of the chace, will be found in the Mayster of Game, Vesp. B. Xii. f. 99, 104, b. Of the dogs termed veltres, veltrahi, vertragi, &c. see further in Ducange, v. Canis. At a later time the vaultre was a mongrel hound, used in hunting bears and boars, as Nicot observes, “C'est une espèce de chien entre allant et mastin, dont on chasse aux ours et sangliers.” The feuterers appear to have been at a later period termed “children of the lesh:” they were four in number, in the household of Hen. VIII. 1526, as appears by the Ordinances of Eltham.
page 291 note 4 Compare Fysycian̄', or leche, p. 163. “A leche, aliptes, empiricus, medicus, cirurgicus. A leche house, laniena, quia infirmi ibi laniantur.” Cath.ang. “Leche, a surgion, servrgion. I leche, I heale one of a sore wounde as a cyrurgyen dothe. Ie gueris.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. læce, medicus. The appellation was used to denote those who professed any branch of the healing art, as well as the ladies, who frequently supplied the place of the regular practitioners. Amongst the innumerable treatises of the ancient herbalists few afford a more curious insight into the practices of leech-craft, about the period when the Promptorium was compiled, than Arund. MS. 42. The author, who had a herb-garden at Stepney, states that he “knew a lady, þe lady Sowche, þe beste Godys leche of Bryɜthlond, in women,” and recounts her practice in preparing a nostrum, termed “nerual.” f. 22. The fourth, or ring finger, was called the leech finger, from the pulsation therein found, and supposed to be in more direct communication with the heart, as in the tract attributed to Joh. de Garlandiâ, under the title of Distigius, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 115, it is said, “Stat medius (medylle fyngure) medio, medicus (leche fyngure) jam convenit (accordyt) egro.” In another line the fingers are thus enumerated: “Pollex, index, medius, medicus, auricularis.” Cath. ang. See Brand's Popular Antiquities.
page 292 note 1 The term leche, which occurs frequently in connection with ancient cookery, had two distinct significations. It denoted such viands as it was usual to serve in slices, probably for the sake of convenience, before the general use of forks. “Lesche, a long slice, or shive of bread, &c.” Cotg. The nature and variety of dishes thus to be served may be learned from Harl. MS. 279, where recipes are given for 64 different “Leche vyaundys;” and where the meaning of the verb to leche is evident from such directions as the following: “Brawn in comfyte—leche it fayre wyth a knyff, but not to þinne, and þan ɜif þou wolt þou myɜt take þe rybbys of þe bore al bare, and chete hem enlongys þorw þe lechys, an so serue forth a leche or to in euery dysshe.” f. 27, b. Compare the use of the verb to “leshe,” Forme of Cury, pp. 36, 56, 57; “yleeshed,” p. 18. Compare the “leyched beefe” as ordered for supper in the dietary of the Princess Cecill, with the item “beefe sliced,” in the Ordinances of Eltham, Househ. Ord. pp. *38, 181. R. Holme gives this signification, iii. p. 78, and another sense, namely, “a kind of jelly, made of cream, isinglass, sugar, and almonds.” p. 83. “White leach, gelatina amigdalorum.” Baret. “Leche made of flesshe, gélée.” Palsg. One lechemeat appears to have formed an ordinary portion of every course, as may be gathered from the bills of fare at various great festivities, Harl. MS. 279, f. 44, and from the accounts of the installation feasts of Abp. Nevill, 1466, Lel. Coll. vi. 6; of Abp. Morton, 1478, Arnold's Chron. 239; and the coronation banquet of Elizabeth, Queen of Hen. VII. 1487, Lel. Coll. iv. 226. The various kinds of “leche” named in these documents appear to have ranged with “suttleties,” such as “leche Lumbart gylt, partie gelly, leche porpul, damaske, reiall, ciprus, rube, Florentine,” &c. See further the Roll of Cookery appended to the Household Ordinances; the Liber cure cocorum, Sloane MS. 1986; and Cott. MS. Jul. D. Viii. Skinner interprets brawn lechyd, which is mentioned in the St. Alban's Book, as signifying “aper medicatus, aromatis conditus;” as if the term had some connection with Ang.-Sax. læce, medicus.
page 293 note 1 An instance of this use of the verb to lead has been already given in the note on Cartyn', p. 62. Sir John Maundevile uses it in the sense of carrying, generally, as in the following passage: “That arke or hucche, with the relikes, Tytus ledde with hym to Rome, whan he had scomfyted alle the Jewes.” Voiage, p. 102. In the Liber Niger Regis Edw. IV. an ordinance is given that no seller of wheat for the use of the King's house “be compelled to lede or carrye his wheete, pourveyed for this household, towards the Kinges garner,” more than the distance of 10 miles at his own cost. Household Ordin. p. 68. A municipal regulation, cited in Beesley's Hist. of Banbury, p. 233, prescribed in 1564, “that no maner of person shall feche, leed, or cary any donge or mucke furthe of the towne, but betwene the fyrst day of May and the feest of Seint Michell th' Arckangell.” Among the trades enumerated in the order of the pageants of the play of Corpus Christi at York, 1415, occur “water leders.” Drake's Hist. App. “I lede a man or thynge aboute a towne vpon a hardell, or after a horse, Ie trayne.” Palsg.
page 293 note 2 The marked distinction made by the author, in this and several other instances, between the Saxon character þ and the equivalent expression th, is deserving of notice. It is probable that the reading of the MS. Hertys lethyr, or lethyri, as it has been printed, p. 238, is faulty, and the following correction may be suggested,—leþyr, or lethyr. Ang.-Sax. leðer, corium. Bp. Kennett gives “leer, leather, hence Bandaleers. Leer, corium. Kilian.” Lansd. MS. 1033.
page 293 note 3 The explanation of scalare given in the Catholicon defines it as signifying “lignum transverso in scalâ positum, quod et hoc interscalare dicitur.” “A ledder staffe, scalare.” Cath. ang. The transverse bars are more commonly termed the rounds or rungs of the ladder. Chaucer speaks of the “ronges” of a ladder, Miller's T. 3625.
page 293 note 4 Lefe, or lief, beloved, is a word which occurs in most of the old writers. Chaucer and Gower use it as a substantive. Ang.-Sax. leof, dilectus. “Lefe, lyefe, dere, cher. Lefenesse, chereté. Lefe or yuell.” Palsg.
page 293 note 5 In Norfolk a bar of a gate, or stile, of a chair, table, &c. is termed a ledge, according to Forby. “Ledge of a dore, barre. Ledge of a shelfe, apvy, estaye.” Palsg.
page 294 note 1 In the accounts of works at the palace of Westminster and the Tower during the XIVth cent. preserved amongst the miscellaneous records of the Queen's Remembrancer, mention is made continually of “cubatores,” or stone layers. See also the abstracts of accounts relating to the erection of St. Stephen's Chapel, in the reign of Edw. III. printed in Smith's Antiqu. of Westm. In the contract for building Fotheringhay Church, 1425, the chief mason undertakes neither to “set mo nor fewer freemasons, rogh setters ne leye(r)s,” upon the work, but as the appointed overseer shall ordain. Dugdale, Mon. iii. 164, Collegiate Churches.
page 294 note 2 Lixinum, Ms. and s. Uguitio gives lixen, aqua, whence “lixinum, quia sit ex aquâ et cinere.” Arund. MS. 508. The early romances and Chaucer's poems afford evidence that yellow or light-coloured hair was in special esteem. The fashion prevailed at a very early period, as appears from the writings of Tertullian, who reproaches Christian women with an affectation of seeking to resemble in this respect those of Germany and Gaul. The art of producing this colour artificially was termed crocuphantea, and is condemned by St. Cyprian and St. Jerome as a sinful vanity, and by Galen as prejudicial to health. At the time when the Promptorium was compiled this fashion continued in full force, and numerous artificial expedients had been devised for supplying the defect of nature, by means of some vegetable decoction or lie, whereby, with subsequent exposure to the sun, the hair might be made to assume the desired colour. The herbals and medicinal treatises of the XVth cent. indicate a great variety of processes which were adopted for colouring or preserving the hair. In Arundel MS. 42, f. 82, the decoction of madder is recommended to make it red, and the juice of sage applied in the hot sun to make it black; f. 77, b. The virtues of the lily are commended for making hair to grow again, and the oil of hazel nuts as infallible against “mowtynge of here,” f. 59; and an effectual depilatory “for-doyng here” is given at f. 35. The strangest substances were in request for such purposes: thus in Jul. D. Viii. f. 79, b. “lixivium de cinere fimi columbi” is recommended as an approved remedy against the falling of hair. The extent to which such artificial aids were made available at a later period appears from the numberless prescriptions given by Gerarde, Parkinson, Langham, in his Garden of Health, 1579, and similar writers. See the satirical observations of Bulwer on this subject, in the Artificial Changling, 1653. Horman, who wrote at the commencement of the reign of Hen. VIII. says that “maydens were sylken callis, with the whiche they keepe in ordre theyr heare made yelowe with lye; comas lixivio ruffatas sive rutulatas. Women chaunge the naturall colour of theyr heare with crafty colour and sonnyng. Some cherisshe theyr busshis of heare with moche kymbeynge and wesshynge in lye. He maketh his heare yelowe bycause he wolde seme lustye; rutilat capillos ut vegetus appareat. His heare was lyght ambre.” Vulgaria, 1519. To such practices allusion is perhaps made in the Promptorium by the word Heed waschynge, which will be found above, p. 232. “Lee, lixivium, locium.” Cath. ang. Palsgrave gives only “lye to wasshe with, lessiue.” Ang.-Sax. leah, lixivium.
page 295 note 1 Levynge, Ms. lenynge, K. s. p.
page 295 note 2 Podium is explained in the Catholicon and Ortus to be “baculus super quem innitimur, cum quo sepe terram ferimus, a lene.” Ducange cites the Usus Ord. Cisterc. c. 68, where by this term is implied “pars formœ monachicœ, cui monachi, cum procumbunt, innituntur;” and it seems possible that allusion is here made by Friar Geoffrey to the staff which, according to the usage in some establishments, served to give an occasional support during the long services of the choir, an object which was more usually attained by means of the misericorde, or formella. In some of the German churches the use of the leaning staff is still retained, and a remarkable specimen, apparently of German workmanship, now preserved in the De Bruges collection at Paris, was intended, as Lenoir supposed, to answer this purpose. The curious character of its ornaments indicates its having been fashioned for some sacred use, and the lion statant, by which it is surmounted, gives it, in some measure, the form of the Tau staff, as it has been termed. Hist. des Arts en France, pl. xxxvii. “Leanyng stocke, appuial.” Palsg.
page 295 note 3 Leme, a shining light, Ang.-Sax. leoma, jubar, is a word not uncommonly used by the old writers; see R. Glouc. p. 186; Vision of Piers P. 12,324; Cant. Tales, 14,836. “Fulgus, lemynge þat touchethe. Fulgur, lemynge þat brennethe. Casma, brennynge of the leeme of the fyre.” Med. Ms. Cant. In the Abbbreviata Chronica printed by the Camb. Antiqu. Soc. from the MS. at Caius Coll. it is recorded, A.D. 1402, “hoc anno apparuit stella comata, Anglice vocata lemyng sterr, prognosticans bellum futurum, vid. bellum Salopie.” Fabyan relates that in 7 Will. Rufus “grysly and vncouth syghtes were sene, as hostes of men fightyng in ye skye, and fyre lemys and other.” Compare Glemynge, or lemynge of lyghte, p. 198. See also hereafter Steem, or lowe of fyre, and Stemynge, or lemynge of fyyr. Bp. Kennett notices leam as signifying a flash or blaze of fire, in Durham; Lansd. MS. 1033; and Brockett gives leam, as retained in the Northern Dialect.
page 295 note 4 Junius derives this term from Ang.-Sax. leof, dilectus, and man, denoting the human species generally, without distinction of sex. Hickes in his A.S. Grammar gives leue-mon, amasius, Norm.-Sax.; by R. Glouc. the word is written lefmon, p. 344; and in the Winchester MS. of the Promptorium leefman' is given as synonymous with Specyal, concubyne, the man. The editor of the Towneley Mysteries would deduce an argument for the antiquity of that work from the fact that lemman occurs therein solely in the primary and simple sense of a person beloved. It is thus used also by R. Brunne, p. 236; but it more commonly denotes one loved illicitly, or with mere gallantry, as the word is used by Chaucer and Gower, and applied to either sex. “Bassaris, a mylche cowe, or a prestys lemmande.” Vocab. Harl. MS. 1002. “A leman, amasius, amasia, concubina, focaria, pelex; pelignus, peligna, filius vel filia ejus; multicuba, multigamus, polidamas. A lemanry, concubitus, concubinatus.” Cath. ang. “Amasius, qui intemperate amat, a lemman, or a louer. Amasia, i. mulier qui amat sine lege, a lemman. Ancuba, i. concubina, vel succuba, a lemman. Concubina est que ad usum Veneris non legitime tenetur, a lemman.” Ortus. “Lemman, concubine, amovrevse.” Palsg. Horman remarks that “some loue theyr lemmans (pallacas) better than theyr true wyfe.” Compare Specyal, hereafter.
page 296 note 1 Compare Glemyn̄, or lemyn̄, p. 198. See Gawayn and the Grene Knyɜt, 591, 1137, &c.; Vision of P. P.; Townel. Myst. p. 92. Ang.-Sax. leoman, lucere.
page 296 note 2 In the later Wicliffite version Job xl. 21 is thus rendered: “His (i. Behemot) strengþe is in his lendis, (lumbis, Vulg.) and his vertu in the naule of his wombe.” See also Judith viii. 6; Luke xii. 35. Chaucer describes the milk-white and well plaited “barm-cloth” or apron, worn by the carpenter's wife “upon hire lendes.” Miller's Tale, 3238. “A lende, lumbus.” Cath. Ang. “Lumbus, a leynde, vel idem quod ren, a nayre. Lumbifractus, broken lended.” Ortus. Ang.-Sax. lendenu, lumbi.
page 296 note 3 Caxton, in the Boke of the fayt of armes, ii. c. 16, speaking of things with which a garrison ought to be well supplied, mentions “grete foyson of ling fysshe, and haburden.” In Sir John Howard's Household Book the following item is entered by his steward, A.D. 1465: “My mester payde at Yipswyche viijs. ivd. for xxxij. leenges;” and in the provision for Hengrave in 1607 the item occurs, “bought at Sturbige fayre of great organ lynge, xxj.” Rokewode's Hengrave, 210. “Lynge, fysshe, colin.” Palsg. The ling, Asellus longus, received its name from the length of the fish, as Skinner and Willughby suppose; it was supplied from the Northern seas, and probably retained the name by which it was known to the fishermen in those regions. Teut. linghe, Dutch, lëng, piscis ex asellorum genere. Keeling is doubtless of cognate derivation; compare also Grene lynge, above, p. 210.
page 296 note 4 In the later Wicliffite version the following passage occurs: “Whanne sche myɜte not hele, þanne sche took a leep of segg, (fiscellam scirpeam, Vulg.) and bawmede it with tar and picche, and puttide the yong child wiþinne.” Exod. ii. 3. Compare Dedis ix. 25; ii. Cor. xi. 33. See also Towneley Myst. p. 329. “A lepe, canistrum, cophinus, corbis, &c. ubi a baskyt. A lepe maker, cophinarius, corbio.” Cath. ang. “Cartallum, a basket or a lepe. Cofinus, vas vimineum ad opus servile deputatum, a hande basket. Cofinulus, a lytyll lepe. Corbulus, a lytell lepe or basket.” Ortus. “Lepe, or a basket, corbeille.” Palsg. See Jamieson, v. Lippie. Bp. Kennett, in his Glossarial Collections, Lansd. MS. 1033, has the following observations on this word: “Leap, in Yorkshire a large osier basket bore between two men, for the use of carrying corn to be winnowed, &c. called commonly a wheat-leap. Sax. leap, calathus, speciatim seminatoris corbis. A seed leap, or seed lip; Wilts. A leap, a weel to catch fish; Lancashire. An ozier basket borne between two men for the use of carrying chaff out of a barn is called in Northamptonshire and Bucks a bear-leap. Isl. laupur, scrinium quo lanifices linum servant. A leap or lib, half a bushel; Sussex. A seed leap, or lib, a basket to carry corn on the arm to sow; Essex. Lepa, 31 Edw. I. est tertia pars duorum bussellorum. Ext. Man. de Terring, com. Sussex.” Forby gives lep, or lepe, a large deep basket, and seed lep, a basket for the use of the sower, or carrying chaff to feed horses. Moore mentions lib, doubting whether the word is still in use in Suffolk. Grose gives leap as a North-country word. Plot speaks of the “cubb or beer-lip” used to make a cavity in a rick, to prevent heating. Hist. Oxf. p. 256. Compare Crelle, baskett, or lepe, above, p. 101, and Barlylepe, p. 25.
page 297 note 1 This term occurs in the later Wicliffite version, in the description of Behemoth: “Shul marchaundis departe him? wher þou shalt fille nettis wiþ his skin, and a leep of fishis (gurgustium piscium, Vulg.) wiþ his heed?” Job xi. 26. “A lepe for fysche, fiscella, gurgustium.” Cath. ang. “Nassa, quoddam instrumentum ex viminibus tamquam rhete contexium, ad capiendos pisces, a pyche or a fyshe lepe. Fiscina, a chesefat, or a fysshe lepe.” Ortus. “Lepe to take fysshe, nasse à prendre poyson. Thou cannest nat bringe this leepe (nasse) downe to the botome, except thou tye a stone to it.” Palsg. “Nasse, a wicker leap, or weel for fish.” Cotg. “Leaps to take eeles, caudecœ.” Gouldm. The stat. 4 Will. and Mary, c. 23, forbids all persons not owners of fisheries to keep “any net, angle, leap, piche, or other engine for the takeing of fish.” Stat. of Realm, vi. 415. Bp. Kennett observes that the term is in use in Lancashire and in Leicestershire. Ang.-Sax. leap, nassa. Compare Fysch leep, above, p. 163.
page 297 note 2 It has been affirmed that leprosy was brought into Europe by the crusaders; in the Ang.-Sax. vocabulary, however, which has been attributed to Ælfric, occurs the word “leprosus, hreofliʓ, oððe licðrowera.” Jul. A. Ii. f. 123. In the Assisa de Forestâ, which is of uncertain date, but is assigned by Manwood to 6 Edw. I. it is enacted that if any beast of chase be found wounded or dead, “caro mittatur ad domum leprosi, si qua prope fuerit,” or otherwise given to the infirm and poor. Stat. of Realm. i. 244. In Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, there were several spital houses, or hospitals of lepers. The most ancient, the hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, was founded in the reign of Stephen by Petrus Capellanus for a prior and twelve brethren, of whom three were to be lepers. See Parkins' account of Lynn, Blomf. Norf. iv. 608. Mackarell, in his Hist. of that town, p. 255, mentions a bequest to the leprous men and women in 1408; and Parkins records the devise of Stephen Guybon to every house of lepers about Lynn, in 1432, namely at West Lynn, Cowgate, Herdwyk, Setchehithe, Mawdelyn, and Geywode. The number of these charitable institutions in England was considerable; permission had been granted by Pope Alex. III. in 1179, that leprous persons, being excluded from all communion with their fellow-men, might, wherever they should form a congregation, have a church for themselves. These hospitals were of the Augustine order, and included amongst the religious houses which were surrendered 26 Hen. VIII. The formalities with which the seclusion of lepers was effected, and the restrictions imposed upon them, may be learned from the Manuale ad usum Sarum. Hentzner, who visited England during the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of the English as very subject to the disease of leprosy. “A lepyr, lepra, elefancia, missella. A leprus man, leprosus, misellus.” Cath. ang. Horman says, “He hath made a leper, or a lasar house; hierocomion condidit.” “Lepar, a sicke man, lasdre. Lasar, id. Lypre, the sickenesse, lasderie.” Palsg. The term mesel is very commonly used to designate a leprous person, and appears to be directly taken from the French mesel; some writers have, however, supposed a distinction to have existed between mesellerie and ladrerie. See Masyl, hereafter.
page 298 note 1 The double signification of the verb to lere occurs in most of the old writers; R. Glouc., R. Brunne, and Minot use it in both senses; Chaucer uses it in that of learning, Frankel. T. 1106; and it signifies teaching, Vis. of Piers P. 4742, 9551; Townel. Myst. p. 38, &c. Ang.-Sax. læran, docere. A rhyming epitaph, inscribed on brass, is found at Grundisburgh, Suffolk, dated 1501, to the memory of a person,
“Which decessyd, as yee shall lere,
The vj. day off September.”
page 298 note 2 Les is used by R. Glouc. as an adjective; as a substantive, lees, a falsehood, occurs more frequently. Lese, Gawene and the Carle, 7, 265; “Withouten lees,” Chaucer, Rom. of Rose, 3904; les, leasse, Townel. Myst. Cov. Myst. Ang.-Sax. leas, falsus.
page 298 note 3 “Nuga, a scorne, a lesynge, a bourde, a trifulle. Nugicanus, a singer of lesinges. Feria, lesing, or chirche-werk.” Med. “A lesynge, mendacium, &c. ubi a lee.” Cath. ang. Ang.-Sax. leasunʓ, mendacium.
page 298 note 4 “A leske, ipocundeia.” Cath. ang. (“Ipocundie, i. coste molles.” Med.) “Nomina membrorum, mes flanks, my laskes.” Harl. MS. 219, f. 150. “Leske by the belly, ayne.” Palsg. Bp. Kennett gives “Lisk, that part of the side which is between the hips and the short ribs. Yorkshire.” Lansd. MS. 1033. Skinner gives lesk as most commonly used in this sense in Lincolnshire; see also Brockett and Jamieson, v. Lisk. Compare Dan. and Swed. liuske, Belg. liesch, inguen.
page 299 note 1 The stat. Hen. III. de mensuris, and the stat. 31 Edw. III. de allece vendendo, ordained that a last of herrings should be accounted by ten thousand, and the hundred by six score, the highest price being fixed at 40s. the last. Stat. of Realm, i. 354. In “the Costis for to make hering at the Coeste,” printed with Arnold's Chron. p. 263, it is stated that to make a last “ye shal bye fresh hering out of the ship, x. m.; vj. score, and iiij. heringis for the c. xij. barellis ful packed is a last of white hering, and xx. cadis rede hering is a last, v. c. in a cade, vj. score iiij. heringis for the c.” Of “Rede sprottis—x. cades maketh a last, xij. c. in euery cade.” In the summary of the office of the Celleresse of Barking is the “Memorandum, that a barrell of herring shuld contene a thousand herrings, and a cade off herryng six hundreth, six score to the hundreth.” Mon. Angl. i. 83. “Last of fysshe, xij. barelles, lay.” Palsg. A last of unpacked herrings, according to Coles, is 18 barrels. See Ducange, v. Lasta.
page 299 note 2 “A lastage, or fraghte of a schippe, saburra.” Cath. ang. Saburra signifies the ballast of a ship, “multitudo lapidum, vel inutilis sarcina navis, que solet esse de lapidibus et arenâ.” Cath. “Lestage, the balast of a ship.” Cotg. “A last or lastage, onus, saburra. To lastage, vide balast.” Gouldm. The stat. 21 Ric. II. c. 18, reciting that the beacons and outworks of the town of Calais were decayed, in consequence of the rages of the sea, ordains that ships coming thither from England “portent ovesque eux tout lour lastage des bones piers convenables pur l'estuffure de les Beeknes,” &c. Stat. of Realm. ii. 108. See Ducange, v. Lastagium. Of the custom exacted for freightage, termed lestagium, see Spelman's Glossary. Ang.-Sax. hlæst, onus navis, behlæstan, onerare. Belg. lastagie, ballast.
page 299 note 3 The lectern is not named amongst the appliances of sacred use enumerated by Ælfric, Cott. MS. Julius, A. Ii. f. 126, b.; in the Regula Bened. mention, however, occurs of the rædinʓ-scamol. The various uses of the lectern in cathedral or collegiate establishments may be gathered from the ancient rites of Durham, in which it appears that there was a pelican “lettern” of brass at the north side of the high altar, where the Epistle and Gospel were sung; a second lower down in the choir, in the form of an eagle of brass, used at mattins, or other times when the legends were read; and there was also a “letterne” of wood, like a pulpit, standing and adjoining to the organ over the door of the choir. It seems highly probable, as Mr. Rudge supposes, that the white marble desk discovered in 1813 near the site of the abbey church of Evesham, formed part of the lectern that was erected about 1218 by Thos. de Marleberg, at that time sacrist, and subsequently Abbot, according to the following record; “Fecit lectricium retro chorum, quod prius non erat factum in ecclesiâ Eveshamensi, et legebantur lectiones juxta tumbam S. Wilsini.” Cott. MS. Vesp. B. Xxiv. This lectern is represented in Archæol. xvii. pl. 23. A lectern of marble, resembling such as is quarried in Derbyshire, exists at Crowle, in Worcestershire; it appears to be a work of the XIIth cent. Another beautifully-sculptured specimen is preserved in the ancient abbatial house at Wenlock, Salop. In the former instance alone, the arrangement whereby the desk was supported on small columns may be ascertained. Of the moveable lecterns of a later period numerous specimens have escaped the ravages of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Carved lecterns of wood exist at Bury, Huntingdonshire, date about 1300; at Ramsey; Swanscombe, and Lenham, in Kent; Hawsted, in Suffolk; and in many other churches. Those of brass are mostly of the XVth cent. or later date. At Rouen Cathedral an ancient lectern of iron may be seen, which, being hinged together like a faldistorium, and furnished with a socket for a candle on one side, might be folded up when not in use, and laid aside, so as not to encumber the area of the choir. The lectern was adorned with a covering, frequently termed the “des-cloth,” of rich material conformable to the suit, or complete vestment, of which it formed a part. In the Inventory of the Church of St. Faith, in the crypt at St. Paul's, 1298, is mentioned “pannus de pal ad lectrinium.” In the Wardrobe Book 27 Edw. I. amongst the furniture and ornaments of the royal chapel, occurs “unum manutergium curtum, sutum de auro et serico, pro lectrone.” p. 352. John of Gaunt bequeathed, 1399, a richly-embroidered vestment of white satin to the high altar at St. Paul's, the “couverture pour la letteron” forming an item in the description, as likewise in that of a vestment of red cloth of gold, wrought with gold falcons, devised by him to the “Moustier de N. Dame de Nicole.” Test. Ebor. i. 227, 228. “Lectrinum, lectrum, et legium pro eodem, scilicet pro pulpito; et dicuntur a lego, a pulpyt, or a lectrone.” Ortus. “A lettrone, ambo, descus, lectrinum, orcista.” Cath. ang. “Lecterne to syng at, levtrayn.” Palsg. See further in Ducange.
page 300 note 1 The etymology and precise meaning of this word are exceedingly obscure: it is used by Chaucer, in the tale of the Cambridge scholars, who came to the Miller of Trumpington to have their grain ground, and left their horse under a pent-house or out-building, instead of putting him into the “lathe;” the Miller, to play them a shrewd trick, slipped off the bridle, and let the horse run.
“He looked up and doune, till he had yfound
The clerkes horse, there as he stood ybound,
Behind the mill, under a lessel.” Reve's Tale, 4059.
Tyrwhitt prints the word “levesell,” and its meaning here is less obscure than in a passage in the Persone's Tale, where it again occurs. Chaucer defines the difference between pride in the heart of man, and pride shown in external show and costly array: “But nathelesse, that one of these spices of pride is signe of that other, right as the gaye leuesell at the taverne is signe of the wine that is in the seller.” Speght, who had here consulted the Promptorium, explains the word as signifying a bush, or a hovel, which is repeated by Skinner, with the suggestion that it may be derived from the French “lais, vepres, virgulta, additâ term. dim. ell.” This derivation seems little to the purpose. According to Cotgrave lais, or layes, are trees left as marks in cutting a copse wood. Tyrwhitt in his notes says confidently that the word is derived from Ang.-Sax. lefe, folium, and setl, sedes, but afterwards confesses himself dissatisfied with that explanation; yet still holds to the notion that in the second passage allusion is made to the bush, the ancient sign of a wine-shop, and cites Chatterton's Elinour and Juga, attributed to Rowley, where the hunter is said to rouse the fox from “the lessel.” In the Editor's MS. of the Medulla, umbraculum is rendered “an oumbrelle;” in the Canterbury MS. “an amerelle;” in Harl. MS. 2270, “an vmbrelle.”
page 301 note 1 Lever, Ms. and s. “Leuell, a ruler, niueav.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. læfel, libella.
page 301 note 2 The lightning, or any sudden gleam of light, is frequently termed by the old writers levene, a word which has been derived from Ang.-Sax. hlifian, rutilare. See Lye, and Jamieson, v. Levin. R. Brunne, describing the engines devised by Richard Cœur de Lion, to throw wild-fire and stones, at the siege of Acre, says that “as leuen þe fire out schete.” Langt. Chron. p. 174. Compare Havelok, 2690; Ywaine and Gawin, Rits. Metr. R. i. p. 17; Cant. Tales, 5858; Gower, Conf. Am.; Townel. Myst. pp. 39, 116; Cov. Myst. 156. Fabyan relates that in 7 Hen. I. “was sene an vncouth starre, whyche nyghtely appered at one howre, and continued so by the space of Xxv. days; and fore agaynst that, oute of the Eest parte, appered a great leuyn or beme of bryghtnes, whyche stretched towarde the sayde starre.” Spenser uses the word “levin” repeatedly. “Fulgur, leuenynge that brenneth. Fulgetrum, a shynynge of leuenynge that brenneth. Fulmen, leuenynge, or lyghtnynge.” Ortus. “To levyne, or to smyte wyth lewenynge, casmatisere, fulgore fulminare. A levenynge, casma, fulgur, fulmen, fulgetrum, ignis. A levenynge smyttynge, fulgoratus.” Cath. ang. In the Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. are given “Fulgor, fulmen, lewenynges. Fulgurat, (it) lewnes.” Palsgrave gives the verb it “leueneth as the lyghtenyng dothe, il esclere. Dyd you nat se it leuen right nowe?” “Leving, vide lightning.” Gouldm.
page 301 note 3 The verb to leve is used in this sense by R. Glouc. p. 30; it occurs repeatedly in the Vision of P. Ploughman. See also Chaucer, Tale of Melib.; Gower, Conf. Am. iii. Ang.-Sax. lyfan. concedere, leafnes, venia.
page 301 note 4 Clergy, as it has been remarked in the note, p. 81, signifies erudition, precisely according to the sense of the French clergie; and the word is thus to be understood in the term “benefit of clergy.” See Barrington's observations on stat. 4 Hen. VII. The use of the word in this acceptation is, however, a striking evidence of the general ignorance that prevailed amongst all classes, churchmen alone excepted, so that the community might be classed under two great divisions, clerks and “lewede,” R. Glouc. p. 471; or “lered and lewed,” R. Brunne, p. 8. It is needless to cite instances of the frequent use of the word lewd in its primitive signification by the old writers. Ang.-Sax. læwd, lewed, laicus. “Lewde, agramatus, illiteratus, laicus, mecanicus. Vnlettyrde, ubi lewde.” Cath. ang. “Leude of condycions, maluays, villayn, maulgraneux. Leude worde, entresayn. Leude frere, bourdican.” Palsg. Horman says, “I am not so leude (adeo sum iners) but I knowe or spye what thou goest about. This matter is utterly marred by thy leudnes (ignaviâ.) I make as though I sawe nat thy leude paiantis (conniveo tuis ineptiis). Here is leude or naughty wyne (illaudatum vel spurcum).”
page 302 note 1 “Lewke, tepidus. To make lewke, tepifacere. To be lewke, tepere.” Cath. ang. “Leuke warme, or blodde warme, tiède.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. wlac, tepidus.
page 302 note 2 Culusus is given only in the Harl. and Winch. MSS. The word is not noticed by Ducange, and possibly is erroneously written for culullus, which, according to Papias, is calix fictilis. “Fidelia, olla vel ciphus, or a cherne.” Med. Ang.-Sax. lið, poculum.
page 302 note 3 “Lentus, slowe and febulle, or lethy, moyste.” Med. ms. cant. “Lentesco, to waxe slowe or lethy, i. tardum esse.” Ortus. Nich. Munshull also gives in his verbale, Harl. MS. 1002, f. 131, “lentesco, to wex lethy.” “Lethi” occurs in the Vision of P. Ploughm. 5979, and is explained by Mr. Wright as signifying hateful, but its precise meaning is not obvious. In a Treatise on Obstetrics, of the later part of XVth cent. Add. MS. 12,195, particular instructions are given “at what age a maydyn may vse of drwrery,” and it sets forth the evils arising from the anticipation of the age of puberty, “for trewly and sche vs þat deduyt or þat tyme, on of þes iij. thynges, or elles alle schalle falle to her: owder sche xalle be baren, or her brethe schalle haf an yll savore, or sche xalle be to lythy, or lauy of her body to oþer þan to here hosbonde; but for þe ij. fyrst ɜe xalle fynde medysignus here after, and þe iij. is vnne curabylle.” “Lethe, delyuer of ones lymmes, souple.” Palsg. Lathy is given by Moore as a Suffolk epithet, signifying thin in person. Ang.-Sax. lið, tener. Compare Lythe, hereafter.
page 302 note 4 Leik, Havelok, 2793, and liche, Vision of P. Ploughm. signify a living body, as in line 5599, where Dame Studie is described as “lene of lere, and of liche both:” it is so used likewise in K. Alis. 3482. This is perfectly in accordance with the signification of the Ang.-Sax. etymon lice, corpus, a body, either living or dead. The latter seems, however, to have been the more usual sense of the word. Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale, 2960, speaks of the “liche-wake” at the burning of the corpse of Arcite. In the North the custom of watching the corpse, termed lyke-wake, is not entirely laid aside: see Brockett, v. Lake-wake, and Jamieson, v. Lyk-waik. It is by corruption termed late-wake; Pennant, Tour in Scotl. i. 112. The term is evidently derived from Ang.-Sax. lic, cadaver, and wæcce, vigilia. A full account of the usages and abuses customary on these occasions will be found in Brand's Popular Antiqu. and Ducange, v. Vigiliœ. In the Invent. taken 1421, church of St. John Baptist, Glastonbury, printed by Warner, are mentioned “iij. lyche bells;” in the Invent. of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, 1500, termed “bells for mortuarys.” G. Mag. vol. viii. N.S. In the ordinance of Abp. Peckham, 1280, which sets forth the articles to be provided by the parishioners, these bells are designated as “campanœ manuales pro mortuis.” Wilk. Conc. ii. 49. Of the local use of the term lich-gate, signifying the outer gate of the cemetery, beneath which the corpse is placed, whilst awaiting the officiating minister, see the Glossary of Architecture, Cheshire and Shropshire Glossaries. In the West, the path by which the corpse is carried to the grave is known as the leach-way; in Cheshire it is called the lich-road. Coles gives “lich fowles, carcass bird, scritch-owls, night-ravens.”
page 303 note 1 The term liege is commonly used by the old writers in the two-fold sense which is here given to it, denoting both the chief and the subject, as bound by the ligantia, or bond whereby they were reciprocally connected. Palsgrave gives only “Lege lorde, souerayn, liege.” See Spelman and Ducange, v. Ligius.
page 303 note 2 Leder, Ms. Lither, or lidder, has in the North the signification of idle or sluggish. In the Vis. of P. Ploughman the expression “luther sleuthe” occurs; and “lithere” in King Estmere. One of the evils of the times enumerated in the curious lines, Roy. MS. 7 A. VI. f. 38, b. is that “Lex is layde, and lethyrly lukes.” Tusser speaks of the unprofitableness of the “litherly lubber.” Lyndsay uses the word “lidder” in the sense of backward or shy, which approaches more nearly to that assigned to it in the Promptorium. “Desidieux, idle, lazie, lither, slouthfull. Ignave, lazy, lither,” &c. Cotg. “Lither, fingard, festard, faineant, nice, oisif, paresseux.” Sherw. See Brockett, v. Lither, and Jamieson, v. Lidder.
page 303 note 3 In the description of the march of Alexander's army the poet describes the various classes of which the host was composed, high and low, knight and knave,
“Mony baroun, ful wel y-thewed,
Mony ledron, mony schrewe.” K. Alis. 3210.
Weber explains the word ledron as signifying here a leper, or any mean person. Skelton uses the word, in the poem entitled Sclaunder, and false detractions.
“But my learning is of an other degree,
To taunt theim like lyddrons, lewde as they be.”
“Laideron, somewhat ugly, pretty and foule.” Cotg. It must, however, be observed that as lidorus has not been found in the Latin glossarists, it cannot be asserted positively that Lydrōn is to be taken in this sense in the Promptorium.
page 303 note 4 The term “lithes,” occurring in Havelok, 2163, is explained by Sir F. Madden as signifying the toes, the extreme articulations. In the Grene Knight, 56, the expression “wounded both lim and lighth” is found; and in Syr Gawene and the Carle, 190, “lyme and lythe.” The usher of King Arthur's court is described as repulsing Sir Cleges with these discourteous words,
“I schall the bette euery leth,
Hede and body, wythout greth,
Yf thou make more pressynge.” Sir Cleges, 292.
See also Cant. Tales, 14,881; Townel. Myst. 327; and the citations given by Jamieson. Ang.-Sax. lið, artus. “Oute of lythe, dislocatus, luxus.” Cath. ang. It should be noticed that the order of the Harl. MS. has been here left unaltered; possibly the word was written by the first hand Lygthe, as would appear by the alphabetical arrangement. In the other MSS. as likewise in the printed editions, this and the succeeding nouns and adjectives, as far as Lyghtesumnesse, or bryghtenesse, are placed differently, being found after Lystles-hede, as if written Lythe, &c. In all the MSS. and the printed editions the verbs are placed between Lyspyn̄ and Lyvyn̄, as if written Lytenyn̄, Lytyn̄, &c.
page 305 note 1 “A lykpotte, index, demonstrativus.” Cath. ang.
page 305 note 2 —idem quod whyly, infra in M. Ms. See Whyton̄ wythe lyme. Calcifico, decalceo.
page 305 note 3 This word may perhaps be read Lynceut. An entry occurs in the Household Book of Sir John Howard, 1465, “for a lynset, viij.d.” p. 483. “Licia, be thredes, whych sylk women do weaue in lyncelles or stooles.” Elyot.
page 305 note 4 Compare Hethe, or lynge, fowaly, p. 238. This name of the Calluna vulgaris, Linn. occurs in the Tale of Robin Hood, Hartsh. Metr. T. 189. It is still retained in the North, according to Brockett; but Jamieson states that in Scotland various species of grass growing in mossy ground are called ling. In Arund. MS. 42, f. 23 b. it is said that “in Wilteshire nere Shaftesbery, is an heth þat groweþ ful of þat (Junipere femel) and of lynk, and þe lynk is heyere þan þat, and is faste by an heyh wey.” “Erica, brya silvestris, sweete-broome, heath, or linge.” Junius, by Higins. Skinner gives ling as the common appellation of heath in Lincolnshire. Moore says that in Suffolk it signifies the turf of heath or heather. Dan. lyng; Isl. ling, frutex, species ericœ.
page 306 note 1 Lignioul, or lignel, signifies, according to Roquefort, the strong thread used by shoemakers or saddlers. “Lignoul, ligneul, shoomaker's thread, or a tatching end.” Cotg. Brocket gives liniel as a word still in use in the North. Compare Lingan and Lingel, which have the like meaning; Jamieson. “Lyngell that souters sowe with, chefgros, lignier. Lynger to sowe with, poulcier.” Palsg. This term denotes also a thong or strap. “Lingula, a lachet or lingell. Cohum, a thonge or lyngell, wher-with the oxe-bowe and the yoke are bounden together.” Elyot. “A lingel, lingula, ligula.” Gouldm. See Nares.
page 306 note 2 Forby gives “link, a sausage; we call two together a latch of links. In some counties a far more correct expression is used, a link of sausages.” Links have the same meaning in Suffolk, and Ray speaks of black-puddings, or links, as a term used in the South. See Rops, North C. words. “Andouille, a linke, or chitterling; a big hogs-gut stuffed with small guts, cut into small pieces, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Friquenelles, slender and small chitterlings, or linkes.” Cotg.
page 306 note 3 Compare Frenge, or lyowre. Tenia. In the third book of the Boke of Curtasye, de Officiariis in curiis dominorum, it is said that the garciones, or grooms, were to make pallet beds, and beds for lords,
“That henget shalle be with hole sylour,
With crochettes and loupys sett on lyour.” Sloane MS. 1986.
That is, with hooks and eyes sown to the binding of the bed-furniture. In the House-hold Book of Sir John Howard payments appear, in 1465, to “the bedmaker at London for x.li. lyere for the grete costere, v.s.” for canvas, and making the “costeres.” Househ. Exp. in England, presented to the Roxburghe Club by B. Botfield, Esq. p. 486. In the Wardrobe accounts of Edw. IV. edited by Sir H. Nicolas, a delivery appears in 1480, for the office of the beds, of 551b. “corde, and liour for liring and lowping” of certain hangings of arras. See further in the Indexes to those accounts, and the Privy Purse Expenses of Eliz. of York, 1503.
page 307 note 1 “Tinctor, a litster, or heuster.” Med. Sir Thos. Phillipps' MS. “Tinctor, tinctrix, a lyster.” Ortus. “A littester, tinctor, tinctrix.” Cath. Ang. Walsingham relates that the Commons made a rising in the Eastern Counties, in 1380, at the time of Jack Straw's rebellion, their leader in Norfolk being “quodam tinctore de Norwico, cujus nomen erat Johannes Littestere,” who called himself King of the Commons, and was beheaded by the Bp. of Norwich: ed. Camd. 263. In the Paston Letters, iii. 424, mention occurs of another Norwich “lyster.” The word occurs also in the Towneley Mysteries. At Lynn, where the Promptorium was compiled, the continuation of Broad Street, otherwise Websters Row, is called Lister Gate Street. See Jamieson.
page 307 note 2 The reader, who occupied the second place in the holy orders of the Church, is probably here intended. In the Vision of P. Ploughman mention is made of “lymitours and listres;” 2747. Mr. Wright, however, supposes that the word signifies deceivers.
page 307 note 3 The term “liser” occurs in the Vision of P. Ploughman, 2891, in connection with the “drapiers,” or weavers of cloth. “Lisière, the list of cloth, or of stuffe; the edge, or hem of a garment.” Cotg. Palsgrave gives also “Lyste of clothe, lisière. I lyste a garment, or border it rounde aboute with a lyst, ie bende d'une lisière. I haue lysted my cote within to make it laste better, am nat I a good housebande? Lyste on a horse backe, raye. Lyste of the eare, mol de l'oraylle.” Compare Schrede, and Stemyne, or stodul, or stothe yn a webbyshonde (in a webbys eend, s.) Forayo.
page 307 note 4 The process of making “litere” for beds is set forth in the chapter on the duties of the grooms, “garcionum.” Sloane MS. 1986. Boke of Curtasye, ed. Halliwell, p. 19.
page 307 note 5 In the other MSS. the words from Lythe to Lyghtesumnesse, given above, pp. 303, 304, are placed here. They are not, however, in all cases written in conformity with this position in the alphabetical arrangement, being mostly in the King's Coll. MS. written Liht, Lihtsum, &c. in Sir Thos. Phillipps' MS. Lythɜ, or bryghtnesse, &c.; and in the Winch. MS. Lyth, Lyɜth, Lyhth, Lyhtsum. These irregularities are to be attributed to the second hand, who, writing by ear, vitiated the spelling of the original MS.
page 308 note 1 “Tingo, to dye, to coloure, or to lytte.” Med. “To litte, colorare, inficere, tingere, tinctare. A littynge, tinctura.” Cath. Ang. Ray gives “to lit, to colour or dye: a linendo, sup. litum.” N. Country words. It is also given by Jamieson, but is not noticed by Brockett, or the other Northern Glossarists. Isl. lita, tingere.
page 308 note 2 In the Vis. of P. P. 12,067, the good Samaritan is described as hastily quitting the dreamer, saying, “I may no lenger lette.” See also 11,524. A.-Sax. latian, tardare.
page 308 note 3 —lyshode, MS.
page 308 note 4 Compare Waryson. Donativum, possessio. The term here implies a pension for services; a largess in money or grain; a dole given to veteran soldiers. “Donativum, yifte of knyghte. Emericio est liberacio ab officio cum remuneracione, a waresone.” Med.
page 308 note 5 A livery denoted whatever was dispensed by the lord to his officials or domestics annually, or at certain seasons; whether money, victuals, or garments. Even in the Saxon times there appears to have been a distribution of this nature, the ʓafol-hwitel, saga vectigalis, of the Laws of Ina, which was, as Spelman observes, a kind of livery. The term chiefly denoted external marks of distinction, such as the roba estivalis, and hiemalis, given to the officers and retainers of the Court, as appears by the Wardrobe Book, 28 Edw. I. p. 310, and the Household Ordinances. The practice of distributing such tokens of general adherence to the service or interests of the individual who granted them, for the maintenance of any private quarrel, was carried to an injurious extent during the reigns of Edw. III. and Rich. II. and was forbidden by several statutes, which allowed liveries to be borne only by menials, or the members of gilds, &c. See Stat. of Realm, ii. pp. 3, 74, 93, 156, 167. The “liverée des chaperons,” often mentioned in these documents, was an hood or tippet, which, being of a colour strongly contrasted to that of the garment, was a kind of livery much in fashion, and well adapted to serve as a distinctive mark. This, in later times, assumed the form of a round cap, to which was appended the long liripipium, which might be rolled around the head, but more commonly was worn hanging over the arm, and vestiges of it may still be traced in the dress of civic livery-men. The Stat. 7 Henry IV. expressly permits the adoption of such distinctive dress by fraternities, and “les gentz de mestere,” the trades of the cities of the realm, being ordained with good intent; and to this prevalent usage Chaucer alludes where he describes five artificers of various callings, who joined the pilgrimage, clothed all “in o livere of a solempne and grete fraternite.” Prol. v. 365. By the same Stat. lords, knights, and esquires were allowed, in time of war, to distinguish their retainers by similar external marks, the prototypes of military uniforms. In the metrical paraphrase of Vegecius, entitled “Of Knyghthode and Batayle,” Cott. MS. Titus, A. Xxiii. f. 22, it is said that ancient usage had ordained three kinds of signs in an army, vocal, semivocal, as trumpet or clarion, and a third which is noiseless,
“And mute it hight, or dombe, as is dragoun,
Or th'egil, or th'ymage, or the penoun,
Baner, pensel, plesaunce, or tufte, or creste,
Or lyuereys on shilder, arm, or breste.”
In this passage the collar is evidently one of the liveries to which allusion is made. It was much in fashion at the time when the Promptorium was compiled. See Coller, or lyuerey, p. 87; and the curious dissertations on collars of the royal livery, by Mr. J. G. Nichols, Gent. Mag. 1842. Much information respecting external distinctions, as the original of uniforms, will be found in the Traité des marques nationales, by Beneton de Peyrins. “A lyveray of clothe, liberata; hic et hec liberatalis.” Cath. Ang. “Lyueray gyuen of a gentylman, liuerée.” Palsg. See Douce's Illustr. of Shakesp. Taming of the Shrew, Act IV.
page 309 note 1 “Corrodium, a lyuerey in a abbaye.” Med. Harl. MS. 2257. “A lyveray of mete, corrodium.” Cath. Ang. Conredium, corredum, or corrodium, implied generally an alimony or allowance, “prœbenda monachi vel canonici.” Duc. Thus in the Custumal of Evesham it is directed that for a whole year after the decease of an abbot or monk, his entire “conredium” should be allowed, to be given to the poor, for the good of his soul.” Mon. Ang. i. 149. The term “livrere—liueray” occurs in this sense of a daily pittance for food, Amis and Amil. 1640, 1659; in the Household Ordinances the daily allowance of meat and drink received by each individual is commonly termed his livery, and the livery cupboard was the buffet appointed in apartments of greater state to receive this provision at certain times. The term corrody implied also more particularly a kind of pension, either for life or in reversion, with which a monastery was charged, granted by the founder to a kinsman or retainer, or by the house for service rendered, or some valuable consideration. The Sovereign instituted corrodies in favour of royal dependants, and Spelman observes that 119 monasteries, charged with one, and in some cases two such corrodies, were, as it may thence be supposed, of royal foundation. The injurious practice by heads of monasteries, who made traffic in such pensions for their own advantage, was restricted by the Constitutions of the Legate Othoboni, in 1267, which forbade them to sell and charge their establishments with “liberationes seu corrodia,” especially when granted in perpetuity. See further the notes of Joh. de Athona, Constit. Legatin. p. 150, ed. 1679; and Ducange, v. Conredium.
page 310 note 1 The different significations of the word Lythe here given are to be deduced from the Ang.-Sax. lið, tener, mitis. As applied to the elements it occurs in Emare.
“The wynde stode as her lust wore,
The wether was lythe on le.” 833; Ritson, Metr. R. ii.
In the Seuyn Sages, 2517, when the caldron, which was discovered boiling with seven “walmes,” had been stilled by the directions of Merlin, it is said that the water “bicom faire and lithe.” In the sense of soft to the touch lythe is used by Chaucer, Dream, 953; H. of Fame, i. 119. “Lyɜth, or sotylle, agilis, levis, efficax.” Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. Xvii. “Lethe, delyuer of ones lymmes, souple. Lythenesse, delyuernesse, souplesse.” Palsg. “Mol, soft, supple, tender, lithe, limber.” Cotg. Bp. Kennett gives lithe as used in the North in the sense of soft or flexible; see likewise Craven Dial. and Jamieson. The compound word lith-wake is also used there; Ang.-Sax. liðewac; Gloss. Ælfr. Jul. A. Ii. Bp. Kennett cites Davies' Rites of Durham, 105, where it is related that the body of St. Cuthbert was found uncorrupted, flexible, and “leath-wake;” and remarks “potius lith-wake, a Sax. lið, membrum, et wace, flexibilis. A lith-wake man, a clever, nimble fellow. Durham.” Lansd. MS. 1033. Compare Craven Dial. “Lith wayke, flexibilis.” Cath. Ang. The word occurs in the Hymn to the Holy Ghost, by W. Herebert; MS. in the possession of Sir Thos. Phillipps.
“Ther oure body is leothe-wok, ɜyf strengthe vrom aboue.” Rel. Ant. i. 229.
The verb to lithen, Ang.-Sax. liðian, lenire, is used by Chaucer, Troil. iv. 754; in Arund. MS. 42, f. 42, b. one of the virtues of bardana is stated to be that “it lyþyn nayles þat ben scabbe and sore;” and of “squylle—if it ben etyn with hony, it lytheþ wombe.” f. 53, b.
page 310 note 2 “Alosa, i. fundulus, a loche.” Ortus. Cobitis barbata, Linn. “Loche, the loach, a small fish. Lochette, a groundling, or small-bearded loach. Locher, to shog, shake, shock, wag.” Cotg. It has been suggested that this fish may have been so named in allusion to its singularly restless habits.
page 310 note 3 “Loche, the dew snaile, or snaile without a shell.” Cotg. Menage remarks, “peut-être d'eruca. Eruca, ruca, luca, loche.”
page 310 note 4 “Plaustrum, vehiculum duarum rotarum, a lode, or a wayne.” Ortus. The Lodesman seems to be here the carrier, Ang.-Sax. ladman, ductor. Compare the use of the verb Lede wythe a carte, p. 292. Possibly, however, the etymon hlad, onus, may be preferred, as expressive of the burden conveyed by him. Lodesman generally signifies the leader of a ship,—a pilot, as the term is used by Chaucer, Legend of Hipsiphile, and by Gower. In the Wardrobe Book 28 Edw. I. p. 273, a payment appears “pro vadiis unius lodmanni conducti pro nave guiandâ,” apparently bringing supplies to Karlaverok. “Lodesman of a shippe, pilotte.” Palsg. “Lodesman, a guide, perductor.” Gouldm. See Jamieson, v. Ledisman. In Stat. 31 Edw. III. c. 2, a fishing vessel is named, termed a “lode ship.”
page 311 note 1 An evident distinction is here made between Loke, meaning apparently the leaf of a door, or shutter, and lock of a door, in its ordinary sense. In both cases the term is taken from Ang.-Sax. loc, claustrum, sera. In the Register of W. Curteys, Abbot of Bury, now in the possession of Edm. Woodhouse, Esq. an Indenture is preserved, dated 1438, for the performance of certain carpenter's work in the chapel of St. John at Hille, Bury, by John Heywod, of Ditton, Camb. in which the following clause occurs: “And to eythir dore of the same chapel he shal do maken a louke of estriche borde competent.” It seems here to denote what is commonly called the wicket, or hatch of a door; valva is rendered in the Medulla “a wyket;” and this signification is more clearly defined in the Ortus: “Valva est ostium, vel porta parva in majori existens.” In the Promptorium wicket is given as synonymous with a little window.
page 311 note 2 In the Latin-English Vocabulary, Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. under Nomina vermium, f. 55, b. is given “Multipes, lugdorre.” Jamieson states that the Lumbricus marinus, Linn. a worm which is dug out of the sand, and used for bait, is called a lug. The name dor denoted a beetle or chafer, but more properly a drone. A.-Sax. dora, fucus.
page 311 note 3 “Apostaticus, i. perversus, a renegate or a Lollarde. Hereticus, errans in fide, an heretyke, or Lollarde.” Ortus. “Lollar, heretique.” The sect of Lollards appears to have arisen in Germany as early as 1309, according to Hocsemius, and the rise of Lollardy in this country during the reign of Richard II. was probably due to the influence of his alliance with Anne of Bohemia. Knyghton states that the “Wycliviani, qui et Lollardi dicti sunt,” flourished and increased about 1387; and gives a summary of their peculiar opinions. Ed. Twysden, col. 2706. The derivation of the name has been much discussed; some with Chaucer, Lyndwode, and Fox tracing it to lolium, as comparing them to the darnel among the wheat—others to the name of an early promoter of the heresy. The suggestion, however, of Ducange, that it was taken from Lollaerd, mussitator, seems most reasonable. Gower speaks in his Prologue of “this newe secte of Lollardye.”
page 312 note 1 In the Harl. MS. this word seems to denote only a sudden or boisterous noise; but the King's Coll. MS. gives Dvnche, and Pynson's edition Dunchinge, or lunchinge, as signifying tuncio, percussio. In Norfolk, according to Forby, to lunge signifies to lean forward, to throw one's whole weight on anything, to thrust with full force, possibly from the Fr. allonger. Mr. Wilbraham gives lungeous, ill-tempered, disposed to do some bodily harm by a blow or otherwise. Cheshire Glossary. See also Grose; Heref. and Shropshire Glossaries. A violent kick of a horse is termed a lunge. Dunsh, signifying a shove or punch, is a word used in Suffolk and N. Britain. See Moore and Jamieson. Compare Teut. donsen, pugno in dorso percutere; Su. Goth. dunsa, impetu et fragore procedere.
page 312 note 2 See Fallynge downe, or fallynge yvelle, p. 148. Epilepsy was termed likewise in French le mal de terre, evidently because those afflicted therewith fell and rolled upon the ground. “Caceria, mala vexacio, the londe yuelle.” Med. Ms. Cant. “Mau de terre, the falling sickness.” Cotg.
page 313 note 1 Compare Lurcare, lurco; and see the note on Lurdeyne, p.317. Verstegan defines a losel to be “one that hath lost, neglected, or cast off his own good, and so is become lewde, and careless of credit and honesty.” Names of Contempt, p. 262. Lorel has been derived from Ang.-Sax. leoran, as likewise losel from leosan, perdere. Both occur repeatedly in the Vis. of P. Ploughman; Chaucer, in his version of Boethius, B. i. renders “perditissimum—lorell,” and uses the word in the Wife of Bath's Prol. 5855, and Plowman's Tale, ed. Speght, 1601, f. 91. See also Ly beaus disconus, 259, “lorell and kaytyf.” In Rich. C. de Lion, 1864, 1875, the French King speaks of the English as cowards and “losards.” In the Boke of Curtesy, t. Hen. VI. the youth sitting at the table of a great man is admonished thus:
“Ne spit not lorely for no kyn mede,
Before no mon of god, for drede.” Sloane MS. 1986, p. 21.
Holinshed terms Wat Tyler “a naughtie and lewd lozzell.” Chron. iii. 432. Skelton uses the word “loselry,” and both “lorrell” and “lozell” occur in Spenser, and other later writers. “Lorrell or losell, fetart, loricart.” Palsg. “Loricard, a luske, lowt, lorell, slow-backe. Maschefouyn, a chuffe, bore, lobcock, lozell; one that's fitter to feed with cattle, then to converse with men. Vastibousier, a lusk, lubber, loggarhead, lozell, hoiden, lobcock. Aujourd'huy Seigneur, demain singe ord, Prov. To day a goodly lord, to morow an ouglie lozell.” Cotg. “Lorel, or lossel, i. clown; also fraudulent.” Gouldm.
page 313 note 2 Tooke considers this word as derived evidently from the past part. of Ang-Sax. hlisan, celebrare: it is, however, more probable that it was taken from the French, los, loz, which seems to be always used in a good sense, whereas the English word signifies either praise or dispraise,—renown on account of vice, as well as of virtue. In the sense of praise it occurs, R. Glouc. p. 189; R. Brunne, p. 25; Vis. of P. Ploughm. 7164; Cant. T. 16,836; Gower, Conf. Am. In the Tale of Sir Gowghter, 186, it is said that, in consequence of his outrageous and sacrilegious acts, “his lose sprong ful wide;” see also the tale of the King of Calabria, Seuyn Sages, 1586; and Ritson, Met. Rom. ii. 2. Sir John Maundevile uses the word in the like secondary sense, “ɜe schulle undirstonde that in that time there weren iij. Heroudes of gret name and loos for here crueltee.” Voiage, 108. Chaucer uses the expression “name of badde loos,” Test. of Love, i. 278. “Defamo, to mislose. Fama, a loos. Infamia, wikkud loos. Infamis, losud.” Med. “Fama, good lose, or fame.” Ortus. Compare Fame, or loos of name, p. 148.
page 313 note 3 Compare Spangle, or losangle (sic). Lorale. In the Ortus Lorale is rendered “a lorayne, a brydell,” but lorum implies any strap or band of leather; and as at the period when the Promptorium was compiled the fashion of attaching pendant ornaments to the girdle and the baldrick, the reins and the trappings of horses, was singularly prevalent, it may perhaps be concluded that Losange, or spangle, here denotes these decorations, which were occasionally, but not invariably, of a lozenge form.
page 314 note 1 Flamma, þe leye of fuyr. Flammesco, to belewe. Flammiger, beringe lowe.” Med. “A lowe of fyre, flamma.” Cath. ang. This word occurs, Awntyrs of Arthure, vii. 5; it is written “leye” in the Vis. of P. Ploughman, lines 11, 783, 11, 921. Gower uses “loweth,” signifying kindleth. In the Dialect of the North a blaze is called a low, and the verb to low, or flame, is still in use. See Craven Dial.; Brockett, and Jamieson. Ray gives lowe as a N. country word, and laye as signifying in the South and East flame, or the steam of charcoal, or any burnt coal. Compare Ang.-Sax. leʓ, Dan. lue, Germ. Lohe, flamma.
page 314 note 2 Brito observes that taxo signifies “licitari, imponere precium rei que venditur:—ponitur pro licitari, quia licitatores in foro venalia considerantes dicunt, hoc valet tantum.” Summa Britonis, Add. MS. 10,350, f. 37. “To lowe, ubi to prase. To prayse, preciari, appreciari, liceri, licitari.” Cath. ang. “Licitor, to sett pryce; et addere, vel diminuere precium rei. Licitacio, lykynge, or batynge, or bergeynynge.” Med. ms. cant. “I alowe, or abate vpon a reckenyng, or accompte made, Ie aloue, Ie abats—coniugate in I beate downe.” Palsg. Bp. Kennett gives “to lothe, to offer in sale, or allow a thing at such a price, as, I'le lothe it you for so much money; Cheshire. A.S. laðian, invitare.” Lansd. MS. 1033. Jamieson states that to low has the signification of to higgle about a price; according to the Craven Glossary it is used as an abbreviation of to allow, to grant or give. In the Townl. Myst. p. 177, Pilate bargaining with Judas to betray Jesus, says, “Nou, Judas, sen he shalbe sold, how lowfys thou hym?” Dutch, looven, Flem. loven, estimare.
page 315 note 1 “Dicitur sequester reconciliator, qui discordes pacificat, et qui certantibus medius intervenit,” &c. Cath. The term loveday occurs in the Vis. of P. Ploughm. v. 3327, 5634; Cant. Tales, Prol. v. 261; Test. of Love, i. f. 274, ed. 1602; Cov. Myst. p. 111. See also Rot. Parl. 13 Hen. IV., and Bracton, V. f. 369, where a day fixed for an amicable settlement is termed “dies amoris.” In the Paston Letters, V. 346, the following passage is found: “My lord Skalys hath made a lofeday with the p'or and Heydon, in alle materys except the matere of Snoryng,” &c. “He is more redy to make a fraye, than a loue daye.” Horm. “Loueday to make frendes, appointement.” Palsg.
page 315 note 2 The received derivation of this term is that suggested by Minsheu, from the French l'ouverte, the open turret or lantern on the roof of an house which permitted the escape of smoke. In the article on dialects in the Quart. Rev. 1v. 373, the Icelandic lióri, foramen pinnaculi domus, is proposed as an etymon; the sort of cupola with a trapdoor which, in the Northern countries, serves the double purpose of a chimney and a sky-light, is called in Norway liore, in W. Gothland liura. Lodium, a word unnoticed by Ducange, who gives only lucanar in the same sense, is explained in the Ortus as signifying “a louer; dicitur de lux et do, quasi dans lucem.” In the Latin-English Vocab. Roy. MS. 17 C. XVII. are given “Lodium, lucare, impluviare, lowere;” f. 27. “Fumarium, a chymeney or a lovyre. Imbricium, a gotyre, or a lovyre.” Med. ms. cant. In the edition of the Ortus in Mr. Wilbraham's library, lucanar is thus rendered, “A sloghe, a potte, a louer.” “A luvere, fumarium, fumerale, lucar, lodium.” Cath. ang. In a roll of purchases for works in the Royal palaces, 2–5 Edw. I. amongst the miscellaneous records of the Queen's Remembrancer, the item occurs repeatedly, “pro bordis ad louere cum corantis,” “good louer (lamueire) and wyndow:”
“Louer (amueire) and almarye (ameire) me haþ,
At þe louer fume goþ out.
þat en Fraunce ys amueyre namede,
þat here louer ys apelyt, i. nominatus.”
Horman says, “Moche of the showre fell into the louer (impluvium), but moche more into the barton (cavedium.)” “Louer of a hall, esclére.” Palsg. “Dosme, a flat round louer, or open roofe to a steeple, banketting house, pigeon house, &c. Tournevent, a horse, or mouable louer of mettall on the top of a chimney or house. Trottouër the boord in the louer of a doue-coat for pigeons to alight on.” Cotg. “A loouer, or tunnell in the roofe, or top of a great hall to auoid smoke. Fumarium, spiramentum.” Baret. Whital gives among “the parts of housing—The lovir or fomerill, infumibulum,” &c. This word is used in the Vis. of P. Ploughm. and by Spenser in the sense of an aperture for giving light, F. Q. vi. c. 11. In the Craven Dialect a chimney is still termed the love, or luvver. Compare Fomerel of an halle, p. 169.
page 316 note 1 Lownyshe, ms. lowmysshe, K. h. s. p. The following explanation is given in the Catholicon: “Ab ardeo dicitur hic ardelio, i. leccator, quia ardens est in leccacitate;” the Ortus gives “Ardelus, inquietus; qui mittit se omnibus negociis, a medler of many matters.” “Ardelio, one full of gesture, a busie man, a medler in all matters, a smatterer in all things.” Morel. Jamieson gives loamy, slothful, inactive. “Lome, vetus Holl. tardus, piger.” Kilian. Dan. Lummer, a long lubber, a looby, a tony.
page 316 note 2 “A lopynge, saltacio, saltus. A lope, saltus; a loper, to lope,” &c. Cath. ang. See Jamieson, v. Loup. Ang.-Sax. hleapan; p.part. hleop; hleapanʓ, saltatio.
page 316 note 3 The verb to lout occurs frequently in the old writers as signifying to bow down, to bend to, or stoop. See Sir F. Madden's Glossary to Gawayn; Syr Tryamoure, 1062; Vis. of P. Ploughman; Cant. T. 14,168, 15,654; Gower, Townl. Myst. p. 18, &c. In the earlier Wicliffite version, Numb. xxii. 31 is thus rendered: “Anoon the Lord openyde the eyen of Balaam, and he lowtide hym redi to the erthe;” in the later version, “worschipide hym lowli in to erthe.” In the Liber Festivalis it is said of the Virgin Mary, “She lyued so clene and so honestly yt all her felawes called her quene of maydens; and whan ony man spake to her, mekely she lowtyd with her head, and sayd, Deo gracias.” Ed. Rouen, 1499, f. 144, b. “I lowte, I gyue reuerence to one, Ie me cambre, Ie luy fais la reuerence. It is a worlde to se him lowte and knele.” Palsg. Ang.-Sax. lutan, inclinare. Compare Bowyn', or lowtyn', p. 46; and Bek, or lowte, p. 29. In the North to bow in the rustic fashion is still termed to lout. See Brockett and Jamieson.
page 316 note 4 “A luddok, femen mulieris, femur viri, lumbus.” Cath. ang. The word occurs in Townl. Myst. p. 313.
“His luddokys thai lowke like walk-mylne clogges.”
page 316 note 5 Numerous remedies may be found in the Treatise on the virtues of Herbs, Arund. MS. 42, “for lumbrikes.” See f. 23, 40, 72, b. 84, &c. “Lumbricus, an earthly worm, also the belly-worm, or maw-worm.” Gouldman.
page 317 note 1 Fabyan, in his Chron. part vi. c. 197, suggests the fanciful etymology of this term, which is likewise given by Boethius, in his Hist. Scot. published in 1526, lib. x. s. 20, and adopted by Verstegan, in his remarks on names of contempt, c. x. namely, that a Dane being quartered as a spy in every family in England, was, from his tyranny, called Lord Dane, “quhilk is now tane for ane ydyll lymmer that seikis his leuyng on other mennis laubouris,” as Bellenden expresses it in his version. The immediate derivation is, however, evidently from the French; “Lourdin, lourdayne; blunt, somewhat blockish; a little clownish, lumpish, rude; smelling of the churle, or lobcock.” Cotg. “Lourdein: idiot, lourdaud, maladroit, sot; en bas Lat. Lurdus.” Roquef. R. Brunne says that Sibriht, King of Wessex, when driven from his realm, “as a lordan gan lusk;” p. 9. The word occurs in the Vision of P. Ploughman, lines 12,278, 14,302; Townl. Myst. pp. 60, and 308. “A lurdane, ubi a thefe.” Cath. ang. “Lurdayne, lovrdavlt. It is a goodly syght to se a yonge lourdayne play the lorell (loricarder) on this facyon.” Palsg. “A lourdon, or sot, bardus.” Gouldm. It denotes a vile person, a sot or blockhead, a clownish churl, or a sluggard. Andrew Boorde, in the Breviary of Health, 1573, quaintly observes at the close of his directions regarding fevers, “The 151 chapiter doth shew of an euyll feuer the which doth comber yonge persons, named the feuer lurden,” with which many are sore affected now a days, from bad education, or natural habit. In the last case he pronounces it incurable, but offers the following nostrum: “There is nothing so good for the feuer lurden as unguentum baculinum, that is to saye, Take a sticke or wan of a yeard of length and more, and let it be as great as a man's fynger, and with it anoint the backe and the shoulders well morning and euening, and doo this xxj. dayes; and if this fever will not be holpen in that time, let them beware of wagging in the galowes; and whiles they do take their medicine, put no Lubberwort into their potage, and be(w)are of knauering about their heart; and if this will not help, send them to Newgate, for if you wyll not, they wyll bryng them selfe thether at length.” In c. 262 he speaks also of “luskeshnes, brother to the feuer lurden.” See Brockett and Jamieson.
page 317 note 2 Counterfeit sterlings, closely resembling the pennies of the English coinage, but of inferior value, appear to have been largely introduced during the reign of Edward III. and were probably, as Skinner suggests, termed Lushborows from their having been issued at Lutsenborgh, or Luxemburgh, a fact sufficiently evident from the word Lvcembor., Lvsenbor., or Lvsebvrgensis, forming part of the legend which occurs on many of these pieces. H. Knyghton thus records their importation in 1347: “Eodem anno defertur in Angliam per alienigenas et indigenas mercatores falsa moneta quœ lussheburue appellata est; unde apud Londonias multi mercatores et alii plures tracti sunt et suspensi, et quidam magno precio vitam redemerunt.” Chron. Cott. MSS. Claud. E. Iii. f. 253; Tib. C. Vii. f. 152, vo. In the margin is written “moneta loysburues.” It appears by the Rolls of Parliament, vol. ii. 160, that early in that year (20 Edw. III.) a petition had been presented by the Commons, which set forth that merchants and others exported the good sterling coin, and “de jour en autre reportent diverses fauxes monoies appellez Lusshebourues, dont la livre poet estre achaté par dela pur oyt souldz, ou pur meyns,” with which the country was filled. The King's pleasure was that such offenders should be judged according to law, as “faux moneours.” In the year following the Commons again petitioned “pur ce qe la fauxe monoie de Lusshebourues encrest de jour en autre,” an evil attributed to the infrequency and short duration of the sittings of the judges of assize, praying for “plus aspre remedie.” Rolls of Parl. ii. 167. In 1351 these false sterlings are again mentioned in the petition that declaration should be made by the King as to what offences should be adjudged treason, of which one was the importation of false coin, “sicome la monoie appellé Lusseburghe,” or other resembling the coin of the realm, as fully declared in the Stat. 25 Edw. III. c. 2, where the word is written “Lucynburgh.” Compare Rolls of Parl. ii. 239, and Stat. of Realm, i. 320. These fallacious monies are named in the Vision of P. Ploughman, which was composed, as it is conjectured, about 1362.
“As in lussheburwes is a luther alay,
And yet loketh he lik a sterlyng,
The merk of that monee is good,
Ac the metal is feble.” v. 10,322.
In the Cant. Tales, which, according to Tyrwhitt, were written subsequently to 1382, allusion occurs to “Lusheburghes,” as coins of base alloy; Monks Tale, v. 13,968: as likewise in Piers of Fulham, p. 128, ed. Hartshorne,
“No lussheborues, but money of fyne assay.”
It must be observed, that in Twysden's edition of Knyghton, as likewise in the printed text of the Rolls of Parliament, the term has been given as Lussheburne, apparently in consequence of its origin having been forgotten; it seems, however, evident that the true reading should be Lussheburue, which is merely a variation from Lussheburwe, or Lucynburgh. See further on this subject Ruding, i. 222; Snelling's Plates of counterfeit Sterlings, and the Blätter für Münzkunde, 1839. The import of the word Papirus in relation to base coin is obscure. It is found in the Winchester MS. only. The coins of the Byzantine emperors, called perpari, and the Italian paparini, were monies of considerable value, but there was a base coinage in France during the XIVth cent. of pieces of bad alloy, called parpilloles. See Charpentier.