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THE REEVE.

587. Reeve (A.S. gerefa, the bailiff of a franchise or manor. In Scotland, grieve (old form greif) is the name given to the manager of a farm. In Old English, reeve entered into the composition of many words, as shire-reeve or sheriff, borough-reeve, and port-reeve. Cf. Germ. graf. It is derived from the A.S. verb reafian, to levy taxes, to rob.

sklendre, O. Du. slinder.

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colerik (Fr. cholerique from the Greek)-(1) bilious, and (2) angry. Cf. Cil qui sera colorikes, chaus, et ses et magres.' Alebrant 13th cent. See lines 615-6 and Cf. the proverb-'A man well mounted is ever choleric.'

590. dockud lyk a preest biforn. Priests usually wore the tonsure a custom introduced about the 8th century—on the back part of the head; but their hair in front was also closely cropped.

592. calf (0. N. kalfi), the collop or soft fleshy lump on the leg.

593. a gerner and a bynne. Both words seem to refer to the same thing, and correspond to the more modern words ark and chest. Gerner is from the French grenier, from the Lat. granarium, a store for grain; while bynne is allied to the Danish bunke, a heap.

594. on him wynne get the better of him.

596. seed and greyn are here synonomous: seed is from the Saxon sæd, and greyn from the French grain, Lat. granum. The latter word has now many widely differing meanings, but whether grain in the sense of dye, &c., is the same word as grain in the sense of seed, is not certain.

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597. nete (A.S. neat-es, from nitan, ne-witan, not to know, neat, cattle), cattle of the bovine genus. It is not used for one ox, cow, or calf, except in such phrases as a neat's tongue dried,' and a neat's foot.' Cf. the Scotch word 'nowt,' and O. N. naut.

dayerie, from O. E. dey, the servant, generally a female, who milked the cows, and made the butter and cheese. The department assigned to her was called the deyry. Such servants are referred to under the name of deyes in several statutes passed during Chaucer's life-time. Dey is said to be derived from the Dan. dægge, to cade or foster, to bring up on foreign milk.

598. stoor (A.S. steor, a young bullock, steer). Cf. Sc. stirks. In a well-known passage, Scott speaks of 'fattened steer.'

pultrie (Fr. poule, a hen). Of the seven names of animals, this is the only one derived from the French.

602. arrerage (Fr. arrérages) arrears.

Cf. Pour cause des

arrerages de trois années d' un arpent de vigne.' Quoted from 14th cent. by Ducange. Also,

'Servants that serven Lordes,

Seldom fall in arerages,

But tho' that keep the Lordis

Catell, Clarkes, and Reves.'-P. P.

603. Ballif (Fr. bailli, the ancient form of which was baillifan adjective used substantively from baillir, to hold, or govern), one who holds, or governs for another.

herde, A.S. hyrde, hirde, a keeper.

hine, A.S. hina, hine, a domestic servant. The relative position of these men may be seen from the wages they got in Chaucer's day. By the 12 Rich. II., it was enacted that the baillif of a farm should have thirteen shillings and fourpence a year, and his clothing; that a master hine should have ten shillings, a carter and shepherd ten shillings, and an ox, cow, or swine herd six shillings and eightpence. The value of money at the time is indicated in a statute of 1362, where it is decreed that no man shall give to a parish priest for his wages above 5 Marks (£3 6s 8d), or else his board and 2 Marks (£1 6s 8d)'; from which it appears that a priest's board was valued at £2.

604. Sleight and covyne. Another instance of a Teutonic and a French word with very nearly the same meaning, namely, trick, cunning, or deceitful compact. Sleight is allied to sly. In this, and similar words, the main idea seems to be knowingness, cleverness, or dexterity, and there is a marked contrast of meaning between that of the hand and that of the head. Contrast for example, sleight of hand and sleight; artificer's work and artifice; handicraft and craftiness; cunning workmanship and cunning. Covyne is supposed to be derived from a word in the Southern dialect of France-covinen, an agreement or plot.

605. the dethe-the Black Death-the Great Plague that ravaged England, and indeed most parts of Europe in 1348-9, carrying off at least one-third of the population. There were two plagues between it and the date of this Prologue-one in 1362, and the other in 1369. The people of England seemed to

have lived in dread of a third, and their fear is frequently referred

to by contemporary writers.

his dwelling. The Saxon for

606. His wonyng-his place place was stede, hence stead, steading.

613. mester (Fr. métier, Old Fr. mestier), a trade. (1) The Greek mysterion referred to the secret doctrines and ceremonies connected with the worship of certain gods. (2) In the Middle Ages, the word in French and in English was applied to the mechanical arts, certain processes of which were kept secret, and it is still a legal term in indentures for trade and art. (3) Any regular occupation.

614. a wright, a carpenter. Another couple of words with the same meaning.

615. stot, A.S. stod, stod-hors, a stallion, a horse, whence also we have stud. In Scotland, a stot is a young bullock, but this transference of a word from one animal to the corresponding one in another kind is not exceptional.

Cf.

And as he welke in the wodde,
He sawe a full faire stode

Of coltis and of meris gude.'

-Sir Percival 325.

616. pome-ly gray = round spots like an apple. Scot. On this name, Bell in his edition of Chaucer remarks— 'To this day, there is scarcely a farm in Norfolk or Suffolk in, which one of the horses is not called Scot. As the name has no meaning, it must be attributed to an immemorial tradition.'

apple-gray or dapple-gray, marked with

620. Baldeswelle, Bawdeswell, a village in Norfolk, seven miles from East Dereham. It has now a population of about six hundred.

622. the route, from the Old Fr. route, and allied to the German rotte, an assembly; the gang or company. It does not always mean 'a rabble or confused multitude'; sometimes, as in modern English, it means a large evening assembly, as in Ch. de Bernard 'N'allez-vous pas au rout de Mme. d' Alvimare?'

THE SUMMONER.

623. A Sompnour, an officer employed to summon delinquents to appear in the ecclesiastical courts. In Piers Ploughman,

'Somonours' are associated with 'sisours.' In our day, those who perform their office are called apparitors.

uncommon.

624. fyr-reed cherubynes face. cherubim, the plural of cherub. In familiar French, une face de coloré, and the expression rouge comme un cherubin is not In further illustration, we have the oft-quoted French epigram—‘Nos grands docteurs au chérubin visage.' 625. sawceflem. Some say from saw, the countenance and fleme, flame; but this is fanciful. The same word occurs in the following French sentence of the 14th century, which also throws light on mormal in line 388 :—Et o (avec) tout ce genre à fistule est chancre, mort mal, fleugme sause, ulcere, et leur semblable.H. de Mondeville.

Cherubynes is from the Heb. (See Gen. iii. 24, and Ezek. i. 7.) chérubin, means un visage rond et

The corresponding term in Old English is redgownd.

626. skalled = scalled or scald, scurfy. Cf. Du. schelle, bark, shell, scurf.

=

piled pilled, deprived of hair, Fr. piller, to rob, Lat. pilare, to make bare or bald, and pilus, a hair. It seems to be allied to peel.

628-30. Cf. 'Sauseflem or red pimpled face is helped with the following-Take enula campana, four ounces, and seethe it with vinegar, then stamp it small, and put thereto quicksilver and brimstone, of either four drams, and Barrow's grease, four ounces, and make thereof a plaister, and lay it upon the spotted place in the face all night, and on the morrow, wash it off with warm water.'-Languis. 'Whosoever would have a white and delicate skinne, let them boyle or heate Litarge of Silver in vinegar distilled, and wash therewith their skinne, which they desire to have faire, trim, and white.'-Mizald.

628. litarge=litharge (Fr. litharge, Lat. lithargyrus from the Greek lithargyros, from lithos, a stone, and argyros silver), the old name for the protoxide of lead, now given to that compound in a partial state of fusion, when it forms a heavy, insoluble yellow or reddish powder. See Fownes' Chemistry, p. 334.

639. Boras, Borax (Arabic Borac) the Biborate of Soda. occurs in the waters of certain lakes in Thibet and Persia. ceruce (Fr. ceruse, Lat. cerussa), carbonate of lead.

Cf. La coquette tendit ses lacs tous les matins,
Et mettant la céruse et le plâtre en usage
Composa de sa main les fleurs de son visage.'
-Boileau, Epit. IX.

It

oille of tartare-the carbonate of potash. In A Thousand Notable Things, b. ii. 20, it is said to take away cleane all spots, freckles, and filthy wheales.'

631. whelkes = pimples, blisters or blotches; 'whele or whelke, soore: Pustula.'-Promptorium Parvulorum.

It is allied to the Fris. wale, walke, the raised streak on the skin left by a stripe. A.S. walan, wales, blows, and hence the marks of stripes or blows, or pimples; vibices. Cf. wale and gunwale, parts of a ship, being seams projecting from the sides. Buckie, the Scotch for a whelk, also means a blow on the chops. knobbes, knots, buds, buttons, projections.

633. garleek, oynouns, and ek leekes. The leek was the chief vegetable used by the Anglo-Saxons. Their word leac-tun (leekgarden) came to mean kitchen-garden as leac-weard (leek-keeper) came to mean gardener. Other herbs were reckoned varieties of the leek, and known as here by the names gar-leac (spear-leek), garlic, and yne-leac (leek within a leek), onion. That these vegetables were commonly used by the Israelites in Egypt, is seen from Numb. xi. 5. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions and the garlick.'

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634. strong wyn reed as blood. Read Prov. xxiii. 31, 32.
'Look not upon the wine when it is red, &c.' And Cf.
"The king sits in Dunfermline toun

Drinking the bluid-red wine.'

-Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens.

635-40. When the wine is in, the wit is out.' Too much wine making a man speak is pretty general, and its making him roar is not uncommon, but its effect on the Summoner of making him talk nothing but the two or three Latin terms he had picked up from the decrees and pleading of the court, is a fine touch of humour.

641. jay, Fr. geai, old forms, gai, jaie, jai, a bird that repeats words which it does not understand, that is full of tricks, and that dresses itself in borrowed feathers.

643. grope, A.S. gropian, grapian, to touch with the hand, to handle, to test or sound. It is allied to grip and grab.

645. Questio: quid juris? Note the punctuation. Question: What says the law? This kind of question occurs frequently in Ralph de Hengham, who first lays down the status questionis, then asks quid juris?, and proceeds to give the answer to the question. Examples may be found in his Mag. xi. and xii.

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